Chapter 16: Party System

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.

Party System

It turns out I could make parties—and, yes, I really did name it Team Jaune. I'm the only one who can name it, which means I get to name it whatever I wanted, and I wanted Team Jaune. Really, Adam's just lucky I didn't name it something embarrassing.

"Invite Adam," I said clearly, a blue window suddenly appearing before the Faunus. He stared at it hard for a long minute before looking up at me as if to say 'really?' He still accepted, though, and thus was my first party made.

"What exactly is this supposed to accomplish?" He asked afterwards.

"It's mainly just to check to see if it works and what it does," I replied. "Let's see, first…Observe."

I brought up Adam's Status Screen and…well…

The dude was a monster, even for level forty-two. I mean, holy crap, if you add in the passive and active effects of Aura, all of his physical stats were over three digits, and closer to two hundred then not. I guess that's the type of thing you get when you're over level forty. Even if it had taken a lot out of him and half a minute to charge, he had hit that Nevermore hard enough to do the equivalent of hundreds and hundreds of my own strikes in one attack.

I guess even now I still have a long way to go, huh?

"Can you see this?" I asked, gesturing at the screen and then called up my Status Screen. "Or this?"

"No," Adam said turning his head to look in that general direction, though he was off a few feet. "What are they?"

"I used my skill Observe to look at your status screen and pulled up my own," I explained. "But I guess you can't see it. Anything above my head?"

Adam glanced up and shook his head.

"Hm…" I said, frowning slightly. "Then…say 'Status Window.'"

"Status Window," He said, starting slightly when one appeared in front of him. "Huh. So this is really how you see the world, huh?"

"Yeah, pretty much," I said. "When I want too, at least."

"All my stats are numbered and everything," He said, shaking his head slightly. I watched as he seemed to go down the list, occasionally nodding, titling his head to the side, or sighing. "I guess that makes sense. I'll keep these in mind while I'm training."

"Before that, though," I said. "Do you have an Inventory?"

He repeated the word but nothing appeared.

"Doesn't seem like it," He said, looking around.

"See if you can do anything with this, then," I reached into my own Inventory and drew out one of my spare skill books on driving. I tossed it to Adam, who caught it easy and appeared to wait for a second. I didn't see anything appear and it didn't seem like he did, either.

A part of me, an admittedly selfish and fairly large part, felt relieved at that, simply because if creating a party had given him those powers, then given his existing skills and his level, I would be…

But on the other hand, it would have made this mission a breeze. I couldn't say I was upset that I couldn't give away the, well, the one thing that made me special, but I was aware of the situation as well. But if none of this worked, then…

"Interesting as it was to see my own stats," Adam began. "Making a party really doesn't seem to do much."

"Hold on a second," I said, frowning as I considered the possibilities. No, not possibilities—what I wanted were… "Party Options."

A new window appeared, with Adam's name filling one of the empty slots, along with the basic stuff like his HP, MP, and level. Below the slots were buttons for 'Settings,' 'Kick,' and 'Promote to Leader;' I had no interest in either of the latter, so I went to Settings. A glance at the options listed found me what I wanted and I tried to turn on 'Equal Distribution.'

Equal distribution is not possible if your level difference is greater than 10.

"Tch," I huffed. When I saw Adam, obviously with no clue what was going on, I explained. "I pulled up the option menu for our party and tried to turn on Equal Distribution so we'd each get half the experience from what we kill, but it says we can't do that if there's more than ten levels between us. I can't use it with Blake, either…stupid game balance."

I sighed.

"Well, there goes that plan."

"Plan?" Adam asked, tilting his head slightly before abruptly frowning. "Wait. Were you going to make me do all the work?"

"What?" I asked, scandalized. "No, no I would never—yes."

"And you were going to force me to fight a lot monsters while you…what? Stayed completely safe in the background and drank tea?"

"Are you kidding?" I asked. "I'd have provided emotional support. 'Go, Adam! Kill another thousand! You can do it!' That kind of thing."

"Oh, gee," He said. "So sad that plan got ruined."

I chuckled.

"Yeah, well, me too," I said. "I guess now we have to go back to the original plan—I'll get into a lot of fights and you make sure to keep me nice and safe."

Adam grunted with displeasure.

