Chances

The Games We Play

Chances​

I slammed my hands down on the Tiger's shoulders, tossing myself forward even as he slid back. Our fingers reached for one another and intertwined before he spun, swing my entire body in circle. I gathered power in my free hand and threw it towards my father in a blast of searing white fire and the Tiger hurled me right after it, tail lashing out at the last minute to curl around my ankle. Conquest smashed the fireball aside with an almost contemptuous flick of his hammer before swing it at me with as much speed as Carmine before him, but though the Tiger's tail stretched to draw out my flight, it tightened at the last moment to draw me up short and a blast of wind knocked me down to the ground.

Winds whipped at me until Levant's touch calmed them, the sheer might of the missed swing such that I had to sink my claws into the ground or else be hurled away. Behind me, the Tiger's body continued to stretch along with one arm, space distorting around the other as it reached into my Inventory and withdrew a blue crystal and with an elongated hand, touched my mother's shin. I knew I needed to draw closer if I wanted any chance of saving my father, but before I did anything for him, she had to be my priority. Because she was my mother, because she was another fighter, because my father would have wanted me too—the reasons went on and on, but they didn't matter. What mattered was that the Tiger moved to save her.

As he healed her, though, I did a push up that knocked me to my feet and held my ground as my father drew a step closer, hammer rising high into the air. I couldn't let Conquest get any closer while my mother was in that state and I couldn't get near her without risking infection, so I had little choice but to stall for time while the Tiger worked. I was all but certain that Conquest wouldn't kill me, anyways. Sure, everything up to that point was apparently fair game, but I was pretty good at walking off injuries.

Still, as that hammer fell, it was hard not to feel like I was about to be crushed. The infection had given me strength, armor, and the sheer physical might of the Grimm, lifting me to even greater heights—but it had done so to my father, as well. And while I'd been able to create an organic bow for myself to give me a bit more breathing room, if need be, I was still new to the whole combat mutation thing; I had ideas, of course, but putting them into action would probably require more study on my part or at least higher levels in the ability. The thought occurred to me that there should be a number of things I could do to my arms, for example, to increase the strength or speed of my blows; stuff like what Conquest had done to Carmine and my father, perhaps. It might have been modeled after some species of insects or animals which may have given me a baseline to work from if I'd had the right knowledge to work with, but even then, I just wasn't sure how to apply such a thing to the body of a human.

Unfortunately, I had a pretty good feeling that Conquest did. To make matters worse, my father was the only body that had gotten a new title and increased so drastically in level, so it seemed safe to assume that Conquest had done his work on him—if Keppel, Carmine, and Tenne were disposable bodies meant to distract and inconvenience me, than my father was Conquest's main body, whether for its own power or its connection to me. Given that fact and my own history fighting against my father, facing his strength head on seemed ill-conceived, mutated body or not. Even with the power of Bai Hu's techniques, my father's blows had sent me flying away in our previous fight and he'd been holding back a lot; I probably wasn't going to win any arm-wrestling contests against him now, either.

But these mutations had done more than make me stronger and tougher. Monstrosity had improved all of my physical abilities—including my speed.

And I'd been pretty damn fast to begin with.

My hand rose from my side to touch the side of the falling hammer and pushed, keeping a steady pressure on the head as it continued down. I turned my body as it neared me, sliding my feet to keep my tail-wrapped ankle facing my mother, and guided the hammer carefully to the ground. It wasn't easy to make even that degree of adjustment, the overwhelming force of my father's arms such that I had to push as hard as I could to move it, but I shifted it cleanly past my body and to the ground.

But even that wasn't enough, in the end.

The ground around me shattered for at least a dozen meters in every direction, a massive wave of force slamming into me hard enough to blow me clean away despite my increased weight. I flew to the side and the tail around my ankle meant that the Tiger was lifted with me. And since he was holding onto my mother's leg…you get the idea. Her feet came out from under her, her steadying grip on her sword rendered worthless as the ground all around it broke, and three of us went flying.

