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.

Escape

As was becoming a staple of my life, my plan was a work in progress. Thus far I had 'escape with my life' down as my end goal and a fair number of question marks between there and here, but I figured the important part was that I had all my priorities straight. Get out of here, get to Atlas, save the people, survive it all—I knew what I wanted to accomplish.

And all told, I'd say it was going pretty well. Using their reluctance to fire over the city against them had gotten me to the limits of Vale and then some strategic thinking and careful flying had shaken them off my tail and given me a chance to take them down. I wasn't worried about firing at them over Beacon, because I knew the people onboard the ships would be fine thanks to the Hunter passengers I'd confirmed with Observe and the crashed ships themselves were unlikely to do any harm to the Hunters-in-training down below. That had bought me a fair amount of time to fly into the Emerald Forest before anyone else came along to continue the chase.

At that point, well…bringing the Grimm into the equation had been a calculated risk. Beacon had been built on the edge of the Emerald Forest long ago, a defense for an early Vale against the hostile creatures that lurked within, which was also why it was situated so close to Forever Fall. That wasn't to say the other untamed places that surrounded Vale weren't dangerous—it was an untamed place on Remnant and therefore extremely hostile—but the worst breeds of Grimm had come from over what had long-since been nicknamed the Dread Mountains.

Since then, however, years of predation by hundreds of people training to be Hunters, as well as by the staff and alumni keeping things in order, had diminished the threat. Not enough to remove it by any means or even make it less than extremely dangerous to the unprepared, but in comparison to the beasts that had once stalked Vale's borders…

These were nothing but an annoyance.

Which is good, because an annoyance was exactly what I needed until I could get far enough to throw myself into horrific danger. I'd fired on the forest, carving a scar across it to disturb its inhuman inhabitants, and watched as the dark creatures had taken to the skies. It was often debated just how intelligent the Grimm were and no one could say for certain—sometimes they showed almost senselessly suicidal behavior, while others they seemed to organized extremely intelligent, simultaneous attacks on vulnerabilities.

Whatever the case, though, they were definitely predators. Different from any other kind, to be sure, with no fear of death or danger, but still predators—and as such, given a choice they would strike at the weakest link, the isolated, injured, small, and alone. They'd fearless strike at the powerful, too, but only if they didn't have something more fragile to devour first. Given that, I couldn't be certain how they'd react when I drew them to battle, because I was being chased. I was weak, too, compared to those who followed me.

But though they had Hunters aboard, the pursuing craft were vastly smaller than the White Whale and I had displayed my power by wreaking havoc on their home. Given that, I figured they'd consider them a smaller threat and sure enough, much of the dark flock directed its attention toward my hunters, buying me precious time to get further away.

And then I rose above the Darkened Peaks that separated Vale from the horrors beyond and got my first, true glimpse of a world still untouched by man. Not so much as a glimmer of industrialization, of things shaped by muscle or machine, I saw an almost impossibly long slope of pure white snow, until it gave way at last to land in the distance. My first thought as I flew beyond for the first time was that it was a beautiful, remote place.

But it wasn't empty.

As we came over the peaks with shrieks and fire, we drew the attention of the beasts that lurked beyond civilization. Tyrant Scales rose from the mountain sides at the noise, taking to the air around us—massive beasts, at least as big as Giant Nevermore and even more dangerous. I'd seen them before, but only in my parent's gallery, but these creatures had scales of pure white instead of black, some exhaling a mist-like fog that left ice forming in the air around it while others breathed fire. I felt luck for the fact that I didn't see any with multiple heads as I flew passed them as quickly as I could, hoping not to give them time to regain their bearings.

I admit it, my plan at this point was to just fly really fast so the monsters couldn't be bothered to wreck my shit. I didn't even use any tricks or stunts or anything, but simply flew straight with all the speed I could muster, trying to keep ahead. Not the bravest or most ingenious plan ever, but it seemed to work for the moment. I stayed out of the fighting and just kept on flying.

All the while, I watched my Map and kept an eye on my pursuers through my Elementals. Most of the ships on my tail had apparently decided to continue the chase a bit farther, with only a scarce few drawing back and away, withdrawing from the danger. I was a little disappointed, but not surprised—I'd expected to need to go deeper into the Badlands to escape from Hunters. I was lucky, at least, in that the creatures swarming about me still seemed to find them a more appetizing target and I drew out others with chaos and noise as I flew boldly onwards.

