System Change

Avery stepped forward, activating some skills in the process. His excitement was palpable when Alanah contacted him to keep an eye on the situation with Gerald Torith. He had hoped that the man would give him reason to step in. The man was an absolutely disgusting individual. And that was Avery’s take before he found out about some of the things he had done.

Just the way he talked to and about Alanah had already rubbed Avery the wrong way, so when his powered arrow pierced through the man’s chest and out of his back, it felt good.

As he continued toward Gerald and his men, he loosed another arrow. The arrow split in two, then four, then eight, all with the same gray aura. An aura made out of pure Stamina, because unlike most, Avery didn’t invest much in Wisdom and Intelligence.

His build was that of Endurance. Endurance and Dexterity. If most people heard about his stat point distribution, they would be shocked. Yes, he had very little Wisdom, but was able to serve by Alanah Swan’s side.

Well, Avery had been with Alanah for decades, and was proof that an individual’s willpower was a strong defense against mind controlling magics and skills. It still took him a small amount of time to get acclimated to Alanah if they had been separated for a long while, but he was faster than most people who had heavily invested in Wisdom.

Endurance was the first stat Avery maxed out, followed by Dexterity. Of course, he didn’t ignore Vitality or Strength. In actuality, Wisdom was his lowest stat. Which was good, because he didn’t have a single skill that used mana.

However, the advantage he had over everyone else was his relationship with Alanah. In his decades of being by her side, he had gotten his fair share of meals crafted with Void Beast materials. Even though he didn’t invest heavily in Strength, with it being the easiest gained stat from Void Beasts, he’d gotten over 200 extra points in the stat. Bringing it to over 1200 points.

He was able to save some of his stat points in Endurance as well, because of the Void Beasts. He gained over 150 extra stat points that way, which let him invest more in Dexterity. He also had a small amount of Intelligence, as well, but that was just because of the stats provided by the meals.

Unfortunately, Void Beasts were a rarity, and extreme rarity, before Derek came along, and Avery only got a meal here and there. Then there was the quality of the Void Beasts, which were not always the best. But still, through Alanah and her generosity, he had gained over 400 extra stat points in the stats he actually used.

Because of Alanah, he was able to get two of the stats maxed, while also breaking through the second threshold with two more. There weren’t many people in the Kingdom who could say the same. Yet he did it while also only having an epic class. It was a great epic class that he got early, and it gave more stat points than normal, even so, it was only epic. And for that, along with everything else, he would always be eternally grateful to the woman.

Avery assessed the situation as his arrows flew forward. Edward was in the sky, trying and failing to get past the Shadow Witch. Honestly, that was the biggest surprise out of everything Avery walked into. The Shadow Witch being there didn’t make sense, but there she was, the Vice Leader of the Assassin’s Guild in all her glory, flying high and toying with the Crown Prince.

She would be a problem for Avery. Shadows were known for having many crowd controlling effects, but if Edward could distract her long enough, Alanah had promised that reinforcements were on their way. All Avery had to do was delay the other three people in front of him.

Cliff Aarden wouldn’t be a problem for Avery. He was a slow, but powerful earth user. On the ground, Avery would run circles around the man. As for the plant user, Avery had no clue who it could be. The cloak covered the figure’s entire body, so he didn’t even know if it was male or female.

He chose to be cautious around the plant user. Against an unknown entity, it was best to be cautious and learn about them.

As for Gerald… Avery didn’t care about the man. He could beat the walking sack of meat and blood with his eyes closed. No, he would only have to be warry of Cliff and the plant user. He would specifically have to look out to not get entangled with any of the vines. If he got caught up in the vines, it would make Cliff and his earth skills a credible threat.

Still, Avery was not sure about his ability to beat the three of them together. He could take out Gerald one on one. That would be easy. He may even be able to get the upper hand against both Gerald and Cliff. But adding another person to the mix, one who he was sure would be every bit as hard to deal with as Cliff, made things harder. Especially since the threat was a complete unknown.

No, he probably couldn’t win. But he could hold out. Hell, he only needed ten minutes or so. He just hoped the Shadow Witch didn’t get bored of playing with Edward. She was a problem, one he didn’t have the confidence in beating one on one, much less in a group. She was just too fast while in the air, and she had skills to slow him down.

While thinking of a strategy to delay the group, his multi arrow shot arrived. Cliff erected a thin wall of sand between himself and the arrows, causing them to lose momentum before falling helplessly to the ground.

