Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 41 - Focus, You Idiot

Xavier took ten more hits after he’d landed on the stone ground. Arrows slammed into his shoulder, back, legs. Fireballs exploded in his face and lightning bolts made his entire body shudder. His Soul Block should have been enough to stop the strikes around him, but the massive number of attacks that had come his way burned right through it, and he wasn’t able to cast another until the cooldown ended.

His health regeneration was absolutely massive, which was the only reason he was still alive.

He lashed out at the enemies around him. He needed to create a circle of space. Needed to protect himself long enough to bring his health back up and get his bearings.

Soultaker separated heads from bodies left and right. He sighed internally in relief. These bastards might be E Grades, but they were weakE Grades—he could take them down almost as easily as the Level 99 soldiers and beasts.

Your health is at 5%.

It’s gone down, not up!

Xavier’s mind worked. He cast Heavy Telekinesis every second, crushing Denizen against Denizen, but every enemy he killed was replaced a moment later. And the barrage of spells never ceased. Not many hit him—surrounded as he was, the mages and other ranged attackers were blocked—but some of the attacks were raining down from above.

A few groups of mages had taken to the circular platforms he’d seen flying between the different buildings. They had the high ground. A vantage point from above where they could easily target him, no matter how many enemies were around him.

And they didn’t seem to give a damn about collateral damage.

Xavier gritted his teeth. He cast Soul Strike. Pure white lightning flowed from Soultaker, branching out in different directions. A part of him wanted to throw every single damned soul he had into the spell, but he couldn’t risk being without it for too long.

Hopefully a minute isn’t too long.

He hadn’t tested this spell on these E Grade enemies. Didn’t know how many a single soul would take out. There were a half dozen floating circular platforms around him. Each platform held at least five enemies.

Xavier infused sixty souls into the spell. Ten souls per platform. He couldn’t stop to watch the white lightning branch off. Couldn’t stop to watch the soul apparitions materialise.

The enemies directly around him thrust with spears and slashed with swords. Halberds and axes chopped down with ferocious speed and deadly accuracy.

Xavier’s Speed was devastatingly fast. He’d maxed out his Running skill at Rank 50. Earned a few more attributes with physical training. Thrown a fair few points into Speed as he’d gained these last twelve levels—then there was the Assimilate Properties skill, and everything it had offered him.

He’d blown well past the 1,000-point threshold.

For the last ten hours, he’d been going from one target to the next, ignoring the rank-and-file enemies on the ground.

Now, he could experience the full force of his 1,445 points in Speed.

Xavier slipped away from a spear strike, moving his shoulder less than an inch to have the blade miss. He ducked a sword swipe aiming for his head. He grabbed a halberd’s shaft, ripped the weapon from the soldier’s hand. Sent a Heavy Telekinesis at all those striking at him from behind—they went flying backward into their comrades, their weapons never reaching him, dead before they slumped down to the ground, kept standing by the crush of enemies around them.

Breathe. Think. Act.

Purple mist pooled about him, shooting into the soldiers in the surrounding area. He tried to push it into as many enemies as possible. He’d controlled over a hundred enemies before, but they hadn’t been E Grade enemies.

I can do this.

Mental blocks stopped the spell. He’d stretched it so thin these feeble minds were able to resist him. But he didn’t want to let the spell go. Didn’t want to give his enemies any respite.

Your health is at 8%.

It’s going back up. I just need to keep fighting.

Kill notifications kept trying to appear in front of him. He wanted nothing more than to see what level these Denizens were. To see how much Mastery Points they offered him. But there wasn’t time. He couldn’t spare even the fraction of a second that looking would take in either of his split minds.

Xavier pushedagainst the mental barriers of a hundred different E Grade Denizens. His Willpower was stronger than it had ever been. He could do this—he had to do this.

Come on, come on, come on.

Maybe jumping through that portal had been a mistake. But there was no going back now. If he leapt up into the air, he’d be hit by hundreds—maybe thousands—of strikes once more, and he simply wouldn’t be able to absorb enough of them with Soul Block. And unless he got his health back to full, he’d probably die a second or two after he leapt into the air.

I can’t let that happen.

He didn’t know if a System notification had appeared when he’d come here. He’d been too focused on the sight he’d seen. Too focused on the enemy attacks coming his way. He couldn’t help but wonder what was happening back at the castle.

