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.

Timed Battle

The basic premise of my plan was simple and time-honored—I was going to heal myself liberally at the vaguest hint of danger to try and stay alive in a situation where I otherwise shouldn't. Countless fierce opponents had been slain through such clever and careful use of items and abilities to restore the brave warriors who fought them.

In games, that is. I'd done it myself a fair number of times, tackling much stronger enemies with a load out of potions and other restorative items to keep myself going while I whittled them down. It really was a time-honored strategy in that regard and I'd beat a fair number of, in my opinion, amazing things that way.

Granted, I usually died a few times before I did it right which was the type of thing that did little to reassure me when I couldn't push a button and go back like nothing happened. Whatever I did, the fact remained that Penny had kicked my ass with what amounted to a casual backhand—if I managed to survive more than two of her attacks in a row, I'd be absurdly lucky. Especially considering the way she'd kicked my ass, knocking me down and tossing me halfway across the town. Once this battle really began and she realized that one hit wouldn't be enough to stop me on its own or if she put in more of an effort, if I went down again…

The margin for error here was very, very slight. Too slight. Basic probability and simple observation made it pretty obvious that the odds were not in my favor here; I'd barely noticed that first attack, much less reacted to it. Now that I was on guard and had some grasp of the attack's nature, I might be able to take advantage of the brief warning Sense Danger gave me, but never get hit? That seemed unlikely. The skill would strip away the advantage of a surprise attack if I kept my wits about me, but that wouldn't matter if she could still hit me anyway.

So I turned to my power, bullshit as it was.

Beyond healing, Soulforge Restoration had a few other powers when used with a Dust crystal—a restoration of MP among them. Because I'd leveled up the skill a fair bit, I could restore enough to make that very useful—and to get me out of a sudden predicament, in the eventuality that I found myself in yet another bind.

Arguably just as useful were the…variable effects it could produce. A mere side note in the profile I had seen a month ago, I hadn't been able to test it until I'd begun training with Adam and Blake—but when I did, I'd understood.

Soulforge Restoration was, in the end, all about the transfer of Aura. It was more complicated than that—it took a great deal of precision, precise control, and careful direction to achieve the desired result, and many other things, but the base concept was that a person's Aura would attempt to protect and heal them. Or, arguably, to keep them in their normal state or return them to it. A person's Aura is an expression of their soul and a person's soul is an expression, or maybe reflection or embodiment or a number of other theories, of that person. If a person was wounded, their Aura would try to heal them back to normal, whatever 'normal' happened to be.

It was for this reason that healing was a relatively rare ability. You can't simply pour your Aura into another person to top them off and assist them at healing, because the answer to the question 'Who is Jaune Arc?' was different than 'Who is Adam Taurus?' or 'Who is Blake Belladonna?' In a fashion very similar to different blood types, a transfer from one person to another rarely took. The odds of it ending badly were far lower because people usually just shed Aura they wouldn't use, but there were rare cases that…well, hadn't ended well.

For a transfer to occur, one of two things had to be true. The target and recipient had to possess the same Aura—that is, be the same person—in which case there was no problem. When I healed myself, it was simply a matter of directing my Aura to its purpose; especially easy in my case because I didn't actually receive physical damage, I just lost HP. I just cast the spell and didn't even need to direct it to important areas like someone else might need to if they hurt themselves.

If you aren't capable of healing yourself effectively or lacked the Aura to do so, however, you're probably out of luck barring tremendously strange and unique circumstances. People were unique which meant you weren't going to stumble across a person capable of giving you a magic blood transfer easily. I was Type Jaune and I was the only person who was Type Jaune.

Healing, however, remained possible. If you thought of different Auras as different blood types, you could think of healing as producing Type O blood, stripping away all the things that would cause another person to reject it and rendering it into a pure state that could be consumed and processed by anyone. Reducing it to a blank slate, effectively.

And using it with Dust was like shining light through a crystal, drawing up all the power within to color that energy, but not in a way that would cause a…reaction. Tricky to do, but Aura seemed to react with Dust in a number of unique ways and it would accept things from it that it wouldn't take from another person. And because Aura was all about trying to protect and maintain, if you added the power of yellow Dust—of lightning—to your soul…well, suddenly the answer to the question 'Who am I?' became, in small part, 'lightning.'