"Hey, look on the Brightside," I shrugged, smiling. "You can probably get experience; if equal distribution was an option, you should get the normal amount when you kill Grimm on your own, exception that proves the rule and all. Given how high-leveled you are, you probably won't get much out of it, though, so save them for me unless you have to step in."

Adam grunted with what could have been either more or less displeasure, but I ignored him this time.

"I have to wonder, though…if there's one for parties…" I pursed my lips. "Options."

I laughed loudly when a window appeared.

"Holy crap, I have an Options Menu, Adam," I chuckled. "Let's see…'Gameplay,' 'Video,' 'Sound'…oh God."

I kept laughing as I looked over Gameplay. There wasn't a difficulty setting or anything like that, which was a little sad, but I guess there were limits even to powers as crazy as mine. However…

"Adam, say something," I demanded suddenly.

"What?"

I turned away from him, laughing my head off.

"I have subtitles," I managed to get out through my cackles.

"Seriously?" Adam said, sighing again, but I was busy bobbing my head to something only I could hear.

"Music, too," I said. "I guess it was on mute. It's not bad, though. Hm, but…yeah, I think I'll get tired of hearing it constantly. You ever get tired of the music in a game after thirty hours or so? Like that, but for me it would never stop. Could be useful, though. Subtitles, too, if it works on whispers and stuff. I wonder if my controls are in here somewhere? Could I make myself left-handed or something? Oh, or is there a third person option, maybe?"

"Jaune," Adam interrupted me before I could get too wrapped up in playing with my power. "Focus please."

I frowned at him but fixed my settings and closed the windows.

"Fine, fine, ruin my fun," I said, stretching slightly to get more comfortable in my armor. "Anyway, it's more limited then I might have hoped, but the party system is still pretty useful. Once I get strong enough, Blake and I can train together until we're close to your level, and then we can all benefit from it. Despite what you said, once we're all that strong farming Nevermore shouldn't be too horrible, right? I'll make a contract with an Air Elemental soon, I should be able to ground the Nevermore more easily. If Blake and I run interference, buying you time to charge shouldn't be a problem and if I get inside the Nevermore again, I should be able to just charge up a Magic Missile and poke a few holes in it. If Blake goes for the eyes and helps run it around, it shouldn't be too hard to take it one on three, even if it's higher leveled. If it had more attack variety, that'd be one thing, but this is what happens when you've only got a few options, I guess. The Bigger they are—"

"Jaune," Adam stopped my rambling again, what was visible of his expression looking a tad grim.

I looked away, a part of me wishing I had let go of the jovial atmosphere from before. I already knew what he was getting at. These were all long-term plans; even if I could fight Grimm regularly and trained as much as I could, I knew it would take a long time before I was at a high enough level for such a thing to be feasible. Depending on precisely how much this mission went to hell, I might level up enough to partner with Blake, but getting up to level thirty-two was going to be a pain, I was sure. And this mission…it was getting closer all the time. Even accounting for the travel time and any delays that might occur, it would be over one way or another within two weeks.

And the sad part was that Adam and Blake were the closest things I'd had to friends since I'd been unable to follow my older friends to combat school. Not only that, but I'd told them both my secret and here they were making me as strong as they could. They had their own reasons for doing that, granted, and they were going to drag me into a world of danger now, but…it was also a fact that I wouldn't be this strong without them and I didn't regret helping them yet.

However, when this was over…

"What are you going to do after we save them?" I asked, looking up at the sky. The night sky, I realized after a second; it was hard to tell with my mask and I hadn't even noticed the world getting darker.

"A bit early to talk like our victory's sure."

"You're right," I said, nodding without looking at him. "What are you going to do after this is over, assuming we don't die horribly at any of the dozens of times when we could."

Adam let out a chuckle but it died young.

"The same as before, I suppose."

"You don't think this will change anything?" I guessed, sighing.

"I think it'll change a great deal," He said. "I think it will save or improve the lives of many Faunus. I believe it will give hope to countless more. And I believe that's enough, or else I wouldn't be here. But do I think that this will change how the entire world treats us? That it will change the way those companies treat us? No."

"Because they don't care?" I said, remembering what he'd told me before.

