Chapter 18: Strength of the Void

Derek had no other plans for escape. He knew what he would do once he broke free, but breaking free was a different story.

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.

Fuck! 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 completely recover his previous injuries. Maybe if I upped my Vitality more.

Derek could feel the difference in protection provided from his helmet. When the beast first started bashing its head into him, his helmet provided almost complete protection, but now, he could feel that protection waning. 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 much quicker pace. That might do it. Derek’s health was rapidly climbing up to 5100 HP, it had 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 began channeling the void through his body. His left arm was semi-mobile, so he channeled 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.

Derek did not know exactly what happened when he struck the beast, but whatever it was made the beast cease attacking, if only for a moment, and that was a very good thing. Derek, with seven seconds left of his skill, continued striking the Void Beast in the same spot.

In the entire ten seconds it took for Derek to expend all of 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 of 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. 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 all shaken.

The incoming strike that Derek had 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 fucking 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 and grabbed his glaive before chasing after the beast. It did not take long before Derek was catching up. The beast jumped over the small stream, Derek followed. The chase had not lasted long when Derek found himself in striking distance. He was anxious to find out how his new mastery skill had improved his use of the glaive.

Derek struck, his glaive falling between the beast’s shoulders. The blade connected. This time, instead of the dull ring of metal striking metal, Derek heard tearing flesh. He felt it too. Finally. Derek let out a sigh of relief, his blade could finally hurt the beast.

The beast turned around and lunged at Derek, no longer attempting to flee. Derek smiled a cruel smile. Payback’s a bitch. He moved, the same motion as before. This time, however, wherever the blade landed, a cut formed. As Derek circled the enraged beast, small lacerations appeared all over the left side of the creature’s body.

Derek could see that the cuts were not doing a great amount of damage, but he knew that the loss of blood would soon slow the creature down. Not long into this skirmish, the Void Beast began panting heavily.

With its exhaustion building, Derek no longer had to dodge as much, and was able to put more power into his blows. The injuries built, new wounds overlapping with old. The only problem was that Derek was also beginning to run low on stamina.

Derek knew by the toughness of the beast’s skin that it had to have a massive amount of Endurance. This meant that the beast would have an extremely high amount of natural stamina recovery, much more than Derek. The only possible way for Derek to match the monster’s recovery would be to use Greater Meditation, but Derek was unable to use the skill while moving so much.

Derek knew that the only reason he was able to turn the tables on the beast was because of luck, and nothing else. If the beast had decided to beat Derek after throwing him to the ground, instead of trying to flee, it would have been the end.

His helmet was on the verge of falling apart, and his glaive had been chipped. This had turned into quite the costly battle for Derek. I have to finish this soon.

Like Derek, the beast could also tell that the both of them were exhausted. It switched from trying to counterattack to pure defense. Derek could see that when the beast defended, the wounds inflicted by his glaive lessened. Fuck, what now? His light attacks were barely leaving marks, and his heavy attacks were just breaking the skin now.

Derek looked at his Health, Stamina, and Mana pools. His health was fine as he had barely been injured since being slammed to the ground. His stamina was dangerously low, however, below 20%. He did have over half of his mana pool left. The skill said I can channel void energy into my attacks, does that mean that I can channel it into my glaive? Derek had an idea.

Derek began channeling the void through his body. Okay, I only have five or six seconds to get this right. He moved the void from his body into his right hand. He focused, projecting the energy into his glaive, up to the blade. The purple glow appeared around the blade, Derek was elated.

Derek could see the panic in the Void Beast’s eyes. It had seen the same glow before, in the fist that ravaged its insides. It knew that it could not escape or dodge Derek’s blows, so its only hope was to defend until he ran out of stamina or magic.

Derek swung the blade down, aiming at the beast’s chest. The beast raised both arms in an attempt to block the enchanted blade. The blade struck the outer arm of the beast, not breaking its skin. Nothing seemed to happen. Dammit! Derek cursed.

Then, out of nowhere, the beast’s right arm fell to its side, hanging limp. What just happened? Derek was still confused, but he was not going to let this chance go. He swung again. Once again, the beast blocked, this time with its left arm, and once again, that arm went limp, hanging to the side.

The Void Beast’s chest was wide open at this point. Derek let one more attack fall, this time landing on the chest of Void Beast. He ran out of mana halfway down the beast’s abdomen and the skill canceled. The familiar faint feeling and headache returned to Derek, he was experiencing mana exhaustion again.

The scene went quiet. Neither Derek nor the Void Beast moving. They stared at one another. Then, as if a puppet with its strings cut, the beast fell face first. On the ground, blood poured out of the mouth of the beast, turning the dirt into a bloody mud.

Derek stared at his felled foe. Then looked closely at his glaive. Fuck, how am I going to get this shit fixed. There was a small chip in the middle of the blade. Derek looked back at the monster. Serves you right. The beast let out one final breath, then died.

Derek got the notification.

You have successfully destroyed a creature not belonging to the Great System.

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