The Tiger pulled my mother into his arms and held her close to his chest, slamming back into a vertical pillar of air and then landing on a platform. As a possible source of infection, I needed to stay away, so I dangled over the edge, held upside-down by the Tiger's tail, and swung like a pendulum. On the backswing, however, I was already in motion, eyes narrowing on my father as power gathered in my hands. Fire, Air, and Lightning in Balance—Plasma. With the thrust of a hand, I cast my Searing Light out at him as I came back around, the blast pierced through the air.

Conquest leaned forward as he took it in the chest, snarling as he braced himself against it. It made his chest piece glow brightly but seemed to do little else, but I kept up the attack as the Tiger drew three more crystals for my mother, one of each color, and continued to heal her—and then suddenly we were falling, a sharp gesture from my father disrupting Levant's hold. I turned the fall into a glide for a moment before he shoved my hand again and caused that to fail as well, but it was enough to ensure that we fell apart from each other rather than in a pile.

"Jaune!" My mother shouted, pushing out of the Tiger's arms and onto her own feet. "What do you need!?"

"Some time and a chance!" I shouted back and she stomped a step forward, snarling in reply. She lifted her sword and leaned forward as if pulling something enormous, putting the whole of her body into the motion even as he Aura began to glow from her skin.

My Searing Light had seemed to do little to Conquest, heating his armor and distracting him briefly. It had hurt him, sure, but little enough especially with his body hard at work repairing any damage he took, and he'd been able to strike back quickly. It wasn't truly surprising, I supposed—Searing Light was my first foray into Plasma, after all, something equivalent to a Fireball or a few steps above. I'd need something more than that if I wanted to actually hurt Conquest, but I wasn't sure what.

Mom seemed to have an opinion on that front. She seemed be under the impression that what I really needed was a few thousand times the amount. As she swung her sword the air in front of us—four meters high from ten to two o'clock and who knows how long—turned to plasma. It engulfed Conquest entirely, along with everything around him, and it took a moment for my eyes to find a level on which they weren't blinded. When they did, I saw my mom panting, a huge amount of the Aura I'd just restored put into that massive hit, but—

"Mom!" I directed her attention upwards as a burning shape swept high into the air, plasma exploding away as a massive set of wings unfolded. For a moment, it was hard to recognize my father with his partially slagged and brightly heated armor, but he remained level above both of us, suspended in the air on unbeating wings.

My mom raised her hand with another snarl and a massive column of plasm engulfed everything from it to several meters behind my father, concealing everything but his head, feet, and massive wingspan. However, this time Conquest didn't even dodge the attack or move out of the area of it—and yet my danger sense immediately began crying out in alarm.

At once, a dozen eyes looked in every direction, searching for the source of the threat even as my mind scrambled for a response to the unknown source of danger. My physical form was already in motion, putting distance between Conquest and I by leaping back, but the sensation didn't lessen.

Because it's not targeted at me, I realized an instant later as my eyes fell on my mother and I changed direction on a dime. The Tiger was closest to my mother and he was already reaching out to grasp her shoulders, but I still didn't know what the threat was—even looking above, in front, behind, and to both sides, I didn't see anything but plasma, broken earth, empty buildings, and the storm above us. I snapped my head down to scan the ground for any sign of another attack from there, but—

The storm, I realize, snapping my head back up again. My eyes turned towards the storm I'd thought had abated, for the rain had long since ceased to fall and I had not seen lightning or heard thunder since this began—but in that moment, as my vision flickered to see the burning power within those clouds, I realized that it wasn't because the storm had stopped.

It was because my father had placed it completely and utterly under his control. Perhaps even before Conquest had taken him over, he'd placed it under his command and had been holding it back until the right moment—now.

For a fraction of a second, I saw power building, witnessed the potential of the storm as a series of reactions began to connect possibility and reality. I reached up with my Elementals, Xihai, Levant, and Vulturnus trying to sink their hold into the story but I just couldn't get a grip on it—it was too high and his hold was too strong.

Because he had the high-ground, I realized as a pair of eyes flickered towards Conquest's wings. The storm was so high that even the bottom was near the limits of my reach—and he was far closer to it than I was, anyway. If I got closer, I could compete for control, distract him enough to keep him from doing anything major. Yet even as that thought settled in and I began to rise, I forced myself to stop, knowing I wouldn't make it in time. I focused on the Tiger instead, now less than a step from my mother, and did the only thing I could do.

