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.

Convincing

The earth shattered for perhaps twenty meters as my foot came down, leaving a cone of destruction behind me as I pushed off. I determined the best route in the moment between thought and action, taking to the air with a mighty Lunge—and if that path took me through several buildings, it was merely because they did nothing to stop me. I felt it as I passed through air and glass and stone with equal ease, shards and rubble scraping uselessly against my skin as I exited the building and rose into the city skyline. I reached out towards the Giant Nevermore as I flew by, grasping a wing and tearing it free as I continued on.

I wasn't alone. Trailing just a step behind me was Gou, massive form tearing apart Grimm and buildings alike in his wake. He shed rubble like rain water as he went, brushing it off without so much as a thought. Stuff like this was nothing to him, after all—especially with my skills applying to us both. His already steely fur and diamond flesh were enhanced by the layers of protection my power granted, turning him into an almost unstoppable force. The sheer depths of his Vitality, boosted by my power, was enough to shrug of everything he'd been hit with so far without even a scratch, especially with the benefit of Chesed. I had the full suite of buffs on us both, giving him the benefits of Regeneration to increase his already ludicrous rate of recovery which, along with the effects of Beast Tamer, meant he could recover from near death to full strength in less than a minute. Haste bolstered his speed while Feather Fall allowed him to land lightly, despite his massive form. I gave him Mountain's Strength to help bolster the might granted to him by his new found body and gave him the Firepower to shred the Grimm.

And that was just the start.

My gauntleted hands turned incandescent and so did Gou's fangs as he landed beside me, upside-down on a sudden platform of hardened air. We Lunged again to reach the ground, descending with a crash into the midst of the Grimm even as we spewed fire at the surrounding horde. A pair of white tigers rose around us, glowing with the Aura they were composed of—mine a roughly humanoid beast, his fully animalistic—and we flashed forward, leaving scattered limbs behind us. I matched my pace to his and kept moving; so long as he was this close, Familiar insured that he could keep up, more or less. His size, lower Dexterity, and the specifics of my skills kept him from reaching my full speed, but I didn't have to worry about leaving him behind so long as I remembered that. Because of the way Familiar worked, many of the skills I shared with him used his stats to calculate results, which put a stop to some of the shenanigans I had planned, but I supposed you couldn't have everything.

I couldn't complain, though; putting aside the initial shock, this was more than enough for me. Sure, his movements were a bit sloppy, but that was to be expected—he'd never fought on this level before. Making the jump from a normal dog to the versatile engine of destruction my power would manufacture would take practice and time, but we'd manage it together. Once we'd managed that, though, he'd make an exceptionally powerful addition to our team, if one we'd all need some adjusting to. Though Familiar didn't allow me to share most of my attack skills, as it was limited to effects that targeted me, that wasn't an issue; I remained ideally suited for the role of bombardment, especially with Psychokinesis expanding range and angles of attack, and what skills I could share allowed for more than a little power. As they were now, his defense matched or exceeded my own and with the White Tiger of the West allowing him to turn HP into MP, he had plenty of power to work with despite his technically low pool of MP. And when it came to physical power…

When, the field of falling builds we'd left behind were a testament to our strength. So long as he remained close to me, he was every bit as strong as he looked and then some. Despite my concern over his sudden change, I was already thinking of potential strategies we could put into play now. I could ride him into battle now, though I had no real need, however amusing the thought of Aura Crashing our way through enemy lines was. Instead, it would make more sense to allow a slower combatant like Adam to take advantage of the speed I could grant Gou, as he was more than equipped to bear the weight—and in battle, it would allow Adam to keep pace. If we trained some and practiced it, we could set up several methods of attack based on that, easily. In fact…

I turned on a dime, sending out a mental call to Gou to make him follow. With my power at work, he cornered amazingly well, barely sliding as he changed directions. We climbed a building in a second, shattering glass as we ran clean up its side, and then leapt high into the air before allowing ourselves to fall.