I felt myself grow faster as the effect took hold, my heart beat feeling steady even though it pounded thunderously in my chest. The world around me seemed to actually slow as I moved, sharpening into sudden clarity as I quickened. I wasn't the only person would could do something like this by any means but using it directly on oneself was a rather archaic method of enhancement. Most people capable of it, like Weiss, channeled it through a weapon or some other item instead, but this was the only way I knew how to do it.

I drew out three other crystals—red, blue, and green for all three basic types of Dust. They were by far the most common types of Dust as well, at least in terms of what formed naturally, which is why they were all I found at a glance. Odds were that there were a few natural examples of other types somewhere in here, but I was in a rush.

The Status Effect, "Firepower", has been created. Duration: 20 seconds.

The Status Effect, "Regeneration", has been created. Duration: 20 seconds.

The Status Effect, "Feather Fall", has been created. Duration: 20 seconds.

With each casting of the spell I felt more of my power returning and new power growing in leaving me feeling mighty and strong. Of them all, Firepower was probably the least useful as a general offensive boost. Haste's effect was obvious, as was Regeneration's; quickening me and improving my healing ability respectively. Feather Fall mainly just meant I wouldn't take damage from falls, but it worked on being thrown into stuff, too, which I thought would be depressingly handy soon. All told, though, they were tremendous boosts to my power and left me feeling almost giddy.

Beyond the quick tests I'd done, this was my first time really using this technique. This wasn't a tactic I made use of regularly—I couldn't afford to. There was no deeper meaning or moral explanation to that; I just literally couldn't afford to. Dust crystals were expensive, selling for anywhere from over a thousand to five or ten thousand lien a pop, depending on size, weight, and type. The dust form was cheaper, but my power needed crystals and I didn't want to draw attention by dropping a huge amount of money to empty out a shop, much less rob it. And for a twenty second boost for a single use…I wasn't made out of money. The White Fang had gotten me a set of crystals on short notice that I'd been saving for a particularly awful day.

Given that all this Dust had been mined with Faunus labor and slavery, though, I figured it was fine to steal some of it to help save them. I lifted the box with a sudden heave and poured it straight into my Inventory and considered going for seconds—but time was running short and I had another thing to do. I'd come back for more later, if I could.

I turned to my status screen and, with a series of rapid button pushes, raised both Vitality and Dexterity above fifty.

The skill 'Iron Body' has been created through VIT rising above 50.

Iron Body (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

An ability given to those rare few born with surpassing vitality. The user possesses a body with great resistance to harm and unending strength to endure.

50% Increase to Stamina recovery rate.

20% Decrease in Damage from physical attacks.

10% Increase to total HP amount.

10% Increase to total Stamina amount.

30% Increase to VIT related skill effects.

The skill 'Amazing Grace' has been created through DEX rising above 50.

Amazing Grace (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

An ability given to those with tremendous mastery of their own bodies. The user possesses refined control and coordination, displaying elegance in everything they do.

50% Increase to Movement Speed.

30% Increase to Attack Speed.

10% Increase to Evasion.

30% Increase to DEX related skill effects.

I shuddered as the windows appeared, feeling my body shift and change as the power took hold, before suddenly relaxing with an exhale. Flexing my fingers, I looked down at my hand as I abandoned the improved defense of my Metal Aura and replaced it with Air. With Lenore, Dreary Midnight, and my Elementalist title, my Air Affinity was at forty-five, far higher than any of my others, but I'd gone with the reduced damage from Metal at first for the damage reduction since I didn't know what to expect.

But it wouldn't be enough to reduce damage against Penny. I needed speed, needed to stay ahead if only for just a little while. With my Aura drawn around me, my body enhanced, and the power Dust giving me strength, I was as ready as I'd ever be.

Although, it really seemed kind of unfair that even with all of those advantages, I was still going to be fighting an uphill battle. I was breaking out everything I'd kept up my sleeve just to try and stay alive for a little bit longer.

