Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 31 - A Puff for the Fallen

Thump, thump, thump.

Xavier felt his heartbeat. It was the only damned thing he could feel from his own body. Not that he knew how that could be possible.

He could also feel that it was slowing.

Thump… thump… thump…

He couldn’t access his health, not with his body unconscious. He couldn’t use any of his own spells. Couldn’t bring up any System notifications at all.

Xavier could still barely believe it. That the thing that was about to do him in had been dirt and ash. He recalled when he’d been sucked into the ground by the Rat King on the second floor of the Tower of Champions.

That mistake had almost gotten his party killed. This mistake? Was about to get him killed.

Kill… kill… kill…

It was the one word that kept repeating in his mind. The part of his mind that was still awake. The line of Willpower Energy that was keeping him connected to the thrall was thinning. And danger was mounting. There were hundreds of soldiers around the thrall and the E Grade. Soldiers that had, up till now, been standing back.

But something told Xavier they wouldn’t hesitate for much longer.

His thrall stood over the E Grade warrior, who lay on his back after being kicked to the ground. The sword the thrall held hadn’t been able to penetrate the E Grade’s armour.

But there was a slit in the man’s helm. The slit the man looked through. Xavier could see the E Grade’s eyes. He made the thrall flip the sword around into a reverse grip, blade down.

He sunk to his knees and slammed the sword’s point straight through the helm’s slit and into the E Grade Warrior’s right eye.

Xavier couldn’t see the kill notification, but he knew it must have come. The body of the E Grade warrior went completely limp, the life draining from his one remaining eye.

The thrall released his grip on the sword’s hilt and leant back. Killing the E Grade… it had done nothing. It wasn’t as though the wave boss would bring Xavier enough Mastery Points for him to gain a level—and the instant health regeneration that would bring.

Xavier was still unconscious, deep in the ground, unable to free himself.

The soldiers around the thrall finally acted. They sprang forward. A half dozen blades pierced the thrall’s body. A scream died in the thrall’s throat as blood gurgled from it.

Xavier felt the thrall’s death. He tried to break the connection between himself and the soldier, but it was no use. His conscious mind in his own body was no longer able to controlit. Just as he couldn’t cast any spells, neither could he dispel any.

He’d thought he’d felt pain. Thought he’d felt agony. Splitting his mind had been the worst of it. But this? The death of the soldier, as blades slipped in and out of his body, digging through his armour as though it weren’t there, piercing organs and arteries?

God… This was pain.

The thrall died, and Xavier felt as though it was his own death.

It will be my death… soon…

The half of his consciousness that was in the soldier snapped back to his body.

The world went black.

~

Siobhan gripped the stone parapet. Her hands were clenched so tight her knuckles had gone white, making the freckles dotting her skin even more prominent. “I need to summon him back,” she said, not for the first time. “He’s going to die under there.”

Adviser Kalren had his hands folded behind his back. His posture was straight, dignified. But Siobhan had spent enough time with the man to know when he was afraid. It was all in his eyes. “I think you are right.”

“Do it,” Queen Alastea said. It was hard not to hear it as a command. Though her voice, right now, was not that of a royal. It was strained. She too was afraid. If Xavier failed, she would soon die.

Though Siobhan didn’t think it was only fear for herself that made the woman’s voice strain.

She’s grown to care for Xavier.

Howard stood at her other side. The tall, broad man’s face was that of stone, his expression hard to read. He must have developed quite the poker face in his previous line of work. “Not yet.”

“I can feel his health. Even from here.” It was a benefit of her healing spell—it let her feel the health of those in her party. Let her know when they were in danger. Xavier’s health had been fine, even as he’d been trapped underground. But it was falling fast. He can’t hold his breath anymore. It’s been too long. Even for him.She bit her lip. “I have to do something, Howard.”

“Look!” Justin pointed at one of the soldiers. A small ring had formed around where Xavier had been buried alive. Only the E Grade wave boss stood atop the earth.

A nearby soldier was engulfed with Xavier’s purple mist.

“He’s still conscious,” Justin said. “He still has a chance.”

“The last time he controlled soldiers, they all met their deaths in seconds,” Howard grumbled. “Now he’s trying to control a single one? Don’t see how that will work.”

