System Change: Chapter 14

That’s the last time I ever believe in this greedy system. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted it. Derek stood, wiping the blood from his mouth. Bastard hit me when I wasn’t ready… made me bite my tongue.

He turned his head, watching Leon gather the others to escape. The man picked up the almost dead Travis.

“I’ve got him. We have to get as far away from here as possible!” he told the others, who fell in behind him and began their retreat.

Derek smiled, seeing the others making their escape. Good, they won’t get in the way now. He cracked his neck. He was worried when he took the hit, but afterward, he realized the smaller Void Beast was nowhere near as strong as the one he met before.

Nowhere as strong but still strong enough for him to take seriously. The problem was that it only hit him with a casual strike. He still didn’t know what the beast was capable of. With that, though, he touched his bracelet.

He soon adorned his full set of black steel plate armor. It was made of the same material as his glaive. He ran his hand over the dent in the breastplate and frowned. Then Derek waved his hand one more time, equipping his helmet.

Now battle-ready, Derek observed the creature before him. The monster stood a good eight feet tall, with dark red eyes promising death. It had fang-like teeth on both the top and bottom parts of its mouth. With those teeth, Derek expected a snout, but its face was more human than canine.

The monster’s arms were long, much longer than a human’s. On the end of both arms and legs were the same razor-like claws. Muscles seemed to threaten to break out of the beast’s dark gray skin. It was quite a sight to behold. The creature looked like a misshapen werewolf with no fur.

This bastard definitely never missed a day at the gym. Derek looked down towards his own abdomen in comparison, seeing the giant dent in his armor left by the other Void Beast. “Looks like I get to take the anger over my armor out on you. That’s good because your friend helped me out, and I don’t really want to fight him.” Yup, that’s why I don’t want to fight him. Not because he’d kill me in one hit, but because he helped me.

The Void Beast, hearing Derek talking to it, tilted its head in confusion, almost like it was wondering why the ant it had crushed was still alive. Then, as if coming to a decision, it let out a screech and readied itself to charge.

Identify, Derek thought, wanting to get a bit more information before the fight began.

Say what now? How the hell did Leon know it was a Void Beast if the system doesn’t even know? Derek had some questions for Leon later, but now, it was time for a fight.

The beast’s screeching stopped, and it charged. Derek advanced.

They met. Derek drove his closed fist into the beast’s gut, while the beast swiped at his chest. He took the impact, trusting in his armor. The impact sent Derek sliding back a few feet before coming to a halt. His strike seemed to be ineffective.

Derek, however, was reeling. The strike didn’t penetrate his armor, but the impact was absorbed throughout his body. His organs were shaken.

Okay, so trading blows with an apparently legendary monster wasn’t the smartest idea, Derek thought as he backed away. He dove in again, this time doing his best to dodge any incoming strikes. He ducked under a strike and delivered a liver blow with his left hand. Other than some pain from his hand, he received no other results.

Dammit, that hurt. This bastard probably doesn’t even have a liver, Derek complained internally. Well, if that’s as fast as this thing moves, I’ve got it beat on speed. Derek had been observing the beast’s actions during their brief encounters, hoping to get a gauge on its strengths and weaknesses.

Derek shot away, out of range of the beast’s next attack. Okay, so it’s strong as shit, and fast to back it up, but slower than me. It has crazy endurance and possibly vitality. I can’t even damage it with my strength. Luckily for me, it doesn’t seem to have any magic, unless it just hasn’t decided it needs to use magic yet. That would just be great. Derek summoned his glaive in preparation for his next assault.

Derek moved until his glaive was within range of the monster. The distance was just out of the creature’s long reach. Good, Derek mused. Derek moved clockwise, doing his best to dodge and attack with his glaive. Swipe, dodge, swipe, dodge. This attack pattern continued for a short while.

This isn’t getting me anywhere. Derek was getting tired. The Void Beast was standing still, only using its arms to attack Derek. It was as if Derek was a fly, but the beast did not want to spend the energy to kill it. Derek looked at the results of his work. He had repeatedly sliced at the same spots with his glaive, but other than leaving some marks, he hadn’t even broken the skin of the beast.

Dammit! I can’t get any power behind my attack if I’m worried about dodging all the time. Derek made a decision. He gripped his glaive with both hands, stepped forward, and swung towards its neck with all his might. He knew a blow was coming from the Void Beast, but he had to trade another blow, just to see if he could even break past the monster’s defense.

Derek watched as his blade fell toward the creature’s neck, time seemingly in slow motion. Then he caught the look on the face of the monster. Is that a… grin? Oh, shit! Thoughts instantly raced through his mind.

The Void Beast moved faster than it had before. With its left hand, it caught the glaive at its blade, chipping it in the process. It pulled, sending Derek flying into its range. The beast’s right arm wrapped around the armored Derek and squeezed. Luckily for Derek, his armor held strong.

Finding that it could not squeeze the human to death, the Void Beast roared in rage. Derek was pinned. He could move neither arm, and his legs were dangling off the ground. He tried kicking the beast, but he couldn’t muster enough force to do any harm. The beast, though intelligent for a monster, seemed to have no thought of what actions to take next.

