System Change

Without looking back, Derek Active Void Shifted directly in front of the army of Thunder Lynx, taking them from surprise. From behind, the group of cat-like creatures were falling one by one at a pretty rapid pace due to Avery and Lyra’s attack, but they had still made it closer to the middle than any of the other groups of monsters.

When the lynx noticed his appearance, they shifted all their attention to him. They all seemed to have the same idea at once, and collectively, they let out growls, and lightning shot up, then down directly at him. Avery and Lyra were staying high enough in the air to dodge any lightning attack easily, but, being this close, that exact strategy wasn’t doable for Derek.

Instead, he leaned on Active Void Shift once again and shifted into the middle of the pack before channeling the void through one of his Sweeping Slashes and striking out. The mass of lightning landed harmlessly on the ground in front of the mob as Harbinger connected with multiple Lynx—splitting them in half. Then, the energy arc reached those cats even further in and bisected them. Finally, the channeled void reached even further, and more lynx fell over dead—not even knowing what hit them.

In a single moment, Derek counted that he had rid the area of at least twenty lynx. Now, however, his Sweeping Slash skill was on cooldown, just as his Multi-Strike had been before the attack even. So, he shifted back to the front of the army and began his one by one slaughter.

While keeping the void channeled through Harbinger, he was still able to take out a couple lynx at a time because of the density of the group—the lynx were fighting shoulder to shoulder, or paw to paw. He also experimented with Void Lightning Bolt.

It wasn’t easy casting it at the same time as he channeled the void through Harbinger, but it got easier as time went on. Soon, he was able to do both simultaneously without thinking about it. I really am going to have to increase my wisdom to keep up with intelligence. He already noted that using the skill in combination with his glaive would have gone much smoother with an increase in the wisdom stat.

After battling at the front line for a bit, his Sweeping Slash and Multi-Strike were off of cooldown. He didn’t instantly use his go to combo, though. Instead, he began intensely channeling his void energy into Harbinger—he wanted to release the biggest slash he could once in battle.

Soon, the projection of the overlapping glaive grew clearer and less transparent. After a bit, the image looked completely tangible. Then he pushed his energy into it… hard. The overlapping image grew and grew until he felt the strain on both himself and Harbinger—he knew it was finally ready.

A multitude of lightning strikes fell on Derek, but they caused nothing more than the feeling of dozens of wasp stings that went just as fast as they appeared. With the pain and suffering Derek had gone through before, a few wasp stings were nothing. He was, however, thankful that the lightning stopped skin deep and didn’t run through his system, causing paralysis—that was his only concern when he decided to tank the attacks so he wouldn’t have to disrupt his charging by dodging.

Standing at the front of the army of Thunder Lynx and unleashing his most potent area of effect skill caused massive damage to them. The few lynx that his glaive and the energy arc from Sweeping Slash and Multi-Strike had killed were nothing compared to the devastating effect the void arc caused. The arc was bigger and shot further into the crowd of beasts than ever before.

And because of the compounding effect of Multi-Strike, there was no delay of when the arc hit the beast and when the beast died. This also caused the arc to last longer before going transparent and fading away. When all was said and done, Derek was standing on the battlefield and there wasn’t an moving, living lynx within a hundred or more feet from him.

The destructive hit had also caused a lull in the battle. Even the lynx that weren’t hit by his attack had paused to look at the destruction. The only thing or person in the current battle against the lynx that hadn’t slowed was Avery. Lyra was hovering above the army, but otherwise still, looking down on Derek. Avery, with his dragon wings, continued to flutter about, raining arrows on the group from behind.

After giving the battle one more look, Derek decided that he had done more than enough to help Avery and Lyra. With well over a hundred lynx to his credit, they wouldn’t have a problem picking the remaining ones off.

Now, he decided to shift his attention to Silvi and her quest for seafood. The view of that battle ended up being quite comical. It seemed that Vanessa had taken it as somewhat of a challenge to not let Silvi out do her. Silvi and Vanessa were hitting the floating octopi in a sort of pincer attack. Derek watched a bit of the battle, amused.

Vanessa was winning the battle of kills handedly, but Silvi was no slouch. Plus, what made things even more funny was that each time Derek saw a flash from Silvi’s side, he saw one of the Vortex Drifters disappear. She was carefully collecting each octopus she killed, and she was using Void Lightning to kill each one with the least amount of damage possible. She wanted her seafood pristine for cooking later.

Derek rolled his eyes and looked over to where Shae and Cain were fighting. They were still having a hard time against the Astral Vipers. It also seemed that Shae had taken more wounds than he had before Derek left to help Avery contain the lynx. So, with his decision made for him, he shifted into the void and reappeared next to Shae on their battlefield.

