Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 48 - Death by a Thousand Cuts

Several notifications popped up in Xavier’s vision at once, all while he stood across from the Lord of the Endless Horde, speaking taunts at the most powerful Denizen he’d ever faced.

Unidentified Material categorised as Elemental Hydra Fang!

Biological impurities of Elemental Hydra Fang have been further assimilated into muscular structure.

Tissue Regeneration trait strengthened!

You have gained +4 Strength!

You have gained +4 Toughness!

You have gained +4 Willpower!

Eight times, the notification appeared. He marvelled at the speed at which he used his Assimilate Properties skill, holding back a smile as the skill ranked up three times, adding to every attribute he’d gained with the skill.

He also couldn’t help but notice E Grade properties gave him four more attributes each time he assimilated them, rather than the two that F Grade did. It wasn’t a huge boost, but every little bit made a difference.

The skill worked with an efficiency he hadn’t imagined possible. He’d swallowed several shards of Elemental Hydra Fang at once, hoping he could assimilate them one after the other before his body forced them to be purged.

And it wasn’t the only shards he swallowed.

Attempting to assimilate Elemental Hydra Claw into muscular structure…

The material you are assimilating has various properties.

You may only draw from one.

Choose from the following:

1. Passive Elemental Damage (Fire)

2. Passive Elemental Damage (Air)

3. Passive Elemental Damage (Water)

Though surprised by the options before him, Xavier chose swiftly, doubting he would have time to assimilate anything else. There was an addictive quality to the skill.

God, he wished he could assimilate the Bear King’s material.

Assimilation is complete.

Biological impurities of Elemental Hydra Claw have been assimilated into muscular structure.

You have gained the trait: Passive Elemental Damage (Fire)!

You have gained +20 Intelligence!

You have gained +20 Willpower!

You have gained +20 Speed!

Assimilate Properties has reached Rank 21!

…

Assimilate Properties has reached Rank 25!

Passive Elemental Damage, Xavier thought, revelling in the new trait he’d just gained. When he’d given up the Cast Element spell, he hadn’t expected to be able to cause elemental damage again.

I’m a whole different beast now.

The Lord of the Endless Horde’s expression shifted from one of boredom, to one of mute curiosity. Though there was a hint of something in the man’s eyes. Something dark and angry. “You dare call me a coward? I was going to make your death a swift one, lest you waste more of my time.” He raised his chin, eyes boring into Xavier. “Now… I think I’ll make your death last.” Suddenly, a power radiated from the man.

His core.

The energy flowed outward light a dam breaking. The wave forced Xavier to take a step backward. The pressure was like nothing he’d ever experienced. Sam, the barkeep, had said that a powerful Denizen could harm others with nothing but their aura alone.

His aura might be powerful enough to kill my entire party.

Something made Xavier want to fall to his knees. To bend at the waist and neck and beg this man forgiveness.

But he would never stoop so low as that. Not in a million years.

He gritted his teeth and fought the pressure of the man’s aura.

The Lord of the Endless Horde clearly hadn’t expected this. Perhaps he’d thought he could cow Xavier with this alone. If so, he was a damned fool.

Xavier cast Heavy Telekinesis on the man. He didn’t expect anything to happen. The first time he’d cast the spell, the golden barrier around his enemy hadn’t been active. But he needed to put pressure on it. If he’d learnt anything about defensive barriers from Howard, it was that they had two limitations—how much damage they could take, how long they could last.

This man didn’t look like a tank class.

The spell isn’t going to last long. Not if I can help it. And once I break through… I’ll break him.

Xavier turned thought into action. He fell into his battle mind, into a new level of focus. The spell hit. The golden barrier flickered—ever so slightly. Though not as much as it had flickered when he’d struck it with Soul Strike.

Still, it’s vulnerable.

And it didn’t protect from mental attacks. That was something he’d already learnt.

Xavier took a gamble. A small one, at first. He sunk one hundred souls into Spirit Break. This was a property of the spell he’d gained when he’d taken up the Soul Reaper class—one he didn’t take advantage of near enough.

The Lord of the Endless Horde flung himself forward. And god damn, the man could move. Xavier grinned. Raised Soultaker. He wasn’t going to run from a confrontation.

Spirit Break slammed throughthe man’s barrier. The D Grade bastard’s right eye twitched, betraying the pain he felt when the spell hit him. Physical. Mental. Magical. Those were the three aspects of Spirit Break. The mental pain was what the Lord must have felt the most, as the barrier no doubt blocked the physical and magical damage very effectively.

Heavy Telekinesis and Spirit Break both had low cooldowns—less than a second—but the cooldowns weren’t faster than the Lord.

His sword came down for Xavier’s head with devastating speed. Xavier brought up Soultaker. The scythe-staff glowed silver from his Spirit Infusion spell. That spell infusing it was the only reason he felt confident trying to block with it at all.

The Lord’s sword hit Soultaker’s haft. Hard. The impact pushed Xavier down into the stone ground, cracking it and cratering it a foot deep.

It wasn’t only the stone that cracked. Xavier felt something break in his scythe-staff, picking the sound out through the noise of the stone breaking beneath him.

Perhaps he’d been wrong about Soultaker surviving.

