Pathfinder/RWBY: You Call That a God? A Summoner in Remnant Quest

You'd played Imperial Conquest exactly twice and had been systematically annihilated by the smartest woman in Sarkoris both times. But you did manage to catch her off guard with how you used your wizard piece.

Conventional military wisdom holds that spellcasters were to be protected at all costs. That a single spell cast in the right place could turn the tide of battle and so they were very carefully deployed.

But a game is not beholden to the customs of war. And your people don't treat their spellcasters as if they were made of glass.

So you'd immediately sent your wizard forwards, with only the chariots capable of supporting it. Walling off the river had ruined Nenio's initial gambit and allowed you to cross into her territory all but unopposed.

And all it cost you was one wizard. A sacrifice you would hesitate to make if it were Tessara or Nenio, but if you were in their place you wouldn't hesitate.

The relic resembles an elderly Taldan man with a serpentine staff and an eclectic mix of weapons and tools on his belt - a true adventurer.

Add that the colour matches your name and what other piece would you even consider choosing?

----------------------------------

The greatest advantage the stone golem has over Drakōn is the reach of its arms, simple leverage keeping his superior strength from deciding every clash. So you'll make it irrelevant. An ancient Hallit prayer sends your strength rushing into Drakōn, granting him the power that was always rightfully his.

Your god roars and the forest shakes in fear, crimson light illuminating him through the dust as he grows. You run forwards, every arrow finding its mark despite your inability to see the golem, its position as certain in your mind as yours and Drakōn's. The golem tries to crush Drakōn with a two handed overhead blow, only for him to catch it with a kick and knock it backwards. You jump onto him and balance on his head as he advances, burying three arrows in the golem's eye to no avail as Drakōn snaps at its arms.

Unlike the body the golem's mask still carries the damage from the earlier clash, minor scratches and cracks slowly adding up. Clearly the yellow eye is as durable as the rest of it, your arrows falling out of the tiny cracks they made as it continues to swing at Drakōn. You jump off of Drakōn and onto the golem as it connects with a wild swing, hoping that an arrow loosed at point blank range might penetrate, but it fails.

You leap off of the golem as it sends Drakōn crashing into a tree with a kick, splinters flying everywhere as he stumbles. Now that the dust cloud has settled you can see the others - Pyrrha is masterfully weaving between the golem's legs, constantly on cutting and shooting away. Ilia is leaping from tree to tree, her whip serving as a distraction for Drakōn and little more as she clearly knows she can't damage the grimm. Weiss has apparently been waiting for her moment, a glowing white sigil spinning rapidly beneath her as she stands in a surprisingly familiar pose.

Drakōn rams the golem with a powerful headbutt, spinning to dodge the retaliatory punch and hit it with his tail at the same time. Seizing her opportunity Weiss launches forwards, the white sigil somehow propelling her. A single powerful lunge attack that covers more than thirty feet, ending with her burying her sword up to the hilt in the golem's leg. Ice spreads from the new cracks to cover the stone, the golem's movement slowed as Weiss gracefully pulls her sword free and backs away.

Drakōn presses his advantage by grabbing one of the golem's arms in his jaw, crushing it with his strongest muscles and keeping it off balance. Pyrrha and Ilia strike almost simultaneously - the tip of Ilia's whip lodged in the spikes that are the golem's shoulders and reels her in for a powerful kick, followed by several cuts and stabs before she jumps off and grabs on Drakōn. Pyrrha throws her spear at the golem's frozen leg, a gunshot somehow propelling it into the stone, shattering the ice and spreading the cracks throughout the leg. She throws her shield into the back of the spear, forcing the spear deeper in and bouncing the shield back to her waiting hand. She charges forwards and again hits the spear with her shield, somehow setting off the gun again and driving it ever deeper before retrieving her weapon and just barely managing to catch the golem's free arm on her shield.

She's still sent flying away, but the punch doesn't seem to have harmed her.