There was something strange about the way this soldier moved. The way it tilted its head and stared at the E Grade warrior. As though Xavier’s control of it was more… complete?

It moves like Xavier moves.

Siobhan had no idea what that would mean, though she worried Howard’s words would be the truth of things.

Then a Soul Strike rose from the ground. The apparition was a mutated amalgamation of different beasts and humanoid Denizens. It looked terrifying. Horrendous. Powerful.

And there was an odd beauty to it, too. Perhaps that beauty was simply in its sheer power.

He’s still in the fight.

Moments later, the E Grade warrior was taken to its knees. The soldier stabbed a sword through the slit in its eyes.

“Yes!” Howard pumped his fist, his expression no longer so stony.

Then the soldier Xavier possessed died, and the battlefield became silent. They stared at the mound for what felt like an eternity, waiting for Xavier to climb out.

All the while, Siobhan felt his health creeping further down by the second.

She willed her staff out of her Storage Ring and clutched it as tightly as she’d just clutched the wall. “Time… time to summon him back.”

Howard put a hand on her wrist, nodding to the dirt where Xavier had been buried. “Wait.”

~

Mariad rested his spear on his shoulder and let out a sigh, looking down at the dead wave boss and the fellow soldier he’d just had to help kill. He spat on the ground beside them, then he took a pipe from beneath his armour and sparked a flame inside of it with a small magical device he’d picked up in Deveral.

A puff for the fallen.

He didn’t really care about the dead soldier. Or the wave boss for that matter. But he’d thought he would die today. Having a puff from the pipe seemed the right thing to do.

He brought up the Quest Log they all shared.

Quest Log

Current Quest: Clear this world of all inhabitants so it can be claimed for the Endless Horde.

To receive a bonus reward, secure the death of Queen Kiralla Alastea of Arala.

Before the Endless Horde may breach the castle’s walls, all Champions of the Void on the battlefield must be slain. If there are no Champions of the Void on the battlefield, the walls may be breached.

Champions on the battlefield: 1

Mariad frowned, not bothering to read the list of rewards and bonus rewards that followed. He was confused about something.

Why did it still list a Champion of the Void on the battlefield? He should be dead. No one can survive down there… Can they?

He looked down at the ground, his pipe sagging from his mouth. He crouched, touched his free hand to the dirt, and closed his eyes.

Something was shifting beneath the dirt and ash.

Oh, shi—

~

At first, Xavier thought the darkness he was experiencing was death. It would only make sense, considering he’d just died.

No. I didn’t die. That was the thrall I was inhabiting.

It had sure felt like his death.

Was he dreaming? About to die, for real this time?

Then pain hit him. The burning in his lungs. His eyes widened.

He was conscious! Still buried underground—that’s why it was so damned dark—but conscious!

For the moment, his frantic mind didn’t worry about how he was conscious, he simply took advantage of it. Now that the E Grade warrior was dead, the man would no longer be able to use his earth magic to keep Xavier down here.

Xavier launched a Heavy Telekinesis straight upward. The earth above him shifted.

He did it again.

And again.

And again.

Light fell on his face. He gasped in a breath of air. It tasted awful. Of sweat, death, ash, and blood. And all manner of things that littered a battlefield when bodies died—things he would rather not ponder. But that didn’t matter. Even with how awful it was it was still the sweetest breath he’d ever taken.

With that breath his health began to regenerate once more.

And with the second breath, the pain in his lungs became more bearable.

With each breath the pain dulled more. With each breath he clawed his way out of the ground.

Another Heavy Telekinesis pushed more dirt away. Shed more light into his vision. He narrowed his eyes to it, more from reflex than actual need. Soldiers of the Endless Horde crowded around the hole above him. He had no idea how long it would be until the next wave came.

But it didn’t matter—he was still alive.

Once more, he’d survived.

That’s when it hit him. The reason he’d lived. Down in the ground he’d fallen unconscious—but it had only been half of his mind that had done so. He still felt that half, slowly coming to the more he drew breath.

The other half? It had been safe, stowed away in the thrall’s head.

If I hadn’t split my mind, none of this would have been possible.

And then that made him wonder… What might be possible in the future?