"Because they don't care," He nodded. "But more than that, because they care more about other things. I'm sure countless people would find the actions of the Schnee Company and others like them horrible if you shoved it in their faces. But it's all but a world away, out of sight and out of mind with no effect on their lives except in a positive sense. People will speak about how horrible the treatment of the Faunus on TV and online and too each other, but what will they do? What can they do? In the end, I believe that, on the whole, people—and I mean people, whether Human or Faunus—will do whatever makes their lives easier and better, just as companies will do whatever makes them the most profit."

He sighed deeply and seemed tired.

"And that's the problem. I told you before that I don't think most people hate Faunus; I'll extend that now. I don't even think most of the Schnee Company hates Faunus. I don't even know if I believe the people in charge of it hate Faunus. In fact, I think that if there was a way to make even more money that didn't involve the Faunus, the company would likely switch to that method in short order. Even on Atlas where the entire system seems set against the Faunus and where we're hated the most, I think that's mostly because the system was designed around it being profitable. And the fact of the matter, the reasons why the peaceful protests and everything that was tried before didn't and won't work, is that they're right."

I listened quietly, a little surprised Adam was actually opening up about this. But I guess it must have been a sore subject for him—and maybe it was something he wanted to say while Blake wasn't around.

"Take the Schnee Company, for instance, since that's who we're up against. For so long, the White Fang attempted rallies, boycotts, but what did they hope to achieve? What did they expect a boycott to do? Sure, the Schnee Company has its fingers in every pie, but in the end, their main product is Dust. Did they expect people to stop using Dust? When their homes are powered by it? When the food they eat is planted, grown, harvested, and made with machines that use it? When they drive in cars fueled by it, on roads made with its aid? When they can only even have that because they live in a place where the Grimm were thrown back thanks to it? Even the White Fang uses Dust, we just steal it sometimes instead of buying it. How do you boycott their product when everything is made with their product? And if you could, would you want to?"

"No," I said, only because he paused long enough that I figured he expected a reply. "Life before Dust was…"

"Exactly. But then, what does it matter if you gather into crowds and hold up signs if, in the end, you're still giving them all your money? That's not going to stop anything, it's just going to be an annoying change in ambiance. That was the issue with the White Fang before—it didn't understand how things worked, not really. It tried it on a small scale and sometimes, yeah, sometimes it worked. But…restaurants that don't serve Faunus are a tiny symptom, at best, a product of larger factors, and such methods aren't going to work on groups that can ignore you out right. The fact of the matter is that the only way you're going to make people stop abusing Faunus is if you make it unprofitable, unacceptable, and inconvenient."

"That's why the White Fang turned to violence," I said, understanding. "As another way of increasing the cost of business. Places that didn't serve Faunus were faced with greater costs for rejecting them, so they let them in. Stealing and destroying the products of places that abused Faunus employees, raising costs. Because if the cost of doing business that way gets too high, people will find a different method."

"Yes," Adam nodded. "All the protests in the world won't change companies like the Schnee, because you can say they're methods are horrible and immoral and heartless, but it doesn't matter unless you can say they don't work or that there's a way that'd work better. And you can say the White Fang's actions are awful and terrifying, but you can't say they haven't worked, either. People do treat Faunus better because of us."

"Because they fear you, not because they respect you," I said. "Wouldn't it be better if they changed because they wanted to? Because they believed you were truly their equals?"

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"Yes," He said immediately. "But it's better than not being treated equally at all. People have treated us like animals for as long as anyone can remember. They tried to cast us out and lock us up in a place they even named Menagerie. We fought a War until we were promised equality and still didn't get it. Being treated equally because people thought we should be would be ideal—but it hasn't happened yet and history suggests it won't happen any time soon. The White Fang…it's not a perfect solution, but it's the one we've got. What would you have done, if you'd been born a Faunus?"

I thought about it silently for several long seconds before closing my eyes with a sigh.

"I don't know," I said, shaking my head. "I'd like to think I'd be able to find another way, but nothing springs to mind right now. But…I'd probably fight, if I could. If it was my family being treated that way, my friends, my people…I'd fight, like my parents would fight."

Adam just nodded easily.

"Blake wants to help people and she wants to change the White Fang," Adam said easily, like he'd known all along—which he probably had, actually. "She wants to find another way, a peaceful way, too set an example for others to follow and believe in. Even if she hates what humans do, she doesn't want to hurt them, either. And I'm glad that despite everything, she can still hold onto that. I respect her for having beliefs and sticking to them and all the more so for those beliefs to be kind in a world that makes it so easy to be cruel. But I can't believe in what she does. I just don't think it will work. I think that the only way things will truly change is if we fight."