There was still twenty-three seconds until Soul Strike was ready to be used again. He hadn’t even gotten the man to talk for a full minute.

Xavier leapt backward, out of the small crater that had been created, dodging a slash aimed for his midsection by less than a hairsbreadth.

A notification had appeared the moment the sword had impacted his staff.

Staff-Scythe Mastery has reached Rank 51!

Xavier’s eyes widened. He’d blocked the man’s attack once, and he’d gained a rank? That didn’t seem like it should be possible.

The System sees this man as completely out of my league…

It was compensating for him. It didn’t reduce the challenge of the fight, rather, it was upping the reward for even Xavier’s smallest successes.

I can use this.

The Lord of the Endless Horde was faster than Xavier. That was clear. He had him on the back foot. Each of the man’s strikes pushed Xavier backward another step. The man hadn’t even used any spell yet—nothing but the golden barrier that surrounded him.

He’s still going easy on me.

Xavier wasn’t sure why he was frustrated by that fact.

He blocked another strike, one coming from the left. It sent him flying straight into the alley’s right wall, cracking the stone of the tall building. He felt Soultaker break just a little more this time, and wondered how in the hell the thing was even still together.

Scythe-Staff Mastery gained another rank. Though he was beginning to wonder if that would matter much, soon.

It’s going to be tough to utilise the skill if Soultaker breaks.

All the while, he kept cycling through the same few spells. Heavy Telekinesis was definitely doing something to the golden barrier. Xavier’s perception had become incredibly fast, especially after he’d advanced to E Grade. To a weaker Denizen’s eyes, they wouldn’t have been able to discern the increased duration of the golden barrier’s flickering.

To Xavier, the shift was clear as day.

It spurred him on.

He cast Spirit Break three more times. He worried about the number of souls he was using. He needed to get out of this alley. Needed to find more soldiers. Something to help him refill the reserves. One-on-one fights were not his forte.

He packed two hundred souls into each casting of Spirit Break.

Just as the golden barrier flickered longer, so did the man flinch more each time.

It’s working. I’m breaking him down!

He was just doing it too slowly.

Willpower infusion!

Xavier cast the spell with unrestrained vigour. He’d been holding off. Wanting to break down the man’s mind with Spirit Break as much as he could before trying the spell again.

The mist flowed from Soultaker’s blade. It made it to the Lord of the Endless Horde in a mere instant, as the man was in close, slashing his sword at Xavier with violent precision. The mist flowed through the golden barrier just as it had the first time.

The wall come up once more. Xavier could feel it easily with his mind. Could feel how powerful it was. A grin slipped onto his face.

It wasn’t just the wall’s strength he felt—it was the wall’s vulnerability. Just like there was a crack in Soultaker’s haft, there was a crack in the enemy’s mind.

He’s not taking his defence seriously.

The Lord of the Endless Horde was still toying with Xavier. Slashing at him with testing strikes. He was fast, but he surely wasn’t using all the power at his disposal. That posed multiple problems for Xavier. One of which was the fact that if he forced Willpower Infusion through that gap and took control of his enemy, it wouldn’t be a strong control. The crack in the man’s mind wasn’t large enough.

And the moment that control fell away… the crack would be filled.

“I tire of this!” The Lord of the Endless Horde swung his sword down again. An overhead strike, like the first he’d performed. Except faster.

Xavier didn’t have time to get out of the way. He raised Soultaker, holding it in a solid two-handed grip, horizontally above him.

Crack.

The scythe-staff broke down the middle. The Lord of the Endless Horde’s slender blade kept moving.

No!

Soultaker broken, the blade came straight down at Xavier’s forehead. He tried to throw himself out of the way, but he wasn’t fast enough—couldn’t be fast enough.

The Lord’s slender sword bit deep into his shoulder.

Pain flared. A hiss released from Xavier’s gritted teeth.

A smile blossomed onto the Lord of the Endless Horde’s face.

“I told you your death would be slow.” The man yanked the sword out of Xavier’s shoulder.

Xavier stumbled back, his breath coming fast and shallow.

“Have you ever heard of death by a thousand cuts?” A slimy smile slid onto the Lord’s face. “Well, something tells me you won’t last that many.” He tilted his head to the side. “But let’s start the tally at one.”

Your health is at 70%.

Xavier hadn’t known what to expect. Part of him thought he would have died instantly the moment that man’s sword hit him. He was glad he’d been wrong—though maybe death would have come if the blade had dug into his forehead instead of his shoulder.

Physical Resistance has reached Rank 51!

…

Physical Resistance has reached Rank 55!

Holy crap!

Xavier had been right. The System was compensating for him. The percentage boost from those rank ups had gotten him over thirty points in Toughness.

Your health is at 73%.

Xavier grinned over at his enemy. He didn’t know how much health he had now. The well of energy that was his life force was so much deeper than before. But so was his level of health regeneration. His Toughness might not be his highest attribute, but it was now at 2,241 points.

The Lord of the Endless Horde was toying with him. Wanting to make his death a slow, agonising one.

Looks like I can use that to my advantage.

His grin fell away as he glanced down at his scythe-staff. Soultaker was now in two parts, one held in each hand.

I guess I’ll have to learn how to fight like this now.