System Change

“What kind of shit is this?!” Edgar shouted as his wide eyes were locked on the screen displaying the fight in front of him. He turned his head to Vendra. “This is the guy that took you and the other Guardian out?” he asked. “You have my condolences.” He shook his head. “Holy shit… and why the hell isn’t this guy a Champion? I know for a fact that Marrick would kick my ass if we were to fight. And he… he’s… so tired that he’s panting.”

“Backlash,” The Queen replied. “That spell he used was broken, and he hasn’t recovered yet. He should soon, but sustained skills like that always have some pretty bad side effects when they are forcefully broken.”

“Don’t I know it,” Edgar said, then he looked over at the guy who had cut his time in the invasion short. “What about you, Jakis? What’s with that look on your face? You know that guy?”

“I know him,” Jakis said. “Haven’t really met. Never paid any attention to him. It seems… that was wrong of me. He deserved my attention. I just… I don’t understand. How can he be so strong?”

“That’s what I’m asking,” Edgar said. “He’s crazy! And look at that grin. It’s like Avery’s when he really gets into a fight. No… it’s even more…” he started, but instantly fell silent as the screen showed the space open up in the distance and somebody step out. “Oh… we’re about to see just how strong this crazy guy really is.”

***

Derek saw Jace turn around, and an amused look appeared on his face. Jace tilted his head, and even at their current distance, Derek could see what looked like an overjoyed smile appear. Derek rolled his eyes and snorted. He hasn’t changed a bit, he thought. Then, as Jace completely forgot about the flickering man that he was pummeling before, he took a step towards Derek.

After quickly turning around and closing the void behind him, Derek looked back over at Marrick. Just as Jace made it halfway to him, Derek used Active Void Shift and appeared next to the Old Goblin.

“What the hell are you doing?” Derek asked. “I came here expecting to see Jace fighting for his life. It looks like you’ve been going easy on him.”

“Fighting… for… his life?” Marrick questioned. “That crazed lunatic broke out of my Sand Tomb and caused a mana backlash. We’re over here fighting for our lives. David’s out there on his last leg, and I don’t even think your friend is giving it his all yet. How the hell are there two of you monsters?”

“Is he really that strong?” Derek asked as he turned to look at Jace, who had stopped moving and was staring at Derek and Marrick with a tilted head. The man seemed to be shaking with excitement.

“That strong?” Marrick rolled his eyes. “The longer he fights, the stronger he becomes. I don’t even know if his class has any weaknesses. Maybe he doesn’t have a lot of skills and fights purely off of some inane increase in stats? I don’t know.”

“The longer the fight, the stronger he gets?” Derek asked, his mouth forming a grin.

“What are you…” Marrick started, but Derek disappeared before he could finish.

After a moment, Derek reappeared where he’d left from. Standing just a couple hundred feet away from Jace, he held his arm out, and Harbinger made an appearance. Quickly, he sent Marrick a message telepathically. ‘Tell your friend that the two of you are finished fighting. Don’t get in the way.’

Marrick didn’t bother replying. In the distance, Derek saw the flickering man stop flickering, then he saw his shoulders fall as he let out a deep breath. The man then began a slow trek over to Marrick.

With his glaive gripped in one hand and resting on his shoulder, Derek stuck out his other hand and motioned for Jace to come at him. That was all Jace needed. He kicked off the ground and lunged forward. The smile on his face was unlike anything Derek had ever seen from the man, and Derek couldn’t help but allow the same expression to appear on his own face.

In moments, Jace was directly in front of Derek with his arms raised and a kukri in each of his hands. Derek had just enough time to bring up Harbinger to block the vertical blow from both blades. The blades struck the shaft of Derek’s glaive, and the force was enough to cause Derek’s feet to dig into the ground.

“It’s been forever!” Jace shouted as he bore down with all his strength.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Derek said as he pushed upward with both arms. To his shock, as Derek pushed Jace’s blades back, one of them actually began biting into Harbinger’s shaft.

“You’ll have to tell me all about it after I beat you again,” Jace said.

“Confident, are we?” Derek replied, then sent a void-imbued kick at Jace’s midsection.

Jace looked down at where Derek’s foot struck, then back up to stare into Derek’s eyes. “That… was it?”

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“Wait for it…” Derek said, and then suddenly, Jace let out a grunt, followed by a bout of laughter.

“Great!” Jace disappeared and reappeared behind Derek.

Derek turned and brought Harbinger up to block again. This time, Jace attacked like a madman. His strikes weren’t calculated. Actually, some of them wouldn’t have even hit Derek if he’d chosen to stand still and not block. However, they just kept coming, and Derek kept blocking over and over.

Seeing that the durability of Harbinger was rapidly falling and Jace’s attacks were increasing in speed after each strike, Derek intentionally let a strike from each of Jace’s blades through. Both blades landed, and other than a slight jarring sensation inside his body, his armor stopped them on the spot.

Seeing the perfect opening, Derek swung the butt end of his glaive up and connected perfectly with Jace’s chin. Of course, Derek, once again, infused his strike with the void. He’d put a lot of force into the blow after getting a taste of Jace’s abilities, so he hoped it wouldn’t be too much. After all, the void and the brain didn’t mix well.