Needing to abandon the arm in favour of the weakened leg, Drakōn viciously shakes his head the golem lurching back and forth in his grip, raining down blow after blow on his flank. At the right time he releases the grimm, headbutting the main body and grabbing the cracked leg in a single smooth motion. With a single crunch of his jaws the leg is reduced to rubble and the golem falls, wrapping its arms around Drakōn and squeezing him tight enough to force the breath from your lungs.

You swear when you see that the golem is still holding the rubble together somehow, still using it as a leg even as it sends a barrage of rocks flying towards you with a kick. You slide beneath them as you run to where Weiss is standing, seeing her launch several icy blasts at the golem and calling Pyrrha and Ilia over as you move.

"This isn't working. Any ideas?" You ask, hiding your exhaustion and pain as best you can.

"Yes it is! It's almost down a leg, we keep this up and it'll be crawling as it chases us." Ilia says.

"Drakōn won't last."

"That won't work." You and Weiss say simultaneously. You nod for her to continue, wondering what she's thinking.

"This is a Petra Gigas - the body doesn't matter. The Geist is safely within and until we force it out, it's essentially invincible." Weiss says.

"And Drakōn can't keep this up. He's the better fighter, he's more agile but it hits too hard. Soon enough he'll be gone and I'll be unconscious." You explain, wincing as he takes yet another direct blow.

"Then we need to focus on the Gigas' body." Pyrrha surmises.

"Wood cleaves Earth - I can destroy the body from within, but I need a deep enough crack. So we'll knock it down." You decide, quickly explaining your plan.

"How will your..." Weiss asks, gesturing at Drakōn.

"He knows what to do." You say, already running towards the battle.

Drakōn and the golem hadn't been idle during your chat. He'd shaken off the crushing hold by throwing himself into a roll, the golem releasing him instead of letting him drag it onto the ground. Instead it had pelted him with shards of its leg, new chunks of stone rising up from the ground to replace the lost pieces. Under a hail of stone Drakōn stood back up and you can see him smile, perfectly positioned so the golem can only see him and not the rest of you.

You act first, running in close and precisely launching one of your dust arrows into the golem's shattered leg. You timed it perfectly, the shifting stones pulling the arrow into the middle of the leg before the dust triggers. You urge it on with a few words of Sylvan, an ancient plea to the great arboreals. Immediately mighty vines grow, climbing and twining around the shifting stone as they seek sun and ground alike. The floating shards of rubble are rapidly immobolised as the vines take root, catching the golem thoroughly off guard.

Before the golem can try and pull itself free Drakōn charges, knocking the golem backwards as you run under its legs and climb onto his back. The golem teeters backwards but manages to stay standing thanks to its other leg, even as it bends at a thoroughly unnatural angle. But you were ready for this - a chain of white sigils propel Pyrrha into the air as Ilia's whip wraps around the golem's arm. She joins you on Drakōn's back with a swinging leap, the two you you hooking yourselves onto the saddle and rope webbing as you grab the handle of her whip.

Pyrrha's arcing flight terminates with her shield hitting the golem's body, the speed granted to her by Weiss and gravity forcing the golem back. Simultaneously Drakōn steps back, yanking the golem's arm towards him and damn near wrenching yours and Ilia's arms from their sockets. He stumbles back as the arm is suddenly pulled free of the grimm's influence and stops resisting, letting it fall with a grunt. Thoroughly off balance and with no way to regain control, the golem has no choice but to fall when a black sigil forms beneath it and somehow drags it down.

Immediately Drakōn jumps onto it, stomping the stone body again and again until it cracks. You take your time aiming your arrow, planting it in a deep crack that forms below the grimm mask. There's a mighty flash of green as the grimm swings defiantly at Drakōn, a powerful blow to the ribs forcing him back. Somehow the grimm rises into the air once more, but it's already doomed.

