System Change

A few minutes earlier…

Ryven launched attack after attack at Alanah. After he caught her off guard the first time she charged in, she didn’t allow it to happen a second. Instead, the two got in a rhythm with Ryven launching one barrier after another at her, and Alanah blocking or sending them back at him with her rapier.

The elven commander was more than happy to stall for time, so Alanah didn’t push the issue. She was actually there to do the same thing. Though, her plan… or… Natalie’s plan had more moving parts than the duke’s. He was content to just delay long enough for his army to finish arriving through the Portals, then overrun Natalie, and thus Savannah, once they did.

Alanah, on the other hand, had to hope that Marcus was able to execute his part of the plan flawlessly. Speaking of Marcus, it wasn’t long before she thought she felt something enter her domain. But, as soon as it did, it felt like the presence vanished.

That scroll is supposed to be the best Natalie has, Alanah pondered as she deflected another barrier from Ryven. At the moment, her focus was completely on the commander, and thus, the space near him. So, though hard to miss, when the same presence entered her focus range, her eyes shot to just behind the commander before focusing back on him. That was a close one, she thought.

Marcus was definitely up there with them. Now it was his job to tip the scales in her favor. She only hoped that the man wouldn’t feel Marcus’s talismans when he placed them on his armor.

Just to help with the situation, Alanah put on her best acting face and did what she could to show a slight hesitation in her face as she blocked another attack. She didn’t slide back or act like the attack caused her any damage all the sudden, no, she just subtlety let it show that the attacks were getting to her. And in that moment, she saw a glint flash in Ryven’s eyes, and the barriers began to come at an even quicker pace.

On the outside, she was frowning, but inwardly, she was smiling. She noticed the slight presence that was so close to the elven commander before, disappear. If that meant what she thought it did, and she wasn’t just feeling things that weren’t there, then Marcus had completed his first task, and she needed to be ready.

She’d already flown around a bit and tried to escape Ryven’s sound barrier, but he had attached it to himself, so as long as he followed her, she wouldn’t be able to use her skills on the army. And, he was so intent on keeping her away from them that when she tried to dive bomb them once, he used his body and multiple barriers to stop her. She almost got cut again by doing that.

But, just a short time later, her senses proved correct. Multiple flashes of light came from Ryven’s back, and his eyes widened in panic. A smile broke out on her face and she muttered, “My turn.”

With Ryven distracted, Alanah launched herself forward with as much speed as she could muster. The eleven commandeered noticed her attack only just before it landed. His reaction in that short of time was just enough to shift his body slightly, narrowly avoiding a rapier to the throat, and instead catching it in his shoulder.

Alanah’s rapier was one of the sharpest weapons in the entire kingdom, which was shown to Ryven before by the way it penetrated Ryven’s Shield Barriers. Of course, this was with her sounds and vibrations from her Resonating Blade skill increasing her rapier’s functionality in every way. Now, when faced with a light-looking metal covering the shoulder joint, it slowed for just a moment before digging deep into the armor, then through his flesh.

Alanah’s 1500 plus points of strength weren’t just for show. Once her rapier made it all the way through and out the other side, she pushed her vibrations and sounds as hard as she could. The man couldn’t set up a Sound Barrier inside himself, after all.

At this moment, Alanah had two choices to make. She could either slice upward or downward. If she cut upward, the man would likely lose most mobility in his arm until healed properly. If she cut downward, she could remove his arm almost completely, and his arm would become inoperable, guaranteed.

However, slicing down with her rapier came with more difficulties. When she stabbed into his armor, it was at the joint, and thus a weak spot in his armor. If she pushed down, she would run into his armor in full and wasn’t sure if her rapier, even with the vibrations, would be fast enough to go all the way through before the man recovered.

Unfortunately, she didn’t have more than a split second to debate. The plan they had drawn up ran through her mind, and she made her decision. She wasn’t looking to kill the man at the moment, just disable him enough to break away and do some crowd control. So, with all her strength, she pulled up on her rapier.

Blood spurted from the enormous wound in the duke’s shoulder, and the man instantly reached to it with his functioning hand. But Alanah continued her onslaught, and didn’t allow him to staunch the bleeding.

Watching the rate at which the blood flowed and the feeling of how hard it was for her rapier to penetrate through his shoulder gave Alanah a good hint of how high the man’s vitality and endurance were.

