Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 29 - Buried Alive

First came the darkness. What had once been clear as day turned instantly to the blackest night. Then sound was muffled. The constant clash and rumble of the battlefield drifted away, like it was miles in the distance instead of a few feet above his head.

Though he could still hear low rumbled above him, the contrast made it feel like the deepest silence he’d ever experienced, after being in that battle for so long, wave after wave, for going on six weeks.

Dirt walloped him in the head, falling on all sides of him until he could barely move his limbs even with all the Strength he possessed. It got into his eyes. His ears. Up his nose and into his mouth. He tasted the grit. Smelled what it was.

The thought came unbidden: It’s not all dirt. It’s the ashes of all those you’ve killed.

He yelled at the top of his lungs but made nary a sound. If he could barely hear the enemy from down here, he doubted they could hear him stuck under the ground.

I’m being buried alive.

It certainly wasn’t how he’d thought he’d go out.

The last thing to come was the lack of air. There simply wasn’t any room for it. No matter how strong and powerful and tough his body had become, he still needed to breathe. He may have been superhuman, but he still had lungs. It was a weakness he hadn’t even realised had been a weakness until that moment.

He breathed as shallowly as he could, spitting out the dirt and ash that gritted between his teeth. He struggled, trying to shove the dirt away or somehow climb out of this mess, but he wasn’t able to.

That human warrior, the E Grade wave boss with the yellow glow about his golden armour… How was he able to perform Earth magic? Shouldn’t that only be something a mage could do?

Xavier shoved the thought aside. Even with his consciousness split as it currently was, he didn’t have time for such contemplations. He needed to find a way out of here.

He had no idea how long he’d be able to hold his breath.

Trying to climb out of this wasn’t the only thing he’d attempted. He’d thrown Heavy Telekinesis left, right, front and back. At first, it made a small amount of room for him to move in, but that room didn’t last long as more dirt kept falling down from above, filling the holes he’d just created.

All he was doing was making the dirt and ash down here denser, making it more difficult for him to move. He tried to shove the dirt upwith the spell, but that wasn’t working either. Something was blocking him.

The E Grade boss.

Xavier didn’t know how much time was passing. Felt like every second was an age. His lungs hadn’t started burning yet. That was good. But he knew they would soon. His mind wracked, trying to think of a solution to this mess.

Heavy Telekinesis seemed like the only useful spell to him right now, yet it wasn’t doing anything to help. After he’d failed to push the dirt and ash out of the way, he thought to use it downward, to harden the ground beneath his feet in an attempt to push off it. If he could do that, maybe he could climb out of the ground inch by inch.

But it was slow going, and there was a pressure atop him that kept shoving him farther down into the earth, eradicating any progress he made.

His mind turned over all the other spells he possessed.

Soul Strike and Soul Block simply aren’t useful. Not here. Soul Strike’s apparitions don’t interact with matter. They harm the enemy by moving through them. Soul Block won’t help either. There are no attacks for me to block.

He even tested the spell, just in case, wondering if the dirt and ash crushing down on him would be considered an attack, as he’d only gotten into this situation because of the E Grade’s earth magic.

Unfortunately, his suspicions had been correct—it did nothing to help him.

Spiritual Trifecta makes me stronger, my mind calmer, but it isn’t enough to get me out of here. Being stronger doesn’t seem to help. And it doesn’t matter how calm I am. If I can’t breathe, it will still mean my death.

He still used the spell. Helping his mind remain calm would hopefully at least help him come up with a way out of this.

Spirit Break, Spirit Infusion, Soul Harvest, Soul Harden… all of these spells were at Rank 50, yet they were completely useless. To him.

And his last spell: Willpower Infusion…

He hadn’t been able to control the E Grade wave boss. The man had simply been too strong. His mental defences were impenetrable—at least, impenetrable to him.

Xavier struggled, angling his head upward. He could no longer see the auras of these enemies. They were high enough level to have control over their auras. Especially the E Grade wave boss.

He could send Soul Strikes through the earth and up at his enemies. If he infused enough souls into the spell, it might be enough to kill the boss—assuming he hit the boss without being able to aim.

It could work, but it would also kill all the enemies around the wave boss…

Willpower Infusion.

The spell entered his mind again. It might not be effective against the wave boss, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t still useful.

What if he used the other enemies in the area to his advantage? He could easily control them, after all. That, in fact, would be child’s play.

