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 Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Tag Team

The truth was, I'd learned how to fly a long time ago, at least to an extent. Ever since I'd first summoned Levant, I'd been capable of at least some degree of flight and had used it a little during the White Whale incident. It wasn't something I'd been willing to rely on at the time, when Levant's part in that mission was so vital, but I'd been capable of it.

Or rather, Levant and I had been capable of it—and that distinction was important. Flying, it turns out, was pretty complicated, a series of endless balancing acts to stay in the air, and I'd need both Levant's power and more intense focus to make it possible. When the only thing between me and a thousand foot drop—or worse, a high-speed collision with something less yielding than the human body—was my ability to keep everything together, flying was a monumental task.

Or, at least, it had been at the time. I'd come a long way since then, for all that it had only been a few months ago. Physically, my defensive abilities had skyrocketed, to the extent that I didn't have anything to fear from hitting the ground at high speed or making a mistake and running head long into a mountain—but more than my body, my other skills had grown in leaps and bounds. Where keeping constant track of everything around me would once have been an effort, now it was just something I did all the time. The strain of lifting and supporting the weight of my body was marginal at best, thanks to the growing power of my Elementals and my vastly improved MP supply and regeneration. Further, whatever difficulties remained in regards to making calculations had been rendered trivial by the Mathematician's Answer. Now, flying would have been a simple task. And yet, I hadn't truly flown since the day I'd learned the White Tiger's Five Hundred Years, for one, simple reason.

It was far, far too slow.

The nature of drawing upon Levant's power to fly was that I could only move as fast as Levant could move me—as fast as her winds could propel the full weight of my body. Which was fast, especially with my Elemental's ever increasing power; if she needed to, Levant could whip up winds that went hundreds of kilometers an hour and craft storms fierce enough to shred houses. Her power was great and it would only grow as I kept drawing upon her.

But even so, I was far faster. From the day I'd first learned Bai Hu's penultimate technique, there'd been little point in having the winds carry me anywhere—to say nothing of when I'd mastered the White Tiger of the West and gained other ways of enhancing my speed. Acceleration, for instance, affected only my personal time and left even my Elementals moving at sluggish paces, though that never seemed to get in the way of our ability to communicate. Still, as my speeds grew faster and faster, the use for flight dwindled. When I needed to move in three dimensions, I simply created platforms of air for me to Lunge between or addressed it in some anyway; there was no point to truly flying if it reduced my speed that much.

That same issue should have applied to my new growths—but I suppose it was fairly obvious that the wings of the Grimm, like the rest of their bodies, didn't play by normal rules. Perhaps normal Nevermore could fly on their own power and maybe they did, but their Giant cousins or monsters like Ziz? It should have been impossible for them to exist, much less get off the ground on their own power, partially or completely diverging from the natural laws that should have covered such things.

And now, with the power Conquest's infection had given me, I did the same. They didn't beat fast—certainly not fast enough to justify the speeds at which I was moving—but they carried me through the air as if I were running at my top speed. I felt them flowing through something I couldn't make any sense of even when I unified my senses, as if I were swimming instead of flying. And perhaps that was the best way of describing it; it felt like I was swimming through something. It wasn't anything I recognized and barely seemed to have any presence at all, but it supported my weight fully as I moved freely through the air. Was it tied to the other mysteries of the Grimm? It was quite possible, but if so, I'd need to examine it later. For now…

I kept my senses trained on the Grimm even as I rose higher and higher into the air, Observing them carefully. That was the other thing I wanted to test with this experiment—how the Grimm themselves would react to my drawing upon Conquest's power. The Grimm within Naraka didn't seem to care at all, but I still wasn't sure what, if any, differences existed between the ones created by my barrier and the real things. There didn't seem to be any visible differences, but with the unknown power of their Creator and his apparent connection to his offspring…well, who fucking knows.

So here and now, I had to wonder. Would they react to the presence of Grimm flesh inside of me and notice my presence? And if they did, would they recognize me as another Grimm or as an enemy? Would they attack, be drawn towards me, or something else? I paused just beneath the clouds, watching and waiting even as I prepared to lead them away from both Adam and Mistral, if need be.

But nothing happened. There wasn't the slightest reaction. That lack of reaction could have meant any number of things, from not sensing me to simply recognizing me as another Grimm, but I could consider the implications of the experiment another time, once I had the full picture. For now though, the next question was a simple one—how would that reaction change if I attacked them?

