System Change

“My name is Jace,” he finally introduced himself as he prepared for a fight.

“You can call me Old Goblin… or Marrick,” the floating old elf said. “And he’s David Brandt.” Slowly, grains of sand began to float up and around Marrick, and the knight, David Brandt, lifted his sword, which began to shine brightly.

With both kukri in his hands and a savage grin on his face, Jace lunged forward at the Old Goblin. In the blink of an eye—moving much quicker than he’d ever shown while dealing with the guards—he arrived just in front of the floating man. He slashed out with a blade on each side, like an executioner about to remove a man’s head from his torso.

Both of his kukri bit into a barrier of sand that appeared just before they reached the old man’s body, but his strikes were fast and heavy enough that they cleaved through the barriers. However, the sand was enough to slow the strikes and lessen their power, so when they reached the man, they tore through his robes but landed on something solid.

No blood came from the man as he quickly floated higher into the air. Only a handful of sand fell from his robes. “Woah, there,” the Old Goblin said. “You’re a feisty one.”

“Great block!” Jace shouted, then kicked off the ground again. This time, his aim was the knight. He appeared just behind the man and swung his kukri once more. This time, there was no barrier or armor-like skin that blocked his attack. Instead, as soon as his blades reached the man, the whole battlefield was hit with a blinding light.

When Jace could see again, the man was gone. As his eyes searched for the man, his Battle Instincts gave him a warning. With incredible speed, Jace turned and brought one kukri up. A sharp ding rang out as he blocked a blow from the man that he could not see.

“Invisible?” Jace muttered as the pressure on his blade disappeared.

Moments later, the ground beneath him gave way, and he began to sink as arcs of light in cross-shaped patterns began pelting him from the front. Jace crossed his kukri in front of him and blocked the light attacks as he glanced up at the man who was controlling the sand beneath his feet.

“Fun!” Jace yelled as his whole body was covered in a red aura and, without even moving his feet, he launched himself directly into the coming arcs of light. His blades blocked most of the arcs, but some made it through. The light cut through his useless armor and into his skin. The wounds sizzled and burned before scabbing over and healing almost as quickly as they formed.

“That healing may be on par with him…” the Old Goblin muttered from above.

An instant later, Jace hit something with his body and heard a deep grunt as the knight flickered back into existence and was sent flying. David hit the ground and rolled to his feet. He stood, then wiped the bit of blood away from his mouth.

“You really were holding back,” the knight said.

“Usually have to,” Jace said. “But who knows? The two of you may make things interesting.” He chuckled at the knight. “Let’s see how fast you really are.” Once again, he disappeared and reappeared in front of David. His first swing came and was blocked by David’s blade, then his second by his shield, then the third… then the fourth. Each strike came slightly faster than the last, and eventually, one made its way through and cleaved into the man’s armor.

The strike bit into the shoulder guard and made it at least an inch into the man’s arm—drawing blood in the process. The slight loss of momentum from his kukri sticking in the man’s armor for a moment was enough for the man to bash Jace away with his shield and into a wall of sand that had been forming behind him.

David reached over and winced as his shielded hand found the wound on his arm. “Fast…” he muttered.

The wall of sand collapsed onto Jace, and from above, Marrick strained as he tried to push his palms together. What he was using was one of his go-to attacks where he buried his opponent in sand, then used it to grind them down. Without proper endurance and vitality, it was a death sentence for whoever was trapped.

However, he’d never had such a hard time trying to grind the trapped person down. In fact, as he tried to compress the sand, he found himself in a losing battle. Instead of his hands growing closer together and the sand compacting more and more, they began to be pushed apart. Marrick bit his lip as he used everything he had against the young man, but it just wasn’t enough.

He looked toward David, then nodded. David’s sword shone brightly, and a blinding aura formed around the knight. The aura seeped into his sword, then he pointed it toward the person-sized mound of sand. Light gathered at the tip of the sword, then exploded out.

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Almost instantaneously with the explosion of light, a small opening appeared in the front of the sand, just big enough for David’s attack to get through. Marrick half-expected the light to go through the opening in the sand and out the back of it, but it didn’t.

The beam hit the opening and then stayed. With Marrick’s hearing, he heard the sound of meat sizzling as David pushed more and more of his mana into the attack. After a few moments, he was also able to hear a muffled yell from inside the sand. It wasn’t a scream of fear or pain, but more of a shout or battle cry. Whatever it was, even with David’s assistance, Marrick struggled to keep his sand packed tight.

Eventually, it wasn’t enough, as the battle cry grew and his sand exploded—like a spell backfiring. It was a day of firsts for Marrick. Not only was the young man the first one not to be ground to dust or surrender from his spell since he mastered it, but he was also the first person to break free of it with his own strength and the first person to show the old elf what it was like to have the spell backfire.