Between the passive bonuses of my flying skills and the boost from my Nature Affinity, I think I did pretty well, gliding over the snow covered fields while maintaining a steady distance from those chasing me. From here on out, so long as I aimed well and made sure any Grimm that rose did so closer to them than me, I should be okay, but I still needed to figure out a way to shake—

I paused mid-thought, looking at my Map carefully before looking back in front of me. Geological structures were etched accurately onto the screen, though the two-dimensional view wasn't ideal for three-dimensional flight. That was mainly just me being greedy, though, and I compensated for that weakness somewhat with Crocea Mors and Levant—it was undeniable that my Map was a godsend when it came to stuff like this. It let me keep track of how many people were chasing me, where roads were, kept track of landmarks and notable things; when I needed, it could even draw me the fastest route between my current location and a destination. It was extraordinarily useful and I trusted it.

Which left me a bit confused, because according to it, the mountain I was flying towards was a lot smaller then it appeared—half the size, if that. I'd looked up everything I could about the Badlands before this mission, had drawn on pictures and paintings and everything I possibly could concerning it, just in case. I was flying towards the Anzu Mountain and it looked the same now as it had in Leopold's drawing over a hundred years ago. There was nothing wrong with it, that I could see and I wouldn't have paid it any mind if not for the attention I'd paid to my Map.

I wondered for a moment if it was simply wrong—and immediately dismissed the thought. I'd gotten to the point that I trusted what my power told me above my own eyes or even a hundred years of history. Besides which, I was both nowhere near lucky enough and too Lucky for 'there was nothing wrong' to be a remotely plausible explanation to me anymore after noticing something was strange. Indeed, it seemed fairly safe to assume that if my power told me something didn't add up, it mean something bad for me.

I frowned down at my map for a moment, looking for any clues in the limited data it revealed to me. It didn't tell me anything about the structure itself—whether it was somehow an enemy unit, some kind of hologram, or what—but after a moment, I noticed that the Grimm which had once been harrying my pursuers were swiftly drawing way.

Suddenly shifting to flat-out worried, I ignored the ships that were now closing in and squinted at the mountain, Observing it. What returned to me was almost entirely hidden from my sight, but what little I could make out left my mouth slackened, my eyes wide.

No, I thought. Please no.

Lightning struck at my ship and hail rained down on it, jolts and impacts that briefly sent my heart hammered—not in fear of the attacks, though Levant and Crocea turned their focus to defense in my stead, but of what they might cause.

Please no, please no, please don't—

I heard thunder rumble as Levant deflected lightning bolts, heard explosions and gunfire and shrieks of air. I didn't turn my gaze away from the Mountain, already shifting my course as best I could without letting my pursuers gain too much on me, hoping that I wasn't this unlucky.

I was.

Stone suddenly cracked, a sound that dwarfed the thunder from before. Fields of snow fell loose as things shifted, an avalanche rushing abruptly down the mountain side. Or rather, down the side of what we'd thought for so long was a mountain.

Wings spread suddenly, flapping wide in an irritated stretch as we disturbed their owners slumber. Before, they'd been curled around an actual mountain, leaning against the massive structure in their sleep, but now I could see what had, for perhaps hundreds of years, been hidden. A beast of Grimm that I hadn't seen in my parent's gallery, but recognized nonetheless—a creature lost to the tides of history, recorded long ago but unseen for so long it was thought half a myth. Some thought that it must have at last been killed by some great warrior, a feat many had claimed but none had proven. Others thought it was an exaggeration, born of fear in the time before the War. Believers thought it might linger to the North, on the Fallen Continent where so many horrific creatures gathered.

In truth, it must have just been sleeping, right in front of our eyes.

?

LV?

Ziz

Ziz, the lord of all the things that fly. A beast that could stand with its feet in the sea and scratch the sky with its brow, whose breath ended nations, whose wings tore away forests. It stood before me now, a horrific amalgam of creatures—a head perhaps like a twisted Nevermore, the wings of Tyrant Scale writ impossibly large. Both features slid down into a body that was at once furred, scaled, and weathered, patterned white and black. Here, I could see a resemblance to the insect monsters to the West, from the Blood Flies to the Sky Weavers. There, a strange resemblance to a Nemean. But all of it was massive, dangerous, unbelievable.

I was looking at a reminder of how unforgiving the world we lived in truly was. I was looking at a creature that had once been worshiped as a messenger of God, carrying word from on-high. Just one word, really, or so the story goes—'Begone.'

It rose sluggishly from its mountain side, dwarfing it easily as it stretching its wings wider yet—and flapped them once. Just once.

