Chapter 186: Unlocked Area

Chapter 186: Unlocked Area

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Unlocked Area

I set foot on the shore, taking a deep breath as I enjoyed the sea breeze.

For a place that had devoured entire civilizations, this part of the continent was beautiful. Though we'd technically just come from a beach, the shores near Mistral are rocky and pitch blacka remnant of the significant amount of volcanic activity in that area. Not too far north of Mistral, the low fields gave way to the icy plains that ringed the upper edge of the Sea of Monsters, while further to the east, along the northern peninsula, there was a mix of fields, forests, but also wastelands. Mistral and its surrounding area was a place of extremes, with tundra, deserts, and volcanic fields all relatively close to one another, making it a hostile place to the unwary.

This was the first time I'd ever seen the eastern side of the continent and the difference was striking. We came ashore on white sandy beaches with nothing but clear skies above. In the distance, the shores gave way to forests, but ones far different from those around Vale or far norththese were tropical forests, beautiful in a way that was almost foreign to me. There were animals here I'd never seen, simply because they would never even think of approaching the places any of the Kingdoms resided in.

Of course, that was the point. The Kingdom's hadn't survived because of the tourist revenuerather, they had survived by understanding that the world was dominated by the creatures of Grimm and thus the majority of tourists would be of the heartless, flesh-eating monster variety. Therefore, they'd chosen places that no one really liked to visita barren desert for Vacuo, a lifeless frozen plain for Atlas, and a half-frozen, half-volcanic hellhole for Mistral. Vale was the only exception in that it was mainly just hard to get to, but I could only imagine what life had been like before our technology had advanced enough to deal with climate issues on a broad scale. Supposedly, the closest the Kingdom of Mistral had ever come to annihilation were the three or four times the volcanoes they'd built their city next to had decided to have a mass eruption.

Given that, the dangers inherent in such a beautiful place were self-evident. Any place people would actually want to live were bound to be filled with the monsters that had killed and devoured the people who'd chosen to settle down there.

Still, it was a nice place to visit, at least for us.

"I'll have to remember to bring Autumn here later," I mused, looking at the flowers blooming a little more than a kilometer away. "I'm sure she'd love the flowers."

"Love eating them, anyway," Adam grunted, panting harshly as he stood on the beach beside me. Even with repeated heals to restore his stamina, running across the sea on his own power must have been hard on him. I'd have to make him do it more often to keep him in shapejust because he couldn't grind his Vitality in quite the way I did didn't mean he could slack off. I'm sure Raven would approve.

"Jaune, have you located your target?" Gou asked directly and I shifted my focus to something else I'd been keeping an eye on.

"Yes," I replied. "It seems we're in luck; there's a Hydra nearby."

"For a given value of luck that leads us to constantly running into things that want to kill us, anyway," Adam said, this time a bit petulantly. I showed my usual amount of sympathy.

"Walk it off, pussy," I commanded him before healing him with a roll of my eyes.

Adam snorted but stood up and cracked his neck.

"Whatever," He brushed off now that he was feeling better. "How do we want to handle this one? Take turns again?"Read latest chapters at novelhall.com Only

"Nah," I said with a shrug. "No point in taking risks the first time out, especially with a Hydrawe'll go all out and crush it outright to see how much resistance it puts up. Remember, these things don't die easily and they can recover from damn near everything, given time, getting stronger with each hit that damages them. Don't relax just because we can handle Leviathan's with ease now."

"I didn't intend to," Adam answered, rolling his eyes. "Gou, you up for the usual?"

"Certainly, Adam," He answered as he lowered his head enough for Adam to hop onto his back and sit astride him. "Jaune, should I grow larger to attract attention."

I shook my head absently.

"Why don't you work on your sneak attacks some, Gou?" I asked. "Just because you can turn into a giant monster doesn't mean there aren't any advantages to sneaking up on someone and breaking their necks before they even know you're there."

"Very well," Gou said, seeming to mull over that before nodding. "In that case, it may be for the best if you start charging your attack now, Adam. As your attack is difficult to charge during battle, it makes more sense to do so while the element of surprise is with us."

"I know," Adam answered, hand already on his sword. "I've been sucker punching people with this thing for years, Gou."

"Ah," Gou replied, making a sound as if he were embarrassed. "My apologies, my friend. I didn't mean to question your ability."

"Don't worry about it," Adam told him with a shake of his head. "Always best to be sure, anyway. You never know when someone who's supposed to be competent is going to do something outrageously stupid instead."

"Listen to him, Gou," I butted in as I crouched low, eying the two of them. After a moment's thought, I gave a mental shrug and reapplied all the buffs I'd laid upon them. It was unlikely they would have run out during the course of the battle, but why take any chances when you didn't have to? The lost was momentary to me at best. "He knows all about outrageous stupidity."