Double checking to make sure Adam was in position, I returned my attention to my chosen target and Lunged. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say I Dove, since I moved my wings instead of my legs, adapting the skill to a new purpose. It worked just fine in the end, though, sending me tearing through the sky like a bullet as I Accelerated and landed at my chosen position—right in the center of a Giant Nevermore's back. The moment I touched down, sinking my legs up to mid shin into the beast's flesh in the process, I went one way and Bai Hu rose to go the other. We each grasped a wing where the joint met flesh, used another hand to provide leverage, and, with a piercing cry from the monster's lungs, ripped a wing free with mighty, crushing tug.

It went down at once and I sank my claws into its flesh as it went, guiding it's descent for a moment before crouching and Lunging away. I rose perhaps a hundred meters into the air before stopping abruptly in place, halting my momentum entirely with a flap of my wings. I watched passively as the Grimm crashed into the ground with the echoing sound of shattering stone, stripping away another massive chunck of its HP until less than ten percent was left. I probably could have afforded to leave more for Adam, but it was a test in that regard as well and so I watched as Adam laid a hand on the hilt of his sword for perhaps five seconds before swinging his blade in a vivid red slash that ended the creature's life.

I Observed the attack itself, checked Adam's status screen to see the change the experience had caused, crunched some numbers, and then looked over the Grimm nearby, gauging their reactions to the attack. Many of them had responded to the Nevermore's dying screams and to the crushing impact that had followed, but none of their attention seemed focused on me. Musing for a moment, I summoned my Map with a thought, glanced at the moving red dots nearby, and then created an illusory copy of it beside Adam.

"This one next," I said, Levant speaking the words directly into his ear. I highlighted one of the dots and drew a line from his position to its. Adam moved without a word, all business now that we were on the job. As he did, I crossed my arms and 'fell' forward to hang upside-down in midair, simply to see if I could. As I expected, the different position had no effect on my ability to fly and I continued to slowly beat my wings.

Then I summoned Levant, manifesting her physically at my side. She stood lower than me in the air, such that she was able to look at my nonexistent face as I floated upside-down. For the sake of being polite to my friend, I turned my body with my head as the axis, meeting her eyes with the smooth face of my mask. Our thoughts aligned a moment later and she understood what I'd brought her forth to ask, but before her physical form completely unraveled, I stretched my wings out so she could see them.

"We'll go flying together sometime, Levant," I told her, remembering the words she'd spoke when I'd first contracted her, and she smiled brightly before coming apart. I saw her reform a moment later, stepping lightly onto the head of my next target, and at once the air around the Giant Nevermore turned against it and it began to falter in its flight. No, rather than that, it lost control completely as Levant adjusted the flow of air around its wings to forcibly guide its flight. It tried to let out a cry but Levant strangled the noise in its throat as she guided it down for a relatively soft landing—though the force of it wouldn't change the fact that it would never leave the ground again. Adam was on its way and Levant wouldn't let it rise from the ground again, much less escape. For all intents and purposes, it was already dead, caught within my control of the air.

Just like the first one had been, all those months ago. But now, with my own Grimm wings, I had to wonder why. I wouldn't have fallen in its place, because it wasn't the wind that was beneath my wings, yet it fell despite the fact that its wings alone couldn't have kept it in the air. For whatever reason, it seemed the Giant Nevermore's wings weren't quite as divorced from the world as mine were. Were theere limits to the effect that now allowed me to fly? Or was it simply because I was stronger and using Conquest's wings? Certainly, the Grimm tended to grow in size as they grew stronger, such as with the twenty-story Goliath's whose own footsteps should shatter their bodies. Was that change in size merely a result of the fact that it became possible for them to exist in such forms, further and further from the bounds of rationality?

And if so, was this strange force I was now sensing the cause? Did it allow the Nevermore to fly and let the Goliath's exist? Was this another part of Malkuth Theory or had I stumbled across something new?

I sighed. Every time I tried to research the Grimm, I found more and more questions and very, very few answers. It was rather irritating, really—almost enough to make me want to do something about it.

But, well…I was going to kill all the Grimm here anyway, so there just wasn't much point was there?

I watched calmly as another monster died in a flash of red light before quietly moving on. Giant Nevermore, Karkinos, Tyrant Scales, and so many more…there were a lot of creatures to kill.

