The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Last Minute

Beside what remained of Tenne's body was a book titled Longshot and a belt named Orion. The belt had an odd design that left me unsure whether it was intended to be worn over the shoulder as if for a quiver or through one's pants—either way, the belt was obviously designed to holster weaponry. That was made especially obvious by its effect, which allowed one to create mundane ammunition for a low MP cost and lowered the costs of ranged attacks somewhat. Even if I didn't have a lot use for the first power, I wasn't one to complain about cost reductions, so I bound it over a shoulder and then devoured the book.

Longshot (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP: 10

An ability to attack from great distances. Triple the reach of a single ranged attack with no reduction in accuracy.

Interesting, I thought, if not the most amazing drop I've ever gotten. I could appreciate an increase in range, though—a pretty basic rule of combat was that if you could hit your enemy and he couldn't hit you back, you win by default. Whether its because of speed, range, whatever, that was still true, so I thought the ability was fairly good, especially at level one. Between the fact that it was multiplicative and its synergy with my new belt, I figured it would probably come in handy soon.

Returning to where I'd left Ren and Nora, I was glad to see that both of them were gone, swept down into the tunnels beneath us by Onyx. With any luck, they'd be safe down there. I'd sent my Elementals back into the village to try and save whoever else they could, but considering that I was currently infected myself, I couldn't risk getting near anyone—even ignoring the fact that they might well run screaming if they saw me. Still, though I could fell Levant still at work, keeping people safe and alive, Onyx would need me to confirm if people were safe to draw down. I'd try to find a place high enough to see the whole village and clear the living, but I knew that before too long, the only people above ground would be the infected and the dead.

Speaking of which, I looked around at the now empty part of town and quickly found what I was looking for. Beside the corpses of the married Hunters, I found a pair of books with a ring laying atop of each, but Lei Hui didn't seem to have left me anything—probably because I'd played only a minor role in his defeat. Even so, learning even a small part of Xuan Wu's lost art before going into battle would have been a comfort—and depending on how much Hui had managed to pass on before his death, the style might be lost forever now.

But I suppose it couldn't be helped, so I collected the items as swiftly as I could and then darted up to the rooftops to head back the way I'd first came.

You have obtained the item 'Hero.'

You have obtained the item 'Leander.'

You obtained the skill book 'Burning Blade.' Would you like to learn this skill?

You obtained the skill book 'Deposition.' Would you like to learn this skill?

I consumed both skill books without a second thought and glanced at rings as the profiles appeared. They were a matching pair or wedding bands, inscribed with delicate looking crystals in an intricate design I didn't recognize. The crystals were set into the gold of the rings such that they felt almost smooth when I brushed my thumb over them and the rings were identical but for the colors of the crystals—red for Hero, blue for Leander. I considered them for a moment before sliding a band onto each of my ring fingers.

To be honest, I wasn't super excited to be wearing wedding bands dropped by a couple I'd killed, but I that, however I felt, it was the right thing to do. Conquest was responsible for this and it was because of him that I'd been forced to kill Keppel and Carmine, so I'd consider these rings their ways of helping me get back at him. Hero increased my Fire Affinity by twenty and Leander did the same for Water; I wasn't sure how much it would amount to just yet, but every bit helped.

As I came to a stop, I glanced over the profiles of my new skills and read each in the blink of an eye.

Burning Blade (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP: 50

The ability to convert ones Aura into flames and enshroud ones weapons with it, this skill is only possible for those with an Affinity for Fire or through the use of Dust. The damage and heat of the flames increases with one's Intelligence, Fire Affinity, and the skill level. Warning: While this ability may also be used to enhance armor or other items, it does not confer any immunity to the flames created.

Additional 50 MP used per minute.

Deposition (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% MP: 350

The ability to freeze an area by drastically lowering the ambient temperature, this skill is only possible for those with an Affinity for Ice or through the use of Dust. The drop in temperature is such that certain gases can be instantaneously solidified and increases with one's Intelligence, Ice Affinity, and skill level.

Range: 50 meters

Area of Effect: A 5 meter radius centered on a targeted point.

