The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Multiple Stages

Instantly, the Hydra began to heal. I'd seen recordings of past battles with Hydras and even the young ones that occasionally came ashore healed very, very fast. Even in comparison to other Grimm that were capable of regeneration, the Hydra recovered from injuries as if fast-forwarding through them.

Now, I was bearing witness to it with my own eyes—and the fact that its healing was noticeable even while I was so Accelerated said a great deal. As I watched, the holes through its body began to well with Grimm matter, filling to assist with the healing process. Its burnt skin began to pulsate as if filled with maggots as things moved beneath. Peering through it, I could already tell what it's body was up to; to start with, it would remove the clinging fires of Agneyastra by separating and shedding the upper layers of its skin even as new layers began to grow beneath. I could tell from a quick analysis of the material that it was more temperature resistant than the previous hide, better equipped to withstand the heat I was laying on it. It wouldn't immunize it against my fire attacks—not yet, at least—but it would serve as a stop gap for the time being.

Beneath the ground, the Hydra's trapped limbs struggled and jerked against the impaling drills, tearing wounds wider and pushing points deeper. It was doing the same thing on that front, liquefying its own flesh and shedding whatever proved to be in the way so that soon it'd be able to pull itself free. Even if it proved necessary to leave entire limbs behind, it wasn't an issue—or rather, the loss of its limbs was ideal. After freeing itself, it could simply regrow them, after all, stronger and better than they hand been before. So why not sacrifice them now?

Certainly, it didn't seem to consider the removal of its heads to be any particular loss. Already, bulging mats were growing over the stumps, trembling from within as things struggled to break free. Soon it would sprout new heads in place of the ones it had lot—but more numerous and more dangerous.

Such was the nature of the Hydras and their heads. While not a perfect measure, the number of heads a Hydra possessed was generally used to determine its power and age. The number of heads indicated how many times it had been injured badly enough to lose one before—and thus, how many times it had grown past decapitation. When a head was lost, two would grow in its place given time, one a stronger version of the one that had been taken, the other something new and designed to counter its opponent.

Why attack the heads at all then? As its primary means of attack, why damage them at all if it risked making them stronger?

Necessity, primarily. Though even I couldn't be sure of the specifics, it had been repeatedly demonstrated that Hydras were very hard to kill. The accepted theory was that their vital—though the Grimm had no organs so perhaps core was a better term to use—were built with redundancy in mind. That is, if one fails, another simply takes over in its place. The Hydra itself with continue to heal so long as at least one of its cores remained functional.

As for the locations of these cores, that should have been obvious. One in each head and one in the body. The reason the Hydra can survive its first decapitation is, of course, because of the latter; so long as the central core remains intact, a Hydra can survive even if all of its heads are removed. The other cores are relatively weaker; they don't require complete destruction like the central core does, but can be considered destroyed via removal from the body. In fact, if a Hydra has only one head, targeting the central core is the go to tactic, because a Hydra cannot survive with only one head.

If there are several heads remaining, however…that was a different matter entirely. So long as two or more heads remain connected to one another, they can regrow the central core even if it receives extensive damage. As a result, the only way to definitively kill an adult Hydra is to systematically remove all—or at least all but one—of its heads and then destroy its core.

In truth, the Hydra's didn't have cores as such; I could tell that much simply by looking at them up close. Rather, they appeared to possess portals from which gathered and flowed matter to fuel their bodies. Despite that, the method of dealing with them remained the same—cut off the heads and damage the central core beyond repair.

Of course, that was easier said than done. So long as it's still alive, the Hydra would continue to grow and heal. Even with the heads I'd removed so far—and with its central core penetrated repeatedly by the same attacks I'd used to do so—it showed no signs of slowing down. As it was, the Hydra would be back to full strength in a fraction of a minute and better than ever shortly thereafter. This was what made Hydras a threat even for an entire team of skilled Hunters; one wrong move, one missed shot, and a few seconds could turn things around.

That much was true even for me. Wounded though it may have appeared, I could see its condition with my various skills and its health was regenerating quickly. Holding back against an opponent such as a Hydra was pure foolishness.

So I didn't.

