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.

Raid

Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one!

By raising Thunderbolt to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Vajra.'

By raising Far Slayer to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Grass Cutter.'

By raising Detect Life to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Detect Organism.'

By raising Longshot to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Reach.'

By raising Delusory to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Fantasy.'

You used Bai Hu's Roar without the skill. Your Mastery has improved by 10%.

Windows appeared before my eyes one after another, but I could barely spare the time to acknowledge them as I danced between the onslaught of attacks beside my team. A part of me wondered if this was another test on Malkuth's part or the natural result of drawing so much attention, but either way, I wasn't quite willing to back down yet—not even against an enemy like this.

The Descending Terror

Level 159

Humbaba

The creature that stood before me was monstrous—made all the more so by what it was supposedly based on. While most specifies of Grimm were based, in some sense, upon animals or other organisms, the Humbaba were one of the few Grimm that were considered to be based, at least in part, on humans. I wasn't entirely certain who'd made that call, but it was a bit hard to see where they were coming from, now that I could see it for myself.

In the vaguest sense, I suppose its chest was similar to that of a man's, but that was where the similarities ended. It's arms were like the twisted claws of a Nemean, if with somewhat longer 'fingers'. Its legs were like those of a Nevermore, only armored more heavily, for the whole of its body was covered in layers of spiked scales. From its back grew a pair of snakes, one pitch black and the other pure white, as if someone had sown both ends of a King Taijitu to its tail bone.

But by far its most disturbing feature was its head, which was misshapen and undefined. Rather than having anything whole, it's head was a tangled mass of thick 'strings', like dirty rags or a person's entrails. Two red eyes glowed from within the shadows of the things head and a pair of horns rose from mass, catching several strands. All told, calling the thing 'humanlike' was an extreme exaggeration.

Its power, however, was undeniable. It had fallen upon us abruptly after I'd unleashed the power of my Light Elemental—of my soul—to level everything around me and slaughter countless Grimm. Though that brief glimpse of power had been exhausting, all that had remained was a field of scorched earth, cleansed of the touch of the Grimm. I'd seared away all traces of the creatures, down to the roots of the Lotus Eaters, and slaughtered thousands, granting me my level ups in the process.

And then the Humbaba had appeared in the midst of the clearing. For all that it was a good ten stories in height, it had moved quickly enough that someone else might have thought it had teleported, and had struck out at me at once.

In the face of that attack, I'd immediately triggered the second of my contingencies, using a maximized heal I kept stored with Patientia and returning to full a moment before the attack could hit me. Given the damage it had dealt, I knew I'd made the right move and that the Humbaba's reputation wasn't just for show. I'd immediately considered retreating, as well.

But…Jericho Falls was filled with beasts like this—ones, in all likelihood, far stronger than a Humbaba wandering the edges of Grimm. Could I run away without even trying?

No. So…I was trying.

We were trying. As Raven opened a portal to my side, Gou leapt through at once, power flowing through him. Benefitting from his connection to me, he'd increased his Vitality again recently, deepening his power. Though the Humbaba had several dozen levels on him, Gou's specialization was nothing to sneeze at, especially when backed up by my own skills, and he was quick to grow to the size of a Goliath and rampage across the battlefield with his simple, monolithic might. The Humbaba searing blasts of power from the gaps of his face, a steady stream of power that melted away chunks of my dog's flesh, but it wasn't enough to stop him and I healed him with every strike.

Perhaps it would be different if he could focus on him, but that was the benefit of having a team—he couldn't focus on any one opponent. Whenever he tried to focus on one opponent, Adam and Raven closed in and tripped him up. Adam drew close, striking at the Humbaba with a sword in each hand, both of them glowing red with power. Despite their different lengths, he coordinated the strikes expertly, keeping the power within the blades stable as he carved away the monster's scales, creating weak points and opening.

At the same time, Raven seemed to flow through the battle as if she were set apart from it. She hardly seemed to rush or run, though I knew she was moving quickly—instead, she simply brushed aside attacks that came too near with a careful brush of her sword that, almost coincidentally, carved lines of red with its tip. She'd stop occasionally, nothing but her sword moving, and the Humbaba would be driven back or to the side, into an attack or away from an ally.

And occasionally, she'd strike when it was off-balance or over-extended, bursting into lethal speed. A sudden series of slashes would open up a ring of portals and abruptly she'd hold a blue blade in her hands. A thin beam of energy would disappear into one portal and reappear from another, piercing a small hole through the Humbaba's flesh only to fly into another spiraling void and repeat the process until a cage of lasers pierced through the Humbaba half a dozen times. By the time the light faded, Raven would already have another sword and would move in before the Grimm could recover, striking at it directly with a sudden burst of acceleration.

She used the properties of Dust to expand her options in combat, changing the nature of her strikes, her portals, or both. In a blink, a normal portal could turn pitch-black and things would be drawn into it, twisting violently as they went and disappearing into its open maw—and in the next, it could glow like heated steel, incinerating anything that came near as Raven used it as a shield before vomiting forth a torrent of fire from who knows where.

