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.

Ping

Even through the horrific mutations, I could see the intelligence glimmering in the Grimm's eyes as it watched me. It was more than smart enough to know what was going on, to grasp the breadth of what it was facing, and there was a type of caution in its gaze. It wasn't quite fear, for all that it had been enough to make the Humbaba run from me, or at least not a human fear. The Grimm were creatures that would march into a hopeless battle without the slightest care for their own deaths, because death wasn't something that truly scared them.

But they were smart and they knew that survival was a better choice than death—that survival meant strength, growth, and power and that it was only by living that they could continue to kill. So while a young Beowolf might charge into a hopeless situation and die, an old Grimm would know from experience when it was a better time to withdraw and come back another day. That knowledge was why things like Goliaths and Leviathans could wait at the edges and slowly circle the Kingdoms; they knew that they'd get their chance eventually and that there was no point in rushing in and dying needlessly.

Right now, the Panoptes was thinking along the same lines—that if it could escape and heal, it could return and strike me down another day. I could see its eyes moving independently of one another as it searched for a way out.

And I saw it when it realized that there wasn't one. I wasn't certain how much it had understood about what it had seen, but it knew how quickly I'd fallen upon its companions. It wouldn't outrun me, especially not with its massive size making it stand out and the area that the Brahmastra had cleared. It could try to run, but there'd be no escape for it that way, especially not when I could track it down with Raven. After seeing how quickly I'd defeated its companions, it must have also known that it couldn't simply gang up on me and while it might be able to try to lead me further inland to the den of some even greater beast, it was unlikely that it would make it that far.

It's only choice was to face me and we both knew it.

The moment it realized that, its gaze changed, all traces of 'fear' vanishing in an instant as its mind was made up and it's eyes trained on me. The Panoptes spread its feathers wide, each orb in its eye-lined plumage glowing brightly even as trails of red light began to link them.

Though I'd never fought one until now, I knew what it was doing and it was why I'd left it for last. The Panoptes could gather and store energy in its eyes and fire it at a target in a way similar to the Humbaba. While it sounded pretty simple when put like that, it was important to remember that it could do this for any of its many, many eyes, with each blast carrying an impressive amount of force, given that it was one among thousands. Worse still, there was nothing stopping it from focusing multiple eyes on a target like it was now doing to me.

Nothing except time, that is. While a single eye could be fired the moment it focused on someone, it seemed to take time to gather the fullness of its power—a charge time like the one's I had mostly done away with thanks to my and Quick Soul's high level. I could already tell that the hit it was preparing would carry significantly more power than the strike the Humbaba could issue, but at the cost of speed.

Then again, that wasn't necessarily a problem for people who could work as part of a team. Before I ruined it by brutally slaughtering its companions, it had probably intended to wait at the back while I was preoccupied dealing with the others. In a fight where an opponent could focus on you, though, taking even just five seconds to prepare an attack was fairly brutal. Taking twenty? That was the next best thing to forever, especially against opponents of the level we were now on; I couldn't even imagine trying to use Brahmastra in a fight, at least not as I was now.

But, needless to say, I gave the Panoptes time to prepare its attack, while I went about preparing my defense.

Taking a deep, slow breath, I curled my hands into fists, the steel of my gauntlets rubbing against itself with a quiet, metallic sound. Instead of vanishing, however, the sound seemed to go on, spreading up the lengths of my arms as the metal rippled and flowed over my skin. Elsewhere around my body, metal seemed to just bubble forth from the air itself, twisting around me to clad me in armor—the effect of Elemental Soul activated with the Element of Metal and Aureola. From the visions I'd had while merging my skills with Tiferet, Earth and Metal had seemed to possess more personal effects, though it made me wonder how they'd interact with Aurora? Would my enemies simply begin to metalize or petrify? Or would they be attacks by forming pieces of earth and steel?

It was something that deserved testing, but one thing at a time.