Drawing a Dust Crystal from my Inventory, I healed myself and restored my MP. Though I'd largely stopped doing so—because my passive MP regen was so great and my common enemies so weak—it was always nice to have the option and I knew better than to treat this battle as if it were anything but completely serious. As the crystal faded away to refuel my power, I held out both of my hands and released it as a torrent.

A pair of Lux Aeternas merged into one and crashed into the Hydra like the hammer of a god, scooping a pair of its heads clean off. The flames of Agneyastra were swept up and devoured in the process, turned into fuel for the attack, but that was just as well as far as I was concerned; once the amount of damage being caused to a Hydra by a specific attack begins to dwindle, continuing to use it merely gives them a chance to grow until they reach beyond it. The flames had done their purpose by hurting it this much.

Luckily, I had a fair bit of variety when it came to things like this.

The moment light returned, I splayed the fingers of my outstretched hands and then clenched them into fists. Ice exploded into being upon two more of the Hydra's heads, frost spreading to cover its skin down the length of its necks. I braced myself for a moment and then used Bane of the Prometheans to approached quickly, a gateway of luminous power marking my descent. I shoved my incandescent forearm up to the elbow in one of the head, sending a massive network of cracks through the ice in the process. As I felt the Bane begin its retraction, however, I altered it with the power of the Yellow Road, curving to the left instead. The pull didn't fade just with that, however, and so when I reached my destination it continued to drag me back.

Nonetheless, it was enough time to accomplish what I'd had in mind. With the power of the ancient technique, I drew a triangle between three points—my starting position and two of the Hydra's exploding heads.

The moment I was back where I started, I gathered my power between my four hands. Bai Hu summoned a pair of Gungnir's charging them with additional power as he did, while I pulled out the big guns, forming a pair of Agneyastras. I went first, melting a pair of holes through two of the Hydra's necks and covering it once more in a wave of merciless flames. A moment after I let the first attack fly, Bai Hu threw Gungnir into the gaping holes and ripped the heads entirely free with a synchronized explosion.

Even still, it was alive. With ever removed head, I dropped its HP by a large chunk, but it had more of the stuff then I'd seen on anything and it regenerated it at a rate that rivaled the return of my MP. One of the heads I'd already removed was regrowing quickly with the neck almost half of its original length capped by a large, wet-looking sack that already contained the growing forms of two heads. I would see eyes slowly forming, teeth filling still small jaws, and how the process began to pick up speed as two more portals were added to the mix. The more heads available, the faster the Hydra would heal, which was why I couldn't just ignore them.

Luckily, I didn't need to.

"Adam," I said evenly. "Stop it."

A thin vertical blade of red light swept by me, taller than even the Hydra. It landed upon the sack containing the growing heads and they exploded at its touch, casting bits of Grimm in every direction. By charging his attack long enough, Adam could damage opponents that should have been, logically speaking, far beyond him, even if it was only for a single attack.

Even so, it was enough for this.

"Focus on anything trying to grow back," I commanded seriously as I focused upon the battle. "Gou, harass it. I'll focus on removing the heads and cover the two of you, but be prepared to back up if I give the word."

"Got it," I heard Adam grunt in the distance.

"As you wish," Gou replied and I could sense it growing in my periphery. Nonetheless, I kept the majority of my conscious focus on the hydra, prioritizing it and keeping an eye out for potential threats from its direction. As I did, however, I noticed something odd.

The Mouths of Oblivion

LV 143

Hydra

Even though it was more than fifty levels above me, I could still see it…was it because I'd seen it before it went out of range or simply because I was present for the growth? Either way, with the rate at which it was growing…for all that it seemed content to allow us to wail on it for the moment, I didn't like it.

"Be on your guard," I added after a second's thought. "It's planning something."

