System Change

The earth user clenched his fists and growled. “What did you do to Gerald?”

“Oh, if you want him back, all you have to do is beat me.” Derek stepped forward. The second his foot touched the ground, spikes shot up from below him. They tore through the soles of Derek’s shoes, but weren’t even strong enough to make his feet bleed. “That tickled.” He smiled. Inwardly, he was fuming. Now I got to get another fucking pair of shoes. Luckily, good shoes weren’t as hard for him to find as good pants or shirts. As long as the boots were comfortable, he didn’t care how they looked.

The man stomped on the ground, and the sand beneath Derek began flowing. Ah, so he can turn this sand into a quicksand of some sort. Derek began sinking into the ground. He thought about his skills… I’m sure Absolute Nullify would make quick work of this, but I’ll just go with the classics.

He shifted into the void and pulled himself out of the sand. Then, he moved to behind the earth user and came out stopped the skill. With the void flowing through his left hand, he tapped the man on the shoulder with his right. When the man turned, Derek let his fist fly.

When he was aiming not to kill, the stomach was the perfect place for his void covered fist to land. If he hit in the right spot, there weren’t and major vital organs he had to worry about destroying. This, in turn, allowed Derek to strike without worrying about an instant kill.

Overall, his strikes weren’t much stronger than they were when he sparred against Shae, but his opponent was tougher and had better defenses than the Savannah Adventurer’s Guild Master. Derek’s Multi-Strike was still on cooldown, so he waited to see what kind of damage a single void fist would cause.

Apparently, not a lot. It was enough to cause Cliff to groan and let out a cough, but not much more than that. When the strike landed on Gerald, it was stacked four times with Derek’s newly increased level in Multi-Strike. Plus, while Gerald’s Vitality may have been high, Derek was unsure if his Endurance was better than Cliffs.

Derek’s next strike flew at Cliff once again. This time, he wasn’t taken by surprise, and a thin layer of sand formed in front of Derek’s fist and blocked the attack. Well, that was the thing about Derek’s void enhanced strikes. Even when you blocked them, you really didn’t.

A second passed after Derek pulled his fist back, and the man let out another grunt. Derek smiled. If Cliff wanted to block his strikes, he would have to do more than a small layer of sand.

As Derek was fighting the heir to House Aarden, Avery was bored. The plant user was awful in a one-on-one battle, especially against someone like him. The half elf was currently planted face first into the ground, unconscious.

Avery was standing next to Edward, feeding the Crown Prince Health Potions and reattaching the man’s arms. The rogue really wanted to fight against the Shadow Witch, but it seemed Edgar had a bone to pick with her. He understood it, as seeing your brother in such a helpless situation would cause any person to react that way.

Once Edward was taken care of, Avery went over to the others, who were all caught up in the initial ambush by Gerald’s team. He sighed, as all but one were dead, and the other didn’t have much time left in his dying state.

Avery took a scroll out of his storage and channeled mana into it, bringing the guard out of the dying state. Edward, now with both arms, soon walked over to Avery and the other man. The other man was now unconscious and no longer in danger.

“Thank you for that. And for coming here.” Edward said as he approached.

Avery nodded. “Of course. My lady asked me to come, so I did. Plus, that first shot with my bow felt good… really good.” He smiled. It was a memory he would cherish. Even so, he thought he went overboard at first and killed the man in one shot. He was happy when he stood.

“Come on, I don’t want to be too far away from that elf when he wakes up.” Avery said as he led Edward, who was now carrying the unconscious guard, back to where he had deposited the plant user.

“Should we help them?” Edward asked.

Avery scoffed. “Do they look like they need help?”

Derek, that madman, was toying with Cliff. Derek didn’t even try to dodge a single attack from the man. He just took it and punched back with a fist covered in a purple glow. Then, every time the man’s fist landed, there was a delay before Cliff staggered back or coughed blood. If Avery didn’t know any better, he would say that Derek was beginning to look irritated.

“I guess not…” Edward muttered.

After arriving back at the body of the unconscious plant user, Avery sat down and began picking at his fingernails with his dagger. Derek’s fight with Cliff was boring, so he shifted his attention. The real battle was taking place in the air sky above them.

The sky below the shadow dome lit up with each collision of lightning against shadow as Edgar shot himself into the Shadow Witch. His lightning didn’t seem to work as well against the shadows as light would, but as Edgar collided with her, the shadows gradually began to become more and more transparent.