I suppressed a sigh before taking a deep, resolving breath and turning to face the entrance my body had made, for all appearances waiting calmly. Only seconds having passed since my impromptu entrance, but even that short pause meant Penny had taken her sweet time waiting for me and I wondered if she was dragging her feet or if she just knew I wasn't trying to run. Or perhaps she was just letting me stew in my thoughts, allowing the tension to build and wear me down following a display of her tremendous power. That seemed a bit manipulative for Penny to do consciously, but perhaps she was doing it without thinking, trying to get me to stop fighting without hurting me too bad.

When she stepped around the corner a moment later, I met her eyes, gauging her with my four eyes as she stared back at me. If not for my mask, the moonlight would have shadowed her figure and the silence lingered for a moment. I wonder what she saw when she looked at me and I smiled at her widely for lack of anything else to do, touching a hand to my chest.

"A fair first blow," I said with confidence I couldn't feel. "But perhaps a bit more care would be in order? What if I'd hit one of these containers? Dust can be quite…volatile."

Slowly, she turned to face me, expression a mixture of sorrow, revolve, and surprising ferocity.

"Do you surrender?" Penny asked at last.

I rushed her by way of replying.

She reacted quickly, the swords floating behind her whirling into place at a speed I'd scarcely been able to track before.

But that was before. They were still fast now, faster than I could move, but not too fast for me to perceive—and there was more to battle then speed, however advantageous it might be. Distance, for example, was always a factor; even if the blades could strike faster than I could, I needed to cover less distance. As the blades struck like a many tailed scorpion, I danced back a step and jumped slightly to the left as the first sword bit deeply into the concrete. As it did, I caught sight of a glimmer in the air, light reflecting off of something very slight as it extended from the blade towards Penny.

Wires, I realized before abandoning the thought and continuing my evasion. It was good to know and something to keep in mind as another thing to navigate, but I was too preoccupied at the moment to take advantage of it. A moment after the first blade landed, the others adjusted, angles shortening even as tips turned. I crouched slightly to let the second flash past my face and skated a pair of steps back to let a third dig deeply into the floor in front of my feet. A moment later, I rose, a quick hop letting my plant my foot on the blade's pommel and I dodge the fourth and fifth with Lunges, a step taking me to rest neatly atop the first blade and then up into the air above.

In an instant, unblinking green eyes were on me, all but glowing as my danger sense rang out in warning. In an instant, her remaining blades came together like a whirling star set to cut me in half even as my left hand rose in defense. I couldn't hope to deflect the blow, I knew that, but I didn't have to as long as I wasn't hit. At the last second, air gathered in my hand and around my body, turning me impossibly in midair as it changed my angle of descent. I watched as the spiral of blades rose passed me just inches from touching my hand's guiding fingers. I Lunged again as I touched the ceiling and hit the ground hands first.

A rush of air pushed me into a true handstand as Penny drew all her blades back to her, cutting edges going by just beside me as the hand stand turned into an assisted flip. The moment I was back on my feet, I Lunged after the returning blades, closing what distance I could to the android. The blades stopped to hover beside Penny again and I had another moment of warning before a larger pinwheel of swords came hurling towards me.

I went to my knees instantly, dropping into a slide as I leaned back as far as I could, watching the blades go by and focusing once more on the strings I had caught a glimpse off. I wondered for an instant if I might be able to cut them somehow, strip away her weapons, and so used Observe—before abandoning the notion with a grimace. That wasn't happening.

I hauled myself back to my feet with carefully controlled wind and felt another flash of danger a moment before Crocea Mors alerted me to the source. I flipped over backwards as hard as I could as the pinwheel suddenly halted and reversed, the claws of my left hand just barely scraping along a blades edge. I used the force to turn my uncontrolled jump into something with direction, and, with another touch of air manipulation, came back to my feet with barely a stumble.

Tossing myself forward, I kept my eyes on Penny even as the pinwheel broke back into ten blades and rushed at me in unison. Now that I was focused, I could see the strings by the Aura Penny channeled along and through them and I memorized their locations before leaping hard into the midst of the blades. As they came down upon where I'd stood, I was already passed them, rising into the air above Penny.

