System Change

With Jakis defeated, Derek quickly scanned his surroundings to make sure that there were no more threats around. After all, Eloria only had Osian left to protect it as a Guardian now that Edgar had gone and gotten himself defeated. Well, they did also have the Assassin’s Guild with them for protection, so he wasn’t too worried.

Seeing that there wasn’t any danger, Derek turned and nodded at Osian and Nyx, then opened the void and stepped inside. Seconds later, he was stepping out onto the top of the wall surrounding Savannah. Avery was leaning over the side with his elbows on the wall and his hands on his face, while Braxton was sitting with his warhammer across his lap and a jug of brew beside his leg.

“What happened?” Derek asked as soon as he closed the portal.

“Nothing much,” Braxton said with a yawn. “Little assassin met big hammer.”

“That…” Derek looked at the hammer, then around the area. “Where is this little assassin? It was Silent Night? Right?”

“Mhm,” Avery answered from his position. “Tried to assassinate me. Braxton popped up behind her and sent her flying. There are… some pieces of her out there,” the man said. “Just… small… pieces.”

“But she isn’t dead,” Derek said.

“No,” Avery replied. “She’s not dead. And there aren’t a whole lot of pieces. Just some.”

“She was very agile,” Braxton said. “Almost dodged me completely, but didn’t quite complete her flip.”

“I see…” Derek said. “So, will she be back?”

“Doubtful,” Braxton said.

“How strong was she?” Derek asked.

“Dunno.” Braxton shrugged his shoulders. “According to the list… pretty strong. But she never got a chance. She went straight for the kill on Avery, though. Had it been someone with slower reaction speed… then they wouldn’t be alive. She may not come back here, but I would at least tell Osian and Nyx to keep an eye out. I’m sure Nyx could escape, but I’m not sure about Osian if he were to be caught off guard.”

“That serious?” Derek asked.

“Like I said,” Braxton said. “Not to you or me, and not necessarily to someone with reaction speed like Avery here, but to just about anyone else… better safe than sorry.” Finally, the assassin sighed. “But with her being ranked fourth out of the lot of them, I’m beginning to wonder how much of a fight the top three… er… two… would put up against me.” He took a gulp of the brew and continued, “Can’t complain, though. As long as my lovely is safe.”

“How was Jakis?” Avery asked. “Strong?”

“Yeah,” Derek said. “Very. Maybe Metamorphosis Alanah strong.”

Avery looked at Derek with wide eyes after that. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Derek replied. “But, like… probably her strength before she could completely control it.”

“So he had the same problem as her?” Avery asked.

“Yeah.” Derek nodded. “I bet he would have been ranked higher had he had any control over his transformation. Without it, he was basically just a wild animal.”

Avery just nodded, then turned his head to look back over the area. Derek shrugged and did the same. They officially had one less Champion to worry about.

***

Jakis slowly opened his eyes and jerked backward as he saw a pale white man with silver hair and sparkling blue eyes just inches away from his face.

“Oh, good,” the man said. “You’re up!” Edgar took a step back and held his arms out. “Welcome to the room of ‘I shouldn’t have picked that fight.’ Population? Us!”

Jakis finally got his bearings, then surveyed his surroundings. “Awery?” he said as his eyes landed on the only person he recognized.

“You ran into the same wall I did,” the centaur answered. “I no longer feel shame. He beat you while you were transformed. Has anyone ever survived your transformation before?”

“One person,” Jakis said as he pushed himself to his feet. “The former Shinestra leader.”

“Then I have even less to feel shame about,” the centaur said. “Because even in your fully transformed state, you did about the same amount of damage to that monster as I did… none.”

“So this is where the defeated go?” Jakis ignored his fellow council member and went to find a seat. “And you’re able to see the fights?”

“Yes, and yes,” the centaur replied respectfully with a slight bow.

“How are our chances looking?” Jakis finally asked after thinking for a moment.

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“Not good,” Awery replied. “Briya almost died in one hit while you fought against that monster. The feed showed her try to assassinate a Guardian, then she was blasted thousands of feet away with a single swing of a hammer from a short, rotund man.”

“That’s Braxi,” Edgar replied. “He’s the number one assassin we have.”

A human woman who hadn’t spoken clicked her tongue but didn’t say anything. It wasn’t hard for Jakis to put together who everyone was, and the woman, Vendra, certainly had the look and build of an assassin, and she clearly wasn’t happy about what Edgar had said. However, Jakis couldn’t care less.

“He would put up a good fight against Xephos or maybe even Amelia,” the centaur continued. “We were only able to see him flatten a battalion and swing his hammer once with what may have been his full strength, but he is certainly no pushover.”

“Well,” Jakis stretched and got comfortable on the couch that he found. “None of that means shit to us anymore. Derek Hunt needs to hurry up and go take out all our people so I can get out of here. I have some important stuff to take care of.” Jakis looked over his status sheet, and a feral grin formed on his face. “Very… important.”

***

“Jakis… Briya…” Amelia held her forehead with her hand as she floated in the air. At first, she was angry at Jakis, but then the man defeated the Guardian, so she was relieved. But the Guardian, who seemed to have been looking for her, disappeared, and soon after Big Sparky was defeated, the Ascending Monarch entered a fight with him.

