System Change

Derek put his communication crystal away and smiled as Braxton and Avery made their way back up to the top of the wall after their battle.

“That was too easy!” Braxton said once he made it to the top. “Could have just sent me or Avery. Didn’t need both of us.”

“It would have been better for you if you hadn’t gone,” Natalie said.

“Oh?” Braxton turned and looked at the small woman. “And why is that?”

“Why? You ask?” Natalie looked at the dwarven assassin as an evil grin formed on her face. “Because of the bill you’re going to receive for all the unnecessary damage you’ve caused just outside the city. You realize that there was a road there, correct?”

“Bah.” Braxton waved the woman off. “You can send the bill to Nyx. We’ve got plenty of earth mages who can come fix it, too.”

“Oh, I will,” Natalie replied. “I’ve already got Marcus writing up the report. You’ll have your copy by the end of the day.”

“So, what did you think?” Avery changed the topic and asked Derek.

“I think… the two of you were slow,” Derek answered.

“Slow?” Braxton frowned. “What do you mean, slow? There were over two hundred high-level fighters, and we took less than half an hour to take them out. And we did so with them suffering very few casualties. Do you know how hard it is to not kill someone as an assassin?”“It seems that Mara and Osian didn’t have any problems,” Derek replied with a shrug.

“What do you mean?” Braxton asked.

“I mean that I just spoke to Edgar, and Osian and Mara took out an army of the same size in about thirty seconds, with no casualties. The two of you, on the other hand, took forever to do it.” Derek clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“Whatever…” Braxton replied. “I’m sure if we used widespread poison, it would have been the same for us. But we don’t fight that way.”

“So you already knew?” Derek asked.

“You said Mara,” Braxton said with a shrug. “If she was involved, then I’m sure one of her concoctions played a part. That doesn’t count.”

“If you say so,” Derek replied. Finally, he turned back to Avery and said, “The two of you did great. With Silvi able to move back and forth between here and Eloria if needed, I think you all will do just fine. After seeing how you handled the armies, I think it will be okay if I go hunting. Besides, as long as I keep an eye on the Invasion Status, I’ll know when you are under attack, and it won’t take long for me to get back.”

“So… you are going Champion hunting?” Natalie asked.

“I think I have to,” Derek replied. “I hope I’m not being overly confident, but since only a single Stronghold needs to remain in our hands by the end of the invasion, I don’t think we’ll have a problem winning that way. If worse comes to worst, we can just pull all our heavy hitters back here to Savannah, then the place will basically be a fortress.”

“What does that have to do with you having to hunt?” Avery asked.

“Well… I don’t want to wait three months,” Derek replied with a grin. “And, at the same time, any Champion I get rid of will mean that they have even less strength when or if they come here with a final attack. That’s the reason why the Champions can detect the Guardians, but the Guardians can’t detect the Champions without seeing them. We have an advantage when it comes to defending, and the longer things go, the more dug in we can become and the more of an advantage we will have.

“If it just pointed me straight to any Chosen, like it does for the other side, then it wouldn’t be a challenge at all,” Derek said.

“Well… that’s only because you are here,” Avery replied. “You skew the battle power. Without you, according to our list, Braxton would be the strongest Guardian we have. And though he is strong, as we all just saw, we don’t know how strong their strongest is. And you said that the Champion you already took care of was at or around my strength. Not to mention the fact that two of our mid-ranked Guardians were already defeated by someone who wasn’t a Champion.”

“I guess that’s true,” Derek said. “But the fact is that both Silvi and I are here, so we will take advantage of that fact.”

“So, what are you planning?” Avery asked.

“I’m going to go over this continent with a fine-tooth comb and look for any Champions,” Derek said. “After that, I’ll go visit Marrick and work on that continent. It’s a shame that the places are so massive. I’ll start by searching around all the arrays and possibly questioning any invaders I find along the way. Also, see if you can get anything out of the enemies we’ve captured.”

“I’m already on that,” Natalie said. “I may not be as talented as Alanah when it comes to interrogation, but I’m certainly no pushover. My skills allow me to learn things without them ever even knowing.”

“Good,” Derek said. “If you learn anything, let me know. If I’m out of reach of the communication crystals, just have Silvi come fetch me.”

“Will do,” Natalie replied.

“In that case,” Derek said. “There’s no point in putting it off any longer.” With that, Derek jumped off the wall, kicked a void ripple, and disappeared from everyone’s sight.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

***

Jace sighed as he kicked a rock in front of him about twenty feet. He’d been kicking the same rock for a day already, and there was not much left of it. When he decided to invade the other system, he expected one fight after another—one challenge after another. He thought he’d be fighting strong people constantly.

Instead, he found himself walking in the direction the system was pulling him toward for over five days. He knew that at the end of the pull, there would be a good fight waiting for him, but even he was beginning to wonder if the struggle to get there was really worth it. His expectations were dampened by reality.

First, he at least expected to run into some powerful monsters. However, that also hadn’t happened. Instead, the best he ran across was maybe level 200, and this was while he stayed far away from any cities or villages. He knew that those places would be built in the safer areas, so there was no point in going there.

The other problem he had was that anyone from the system he was invading knew as soon as they saw him that he was an invader. That normally wouldn’t have been a problem, but not a single one of the people who saw him walking alone and attacked was worth his time.

Hell, they were all such a disappointment that he wasn’t even able to gain any Battlelust from fighting with them. A single strike would have killed most of them, so he had to hold back a ton every time he encountered one. Eventually, he even lost hope that they would run to get help from someone strong after they woke up from their beatings.

