System Change

“Survive?” Maven snorted. He hadn’t reacted much, even after Vanessa filled the chamber with shadows and released her aura. “Against you?” he asked, but his question wasn’t directed at Vanessa. Instead, he was looking directly at Derek.

“Yup,” Derek said. “You beat her, and I’ll leave you alone. Of course, it comes with some contracts and oaths, but you won’t have to worry about me anymore, and you can go about your business as the Guild Leader.”

“And you?” Maven asked.

“I give you my word. I won’t interfere during the fight,” Derek said. “This is what Vanessa wants, so it’s what I’ll give her.” What he didn’t say was that if Maven somehow got the upper hand and was about to kill Vanessa, Derek would take that as the end of the fight, and he would step in to save the woman unless the man was able to instantly kill her—in that case, it was her bad luck and Derek wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. He would also honor his word and allow Maven to live… with the right oaths and contracts. However, he had faith in Vanessa and didn’t think it’d come to that.

“Can I trust you?” Maven asked.

“Nope,” Derek said. “Not at all. But the other option is death with no possibility of escape. I’d think the decision was easy.” He looked around the training chamber. “What do the three of you think?” None of the three assassins made to move, and none of them spoke. Derek looked back at Maven. “See, they’re so stunned that I would even give you this opportunity after you threatened my… family, that they’re speechless.”

“Fine!” Maven said. “It’s a deal.”

“Boss!” Lazrus said. The Vice Leader knew that Vanessa had no love for him, and if Maven died, he would probably be next.

“You can live, too,” Vanessa said. “If Maven survives.”

“Okay,” Derek said with a clap of his hands. “Now that we know what’s happening, let’s get to it.” He looked hard at the man with the mohawk. “Go to the stands,” he said.

“Go ahead,” Maven told his underling, and, hesitantly, Lazrus did as his Guild Leader told him to do.

“Great,” Derek said. “Let me get out of your way, too.” With that, Derek turned toward where two of the cloaked figures were standing and made his way toward them. Once he made it to the beginning of the stands, he climbed them until he found himself right in between the two assassins. He looked from one to the other and said in a whisper, “This is pretty exciting, huh? Two shadows enter, one shadow leaves.”

Neither of the cloaked figures acknowledged his existence. Instead, their heads never turned away from looking at the center of the chamber, where both Maven and Vanessa were moving toward.

“You guys aren’t any fun,” Derek said. “So… are one of you going to be the new Guild Leader? The two of you seem to be the strongest in here, other than myself, Vanessa, and Maven, of course. Though, I’m not actually sure that you aren’t stronger than that guy. Ya’ll seemed to handle my aura as good, if not better, than he did.”

Derek waited for a reply, but he still got nothing. “You two aren’t very talkative, are you?” he asked, not expecting a reply. Just like he thought, he didn’t get one. Finally, he shrugged. “It’s always more fun to watch a fight with other people, but I’m not sure if you are the right people…” he said. “Oh well,” he said with another shrug. “Oh, look! It’s starting!” Derek pointed at the duo in the center of the chamber, as if the two assassins didn’t already know.

Once Derek walked away, Vanessa withdrew her aura and her shadows back into her body. It seemed that she wanted to fight on as even terms as possible—she wanted to take out the man who caused the death of her father while he was giving it his all. Derek guessed that doing so would make her feel better about everything, and it may also be a bit more humiliating for Maven—which he guessed was the main goal.

“Do you really want to do this?” Maven asked his niece. “You could surrender now and go back to your pathetic life as a crony of the royal family. I’m sure they’d miss you if you were to die.”

“Surrender? And allow you to freely live out the rest of your life? That isn’t possible,” Vanessa replied. “After today, only one of us will be left, and I’m not going to shed a single tear when that person is me.”

“So be it,” the Guild Leader said. Then, with a wave of his hand, multiple spears of shadow shot up from below Vanessa and tried to pierce her.

Fortunately, Vanessa Hodges wasn’t known as the Shadow Witch for nothing. Without bothering to move, shadows that were even darker than Maven’s wrapped themselves around the woman’s legs and up to her waist. When Maven’s shadow spears stabbed into Vanessa’s shadow armor, they were stopped cold. Not only were they unable to pierce the armor, the shadows were even knocked away because of the effects of the armor.

“How?!” Maven shouted, then, with a kick on the ground, shot back, away from the shadow spikes that threatened to take his life. “What the hell is that skill?”

“You’ve grown complacent as a Guild Leader,” Vanessa said as she walked forward. As she took her steps, more and more shadows accumulated onto the woman’s body until she was covered in an eerie shadow armor from her neck down. “I, on the other hand, have never stopped refining my skills.”

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“But we have the same class!” Maven yelled. “This shouldn’t be possible.” To get away from any other ground attacks, a pair of wings made from shadow—not unlike the ones that Vanessa always used—sprouted from his back, and he took flight.

“Do we, though?” Vanessa asked as the same wings appeared on her back. “We may, or we may not. Our classes may have started the same, but who’s to say that mine didn’t upgrade?” With those words, the shadows finished covering the woman, and her head was fully encased in what looked to be a full helmet made of moving shadow.

“Oh dang,” Derek said from the stands. He put his hand on the shoulder of the assassin to his right and shook him. “I didn’t see that coming,” he said. “I wonder when she got that skill.” To Derek, her shadows weren’t any different from how they had been before—that hadn’t changed. Maven’s shadows, though, were a little less dark than his niece’s. They also seemed to be less dense—almost on the verge of being transparent.