The plant user, to Avery’s surprise, danced through the arrows that went his way. Of course, the arrows weren’t anything special. They just carried a bit of Avery’s concentrated aura. They weren’t like the Powershot he hit Gerald with at the beginning.

Of course, the first thing to do when you are biding your time is taunt the leader of your enemies. Nothing makes a man forget about escaping like the perfect taunt.

“Wow, Gerald. I didn’t think one arrow would be enough to do you in. Who knew that not only were you a coward, you were weak as well?” He said before looking at Cliff. “And another thing I can’t believe is that someone supposedly as strong as the great Cliff Aarden would be willing to slave for such a weak man. It’s kind of pathetic, isn’t it?”

Gerald coughed as he stood. He grabbed the end of the arrow sticking out of his chest and ripped it out. Cliff Aarden began to move forward in anger, but Gerald stopped him. “He is just trying to provoke us. Don’t fall for it.”

Gerald leaned over and whispered something into Cliff’s ear. Avery was still too far away to hear what was said. Cliff nodded his head. Gerald flicked his wrist and a full set of gaudy gold plated armor appeared on his body, covering him from head to toe. On his arm appeared a thick black tower shield adorned with a golden trim, and in his right hand, a bastard sword.

Avery snorted. “A bunch of gear that’s never seen battle.”

When Avery was about halfway between the trio and the gate, he stopped. He wanted to be close enough to the group to close in and stop them from escaping, but far enough where he could trouble them with his bow. Of course, he had no problem going in for a melee, but he would rather gauge their strengths, especially the plant user’s, before he did so.

During his taunting, he activated multiple skills. Eagle Eye increased his accuracy, Aura of Persistence increased both the strength and durability of his arrows whether the arrows were summoned or physical, and to top it off, he used Piercing Radiance, which increased the sharpness of the arrowhead.

His skills weren’t strictly related to archery, either. Most were usable with his melee weapons as well. Avery was good in both ranged and close battles, actually, he preferred to fight up close in personal.

“Go!” Gerald shouted.

Cliff pushed out with his palms open, conjuring an array of earth spikes to shoot out from in front of him while the plant user touched the ground and sent a tide of vines flowing along the surface. The plan was clearly to trap Avery in the vines while they tried to escape.

Avery laughed and kicked off the ground. As the first spike arrived, his foot landed on it and he moved to the next. Moving from spike to spike, he loosed arrow after arrow at the trio, specifically targeting the plant user. Both Cliff and Gerald were defensive combatants, and the plant user seemed either offensive or support. It was always best to take out the support first.

“Oh no you don’t.” Avery muttered as he saw Gerald trying to sneak off to the side. He shifted his focus to the armored man, bombarding him with aura infused arrows while shifting back and forth between spikes.

Unfortunately, his armor wasn’t just for show. Even with Piercing Radiance and Aura of Persistence, Avery’s arrows were only able to leave small indentations in the plate-which just meant that Avery needed to use more skills.

With his other skills still active, Avery used Overdraw and Powershot. The time it took to draw and loose an arrow increased, but so did the power of each arrow. Two arrows landed back to back, the first hitting the small gap in Gerald’s leg armor, piercing a good half inch into the man’s leg. The second arrow landed just beside the first.

The small gap in the armor was widened by the first, allowing the second arrow to drive in deep. Gerald let out a loud grunt and grasped at the arrows as he fell to a knee.

Everything happened in seconds, as Cliff already realized his spikes weren’t doing anything but giving Avery the ability to dodge the vines on the ground. The heir to House Aarden stopped his skill and moved toward Gerald.

With his footholds disappearing, Avery kicked off the last spike and launched himself toward Cliff. Avery’s foot touched the ground, just outside the range of the vines, and he disappeared, almost instantly appearing behind the earth user.

In the time it took to move from his position to behind Cliff, Avery stored his bow and drew both daggers. He stabbed one dagger into the back of Cliff’s knee, slicing into and through some tendons and cartilage, just before a wall of sand moved up to block. Cliff grunted, but held firm, not falling.

Avery moved away from the spikes that appeared almost instantly underneath him and cut Gerald off in the process. He stared at his three enemies, two already injured, then looked at his Stamina pool. His actions were draining, but that was okay. He summoned a yellow-green potion out of his storage and drank it down. Perhaps he would be able to handle the situation, after all.