"Playing with you has been entertaining, Isabelle," Conquest mused calmly—too calmly. "But you know better than to interrupt guy talk. Laters."

Lightning split the sky, illuminating the world for a moment that dragged on as time shifted.

It went without saying that I couldn't outrun lightning—even at four times my normal speed, I wasn't that fast.

But that didn't matter. Sure, I couldn't move faster than a lightning bolt—but I could move faster than Conquest and he was the one aiming the damn thing. The moment before the sky lit up, the Tiger had managed to grab my mother's shoulders. There wasn't enough time to pull her out of the way, but it established a connection between my Aura and hers and thus, a link between her body and mine, with the Tiger acting as a bridge. Aura, or perhaps souls, were complicated things, but even that moment of contact was enough to create something meaningful.

The lightning bolt came down a fraction of a second later, rising down and up and through the center of my mother's chest. Not through the heart, thankfully, but near enough that it wouldn't matter if I didn't save her. I couldn't say I'd planned what happened next, that I had any real idea what I was doing, only that I'd known that I needed to do something. It was that half-formed thought that had motivated me, that had pushed me to grab my mother with the hands of my second body—and that had made me force my own power into her as my grip tightened. Already drained by the massive bursts of plasma, it was easy to overwhelm my mother's Aura with my own, but it wasn't gentle, and even when she was impaled by a lance of heat and light and her body began to move as she tried to arc in pain, I couldn't be certain what had caused more of it.

Even so, I didn't stop. Even as the lightning struck, the Tiger sank its fingers deep into her shoulders and I called on Vulturnus. The Lightning Elemental flowed into her body through the right side, spiritual form racing through her flesh and blood—and Lightning met Lightning Elemental. I felt it through my connection to Vulturnus as a sudden searing brand upon my thoughts. There was enormous power in that lightning bolt, yet it was but a link to the sky and storm above. Even through several degrees of separation, I was made abruptly, starkly aware of the sheer immensity of the forces roiling through the world around me, as humbling now as it was each and every time I meditated. I couldn't match that power, couldn't control it or subdue it to my will, and even trying would probably be the death of me.

So I didn't. I just…made a path—a circuit that Vulturnus ran through my mother's body, carefully avoiding her vitals. He established a temporary route through which it was easy to flow, down from the claws of my right hand, down through her chest to link to the rushing power of the lightning bolt, and then around and up, out through the left shoulder and back into the Tiger.

For an instant, I saw the Tiger explode into a writhing, seething mass as if I'd used a yellow Dust crystal—but no, there wasn't even that illusion of control here. He came apart into a blinding mass of light that barely had anything like a shape; a living bolt of lightning that left a brand of heat on my ankle. I saw him shake and warp and writhe and knew instinctively, both through our connection and the sudden danger I felt, that he was about to explode and release that energy again.

But I couldn't allow that to happen. He was too close to my mother, the power too wild—I couldn't risk it. So I did the only thing I could do and drew him back in through the tail that connected us to one another, the bond between my body and soul.

He lost all semblance of shape, then, and vanished in an arcing flash I saw only through the brand of color it left on my eyes. I felt it though, as his entire body raced back to me and up through my ankle; felt the power enter me, like someone tunneling a path through my body with a focused laser—or focused for that one instant, at least, before it proceeded to run havoc through my body. It raced up my leg, Vulturnus leading it on a merry chase that had no end even as he tried to keep the power away from anything that might kill me. I felt muscles seize and sizzle, heard strange pops of pressure, felt the sheer agony of it, and knew more than anything that I needed to get it out. As it was, it was probably only my many resistances that were keeping me alive through this.

