System Change

Derek laughed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s not like you’ve done anything to me. What good is being fast if you can’t injure your opponent.”

Shae narrowed his eyes as he looked Derek’s body over from the bottom up. Usually, a hit to the sternum would at least make the other person lose a little breath. “Fine.” Shae finally said.

Derek moved into a boxing stance and prepared for an assault. He had a sinking suspicion that by the time the spar was over, his Physical Resistance passive was going to level up multiple times. Derek smiled and motioned Shae with his hand.

Shae launched his attack. The man wasn’t so fast that Derek couldn’t defend against him, but he was fast. It was very hard to counterattack. It was all Derek could do to block his attacks, and the occasional one landed somewhere on Derek’s body.

This was fine, though. Derek didn’t know how much of Shae’s full strength was in the attacks, but it wasn’t enough to do Derek much harm. Sure, the attacks were breaking his skin, but they weren’t piercing too deeply into his muscles.

Derek could tell that Shae was beginning to wonder about Derek, as even though he had been hit and cut multiple times, he didn’t flinch. His body was covered in blood, but Derek kept his usual smile.

Finally, Derek found his opportunity. In a thrust to his side, Derek stepped forward and trapped Shae’s spear with his arm. Then he grabbed it and pulled forward, causing Shae to finally enter his range. With his free left hand, Derek punched.

Shae tilted his head to dodge, but Derek already knew he wouldn’t be able to hit such a hard target. Instead, he changed the trajectory of his punch and hit the man in the center of his chest. The punch basically used all of Derek’s strength.

When the hit landed, Derek released the man’s spear and took a step back. Shae stepped back a few times with the momentum from Derek’s attack.

Shae looked Derek over with a frown. “Is that your strategy? To take a beating until you can get a single counterattack that doesn’t do anything.”

Derek smiled, knowing that if he had been channeling void, that hit to the chest would have been critical. He doubted it would have been fatal, but it was definitely something that would be hard to recover from.

Derek’s grin got even wider as he took his hand and wiped at some of the blood on his abdomen. As he did so, everyone realized that there wasn’t a mark left on his body. His torso was the same as it had been before the spar, minus the blood.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. What beating?” Derek asked. In all actuality, his health was at 100%. The ‘beating’ he was taking wasn’t anywhere worse than what the last void beast he fought had done. Not to mention that this time, it was after he upgraded his Vitality and Endurance stats and went through another breakthrough.

Shae groaned. “You’re a tank?” He said. “I hate fighting tanks.” He muttered under his breath.

Derek shrugged. “All I know is that you’re going to have to do a whole lot more than lightly poke me if you want to do any damage.”

“Fine!” Shae snorted and bent his knees slightly. A yellow glow overtook his figure, then, before both Derek’s and Thomas’s eyes, the man was gone. To Derek’s credit, he could see the blur moving towards him. However, just because he could see the man didn’t mean he could react well.

Shae thrust out constantly while moving around Derek. Each thrust hit Derek’s body. Clearly, Shae was aiming to not overly injure Derek, as his blows still only aimed for his sides and appendages. The man didn’t aim for anything vital. His attacks were piercing deeper into Derek’s muscles than before, but it still wasn’t enough to do much harm.

For Derek’s part, if he focused well, he was able to protect his vitals if needed, as long as he kept his turtle like posture and didn’t have to make any big motions. Derek focused hard as the other man attacked over and over.

Soon, with all the ‘wounds’ he acquired, Derek was able to make out a bit of a pattern. No, it wasn’t enough to call it a pattern, but since the man wasn’t attacking any of his organs or other vitals, it wasn’t hard for Derek to estimate where he would attack next.

Finally, Derek tried to trap the spear with his arm again. Just as he was about to succeed, the spear disappeared out of his sight, and he felt a hard impact on his chin. Inwardly, Derek chided himself for thinking Shae would let the same thing happen twice.

Derek had said it multiple times throughout his fights, but he couldn’t help but think it again. Blunt damage is really the type of damage I hate the most. His brain was reinforced with all his Endurance, but that didn’t mean that a blow to his chin with the blunt side of a spear didn’t hurt.