A tree is growing within its body, roots digging relentlessly through stone with the speed you've granted them, trunk causing the body to swell and crack as it expands, and branches prying the mask from the stone as they grow upwards.

A shuddering clawed ghost grimm emerges, glancing at you all before racing for the trees. It doesn't get far because Ilia was waiting for exactly this, her whip piercing the grimm's body and electrocuting it until it explodes into dust.

You cheer and Drakōn roars in triumph, the others joining in a moment later. Victory is always sweet.

You drop from the saddle and walk to where the golem's body fell, inspecting the tree that's grown diagonally through it. Dust is so much more powerful than you'd expected.

"That's it then." Ilia says, sounding almost as tired as you feel.

"It is." You agree turning to look at her, then stepping so Pyrrha and Weiss are in your view as they approach. "Well done, all of you. I don't think anyone could doubt our might after that."

"And it looks like the others pulled through as well." Pyrrha says with relief. You nod, having seen the giant disintegrating centipede thing and Ruby all but flying back up the cliff.

"There's just one more matter we must tend to. Our battle brought too much destruction to the forest and was won because of this one's aid." You say, gesturing at the half dozens stumps around and patting the tree growing through the golem

"What are you talking about?" Weiss asks.

"We are all as one. We have destroyed and so we must create." Drakōn explains.

"And it would be very rude to leave this one to die after it helped us in battle." You add.

Weiss and Ilia share a confused look that quickly turns into a glare on Ilia's part. Pyrrha steps forwards to help you chip away at the stone still attached to the tree, prying enough of it away for Drakōn to get a grip on the trunk. He carefully lifts it so the roots are brushing the ground as you pull one more dust arrow from your quiver. This time you don't use your bow, channeling your magic into the dust and focusing the elemental energies as if you were shaping a spell.

The tree glows green as your signature forms beneath it, the rapid growth beginning once more as you invigorate it. The roots dig into the soil as the trunk lengthens and the branches climb. Drakōn releases the trunk and steps back as you continue your chant, not stopping until the tree towers over any other in this clearing.

You almost fall when you finish, Pyrrha and Ilia moving to help you stand. You dismiss Drakōn with a wave, feeling some of your energy return as you do. You might not return in style, but even Drakōn can't carry twelve people all the way back through the forest.
----------------------------------

A/N: I swear I wrote this chapter five times. I knew how it would end the moment I posted the last chapter, I knew roughly how to get there, I just couldn't put anything together.

But now it's done. Cutting it off here so I can get it posted, plus it's long enough for an update.

Team VASP is victorious.

Next time is the ceremony, some of the first day of classes and a vote.

No more bonuses on offer for guessing what I came up with for the team name, but you still get a bonus if you come up with something better.

Next update will come Saturday.

-5 dust arrows

Thankfully few grimm that dare threaten you on the journey back to Beacon, the combined might of the twelve of you easily crushing them in mere seconds.

You're not sure you could risk fighting another golem after the beating Drakōn took. The distressingly mismatched aches and pains of a crushed muzzle, yanked tail and missing teeth aren't unfamiliar anymore, but that doesn't mean you enjoy them.

Fortunately Drakōn will be perfectly fine tomorrow, after resting in… wherever he goes when dismissed. You will be too, once you've slept.

Frustratingly the others seem to recover much faster than you. Not even a minute after the fighting had stopped Nora was bouncing around as she eagerly gave Ren a complete blow-by-blow reenactment of the fight against the centipede monster.

The creature reminds you of nothing less than an acid spitting bulette or perhaps an insectoid hezrou from her description, the fat yet swift acid spitting bug meeting its end when they turned the lesser kin it kept spawning or summoning against it, turning them into corrosive bombs that dissolved the ground beneath the bug's claws and leaving it unable to dodge Lobo's decapitating slash.

Nora's enthusiastic story draws everyone's attention and once she finishes Ruby is swiftly drawn into explaining her group's victory by her sister, with Sun chiming in whenever she hesitates.

