System Change

“Marrick…” David said.

“Yes?”

“What… am I looking at?”

“A couple of battle-crazed maniacs…” Marrick answered.

“We never had a chance, did we?” David asked.

“I can beat him… I think,” Marrick replied. “I already know how.” The old elf shrugged. “After watching the two of them fight for so long, I think I know how Jace’s abilities work,” he explained. “And if I’m even close, then, prepared, I would be a terrible match-up for the young man.”

“And me?” David asked.

“You’d die,” Marrick answered. “Fast… probably. Depending on how much of that rage or whatever it was… Battle Lust… I think he said? Yes, depending on how much of that the young man had built up before the fight began. Still, I do not know his starting strength, but even from where he is now… I believe I could at least draw. I would most certainly be able to get away, at least. If I fought him at where he was when he was fighting the guards, I should be able to win quickly. However, quickly is the only way one would be able to beat such a man.”

“Unless…” David started, but was cut off by Marrick.

“Unless his opponent was someone like Derek,” Marrick replied. “In which case, the roles are reversed.”

“But Derek is certainly taking a lot of damage,” David said.

As the two of them viewed the battle from a nice, safe distance, they saw an unarmored Derek cut up so severely that even their stomachs began to turn. However, the man healed at a rate that only the person fighting him could match. Derek’s entire body was encased in a layer of blood, and so too was Jace’s. However, the blood that encased Jace was not his, but Derek’s.

Throughout the fight, Derek had mostly been passive. Every once in a while, he would counterattack with one of his void strikes and cause an interruption in Jace’s fighting. Those few seconds of interruption would be enough for him to heal most of his accumulated wounds without receiving any others for a moment.

In all honesty, for the two veteran Guardians, the fight was exhausting to watch. Marrick could see the two going on for days. He couldn’t help but wonder if either of them had skills that weren’t at max level yet, because if they did, they were the perfect opponents for each other—their skill levels would skyrocket during such a fight. The reason for that was because it seemed like neither of them was pulling their punches when they attacked.

They both even went for vital areas on occasion—no, they actually went for them on more than just on occasion. Jace had some kind of skill that looked like it automatically targeted his opponent’s weak spots at the time of activation, and did so with more strength and speed than his normal attacks. That weak spot could be a tendon, an organ, or even an artery. Derek had his liver punctured twice already. However, even that skill was unable to cut all the way through Derek’s bones.

Well, except for his fingers. Derek had lost a few a couple of times. He either grabbed them and reattached them, or… he regrew them. It took longer for him to grow a new finger than it did for him to reattach them or heal a normal wound, but he was still able to do it—while in a fight.

But the most astonishing thing that Marrick had noticed throughout the entire fight was the armor that Derek had been wearing at the beginning. He’d never seen anything like it, and he certainly heard when Derek told Jace that it was of mythic rarity. The Old Goblin didn’t even know that something like that was possible.

***

“We’re not getting anywhere with this,” Derek finally said. He winced as his health fell to 75% once again, then dodged and blocked every incoming attack while it recovered. He would never tell him, but Jace had actually taken him down to under 40% a couple of times. Time to put this 1650 dexterity to work, he thought as he began channeling the void into Harbinger.

He had to be careful with his glaive. Its durability was running increasingly low, and it wouldn’t be long before it broke. He wasn’t worried about it breaking because of its ability to be repaired with Material Drain, but he needed it if he wanted to score a victory now that Jace was so strong.

Speaking of his old friend, Jace didn’t seem to be getting tired at all. He also wasn’t getting bored. It looked like the man could fight forever. However, his strength and speed had finally stopped climbing. Honestly, it seemed to be a little higher than Derek’s own—which made sense since the man obviously didn’t focus on stats like wisdom. However, he also had skills that synced and utilized those increased stats perfectly.

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Derek laughed as Jace chased him around the battlefield. The man would close in, then Derek would just take to the air. Then he would come down and repeat the actions—all the while channeling as much void into Harbinger as he could.

Soon, the projection of the blade of Harbinger was massive and no longer transparent. Multi-Strike had come off cooldown not long ago, and Derek was ready with his strike. Finally, he stopped moving and faced Jace. With a step forward, Derek swung Harbinger with all his might and activated both Multi-Strike and Sweeping Slash at the same time.

Derek’s movements were so sudden and Jace was charging in so fast that the man didn’t have any time to dodge. Though, even if he had had the time, Derek was unsure if Jace would have chosen to do so. The Sweeping Slash was blocked perfectly by Jace’s kukri, but the void projection wasn’t impacted in the least. The projection flew straight through the man.

Derek had aimed it as perfectly as he could have. First, all the running around that he had done wasn’t just to charge up his attack. He wanted to get at an angle where there wasn’t anything or anyone behind Jace. The last thing he wanted was for the strike to go through Jace and hit Marrick or the guards, or some random kid inside the city.

