System Change

The teleporter that Holcom had set up before he’d gone out to find the Champions buzzed. Then a figure materialized. The figure took a step off the platform and winced. The guards stationed there to receive any Champions that Holcom sent back rushed forward to help the new arrival.

Soon, the new arrival was brought into Darvin’s commandeered temporary office, where Darvin, Amelia, and Trischa waited.

“That doesn’t look good,” Trischa said as Briya winced when she sat on the couch across from the woman.

The cat-like Taji was obviously unwell. Not only was she missing an arm, but most of her shoulder up to her neck was gone. She was wrapped in bandages that blood continuously seeped through.

“No shit!” Briya quipped at the woman.

“Explain,” Darvin said. “What exactly happened?”

Briya then explained how she’d noticed that the Strongholds didn’t change their status unless there was fighting inside them. So, she was able to sneak in while avoiding detection—it was her main ability, after all. At least, she thought she’d been able to sneak in without being noticed, but after what happened, she wasn’t sure.

Seeing that she had a chance to take out a Guardian and escape, she went for it. She hadn’t had any luck getting in touch with any of the other Champions at that time, so she wanted to at least weaken the enemy where she could. However, the Guardian she chose to deal the blow to had a much faster reaction than she expected.

This normally wouldn’t have been a problem for the career assassin, as she felt that, though his reactions were quick, they still weren’t a match for her. However, the small man with a hammer was a very unexpected variable.

“He called himself an assassin,” Briya said. “I don’t know if his attack was so fast because of his strength or his speed… it could have been both. But he was able to sneak up on me with a giant warhammer, and I wasn’t fast enough to escape unharmed.”

“And you weren’t able to retrieve your arm to reattach it, either?” Darvin asked.

“What arm?” Briya snorted with disdain. “From here, down…” she motioned to where her shoulder used to be. “Was completely destroyed. I’ve never seen flesh and muscle shatter like bone, but the whole thing exploded into thousands of pieces, if not more. I’m lucky that he hit my elbow instead of my upper arm—or anywhere else on my body. I’d be dead had that happened.”

“Amelia,” Darvin said as he turned his attention to the woman. “What do you think?”

“I think that this Braxi could be a problem,” Amelia replied. “We don’t know if the reason he was able to act so swiftly and with such power was because he had already prepared everything, or if he was just that strong. No offense, Briya, you’re no match for me, but I may even have a hard time causing you that much damage so quickly.”

“Why would I be offended by the truth?” Briya asked. “Still, I wouldn’t be able to escape from your skills. He didn’t even bother to chase after me.”

“So… Savannah is going to be a problem,” Darvin said with a sigh. There were so many problems cropping up that he hadn’t accounted for. The loss of Jakis was a big one, and Braxi, being strong enough to take on Briya so easily, was another. Then there was the wildcard that was Jace Whitaker.

“It’s all going to be a problem,” Amelia said. “The Ascending Monarch showed up just after I battled The Queen, then the Guardian was so far away that I could no longer feel their pull moments later. Not long after, the Guardian showed up and fought—and beat—Jakis. The fight didn’t even last long.”

“What are you saying?” Darvin asked.

“I’m saying that you messed up,” Amelia finally said, letting the emotions she’d been keeping bottled up out. “You came in here too confident. Of course, the system… or systems… weren’t going to make things so one-sided. I’m saying that we only have one way to win this.”

“And what way is that?” Darvin asked. He seemed much calmer than he probably was.

“We need Jace,” Amelia started. “Without Jakis, our firepower has fallen greatly. We need Jace to replace him.”

“Jace?” Briya furrowed her brow and asked. “Who’s Jace?”

Amelia gave her a quick rundown of the information Darvin had hidden from them, then continued. “We certainly still need to gather all of our strongest together. Then we must find a way to attack this Ascending Monarch all at once. We cannot leave things to chance by just sending me and Trischa. We have to defeat him with our full force—and we have to do it while he is alone. We cannot risk any other Guardians interfering.

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“Once that is handled, we must do the same with this Braxi,” Amelia continued. “We don’t know how strong he is, but we most likely won’t be able to get him away from the Siren’s Second, so we must prepare for both. Once we get the top two Guardians off the board—if we can get the top two Guardians off the board—then we can worry about the Strongholds.

“Holcom must hurry and find the remaining Champions,” Amelia said. “Remember, we aren’t the only ones who can consolidate our powers. The Ascending Monarch seems to be confident—maybe even arrogant to a fault—based on the way he rushes into any fight. That is likely our only chance against him. If he were to become cautious and remain beside Braxi in Savannah, then it would be our loss, and there would be nothing we could do about it. After all, the Guardians only have to keep a single Stronghold secure to defeat us.”