Apparently the four of them were more than capable of keeping up with the alces' speed and spent most of the fight inflicting an ever mounting series of minor blows and constantly distracting it until crushing it beneath most of the cliff.

Then it's time for your story to be told. And despite your poor prose and inability to keep a proper rhythm because of exhaustion you tell it well. Apparently Weiss doesn't think so from her sniff and glare, but she doesn't bother correcting you so it hardly matters.

Soon enough you deliver the relics to Professor Ozpin and get shuffled off to the ballroom with nothing more than a mysterious smile, finding a crowd happily watching the exploits of those few left in the Emerald Forest.

These must be Beacon's other students. Several hundred humans and at least two dozen faunus all watching as the initiates prove their worth in battle. There's more individual fashions on display here than you've seen in your entire life, ranging from the oddly familiar to the utterly alien.

You're torn between examining those around you and watching the Initiation but find the choice taken away from you when the screen freezes, the image of Niall and three others finding the Black Cannon Relics in the aftermath of Nora's battle fading soon after.

Professor Ozpin is in a much better mood than he was yesterday and it shows in his speech, though it's much shorter than the last one he gave. You watch as he calls Nora, Yang, Jaune and Lobo to the stage and introduces them to the school, the screen behind him displaying their portraits and what you assume to be their names, before rearranging and displaying four letters next to the Red Knight relic you'd passed up.

It takes you a moment to realise what this means as you cheer for Team Anvil and watch the next group get called up - team names are made from the names of the students in them. So this is team ANVL, not Anvil.

You raise an impressed eyebrow at that - it must be difficult to choose such names with only an hour's notice. Hm, you could turn that into a riddle game for next winter.

A group of strangers comes and goes before you recognise the leader of the next team - Cardin swaggers on stage with utterly unearned pride from what you saw of the grimm he fought - he and his teammates fought well but there's nothing remarkable about doing well against dretches or the grimm they faced.

After CRDL come many groups of strangers, only LTRN standing out with Niall almost shrinking into his armour on stage, until Ruby, Ren, Sun and Blake are called up.

It seems oddly serendipitous that Ruby's group are a team just like Nora's was, but it isn't exactly surprising. If there were no relics involved you'd expect both groups to become teams and even with them involved, who knows whether it was fate, chance or someone else taking a hand?

You cheer for Team RSBR and can't help but laugh at Ruby's shock at being made team leader. Who else was she expecting to be given the position?

You hold your head high when your turn comes. As expected you and Ilia are joined by Pyrrha and Weiss to form team VASP with you as the leader. Apparently Weiss hadn't expected that, and when her shocked gasp draws your eye you see Ilia and Pyrrha relax at the same time.

That might become an issue in the future. Yet there are more pressing concerns so you set it aside and focus on what matters - the ridiculously abundant feast that is your dinner.

----------------------------------

The feast leaves you feeling fatter and more content than the first Scarseal Festival and it takes more than a little effort to stay awake and focused as you follow the others to your dorm room.

At a glance your team is almost ideal - experienced fighters, a good mix between power and skill and no interpersonal issues. But you don't need Drakōn to point out that such an impression is purely surface level.

Ilia is your partner and you barely know her. Does she love to see arrogant idiots be taken down a peg or was her attention drawn because Niall is a faunus? She's obviously friends with Lobo and has something against Blake, but that tells you little. More importantly she's clearly lost someone and still carries the pain with her, a malady you've seen many times. And the only people you can count on to help you help her beyond Drakōn are Ren and Nora - and you're not convinced they truly dealt with their own pain.

At least Ilia is simple to consider in battle - she moves through the forest quickly and quietly and likes to strike from a distance. Not a powerful warrior on her own but you can easily work with her strengths and weaknesses - you share more than a few of them.

