Chapter 84: Reaction Time

Chapter 84: Reaction Time

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.

Reaction Time

I pushed my hands into my Inventory, the Tiger rising around me once more as I drain a pair of Dust crystals to keep the Acceleration going and then another to give me back the strength I needed to continue. The Tiger lifted his hands from my own, fingers reached downwards away from my bodyand gravity shifted in a sudden, massive wave right in the midst of the bombs. I swallowed another pair of Dust crystals as I pulled the bombs towards one another and then swept my hands down in parallel slashing motions. Two of the bombshells broke open, split by the Far Strikes, but they didn't explode despite the invasive touch of my Aura.

Zeroing in on the openings I'd made, I used my Clairvoyance to confirm my suspicions why. Beneath the outer shell made of carefully put together metal shards, there was a second shellor rather, something that was more like a thick, bacterial mat. I couldn't be certain how he'd gotten so much of them, though I suspected the infected civilians down below had been harvested for the role; what mattered was what they meant. The bacterial mat did two things, the less obvious of which was that they'd provide another layer of insulation against Aura attacks, keeping the Dust within from being triggered as easily. Of course, my father was in control of both the bacterial Grimm and the Dust they surrounded, which meant he could activate them easily, so that was really just a way of making my life more difficult; already I could feel him reacting, seizing hold of the spheres and pulling them from the Gravity Well with the sheer strength of his Semblance.

The more obvious side effect was that the bombs, naturally, would hurl the infectious Grimm in every direction when they exploded, and I was pretty sure a Gravity Well that hadn't been able to stop Keppel from pushing forward wasn't going to be enough to stop them, even if I overcame my father's grasp. With enough practice, the power of the skill would grow, but here and now

I wasn't eager to test it. Not with my mother in the line of fire which, really, was probably the entire point. Even if I made them all explode up here, if even a few of Conquest's bodies reached my momI couldn't take that chance.

Fine, I thought. Time for Plan B.

Grasping a yellow crystal from my Inventory, I slammed it to my chest and lightning raced from my pounding heart to my glowing soul. The Tiger growled as I returned the bombs to gravity's hold, but we slipped right past them, flashing down past the bombs completely. I fell a step faster than the tiger, plunging into the still falling water of the storm. At once, a ripple raced through the air as my power took hold and I exerted my will over the water and air. I couldn't control all of it, but I could control a lot of it, and thousands of liters reversed direction at once, falling back into the skyand back towards the bombs.

The Tiger vanished the moment he touched the water, thousands of sparks careening through the rising tide. As the bombs touched the water, they halted at once, stopped and gathered together by the fists of the Tiger even as more water streamed up and over the spheres, surrounding them completely. In moments, my physical body stood upside-down under a massive bowl that held the bombs, keeping them tightly gripped within a hemisphere of water. Taking a deep breath even as I ceased to fight gravity and focused solely on keeping the shape together, I sank my fingers into the water and focused.

At once, large sections of the hemisphere froze, massive sections turning from water to ice in an instant. I put Deposition to work, hoping it would be enough to, if not freeze the contents into a mass too large for Conquest to control, kill the Grimm cells, or render the bombs themselves useless, then to at least restrict the explosions themselves.

Now there was just the matter of keeping this mass from crushing me and getting it away from my mother.

I pushed off with my feet, holding on with the fingers I'd put into the water before freezing it so that I seemed to be holding the sphere above me as I fell. With my mobility limited by the speed of the falling block regardless, I released my Acceleration briefly to conserve power, and cast my eyes quickly over the scene beneath me, trying to decide where to aim myself.

It really wasn't a very hard decision to make. After a moment, I decided and focused fully on my father, gripping the hemisphere tightly. Atop the sphere, Levant and Xihai's merged form rose from the otherwise smooth ice, her own fingers sinking into the material. I felt my MP draining, but the massive load above me seemed to lighten in a way that was hard to define as we were fallingnonetheless, I know my Elemental was bearing the weight for me, assisting me in moving it.

Which freed me to bring it to where it was most deserved.

Shifting my hold on it as the Tiger rose around me again and helped me guide it with another set of hands, I darted down through the sky and then slammed the frozen mass down upon my father's form, smashing him a hundred meters down in an instant. I didn't stop there, but closed the distance again and then slammed him into the ground below, smacking him at an angle to take him further from my mother. I saw Conquest smash intothroughone of the buildings at the edge of the desolated battlefield and followed after, feeling the side of the building tear away like paper as I tore into the household and brought the chunk of ice down on Conquest's head like I was planting a massive tombstone.

He caught it. Lifting a hand at the last moment, he grasped the edge of the hemisphere and pushed against it as I brought it down, stopping it centimeters from his face as ice broke beneath his fingers. Even with my Ice Elemental working against him, he pushed it back, forcing my feet to slide over the ruined floor as he calmly rose to his feet and continued to drive me back. When he stood level with me, his eyes met mine and something about them made me think he was smiling.

Then he gave the hemisphere a gentle shove and pushed its entire weight onto my shoulders. I staggered, the Ice Elemental atop it ceased her machinations to conserve my power as it began to dwindle and I allowed her to unravel back into Levant and Xihai after a moment, telling them both to move onto the next step. That did, however, leave me to support the weight entirely on my own.

So I did. I grit my teeth, planted my feet, and lifted it, balancing the massive and awkward chunk of ice on my neck and shoulders as I watched my father snort.

"Having some trouble there, son?" He mocked, crouching slightly to look into my eyes. "You need to work out more."