We landed with a surprisingly mild crash, right in front of Adam and Autumn.

"Show off," Adam said, standing at ease. I wasn't sure which of us it was directed at, but we both smiled in reply. "You done with the test drive?"

"Yup," I replied. "Your turn."

My friend tilted his head, staring at me oddly.

"Eh?" Adam wondered, looking confused.

I turned to Gou and raised an eyebrow.

"Do you mind?" I asked. "I'm sorry to ask, but Adam's so slow, I can't take him anywhere."

Gou understood easily and nodded, lying down.

"I do not mind," He answered before looking past me. "Come, Adam. Let's go for a walk."

I smiled brightly and reached out to pet his head. Even lying down as he was, I didn't even need to lower my arm to do it, which was one of the many things that would take some getting used to. Despite that, though, I was glad that he was still the same and that, besides the awkwardness one would expect from suddenly finding oneself in an entirely different body, he seemed fine.

But his body wasn't the only thing that had changed.

Heavenly Dog

LV 88

Tiangou

His title hadn't shifted immediately, but instead had changed after we'd played around for a while. That meant something, I was sure of it—I just wasn't sure of what. There hadn't been any changes to his status screen besides the Vitality increase, but after the surprise my power had just given me, I would be careful to keep an eye on it, along with the similar change in Autumn's.

"Oh," Adam said, finally catching on. He stared at Gou for a long moment before nodding and approaching. "Well, I hope you're a better at this then Jaune was—we tried to cross the Sea and let me tell you, it was a bumpy ride."

"You're the one who didn't want to be carried," I replied. "I mean, it's not like I don't carry this team, anyway."

Adam had already climbed onto Gou's back, which put him several heads above me even while Gou was lying down. He looked around as if baffled and then leaned over to squint down at me.

"Did you say something?" He shouted. "I can't hear you from up here!"

"Hey Gou, could you help Adam?" I asked my Familiar. "He's been having trouble with big words; try dumbing things down for him, okay?"

Gou wagged his tail, which was quite an affair for a dog his size. If anybody had been standing behind him, they'd probably have been bowled over. Hell, if any cars had been parked behind him, they probably would have been bowled over.

Before we could say anything else, however, Autumn approached, slowly reaching out towards Gou. It was pretty easy to figure out what she wanted, but…

"Autumn," I sighed, thinking about how to put this. As I did, Adam spoke up as well.

"Sorry, baby girl," He said, hand falling to his sword to tap it. "You have to be a Hunter to ride, at least when there are Grimm in town. Can't have you getting hurt."

Autumn looked up at him for a long moment, lacking a mouth to frown with but seeming displeased. Her left arm shimmered, flowing into green and purple flesh as it became a more armored version of one of her usual, armored heads, and with longer teeth. Its mouth opened wide as if to show those teeth, but instead of a tongue, another arm emerged, looking identical to the one she'd just transformed. At the same time, the flesh on her right shoulder and just beneath her right arm began to ripple, small growths beginning to emerge. After several seconds, these growths revealed themselves to be fingers, and were followed by hands until she had two more arms on that side. Reaching behind her with all three, bending her elbows backwards in the process, she grasped her spine—or, at least, the location a spine would be on a normal person—sinking the fingers of her three hands into her own flesh before she started to pull.

After a few seconds, she finished extracting a long, segmented spear, which continued to grow in her hands. Twirling the weaponized spinal cord once by literally rotating her two new shoulders around the original one, she planted it in the ground and stood for a moment, looking significantly more like a mythological figure then a young girl and seeming proud of that fact. I had a mental image of her telling us she was a big girl.

Adam raised an eyebrow at her, looked at me, and shrugged uselessly.

I sighed and took a step forward, laying a hand on her arm.

"Autumn, before any of that," I began, hesitating for a moment before shaking my head and continuing. "I need to talk to you about something."

I took Autumn by her free hand—that is, the one coming out of the mouth of a giant, eyeless beast—and pulled at her gently. At once, she turned and followed, shifting her attention towards me as she did.