***

His fight with Jakis had calmed Derek down quite a bit. It hadn’t been the be-all and end-all of fights, but it gave him a decent amount of information and showed him where he stood. There were only two Champions above the man, and, according to Osian, Jakis had mentioned that the Great Ul’oc wasn’t actually as strong as Jakis was. So, instead of running around like a headless chicken, Derek had chosen to wait.

Everyone still took shelter in Natalie’s residence, but nobody felt the urgency that they had before… other than Avery. Avery had become much more vigilant since the assassination attempt on him, and Braxton had made sure to stick even closer to his side.

Besides, Derek had an idea of what the Champions were doing. There are far too few attacks. Jakis seems like an anomaly, too. The Queen was taken out because she was an easy target. She was alone and at the bottom of the list. They are trying to do things methodically—in the safest way possible. And, with four of us and a Stronghold gone already, they aren’t necessarily failing.

It would work extremely well if I didn’t have my traveling ability, he thought. Derek could get to any remaining Guardian in a matter of moments—any Guardian other than David Brandt. However, he also knew that Marrick was either with that man or at least close by. When he focused on the beach where he and Alanah first landed on the other continent, he found that it wasn’t too far away from where Marrick’s aura seemed to place him.

I’d bet money that they are both together at Ashgarde. Marrick knew about the man from the information I’d given him about my trip with Alanah, so he likely recognized the name. That was the reason that Derek hadn’t bothered to find Marrick yet. Marrick was strong, and David was placed just after him on the list. That Stronghold was probably as protected as Savannah was when Derek wasn’t there.

Derek took a bite of the food that Silvi had made for them all and listened to Brandi go on about some of the new ideas she’d come up with. He smiled and nodded as he listened. Since she wasn’t able to craft at her workshop, Brandi was only able to work on creating new blueprints instead. She was going a little stir-crazy.

She’d even taken to sparring with Thomas and the other kids to take her mind off things. Yet again, everyone was impressed by how strong she was and how well she kept up even with her being a crafter. The stats from a high-rarity class so early really are a boon, Derek thought as he continued to listen. He looked at Thomas. I’m sure he didn’t miss a lot, but he did miss some stats because of his early mistake when picking a class. Still, even with the class mistake, the boy was able to stay close to the top of his class in the Academy. Both of his… wards were doing very well.

Derek sighed and pulled up the invasion status. He couldn’t wait for the next change because that would be the time for him to act. It was just better that way. He was no longer going to be running himself ragged.

***

As Jace continued his journey toward the Stronghold, he could finally feel the pull growing stronger. As it turned out, he may not have been as far away from it as he’d thought. The current problem he was facing was him not knowing which Guardian or Guardians were defending the Stronghold, and he didn’t have any Battlelust built up.

After all, he loved to fight… no… he lived to fight. He also loved to win. And though it may have seemed that way when he did fight, he wasn’t suicidal. He doubted he had the same way to escape as the Champions and Guardians did. It wasn’t like he could just say that he gave up and be teleported away from danger. Jace snorted. Should have asked that asshole which Guardians were at the place I’m going, he thought.

He was sure that Darvin would know by now which Guardians were close by. He’d have someone watching the invasion status at all times, and he’d apparently been able to establish communications between Champions. Of course, Jace wasn’t scared of any of the Guardians. It was just a matter of how much Battlelust he’d need to have a good fight, and he didn’t like using his Surge of War skill when he didn’t have to.

As the man drew closer to the Stronghold, he slowed his pace. He certainly wouldn’t count on everyone underestimating him. If only there was a dungeon around here, he thought. However, with him being from another system, the likelihood of him even being able to enter a dungeon was small. But, if he could find one, there were usually some beasts around high-level dungeons.

That was another thing he couldn’t count on, though, and it would just be a waste of his time to try to find one. Just as Jace was about to give up and head straight for the Stronghold—where he might be forced to use Surge of War again—he thought of something.

When the invasion started, it came with a lot of teleportation arrays that were protected by barriers. The Guardians and people from the system that was being invaded weren’t able to enter the barriers, and the Champions weren’t able to stay in them for too long at a time. However, he didn’t have any of those problems, and by how crowded the array that he’d chosen to rest in was, there were plenty of ‘elites’ to give him a little help.

Jace, with his new idea, upped his pace once more in the direction of the Stronghold. After a few hours of running, he could see the mana circle that indicated that a city was a Stronghold—it also meant that he was close enough to it that he wouldn’t have to worry about running out of any built up Battlelust.

With the Stronghold in sight, Jace looked around. After searching his surroundings, a smile appeared on his face. There were two teleportation arrays within the perfect distance, and there was even another one a bit further away. Jace chuckled, then changed directions. He doubted he’d find someone to help him that was on par with Wri, but sometimes, quantity beat quality, and he knew that there would be a lot of invaders huddled up inside the barriers just waiting to lend him a hand.