System Change

“Don’t you love the Cleaning skill?” Derek asked the City Lord.

Derek had managed to make it through the battle without getting even a speck of dust on him. Of course, he was only responsible for a few cleanup kills at the end. Silvi had done everything else, and she had done it beyond his expectation.

As for the Cleaning spell, it was quickly becoming one of Derek’s favorite skills. It didn’t give him the same clean feeling he had after taking a bath or shower, but it was close. It also wiped away smells as well, both good and bad. If you wanted to be clean without smelling like anything, Cleaning was the way to go. The greatest example was the currently spotless Silvi perched on his shoulder.

Derek took a closer look around after praising his favorite new skill. There were only a couple dozen people left around the City Lord. This included the City Lord’s personal guard, Captain Herrett, and his son, Clay, who was lying in a carriage, still unconscious. The boy was also the reason their traveling speed wasn’t as fast as it could have been.

Currently, everyone was quiet. Nobody dared to make a sound.

“So.” Derek broke the silence. “It seems I have a decision to make.” He looked at the quivering City Lord. “The question is if I should let anyone else live after I kill you.”

“No!” The City Lord screamed. “Why would you kill me? I received your warning. I didn’t do anything else to offend you.”

Derek squinted his eyes. “Didn’t do anything else to offend me? What about the two villagers you had your men kidnap? The crafter girl and her mother.”

Malcolm’s eyes widened. “That girl? I… I gave those orders before your warning. I just forgot to cancel them. A mistake… It was an honest mistake. You can’t be mad over something like that.”

Derk laughed out loud. “A mistake? Your ‘mistake’ left one of my friends in a dying state. If I had been any slower, she would be dead now.” He replied. “Now, I don’t believe for a second that you forgot to cancel your orders. You had plenty of time to do it, and I’m sure I specifically said not to mess with that village or its people.”

Derek caught Captain Herrett’s minute nods as Derek spoke.

“Still. You plan on killing me? I’m a Torith. Do you know what my father will do to you if you kill me?” Pleading hadn’t worked, so Malcolm’s next step was to threaten.

“Send assassins? Talk about me to the King? Yeah, pretty sure there are already some assassins on their way to me. I’ve got a plan for them when they get here. It’s nice that your dad’s going out of his way to supply me with people. Say, do you think if I send him your head, he will send extra?” Derek chuckled and shook his head. “Nah, that’s too much, even for me. I’m sure word alone will be enough.”

“You… you…” Malcolm Torith stammered for a moment before he turned to Herrett. “Guards, Captain Herrett, do something!”

The older, scar faced guard frowned at the City Lord’s mention of his name. Still, he didn’t step forward. Neither did any of the other guards. Silvi’s spree of destruction was still fresh in their minds, so their feet stayed planted. Derek had just said that he had to make a decision. Perhaps they were putting hope in his words that he would let them off.

Derek could only smile at that thought. Those who he allowed to leave earlier were all that was going to leave today.

“Herrett! You know your oath! Do something!” Malcolm commanded again.

“Ahem…” Captain Herrett cleared his throat, his face still as stoic as before. “Derek, you said that you are going to kill my charge, yes?”

Derek furrowed his brows at the odd questioning, but nodded.

“100%?” The man questioned again. “There is no possible way that he will live past today? Or even past the next hour?” He asked again.

Derek shook his head. “No, he dies today. His son may live. I haven’t made my decision on that. I’m not a big fan of killing someone in a coma. As for your ‘charge,’ he won’t live past the next few minutes.”

“Herrett! What are you doing? Attack!” Malcolm screamed again.

Captain Herrett nodded at Derek. “Would you receive my best attack? Think of it as a test of your strength.” The man smiled.

Derek couldn’t wrap his head around what the man was wanting to do. Clearly, he was under oath to protect the City Lord. He also clearly despised the man. Now, to ask Derek to receive his best attack. Is he trying to trick me just to get a decent hit in? Does he think his best blow will kill me? Derek had no idea what the man was up to. Still, he was very confident in his Vitality and Endurance. Especially after the upgrades they recently went through.