Vanessa had never used the armor skill in front of Derek either. Then again, she had been out of his vision the last time they fought together against the Starfury Leonaris. Not to mention that the skill wouldn’t have had any effect against one of those attacks from that beast, anyway. It would have just been a waste of mana. But against her uncle and his shadows…

With wings on her back, and her full body encased in a shadowy armor, Vanessa took flight after Maven. Derek saw the Guild Leader mutter a curse under his breath as he tried to get away. However, Vanessa was just a little faster than her uncle was—which seemed to be the case so far. Everything that her uncle did, she did just a bit better. That was clear to Derek and the other spectators, so it had to be apparent to Maven, who was actually fighting.

The two shadow users clashed while flying multiple times. Every time they collided, Maven came out just a little worse. Eventually, Vanessa used brute force and rammed into the Guild Leader with her armored should—sending him crashing to the ground. Before the man hit the ground, however, Vanessa was on him.

She appeared below the falling man and kicked him back into the air. Then, while he was still trying to get his balance back, she moved behind him and grabbed a wing with each of her hands. She put her foot between his shoulder blades and pulled. The attack didn’t actually hurt Maven too much, as his wings were made of pure magic, and not a part of him, but when she ripped them off, it forced his skill to cancel.

This sent the man falling to the ground once again. Vanessa held the man’s wings out for all to see as they slowly dissipated in her hands. After that, her helmet retracted and the former Vice Leader looked around. Her eyes were still emotionless, but when she caught sight of Derek, she smiled a half smile before looking down at the man who was just standing back up.

“Well, boys… or girls…” Derek said to the two assassins. “It looks like this fight is about finished.” He wasn’t sure if Vanessa was always stronger than Maven, or if it was from the extra stat points she had gotten from the raid, but the fight was a lesson in quality. Even if both people had the same class and same element, being just a little better in everything could lead to an overwhelmingly one sided battle.

Vanessa floated down to stand in front of her uncle. Forcibly stopping his skill like she did most likely caused a terrible rebound effect on the man’s mana. Once Maven stood, Derek could see multiple cuts on his face, which were slowly, but visibly, healing. Maven flicked his wrist and made to drink a healing potion, but shadows shot up from the ground and wrapped around his legs and arms.

“Vanessa…” Maven muttered. “Please… I’m your uncle… we’re family.”

“Bah…” Derek snorted out loud. “He’s really trying to play that card?” he slapped the assassin to his left on his back. “Can you believe that?” he asked. “What’s that? You’re speechless? Me too!”

But below, Vanessa answered. “You stopped being my uncle the day I realized it was you who caused my father’s death. We aren’t family. You are just an old man who is about to die.”

Maven gnashed his teeth, but didn’t say another word. Instead, his aura shot out, his eyes turned completely black, then something that Derek hadn’t seen in some time appeared. A dome made exclusively of shadows appeared around the two fighters. However, instead of encompassing an entire courtyard like the one Vanessa had used back then, this one only covered around 100 square feet—it was just big enough for the two of them. However, it was a good deal thicker than the one Vanessa had used when working for Gerald Torith.

“Oh… things are getting interesting,” Derek said. He couldn’t see inside, but the fight had been very much in Vanessa’s favor so far, and he didn’t think Maven would have any tricks that would catch the woman off guard.

Derek waited for thirty seconds, then a minute, but nothing. He frowned at that, but he had promised not to interfere in their one-on-one fight, so he didn’t make a move. Soon enough, however, the dome broke. Once it did, he took a good look at the fight and pieced together what had happened.

On the ground, Maven was wrapped in shadows and kneeling—blood was running from his eyes and ears. Vanessa was towering over him in her full shadow armor—her helmet back on. Around them, a visibly green gas began to scatter. It seemed like the Guild Leader tried to use a toxin or poison in one last effort to win, but Vanessa’s armor had nullified, or at least lessened, the effects of it.

Vanessa waved her hand, and a shadow swept away the remaining poison, after which she removed her helmet once again. “Pathetic,” she said to her uncle. “Couldn’t win in a real fight, so you tried to poison me? You thought that would work? I’m from the same guild as you are. My Poison Resistance skill is maxed out, just like yours is…” She shook her head.

“Do it!” Maven muttered through grit teeth. “Become me! Kill your last remaining family member.”

“With pleasure,” Vanessa said, not taking his bait. She raised her hand, but from the side of the chamber, a flash of red appeared. She paused with her hand raised as she felt a deadly incoming attack.

Derek instantly appeared behind her with Void Shift and the fiery dagger meant for the back of her head bounced off of his bracer—leaving a large cut and even a slight tinge to it. Derek looked down at the dagger, then up at Lazrus and shook his head. The next instant, he appeared next to the Vice Leader and grabbed the man by his throat with his left hand. The man struggled to say something, but Derek was squeezing tight, so the words all came out jumbled.

After channeling void energy into his free hand, Derek activated Multi-Strike, then slapped the man hard upside his head. As his free hand made contact, Derek let go with his other hand and the Vice Leader was sent flying into the stone wall. He hit the wall, then slid down. After which, he stood back up and looked confused.

Derek chuckled, then the man collapsed. A notification appeared, but he didn’t check it yet. Instead, he walked back over to Vanessa. They looked at each other and nodded. Vanessa finally waved her hand down, and dozens of spikes pierced the man’s body, neck, and head. One shadow even pierced each of his eyes. It was quite the gruesome death.

“That’s that,” Derek said. “Are you okay?” he asked.

Vanessa retracted all of her shadows and stared soundlessly at the corpse of her uncle. “It’s over… just like that,” she finally said.

“Just like that,” Derek replied.

Vanessa took a deep breath in, then let it out. “Let’s get out of here. I don’t want to be in this place a second longer than I have to.”