I wasn't sure what to say to that, so I just nodded.

"When this is over," I said. "I'll probably do the same thing as before, too. I want to get stronger. I'm going to become a Huntsman and protect people, Human and Faunus alike. That's why I'm here on this mission and…even if our paths diverge from here on, I'm glad I got to be friends with you, Blake, and Tukson—and I don't want to stop being friends just because we walk different paths. I'm glad that I could just talk about this with all of you, to have chance to understand. And I…while I can't refute what you said and I can't think of a solution yet, I want to. So I'll keep looking for a way, even if it's naïve. Even if it seems hopeless, I'll fight for it as well. With my power…I'll get smarter and wiser and even luckier, until I can find a way. Even if there's a fight or a war, I'll…"

Adam smiled at me, tilting his head slightly my way.

"You'll need to be a lot stronger then you are now if you want to do something like that, idiot," He said, ruining both my cool speech and the moment.

"That's why I'm training, dumbass," I replied, shaking my head and muttering under my breath.

"You're not training right now," Adam pointed out. "If you really want to get stronger, then get to work. I still owe you for that ride in the Bullhead."

The forests around Vale were home to a number of different types of monsters and I knew them all on sight. Being the son of two famous Hunters, I'd grown up hearing about the Grimm, even before I'd had to sit through lecture after lecture at school about it. I knew about the Beowolves and the Ursa, the Nevermore and the Boarbatusks, all of them—and I'd heard what must have been a thousand stories about how to fight them and kill them.

Nonetheless, my first day of fighting them myself proved to be a learning experience for me in a number of ways.

For instance, it was often wondered—in schoolyards, at least—which Grimm were the most dangerous. Kids would get together and talk about the Grimm and Hunters and the topic inevitably seemed to come up and I'd always be dragged into it because of my parents. And there were a lot of obvious answers, mainly the greater creatures of Grimm like the Nevermore and the Deathstalkers, which were both correct. But excluding the truly massive monsters that were thankfully rare this close to civilization, who did you need to worry the most about while wandering the woods at night?

We'd never come to an agreement, but today I found out for myself. My usual luck had held true—leaving me to yet again wonder if it qualified as good or bad luck—and I'd stumbled across the Grimm shortly after Adam faded into the shadows, presumably to watch over me. The first creature I ran into was an Ursa, a powerfully built creature with a level in the upper-twenties and massive strength even for that level.

Yet there was another thing I'd realized about the Grimm. As creatures without souls, they had no Aura to protect them or give them strength—which was another way of saying that anything they did, they did with sheer strength, speed, and durability. That monstrous power was something to keep in mind when fighting them, especially when you're fighting them with your hands like I was.

But despite all that, I'd torn that Ursa to pieces. Literally, to pieces. It had taken a lot of punishment before going down and it could hit hard, but it didn't have any special powers or amazing speed or any real range. I could Lunge in and out of its reach or withdraw and shoot at it from a distance until it went down and there was nothing it could do about it. It was the same story as the fallen Nevermore, really; so what if you're bigger than me and stronger than me if I can just kit you to death? If I can hit you and you can't hit me back, that pretty much means I win by default if I can actually keep it up.

Furthermore, most of the Grimm hunted alone, without others of their kind to compensate for such weaknesses, at least most of the time. Ursa were usually solitary creatures and only rarely seen in groups of more than two, although even that was a relatively uncommon thing to see. The same was true of Boarbatusk I'd found later and even of the King Taijitu—which I'd thankfully avoided, nonetheless—though I supposed they kept themselves company. Although there were murders of the Giant Nevermore in the harsh wilds and the Nemeans to the West, they were kept from approaching civilization in such large groups, which meant that most of the Grimm within a stone's throw of Vale were Lone Wolves.

Except for, ironically, the wolves—which was why I'd say that the Beowolves were the most dangerous of the lesser Grimm around Vale. They weren't as strong as an Ursa. They weren't as durable as a Boarbatusk. They couldn't run as fast as the Nevermore could fly. On the whole, they were probably the weakest of the creatures of Grimm.

But they traveled in packs of twenty to forty.