The rock that he was kicking was giving him more of a fight than all the people. At least when he was going from battleground to battleground, he was always fighting and in at least a small amount of danger. No… that’s not true, he thought. That’s how it used to be, but during his rush in preparing for the invasion, he knew that he’d surpassed all those battlegrounds as well.

Jace let out another huff and kicked the rock once again. This time, he put a bit too much force into the kick, and it turned to dust. “Dammit!” he cursed under his breath. “How much longer is it going to take for me to get to this damn place?” If he had hair, he’d be pulling it out right about now.

For a moment, Jace stopped and examined his surroundings. Not too far in the distance, there was a blue mana circle—signaling that there was a teleportation array inside. The last time he passed one, he’d seriously considered going inside and using it to teleport to another random position on the planet. However, doing so would negate any and all of the progress he’d made toward the next Stronghold.

This time, however, he had a different thought. It’s been over five days since I’ve had any sleep, and my Battlelust has run dry, he thought. He was mentally exhausted, and he knew better than to try to sleep out in the wild. He was strong, but he still wasn’t dumb enough to sleep in the middle of nowhere where anyone or anything could attack him—even if there was almost no way to sneak up on him, even in his sleep.

He just didn’t know what the people of the other system were capable of. If one of those two Guardians that he had defeated had caught him sleeping without any Battlelust built up, he would admit he would have a very hard time surviving. So, no, there was no way he was going to sleep alone in the wild.

But inside the protective barrier beside the teleportation array? he considered. Honestly, that would be his best bet. As much as he hated it, and even though he had technically quit the council’s military before he left, he still carried the credentials on him. It wasn’t like he’d agonized over the decision and then submitted a formal resignation or anything.

Plus, he thought. I do know what most of the people from my own system are capable of, and I’m not too worried about anyone who isn’t a Champion… and not really worried about any of the Champions. Though… he licked his lips. Jakis and Amelia always looked like they would make for an entertaining fight.

With those thoughts, Jace turned slightly away from the pull to the Stronghold and decided instead to head towards the closest array. He would get a few hours of sleep there, then he would push on to the next Stronghold. With that in mind, he scoured the ground until he found a new rock, then kicked it.

Around thirty minutes into his altered journey, Jace ran into another problem. As he drew closer to the array, he saw a small battalion in the distance. Instantly, he knew that the battalion was made up of invaders—they didn’t have the same glow or feeling that everyone else gave off. Honestly, he was surprised that he’d gone as long as he had without running into any invaders.

The group of soldiers seemed to be going in the complete opposite direction from him. Wusses, he thought. Why would they invade a planet, then run away from the closest challenge? He despised people like that. He would understand if it was just orders, but each and every invader that was here had a choice. So, unless there was a legitimately good reason for them to be going in the wrong direction, he would only think of them as cowards.

When the group got close enough that Jace could make out the faces of everyone in it, he knew for sure that it was a group of cowards. There was no reason at all for someone as strong as Wri to be running away from the Stronghold.

“Jace!” the lizard-like man shouted at Jace as soon as they saw each other. His voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard. Jace looked at him and rolled his eyes. “What is Kelvin’s dog doing here? Shouldn’t you be off licking your master’s boots?” Wri laughed, which caused his little entourage to chuckle as well.

“The hell do you want, lizard?” Jace said. “I don’t have time to play around with puppets like you.”

“Lizard? I am a great Ulaixian! The greatest Ulaixian!” the gruff-sounding man yelled.

“Yeah,” Jace scoffed. “A great and cowardly Ulaixian,” he said. “You wouldn’t be running away from the closest fight if you weren’t. Actually, I’m surprised that you’re not huddled up inside the magic barrier, hiding under a bed.”

“How do you not even know? It seems that Kelvin’s dog is as dumb as he is rabid,” Wri barked. “We great Champions cannot stay within the magic barrier, and may only re-enter after some time to teleport to another array.”

“Oh…” Jace said. “So you’re saying that you would be hiding under a bed inside the barrier if you could? Got it.”

“You!” Wri shouted again.

“Would you stop shouting?” Jace asked. “Your voice sounds like you’ve been snacking on screws or something.”

Wri growled at Jace, which caused him to roll his eyes once more. Jace saw the lizard-like man clench his scaly fists, then unclench them and take a breath.

“Whatever. You are not my dog to punish. I will leave that to Darvin and Kelvin,” Wri said. “Now, come along with us. Darvin and Amelia have captured a Stronghold and are fortifying it as we speak. It will be our base of operations.”

Jace frowned. He didn’t bother looking at the Invasion Status often, but the last time he checked, nothing else had really changed. He took a glance at it, only to see that it was still the same. “Are you talking about Virendell?” he asked.

“Yes!” Wri nodded in delight.

Jace burst out laughing. He’s the one who single-handedly took over that Stronghold, but Darvin and Amelia were claiming it? He just couldn’t keep the laugh inside.

“What is so funny?”

“Nothing…” Jace waved the man off. “But no, I’m not going back that way.”

“Yes, you are,” Wri said. “You may be a dog, but you were strong enough that Darvin wanted to make you a captain. So, you will listen to your betters and follow me.”

“My betters?” Jace looked around in confusion. “I don’t see any. Are they hiding somewhere?”

“Dog! If you don’t follow me of your own accord, I’ll have to make you!” Wri barked.

“You? Make me?” Jace snorted. “You and this…” he motioned to the battalion behind Wri. “Garbage?”

“Boy! Don’t blame me for this. I gave you your chance.” Wri spread his arms out, and a dark gray aura began to flow towards his claws.

Jace sighed. And just after I ran out of Battlelust. He reached over his shoulders and drew his kukri. “Okay, worm… at least make it interesting.”