Finally, much to the dismay of Derek, the Void Beast came to a conclusion. It used its head… literally. It bashed its steel-like head into Derek’s helmet, and Derek’s brain rang like a bell. His helmet held, but the impact on his brain worsened with each crash.

Derek released the end of the glaive he held, allowing his right hand to be freed. He balled his fist and tried punching the beast in the face. When that failed, he played dirty.

He took his thumb and aimed for the opened eye of the beast. He strained, putting in as much effort as he could to gouge the creature’s left eye. The Void Beast screamed in pain and tossed the glaive to the side. It grabbed hold of Derek’s right arm and drew it away from its eye. It was pissed. An ant had injured it.

The head bashing continued, this time fiercer and faster. Derek was on the cusp of losing consciousness. He knew that the moment he blacked out would be the moment he never woke up. He had to come up with an idea, a plan.

The first thing he did was enter Greater Meditation. He had not tried meditating while in a fight, but he was mostly still, so he thought he might have a chance of succeeding. The stars must have aligned because he could sense the recovery effect kicking in. It was repairing the damage to his brain.

The recovery was great, but it could only just keep up. It couldn’t repair the damage already caused. This, at least, gave Derek more time to think of a plan. Maybe if I play dead, it will get tired and throw me away. Like a baby with an old toy. Yeah, that’s not happening. He had enraged it, and it would not stop until he was dead.

Derek focused on his stats. He had points to spend, and they could possibly help him out of his situation.

More vitality will help Greater Meditation recover my injuries. He gritted his teeth and spent 60 points on vitality. He felt his regeneration kick it up a notch. Now, with the help of his increased vitality, Greater Meditation was not only able to repair the damage he received from each headbutt but also some of the previously sustained damage. His HP was slowly increasing.

Alright, so I should be good on injuries as long as my helmet can hold out. Derek tried to move around in the monster’s arms. I can move my legs and my left arm below the elbow. Even if I escape, I still need to be able to either damage him or run away. Derek was still looking at his stats.

I don’t think more strength will make a difference. He looked down and saw his three remaining skill points. There’s an idea. He raised his head and looked for his glaive. It was on the ground a few feet away from him. He thought about all the training he’d done with his glaive while trapped in the void. I hope this works.

He did a quick search through General Skills until he found Heavy Weapons Mastery. In an instant, he spent a skill point and learned it.

Come on! Do it! He waited for the same message he got when selecting Meditation and Identify. Finally, a notification came, but it was not what he expected.

Multiple skills? What? Derek thought back to his previous skills. It must be Heavy Weapons and Glaive Mastery. That’s the only possibility. Then he checked the next message.

Damn… that’s a hard skill to level up. It leveled faster when used against an opponent. He thought all the time he spent swinging his glaive in the void would have earned him a max-level skill he could then upgrade, but it didn’t. It’s better than nothing. Now to find a way to get free of the bastard.

His eyes fell on his new skill, Channel Void. Let’s see if it was worth all those skill points.

He concentrated, channeling the void within him. The Void Beast’s forehead came crashing down onto his helmet. Derek lost his concentration, unable to keep Channel Void and Greater Meditation active at the same time.

Dammit! What now? Greater Meditation had been integral in keeping his brains from coming out of his nose, but it would still take too long for the skill to fully heal his previous injuries. Maybe if I upped my vitality more. 

Derek could feel the protection provided by his helmet waning. When the beast first started bashing its head into him, it held up perfectly. Now, it was on the verge of breaking. Judging from what I know, my helmet isn’t going to last much longer. Derek sighed and spent his remaining stat points on vitality.

With his vitality reaching 510, it became Derek’s highest stat. In fact, breaking 500 stat points made Derek feel like he had broken through a threshold. His new vitality, plus his Greater Meditation skill, greatly increased his current rate of recovery. He could sense his previous head injuries healing at a rapid speed. That might do it. Derek’s health was rapidly climbing up to 5100 HP, having already passed his previous health pool of 4000 HP.

With his health nearing full, he waited for the perfect time to use Channel Void. The creature’s head crashed into his own. Immediately after, he stopped Greater Meditation and channeled the void through his body. His left arm was semi-mobile, so he moved as much of the element as possible into his fist.

Here we go. Derek’s fist, coated in a dark purple glow, was driven into the abdomen of the beast. The punch was much lighter than his previous attacks as he could not get the leverage for a decent strike.

The Void Beast paused mid-headbutt, confusion plastered on its face. Then it made a low, almost imperceptible growl.

He didn’t know what his void-covered strike did, but it caused the beast to cease its attack, if only for a moment. Derek, still with seven seconds left of mana, continued striking the beast in the same spot, over and over.

In the entire ten seconds it took for Derek to spend all his mana, the beast never attacked once. Derek slipped back into Greater Meditation to recover his mana and observed the beast. He was just able to look down and see the location where all his strikes landed. Nothing, not even a mark. What the hell is going on? Confusion set in. The beast’s abdomen looked completely healthy, but its actions contradicted that analysis.

