Wind howled past him as gravity reclaimed its hold.
Ren twisted in midair, as he fell through the red haze. The black veins of the ceiling receded above, and the shattered ward below looked like the open mouth of some gigantic creature waiting to swallow him whole.
He'd lost his perch. Again.
No matter.
He raised both pistols and fired downward—three rounds in quick succession. His Rune flared at the same instant causing the bullets to freeze mid-descent, caught in the lattice of force he'd created, and began to hover.
Ren landed lightly on the topmost one, knees bending to absorb the impact. The platform drifted under his weight, humming faintly with kinetic tension. He crouched low, firing another bullet beneath the first to stabilize the structure. The two points connected with a faint arc of energy, holding his weight as the improvised platform steadied.
He looked up.
The mantispede grimm still clung to the ceiling, its enormous body curling and uncoiling in irritation. Every movement was a slow, horrible ripple of muscle beneath chitin. It hissed again, but didn't move to chase him.
Ren watched its posture carefully. The creature was agitated—but stationary. That most certainly meant it was guarding something.
Or perhaps bound to it.
"Defensive tether," Ren murmured to himself, eyes narrowing. "You don't leave your post."
That worked in his favor.
The real threat now was the swarm—those damn wasps.
The droning returned, louder this time. The swarm's movement shimmered through the crimson mist, streaks of red light bursting from bone stingers as the wasps began firing volleys of laser-like blasts at him.
Ren's platform shuddered as a near-miss burned through the air beside him. He adjusted instantly, bending his knees and firing another series of rounds in a wide arc. Each bullet froze in position, aligning with invisible vector lines that wrapped around him like a miniature constellation.
The entire cluster of rounds shifted, forming a narrow spiral under his boots.
The structure responded to his will.
He jumped, and the spiral rotated—drifting laterally, dodging the next barrage of crimson beams.
His breathing was steady, but his thoughts were elsewhere. His mind wasn't on the fight. Not fully.
Because he was doing something else.
Prompting.
Internally, he reached for that other layer of reality—the place where his consciousness brushed against that otherworldly system. That anomalous interface that both granted and governed their power.
'Create Rune.'
He didn't say it aloud, because he didn't need to.
The words formed silently in his mind, the request carrying intent rather than sound.
The system answered.
His vision flickered.
.
.
[Request acknowledged.]
[Rune Creation Sequence initiated.]
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Ren exhaled slowly. His entire body tingled. It felt like static running through his nerves—warm, almost electric, spreading from the base of his skull down to his fingertips. The space around him blurred slightly as his perception stretched outward.
His pulse matched the tempo of the system's words.
He leapt again as another volley of red laser fire cut past him. His bullet platforms dissolved as he pushed off, reforming ahead of him midair. The trajectory rune pulsed brighter with every movement, bending space just enough to keep him alive.
But most of his focus was internal now—split between two worlds.
The part of him grounded in the physical was dodging, shooting, adjusting. The other part… was building something.
He could feel it forming.
When a Dreamer created a Rune, it wasn't just a command. It was a crystallization of will—an idea given shape through intent, honed by the soul. Every Rune reflected the mind of the one who made it.
He needed to decide what to create.
Ren's body ducked beneath another streak of energy. His pistol flashed, shattering two wasps that had gotten too close. The recoil sent him spinning sideways through the crimson air.
His mind, however, dove deeper.
He thought of all the fights they'd been through. Of Jaune, and the curious nature of his abilities. Of Ruby, whose acceleration made her nearly untouchable in battle. Of Weiss and her elemental abilities that were further enhanced by her second rune, each one precise and layered in control.
And lastly, he thought of Nora.
Her power.
Ren's strength had always been precision. Calculation. Patience.
He didn't overpower his enemies. He outlasted them.
He found the weak points—the inevitable collapse that came when all motion, all force, all intent accumulated into one moment.
Accumulate.
That word echoed in his mind like a heartbeat.
The bullets beneath him trembled slightly, vibrating with residual energy. Every shot he fired was made by hi aura so he couldn't waste too much of it.
But what if it didn't have to be wasted?
What if every fragment of effort, every ounce of energy spent, could be stored or built up, or even reclaimed in a single instant?
He didn't need a Rune that made him faster. He didn't need one that made him stronger.
He needed one that rewarded control with power.
The thought clicked.
Something in the back of his consciousness flared—like a match being struck in the dark.
The system pulsed and the world around him seemed to slow.
The wasps' movements became streaks of red light. The sound of their droning turned into a low, distant hum. His pulse roared in his ears.
Inside his mind, light began to gather—threads of it, drawn from everywhere. From the bullets he'd fired, from the residual kinetic pressure around him, even from the pulsing arteries above. Every ounce of motion and potential seemed to converge into a single luminous point floating in his mental space.
He felt it pressing against his mind.
Not invading—merging.
The process was always painless.
But there was still a subtle pressure building behind his eyes. A surge of images flashed—every moment of tension, every fight where he'd had to bide his time, wait for the opening, hold back the strike until it mattered. His entire fighting style, his philosophy, crystallized into that one concept: restraint that explodes into motion.
The pressure peaked—then burst.
The light collapsed inward, embedding itself behind his eyes.
For a moment, everything was silent.
Then—
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.
[Rune Creation Complete.]
[Rune skills: Trajectory, Accumulate]
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Ren gasped, air rushing back into his lungs like he'd been underwater.
The world was in motion, and now he could harvest it.
He exhaled. "Got it."