"And in case it needs to stated, Jaune's a horrible role model," Adam continued, ignoring me. "Just in case, check with me before imitating anything you see him do."

I chuckled at that and shrugged, thinking of cyclones of broken glass.

"I'll be going on ahead," I said. "Follow when you're ready, okay?"

Without waiting for an answer, took off at full speedand I mean full speed. I pushed Acceleration up to the highest level I was comfortable maintaining in a battle, layered Bai Hu's techniques, brought out the White Tiger of the West, pulled from the skills I'd gained from the Grimm, and then capped it all off with something special.

With a snap of my fingers, the top of the sphere began to ripple as Suryasta rose from it like water and then knelt upon its surface even as Levant gathered into place above it. With the amount of power I'd put into it, the burning sphere would have radiated heat enough to ignite anything nearby, but the temperature barely changed. Fire and Air worked together to keep the heat from escaping, fighting one of the most basic laws of thermodynamic to stop it's natural flow and keep the Hydra burning hot. Though the heat and light, I saw the creature of Grimm bowing under the attack, its skin melting, eyes bursting, and makeshift bones cracking in the heat. It made for an ugly sight, like a melted wax imitation of a child's nightmare, but I didn't let up.

Taking a pair of deep breaths, I held out a hand and Agneyastra formed in my grasp. I hurled it forward and it penetrated the surface of the sphere without so much as a ripple, piercing straight through one of the heads and slagging the upper half of it in the process. It continued on its path, stabbing clean through what would have been the spine on a normal animal. The area around it exploded as the attack triggered, throwing up a coating of unnatural flames that swept over the Hydra and clung to it. At once, I felt the flames of Karna being drawn into it, consumed, bizarrely, as fuel for the fire.

By the time that Karna's sphere was wholly swept away and devoured, the Hydra had been fully coated in Agneyastra's flames, the supernatural fires cruelly covering the whole of its form. It baked its flesh, slipped into the flowing holes of its eye sockets, and even made use of its many mouths to claw at the creature's insides and send up growing columns of filthy black smoke.

I pressed it further quickly, striking while the flow of the battle was with me. The earth beneath the Hydra's feet shuddered and then flowed upwards to shape a new body for Ereb. The Earth Elemental reached out quickly and the solidity of the ground gave way under the Hydra's weight, leaving it to sink up to its knees into the dirt and stone. Its body struggled quickly, trying to break free even as it burned, but Ereb was working hard beneath the ground. Points pressed up against the Hydra's limbs from a dozen different directions, each the diamond hard cap to a massive drill. They began to turn, grinding hard against the Hydra's scales for a second before piercing its flesh and drilling further in. Impaling each of its limbs upon the twisting spears, Ereb locked down its ability to move and left it burning beneath the sky.

Naturally, I was quick to do my part. Allowing myself only a moment's reprieve, I held out my other hand and released threw another Agneyasta, followed by a third and a four. Each strike removed a head and melted a massive hole through the core of the Hydra's body even as it fanned the flames. At the same time, Levant and Suryasta worked to fan the existing blaze into an inferno, not stopping even when the Hydra's body began to appear skeletal as more of its flesh melted off with every passing second.

If I were anyone else, I might have thought that was enough, that things were all but done withbut I was a Hunter and, perhaps more importantly, I knew what I was up against.

I could see it, after all. At least for now.

The Mouths of Oblivion

LV 140

Hydra

XxXXxX

Aug 15, 2015

Shalist, DtPrince, rysworld and 290 others like this.

Thanatos757

Thanatos757

Captain of the Four Knights

Oh shit, it got two levels, and it didn't even kill anything.

Aug 16, 2015

anathematic, TonalArchitect, cj304 and 10 others like this.

Asunder

Asunder

Getting the crap beaten out of you so that you can level up? Hydras are the basically Jaune Arc of Grimm, which makes this fight really about whose the better masochist. Adam and Gou better start covering their eyes...ears, just generally all sensory organs. In fact just go back to Haven, the two of them are going to be at this a while.

Gou: They've been doing this a long time.

Adam: Hmm.

Gou: I don't believe it to be normal human behavior to smile when a hydra drools poison on your body.

Adam: hmm.

Gou: Are you even going to try to pay attention?

Adam:...Listen Gou, I know all about when Jaune gets into one of his moods. I remember back when he needed me to do it and I've gotten used to it. Just as long as he doesn't do it in front of anyone impressionable...or sane, there's nothing to do but let him have his...fun.

Gou: So why are you taking scroll snaps of it?

Adam: Because I want to make sure Raven knows what she getting into.