I ran through the woods, the wolves at my heels. I was pretty sure I wasn't truly in any danger with Adam watching over me, but that didn't necessarily mean I was enjoying the experience. Despite their relative weakness—if you could even call thirty-six creatures from level seventeen to twenty-three being led by an Alpha at twenty-nine weak—they moved like a well-oiled machine. If my mask hadn't made the night so clear, I wouldn't have even been able to see the creatures stalking me or even hear them. If not for my power and my training, I'd probably be dead by now, too. Individual 'weakness' aside, they had great strength in numbers.

I guess I admired that, a little bit. Now that I could create parties, I wanted one that could move that smoothly together—no, even more smoothly. But for now, I was being hunted by a group of monsters that moved swiftly, silently, and in eerie unison. I was pretty sure I was stronger than any one of them, maybe even including the Alpha, but I wasn't so sure it would matter if I let myself get caged in right.

I focused on what was ahead of me, relying on my other senses—and my skills—to keep track of my hunters. If nothing else, running for my life was a good way to train Strength, Dexterity, and Vitality, as well as develop my skills, old and new, such as Sense Danger and Detect Bloodthirst.

In response to sensing an overwhelming amount of bloodlust, you unlocked the skill 'Detect Bloodthirst.'

Detect Bloodthirst (Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

An instinctive ability to sense bloodlust directed at the user. Detects bloodlust within 30 meters of the users location and alerts the user to its origin.

Detect Bloodthirst was one of the new ones—and one I was somewhat glad to develop, alongside Sense Danger. The abilities were similar and complimentary, though it had taken me awhile to truly get a feel for the distinction. Detect Danger told me when someone was attacking me; Detect Bloodthirst told me when someone wanted to, within a certain range. Better yet, it alerted me to the location of the source, and if I kept track of it mentally, I could almost make a map in my head of where they were, even without looking. With my INT above fifty now, it was easy enough, especially since they were following me. By tracking bloodlust and responding to impending danger as I sensed it, I could keep ahead of the pack and monitor them.

The original range of the ability had been a whole thirty meters, but it was a passive ability, meaning I could train it by simply using it—such as, oh, by detecting the horde of monsters hunting me—and I'd been doing so a lot. Sense Danger improved, similarly, by sensing attacks. With my armor putting a constant strain on my body and the boost my Aura, itself boosted by Mana Affinity, gave to all my physical stats, I could train the two enormously useful abilities and my stats this way, while also getting experience. Though, honestly, I thought I deserved some Crafting experience for manufacturing my own silver lining, too.

I felt something stir—a rise in bloodlust, a flash of impending danger—and twisted out of the way as a rush of black and white came towards me, teeth and claws flashing at my face, my throat. If I hadn't had prior warning, it probably would have hit me, but instead I danced back a step, even as I felt other surges rise, the pack responding as one. The original attack meant to slow me for a moment, one way or another, followed by the others surrounding me, hedging me in. The first attacker overstretched; a sacrifice for the sake of the pack.

Even knowing that, I accepted it. I reached out and grasped its throat, felt flesh break and burst beneath my enhanced strength and slick blood flowing over Crocea Mors. In that moment, I calmly observed the forest around me and accepted it as probably the best I was going to get. I wasn't afraid of this fight, but I'd have preferred it to be in a situation where it'd be easier to withdraw and still have a clear shot at a distance. Instead, I was in the part of the forest where the trees remained close together, roots breaking the ground and leaving footing treacherous; yet another thing to watch out for.

If not for my mask, I wouldn't be able to move so freely in the forest at all, but even though I could see clearly, it just meant I could better see the set up the Beowolves were running. Besides the one who had attacked me, six others were in sight and closing in—clear dangers meant to surround me or, failing that, draw my attention. The rest moved through what would have been the shadows, using trees and cover to break lines of sight and attack as they further surround me, a trap closing in.

I considered that carefully, but briefly, drawing a deep breath.

Then I roared again, probably catching the attention of everything within a mile. But the wave of terrifying sound fulfilled its purpose and I sensed bloodlust flicker for just an instant, clear and sharp in my head—

By repeatedly instilling fear in others, you unlocked the skill 'Intimidate.'

I ignored the window for now as the Beowolves, heartless creatures of Grimm, were only momentarily paused by the sound. I took advantage of it all the same, pointing a finger at the nearest.