I followed the words with another blast of searing light, sheering off another head before withdrawing slightly. Not enough to remove myself from the fight, of course—if I wanted to do that, I'd have drawn Adam and Gou along with me—but far enough to provide another moment to react in case of an attack. I analyzed the remaining heads quickly, noting their capabilities as my power swiftly returned, but while they were dangerous enough in their own way, what with the lasers and railguns and more subtly lethal forms of attack, I felt confident in my ability to counter them under the circumstances. As long as I was careful to make sure that the Hydra didn't have time to heal—

Shit, I thought as an idea reared its ugly head. I refocused on the portals within the Hydra's body, watching closely as they pumped out an ever growing amount of matter. Looking at it closely, it was definitely a greater amount then before, something I'd initially chalked up to a reaction to the damage, but something—one of my new sensory skills, perhaps—picked up something that made me stiffen. As the number of heads was whittled down, the matter within the Hydra's body shifted and rearranged itself in a way that seemed to guard the cores. As these structures continued to grow and the Hydra's level kept rising, however, I identified it as something different.

The Hydra was building something, the same way its throats changed to generate weaponry—perhaps exactly like that. I'd noted how quickly the Hydra was healing, but looking at it again…had it deliberately slowed the process to build something with its returning mass? To prepare something? Which meant it could heal even faster than this?

—That wasn't the issue, right now!

Changing directions in an instant, I closed in on Adam and Gou, appearing in front of them even as I quickly withdrew a trio of Dust Crystals from my Inventory and devoured them to restore my power.

"Get back," I ordered, making my voice loud enough to crash through the air. Reacting immediately, Adam sheathed his blade and leapt back as indicated. Gou had a harder time of it, having already grown to a massive size to better body check the monster with and thus having a hard time stopping on command, but he still obeyed without question and began shrinking between one step and the next. I reached out with my Psychokinesis to grab him in midair and pull back and he landed harshly enough that the ground cracked around me. Now wasn't the time for being gentle, though, and he shrugged it off like it was nothing besides. "Code Boom; same as we planned for!"

Code Boom was something we'd talked about at length—long story short, it was one of the many possible ways we thought someone might kill us. It was built to respond to bombs, for a broad definition of the term that, by necessity, had to account for the Grimm and also mystical soul bullshit that we may have never seen before. Not that good, old-fashioned bombs couldn't be dangerous in their own right if they got big enough; the Astras that had been deployed in the Great War, massive Dust-based weapons that had named themselves after legendary weapons like my own Agneyasta, had certainly proven that. I knew better than most what could be down with enough Dust, thanks to my father, and if you scaled up from that, it wouldn't be fun to be on the receiving end.

And as one of our known enemies had been gathering a lot of Dust lately, well…giving the matter some thought had seemed like a good idea. While 'don't die' was always a nice starting point, it's always nice to have a bit more to go on in an emergency. With something as potentially complex as this especially…

Let's just say we'd run some drills. Thankfully, I could do a pretty good bomb impersonation if the mood happened to take me, and I'd put all of us through our paces.

Pursing his lips, Adam nodded back and quickly dropped a hand to his sword as he gathered his power. In a situation where we were up against something he could potentially absorb, his main role was to do so and, if necessary, counterattack once we'd weathered the blast. For his part, Gou slide into place in front of us, staying small for now. If it would help, he'd grow to take the hit, reinforced by my power to better withstand it. Against something that primarily dealt physical damage, he was as well equipped to handle it as anyone in the world.

Of course, if someone used a time- or space-based Astra or something similar, being able to walk through a volcanic eruption might not be enough to keep from being tied into literal knots or being eaten by a hole in the timeline. That was where I came in—at least, in theory.

Not for the first time, I felt a brief flash of irritation at how slowly my barrier skills leveled, but it couldn't be helped—on top of being naturally slow to improve, their area of effect meant they weren't particularly affected by Acceleration. I knew consciously that I was still improving them at a ludicrous pace relative to…anyone really, but the fact that they were still comparatively weak was irksome to say the least. The truth of the matter was that I had a lot more offensive options than I had defensive ones, especially when it came to large areas. It hadn't been a major issue so far because what skills I did have were very good at protecting me—but generally only me. With Midgardsormr's Skin alone, I could whether a tremendous amount of damage, only a fraction of which was likely to reach me in the first place thanks to my various resistances. With my immunity to mental effects, protection from the elements, healing, and various other counter measures, I was confident that I could survive just about anything thrown my way, at least long enough to react to the threat.

One of my recent skills just reinforced that and had been part of the reason I'd considered this trip in the first place.