As I was completely incased, I looked down at myself contemplatively. The layer of metal armor seemed almost weightless and even without using Armored Shell, it seemed to be consider a part of me. Good, that was one thing I'd worried about, especially considering the effects of Kavacha, and it wasn't something I'd wanted to test with Kubera without being sure. But now…

Kubera (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

An ancient technique named after its user, one of the Apauruseya of Vytal. The man that became known as Kubera was born with a close bond with all the precious metals hidden within the earth. As he grew in power and strength, so did his connection to them, until he was able to turn aside even the sharpest of blades with a thought. In time, however, he came to learn of power of the Apauruseya and sought to imitate them, breathing life into base steel and creating a being that protected the Yaksha. As war raged endlessly in the fallen world, however, Kubera found that neither his guardian deity nor his riches were enough to protect his people and so sought a yet deeper truth within the summoned steel. In time, he realized that they were born of his soul, as much a part of him as he was of them. Soon after, he joined the ranks of the legendary god-kings of Vytal and mastered this art alongside them, internalizing his guardian where he'd previously drawn it forth from the earth.

Metal Affinity rises to Max.

The user of this skill is immune to Metal Elemental attacks, including attacks made with metal weapons.

Active MP-based skills that do not naturally share an affinity with an Element way be given the Metal Element at no additional cost.

Only those with a Metal Elemental may use this skill.

A Metal Elemental may not be manifested while this skill is active.

Only one Elemental may be merged with in this fashion at a given time.

I felt Crocea Mors, then—my First Elemental and the one I often kept closest, in the steel of my sword. He moved through the steel that cloaked my body and then just seemed to…disperse into it and me. This time, I felt the steel push inwards, seeping into my flesh and blood and bones. I could see my body changing before my eyes, becoming metallic through and through—a massive change, when Agni had merely intensified the flames around my body, but I suppose that was the difference between the 'energy' Elementals and the 'material' ones. After a few moments, it was molten steel running through my veins instead of blood, feeding into a moving metal musculature. Even my heart had changed, taking an almost mechanical look.

And having survived that change, I reached deeper, to something that went above and beyond my body—and felt myself change even further. It was at once a quiet change and a startling one as my beat once, something flowed through my entire body, encompassing every part of my being…and leaving me looking the same as I had beforehand. Visibly, nothing had changed in the slightest, not even when I looked at the deepest layers of my body.

But I felt different, as if every part of me had been abruptly cast aside and replaced with something wholly new. And when I opened my Third Eye to look at myself, I seemed different as well. More…solid, I suppose I could say. Or perhaps more certain.

I turned my attention back to the Panoptes as it finished gathering power. I knew exactly how much energy it had gathered and while I was fairly certain it wouldn't be an instantly lethal blow, an attack like that could very well strip away anywhere from a third to half of my health bar. With Sahasrara active alongside my other defenses, I wasn't particularly worried about that, though—but then, that why I was testing this against a giant peacock instead of against Ziz. Nonetheless, I prepared myself to take the shot.

There was a moment of silence and then something tiny and unbelievably quick leapt from the tip of the creature's beak to the center of my forehead. Despite the amount of energy it had gathered, the attack looked like nothing more than a spark of static electricity.

But when it connected, there was a burst of color and sound and light. Power washed over me, shattering the ground beneath my feet, around me, and behind me. Though everything between the Grimm and I went entirely untouched, a trench was carved for over a kilometer behind me as a rush of light swept it away. It was an attack powerful enough that, if not for the effects of the Gamer's Body and Sahasrara, it wouldn't have been surprising if my entire upper body vanished despite my defenses.

And yet, I felt nothing.

As the light faded, I lifted my hand and pursed my lips, ignoring the dust and smoke clinging to my skin.

"Not a scratch, huh?" I mused. "As I thought, something like this works pretty well against the Grimm."

Kavacha (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP: 100000

The armor of the gods. Rather than a defensive technique, the nature of this skill is one of transmutation—a shift from base material to something more. By using this technique, the user temporarily transforms their entire body into something that does not—and cannot—naturally exist within the Kingdom; a substance which originates instead in the worlds above. Similar in structure to the elements which compose the soul, it is an impossibility given form, and highly resistant to the touch of the mortal world.

Body transforms into the unknown material '?.'

Physical attacks that inflict less than 10000 damage after all applicable defenses instead do no damage.

Physical attacks that deal more than 10000 damage reduce their end damage by 10000.

MP attacks that inflict less than 1000 damage after all applicable defenses instead do no damage.