I searched for a way out, somehow managing to stay focused as the bolt ran its course. My hand was still lifted, reaching up at the sky from when I tried to calm the storm, but I needed a pathway through the air to guide the electricity. My thoughts raced and I tried to call to Levant but realized a moment later that she was too slow to be of help with my timeframe so sped up. I'd need to think of another way, using what I already had around me. I could try to ground it or use something as a lightning rod, but I had so little time to think with the power coursing through me searing a trail through my body. Already, I could feel it slipping, trying to take a different path through me, and knew I had only a moment to decide. My many eyes to into the world around me as it stood there, stopped—trees, buildings, my mother, the sky, the plasma, the ground, rubble—but I—

The plasma, I thought and then had no more time to think. A blast of plasma flashed out from my hand, a tiny narrow thing that was barely there, and yet Vulturnus raced out of me through it along with all the power I'd taken in. Along the connecting thread I'd made, he rushed towards the column of plasma my mother had shot upwards toward Conquest, leaving me with a flash of mind-blanking pain rushing up the created pillar towards my father.

I felt Vulturnus touch home as a flash of sensation that tore me from my momentary stupor, felt the crash of thunder forming through Levant, and came back to myself as I saw my father get knocked back and begin to fall in slow motion. I felt exhaustion rise in me in that moment, a combination of the enormous power needed to both accelerate time and guide the lightning bolt through both my mother and myself. I could see a sudden slackness in my mother and knew that she was about to fall down and I wanted nothing more than to join her.

But I couldn't. Even if that second of action had taken nearly all my power, I couldn't fall down while my father controlled that storm or he'd just send another bolt our way when he recovered. I had perhaps a second while he was still reeling from the lightning bolt to act and I had to make it count.

So I did, drawing a Dust crystal from my Inventory with each hand and leaping high as I devoured them. I launched myself up, high over the buildings, and kept going, dancing upon platforms of air to reach the clouds. In less than a second I plunged into the storm, fueling myself with another set of Dust crystals as I let my power spread throughout the clouds and felt it. There was enough power in this storm to boggle the mind, hundreds of thousands of kilograms of water, and the potential to let loose with that in countless ways. For a moment, I entertained the thought of turning it against Conquest, contesting his control with my own and angling the sheer power of the storm against him and cast fire from the skies—but I honestly wasn't sure I could. I could make paths through the air, Elemental connections between heaven and earth that would allow nature to take its course, but wielding this storm, controlling it…

Maybe I could do it, I thought. But if I lost control…or if Conquest took control from me or guiding my strikes as I'd done to his…

I couldn't risk it, not with so much on the line. All it would take was a single ill-aimed or redirected attack and my mother could die. No, the best thing to do was remove this variable from the playing field altogether.

So I let my Elementals loose. Vulturnus, Xihai, Levant, and even Suryasta rushed out of me, exploding into the storm and making bodies for themselves as they went to work. I didn't wield my power directly against the storm—it was too big for that, too heavy to simply crush—but water droplets began to converge, drawn together by bonds and the stirring of wind and the motions of heat. I guided the process, egged it on, and felt, in moments, water washing over me as it fell from the sky in massive sheets. Reactions to the change flashed through the sky, illuminating it from within as redirected power flashed within the storm, through bizarre shadows—

My eyes flickered, switching to a different form of sight the instant I recognized something odd in the shadows and strange sensations through the touch of my Elementals. I'd been watching the power of the storm in arrays of light that made the dark clouds glow as if someone had set fire to the sky, but that much energy in motion was nearly blinding—and it thus had blinded me, because the simple thought that had never occurred to me that there was more there. In the rush to seize control of the skies and unravel my father's control over it, in the sheer pain and urgency that the lightning bolt had scorched into my very being, I hadn't had the chance to consider the dangerous possibilities.

If my father had control of the storm—if he had been in control of the storm since the beginning—then what else might he be doing up here?

As the storm fell away in what seemed like oceans of water, my eyes pierced through the refracted light to see what had been revealed above us.

Spheres. Dozens of crudely shaped spheres that had been hidden in the clouds above.

No, I realized. Not spheres.

Bombs. Bombs my father was so well known for—and which had been, now that I thought about it, suspiciously absent from the battle below. All the while, he'd been using his power to craft them, deep in the heart of the storm.

The Thunder, My Hammer, I remembered even as my eyes slid down. I saw Conquest recover his position in the air, halting with his eyes and hands lifted up towards me. Beneath his mask, he must have been smiling.

All around me, the bombs began to fall.

XxXXxX​