The second prince wouldn’t allow the woman to heal up or use any kind of potion. He stayed next to her the entire fight. He had actually zapped multiple attempts of her trying to use a Mana Potion. That, plus the fact that the woman still hadn’t healed completely from Avery’s final attack against her, made the fight even more in Edgar’s favor.

At that moment, Avery heard a loud groan, then a crash. He moved his gaze from the battle above back to Derek and Cliff. Derek was standing over Cliff’s unconscious body, a pool of blood poured out of the heir’s mouth.

Derek kicked the man onto his back and force fed him a Health Potion. Then he looked up and around, spotting Edward and Avery off to the side. Derek grabbed Cliff by his right pauldron and dragged him over to the rest of the group.

“Took you long enough.” Avery said.

Derek tossed the man next to the half elf and sat next to Avery. “Fucking guy wouldn’t go down. Had to wait for a skill cooldown to knock him out. I didn’t want to hit him in a vital spot and instantly kill him. Edgar said he was part of some big noble house, so I thought I would be political for once.”

Avery laughed. “He is, but he’s also one of the strongest from that house.”

“Heard that, too.” Derek said. “So, how’s Edgar doing?” he looked up at the battle in the sky. From Derek’s perspective, it didn’t look like the second prince was going to need any help.

“He’s fine.” Avery said. “It would have been a much better fight if Vanessa was fresh, but she was still healing up when the two of you got here.”

Derek nodded. “You did pretty good fighting all of them like that. It would have been a pain in the ass getting caught by shadows and vines at the same time.”

“Yeah, I had to take the chance. Gerald was about to escape with the Shadow Witch… I couldn’t let that happen.” Avery replied.

Derek slapped Avery on the back and focused on Edgar’s battle.

Edgar bolted forward and swung his Lightning Blade at the woman’s shield of shadows one more time. This time, instead of stopping, it dug in and cut the shield in half.

“Give up, you’re done.” Edgar said.

The Shadow Witch panted heavily and spat out some blood. She grinned, revealing a bloody smile. “Come on, little prince, is that all you’ve got?”

Edgar chuckled and shook his head. “No, actually. I’ve been holding back quite a bit. Would you like me to show you what I’ve got?”

“How about you just let me leave here? We can forget this ever happened. You wouldn’t want the Assassin’s Guild as an enemy, would you?” She said.

“Oh, I don’t have to worry about that. I can guarantee this mission was sanctioned by the guild. Even if it was, when an assassin dies on the job, the guild doesn’t retaliate. It’s the assassin’s fault for being too weak. Don’t think you can trick me with that.” Edgar said, then pointed at the ground next to Avery and Derek, where his brother was sitting. “Plus, you’re the one who hurt Edward. I can’t let you get away with that.”

The Shadow Witch clicked her tongue. “Maybe, but I didn’t kill him, did I? In fact, I refused to kill him. Just ask that damn rogue.”

Edgar frowned, but finally made up his mind. “Then, I won’t kill you. I’ll take you back, then I’ll let someone else figure out what to do with you.”

With that, he didn’t allow the woman to say anything else. He used Ethereal Spark, becoming lightning once again. He zipped forward, cutting straight through the woman’s hasty attempt at defense, then landed on her body.

He said he wouldn’t kill her, so he didn’t. Instead of going for the heart or brain, he kept his attack external. He dealt just enough damage to take her out of the sky.

Like a bird with broken wings, the Shadow Witch plummeted to the ground. When she landed, she wasn’t unconscious, just badly injured.

Edgar was standing next to the woman. He had beaten the woman to the ground, actually. When she landed, he flipped her over, then removed anything that looked like it could be a storage device from her. He couldn’t have her healing up and escaping, after all. He pocketed the items, then dragged her to her feet by her arm.

“Come on.”

Edgar walked over to Derek and the others with the Shadow Witch in his grasp.

“What now?” Derek asked.

“Now, we go back to Savannah.” Edgar said. “We can let everyone else sort this out.”

Derek nodded and opened his Time Prison back up. When he opened the door, Gerald tried to rush out, but was met with a swift kick from Avery. Derek looked over at the man.

“What? He’s fun to hit?” Avery shrugged.

Derek laughed and tossed both the earth user and plant user inside. Then he looked at Edgar.

“Go on.” Edgar pushed the Shadow Witch forward.

The woman sighed, but walked inside. As soon as Derek closed the door, what little was left of the shadow dome around them disappeared. He pulled the void back together and let out a deep sigh. He could finally be done with his Gerald problem at last.

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