System Change

Of course, nothing could ever go as planned. Gerald was already standing, no worse for wear. There was something to be said about having 1500 point in Vitality. He may not be strong in a fight, but he could definitely take a beating. Other than the light damage to his armor, his wounds weren’t even bleeding anymore.

Plus, Avery’s dagger wasn’t enough to cause any real harm to Cliff, either. The heir to House Aarden must have invested a good amount into Vitality or Endurance to go with the natural defensive abilities given to him along with the earth element.

Avery rushed in, both daggers drawn. He would get a few good hits in on Gerald before the others could make a move. The former advisor was slow and clumsy in a fight. At least it seemed that way to someone with speed like Avery.

Avery strafed around the man’s tower shield, stabbing and piercing every visible joint in the man’s armor. Within seconds, Gerald was more of a pin cushion than a person. He was almost a fountain of blood. Even with his visible healing, Avery was able to cut enough that his shiny golden armor had turned bloody.

Gerald slammed his shield into the ground, causing Avery to leap back to avoid the impact. Avery wished he knew if he was even making a dent in the other’s HP. But it didn’t matter. The more he harassed the group, the longer it would take, and the sooner his reinforcements would arrive.

Avery wasn’t sure who all was coming, but if Alanah showed up herself, the fight would be settled in a matter of seconds. Everyone except for maybe the Shadow Witch would fall to her command. Even so, he felt it was underneath Alanah to personally get involved in something like this. Therefore, he would jump on any opportunity he found to strike.

He only had one order - to keep Gerald alive. That meant that the other two enemies were fair game, which is why when the vines grew up around Gerald and stone pellets shot toward Avery, he used Burst Step as soon as his foot hit the ground, and appeared next to the plant user.

Avery stabbed right at the back of the plant user’s neck. Somehow, the person managed to shift their body just enough to avoid critical damage. Avery’s dagger still managed to dig deep into the person’s shoulder, and he wasn’t finished yet. He jerked his arm, dragging the blade across the plant user’s back, cutting them from shoulder to shoulder.

However, just as Avery went for another stab, he saw the person’s aura begin to condense. Getting a bad feeling, Avery kicked the ground and shot backward just as the person’s aura exploded, sending a mass of spores covering the area.

With the explosion, Avery finally got a good look at the person’s face. To his surprise, it was a half elf man with short green hair and a pointed nose. Avery didn’t recognize him at all, but the situation kept getting more and more strange.

Out of the few noble houses in the Kingdom that were made up of half elves, none seemed to have a member like the person in front of him. Sure, being an elf, or even half elf, seemed to make it easier to have an affinity for plants, but Avery was well versed in the hierarchy of the Kingdom, and still couldn’t place the face or the power.

Avery had to jump back once more to avoid the spores. When the spores stopped spreading, it covered a radius of around fifty feet around the half elf plant user. Both Gerald and Cliff were caught up in the spread, but neither showed any adverse effects. In fact, Cliff almost seemed to be relieved.

This was bad. With the cover of the spores that Avery dared not touch, he couldn’t physically move in to stop the trio from retreating. He could blast the group with arrows, but with their defensive skills and armor, he wouldn’t do enough damage to keep them from moving.

Of course, he wouldn’t allow them to move out of his vision. He could tail them no matter where they went, as long as they didn’t teleport away. But he would never put it past Gerald to have some secret way to escape that nobody else was aware of. The man had stayed hidden for far too long to not have any backup plans.

Avery checked his system time and frowned. He’d been fighting for all of three minutes. He glanced in the air to see Edward struggling and sweating, while the Shadow Witch toyed with him. While she smiled and evaded, he went all out against her. It wasn’t looking good.

Finally making a decision, Avery summoned a potion and drank it down. It was an antidote that worked against a myriad of different poisons for fifteen minutes-more than enough time. At least with this insurance, he could step into the spores with a bit more confidence.

However, it seemed that the antidote was unnecessary. The spores weren’t a poison or toxin at all. They were a field debuff. Avery let out a sigh of relief. This… he could handle.

He felt like he was moving through a swamp. All his actions were heavy, and he was slowed by at least thirty percent. So, he did what anyone in his situation would do - he used Advanced Haste. A basic evolved skill that increased all his movements by twenty percent. The skill Haste evolved at level twenty to Advanced Haste.

Advanced Haste decreased the Stamina drain of the skill with each level. Eventually turning the skill into a passive skill that could basically be active at all times without worrying about cost. Avery’s Advanced Haste wasn’t leveled too high. Skills that could evolve were rare, and the ones that did took forever to level once they evolved.

With the skill activated, he didn’t lose much speed by moving around in the area of the spores. So, he rushed in to continue his assault. Immediately after rushing in and attacking Gerald, he noticed another problem.

Yes, the cloud of spores debuffed his speed, but at the same time it seemed to increase the speed of its allies. He noticed this because Gerald was almost able to keep up with his ten percent debuffed speed… almost.

Avery slid the dagger in his left hand down the blade of Gerald’s bastard sword, then dove in under his arm. Gerald tried to draw in his sword arm, but was too late as Avery’s second dagger was driven deep into his underarm. Avery hoped the dagger went in deep enough to make contact with the man’s heart, but knew that probably wasn’t the case.

The dagger was initially slowed by whatever flexible armor the man wore underneath his plate armor, then it had to get through the man’s Endurance, which wasn’t near as good as his Vitality, but, being a tank, it would have been stupid if the man hadn’t put at least some points into the stat. There was also a good chance that Gerald had ‘stumbled’ across some Void Beast meals in the years that Alanah had been active in Cydaria.

The dagger bit deep and Avery twisted it as he pulled it out-he wanted to cause as much damage as possible before he had the avoid the incoming Cliff.

At this point, Avery knew Gerald was becoming tired of being picked on by Avery. The man was the biggest sitting duck among all his enemies, and also the only person he couldn’t let escape. So, if an opportunity came up to take out or seriously damage one of the others, Avery would take it, but if not, he needed only harass Gerald until backup came along.

Avery’s foot hit the ground, and he used Burst Step to get away once again, wincing at the cost of the skill. It was a fascinating skill, but the drain on his Stamina with each usage was severe. Avery popped the cork on another Stamina Potion and gulped it down. Avery frowned at the waste of gold.

Stamina Potions, especially the ones good enough to restore the amount of Stamina he used, were very expensive. With almost forty thousand Stamina, a normal Stamina Potion wouldn’t even be a drop in a bucket for Avery. No, unless the potions were at least Major or Greater Potions, they wouldn’t be worth Avery using.

Avery sighed as the trio finally grouped up close together. It took them long enough to do so. He guessed there would be no more easy shots. So, he put his daggers back on his hips and drew his bow once more. He would move around them while peppering them with arrows and avoiding the vines. That way, he wouldn’t need to use Burst Step often, and could save on Stamina. He only needed to hold on for about six more minutes.

But Gerald wasn’t having any of that. “Vanessa! Stop fucking around and help!”

The Shadow Witch scoffed, but acted. The next thing Avery knew, Edward was sent shooting to the ground, creating a small crater in the earth.

“Fine.” The Shadow Witch spoke.

Immediately, the sky turned dark and a shadow dome fell over the battlefield, encompassing all six people within it. Avery felt his moves turn even more sluggish. Not only was the shadow another debuff, but it stacked with the spore cloud released by the half elf.

Dammit. Things are about to get rough.