"Magic Bullet," I said clearly and a white candle flame carved a hole in the fell creature's chest even as it tried to dodge. I followed behind it, Lunging into the creature as it attempted to flee the first attack, bladed fingers sinking deeply into the open wound. I slipped fingers between ribs, grabbed ahold, and tore a hole out of the front of the creature's chest with the Jaws of the Tiger. I sensed danger from three directions and turned towards the nearest, ducking low under a strike aimed for my head, grabbing the creature by the ankle and breaking it even as I pulled its leg out from under it, stepping away and dismissing it as an immediate threat.

The second attack came in the form of a charge, a blow aimed to knock me back and off balance rather than kill, which was to be left for another attacker. The Beowolves had reacted quickly to my counterattack, positions shifting at the edge of my thoughts, but I focused on the fight before me, right hand reaching out to touch the rushing creature's shoulder. I turned with the force spinning out of the way of the attack by using the creatures own power as a base, blades hissing against boney plates as the creature ended up rushing passed me. The third Grimm came on the heels of its brother, running upright. I sensed the attack before my eyes could even focus on it and jumped back from it, but the Beowolves weren't new to this and it jumped with me.

We met in midair and I felt claws slide up my armor and then across my face before catching it by its throat and tearing it out with the blunt fingers of my left hand. We hit the ground in a tangle of limbs as the Beowolf sought to hold me down even as its life's blood slipped away, dying to enable the rest of the pack. I fought against its death throes, throwing it free, but other Grimm were already upon me, claws and fangs coming down—

"Razor Wind," I snarled quickly, clawing at the air. There was a distortion, a shift, and the Grimm were flung. I came to my feet quickly, reaching out with my senses to find all the bloodlust being directed at me, checking it against my memory of the forest around me. A glance to the side showed me my MP bar, basic division told me how many attacks I had in me, and Wisdom and Intelligence together plotted a path.

I had to be careful both in situations like this and in what may be to come. Bai Hu's art gave me tremendous power—but only for a short time. The idea was to give yourself such power that you could destroy anything in your path in that time frame and maybe that had even been the case for Bai Hu, but for me…I had to make every blow count, stretch things out as much as possible, and use all of my advantages. With my power, I could make up for weaknesses with other strengths, like I was trying to do with Sense Danger and Detect Bloodthirst now and my other combat skills. Still using short bursts of power, but with precise application and between other attacks.

For now, this was the way I needed to fight, because it was the only method I could use to fight at this level. It should be enough as I shouldn't need to fight if things went well—which they almost certainly wouldn't, granted—and all I needed to do was make it through whatever I was faced with until Adam and Blake could assist, if it came to that.

But since my luck was so amazing, I was trying to extend my fighting ability as much as possible. All I needed to do was buy time or escape or, if neither of those were possible, make an opening.

Kind of like this one.

Thirty-four targets, I thought even as I moved in a Lunge, landing atop one of the downed Beowolves. I slid the clawed finger of my right hand in at an angle, driving it deep under its ribcage, up towards a heart I seized tightly in my hands and tore free as I moved away, flipping in the air to land behind another creature that had been charging at me, before landing a smashing blow to the back of its neck and bearing down hard to crush it.

Six more were reachable in a single bound and died swiftly, but then it got more complicated. In ideal conditions, I could have gone from one to another in Lunge after Lunge. With the power of the White Tiger, the boosts from other skills, the Grimm Slayer title, and Crocea Mors making my claws diamond hard despite being razor thin, I could take down a Beowolf with one good hit, but conserving energy was the issue. With Razor Wind and Magic Bullet as they were now, it wasn't yet possible to kill opponents of this level with one hit yet, either, so I couldn't use them to cheaply slay hard to reach opponents until I trained more. I had to make do with conventional jumps or, when they didn't work, expensive Lunges.

In this case I had to use the latter to get in position fast enough. I bounced off one tree to make a normal leap to another before falling hard in the midst of eleven more of them, just a slight ways away from the Alpha. I roar again and the sound caused the Beowolves to reflexively draw away—and then they died, fast and brutally. I crushed and tore out organs, throats, and whatever else I could get a hold of, flying between them with the speed of my Air Aura as I ripped them to pieces. I kept an eye on my steadily depleting MP bar all the while, flashing between trees, back across to the other side, hunting the Grimm down one by one until my MP was close to depleted and only the Alpha remained.