Elves didn’t have the same vitality problem as humans when it came to longevity. They would naturally live a couple hundred years after only breaking through the first vitality threshold. She also received a good portion of that longevity by being half elf, but not as much. So elves weren’t in a rush to dramatically increase their vitality.

Especially elves like the duke, who focused on barriers. Alanah would bet, after feeling the durability and physicality of his barriers, that the man’s intelligence and wisdom were both capped at 1500 points. There was also a good chance that his Shield Barrier and the one he used to attack with were both at level 20.

You don’t live as long as Ryven without maxing out some skill levels, and the duke was alive even before Alanah arrived at Cydaria. The slowdown of skill gains didn’t matter much to species who had such longevity. That longevity did come at a cost, though. And that was drastically reduced fertility that even the best alchemist potions could only slightly increase.

Ryven drew back fast and Alanah followed close, not letting the commander escape her while he had so many debuffs stacked onto him. In a short amount of time, she blasted through many of her skills, looking to increase her onslaught more and more, if only a little. Marcus had made sure to clarify that his talismans didn’t last long, just a few minutes, maybe even less.

She had to take him out of the fight long enough to draw in close to his army and give them a command. And she had to do it while close, as she didn’t want her command to be heard by those inside the city and cause chaos. It was the reason she chose to stop the army earlier instead of making them kill each other. She always had to think of the possible casualties when using her power. It was one of the many reasons that she hated her class and element.

Blood rained down from the duke’s body as her rapier thrust forward and back in rapid succession, penetrating any barrier he produced as she attacked. She punched hole after hole into the man, yet he refused to fall or release any of his barriers. In fact, during her onslaught, he had calmed instead of panicking. This calmness allowed him to concentrate enough to deflect any of her attacks enough that each thrust that landed hit a part of his body that was non-vital.

He seemed to come to the conclusion that all he needed to do was endure her attacks for a short while, and the debuffs would wear off. Alanah huffed inside. She hated fighting smart enemies. She much preferred battling idiots. Of course, idiots were easily controlled by her skills.

Realizing that she wasn’t going to be able to kill the man during her assault, Alanah had to change up her plan. At this point in time, they didn’t need to kill or completely defeat the combined army. It would be more than enough to force a retreat, one on foot and not by Portal if Marcus accomplished his final task.

At that stage, Edward and the kingdom would be able to bring in their forces and pick off as many enemy soldiers as possible before they could get close enough to their remaining army. But that all depended on how long it would take for Ryven to call a retreat, and how well Marcus accomplished his task.

So, instead of going for the kill, Alanah slightly shifted her attack. Now, ever so slightly, her attack came in angled upward. The sound barrier was connected to Ryven, after all, and not static on the army. It was a good idea when he was mobile enough to stick to her, but with his current problems, she should be able to use it in her favor.

Their battle went on for a bit longer before, out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of one of the Portals created by the enemy wink out of existence. She did her best to hide her smile and continued her attack. Surely there was a mass amount of chaos below, but because of Ryven’s sound barrier, they could hear none of it.

She only wondered how long it would take for someone to get control of themselves and send Ryven a telepathic communication. That wouldn’t be blocked after all.

The other Portals soon followed suit until there was only one remaining. The final Portal didn’t seem like it was going to be going anywhere. Damn… so close to all of them, she thought. Still, being able to cause all but one Portal to disappear was more than I was expecting. It will take way too much time for the rest of their army to come out of a single Portal, and even longer for them to retreat through it if that time comes.

Speaking of which, the distance between their fight and the army below seemed to be more than enough by now, and it didn’t seem like Ryven was any the wiser. After one final assault on the man, one where she used everything she had once again, she enacted her plan. This time, when Ryven fell back a little after the attack, instead of pushing in and adding more pressure, she shifted the vibrations that were keeping her afloat.

She moved all her vibrational propulsion above her and rocketed down to the ground. Alanah did let up on her speed, which meant she was going to hit the ground at full force in the middle of the army. She didn’t care one bit about the landing. She was sure it was going to hurt, but her body’s endurance was stronger than the ground, so she was also sure she could take it. What she needed was to break far enough away from Riven and his sound barrier.

Maybe a couple dozen feet before she hit the ground, the chaos of what was happening hit her ears. She was out of Ryven’s barrier. She didn’t even wait to land. As soon as the sound hit her ears, she released a yell of her own. A single word with as much of her skill’s power as she could manage and hopefully at a loud enough volume to encompass the army with reaching the city.

“Kill!”