"Normally, I'd say she's too young for the Talk," Adam put it from atop Gou, unhelpful to the end. "But in this case, it's probably best to tell here about the birds and the bees before they come flying around on their own."

"Off with you," I replied, rolling my eyes at him, and Adam yelped slightly as Gou stood up and jumped straight to the top of a nearby building. As he left range, the skills he benefited from just for being my Familiar faded and I had to activate a few new ones for him instead. When that was done and Gou had carried Adam's smarmy ass screaming into the distance, I turned and looked at Autumn with a mixture of concern and quiet victory.

After a moment, however, the latter fell away and the former took hold. There was something to be said for petty vengeance, but it wasn't enough to overcome parental concern, at least in this case—and looking at my daughter, I definitely felted concerned. Gou's sudden change was a reminder that I couldn't take anything for granted, especially when it came to biology that was as different from my own and things I had no precedent for. I'd long since accepted that my power did whatever the hell it wanted, but I should have seen Gou's growth coming, or at least that was how I felt. It was obvious in hindsight, but mistakes often were; I should have realized that physical changes beyond what was natural for the body would cause…well, unnatural results.

But I hadn't—not until the fact was thrown right into my face. I'd just figured my power would make it happen. Which it had, really, just not in a way I had expected. This build is impossible for your current body? Time to make one that can support it better! Somehow, that logic didn't seem as startling in hindsight.

And yet, I couldn't help but wonder. Adam, Autumn, and Gou had all been changed by my power in major—if different—ways; how much would they change in the future? Hell, look at me. Technically, the skills I'd gotten from raising my Intelligence and Wisdom had caused some pretty tremendous changes to me, if not physical ones. With the Gamer's Body, I was pretty far from normal to begin with, and it wouldn't be the first time I'd avoided a physical issue unknowingly. For someone else, there might have been obvious changes or physical requirements, but for me? Who knows? It's not like I particularly cared what happened to my body as long as it didn't reduce my effectiveness.

For my friends and daughter, though…things were different. Truthfully, it wasn't really the change itself that concerned me; I'd worried about Gou, about how he'd felt about having his body so suddenly and violently changed, but at the same time, I'd cynically noted that his new body was better, if not in every way, then in the ways I cared about. His new body would help him survive. It would make him tougher in a fight, give him an advantage. In his place, I'd have gladly thrown away my body for Jaune 2.0; it was nothing but a tool for me, after all, and endlessly useful as it was, I'd gladly replace it with something better if I had the chance.

But I understood that others might have second thoughts or concerns that being changed against their will and I wouldn't force such a thing upon anyone else. I'd have spoken it over with Gou, given him a choice. Sure, he'd have probably said yes, but I'd stripped him of the option due to my own ignorance.

And that's what it came down to. Ignorance. I had no idea how my power could change them. If Adam pursued Dexterity past the limits of the human body, what new form would my power give him. If Autumn continued to pursue Wisdom and Intelligence beyond the limits of her own mind, would she be given a new one? I could think of possibilities—biological changes like Gou's were possible, or even mechanization. The changes would need to be extreme, but if you could use stronger materials than human flesh…if you could replace slow nerve impulses with actual electricity…if you could go even further…

The possibilities were endless. I'd change myself that way here and now given half the chance and pay for the privilege.

But it wasn't up to me to decide. I could choose how they would change, couldn't tell them the specifics, couldn't even really tell them when or why. 'At some point, maybe over time or maybe all at once, something would happen, maybe.' What kind of warning was that? What kind of choice was that? I'd always tried to be open and upfront about the dangers of helping me, but this had taken things out of my hands and I hated that. I knew the changes would probably help us, at least in battle, but I couldn't tell them if there would be downsides or dangers or anything. I couldn't even do it first to make sure it was safe, at least not without wasting a lot of points and reducing my own potential—something I couldn't afford to do with the fate of the world on the line.