I took a pair of deep breaths, power returning with each passing moment. I didn't move yet, however, or go for any of my Dust crystals, but simply kept my breathing steady and all of my eyes open, scanning the area to make sure I hadn't made any mistakes. I checked the bombs above me again, making sure I knew exactly where they all were and knew at least the basics of each, and then looked at my mother in the distance.

"You know me," I said at last, providing an answer before the silence drew out too long. I knew this was just a brief pause before we continued, but I would take advantage of it as much as I was sure he was going to. "I prefer to work smarter, not harder."

If he'd had eyebrows, he probably would have quirked them at me.

"Oh?" He asked. "Then I hope you have something more to this lame-ass plan, son, or I'm gonna be disappointed."

Two seconds, three seconds, four seconds

Now, I thought as the Tiger rose about me. I snarled and took a step forward, leaving the Tiger behind to turn in place and put his back to mine. One hand dipped into my Inventory for a Dusty snack, but the other lifted a finger to point at my mother, erecting a Sanctum to protect her, just in case. He snapped around an instant later, one arm rising to push against the hemisphere, the other grabbing me around the waist and pulling me back. As my fingers broke through the ice, light was already gathering between them and I took aim at a very specific bomb near my father, identified with my Clairvoyance and Observation.

But Conquest acted too, moving as soon as I did. A bomb near me went off and there was a sudden wave ofI'm not sure what, but it tore the water from everything it touched, leaving me feeling frighteningly dry. The wood of the house seemed to wither, what few plants had managed to survive died, and even Conquest staggered. Most notably, however, the frigid bowl simply vanished, freeing the captive spheres.

And then a bomb almost directly above me went off, exploding in a blast of almost pure force that smashed five meters into the ground and hurled away Conquest and the bombs. I bounced up, eyes searched for the bomb I neededand found it instantly. It wasn't hard, since it was floating right in front of me and all, held near me by my father's power.

Perhaps I couldn't, at least not directly. But the cells afflicted his body to strike at his Aura, so there was another connection therecould I use that?

Only one way to find out.

My Aura rose even brighter around me, rising from my armored skin like white fire even as it burnt through Conquest's form. He gave out a cry as if tortured, but though it was in my father's voice, I didn't let upI forced my Aura through his blood and veins, forced it into the cells of his body even as I brutally crushed down on my father's Aura. He was in there somewhere, I could feel it through the touch of his emotions on my mindhope, fear, pride, hate, love, all calling out to meand I'd tear the monstrosity Conquest had made of his body apart if that's what it took to find him.

So I reached into him, the touch of my soul burning as I searched, and paid no heed to his screamsuntil they changed, somehow, a resonance to them that made my body ring. For a moment I hoped

But no.

"It seems there's only one way you'll learn!" Conquest roared, eyes wide as he stared down at my, and snarled in a voice that made my skin literally crawl. With strength that even now took me by surprise, he rose and shoved me back and I stumbled, as if my legs weren't working right. I caught myself quickly and tried to rose, but simply fell to my knees. My back arched and I pitched forward, hands shaking as if I was having a seizure, but it didn't hurt.

What the hell was he doing to me?

You have received the Status Effect 'Pandora Shell [Low].'

No, I thought as I began to understand.

"I'll leave enough of you to be able to sleep," Conquest said voice eerily quiet as he knelt down to look at me. "So let this haunt your nightmares, Jaunebeing trapped and enclosed, unable to see or move or breath, but still alive, knowing all the while that those you love are dying. Dream of that and then wake to what's left."

"Jokes on you," I gasped. "There are others on the way. They'll destroy you. Maybe even me."

He snorted.

"No," He said. "They won't. Don't worry about that, son; I'll be sure to kill everyone that gets in the way."

"Ozpin will" My voice abruptly gave out. My eyes began to close, one by one, as armor slid over them. I could feel my limbs changing in a distant sense, but couldn't feel anything like touch or pain. Already, the world around me seemed to fall away. But

You have received the Status Effect 'Pandora Shell [Intermediate].'

"Hush," He said, almost gently. "Daddy will take care of everything."

You have received the Status Effect 'Pandora Shell [High].'

You have received the Status Effect 'Pandora Shell [Max].'

I tried to say something, tried to resist, but even as my Aura fought, I couldn't do anything. He had a hold on me that went down to the cells of my body and though he couldn't touch my mind, it didn't matter. My arms seemed to melt, followed by my legs, as I was reduced to a literal shell of my former self. I couldn't see anything or sense them with my human body, leaving me only with the senses of my elementals and even those seemed masked, at a distance. The shell that was growing around me was blocking their Aura, locking me entirely within as it cut me off completely from the world until I wasn't sure if my Elementals were even still there. Perhaps they weren't; perhaps they'd shut down as they were cut off from me. The Tiger had, vanishing like smoke as I was sealed away.

But even as it happened, all I could think was 'Is this how everyone that Conquest transformed felt? Was this how my father feels?'

I didn't take a breath, for I had no mouth. I didn't shut my eyes for I didn't have those either, nor any other way of moving. But even as I was trapped in the dark, I was aware of at least myself, and I stayed calm. Even this wasn't enough to shake my heart.

Even this wasn't enough to make me stop.

For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all. Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul

I rose around the shell, the Tiger forming around me anewno, that wasn't it. I was the Tiger, my body left behind in the white shell beneath me. I turned my head to see my father walking away and separated from my body entirely, clawed fingers curling. The world around me was different now that I'd discarded my physical body, combining Projection with the art of the White Tiger. But that didn't matter either, so long as it meant I could keep going.

You've thought of a new skill. Would you like to name it?

I looked at myself crouching, preparing to Lunge at my father. All things considered, I could think of only one name that fit.

"Bai Hu," I growled and leapt at my father's turned back.