Warning: The user is not immune to this ability if caught within the Area of Effect.

I took a deep breath and dismissed both windows before setting my sights on what I'd left behind. I was still far from my parent's fight, seven buildings back from the growing circle of destruction they had reduced the neighborhood to. I was nearly a hundred meters away from my father and about a hundred and fifteen from my mother—still, it was as close as I was willing to get if I was limiting myself to observation; it's not like being this far mattered much when it came to my eyes.

But I couldn't say I liked what I saw. My mother was in nearly as bad a state of undress as I was, but the skin that should have been showing was mostly burnt away, along with most of her hair. Between that and her ragged appearance, she looked almost skeletal, as if she'd been starved before tossed in a fire, and she was bleeding badly as well—or, at least, she had lost enough blood to stain much of her shredded clothing red. Looking at her, though, I didn't see any open wounds, just burnt flesh, which was a bit surprising because while my father was as skilled with heat-related bombs as any other kind, pretty much all of her injuries appeared to be in the form of burns.

Sadly, it wasn't very hard to realize why. My father hadn't inflicted those wounds; my mother had burnt herself. In a fight between near equals, it went without saying that both sides would get their hits in—but the thing was, any hit from Conquest had the potential to be lethal in every way that matters. Even a glancing blow could spread his sickness and grow to consume a person utterly and the only ways to avoid that were to either avoid being hit at all or…to deal with the infected areas. Onyx had torn off a leg to avoid the infection for instance, and then wisely hide himself underground.

My mother hadn't hidden or run, but it was obvious she had been hit. But in order to keep fighting, she'd cleansed the areas—and given both my own experience with killing Conquest and the general horror of the burns, I was guessing she had used plasma to do so.

Looking at her, I was reminded again that my mother was an amazing. While cauterizing a wound to clean it was something that came up fairly regularly in movies, but doing something like that in reality was a last resort—and the type of thing that generally laid you out in a hospital bed for at least a little while. Using that as a way to fight Conquest and continuing despite her injuries…even with her Aura healing her, the fact that she was still fighting with injuries like that was amazing; that she was still fighting despite who knows how much emotional pain, even more so. I'd known it since I was young, but my mother was extraordinary.

She was also, I couldn't help but note, going to die soon. Fighting despite horrible wounds was amazing from an emotional standpoint, but also a pretty horrible idea. The healer in me clinically noted the reasons—blood loss, risk of infection, the damage to tissue, the sheer pain, on and on—the fact of the matter boiled down to this; getting hurt was a big deal to people who weren't me. She was badly wounded and, even beyond the myriad of long-term consequences normally associated with that, those injuries would weigh her down in a battle. Against an opponent like Conquest where she was forced to resort to sure tactics every time he so much as touched her…well, it was obvious, wasn't it? Each time she was hit, she had to hit herself even harder to survive, so unless she could dish out several times what she was receiving, it was really only a matter of time until she lost. As it was, her body was probably going to fail her soon.

Its fine, I thought; I can just heal her. I nearly took a step forward to rush to her side before forcing myself to stop. I wanted to—I really, really wanted to. But wanting something really badly didn't make it smart and rushing into a situation blindly when I had a chance to observe was as far from smart as I could get. So long as she was alive, I could heal my mother, and she wasn't dead yet. She could keep fighting for a while longer; I knew that logically and believed it in my heart. If I really wanted to help her, I had to do so with intelligence and wisdom.

With that thought in mind, I held myself back and did something I really, really didn't want to do—I took a breath and turned to look at my father.

Those Who Hunt Monsters

LV94

?

Where my mother looked like she was about to die, Conquest looked mighty and victorious. The clothes my father had worn had long since been torn away, replaced by heavy layers of the bacterial Grimm's customary white armor. In places, there were signs that he'd been in a struggle—patches of scorched and dirtied armor, bits that were partially melted—but on the whole he looked clean compared to her, as if the entire fight had amounted to dirtying his new suit, probably because of Conquest's regeneration. He was taller now, too; perhaps two and a half meters and he looked big for that size, broad-shouldered in his armor. Standing before him with her body and Aura stretched to the limit, my tall mother looked like a tiny slip of a girl, and he looked down at her in a way that seemed to convey amusement.

