System Change

Wri dashed forward with his razor-like claws and swiped at Jace’s midsection with a speed barely visible to those watching. Jace, however, was able to see it just fine, and brought a kukri down to block both claws. After that, Jace let out a kick and pushed himself off and away from the angry, charging lizardman.

“Is that all you got?” Jace asked mockingly. “If that’s it, then I give you about fifteen minutes before I wipe the floor with you.”

“Oh, no,” the lizardman growled. “I’m only just getting started.” He dashed in again and began an onslaught of swipes with his claws.

It was everything Jace could do to block the blows. When Wri first attacked, Jace didn’t have an ounce of Battlelust left in him. He was fighting purely with his physical stats and nothing else. Even then, Jace was no pushover. At the moment, he may not have had the ability to take Wri out like he had with the Guardians before, but as long as he could survive for a little while, the advantage would come.

The longer Jace fought, the stronger he became, and the quicker he healed. He was like a berserker in that sense. Though he was a little more strategic in his actions. Jace, after all, loved to fight, but he also loved to win. Sure, the more Battlelust he received, the more instinctual his actions became—that was what his Battle Instincts passive skill was for—but he had been in so many battles that he knew his limits and was able to strategize for most scenarios.

Most of the time, especially back on the battleground planets, Jace didn’t need a strategy. He was able to go straight in and destroy anything in his way while building up Battlelust the entire time. By the time he reached anything that posed a threat or would give him a good fight, he was running high on Battlelust and ready.

But for cases like the invasion, he’d done things a little differently. He’d expected to teleport in and be forced directly into battle—actually, he was hoping for it. So, twenty minutes before the teleportation, he’d headed deep into a battleground and begun building his Battlelust.

By the time the invasion happened, he’d built up quite a bit of it. That was the main reason he made a beeline to the nearest Guardian he could find as soon as he arrived. There was no sense in wasting any of his painstakingly built-up Battlelust. The situation turned out almost perfectly. The two Guardians were able to give him a decent fight, and it looked like he’d be rewarded for it at the end of the invasion.

However, things were different when running into someone like Wri while running on empty. Jace hadn’t cared enough to seek out information about the lizardman, but he couldn’t help overhearing people when they spoke about some of the council members. One thing Jace had overheard was that Wri was feared not because of his strength and skills, but because of his endurance and stamina.

Apparently, along with his armor-like scales, the lizardman was pumped full of endurance—making it even harder to deal damage to him. Along with that, having high endurance also meant high stamina. Wri could fight for hours without running low on stamina or getting tired. He didn’t have to worry about becoming saturated with stamina potions to the point that they no longer worked, either.So, against almost anyone, Wri held the advantage in an extended fight. At least… against anyone other than Jace. Jace didn’t need an obscene amount of stamina or defense in an extended fight—not when he had Battlelust. He was at his worst in short battles against a single enemy, but a long, drawn-out battle? That was where Jace shined.

And, by the way it looked, Wri hadn’t bothered to do any research on Jace. Hell, he didn’t know if anyone had actually done any research on him. Perhaps, if the lizard had gone all out at the beginning and used the battalion of soldiers he’d gathered, it may have been a different story. But instead, the lizard was fighting just like all the rumors said.

So Jace settled into a rhythm. He blocked or dodged attack after attack. Occasionally, a claw landed and left a nice gash in Jace’s body, but that didn’t come with anything other than pain, and pain was irrelevant to Jace. He couldn’t count the number of times that he’d been cut open before. If it weren’t for the magical way he healed, his scars would have scars.

“Getting tired?” Wri shouted as he continued his onslaught.

“Not really, no,” Jace said with a shrug as he batted away a claw with the side of his kukri and stabbed out with his other. They’d been fighting for a few minutes at this point, and Jace’s Battlelust was slowly gathering. As his own Battlelust grew, so too did the effect on his legendary kukri.

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Wri’s eyes widened, and he jumped back when Jace’s attack landed. The blade had only nicked the man, but it had actually cut into one of his scales. It hadn’t been enough to draw blood, but at the beginning of the fight, the blade hadn’t even been able to leave a mark.

“What the…” Wri stood and looked down at his forearm—examining the scratch. “You’ve been holding back?” he asked. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been cut.”

“Get used to it,” Jace said with an evil grin. “By the end of this fight, I may make some steaks out of that tail of yours.”

“Is that so?” Wri smiled back with his maw full of sharp teeth. “We’ll see about that,” he said. Then, he looked back at his soldiers, who were all standing by watching the fight, and shouted, “If he dies, he dies! Everyone, attack!”

Fuck, Jace thought as he tilted his head to avoid an arrow, then got blasted in the leg with a mana bolt. Over a dozen high-ranking soldiers attacked at once, then Wri joined them.