Focus, you idiot, he chided himself.

The mental blocks that the E Grades had pulled up weren’t the strongest he’d broken through. Individually. Combined? He’d never come up against something this strong before. He could give up the spell. Wait for the cooldown to end and cast it again, less ambitiously. But he needed to control these bastards if he was going to free up the space around him—if he was going to turn the tide of this damned mess he’d gotten himself into.

His health ticked up another percent. Then a flash of light grabbed his attention from above. Lightning, gathering high in the sky. He clocked a ship, sailing through the air directly for him. This wasn’t one of the soldiers that had been lining up, waiting to head through the portal.

This was something else.

Xavier threw his head back and released a bestial roar. Every muscle in his body tensed. His right hand, gripping Soultaker, clutched the haft like a vice. A surge of willswept through his body. Something primal.

Every single one of the mental blocks broke before his might.

A sudden calm settled over him. His mind had been in chaos since the moment he’d leapt through that blood red portal. Since he’d seen the scope of this city. It’s massive, tall buildings that pierced the clouds. The vehicles flying from one place to another. And the sheer number of E Grade enemies he had to face.

But these enemies were weak. Compared to him, they were nothing. They didn’t possess the powerful titles he held. They hadn’t pushed their bodies and minds to their limits. It didn’t matter that they were a grade above him.

They were not Progenitors, let alone True Progenitors.

Xavier would wipe them all out and feast on their souls as their corpses rotted in the wake of his destruction.

Kill.

The mental command swept through the hundred minds he now controlled, and those warriors, mages, and archers closest to him turned on their allies.

A smirk twitched up the corners of Xavier’s lips. He did not move among them. Not yet. He kept his gaze on the ship hurtling toward him. A quick glance at his Mastery Points showed he was almost to the next level. That little revelation almost shocked him out of his calm as he felt a surge of excitement.

This would be the fastest time between levels he’d had.

My plan might actually work.

His thralls killed and died around him. More Mastery Points flowed into him.

Your health is at 15%.

He grinned.

Soul Strike still had a good forty seconds before it would reach the end of its cooldown. But if he gained a level…

Lightning flashed from the deck of the ship cutting through the air toward him. He cast Soul Block. Absorbed the spell. It came again. And again. There was more than one mage up on that deck, he was sure of it.

Xavier stood his ground. God, he was so damned tempted to leap up and take that ship out in mid-air, but that would perhaps be the most foolish action he could take right now. He figured he’d done enough foolish things in the past couple of days that he didn’t need to add to the list. Despite how it might appear, he didn’t actually have a death wish.

He waited until the ship came close enough. Soul Blocks absorbing every lightning strike that came his way. Xavier couldn’t see the mages’ auras, it had been a long while since he’d faced an enemy that could contain their aura, but he felt the strength in their spells.

The Denizens aboard that ship are far stronger than the ones around me.

Following the trajectory of the ship, he counted down in his head.

Three, two, one…

Heavy Telekinesis!

The sound of creaking and cracking wood was so loud it could almost be mistaken for thunder. The ship looked as though it was slamming into a brick wall. He wasn’t sure how fast the thing had been going, but it must have been damned fast. Definitely over two hundred miles per hour.

The ship flipped, nose down ass up. He spotted the mages, wearing robes the same colour as the portal, as though they’d each been dyed in a pool of blood.

Maybe they had.

A thought like that might have made him shudder when he’d first been integrated into the universe. Now, it didn’t even phase him.

The Greater Universe is a harsh, unforgiving place. And that’s what I have to be to my enemies if I want to survive in it.

The mages flew straight off the deck. The spell hadn’t been aimed at them, and it wasn’t actually an invisible wall, despite how it had affected the ship, so they each went hurtling toward the ground.

Xavier counted seven of them. He hoped they would take a good amount of damage as they fell—

The mages righted themselves in mid-air. Suddenly, they were all hovering upright above him. They floated toward each other and made a circle. Their arms raised, calling to the heavens. Electricity crackled around them, then lightning struck, chaining from one mage to the other, gathering power.

Well, that’s not good.

The lightning came down in the same instant a notification popped up, telling Xavier he’d reached Level 75.