And a tornado erupted in the midst of the plain. It wasn't aimed at me or my hunters or anything at all, really, but simply created. A terrifying cyclone of wind, a column of air that stretched from heaven to earth—and then it opened its mouth, fire erupting from its gullet to ignite the storm, such heat and light arising that I thought he'd set the sky aflame. I must have been nearly two kilometers away and I felt the heat, saw steam and smoke rise in torrents towards the sky.

I stared for a moment at that casual display of power from a beast that didn't even deign to fully rise from its resting place. I wondered if it was luck or Luck that had resulted in this meeting. In a certain light, I was bearing witness to something unseen for generations, a display of godlike power that beggared description from a monster out of myth and legend. I was unspeakably luck just to see it, from that perspective. In fact, just thinking about the probability…it was like I'd stumbled across a one in a million secret boss on my first trip outside the Kingdoms. I must have beat some pretty damn long odds for this to have occurred.

I considered that for a moment, marveled at how unlikely it must have been to encounter such a rare opponent on accident. Especially given my Grimm Quest—or perhaps that played a role in this meeting. It wasn't uncommon to find enemies that couldn't be encountered unless you'd activated a specific quest. Perhaps that was what this was, my power telling me to slay another specimen of Grimm and retrieve its mask.

"God no," I said, turning my ship to run like hell. Those perusing me evidently agreed and had given up the chase to flee as Ziz rose from its mountain throne.

"Why did I even bother investing in Luck?" I muttered to myself, sitting back with a sigh. "Should have just kept the damn points. I could have had Bai Hu's next technique by now, but no…had to push my literal goddamn luck. Shit."

To the great surprise of no one—or, at least, no one who knew me—Ziz had apparently decided to stretch its wings a bit in a display that had filled me with terror. Despite how far I'd flown from Vale during the chase, we were all but in spitting distance of it for a creature of Ziz's size. If I'd woken the beast up, if I'd set it upon my town…I'd never forgive myself. I also probably wouldn't have had to worry about it for very long, granted, because I'd have turned the ship around to face the beast, even knowing I'd probably accomplish nothing.

I sent off praises to every God I had ever heard of when it didn't fly in that direction, appearing apathetic to everything around it. I didn't even care, in that moment, that it had chosen to fly in my direction instead.

And then it had picked me up, scooping the whole of the White Whale up in a single set of talons, and took to the sky on thunderous wings. Beneath it, I was cut off from the light of the sun, plunged into darkness by the creature's titanic body and even larger wingspan. I'd considered resisting, contemplated ways to try to run and escape, but nothing I'd done had made Ziz's grasp so much as budge. When I'd put the whole of the ship's power into trying to slip loose and escape, it had accomplished nothing but making Ziz tighten its colossal grasp, making the ship groan and warp.

I'd considered unloading all of my weaponry at the beast but hesitated, completely certain it would do absolutely nothing but maybe convince the creature to kill me that much more quickly. Purely out of a desire to prolong my life, I'd waited.

And waited.

And waited.

In Ziz's clutches, I watched the world go by beneath me. Despite its size—or perhaps because of it—it flew impossibly quickly, faster than anything I'd ever even heard of. In what seemed like minutes, land turned to sea, though it should have taken me an hour or two to get that far. I spent a while staring down at the shifting depths of the ocean, at the waves below, and it was…

Boring. Surprisingly peaceful, perhaps even beautiful, but after a while, really dull. The Gamer's Mind kept me calm in any situation, so fear was never anything more than a momentary distraction, blunting the terror of even such a creature's presence. Even beyond that, though…it sounds odd—or maybe even impressive—but it's like…it's like knowing someone is out there and any minute he could come in and kill you and there's no way for you to stop him or reason with him or do anything, but he's taking his sweet-ass time about it.

The first few minutes of that were really nerve-wracking, even calm as I was; the simple knowledge that my life was a toy in someone else's hand, to be crushed and discarded. Even if that didn't fog my thinking, didn't make me panic, didn't get to me directly, it was a fact that I knew, considered, and had no way of refuting.

Then half an hour had passed and still nothing had happened. I'd distracted myself, found things to do. I wrote a few things on my scroll that I realized I'd never gotten around to doing. I wrote a will, though I had no way of making it official and it was unlikely anyone would ever find it. I wrote letters, too, just on that off chance, apologies and last words to my friends and family. I sighed and ruefully wrote a list of the things I regretted not doing, just to keep them in mind, and then a list of things I would do if I somehow survived.