I kept an eye on her all the way through the leap, even as I felt my hands grasp the upper edge of the broken shutter door and swung myself down and up, flying high into the air as my abilities came together. In the end, I wound up upside-down in the air, looking back even as I held myself straight and flew high. It was an awkward position, but I let my Elementals guide me so I could keep my attention focused on the real threat—but Penny merely turned her head to look at me over one shoulder, drawing her blades back around her but not attacking even when I was forced to turn myself right side up to land.

The moment I touched the ground, however, I wished I hadn't. My senses rang out that I was in danger as the black pack on Penny's back flashed open, two more blades emerging and unfolding from within. I managed to rise out of the way of on, but at the price of taking the other to the chest. My Hide shattered again as I was knocked back into another building.

The good news was that secondary impact didn't hurt nor did I crash through the wall as I had before. Despite being hit by the same amount of force, Feather Fall meant I all but bounced off the wall and back to my feet. It saved me from the additional damage of plowing through the town, even if the hit itself had still taken its toll on me.

The bad news was that the blade I'd dodged had sunk into the ground and anchored itself as Penny jumped back and reeled herself in, coming to land far too close for comfort.

I summoned my Hide again as she came close, drawing it around me even as I swept a hand through my open status screen, palming another Dust crystal in an instant. In the brief moment I had left, I drained the crystal for life and power, resetting Haste's timer in the process.

Penny came at me an instant later, closing the distance with stunning speed, moving even faster than before. Her blade's rose again, but did not fire at me, instead floating just out of reach of her fingers. They trailed one another such that a single swing could mean many blows and I was pushed back by her first attack as the individual blades reached out further until the last struck out nearly four times as far as the first. I suddenly found myself being forced to retreat with each attack, because evading just one would leave me open to many others, yet as I fell back, she just pushed harder.

When I leapt away, she extended a pair of blades after me, driving them deeply into the ground before reeling herself after me. With the rest of her blades, she struck at me from a distance, raining blades down on me to keep me occupied dodging. It wasn't just the blades I needed to avoid but the wires which were thin and strong enough to serve as weapons all their own and which could curve and cross to almost make a maze in the air. I wound up wasting time trying to maneuver through it, giving her precious moments to catch up and force me into personal combat.

And I couldn't dodge everything. I tried, I even did well, but as we fought she began holding back less and less, coming at me harder because she thought I could take it. But I wasn't so sure I could, at least not for much longer. Even with my keen eyes and my hastened speed, keeping track of all of her blades, the strings, and a superior opponent was…more than difficult. At first she struck at me with sweeping gestures, attacking with a dozen blades of variable length and leaving me no hope but to get out of the way, but then she started playing hardball.

It began with her 'dual' wielding, splitting twelve blades into a pair of sixes. She struck at me with both arms then, one set of blades reaching out further if I dodged the other until the only way I could keep from getting hit was by Lunging away as fast as I could, reducing this from a defensive fight to full on running for my life. I'd managed to stay out of her reach, mostly, and heal what did get through, so she'd changed things up again. Now…

I danced back one step for the first two swords and a second for the next pair, four eyes watching closely, and hopped back a third to get away from the last one. Then she brought around her right arm and four more blades were swung my way, these ones stacked like an elongated staircase, the tip of one blade level with the hilt of another. I Lunged straight back to avoid them, already knowing what would happen—two blades flashed passed me, missing but leaving strings to either side. The two remaining blades came my way a moment later, lashing towards me with quick, alternating jabs that reminded me bizarrely of someone typing.

Now that she'd had time to take my measure, dodging in midair had got harder. It wasn't a matter of truly evading harm anymore, but of deciding which hits to take, what I could survive. After having been forced to do some testing, I'd determined I could take two hits in a row by soaking one with my Hide and Aura and the other with my HP, Iron Body, and Physical Endurance. Since Soulforge Restoration gave both HP and MP when used with Dust, I could stretch things out a bit further by carefully switching between them, but…

But the fact was I had to, just to stay alive. I pretty much always took at least one hit after the longer sweep after she sent me running, hedged me in, and then started attacking. If I managed to dodge them, however, it scarcely mattered because she used the first two swords to pull herself right after me, shoving me straight back into melee, where she'd go back into her sweeping turns and attacks, blades following her limbs like sharpened after-images.