Derek smiled. “Your best attack, huh? What are you thinking? Do you want me to take it without fighting back? Without blocking?”

Herrett shook his head, and a smile finally appeared on his face. “It’s not like that. You can block if you wish. You can fight back, as well. Though I would prefer to be alive after attacking you, I’ve pretty much accepted the outcome if you attack back.

Interesting. Derek thought. Then he took a few steps back and held out his arms. “Have at it.”

Captain Herrett stared at Derek, wide eyed. “Really? You accept?”

Derek smiled. “Why not. I’ve been itching to see what that blade of yours can do.”

Oddly, the scarred man let out a breath of relief. “Thank you.” He said before stepping forward.

‘Hop down.’ Derek told Silvi. The bunny did as she was told and jumped off of his shoulder onto the top of the carriage. Derek chuckled. ‘Getting a good view?’

“Get ready.” Herrett interrupted. The man took a step forward and drew his blade. Holding it across his chest, he closed his eyes and muttered a few things. A red glow fell over his sword, then yellow. After that, his sword burst into crimson flames. A few more seconds passed, and the same happened on the man’s body.

The fire fell over the man’s body, then moved until it was all concentrated in his hands. With both hands on his longsword, he pushed the flames into the sword, causing the flames to violently burst out until the flames took the shape of a greatsword.

Then the man opened his eyes. Derek had always wondered what it was like when other people saw his purple eyes when he used the void. Now, he had a pretty good idea. With a scar running down his face, a flaming greatsword, and crimson red eyes, Herrett was the most intimidating opponent Derek had ever seen.

At that moment, Captain Herrett leaned forward, then kicked off the ground. At a rapid speed, he appeared before Derek. The man swung his newly formed fire greatsword at a wide arc, looking to split Derek just above the waist.

Derek, for all his composure, almost jumped backwards. However, he promised to take the attack, and he would do so. In fact, since the attack wasn’t heading towards his head, neck, or heart, he believed that with his current Vitality, he would be able to heal through any other damage done, even if he happened to get split above his waist.

Instead of taking a step back, or moving his arms to block, Derek held his hands open to the sides, almost as if he was ready to receive Captain Herrett in a bear hug. The guard captain’s blazing sword reached him in a flash.

When the flames on the blade reached his shirt, it went up in flames. Derek frowned as the blade dug deeper into his body. It was a strong attack. The crimson blade tore past his improved skin and into his flesh.

With Captain Herrett’s full strength, the blade pushed deeper. It ripped through Derek’s flesh, moving past his muscles. Then, as if hitting a steel wall, the blade stopped. It had made contact with Derek’s ribs.

The sudden collision between bone and metal surprised both Derek and Captain Herrett. Herrett’s arms rebounded with the sword, and Derek was sent sliding a few meters back.

At this point, Derek’s entire shirt was up in flames. He quickly reached to his chest and ripped the blazing shirt off his body. Another one down. He sighed. Derek inspected his new wound. It was quite deep, cutting all the way to the bone, but surprisingly, it wasn’t bleeding. That’s one downside of using flames on your blade, I guess. Instant cauterization.

Derek watched as the charred flesh moved rapidly, pushing all the char to the tip of his skin. It was unsightly. As the scarred flesh moved, the flesh beneath healed perfectly. This happened until the damaged flesh was pushed out of the wound and fell to the ground. Then, his wound closed and healed as if he was never touched.

Derek wiped some blood off his abdomen before using Cleaning on the area. I wonder if the Repair skill can fix shirts like it fixed that table. Derek put that on his list of things to ask Alanah about later.

Finally, Derek looked up into Captain Herrett’s eyes. They were no longer red, in fact, all color had left the man, and he was leaning forward, panting, on his longsword which was stabbed into the ground.

“That was a great strike.” Derek praised.

The man smiled. “I’m glad. It took everything I had.”

With that, the man slipped off his sword and fell face first onto the ground, unconscious. It seemed that he wasn’t joking.

Derek sighed and looked back up to the City Lord and his personal guard. “Your turn.”