Second Chance (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

The ability to survive, drawing upon one's innermost stores of power to continue fighting after an otherwise lethal blow. By using one's Aura to activate important portions of the body, the user of this skill can survive an attack that would reduce his HP to 0 with 1 HP remaining.

This technique may only be used if the damage caused by the attack is no more than 1000 points higher than the user's remaining HP.

Second Chance may only be used once a day.

Of all the skills I'd received from raising my physical stats, Second Chance was perhaps the best one; it kept me alive, after all. A thousand points of damage wasn't as much wiggle room as I might like and the daily limit seemed rather harsh—from the perspective of someone who'd die if those conditions were broken, that is—but it was still an amazing skill. With my various defensive skills especially, I was fairly confident in my relative safety.

As a member of a team, however, things were more complicated and I was still working on compensating for it. Even if I could survive a bomb being dropped on my position relatively unscathed, that didn't necessarily mean anyone around me could and that was what I was most worried about. When it came to defending a large number of people, my choices were relatively limited, which was one of the reasons I didn't want to bring a massive group to Jericho Falls. My best skill for that remained Naraka which, unfortunately, had already proven ineffective against my greatest enemies. I was still looking for alternative means, but the only way I was likely to get one any time soon was by either making it or by improving my current skills. I was working to accomplish both but…while I was far from incompetent in this area, it wasn't what I'd consider a specialty, either. Whatever this was, I could probably take it and get back up. But against an unknown form of attack, could I be sure that the same was true of my friends?

I didn't know and so I didn't dare risk it.

First things first, I thought, drawing from my returned power. I established a Sanctum over the three of us, followed by a Temple, a Haven, and a Sanctum Sanctorum. With my standard defensive barriers in place, I called to my Elementals next, raising up massive, reinforced walls of stone around my spherical encampment, giving Ereb the power need to make it diamond hard. Outside the stone, I had Suryasta ignite the surrounding area, while inside it Levant worked to create a boundary of air to protect against any airborne vectors of attack. Finally, I reinforced all of it with my Psychokinesis, consuming several more Dust Crystals to keep it at maximum power. As a last ditch effort, I would use Naraka to escape in the hopes that even if the Hydra could shatter it, doing it at the last moment would allow us to avoid the attack. If necessary, we'd withdraw quickly after that, but surviving right now was the priority for obvious reasons.

A moment after I finished my preparations, the structure within the Hydra's body reacted with a flash of strange energy—and the Hydra exploded. The blast was massive, even for a creature of its size, with a fireball that swallowed up the surrounding area washed over my defenses. Suryasta and Levant reacted immediately to try and keep the heat at bay, but at the same time there was a massive pressure wave that rocked over us. Ereb's diamond wall held for a moment before beginning to crack and shake apart, letting some of the force through to slam against Sanctum. The ancient barrier held for a second before a sudden network of cracks raced throughout it and it shattered as well. The process repeated with Sanctum Sanctorum, though it held for a while longer—and then it was just the blast and my mind.

I held against it like a stone against a river, filling it filing away the corners of my thoughts by withstanding it none the less. I consumed another pair of Dust Crystals from my store to endure, bracing myself against the growing force—and then it was gone.

Outside of my Psychokinetic sphere there was nothing but smoke, rising in a massive column that seemed to be collapsing under its own weight. I held the force field, panting slightly at the strain, before reaching out to heal both of my companions, stopping the effects of what radiation had slipped through my shielding before it had the chance to do anything.

"Is it over?" Adam asked after a momently. "It blew itself up, right?"

When I didn't answer, he kept his guard up, but looked around carefully at what had happened.

"Damn," He swore quietly. "A blast like this could level a city. Did you know they could do something like this?"

I hadn't. I'd never heard of a Hydra do anything like this before. Was it something all of them were capable of or just something this specific on had evolved? Or, more worrying, was this yet another case of enemy action.

Either way, the explosion itself wasn't the worst part, or even the only thing I'd learned. As I looked through the smoke, I realized absently that this was the first time.

That I'd seen a Grimm evolve, that is.

The Tributaries of the River Styx

LV ?

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