Jace had thought that Wri was a typical cocky council member. He didn’t think he’d call for backup and go all out at the first sign of danger. If he had, Jace would have tried to hold back in his counterattack. He needed at least ten more minutes of Battlelust to be certain to survive against the lizard.

“Ugh…” A breath left Jace’s mouth as a hammer found his sternum after he avoided an attack on his neck by Wri’s claws. The slight pause was all the soldiers and Wri needed to take advantage of their numbers.

A dagger found Jace’s hamstring as Wri’s claws ran across his chest. Blood gushed from the open wounds, and the white of his ribcage could even be seen. Then, an arrow pierced through his leather armor and dug into his kidney. Jace gritted his teeth and swung one of his kukri out to the side. The blade found the neck of the dagger-wielder, and the man fell to the ground, clutching at his throat.

Almost as soon as the man fell, a bright light encompassed him, and the wound on his throat closed. It seemed like Wri was even lucky enough to have found a healer after arriving.

In situations like the one he was in, Jace’s Battlelust built up faster, but he wasn’t sure it was going to be fast enough. His wounds were healing at a rate one could see if they focused hard enough, but that wasn’t fast enough to keep him alive.

Just that one flurry of attacks from the battalion was enough to leave Jace reeling with only half of his health points remaining. Jace pushed his forearm against the gashes in his chest to staunch the bleeding a little and looked up. Wri was staring at him with an amused look on his face.

“What?” the lizardman asked. “You didn’t think I would just fight you one-on-one, did you? Well… I would have, but you made me angry. It’s your own fault.”

Jace looked at Wri and spit out a mouthful of blood. His smile, which had still never left his face, grew even wider. “Thanks for the fight,” he said as he ran his tongue across his teeth. “It’s been a while since the last time I was in a position like this.”

“Oh, are you already finished?” Wri asked. “I thought you would put up more of a fight than that. Kelvin was so proud of his little dog that controlled his battlegrounds. But I’m not finished yet. No, we’re going to play a little game. We’re going to see how many times you can be put into a Dying State before reaching Virendell. I think it’s quite far away. According to the scout, he had to travel quite the distance to get into communication range with us. But don’t worry, we’ve got a good healer, so we won’t even have to waste a single potion.”

At that, Jace chuckled. Then it eventually turned into a full-on laugh accompanied by a coughing fit and about a liter of blood.

“It’s good that you can still laugh like that,” Wri said. “But we’ll see if you’re still laughing by the time we get there.”

“No…” Jace muttered between coughs.

“What was that? No?” Wri asked, amused.

“I’m not going back to the Stronghold,” Jace said, his smile never leaving his face.

“Oh, you’re not?” Wri asked. “Why don’t you enlighten me on why that is?” The man channeled more energy into his claws as he spoke. It seemed like he was getting ready to put Jace in that Dying State.

“You talk too much,” Jace said. His Battlelust still wasn’t enough to get him out of his situation, but there was a reason other than the fact that he just loved to fight that he’d never worried once. He’d received a skill when his class was upgraded to legendary.

It was a good skill that didn’t even have a level. He’d only had reason to use it once since he got it. Sure, it came with some costs, but those costs were for future Jace to worry about. Future Jace wasn’t in a fun fight with a Champion and his battalion, after all.

Surge of War, Jace commanded mentally. The second the skill activated, the wounds across his chest and the rest of his body closed almost instantly. His health shot up to 100%, then continued to grow until it was 20% more than maximum.

On top of all of that, there was his Battlelust. His Battlelust was the main receiver of the Surge of War skill. It automatically catapulted his Battlelust to a point at which he had to rely on his Battle Instincts to function at full potential. It was a point beyond where he’d been when he fought the two Guardians.

Seeing the astonished look in Wri’s eyes made everything worth it. With such speed that the lizardman wasn’t even able to react, Jace swung his kukri into the man’s thigh. It was too bad that the Battlelust inside his weapons wasn’t affected by Surge of War—not necessarily for Jace, but for Wri. It meant that they still weren’t sharp enough to slice clean through the lizard’s leg.

Instead, the blade bit deep into his leg, then cut through half the bone before halting. But to Jace, that just meant that the blade needed a little more help. Jace let go of that kukri, then tossed his other into his free hand. Then, like a hammer meeting a nail with precision, he struck the exact same spot. One kukri collided with the other. The force pushed the first kukri through but also shattered part of the bone.

Wri let out an agonized roar as he fell to the ground. An instant later, Jace held both of his weapons once again. He turned and looked at the shocked battalion, then let out a booming laugh. “Now the fun really begins.”