The worst part was that I could see the exact pattern, knew it all by heart, and there was still nothing I could do about it. Sure, sometimes she'd throw surprises in there to try and catch me—kicks or thrusts instead of sweeps, bladed pirouettes, more of those whirling stars—but on the whole she kept to her steps because she had no need to deviate from them. She was scoring blows, pushing me back, and there was nothing I could do to stop her or contribute. I knew the dance but I couldn't match her pace and I was steadily being pushed back. It grated.

I wondered what the hell was taking Vulturnus so long—and wondered even more if it was hopeless. I couldn't ignore the fact that it was completely possible that he just couldn't do what I needed; if so, that wasn't on him, but on the situation. Despite his power, if the pieces weren't in place, if there weren't enough guys left over…

I clamped down on the thought. I couldn't think that way. If he couldn't, he couldn't and I'd…do…something, I guess. But until I was beaten, I'd hold onto hope and faith and believe I just needed to buy him a little more time.

But I wasn't going to manage that this way. I couldn't last just by playing defense, because so long as she had no fear of a response, she could just wail on me until she battered through all my defenses or got lucky—and she'd do one or the other soon, I was sure. She was getting better as this fight went on, learning to match me even as I tried to match her. Blows came closer with each cycle and she was quicker to respond, to pursue. Eventually…

Well, I guess she'd cut my strings.

I needed to keep her at least a little wary, lighten the assault, but I only had one method I thought might actually work and it could be risky.

My back wasn't exactly breaking under the weight of my options, though, so I did it anyway, reaching into my Inventory to withdraw a blue Dust crystal to consume and a red one that I held tightly in my left hand. I looked up as I heard Penny zipping towards me and tried something.

For much the same reason I hadn't gotten to train much with my buffs, I didn't have much experience with using Dust. I couldn't very well train the ability up when it would take thousands of castings to do so and Dust crystals were so expensive. There was a surprising amount of difficulty finding training manuals for the more archaic methods, too—there were plenty of books about Dust, about how it was first used in its raw form, and so on, but ones that actually taught the art were uncommon. Possibly because it was so dangerous and easy to lose control, possibly because of the relatively quick shift to using rounds, I wasn't sure—all I knew was that of the three books Tukson had possessed on the subject, two had been about the theory, one had been a historical account, and none had qualified as skill books. Given the odds of blowing myself up, the noticeable nature of such a skill, and the severe expense, I'd laid off the skill.

But hey, I was already living dangerously—why not play with fire?

So that's exactly what I did. Fist clenched around it, I focused my will into the crystal. If I was honest, I'd wanted to try this for a long, long time; my Mana, Nature, and Elemental Affinities, my Elemental Mastery, and even my title all seemed built to help me with this, to make it stronger. I'd held back on using the crystals for anything but healing here since if I ran out before I got a chance to get more it'd be the death of me, but…well, if I didn't do something I'd die regardless. Firepower was my least useful buff—though, actually, it might help with this—so I pulled out a red crystal, gathered my power, and called for help.

Suryasta, I said. Please don't let this kill me. Thanks in advanced; you're awesome.

And then I unleashed the power, up at an angle to strike at Penny. I'd hoped for something like a stream of fire and I'd gotten that—sort of—but the power…it didn't go out of control, per se, but mostly because I never had it in control to begin with. It lashed out in a jagged burst towards the android, sprayed back at me through the gaps of my fingers, and quickly began to deteriorate from there. I felt Suryasta step in, calmly placing his fingers over my own, and helping to guide the power, keeping it from burning me too badly. What got through before he got involved did little through my resistance and I took the opportunity to leap away before Penny crashed into the ground.

A skill has been created through a special action! Through the applied use of energy propellant, the skill 'Dust Mastery' has been created!

I ignored the window, focusing on the smoke and making sure I was ready for whatever she tried next.