Well, it didn’t hurt, per se, but it did cause his head to spin. Because of the hit, Derek stumbled back a step in his dizziness. Derek rubbed his head and looked up at a smirking Shae. Derek laughed again as he used Cleaning. As the spell washed over him, it took with it all the blood accrued on his body and shorts.

Again, Derek was standing there in pristine condition. He looked at Shae. “I use my Cleaning skill more often than I use my healing one.”

Shae’s eyes widened at Derek’s casual words. “Just how much Endurance and Vitality do you have?” He finally asked. “How much of your health have you lost?”

Derek watched his health tick up from 92% to 100% and smiled. “Not nearly as much as you think you have.” He vaguely answered.

Shae spat. “Just because you can take a hit doesn’t mean you’re worthy enough for an Onyx Badge. Not many people make it to this level, so you have to depend on yourself more than on your party. What happens when you run out of Stamina? Or if you don’t have enough damage to actually kill whatever you’re fighting?”

Derek shrugged again. “Isn’t all this what you’re suppose to find out? So far, you’ve given me no reason to attack. Just a couple bee sting.” He provoked. At this rate, his Physical Resistance was never going to level up.

Shae took the insult personally. A blue glow washed over his spear, along with another yellow one over his body, which Derek guessed to be a type of hastening skill. Then he disappeared again.

This time, the hits came heavy, and Derek’s health disappeared in chunks. This is what I was looking for. Derek thought. Derek’s movements slowed as he slipped into Greater Meditation to keep up with the blood and health loss. With the skill active, it was almost pointless for Derek to protect anything other than his head.

Each time the spearhead stabbed Derek, it took with it a chunk of at least three percent of his HP. Still, the barrage of attacks kept landing, and Derek’s smile never left his face. Occasionally, an attack would land that would pierce all the way through his muscle, and even penetrate his bones slightly.

Derek finally guessed that the blue glow that fell over the man’s spear was some kind of skill that increased penetration. Still, it didn’t matter as the bone healed as soon as the spear was removed, and the muscle soon followed.

If this part of the spar lasted much longer, the entire room was going to end up under a pool of Derek’s blood.

Two minutes later, Derek received a surprising notification. Both his Greater Meditation and his Physical Resistance had leveled up. It’s about damn time. Derek thought about Greater Meditation. He couldn’t remember the last time his favorite skill had leveled.

The notification was a happy event for Derek, and he let it show on his face. His smile was even brighter. Apparently, Shae noticed his smile as well. That, and the fact that Derek was moving slowly and not even trying to block anymore must have irritated the man to no ends.

Suddenly, Shae screamed, and another glow washed over the blur. Unlike the hastening and piercing skills before, this glow came with the activation of an actual combat skill.

Derek felt the attack more than saw it. Three blows in his abdomen. He felt as the spear both penetrated the front and blew out of his back. The first attack pierced through, missing all of his organs, but the second hit the bottom of his left kidney, right below his ribs, causing a massive gash on the organ.

That was enough for 30% of Derek’s health, but the real damage came with the third blow. It broke through his rib cage and directly penetrated his liver before coming out the back.

This caused Derek’s eyes to widen as he weakly grabbed the spear, which was still penetrating his body, with his right hand. His health had fallen to 23% and was dipping even lower as his Vitality worked hard to repair all the damage.

“Derek!” Thomas screamed from across the room.

Derek looked up at Shae, who looked to be in a sense of panic. That’s a nice, ‘Oh, shit! What did I just do?’ face. Derek thought. Luckily, once his kidney was healed, with the combination of his Vitality and Greater Meditation, his health was already shooting back up.

Derek chuckled as his grip on the spear tightened. Then, he moved his left hand as if it were a blade and activated both Sweeping Slash and Multi-Strike. He could have gone with the void, but he didn’t want to kill the man.

The blows came rapidly as the man let go of his spear and jumped back with his arm in a cross shape. Derek clicked his tongue as Sweeping Slash just wasn’t as good as it could be with a weapon. Still, the combination of the skills cut the man’s forearms deeply through his bracers and even caused him to grunt in pain.

Derek ripped the spear out of his liver and cast Rejuvenation on himself. Then he looked over at Thomas. “You should leave the room. It’s my turn.” His fingertips began glowing blue as lightning flowed throughout his body.

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