I barely recognized him now. Conquest had finished his work on my father's body, completing mask. It surrounded his head like a helm, the top arranged like a crown, and there was an almost decorative quality to shape of it, from the sharp angles of his face to the smirking row of boney teeth. His eyes were solid red now and the lines of his mask gave him a perpetual look of smug anticipation.

Or maybe that was just the artist shining through.

For a moment, I couldn't help but wonder if how different he looked would make it easier or harder to fight him. On one hand, he looked nothing like my father—but on the end, that fact was a constant reminder of what had been done to him. Looking back at my mother, I wonder how she felt, but saw nothing but steel in her eyes, masking even the pain she must have felt.

"Ozpin," I said a moment after my landing. "I'm in position. Conquest has finished mutating my father. My mother is alive and uninfected, but seems to be at her limits; she's badly hurt and I can't be sure how much longer she'll survive."

"Can you make an educated guess?" He asked, expression tight but otherwise calm.

"A minute or two, maybe," I answered after a moment thought. "Everything I know about him says that Conquest will try to hurt her emotionally, but his main interest is still me. He'll want to infect her to wield her against me and kill her if he can't; he might cut the games short for her, because of that. He doesn't have any way of knowing that I managed to take down the others as quickly as I did, though, so I may have a little bit of time."

"Then use it," The headmaster said. "Jaune, I know how hard that must be for you, to stand back and watch and consider while your family is in pain, but this may be your only chance to take him by surprise. For your mother and father's sake as much as anyone else's, make the most of it."

I felt a flash of irritation at the words, as if I didn't already know that and was standing around while my mother was dying because I was a complete idiot—but that irritation faded in a moment and I could acknowledge where Ozpin was coming from, given his own situation. I respected Ozpin as well as his advice, so I simply nodded.

"Do you have any suggestions, sir?" I asked. "Against my father?"

He was silent for a moment and at this point, even that felt like forever.

"Your father didn't make it this far by having many weaknesses," He answered. "What little he did possess, I suspect Conquest will have endeavored to cover. I suspect you will have the speed advantage, but Jack's skill with bombs enables him to creative a variety of effects, including spaces of slowed time. Generally, if there is a type of Dust, Jack could find some way to weaponized it and with the knowledge Conquest claims to have…I don't have enough information to say what he may or may not be capable of."

Nothing, I translated. He had no idea how to deal with this mess.

"In the worst case scenario, it may be possible for you to hold him off long enough to allow for reinforcements to arrive," Ozpin offered, apparently realizing that as well. "But even if they get there at top speed, it may take quite some time from your perspective. I'm sorry, Jaune."

Long enough that this would probably be over by the time they got here, one way or the other. We were on our own.

Okay, I thought, kneeling in place. With a gesture, I brought up the list of my abilities and windows appeared one after another. Whatever I did, I had to make my first move count and that meant making the most of everything I had—and what I knew. That applied to my own abilities, of course, but also Conquest; know thy enemy and all that.

I took a breath and closed my eyes, thinking of the fights that came before. I'd left this place to find a way to defeat Conquest and save my father—and I returned empty handed, but for what I'd taken from the corpses of people I couldn't save. Keppel, Carmine, Hui, Tenne…would my father join them.

This was my last chance to find a way to avoid that. I had time—time my mother was buying in blood—and that was the only thing worth spending it on.

"Jaune?" Ozpin asked when I put my fingers together, as if in prayer. "What are you doing?"

"We don't have much time left," I said. "So we better find out what happens now."

And then I healed myself.

Armor burst from my blackened skin, sprouting from my flesh in ripples out from the touch of my hands. I observed with calm, open eyes as it appeared, watching as closely as I was able. I could feel myself changing, both above and below the skin, and I knew that if I was ever going to find what I was looking for, it would be now.

A skill has been created through a special action! By achieving a state near the creatures of Grimm, the skill 'Metamorphosis' has been created.