“Having some trouble here?” Derek asked.

Shae nearly jumped out of his shoes as he shot a quick glance at Derek before calming himself. “These bastards have some kind of incorporeal body skill. Only about one of every three attacks I make actually lands.”

“I saw that,” Derek said. The Astral Vipers were small creatures—well, small compared to the rest of the beasts on the battlefield. They were about six feet in length and a little bigger than his forearm around. If the grass was any higher, or if they were green instead of a blueish color, it would make it difficult to even see them. “Any tips?” Derek asked as he prepared his glaive.

A viper struck forward at Shae at that time, passing through his spear in the process. Just before the snake reached the man’s body, Shae snatched it out of the air, choked up on his spear, and stabbed it. “Yeah, they have to be corporeal in order to cause us any damage. So they tend to reform just as their attack is about to land. That’s how I’ve killed most of the ones I have. Though I missed a few of them in the beginning.” Shae pointed at the few bite marks that hadn’t yet healed.

“What’s the damage like?” Derek asked as he slashed out with his void channeled Harbinger.

“Minimal,” Shae replied. “It would take a swarm of them all at once to cause any real damage to someone with a good amount of endurance and vitality. The problem is the effect the bite causes.”

“Oh?” Derek said. He watched as his void channeled strike cut one snake in half, then watched hopefully as the near invisible void projection passed through one of the incorporeal vipers. Shae watched as well. He was the only person who had really experienced Derek’s void attack personally, so he had an inkling of how it worked. Unfortunately, the void passed through the snake and caused no harm to it.

Derek clicked his tongue in disappointment. “I really thought that would work.”

“I had hoped,” Shae agreed but continued to explain about the snake’s attack. “Anyway, the bite sends your mind wandering. It’s like it projects you into another place, almost like an out of the body experience. Basically, it gives you mass hallucinations. But it seems that the more times you get bitten, the less it works. I was only gone for a few seconds the last time I was bitten. The first two times, Cain had to step in to keep me from being overwhelmed.”

Speaking of Cain, he was still raining down spells. Fire seemed to be the one he settled on after testing everything out. If the grass caught fire, then even when the snakes became corporeal once again, it could still manage to hurt them a bit.

“That’s interesting,” Derek said. He then caught a snake that was about to hit his jugular and brought its fangs to his uncovered hand. The snake bit down, but its fangs were barely able to pass through his skin. He felt a slight tug on his brain, but that was it. It wasn’t anywhere near close to Alanah actively trying to control him. He nodded, then sent a small Void Lightning Bolt through the snake’s brain. “That was disappointing,” he said. His health had decreased maybe a hundred points before recovering instantly.

Either his pretty high wisdom stat or his extremely high intelligence stat had caused the venom to be ineffective on him—that, or his willpower blocked it just as it had blocked Alanah’s skill. Though, I guess this attack may actually be pretty good. My wisdom stat has broken through the 1,000 point threshold since the last time I’ve been hit with any mind type skills.

Derek dropped the snake onto the ground, then sighed. “This is going to be a pain in the ass.”

“What is?” Shae asked.

“It’s going to take forever to kill all these things in a reasonable amount of time,” Derek said. “So, you’re going to need to kill them as they attack me.”

“What?”

“Well, I’m going to stand still. They are going to bite me. When they’re in their physical forms, take them out. Easy peasy,” he explained.

“But, what about the…” Shae shook his head and stopped. “No, I guess that won’t be a problem for you, will it? Your skins almost impervious to their bites, and you didn’t even lose yourself for a second.”

“Exactly,” Derek said, then walked forward. “Plus, they can’t even bite through my armor. But try to keep them off my head if at all possible. I won’t be able to move quick enough to do much.” Derek activated Greater Meditation as snake after snake launched at him. He covered his face and parts of his neck with his hands and forearms. “You’re buying me a drink when we get back,” he said, muffled.

“Hah, you wish!” Derek felt gusts of wind caused by Shae’s spear passing by him. “Even with as much time that’s passed while in this dungeon, Judy won’t have forgotten what happened the last time we went for a drink. Why do you think I jumped at the opportunity to go on this raid? She needed some time to cool down.”

“Fine,” Derek said. “Drinks are on me. Maybe Roman will have something good cooked up by the time we get back.”

“Now that’s more like it,” Shae said, and Derek swore the man’s speed increased twofold. He had to have been holding back before. “It’s a promise!”

Derek was really putting his old Achievement to use now. He was back to being a proper meatshield.

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