Jace was sent flying and flipped backward before landing on his feet. A few moments later, the man staggered and then shook his head as though to clear it. Derek, however, didn’t wait for any confusion to clear from the man’s head. Instead, he swiped out and sent a Spatial Rend Jace’s way. Surprisingly, even while looking slightly stunned, Jace rolled forward, and Derek saw the space open up just behind where he had previously been, and just miss him.

Interesting, Derek thought. People rarely noticed that attack until it was too late. But even in a stunned condition, Jace had reacted. Still, Derek continued on and reached out. He made a grasping motion, only for Jace to kick the ground and escape a Spatial Collapse by inches.

“Fantastic!” Derek shouted.

By that time, Jace seemed completely fine. The aura he was already wearing grew more intense, then the man shot forward. No, it was more like he was pulled toward him. Derek jumped into the air and used Void Steps to raise his altitude, but, without moving a muscle, Jace’s movement shifted, and the man crashed directly into Derek, sending him flying backward.

The hell kind of skill was that? Derek wondered as he caught himself with Void Steps and hovered in the air. He watched as Jace landed on the ground. The man looked up at Derek and squinted his eyes. Don’t tell me he doesn’t have a flying skill.

Like that, two glaring weaknesses that Jace had clicked inside Derek’s mind. The first was that it was obvious Jace wasn’t able to fly. He had a movement skill that could let him chase down an opponent he was facing—even if they were in the air—but he didn’t actually have the ability to stay in the air and fight.

Of course, this problem could be remedied, and he was sure that Jace was just waiting for the right skill to acquire. Derek could think of some flying skills that could match the man’s fighting style and some that wouldn’t. That brought up his other weakness. The man seemed to be purely physical and close-range only.

Well, Derek thought that just as he quickly tilted his head to avoid the flying machete-like blade coming at his head. Then he jumped higher into the air as the blade flew back to Jace. So he has some retrieval skill to shore up a bit of his weakness, Derek thought.

“Get down here and fight!” Jace yelled as he continuously threw his blades at Derek. Derek laughed and reached out to catch one of the blades, but when he grabbed hold of it, it disappeared and reappeared back in Jace’s hand.

And that shores up that weakness, Derek thought as he canceled Void Steps and fell to the ground.

As soon as Derek’s feet touched the ground, Jace disappeared, and he was on top of him once again. Derek couldn’t tell which attacks Jace used were just regular attacks and which were skills. He obviously had a skill that increased his speed by a small amount after each strike. That seemed to be his go-to skill. Even with all of Derek’s stats, and although he never lost sight of Jace’s attacks, he wasn’t able to block each one with Harbinger.

Many slipped through, and he was able to test out just how strong his mythic rarity armor was. His conclusion was that his armor was incredibly strong. However, after being on the defensive for a few minutes and noticing no sign of Jace growing tired, he began seeing small marks appearing on Void’s Embrace.

“What…” Jace’s kukri crashed into Derek’s side. “The hell…” His other kukri smashed into Derek’s shoulder guard. “Kind of armor…” Jace reared back and head-butted Derek in the nose—causing blood to gush from his nose before healing itself almost instantly due to Greater Meditation. “Is that…”

“Mythic,” Derek answered as he, too, bashed his own void-infused head into Jace’s.

Jace was able to unleash a dozen or so more attacks before the effects of the void hit him again, and he had to recenter himself. “Dammit!” Jace shouted as he attacked again.

That does it, Derek thought. The man’s attacks were slower than they had been moments before, which meant that once Derek interrupted whatever skill Jace was using, it reset. However, the attacks were still quicker and heavier than they had been before they first started, which meant that the crazed man was still growing in strength.

“The hell is mythic!?” Jace shouted as he kicked the ground and got some distance away from Derek.

“The rarity above legendary,” Derek answered honestly. “It’s pretty nice, isn’t it?”

“Hmph…” Jace snorted.

“Fine…” Derek said, then, with a thought, he was standing in front of Jace, wearing almost the same thing the man was—which was nothing but a pair of shorts. “It’s been a while since I got to test how good my own defenses were. Come on.” Jace hadn’t seemed to have changed a bit—at least in mentality. Even if the man was stronger, Derek felt he wouldn’t have to fear for his life.

“Great! Awesome! Amazing!” Jace shouted and lunged forward. “I’ve missed this.”

Missed it? The fight would have already been over by now and I would be on my ass if it were before, Derek thought as he blocked a strike.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Jace disappeared again, and Derek felt the tendon above his heel sever. A moment later, in his other leg, he felt his hamstring give.

Derek quickly disappeared with Active Void Shift and reappeared dozens of feet away from Jace. He looked at the man wide-eyed, then down at his thigh. A deep cut all the way to the bone that had severed his hamstring appeared in his sight. Over the next few seconds, he saw and felt the hamstring reconnect itself and the wound close, but he couldn’t help but be in shock at how easily it seemed Jace was able to cut through his flesh. It had been a long time since something like that had happened.

“Can you do that again?” Derek asked, ignoring that they were still in the middle of a battle.

“In a little while,” Jace said with a shrug, then lunged forward.