All the while, I assisted, both up close and at a distance. I kept a careful eye on my HP, regulating it with Bai Hu's final technique, and struck at the Humbaba at every opportunity, interfering whenever it tried to advance and cutting it off when it tried to fall away. I raised my barriers to put it at a disadvantage and raised defenses for my friends when the opportunity knocked, but more than that, I hit it hard whenever I could. My team was powerful and I knew it—but it also needed to move as one. I couldn't simply lay into it with massive displays of power despite the breathing room they offered me, which made fighting both easier and more difficult, but here and now I wanted to try to alter my style to match my team's, rather than the other way around.

To that end, I closed in on it and fought it directly, matching—surpassing—it's speed and pinning it down. I opened the way for Adam and Raven to lay into it by intercepting sudden strikes and countering blasts of power with my own, hurling spears and blasts of fire at it one after another. As I'd learned with the Hydras, even my strongest attacks were no guarantee against the strongest creatures of Grimm, and so I focused on sustainability, carving away slowly at its health and slipping into the rhythm of battle.

Before I knew it, I was gathering power to counter the Humbaba's glowing face only to alter the direction of the attack as a portal opened in front of me to absorb the hit. I hit the creature low as its own attack took it high and Adam slipped in to swing his sword at the monster's ankles like an ax. When the Humbaba lashed out blindly at him, he was interrupted by Gou, who batted at him with a paw the size of most of his body, forcing the Humbaba to bow its head and brace against the attack to keep from being pushed back. I took advantage of the opening by Lunging forward and shoving an incandescent gauntlet into the creature's stomach, tearing a handful of red matter from the wound as I withdrew and danced behind another portal. Senses alert, I didn't hesitate to leap into the back of the portal, appearing from one side of its sister portal as another torrent of energy raced from the other. Now behind it, I went for one ankle as Adam went for the other, and when its balance was disrupted Gou knocked it back.

A wide portal appeared on the ground then and the Humbaba fell backwards into it, reappearing high in the air above us—and wide open as I gathered my power anew. Drawing from my HP and MP both, I gather light between my fingers and in a trio of orbs around each wrist, before lighting up the sky and tossing the creature back through the portal it had come from and making a massive column of light rose from the portal on the ground and straight back up to the one directly above it.

When the stream of power and the portals faded, there was nothing left.

Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one! Your level has increased by one!

Sixteen more levels, I thought, feeling pleased with myself. Not bad for a day's work. Added to the points I already had, this should be enough, at least to start with. But…

"Are we stopping?" Raven asked when she noticed I hadn't immediately moved on to a new target, a light sheen of sweat on her skin as she carefully regulated her breathing.

"Cinder should reach Atlas before too long," I replied, glancing up at the sky and mentally accounting for time zones. The sun wouldn't have even risen in Mistral yet, but Cinder had no doubt accounted for that while planning her attack—she'd left early enough that she'd probably reach Atlas before it was even dark there. "And I told her that I'd help smooth things over, as Conquest."

"Ah," Raven replied, sounding mildly disappointed. I assumed that she didn't get many opportunities to have fun, given that she probably spent most of her time using her power for reconnaissance. Added to the fact that she was pretending to be dead and had left her team behind, she probably didn't have many chances to cut loose and Hunt serious opponents.

"It shouldn't take long," I assured her. "I've already analyzed the building's security—I'd just rather keep a close eye on things, under the circumstances."

"Of course," Raven agreed with a slight sigh, sheathing her sword and stretching slightly. "Still, that Semblance of yours is quite amazing. To improve so much in so little time…now that I know what to look for, it's very impressive."

"It's pretty useful," Adam agreed. "Makes training easier, at least. What was today's haul, Jaune?"

I clicked my tongue and sent him an amused look.

"Why don't you just check for yourself?" I asked. "You need to spend some of those point, anyway."

The Blood Prince

LV 116

Adam Taurus

"Eh," Adam grunted but obeyed with a muttered word. A moment later, his eyebrows rose and he stared at his status page in surprise. "Oh."

"Oh," I agreed with a smile. "We made some decent progress today. Even you gained a level, Raven."

"Hm?" She voiced before following Adam's lead. "Ah. So I have."

Raven Branwen

LV 174

I still couldn't see the level above her head, but my Party window was still open and I'd noticed the progress she'd made after the Humbaba's defeat. Or rather, even after all the creatures we'd defeated, she'd only gotten a single level…I suppose it couldn't be helped given how powerful she already was; if anything, we should probably be grateful. She must have been relatively close to leveling up to begin with, as far as my power was concerned.

Still…

"It's not much," I said apologetically. "But hopefully it's of some use to you. As we fight stronger opponents, you should be able to get more out of it, but thank you for assisting us thus far."

"There's no need to thank me," She replied. "I've had quite a bit of difficulty improving myself as of late, so I'm thankful for whatever gains I receive. Rather…am I truly that much higher leveled then you? I couldn't be certain until now, but I can't say I consider you weaker than me."