Bringing his head back up, Derek looked at the Void Beast’s face. There, he could see the small droplet of blood rolling down the cheek of the beast. So, it’s being injured internally. Now, Derek only needed his mana recovery to outmatch the Void Beast’s health recovery.

A few minutes later, Derek’s mana was fully recovered, and he channeled the void into his fist again and struck. The previously small amount of blood dripping from the monster’s mouth was now flowing in an almost steady stream.

About halfway through Derek’s next attempt at recovering his mana, it seemed to Derek that the creature had come to a decision. The beast roared, and Derek’s view changed from him looking at the creature to staring at the sky. Then he was slammed full force into the ground. Pain ran through his body as his organs were shaken.

The follow-up attack Derek expected never came. He raised his head and looked around. The beast had its back to Derek and looked as if it wanted to run. That’s not going to happen, Derek thought. He jumped up, out of the imprint his body had made in the earth. The beast ran.

Derek took a small detour, grabbing his glaive before chasing after the creature. It didn’t take long for him to close the distance. The beast jumped over the small stream, and Derek followed. Seconds later, Derek was within striking distance. He was anxious to see how his new mastery skill improved his use of the glaive.

He struck out, the glaive falling between the beast’s shoulders. When the blade connected, Derek felt the tearing of flesh, not the dull ring of metal on metal as he heard before. Finally. He let out a sigh of relief. He could finally hurt the beast. The fight was no longer impossible.

The Void Beast turned and lunged at him, no longer attempting to flee. Derek smiled cruelly. Payback’s a bitch. He moved, sidestepping the beast’s continuous attacks. Between each successful dodge, Derek struck with his glaive.

He continued to circle the enraged beast. The longer the fight continued, the more cuts appeared on the beast’s body. The cuts weren’t deep, but they made up for it by being numerous. With so many wounds, the loss of blood would soon slow the creature down. Sure enough, not long after, the beast was panting heavily.

Exhausted, the beast could no longer attack rapidly, which led to Derek landing even more attacks in succession, on top of being able to put more power into his strikes. The injuries built, new wounds overlapping old.

Derek soon encountered a problem of his own, though. He was running low on stamina.

The toughness of the beast’s skin meant it must have had a massive amount of endurance, which meant a massive stamina pool and stamina recovery. Derek couldn’t hope to match it unless he used Greater Meditation, which he couldn’t do and continue to move so much. He would lose his advantage.

Derek was only alive because of luck and negligence by the beast. If it had followed up after driving Derek to the ground instead of fleeing, their situation would be reversed.

His helmet was on the verge of falling apart, and his glaive was cracked. The battle had been a costly one. He had to finish the fight soon.

The beast seemed to pick up on Derek’s stamina issue. It withdrew into itself and completely stopped attacking, focusing only on defense. The damage from Derek’s blows lessened. His light attacks barely scratching the beast; his heavy attacks just breaking the skin. Dammit! What now?

Derek looked over his health, stamina, and mana pools. His health was fine as he hadn’t really been damaged since being slammed to the ground. His stamina was dangerously low, below 20%. He had half of his mana pool left, enough for five seconds of channeling the void. The skill said I can channel the void into my attacks. Does that mean I can project it into my glaive?

With a last-ditch effort, Derek channeled the void. I have five or six seconds to get this right. He moved the void from his body into his hand, then he pushed. The glow halted for a second, then moved to the staff before moving up. Soon, the purple glow appeared around the glaive. Derek was elated.

Panic flashed in the beast’s eyes, and Derek smiled. It understood that the same glow appeared on his fist before attacks ravaged its insides. The beast ducked even further into itself, protecting all its vitals.

Derek swung the blade down, aiming for the beast’s chest and presumably its heart. The Void Beast turned to block the blow with its arm. The blade struck flesh, then… did nothing. It barely even left a scratch. “Dammit!” he cursed aloud.

Then, while Derek was still inwardly groaning, the beast’s arm fell limply to its side. What? What just happened? He was confused, but he wasn’t going to let this chance go. He still had a few seconds left of the skill, and he was going to use it.

Derek swung again. Once again, the beast blocked, but with its other arm. Again, the arm went limp, hanging to its side.

Derek smiled. He had time for one more attack, and the creature’s chest was wide open and impossible to miss. Derek let one last attack fall. The blade landed on the beast’s collarbone, then moved down towards its abdomen. Derek ran out of mana just under the beast’s chest, and the skill automatically canceled.

The familiar faint feeling and headache returned to Derek as he experienced the pain from mana deprivation once again.

The battle turned quiet, neither the beast nor Derek making a move as they stared at one another. Then, as if a puppet with its strings cut, the beast fell face-first. On the ground, blood pooled below the Void Beast, coming from every orifice, turning the dirt into bloody mud.

Derek looked at his felled foe. Then at his glaive. Dammit… how am I going to fix this? There was a small chip in the middle of the blade. He looked back at the monster. Serves you right. The beast let out one final breath, then died.

Derek received a notification.