System Change

One thing Derek could say about the giant man, he was slow. After taking the fist charge from the man to see what kind of damage he could cause, Derek switched to dodging. Not because he couldn’t take the damage, but of all the kinds of damage he had taken, he hated blunt trauma the worst.

“Stay still!” The giant roared.

In answer, Derek sidestepped another punch. After dodging, another volley of weapons fell onto him. This was what Derek had been waiting for.

He quickly gathered weapon after weapon as the fell on him while dodging the giant man all the while. As the end of the volley drew near, Derek hopped back with a grin on his face and multiple daggers in his hands.

With a thought, he motioned with a hand behind his back and used a skill he hadn’t thought much about since he obtained it… Void Storage. Before choosing to try the skill, he first tried moving one of the ranged assassin’s weapons into his own storage rings and bracelet. It didn’t work. Though, it made sense that the assassin’s class wouldn’t have such a glaring weakness. Then again, how many people could survive multiple attacks from the man?

A small rip appeared in the space behind Derek, and quickly, while a few weapons were still in the air and before the assassin could pull them back, Derek tossed what he had collected into his Void Storage and ended the skill.

“No!” The echoing voice yelled, both hurt and confusion in his voice. “Ogre! Do something!” He screamed at his partner.

Ogre? How aptly named. Derek thought.

Derek smiled. If getting cut off from one weapon was enough to cause pain to the man, he couldn’t imagine what the assassin felt being cut off from as many as he just stored.

Derek’s Void Storage wasn’t like storage rings and the like. With the storage rings and bracelet, a spatial function was built in, and the user had to use his or her mana to movie items back and forth between the space and reality. One couldn’t physically reach inside the storage space.

When it came to his skill, it created a pocket in the void, and Derek could physically reach in and out if he needed. Derek, however, was very weary when using the skill. Unlike his prison, he was unable to choose the flow of time inside the space. If nothing else, his current situation would be a good experiment. He would check in on the weapons once he finished his current encounter.

Speaking of his current encounter, the giant was getting annoying. The dodging was easy, but the man was persistent. “So, they call you Ogre?” Derek asked. “Ogres are supposed to have a pretty high regeneration, right?”

With that, Derek covered his fist in void and used his tried-and-true technique, a simple palm. Except, this time, he didn’t aim for the heart or brain for an instant kill. Instead, he went for the man’s gut. The palm landed and the big man stopped moving.

“Ogre! We’ve failed?!” The voice sounded out again. “Quit standing there! We must retreat.” Another dagger shot out of the forest, piercing Derek’s forearm.

This time, as soon as the dagger stopped its movement, it disappeared. It seemed like the assassin in the forest learned a lesson from the last time.

At that time, Ogre fell to his knees and opened his mouth. Derek hurriedly jumped back to avoid the flow and splatter of blood hitting the ground.

While Ogre was writhing in pain on his knees, the occasional dagger broke through the tree line. At the same time, the ranged assassin shouted his form of encouragement to his injured partner. Though, the way it looked, the man wasn’t getting up any time soon.

While all this was happening, Derek spared a glance at Stella to the side. She had been taking in everything happening. Even though she tried, she couldn’t hide the surprise on her face. It was as evident on her face as the worry she had displayed when she saw the volley of weapons pierce Derek, and then even more so when Ogre charged out of the forest. Derek was sure, she recognized the assassins.

Derek turned his focus back on the coughing man in front of him. Even on his knees, the man was still as tall as Derek himself. Derek scratched the back of his head with his right hand and batted a knife out of the air with his left. With an odd look, he said, “Uh, I’m sorry. I think I got my mythical creatures mixed up. It’s not Ogres with the health regeneration, is it? It’s Trolls. It was an honest mistake, surely you understand.”

Derek took a step closer, trying to avoid the puddle of blood on the ground in the process. With his hand balled into a fist, he swung wide and landed a punch directly on the chin of Ogre. The giant collapsed face down. Derek wasn’t sure if he was knocked unconscious or just terribly injured, but either way, it was enough.

The voice sounded again. “Retreat if you can. I’m leaving!”

Then Derek focused toward where all the weapons were flying from. He had run his experiment and had already played their game for longer than he should have. A blue glint flashed in the distance and a sly smile broke over his face and he activated Void Shift.

Everything paused and, through his Void Sense, Derek moved himself through the ripples in the void. He still wasn’t able to use the skill for long, but it was enough. Moving towards where the glint appeared, Derek arrived at a tree.