I dismissed the window as soon as it appeared, making a mental note to look at it in a moment. What was happening before my eyes was far more important—beneath my careful gaze, with my Clairvoyance focused to its limit, the white bone of the Grimm armor just seemed to…appear. On the macro-scale, it looked like it was growing rapidly across my skin and in a way that was true, but I'd confirmed my previous thoughts on where this matter seemed to come from.

Absolutely nowhere. It didn't grow organically, it just appeared out of thin air. I looked close enough to watch the cells work, but though they seemed to organize themselves such as to prepare for it, neither they nor my body were the source. I was watching the laws of physics shatter—bearing witness to the creation of matter and energy.

Of course, this wasn't something new, not really; I'd seen all this before, if not from this perspective. My power created things with the loot it left behind and when I used blue Dust crystals, it seemed to form water. Even beyond that, there were uses of Aura that seemed to violate several natural 'laws'—any Semblance that created ice seemed, at least at first glance, to break the laws of thermodynamics, after all. We just took that for granted, that the power of our souls was above the rules of the physical world—and maybe that was true. But seeing the Grimm do the same thing…

I'd accepted this before, maybe even dismissed it. Now, I couldn't afford to—it was all I had.

"Continuing from where we left off, I will be reporting my findings now," I drew Ozpin's attention. "Careful observation of the bacterial Grimm in action shows that they are making use of matter they could not possibly have access to—though I cannot be certain of by how much, the mass of my body is currently increasing. This would imply that they are able to create matter, but I have my doubts."

"Oh?" Ozpin asked, sounding surprised.

"There are only three explanations for what I am currently seeing," I said. "That it's exactly what it appears to be and they are creating matter, that my observations are in error, or that our understanding of the laws of physics are in error. However it may seem, though, I believe that it cannot be the former. If they were creating matter, the energy required would be absurd. Creating even a gram of matter requires enough energy to level a city—and creating this armor requires the production of many kilograms worth of matter. That's…what was it? Nine times ten to the sixteenth power joules per kilogram, if I remember correctly; that's ninety quadrillion joules per kilogram and I'd be shocked if my dad wasn't at least a hundred kilograms heavier now, to say nothing of all the other infected. Put all that together and we're talking about enough power to wipe out life on Remnant as an afterthought here; it's absurd, both in the theoretical energy required and the apparent use."

I checked my math quickly and then took a breath, nodding to myself as I grew more sure.

"If Conquest and the Grimm could wield this much energy with such efficiency that the matter created just seems to appear, there must be a trillion better ways to spend that energy then like this. Whatever he wants, he'd have to be mind-bogglingly stupid to go about it that way and monster though he is, I don't think he's an idiot. I also don't think he's God, which is what he'd pretty much need to be to throw around power this effortlessly; even if the Grimm are holding back or being held back, them having that much power doesn't make sense. So I'm going to assume that's not what's going on here. They are not creating matter—or if they are, they aren't doing it that way."

"But Jaune," Ozpin replied. "While I'll agree that the Grimm being capable of wielding that much power is…unlikely, at best, not only the Grimm are capable of such things. I have seen Hunters that were capable of creating weapons from thin air, rearranging matter, even a few that were capable of creating life. We've long known of Aura's strange properties; you yourself said your Semblance had created things from nothing. Perhaps Conquest is simply drawing upon our power to do such things, turning our Aura against us like you said—"

He stopped as I nodded and then shook my head.

"We don't know how Aura works," I agreed to a point. "Not really. It's a strange power from which we pretty much draw unrepeatable miracles. It does strange things that we can't explain so a lot of the time we just shrug our shoulders and say 'It's Aura.' Even I do that, I admit it. But there's more to it than that, I know it."

I watched as the armor crawled up my arms, my hands long since turned to claws. Beneath my clear sight, the same thing repeated over and over again, just as impossible to explain every time.

"That it's our understanding of physics in error is a common explanation for what Aura does," I continued. "But it's also not very helpful. It boils down to 'It's magic; it can do whatever it wants.' But it can't, can it? Using Aura and Semblances tire people out over time and neither we nor Conquest can wave our hands and just rearrange the world. We can only draw upon finite amounts of power and there are limits—and if there are limits, then there are rules. The fact that we may not know what they are doesn't change the fact that they're there. We've already talked about Babel and what it was capable of, but I don't think there was anything that made them unique; I just think they understood more than we do now. But while Remnant may have lost the knowledge, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist or that it can't be found again."