A splitting headache formed inside Marrick’s head as he winced and looked down at Jace. The headache was one that he hadn’t felt in a long time. It was identical to one that formed when he exhausted his mana. And the mental drain wasn’t anything to scoff at either. Really, it was so bad that he almost had to look away because of how bright the light burying itself into the young man’s sternum was.

But he couldn’t look away. Jace’s armor and clothing were almost completely gone. All that was left were rags on his lower body and his storage rings and… a bracelet that looked very similar to the one that Derek always wore. But what really caught Marrick’s eye were the wounds all over the young man’s body.

From his face to his torso to his arms and legs, there was scoured flesh everywhere, running all the way into his muscles, and abrasions marking almost all other areas. It was the first time Marrick really saw the damage that his skill did. Usually, the person was ground down and just became one with the sand.

Marrick never intended for that to happen to Jace. He said he was Derek’s friend, after all, but he’d still ended up having to go all out with his spell, yet it still wasn’t enough. Of course… the friend of that monster is another monster. Suddenly, Marrick wasn’t having a hard time believing that the young man before him really was good friends with Derek.

Also, suddenly, the abrasions and scoured flesh began healing before his eyes. Marrick really couldn’t believe what he was seeing. And obviously, neither could David. His light beam had certainly penetrated deep into the man—burning all the way. But at some point, it had stopped pushing forward and began slowly creeping back. It seemed that the man’s healing was starting to win out against David’s attack.

For the first time, Marrick truly understood why Jace had asked them not to give up. He thought the man was just being cocky, but it seemed that wasn’t the case. He understood his strength and really was looking for a good fight. He was an absolute maniac. How painful must all those wounds have been? In his long life, Marrick hadn’t even experienced such a terrible amount of wounds and injuries all at once.

Yet the man before him took them and continued on with nothing more than a war cry and a gleam in his blood-red eyes. Marrick actually wasn’t sure if they would be able to make it through the fight without giving up. Well… he would for sure because he was already at death’s door from old age, so he would fight until the end, but David still had many long years left in him.

“This intensity! This type of fight!” Jace suddenly shouted as he moved one of his odd blades in front of David’s beam. “This is what I’ve been waiting for!” Before their eyes, the wound in his sternum healed just like that. “Nothing feeds my battle lust more!”

The longer he fights… the stronger he gets… Marrick suddenly thought. His eyes widened. He’s a Berserker! Then he shook his head. He’d fought Berserkers before, and none of them were like the young man before him. He was something more than just a Berserker. Berserkers were like candles burning brightly, then flickering out just as quickly.

Jace… his strength only grew. What a cheat! Marrick thought. His strength and recovery both grow the longer he fights… and by his words… the stronger and harder the fight, the quicker his strength grows. No wonder he was able to take out those two Guardians as soon as the invasion started. What kind of mindset would one have to have for the system to give out such a class?

Is it Legendary? Maybe Mythic? Marrick couldn’t know if it was or wasn’t. Does it have any weaknesses? How strong is he before a fight? He already seemed strong when he was fighting David’s guards—maybe even as strong as us. And in this short time… mere minutes… he’s already grown so much stronger. Just what is his limit?

“Round two!” Jace shouted. The look in his eyes was crazed, and the savage grin was replaced with more of a maniacal one.

Uh oh…

***

Derek hummed as he leaped through the void towards Marrick… and Jace. He wasn’t too worried about either one of them, but he still planned on getting there before Jace did anything too stupid and got himself killed by Marrick. They’d apparently been fighting for a few minutes before Derek saw the change in the status. He wasn’t spending every waking moment monitoring it, after all.

He hadn’t actually said much about Jace to anyone, so when Sir Brandt and Marrick were sent into battle and there wasn’t a Champion on the other side who was also fighting, the first thing that everyone thought of were those two battalions that attacked Eloria and Savannah.

But Avery had come to him only after a few minutes, so no harm, no foul. When he opened the void and looked via his Void Sense, he instantly found both Jace and Marrick’s auras right beside each other. Both auras burned brightly, so at that moment, it didn’t seem like anyone was in any danger of dying.

Still, Derek hurried just in case. After just a short hop, skip, and jump, he was there. Derek approached Marrick’s aura, and before he was right on top of the Old Goblin, he reached out, ripped the void open, and stepped out.

Derek looked around at his surroundings and saw a bunch of beat-up guards or soldiers in the distance. Then he saw a man flickering brightly every time a kick or blade landed, and he saw Marrick hovering in the air, panting. Finally, he saw the person fighting the flickering man.

Just as Derek’s gaze fell on the man, he suddenly stopped and turned his head, then… their eyes met.