MP attacks that deal more than 1000 damage are unaffected.

Additional 100000 MP used per minute.

The Panoptes watched me silently, only a small glimmer of surprise in its eyes. It didn't seem surprised that I was unhurt—but then, to most people, I always seemed unhurt. Was it aware of precisely how little it's attack had done, though? Would it have cared if it did? It had known from the beginning that I was a superior opponent and had seemed to accept the implications of that easily enough. Even now, looking at it, there was nothing like human fear in its eyes, nothing like one would expect from a creature being confronted with its own death. Its eyes were…not quite calm, but not quite upset, either.

Looking at them now, I wondered not for the first time what happened to the Grimm after death. By definition, they were soulless creatures and couldn't reincarnate or pass on the way people did, but did they simply cease? Or did Malkuth have something in place for them as part of how they faded after death? It wouldn't have surprised me. They had no souls, but they were 'alive', if not in a conventional biological sense. They were aware, able to learn, think, and grow on their own, all without whatever it was that the soul gave people. They were an attempt to use the Kingdom to reach for the Light.

And it was obvious that they'd become more than anyone had ever expected. Though they shouldn't have been capable of transmigration, it wouldn't have surprised me if something still remained, if only a husk like the Qliphoth had been named for. Hell, seeing as they didn't have 'souls' as such and that their existence itself was fairly absurd given a moment's thought, it wouldn't have particularly surprised me if they could be reborn in some fashion themselves. Given Malkuth's power, it was possible that he just kept regular backups of his more powerful servants in case he had a need for them later; his power had created the Grimm, after all, and if you removed philosophical questions about the soul and the self from the equation, giving his creations some form of rebirth would be fairly simple.

Unless there was more to the Grimm then there seemed, which seemed fairly certain, given my entire life. But that was neither here nor there.

The point was that, when I met several hundred of the Panoptes' eyes with a few hundred thousand of my own, I couldn't help but wonder what it thought of me and its impending fate. I knew it wasn't afraid, but it was difficult for me to perceive the emotions of the Grimm, much less parse them—they didn't have an Aura for my Empathy to pick up, which complicated things greatly. For all I knew, it was watching me in amusement, believing that its death meant nothing and that I was dancing in the palm of its master's hand.

It wasn't something I'd normally bother thinking about, but for some reason, I had a hard time avoiding the thought now. Maybe it was simply because questions about death and what came after it seemed like they'd be fairly important to me soon, one way or another. Either I'd find whatever it was I had presumably left myself after my own demise or I'd soon get re-familiarized with the entire process.

But I didn't have much choice but to go forward. As things were now, I had no choice but to assume Malkuth was watching me, whether it was through the Grimm, Ozpin, Cinder, or someone else. Having lived a life with me before this one, it seemed safe to assume he knew how fast I could grow, given time—and that, as casually as he may have seemed to treat me, he wouldn't want to leave me to grow without limit. Going simply by the fact that I was still alive, he obviously wanted me to reach a certain level of power—enough to do whatever it was he had planned for me, I assumed—but probably not strong enough to effectively challenge him.

I suspected he had a schedule in mind for that and that he'd make me regret it if I didn't abide by it—or make everyone else regret it, as the case may be.

But I wasn't so foolish as to assume he'd be willing to leave me be if I did what he wanted, either. After I got to the computer in Jericho Falls and accessed whatever was inside of it—assuming, of course, that I was correct about my assumption concerning it—it was likely things would kick off, if not immediately, then in short order. Whether Gilgamesh was there or not, I expected something to happen, and seeing as Malkuth had the world's collective balls in a vice, it's not as though he couldn't pressure me to move quickly. Whether through Cinder's actions, a sudden attack by a horrific beast of myth and legend, or something worse, he had plenty of ways to make me hurry.

The question, then, was if I was ready and…I honestly wasn't sure. I'd grown quickly—far faster than my previous incarnation in many ways, thanks to the simple fact that my Semblance allowed me to gain experience by slaying the omnipresent monsters that inhabited Remnant—but quickly was still a relative term when it came to catching up to someone with a thousand year head start. I didn't have enough memories to be sure, but I knew I'd been very powerful and I'd known my enemy far better than I did now.