"That's kind of you to say," I replied, smiling at her. "Because of the nature of my power, my levels are calculated differently from everyone else's and my strength is tied more to my skills then my stats. Still, it's good to improve both whenever possible—and improving them significantly comes with its own advantages. Speaking of which, pardon me for a moment."

Absently calling up my status page, my eyes immediately dropped to my stats. Because of the simultaneous improvement to my hunting grounds and to the amount of experience I received, I'd gained an enormous amount of levels in a considerably short amount of time—enough to improve two stats of my choice by fifty. Needless to stay, I'd stick with what I already knew worked and improve my Intelligence and Wisdom again. It had only been a short amount of time since my last improvement, but…well, I suppose it was hard to complain about getting too many levels.

I started with Wisdom, not that it made much difference in the end. Because of the skills I already possessed, improving Wisdom also improved the amount of experience I gained, on top of the improvements to my MP regeneration. With the help of my recent INT skills especially, my MP regen had improved even more significantly, and while this addition would be relatively minor compared to what I already had, it wasn't anything to sneeze at either—and every bit helped, especially when I was trying to grind so many different things at the same time. With that in mind, I raised my Wisdom quickly and waited for a wave of screens to appear.

But even after several seconds passed, nothing happened.

My heart fell like a rock. Was it as I'd feared, then? When I'd seen the transformation Gou had underwent by massively improving his Vitality, I'd wondered about my own limits—if I might hit a point where I could no longer gain skills simply by raising my stats, simply because I'd already learned so many. All my stat-related skills were special, things that either a rare few people had been born with or else things that had been obtained through great study, effort, or enlightenment. Combined with the steadily growing number of skills I got at each milestone, it stood to reason that as I took my stats higher and higher, to places that few had ever reached, I'd eventually reach a level where either there were no more such skills to get or start receiving less powerful abilities.

I'd already noted to myself how difficult it was to improve Wisdom naturally—without the points I obtained by leveling up, I was fairly sure I'd never have been able to raise it as high as I did. How many other people had broken the three hundred barrier, in my Semblance's eyes? While anyone could grow stronger with enough training, growing wiser was a wholly different thing. While I wouldn't say that most people had low Wisdom, it was rare to have a great deal of it; besides myself, I'd never met anyone with over a hundred points in it. Given that, it was possible that I'd simply reached the limit of what could be obtained from the stat, as I'd feared I would.

Not that it wasn't still useful, for the improvement to my MP and growth. It's just that…well, compared to the eleven skills I'd been hoping for, it was hard not to feel left down. I wouldn't quite call it a waste of points, especially since the only way I'd have known was by trying, but…well, I felt a touch of regret. Skill points were something that, once spent, I couldn't get back and each one was priceless. While I could always gain more levels, each was harder to gain than the last and while I was improving swiftly now that I was in a new area and could continue to do so for a while, I'd slow down again eventually. Those fifty points I'd just used could have been spent elsewhere; even if they were lower and yielded less skills then my mental stats had recently, I still could have gotten five skills from one of my physical stats or something.

And then there was my Intelligence. Should I try to improve it as well, having seen the lack of results from Wisdom? It wasn't impossible that Wisdom had a lower 'cap' for skills because of how hard it was to improve; even in the days of Babel where the Angels and Archangels pressed the limits of what was humanly possible, I think History proved that Wisdom had been in relatively short supply. Intelligence, however…there could have been great geniuses and masters who'd obtained great heights, especially considering the advancements I'd heard of from that age. It's not as though improving INT didn't had benefits in and of itself; since my MP regen was percentage based, any improvement to my numerical MP also improved the amount I regained per second—to say nothing of the many, many skills I had that improved along with my Intelligence.

Hell, most of my MP skills were INT based and would grow significantly from such a boost. Given that, shouldn't I improve it as well? At the very least, it would prove whether the lack of skills from Wisdom was a one-time thing or not, which was very important information to have. In many ways, the skills I received from improving my stats were my greatest weapons and I needed every one I could get. If I was going to fight Malkuth especially…if there were eleven INT skills waiting for me and I avoided them because I was afraid, it wasn't something I could just feel silly about—it could very well be the deciding factor between victory and defeat.

But at the same time, if I used a hundred points and got nothing out of it but a stat increase, I'd regret it. I knew I'd be spending the points regardless, because I couldn't afford not to know, but I still closed my eyes for a moment and hoped.

Then I added fifty more points to my Intelligence and waited. For a beat, nothing happened again and I felt my heart drop further—but then a window appeared.

Through tremendous improvement of your knowledge and understanding, you have reached the pinnacle of your mental abilities—and at the summit, finally understood the greatest of mysteries. By raising both INT and WIS above 300, you have unlocked the greatest of secrets and obtained the skill 'Arcana.'

Huh? I blinked at the words on the screen in surprise before feeling something hit me like a lightning bolt. Even as the skill's window opened and revealed its contents, I understood the truth.

This is…?