A skinny, almost skeletal, man with long black hair with gray streaks stood still on a limb with his palm facing out, in the direction of where Derek just was. Around ten feet away from the man was a knife covered in a blue aura. He most project them from his hands. Derek thought.

Sensing that the time he could stay shifted was drawing to an end, Derek moved onto the same tree limb as the man and reached out, gripping his throat. At that moment, Derek released his shift.

“Ugh.” The man grasped at Derek’s arm with his free hands.

“That was fun and all, but I think it’s time to call it quits. Really, it was fun.” He said as he looked down at his ruined clothes. “You’re going to pay for damaging my clothing.”

With those words, Derek hopped down from the tree and walked slowly back towards Ogre and Stella, all the while dragging the skeletal man behind him by the throat.

Reappearing at the ambush site, Derek was pleased to see Stella with a surprised expression she couldn’t even try to hide.

Ogre had gotten back up to one knee, so he hadn’t been knocked completely unconscious. He was breathing heavily, and small amounts of blood still dribbled out of his mouth. He wouldn’t be a problem.

Derek nodded at Stella. “Give me a few more minutes and we can get back to our travels.”

The skinny man had clawed at Derek’s hand the whole time, even going as far as summoning a weapon and stabbing at him. Unfortunately for the man, his projectile strength was much stronger than his physical strength. He also seemed quite the glass cannon.

With that thought in mind, Derek balled his fist and launched it into the skeletal man’s gut. The man gasped and did his best imitation of a shrimp, trying to curl up while still in Derek’s grasp. Derek tossed him to the ground beside his partner and he struggled up to a knee.

Now, both assassins sat side by on their knees, as if waiting to be executed.

“So, you were sent to assassinate me, but ordered to leave Stella alone?” Derek asked.

The defeated skeletal man shut his eyes and nodded. “We could not kill Miss Brighton, but we could harm her if she interfered.”

Derek was surprised that the man answered at all. “I take it Gerald Torith was the one who contracted you?” He asked.

“I cannot say.” The man answered.

Derek nodded. It made sense that the assassination contract would have a clause forbidding the assassin from revealing the client. “Did you really think you two would be enough?”

The man scoffed. “We’ve always been enough. We had the advantage. You… you’re a monster. How were we supposed to know?” The defeated man glared at Derek.

“He’s right, you know?” Stella chimed in.

“How so?” Derek asked.

“If that is Ogre.” She pointed at the coughing giant. “Then you must be Bones, correct?”

“We are known as such.” Bones answered.

“You’ve not been here long.” She spoke to Derek. “But the two assassins in front of us are quite well known throughout the kingdom. They have assassinated a few very highly skilled targets in their careers. Targets thought to be in the upper 100s or even lower 200s in level.”

“213.” The man spoke with pride. “But you…”

“Huh.” Derek said. “That’s all well and good, but I don’t really care. I’m just thankful for two more test subjects. I do like leveling skills.”

“Test subjects?” Stella asked.

“Mhm.” Derek nodded, but didn’t elaborate. Instead, he turned to the side and pulled open his Time Prison, exposing the door. He pushed it open. The rest of his group were all sitting around a fire, chatting. Noticing the disturbance, their heads swiveled in his direction. “Don’t mind me.” He told them.

“Derek.” Jacks got up and walked over as Derek turned around and grabbed Bones by the neck again. “Are we there already?”

“No, not yet. Just needed to make a quick delivery.” He held Bones out to Jacks. “Here, take this.”

“T-this? It’s a person.”

“Yeah, he’s pretty scrappy too, so you better hold on tight.” He pushed Bones to the floor in front of Jacks.

Jacks, taking Derek’s advice to heart, moved behind the man and wrapped him up tight so he couldn’t move. In the meantime, Derek had turned around and was now dragging the giant man in by his arms.

Derek motioned his head over to the side, with Jacks following. He opened a cell door and nodded to Jacks. Jacks nodded and pushed the man inside, the man yelling all the while. Derek closed the door with his free hand and selected one year. He now had a prisoner in cell number 001.

He dragged Ogre past the next cell, as it was already occupied, then tossed him into the next. Ogre wasn’t much the verbal type, so he only resisted with a few grunts and roars. Apparently, Derek’s void covered fist had worked too well on the giant. He now had three inmates in his Time Prison and could only expect it to increase as time passed.

Derek mock brushed the dirt off his hands and turned around.

“Uh… Derek?” Jacks asked carefully.

“Hmm?”

“Was that Bones and Ogre?”