Needless to say, where my body was concerned, what happened, happened. I didn't really care if my body mutated—if anything, I was worried about where the changes might stop. That was another thing Gou's change had reminded me of, the limits of ability that his stat points had taken him beyond. And, on one hand, I was glad to know my stats could increase past that point…but on the other, those points weren't the only thing I valued. At each milestone, I got an increasing number of new skills, each of them enormously powerful. In many cases, it seemed like even a single one of those skills was worth the fifty points required to obtain it and then some. I was well aware that even as high as my stats were, if those skills were taken away, I'd be only a fraction as strong as I was now. As long as I could continue to gain skills that way, I could multiply my power with each milestone.

But could that continue forever? I knew now that my power recorded information, including my skills. All of those skills were things that someone, somewhere, had once had. Maybe not all at the same time, maybe not even to the extent I did, but they had.

So what would happen when I reached a point that no one else had? The skills increased in both power and number as I invested more in a stat, presumably because I'd reached heights that allowed for more. At two hundred and fifty Wisdom especially, I didn't think it was arrogant to say I was near the top percentile in that area; if more than a small handful of people in history had reached that level, I'd be pretty surprised. What could I expect, then, if I pushed further? How many people had reached three hundred? Had anyone?

Maybe. Maybe not. I honestly had no idea and so I had no idea what to expect. Going by the pattern so far, I should get eleven skills from reaching that point, but I couldn't deny the possibility that I was scraping the bottom of the barrel. With Totality, I'd reached what seemed like the end point of the elemental skill chain that I'd followed since almost the beginning; maybe there was nothing left. I had no way of knowing but to try.

And I would. My next fifty points would go into Intelligence, bringing it up to two fifty as well, and then I'd put fifty more in Wisdom. I'd ask Keter beforehand, see if maybe he knew, but if not…I'd just have to give it a shot.

If it actually ran out though…I wasn't sure what I'd do. Sure, on one hand, fifty points was fifty points—but to me, that didn't mean a whole lot. Another fifty WIS would increase my MP regeneration, but by a fairly small amount relative to what I already had; useful still, to be sure, but nothing compared to the power of my skills. Even if I received a sudden shift on par with Gou's it wouldn't match that. If it came to that, I'd invest in other stats—it would be at least twenty levels before it became an issue, after all, and by then, I'd definitely have physicals above a hundred. If fact, with my experience boosters and Acceleration, getting them over a hundred and fifty by the time of the Vytal Festival wasn't impossible and would be more than worth it. If I reached my limit in Wisdom, I'd just pick up elsewhere; Vitality or Dexterity first, to improve my ability to survive, then Strength, if needed.

But if I reached a limit in all of them…if I pushed everything to two hundred and fifty or three hundred or whatever…would it be enough? I'd no doubt be monstrously strong, but against Malkuth's power…last time, I'd fought him with a thousand years of experience at my back and I'd still lost.

Even now, there was so much I didn't know. So much I could prepare for or change or control. Maybe that's why I lead Autumn away and then turned to face her—because this, at least, was something I could control. It was something I could give and define and breakdown, however long it took.

"Sweetie," I said placing my hands on her shoulders. I spoke aloud even as I continued to define meanings for her with my power and she focused the entirety of her attention upon me. "You really have grown up a lot, haven't you?"

Autumn didn't preen at the praise nor tilt her head in confusion, primarily because body language didn't mean much to her at this point. I felt her emotions just fine through, and they were easy to understand.

"My daughter's so smart, too," I continued regardless, patting her on the head with a smile. "You're still young, but you still know a lot…and your wise enough to understand this, at least. So I'm going to tell you everything I can, okay? And feel free to ask any questions if you get confused, alright?"

"Yes," Autumn answered after a long moment and I took a deep breath.

"Autumn, I'm a Hunter," I said. "And if you want to be one too, I'll do everything I can to help you. But first, I have to tell you what that means and then you can decide for yourself."