"And you intend to find it now?" Ozpin asked, raising an eyebrow. "In the next minute?"

Put that way, it sounded ridiculous. People had been researching Aura for years, but we were no closer to truly understanding it. I was smart, I knew that, but because I was smart, I knew my limits. I wasn't going to do in a minute what countless scientists failed to do in lifetimes. It was impossible.

But I looked at my mother and father and decided to try anyway.

Ozpin must have seen something on my face because he pursed his lips and nodded.

"There are theories," He put forth hesitantly. "Nothing ever truly confirmed, but of course we've wondered. It's generally believed that Aura functions on a…a different level of existence. That it's something higher dimensional acting upon our world, reaching beyond normal limits. An analogy I've heard was that it could be like a person acting on picture of something, folding it to make points touch that could not in two dimensions. There are many interpretations of this in regards to the effects created—telekinesis being a common example. What might seem like telekinesis is simply something greater acting upon multiple points, though we don't know the means. Several trains of thought thus believe that our perceptions of the world are limited by our minds or bodies; that we can see only what we are capable of understanding."

I shook my head.

"'We know nothing and have no way of truly knowing anything because everything we know is probably wrong' is not helpful, even if it is possible that it's true, so for the time being, I'm going to continue operate under the assumption that we aren't complete idiots and that our science and theories have at least some grain of truth. It's obvious that our souls can do so impressive stuff, but they're finite if renewable, so I'm going to continue to assume that matter cannot be created or destroyed—so what the hell am I looking at?" I cracked my neck and grit my teeth for a moment before looking up. "Matter cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be changed and it can be moved from place to place. Could that be it? When I use Dust…"

I stopped for a moment to contemplate that thought, refine it, and then continue.

"When I use Dust," I said more confidently. "I can do some amazing things—I can control gravity in a wide area seemingly effortlessly, draw upon tremendous amounts of power, even create water and stone. But I do that by draw on the Dust and the power within it. I'm not gonna lie and say I know how it works, but the Dust itself fuels all of that. We've called it Nature's Wrath since forever; maybe it actually draws upon existing sources in nature. There's enough energy on Remnant to do anything Dust does and while I've never tested any of the water I produced, but it could be taken from the oceans, rivers, something. Gravity, time, I don't know how changing those would work, but it could be rearranging existing forces. Focusing the gravity across some area upon me, maybe and…something similar with time."

"It's possible," Ozpin said, seeming to consider it. "But it's only conjecture without more to support it. Do you have anything else?"

"My power," I replied. "That's the answer. The things it creates—my loot drops, the skill books, all of that—they aren't just made from nothing. That book I told you about, it was written in Babel. And the other stuff, their text implied that these were things that existed. And the money. I can spend it and not be accused of counterfeiting. Because it's not counterfeit. But where does it come from, then? Because it must be drawn from something. Maybe it's stealing those things, like the money, but that doesn't explain Naraka…or perhaps it's something dimensional, like with the Many Worlds theory. Maybe my power even accesses some…some store of knowledge and copies it down, translating it for me in the form of books or even skills. I don't know, but Naraka implies that it wasn't created. Conquest confirmed it; it was a real technique. I just have to—"

I cut myself off, right arm spasming. The Grimm armor had grown over it in smooth, flowing plates until it reached my shoulder, at which point I felt a spike of pain go through it, up my neck, and then stab into my brain. My fingers trembled and then clenched tight and I looked down—

A pair of eyes stared back, solid, gleaming red. A mask covered my shoulder like a pauldron and after a moment of disorientation I found myself looking at…myself. As the eyes seemed to connect to my brain, I found myself staring into my own eyes. It didn't seem to inhibit the use of my right arm, but…

"Jaune?" Ozpin asked.