And I'd still lost. And now said enemy had had thousands of years to prepare himself for my return and to solidify his hold over the world. The situation was rather far from ideal. Even if our base stats had been similar, he would have had millennia to gain and refine his skills at…everything. And I knew better than anyone how much of a difference skills could make in a fight. I was playing the most ridiculous game of catch-up in history and I was being given a time limit.

My advantages were limited and I had no choice but to exploit them for all they were worth. Gaining levels was a part of that, because it allowed me to increase my stats and thereby acquire very powerful skills. Leveling up generally meant killing Grimm, too, which sometimes provided skill books from which I could learn things I could obtain anywhere else and which I could improve very quickly. I was all but certain my Semblance had manifested the way it had just to help me deal with the mess I'd been caught up in and I was thankful beyond words for that fact.

The rest of my advantages were harder to define, simply because I didn't know enough to be certain of anything. Truthfully, a part of me was hoping for a miracle when it came to Jericho Falls while the rest of me was hoping I'd put on a good enough show. Even if Malkuth was watching me, I was hopeful that he didn't have anything like Observe that would allow him to see the full extent of my power and reveal all of my secrets. I had to remember—and believe—that my enemies weren't all knowing, even if they knew a lot more than I did, and that they could be wrong. To that end, I was happily dropping bombs and showing off amidst a multitude of explosions and vast fields of fire, hopefully making some kind of impression.

I was fairly sure that I wasn't going to win this fight with simple firepower, but I'd have liked it if my enemies thought that I intended to try. Failing that—and I was doubtful it would fully succeed against someone who'd known me for a thousand years, even if he didn't know me now—I'd have at least liked to direct attention away from other things.

Not that they weren't useful, of course. Kavacha was an amazing defense, especially against the majority of Grimm whose soulless nature rendered them unable to exploit its weak points. Brahmastra had proven its power, too, and would no doubt come in handy when it was time to invade Jericho Falls, if only to clear away the riff-raff and hinder the others. The Aurora combination had proven its worth when it came to fighting even very powerful enemies and, if need be, I should be able to penetrate just about any defense with Longinus. Even if the enemy was something like Gilgamesh or Ziz, I should be able to do something.

Too bad I had no choice but to set my gaze higher than that and hope I had what it took—though, whether I hoped for it or not, I'd find out the answer soon.

Raising a hand, I gathered light in my hands and unleashed it in an incinerating torrent at the Panoptes, scouring it from the world with Lux Aeterna and then slowly releasing my transformations.

Your level has increased by one!

I dismissed the window with a thought and began collecting the items the Grimm I'd killed had left behind, the lot of them thankfully untouched by the fighting—another thing to thank my power for, I suppose. As I did, a portal swirled open behind me and Raven stepped lightly on through.

"Impressive, Jian," She murmured after a moment, looking around slowly. "I've never seen anything like that before."

I turned my head to look at her over my shoulder and managed a slight, short-lived smile at her.

"Thank you for the compliment," I answered quietly, before sighing. I healed Raven absently, ensuring that Brahmastra's effects didn't take hold, and mused absently over the fact that she'd just taken it for granted that I'd handle any problems without even asking me if they existed. That gesture of trust would have made me happier if I weren't in such a dour mode, but it still a nice thought. "I just needed to make sure of a few things before me made a move."

Raven tilted her head slightly, watching me for a moment.

"We're moving, then?" She asked.

I nodded once.

"In one week, we'll take on Jericho Falls," I said. "By then, I'll have finished all my preparations."

"I'll be there," She promised, not seeming bothered by the inclusive. She pondered me for another moment, seeming to contemplate something. "Is this the part where you tell me to make sure I have all my affairs in order before then?"

I frowned to myself, still not looking at her, and considered the question.

Then I shook my head.

"Feel free to do as you wish," I said. "But I've given it some thought and given the choice…I think that rather than dying without regrets, I'd like to have something to make me fight that much harder. There are people I want to meet again and things I still have to do—and I'll get to them as soon as I'm done dealing with this."

"Oh?" She wondered, sounding amused. "Somehow, that's very you."

I shrugged a shoulder and smiled at her again, this time more honestly.

"There's no point in making a production out of something like this," I told her. "We're Hunters—this is what we do for a living."