I'd done the math and taken some guesses and I wasn't going to be able to take the much large Alpha down in one shot the normal way, but I had the choice of either killing him and leaving a dozen little Beowolves around or taking out all the small fries with maybe just enough left over for this. I'd put all the distance between us that I could and now I took a deep breath and gathered what I had left.

My Magic Missile began forming in my hands and I counted the seconds, feeling the bloodlust of the Alpha rising to a boil in the wake of his pack's slaughter—but he didn't back off. The Grimm weren't ones to run from a fight, even when they were outmatched; I didn't know why. Maybe they were too feral to. Maybe they were fanatics to whatever strange cause motivated them. Maybe they knew something I didn't. But I felt it moving, circling me slowly in the dark before acting, buying me a second.

But then it charged me. Again, I wasn't sure if it somehow knew I needed time to prepare my attack or if it had gone completely feral, but it didn't matter; it charged and I held my ground. I could take one hit, I was pretty sure, I just had to stand my ground and make the shot, whether before or after it attacked.

I met its eyes, drew back a hand, and readied myself as it closed the distance with inhuman speed. It approached with enough force that I could feel its footsteps, but I didn't back down. I was at five seconds when it closed in upon me, swinging one massive arm at my head. I lifted my free arm to block reflexively and Crocea Mors held without a problem, but with the last of my Aura drawn into my next attack, I thought I felt my arm break down at the elbow, passed the covering material of my ancestral 'sword.'

I ignored that as unimportant and threw my attack, bolt of light tearing a hole larger then my head in the Grimm's chest right where its heart would be and then I threw myself back before it could hit me again in its death throes. It turned out there was no need, because it didn't so much as twitch, then, but looked at me with red eyes as I backed away, the bloodlust I'd been keeping track of all this time abruptly fading, even before it died. It watched me that way, in total, unreadable silence, as the last of its life fell away and I had no idea why.

But when it finally died, I exhaled and straightened, looking around.

Your level has increased by one!

You have defeated 50 enemies with the ancient arts of Bai Hu! You've obtained the title 'The Tiger'!

You have defeated 50 Grimm! You've obtained the title 'Amateur Huntsman'!

"That was close," Adam said, abruptly behind me. My heart tried to jump out of my mouth before the Gamer's Mind put it back in its proper place. "I thought I was going to have to step in there at the end."

"I thought so, too," I said, looking over his shoulder with a shrug. "But it was a good test for me, so I know what needs to be improved. The little guys aren't a problem individually anymore, though, and the big guys I can play dirty against and kill in transit. It's just groups that are an issue and the ones strong enough to wear me out."

"Human opponents are different," He stated. "We have more options than they do, thanks to Aura and Dust, and that's how we drove them back in the Great War. You won't be able to win just by staying a few steps ahead or climbing a tree."

I shrugged and smiled at the barb—hey, so what if it wasn't the most dignified approach? It had worked on that Boarbatusk.

"I know," I said aloud. "Ranged attacks, Semblances, Dust…dealing monsters is easy, but dealing with people is hard, whether you're fighting or not, huh? But that's why I'm training, isn't it?"

Adam snorted.

I glanced up at the sky and judged that it was probably getting brighter outside, because it seemed to be getting darker to me. Then I looked down at myself, drenched with sweat in exhaustion that I couldn't use my Aura to ignore anymore.

"Give me a bit to see if they dropped anything and meditate and I'll get back to work," I said, shoulders hunching slightly at the weight I was only now truly feeling. "Let's give it another hour and head on back, okay?"

Adam didn't reply, looking over my shoulder quietly. I followed his gaze and raised an eyebrow at what I saw, walking over to my opponent's corpse.

"I'm pretty lucky today…maybe?" I wondered aloud. "I figured there'd probably be more, but none of the others dropped them…"

You have obtained 6000 Lien!

You have obtained the item 'Lycaon.'

By collecting two Grimm Masks, you have begun a quest!

What Lies Beneath—What Is Hidden?

Slay mighty examples of the creatures of Grimm to receive their fell Masks. Bring together all of the Masks to proceed. No time limit.

Completion Reward: ?

Failure: Death.

I frowned down at the Beowolf mask in my hands.

"Um," I said. "Maybe later."

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