Then an hour had passed and still nothing had happened. Levant stayed by my side through it all, gaze more curious then frightened, whilst Crocea Mors was unshakable as ever. Between them and the Gamer's Mind…it's really hard to be worried while feeling calm and being surrounded by friends who just weren't. I browsed through my scroll even though I was far out of range. I read my emails, mostly stuff from Blake after our last exchange, and then played some games on it. None of them took me very long to complete, sadly, because of my enhanced Intelligence and Wisdom made the solutions rather obvious once I got the hang of it, but it was a good distraction. I kind of regretted not downloading any books onto it or anything but the built in games, really, but what can you do? Live and learn, I guess, though I wasn't sure that was applicable to this situation.

I looked up after the third hour, saw that I was still over the sea, and sighed. I probably should have abandoned ship the moment Ziz had seized me up and just walked back to Vale or something, but I'd been hopeful, stubborn. I'd wanted to save those people so bad I'd tried to wrest the ship free and by the time I'd given up any chance of that working I'd been out at sea. And now…

Well, maybe if I climbed out I could swim somewhere? If I could get to shore or something, I should be able to contract with a Water Elemental. The mission would be a failure, but there was a chance I'd get home alive. Of course it was more likely I'd just be eaten by water faring Grimm, but…

I checked my Map again to determine where we were and then looked to my World Map to try and make a rough guess as to where I was going. Southeast, roughly, though that could lead anywhere. With a sigh, I decided to wait in the hopes Ziz would hit land again—and hopefully not attack anyone. I considered going to sleep but…no, I'd rather be awake for this. Especially since there was an off chance of there being an opportunity to escape, however slim. I waited, relaxed as best I could, and watched the world go by.

And then we abruptly made landfall. Ziz set down suddenly on a shore I didn't recognize, walking inland with steps that must have shaken the world. I was about to rise, ready to leave and face…whatever was coming, but was knocked back into my seat before I could even do anything. The entire ship shook as a horrible ripping sound tore through it and I held my breath as if he might hear me. There was a long moment of silence, a tense moment as if I was being judged—

I was suddenly flying. Not like Ziz had taken to the skies again or like I was flying the ship. Like I'd been thrown, tossed aside like worthless trash.

It took me a moment to realize that was exactly what had happened and I scrambled with the controls, trying to control my flight and, more importantly, my descent. Half my controls didn't work and the rest seemed sluggish to respond, but I managed to turn a chaotic tumble into a wobbling, uncontrolled landing and survive it with an exhausting use of Aura Crash. I was smashed around a fair bit as the ship tumbled and felt my MP drain as I tried to keep it together despite it all. When at last the ship settled and rocked to a halt, I just…sat for a moment, stunned and amazed that I was alive.

Then I got out of the seatbelt to figure out what the hell had happened. Figuring that one out had turned out to be pretty—there was a giant hole in my ship. I stared at it disbelievingly for a moment before Lunging my way up through the exposed bowels of the craft so I could take a look around outside.

Several kilometers away, Ziz rose into the air and flew a ways before diving into the sea in a move that flooded the beach he'd been on. I watched for a minute, but when he didn't emerge I turned my attention back to the mildly pressing issue of the hole in my ship. Swearing to myself, I knelt down and put a hand to the hull, feeling Crocea Mors within it. I felt her map out the damage in my mind, compared it to the blueprints in my head, and—

Was torn from my thoughts as Ziz erupted from the sea with a deafening shriek. Clutched in its talons was a bleeding blue creature that would have been large if it hadn't been in Ziz's hands. It took me a minute to realize what I was looking at.

"Oh, you've gotta be fucking kidding me!" I snarled—quietly, in fear that it might actually hear me. "You dragged me across the fucking world because you were hungry!?"

Ziz casually tore off the whale's head, scarfing it down absently before slicing the creature neatly open to draw out the softer squishier bits. I wasn't sure why it was bothering, since it couldn't possibly need it—there was no way a creature that size, or any of the larger Grimm, survived on conventional biology. Maybe it was bored or it was an Aura thing or it just liked watching large things die; I didn't know.

What I did know was that I was pissed the hell off.

"Hey, here's an idea! Maybe you should have checked to make sure you liked to taste before carrying me off to…where the fuck am I!?" I snarled again and stomped on the ship's hull. "You flying feathered fuck. We're gonna have words about this when I'm leveled up!"

I growled to myself as I calmed unnaturally, well aware there was nothing I could do about the Grimm right now. For its part, Ziz had finished scarfing down the rest of its snack and was preparing itself to dive back into the ocean for more. I looked around and had no idea where I was. I looked down at my ship and had no idea if I could fix it.

And then I sat down on the hull of my ship and put my head in my hands.

"Fuck." I said, trying to put all my anger and frustration into that one word.

I gave myself a moment.

And then I got to work.