But I had all night.

"You okay?" I asked hours later, fingers digging into the exposed flesh of a Karkinos as I dragged what was left of its body behind me. I'd stripped off all of the crablike Grimm's limbs and had shattered most of its protective shell—but it was still alive when I drew it back above the waves.

A quick swing of Adam's sword fixed that and then there was a long moment of silence as he stood there, his breathing careful.

"Fine," He said after a minute, lifting a hand to his head. "Just…feel weird. Tired and…not, at the same time."

I nodded to show I understood, tossing away the corpse with a flick of my wrist. We'd been at this all night and had fallen into a steady routine of fighting and healing, making sure that Adam didn't succumb to exhaustion. I'd notice that seemed to affect him a bit oddly and wondered if there was a split between physical and mental exhaustion, but he'd put it aside and kept going, battling nonstop until the sun was almost prepared to rise.

"I was about to say we should get ready to wrap things up here, anyway," I said, clicking my talons against my armored chest. Slowly, I began to heal myself, starting with a series of charged and focused bursts and then keeping up the pressure. In a matter of minutes, my altered form had faded away to a small dot on my arm, taking my new wings with it, and I took a seat on an invisible platform of air. "It's almost dawn and I'll need to get back soon, especially if I want to set up the whole bodyguard thing. There's still a lot for us to do in regards to the White Fang and our new friends, as well, and it's best not to leave such things alone for too long."

Adam took a look at my invisible chair and rolled his eyes, but nodded at my words as he relaxed. We'd limited ourselves to the creatures that hunted near Mistral and had systematically slaughtered anything and everything that caught my eye. But though I'd had to restore his Aura more than a hundred times throughout the night and the constant battle seemed to be wearing on him, I was satisfied with the results of tonight's work.

The Beast

LV56

Adam Taurus

"How'd I do?" He asked after a moment, carefully taking a seat in the grass before me.

"Why don't you see for yourself?" I asked right back, smiling down at him. Unlike me, he didn't receive pop-ups except as related to the Party System and the changes hadn't been as obvious to him—and when he opened his status screen with a word, there was no mistaking the surprise on his face.

"Eleven levels already?" He breathed, sounding both amazed and confused.

"The benefits of having an awesome, higher-leveled friend," I replied, shrugging humbly. "Aren't you glad I let you hang out with my magnificent self?"

"It's easier to be grateful to you when you're silent," Adam noted, giving me a mild look.

I chuckled a bit at that.

"It's not surprising though," I said. "I made sure to target things that were above you in level, after all, and we've been at this for hours. It's not surprising you'd grow quickly, under the circumstances."

"What about you?" He asked. "You were doing most of the work, so you should have gotten most of the experience. How many times did you level up?"

I chuckled a bit and glanced over at the windows that had popped up while I was in the midst of working. With my sensory abilities as high as they were, I tended to note what the pop ups said and then push them out of my mind rather than concern myself with closing them in the middle of combat. Still, it was hard to ignore these particular announcements, accompanied by a rush of power as they were.

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

"Twice," I told him, shrugging slightly at his look. "Again, it's not that surprising. Enemies that were ten levels above you when we began were nearly twenty below me. I tried to balance the experience out as much as possible, though I think I was still getting about…sixty to eighty percent from each. I have a few skills that improve the amount of experience I get, but…yeah."

He was silent for a moment and then nodded sharply.

"Thanks," He said after a moment. "For the help, I mean."

I snorted.

"Don't worry about it," I said. "We stuck near the city this time, but next time we'll go further out to face the stronger creatures. As you level up, we'll keep facing more and more powerful monsters, so we'll both get experience. Just think of today as getting some of the annoying stuff out of the way so we can have fun later."

"Is that what I am?" He asked, lips twitching ever so slightly upwards. "An annoyance?"

"Damn straight," I replied at once. "But who knows, maybe you'll be useful eventually. I know it's a bit of a sunk-cost fallacy, but I keep hoping that if I help you just a little bit more, you'll manage to shape up somehow."

He rolled his eyes beneath his mask.

"Gee," He answered with a dull sounding tone. "Thanks. Truly, your magnanimity is inspiring."