He didn’t actually know how far the attack would travel at the moment. He did know that with his perfect setup, the slash would catch the man’s liver, heart, and one of his kidneys at the minimum. It was also the first time he pulled his punches even a little—as he made sure that it wouldn’t catch his brain in the process.

He wouldn’t put it past Jace to survive such a strike, but he didn’t want to chance it. Derek instantly stored Harbinger as soon as he saw the attack land, and he channeled the void into his fists. He didn’t want Sweeping Slash, with such an enormous amount of void behind it, to hit Jace in the head, but he’d already tested Jace enough to know that he at least wouldn’t die from a few fists to the head.

Sure enough, it seemed that most of the man’s organs exploded all at once. Blood gushed from every orifice on the man’s body as he fell onto his back. Derek rushed forward and stood over the man’s beaten-up body, which suddenly didn’t seem to be healing as quickly as it used to.

With his fists glowing a deep shade of purple, Derek looked down at his old friend. “Looks like I won. Do you give up?”

Jace spat up a gruesome amount of blood and smiled. “So… fun,” he managed to gurgle out through all the blood. Then, he slowly raised his finger and motioned for Derek to come closer.

Derek did so, then asked again, “Do you give up?”

Jace coughed again, then slowly whispered, “Surge… of… War…”

A powerful aura shot into the air, and Derek jumped backward. In front of him, he saw Jace slowly rise to his feet like a zombie. Steam radiated off his body, and all the blood on the surface was burned off—revealing skin that was an even darker crimson than the blood from before.

Throughout the entire process, Jace never lost his grip on his blades. The man looked absolutely frightening at that moment. His veins were bulging through his crimson skin, and his eyes were solid crimson. He’d grown a bit taller and lankier, as well.

Derek was still in awe at the sight and barely noticed when Jace flung himself at him. Derek raised his arms to block the assault, but, to his surprise, the kukri cut deeply into him—not stopping until it cleaved halfway through his forearm. Jace ripped the blade out and swung again. Derek blocked again—wondering if he should equip Void’s Embrace.

He was seriously considering it when Jace disappeared and reappeared behind him. Derek barely turned in time to raise his arm once again. However, this time, the attack was reinforced by a skill, and the blade cleaved directly through his arm—taking it off at the elbow. Then, the attack continued and bit just into his side. His arm slowed the momentum enough that the blade didn’t go too far in, but it had still cut his arm off and then some.

Derek cursed, then used Void Shift to move himself high into the air. While moving, he looked down and actually saw Jace’s eyes tracking him while he was shifted. It was something he hadn’t seen in a long time, and that was with Alanah back before the skill and his stats had increased so much. It was… eerie.

Derek appeared out of the void, high above. “Fuck this,” he said. “I’m winning.” Derek looked at his missing forearm and clicked his tongue. Then, he used Active Void Shift and appeared right in front of Jace. From there, Derek tackled him, then drove his void-covered fist into the man’s skull. He did so again and again.

Because the attack was so different from before, and Jace seemed a little less conscious of his movements, the move had caught him so much by surprise that it took a while for him to react. Finally, Jace threw Derek off, then staggered to his feet.

Derek drew Harbinger and prepared a void-infused Whirlwind Slash. Jace lifted his kukri, took a step… then fell to the ground. Suddenly, his skin turned back to its pale shade of white, and the man rolled over onto his back. He looked emaciated. He was spent.

Jace raised his arm slightly, then it fell to the ground. Derek used Identify on the man, and sure enough, he was in a Dying State.

“Woo hoo…” Derek gingerly reached down and picked up his arm. He held it to his elbow and let it slowly reattach itself. “Oof…” Derek grunted and stretched his arm out—getting the feeling back in it. “That was some final push,” he said as he flicked his wrist.

Finally, his full set of armor reappeared over his body, and Derek no longer felt naked or vulnerable. He noticed one thing when Jace attacked him the final time. That was that his most vital area at that moment wasn’t his chest. Sure, if Derek hadn’t blocked the attack, it might have made it all the way to his heart. However, the man was able to cleave through his arm, so he most likely would have been able to cleave through his neck.

Derek did have thick, dense muscles there, but they probably wouldn’t have kept him from being decapitated if he hadn’t been able to get his arm up to slow the momentum. However, Jace chose not to go for that spot. Even though he was like a crazed animal at the end, he surprisingly didn’t go for the kill. Still, Derek would have blocked, and he was always ready to use Void Shift, so he would have been safe either way. If the attack wouldn’t have been aimed where it was, and instead aimed at his head or neck, he actually would have shifted. Still, the man had pulled his final punch, even if just slightly.

Thinking this, Derek flicked his wrist one last time. A potion appeared in his hand. Then he walked over to the corpse-like Jace, bent down, and poured it into his mouth. Finally, Derek fell onto his back and let out a deep sigh. “Whew…” he whispered. “Twenty-seven… and one.”

“Twenty… eight… and one.”