Pyrrha is obviously a better warrior than you, but doesn't seem to have much experience with teamwork. And despite seeming cheerful and content the entire time you were in the forest, some of it rings false to you, especially with what you saw during the ceremony. Was she expecting to be made leader and dreading it? Or was she worried Weiss or Ilia would be in charge?

Weiss is an even bigger mystery - obviously a strong fighter but seemingly more limited than the rest of you. You didn't exactly see much of her in battle and she doesn't seem eager to talk to you about it. Which is its own issue - she doesn't like you and you have no idea why.

And this time you can't just challenge her to a wrestling match to work out her anger. Another issue for later.

Your dorm room is as extravagant as you've come to expect. Four beds that are nicer than what the hotels had, four desks with your uniforms and books atop them, personal bags neatly tucked beneath the desk - or stacked all around it for Weiss - a large window, attached bathroom and a wardrobe so big two or three of you could get changed inside it at once.

Distressingly, the beds don't just look nicer than the ones you used at the hotels, they're much softer, which apparently makes them better. Or 'acceptable' by Weiss' standards. You can't agree.

It was already a struggle to sleep in the hotels and now you might as well be sleeping on a cloud, somehow not falling through the vapour but still feeling it shift and yield to your every movement.

How does anyone sleep on these?

You briefly examine the scroll that had been waiting on your schoolbooks, seeing it light up and vibrate for some reason but dismiss it. You'll get Nora or Ren to help you figure out how to use it for whatever you need it for and otherwise focus on everything else you don't know.

Like how do schools work? A question you can and do put to your teammates.

"What does that mean?" Weiss asks from the wardrobe, busy unpacking.

"I haven't been to a school before. What do we do tomorrow?" You clarify.

"Well we have six classes a day, starting at 8 and finishing at 5. We'll have homework to do outside of class but we do get a free period each day along with time set aside for free sparring and training, along with most of Saturday and all of Sunday to ourselves." Pyrrha explains, showing you a grid of meaningless words on her scroll.

You nod as you consider that - six days of work a week, with six classes a day. You won't have much time to go and hunt or anything, which means you'll be relying on Beacon to continue providing food and everything in abundance.

Not an idea you're comfortable with but you have little choice.

"The class schedule includes a map of the grounds and the curriculum for each of our classes, so little study now will make sure we're all set for tomorrow." Pyrrha cheerfully continues.

"Is it the same for all of us?" You ask, realising you might have issues if they draw maps differently here, which they probably do

"Looks like it." Ilia says, comparing her scroll to Pyrrha's.

"Good. I'll be relying on you three to guide me." You say, letting yourself fall onto the bed and frowning when it doesn't prove to be any better than when you were sitting on it..

"What's wrong, can't be bothered reading your own scroll?" Weiss asks testily. You struggle a little before sitting back up and looking at her..

"I can't read my scroll." You say.

"Is it broken?" Ilia asks, looking over at your desk.

"I wouldn't know, I barely know how to work one." You say with a shrug. "I can't read it because I can't read."

"WHAT?!" Weiss shriek, fury and contempt warring with sheer confusion.

"I don't know how to read." You repeat with a shrug. "Professor Oobleck said I'll have to learn though."

Weiss sputters for a few moments before storming out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

You glance at Pyrrha, who seems more sympathetic, and Ilia, who's glaring at the door.

"I'd be happy to help you learn. You can ask for help at anytime." Pyrrha offers after a moment.

"Thanks." You say with a sigh, eyes flicking from Ilia to the door. Which problem do you tackle tonight?

----------------------------------

[ ] Go after Weiss and find out what her problem with you is
[ ] Ask Ilia and Pyrrha about Weiss and how they feel about her

----------------------------------

A/N: I wanted to make this longer to cover part of your first day of classes, but stopping here to handle your team flows better. As always, ask if you have any questions. Xanthe casually compares a lot of things to demons and things from Pathfinder when it doesn't make sense to go into detail in the update and I'm never sure if I need to add an OOC explanation.