"I try," I admitted, laughing briefly before adopting a serious expression. "But really Adam, you've come a long ways and it's only been a night. A few weeks or months of this and you'll go even further. As you are now, you should be in about the same league as Emerald and Mercury and if you stick around as my bodyguard…"

"I can imagine," He murmured before slowly tilting his head. "Or perhaps I can't. Stuff like this reminds me of just how quickly you grow, Jaune. It's been a little over half a year and look at you. Fuck, I remember when you were this scrawny runt who couldn't drive a truck worth a damn."

"Bitch, please," I sighed as if listening to his madness was exhausting. "I was a great truck driver. It was your fault for not obeying the law and wearing a seatbelt."

"What?" He sounded disbelieving. "You broke so many traffic laws that I'd wonder who the fuck gave you a license if not for the fact that, you know, you were driving without a license."

"And I drove spectacularly," I stated firmly. "Remind me, who is it that's alive because of my driving skills?"

He rolled his eyes again.

"Whatever," He said. "The point is that you've come a long, long way since then. And this…I can already tell that tonight will probably be worth months—maybe even years—of effort on my part and it was a snap for you. In another year or five or ten…God only knows where you'll be."

I smiled at that, not saying that I was pretty sure things would come to a head sooner rather than later, whether because of my enemies or the deterioration of the Kingdoms. It was, after all, something I myself wondered about fairly often—just like I wondered about what I might have once been. If I'd had this power then, if I was connected to the monster in the Red Rider's temple in some way…how powerful had I been then? As powerful as the Creator of the Grimm himself?

Obviously not, I thought to myself. Or I wouldn't have died. Whatever I'd been in the past, I knew I'd lost that round at least.

I'd just have to do better when it came time for the rematch.

"Don't worry," I assured him aloud. "As my minion, you'll be able to bear witness to my meteoric rise to greatness. Just think of it as your paycheck—because let's face it, being allowed to bask in my greatness is worth more money then you'll ever have in your entire life, so there's no point in paying you for the honor."

"Please," He snorted dismissively. "I'm no minion; I'm your second in command at the very least."

"Oh?" I chuckled, leaning back and spreading my hands. "And when exactly did that happen?"

"When you failed to find anyone else who was capable of putting up with you," He stated. "Meaning it's just you and me—and, therefore, that I am your second in command by default."

I mulled over that for a moment before closing my eyes and smiling.

"I suppose that true," I allowed. "At least until I find some better minions. But…I guess you make a passable right hand man. You'll have to keep training hard if you want to keep the position, though, because I'm going to keep getting stronger. If you fall too far behind, you'll make me look bad—and, really, what's the point of having an ugly friend if they don't at least make you look better in comparison?"

"How did you survive to adulthood," He wondered. "What series of events made that possible?"

"I got a really awesome Semblance," I answered.

"Ah, true," He nodded before looking at me. "What did you have in mind?"

"Let's say," I made a show of pretending to mull over it. "Let say you get within ten levels of me and manage to stay there. Stuff like that's the minimum for a right hand man."

He snorted.

"Fine," He answered. "It's not like I intended to stop getting stronger. I deserve this much for tolerating you this long."

After a moment, however, he tilted his head to look at his Status Screen more carefully.

"Speaking of getting more powerful…what do you think I should invest in first?" He asked, finger hovering in front of the screen.

I hummed for a moment.

"I suppose it's really just a matter of preference in your case," I said after a moment of thought. "We'll keep grinding until you can improve everything you wanted, after all. You figure fifty Strength, fifty Dexterity, and…twenty-five to fifty Wisdom should be enough? That's fourteen to nineteen more levels, which shouldn't take too long, once we get far enough from Mistral."

He pursed his lips in consideration.

"How big of a change does Wisdom make?"

"A pretty huge one, at least for me," I replied. "For me, my base MP regen—before bringing in any of my skills—was one percent a minute. Every ten points in Wisdom increased that by another percent, so adding forty points would raise it to five percent, with means it'd only take twenty minutes to fully recharge. That's just for me, though. Still…it should work similarly for you, relative to however long it takes you to recover your Aura."

"Hm," He mused. "And the other two?"

"Strength and speed," I shrugged. "Still pretty damn useful—and the more damage you can deal and the faster you can deal it, the better you can contribute to fights like these, which means you'll level up faster. Wisdom's pretty great in my opinion, especially for the other perks you get from it, but I can keep healing you for the time being. I mean, hey, you're the one who got me this Dust, right?"

He nodded decisively.

"Right," He answered, cracking his neck. "Here goes nothing then."