"A pair of eyes have grown into place on my right shoulder," I answered calmly after a moment, getting back to work. Another set of eyes wasn't a big deal. "It's nothing to worry about. The eyes seem fully functional and under my control, as does the arm. It is possible that it connect to my brain through the modifications to my nervous system. There do not yet appear to be consequences because of it. As I was saying, my Semblance seems to draw from things, rather than create them whole sale—perhaps even the items it creates are real or once were. It's still conjecture, but it makes sense. If we could test it…but we can't right now. Still, it makes more sense than the alternative. Dust, Semblances, the Grimm, they draw matter and energy from somewhere, it's just a matter of figuring out where."

I didn't mean to put the stress on those final words, but another current ran up my neck and left my lightheaded. Before I even got the chance to look at it, another set of eyes seemed to open and left me looking at the world from three different angles. I rolled my shoulders in an attempt to ease the strange sensation, but in moments my head began to pound hard enough that I thought my skull might break, sending the world white. When it eased, so did the odd feeling and soon the eyes felt bizarrely natural. I didn't have any problem focusing through them or looking at different spots with each, nor was it hard to channel my Clairvoyance through them.

Taking a deep breath as I rubbed my neck, I looked down with my normal eyes and saw the armor begin spreading over my chest as well, growing faster now. As it did, the armor seemed to flow, like a river over me and I felt other rushes of sensation.

"Then…" Ozpin said, watching me carefully. "If we could figure out how…"

"We might be able to interfere with the process in some way," I continued, forcing my voice to remain steady as I felt things moving inside my ribcage, bones flexing and shifting aside. I paused for a moment as I lost my breath, lung expanding against bone and then contracting without me inhaling. After a moment, it stopped, but then I felt a shock that made my heart skip a few beats. The armor continued to flow down my abdomen, picking up speed as it went like a waterfall of liquid bone. Then eyes began to bubble to the surface, a pair forming right below my ribs and hints of another mask expressing itself around it. I didn't even have a chance to take a breath when another shock raced up my spine as eyes opened behind me. Already, my arms and chest were covered by the armor and it was creeping down my legs and up my neck.

I realized belatedly that I was panting hard and glanced up to meet Ozpin's worried gaze.

"Sorry, just…" I slowed my breathing and wiped my face carefully with my claws. "Growing pains, you know?"

"I can't say I do, Jaune," He replied. "Are you…"

"I'm fine," I answered. "The point is, if I'm right, I might be able to interfere with Conquest's growth and from there…maybe even stop or reverse it. And it might even tell us more about the Grimm themselves or even Aura. If I can just figure out how…"

"It's a good idea, Jaune," He said at last. "But do you have any way of proving it? Testing it, even? You have some of the best eyes I've ever seen—do you see anything like this when you look at Conquest."

"No," It was hard to say and not just for the changes Conquest was wrecking on my neck and throat. For the first time in years, I heard my voice crack and I had a coughing fit before continuing—and when I did, there was something almost like a growl to the words as my voice continued to shift. "I can't see it. It's just conjecture, I know—a hypothesis at best, but it's what I have. It's all I have."

"Can you…" Ozpin hesitated before shaking his head. "If you're right, do you any idea on how interfere with it."

"No," I said again, wiping sweat from my forehead. At a guess, my temperature was at least a hundred and ten degrees. "I know, it's like I gathered all the ifs in the universe for this, wasn't it? I left my father behind to try and find a way to save him and I return with this. But I have to…I have to try, Ozpin. He's my father."

Ozpin was silent for a moment and I felt my cheek twitch as a mask began forming around the edges, the world darkening as it shut me in completely—at least, for that set of eyes.

"I know," He replied at last, the worry on his face remaining. "But Jaune, don't forget, Jack…he's your father, but you're his son. He would want you to—"

"Yes," I said, mouth fully covered. I barely recognized my own voice. "I'll stay safe and look after myself and I'll save mom and everyone else I can, because I'm my father's son. But I'll set him free, too."

I closed my eyes as the mask finished sealing me in.

"One way or another."

You have received the Status Effect 'On A White Horse He Rides [High].'

A skill has been created through a special action! By fully assuming the form of a creature of Grimm, the skill 'The White Rider' has been created.