A beam of red energy shot toward him from the side. He twisted his arm, catching the blast on the flat of his pistol. The force reverberated up his arm—but instead of knocking him off-balance, the energy stayed.
It hummed beneath his skin, a faint, pulsing warmth.
Ren smiled faintly.
He jumped off his bullet platform, firing downward again. Each shot built another foothold, but this time, as he landed on them, he felt something different. Every step left behind a trace of power—a pulse that returned to him rather than dispersing.
The more he moved, the more he collected.
He could see the numbers flicker faintly in the corner of his vision.
The wasps swarmed again. Ren pivoted midair, reloading in one fluid motion. The new Rune's hum vibrated through his Aura network.
He fired.
The bullets tore through the air faster than before—sharper, heavier. The recoil sent a thunderclap echoing through the chamber, and each kill added more light to the invisible reservoir around him.
He could feel it building, rising through his veins, wrapping around his spine like coiled lightning.
The mantispede shrieked from above, scythes glowing red again.
Ren smirked faintly, holstering one pistol and adjusting his aim with the other.
"All right," he murmured. "Let's test this."
Ren leapt from his floating bullet platform, timing the motion perfectly. The swarm of wasps, as if guided by instinct, converged in unison, lining themselves up with deadly precision. A thin wall of red light now shimmered beneath him, stingers poised to strike.
A small smirk crept across Ren's face.
'Perfect.'
He raised his pistols, aura coiling along the barrels like liquid fire. The threads of his Trajectory Rune shimmered faintly in response, sensing his intent. Then, almost as if on cue, every single bullet platform beneath his boots and fingers shifted. Lines of golden light bent and curved, spinning together into a singular, cohesive form—a massive projectile, the size of a small truck, made entirely of his controlled bullets.
He aimed carefully, the massive construct hovering like a cannonball in the air. Energy pulsed along the barrels of his pistols, gathering and condensing into a column of raw, concentrated power. He released it.
The bullets merged seamlessly with the energy, erupting outward in a titanic beam. The monstrous laser-hammer of light tore through the air, cutting a perfect swath through the lined-up swarm of wasps.
The impact was instantaneous. Black ichor and bone shattered, evaporating into nothingness. The sheer force of the recoil blasted Ren backward, spinning him through the crimson haze like a leaf caught in a tornado. He let out a short laugh, wind tearing past his face.
'Holy crap… that worked.'
The beam continued onward, tearing through a distant section of the operating ward, sending shattered chunks of arterial tissue spiraling outward in a violent storm of black droplets. The recoil slammed into him like a tidal wave, propelling him directly toward the mantispede Grimm still clinging to the ceiling.
Ren grinned. He adjusted midair, angling his trajectory perfectly to meet the next challenge. Unfortunately, the price had been steep. The energy expenditure had drained roughly thirty percent of his reserves, leaving him at around half of his reserves left. This meant that every movement now had to be more precise—one miscalculation could mean disaster.
The mantispede screeched, its twin scythe-arms slicing through the air in furious arcs. Crimson trails cut through the haze, aimed straight for him. Ren didn't block—he didn't have to. Something deep within his half-formed Rune comprehension whispered to him, guiding his instincts. He extended his hands subtly, nudging the trajectory of the blades mid-flight.
To his own surprise, the red energy slices began to bend and curve around him, arcing harmlessly away. They didn't hit, but they didn't stop either. Instead, they swirled like liquid ribbons in the air, following the invisible lines of his will.
'Not bad,' he muttered under his breath. 'I can work with this.'
He readied his pistols, the barrels humming with restrained energy. Aura flowed into the chambers, coalescing into a single, concentrated mass. A massive shot—his next big laser bullet—formed in the heart of the weapon. Every fraction of energy he could spare was condensed into it, the golden light of his Rune wrapping around the projectile like an intricate lattice. He even added the energy blade the mantispede had cut at him into the shot.
The mantispede hissed, sensing the intent. Its face tilted, and its multiple legs scrabbled against the ceiling as it recoiled. In a sudden burst of speed, it crawled backward across the surface, attempting to evade the attack.
Ren smiled faintly. 'Not quite fast enough.'
With a flick of thought, the massive laser projectile twisted in midair. Its trajectory warped under the influence of his Rune, spiraling like a coiled snake. The beam tracked the mantispede, weaving in impossible arcs around the twisting veins of the ceiling.
The impact was cataclysmic. The beam collided with the mantispede in a crescendo of sound and light. The ceiling itself exploded in black shards and shards of chitin, raining down in a storm of destruction. The creature let out a final, resonating shriek before collapsing into smoldering ruin.
Ren hovered in midair, surveying the devastation. Dust, ichor, and fragments of artery hung suspended as if time itself had slowed. Slowly, the Nightmare System chimed—a bright, clear note cutting through the haze:
.
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[Ascended Beast: Mantopoda slain. 0 Runes awarded.]
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.
The satisfaction of seeing the mantispede reduced to nothing was enough.
His breathing slowed. He had only around 30% or so of his Aura left, but the risk had paid off. The ceiling above him now lay in ruin, black arterial veins ripped open, their pulsing weakened. The path forward—though far from safe—was now clear of the immediate threat.
Ren scanned the space below. The battlefield remained a maelstrom, but the wasps were gone, and his team continued their relentless assault. Qrow and the Raven raged above, tearing apart the remaining surgeons, while Jaune, Ruby, Weiss, and Nora pushed forward through the wreckage.
Ren ascended using the bullet platform method, once again, to reach the massive crater in the ceiling.
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AN: Advanced chapters are available on patreon