“And it didn’t take long at all,” Amelia muttered. She’d heard about Jakis when he went all out, and he was strong. She’d never seen it herself, but the rumors certainly made him out to be a monster. After seeing Jakis taken off the board, she no longer had any regret for her decision not to go back to where she defeated The Queen.

“What was Briya doing?” She didn’t know what the woman was thinking, but everything happened so suddenly on the list. Amelia didn’t even know the statuses could change that fast. Briya, Braxi, Siren’s Second, and the Savannah Stronghold had all changed for mere seconds, then changed back.

Obviously, Briya had tried to assassinate a Guardian, but it had failed. Amelia could only hope that the assassin had escaped unharmed. They were already down three Champions, and she had no faith in either Cuthos or Kelvin to properly help when the time came.

Suddenly, while she was in thought, her bracelet buzzed, and she received a message from Darvin. The Malaxi sounded both angry and panicked at the same time. But it seemed they were making progress.

Holcom had finally set out to install communications everywhere and hopefully find the rest of the Champions before things became even worse.

***

A couple of days later, Jace stood from his cot and stretched. He felt great. He was finally back to one hundred percent. And to top everything off, nobody tried to wake him up, so he hadn’t even had to kill anyone to get his peace and quiet.

The first thing the man did after standing up and storing his cot was look at the invasion status. “Oh?” Jace’s eyebrows raised slightly. “Looks like somebody had some fun while I was sleeping.” He clicked his tongue. “And here I thought I was going to get to have some fun with Jakis.” He was, after all, the council member that Jace hated the least.

Jace certainly had the council members all ranked based on whether they would be a good fight and should live to be able to fight again—like Jakis—or if they would be a shitty fight and not worth worrying about whether they lived or not—like Kelvin. However, it was all based on the few rumors he bothered to pay attention to. He wouldn’t know for sure until he actually met some of them in a fight.

I wonder if Jakis fought Big Sparky and The Queen, and who ended up taking him out. I bet whoever did that would be a fun fight. Maybe they all teamed up? Jace shook his head. He doubted that was the case. It wasn’t currently any of his business, so there was no reason for him to dwell on it.

After dismissing the status, Jace bent down and picked up the storage device. After pulling his bracelet out, he frowned and rolled his eyes as the bracelet was filled with multiple messages from Darvin and even a couple from Amelia. There were also a few from unknown senders.

Jace shook his head and selected all the messages. Then he deleted them all with a single button. “Better,” he muttered, just as his bracelet buzzed again. “What!?” he yelled as soon as he picked up the communication request.

“Finally!” Darvin said. “Jace, we need to talk… now! I know what you did.”

“I stepped on a lizard who wouldn’t shut up,” Jace said. “That’s all.”

“That… lizard… was a Champion!”

“Get better Champions.”

“I tried, but you re—”

Jace hung up and yawned again. “What an awful way to start a day,” he muttered to himself as his communication bracelet buzzed again. “Stop! Calling!” he said as soon as he answered.

“No, you listen here!” Darvin shouted. “I’ve put up with your nonsense since you were selected, but enough is enough. If you don’t come to the Stronghold right now…”

“You’ll come get me?” Jace said with a wicked grin. “Wri also wanted me to go to the Stronghold with him and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I welcome you to come and try if you really want. You can send the Ul’oc or Amelia if you want. I’d say you could send Jakis, but I doubt he’d be up for it.”

“Jakis is why we need you back here,” Darvin said.

“Why is that? You scared because the least cowardly of your Champions was taken out?” Jace snapped back. “Of course you are,” he said. “That’s why you’re hiding in a Stronghold that I captured while I’m out here fighting. Now, don’t call me again, or I might actually come to the Stronghold. And you don’t want that.” Jace hung up again, then stared at his bracelet for well over a minute before smiling. It didn’t buzz again.

After all that, Jace deactivated the runes he had protecting him before leaving his tent. Seeing dozens of people standing around close to him, he rolled his eyes but ignored them while he took the tent down.

“Sir, Jace,” a man approached Jace cautiously as he stored the tent.

“What?” Jace rolled his eyes again, but turned to meet the man’s gaze.

“System Watcher Darvin…”

“I don’t care,” Jace cut the man off.

“But he…”

“Stop,” Jace commanded. “Say another word about him and it will be your last. I already spoke to Darvin, and we had a nice conversation. He shouldn’t need to speak with me again.”

“Ah… I see. I am sorry, then,” the soldier apologized with a bow. “I forgot that Council Member Holcom fixed the communication range for most of us. Of course, you would speak directly to the System Watcher.”

“Whatever.” Jace waved the man off, then headed towards the barrier. “I’m leaving,” he said over his shoulder for whoever could hear it. “Don’t follow me.”

A few moments later, Jace stepped through the magic barrier and back out into the world. He closed his eyes and really focused on the pull towards the Guardians and Strongholds. “Huh…” he muttered. “Looks like one of the defeated Guardians was the one in the opposite direction.” He could no longer feel the light pull that had been getting less prominent as he moved away from it. It was completely gone. All that was left was the massive pull in the direction of the Stronghold he’d been trekking towards for some time.

Feeling it, he knew that was where he wanted to go next. It could take some traveling to get there, but he was fresh and ready to go. Finally, he took a step forward and started running.