"Was that your first time using Dust in its raw form, by any chance?" Penny asked before the smoke even cleared, surprising me. "It was a bit…"

"Sloppy?" I suggested, trying to smile. Being less than competent didn't really fit with the all-knowing villain persona, but I tried to mask it as best I could. "Forgive me—no, I don't have much experience with Dust. But though I'm rather late to the trend, I like to consider myself a quick learner."

Drawing out another red crystal, I tried again—and this time it was far more streamlined and controlled, a result of both my new skill and Suryasta's skill. The flame flashed into the cloud, towards where I felt Penny and I heard something akin to an impact—

And then I saw Penny running straight through the blast. I aborted my attack, throwing myself to the side as she came, but her swords merged together, blade folding in half to form a gun. I saw a flash green hit the ground below me before an explosion sent me flying into another building. Feather Fall let my bounce off and I immediately started running, but she was already behind me. I felt her reaching out towards me and tried to duck, but she grabbed ahold of Dreary Midnight and with me pulling one way and her the other, it came free.

I nearly hesitated at that, but the Gamer's Mind kept me going, drawing a new crystal and throwing it at my feet, tossing myself boldly away with the resulting explosion. I came careening back to earth a building over and scrambled to keep moving, for whatever it was worth.

Penny's voice carried through the smoke.

"That was an amazing second try," She praised, sounding honestly happy as she congratulated me. I could feel her approaching through Crocea Mors and though it was probably pointless, I ducked behind a building. "You are very skilled at fighting, as well, and very tough, too. However, I have been pushing you back since this fight began. You should surrender now—no one can question your skill or loyalty for going this far for what you believe in, but please give up. I don't want to hurt you anymore."

I hummed thoughtfully, more to buy time then for anything else, but shit. My Air Affinity had dropped a fair bit when she removed Dreary Midnight and with it my speed. I'd meant to buy a little more time by fighting back, but all I'd done was make her go that tiny bit further to finally crush me. If we started fighting again, with my speed lowered…it would not end well. In fact, I felt pretty doomed.

And then my miracle came through.

Your level has increased by one!

Vulturnus, lingering at the edge of town, had been crushing every machine that that managed to get near the town—all the surviving AK's. I figured that there had probably been something on the order of a hundred remaining, if the ship I'd seen was anything to go by and I'd known I'd been close to leveling up. Really, really close. I'd fought Grimm back in Vale, gotten experience from quests, encountered a few more Grimm to and from Atlas, and had shot down a bunch of robot filled ships. I'd been pissed off that I still hadn't gotten that one last level I needed.

Hoping Vulturnus would be able to get me that last little bit I needed wasn't the greatest plan I'd ever had— though I preferred to think of it as having faith, it had been nothing but a desperate hope, really. In fact, it still was, because all that one level gave me were the points I needed to place my hopes on something else. But I figured and hoped and prayed that Luck would finally come through for me, given all the shit it put me through.

And really, it was the penultimate technique of the forgotten martial arts style of an ancient warrior king. It had to help somehow. And given the huge pre-requisites, there had to be something great about it.

First things first, I opened my status screen and raised my Strength to fifty-one.

The skill 'Heroic Strength' has been created through STR rising above 50.

Heroic Strength (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

An ability given to those blessed with tremendous power. The user possesses great physical strength, casually reaching beyond the limits of most men.

50% Increase to Physical Attack Damage.

50% Increase to STR related skill effects.

And then I look out my book.

You've obtained the skill 'White Tiger's Five Hundred Years.'

White Tiger's Five Hundred Years (Active) LV1 EXP: 0.00% HP: 500 MP: 500

Legend tells that from five hundred years of war, a tiger rose to rule as king of all beasts. The penultimate technique the legendary Bai Hu, Lord of the West.

500% Increase to Physical Attack Damage.

500% Increase to Attack Speed.

500% Increase to Movement Speed.

Additional 500 HP used per minute.

Additional 500 MP used per minute.

I actually managed a real smile at that before raising my voice.

"Shall I take this a bit more seriously, then?" I bluffed, feeling just a little cocky.