Xavier, still trying his hardest not to breathe in the dirt and ash, holding his breath as well as he could, forced a smile onto his face. A plan was forming in his mind. This situation he’d gotten himself into—it felt impossible.

There were parts of his mind that were screaming out at him, begging him to get help from his party members. Even if they weren’t strong enough to fight the wave—and they certainly weren’t strong enough to fight the wave boss—Siobhan could use her Summon spell to teleport him out of danger.

But if Siobhan used a single spell on him, Xavier would no longer be considered soloing the floor. Besides, he didn’t need help. He could do this on his own.

He shoved those thoughts away. Shoved the fear away. Fear, as natural as it was, wouldn’t serve him right now.

Xavier couldn’t see the purple mist that flowed out of his staff and seeped through the dirt and ash that was piled above and all around him. But he knew it was pouring out from his staff. He could feel the energy rise. It wasn’t stopped by something as simple as the earth. His eyes shut, he imagined it coming off the ground like steam off a hot surface.

It touched several minds. It would have invaded through mouths, noses, ears. Anything it could get through. He felt the energy latch onto at least a dozen of them. Without being able to see what was going on from down there, it was difficult to give them commands.

But there were some things he could tell them to do.

Free me, he willed through the lines connecting him to his enemies—no. Not his enemies. Right now, they were his thralls. Free me from the ground.

Almost instantly, the connection to two of thralls was cut off. His spell hadn’t been defeated. He knew this feeling—the thralls had been killed. The human warrior with the earth magic would have seen what they were doing.

The other thralls he was connected to died as well. Their deaths were swift. The abrupt slicing of the connection stabbed at Xavier’s mind. The mental anguish became physical, hurting his head. But the pain was nothing like what he’d felt when he’d split his mind in two.

In mere seconds, his plan had failed.

But failure was only something that could stop you if you let it. Xavier was still alive—even if he wasn’t breathing. He could feel the sting in his lungs, now. It was a dull throb. Nowhere near the most painful thing he’d experienced. But it wasn’t a good sign. Lack of oxygen did terrible things to a human’s body and mind. He just hoped none of that would happen quick enough to stop him.

He counted down the seconds until Willpower Infusion reached the end of its cooldown. Again, each second passed in an age to him. An eternity under all that dirt and ash—that’s what he’d spend down here if he let this kill him. It would truly become his grave.

He wasn’t going to let that happen.

Once more, he thought to use Soul Strike. Thought to target the enemy above. But he’d only have one chance at it. If the spell didn’t work, the E Grade wave boss wouldn’t stick around in the same place to get hit a second time.

Then how would he be able to target it from down here? He wouldn’t need to be directly above Xavier to keep him in this damned grave.

Think, think, think.

As calm as he tried to be, Xavier felt panic beginning to set in. Usually, to calm his mind, he would do the breathing exercises associated with his Meditation skill.

That clearly wasn’t an option right now.

His body was tense. His chest tight. The thudding of his heart reverberated in his ears.

Focus. Xavier forced his body to relax. His fingers clutched Soultaker’s shaft—he couldn’t even move the weapon, as densely packed as the earth was around him. He loosened his grip. His other hand was clenched in a fist. He forced the tension away.

Forced it out of every inch of him he could.

His lungs burned. More and more as each second passed.

The pain might not mean much to him compared to other things he’d endured. But the pain was a warning he couldn’t ignore.

Willpower Infusion finally reached the end of its cooldown. Xavier almost cast the spell instantly, then thought better of it. His first plan hadn’t worked. It had been thwarted almost instantly. If he were going to get out of this—and he was going to get out of this—he needed to come up with something better.

The Willpower Infusion spell was still his best bet.

Focus.

Xavier cast the spell again. Purple mist seeped through the dirt and ash and rose through the earth until it came off the ground. It sought the nearest mind and hit a wall—the E Grade boss—but instead of pushing it, Xavier made the mist seek another victim.

A single victim.

He could spread out the spell and take control of more minds, but the more minds he controlled the more tenuous his connection to them. Willpower Infusion had gained several ranks since the last time he’d used it to control a single lower-level soldier of the Endless Horde.

His mind was still split. His head throbbed once more with the strain of keeping that going. It wanted to snap back together. Become one. It beggedto be whole.

Xavier gritted his teeth. Tasted the ash. Then forced his jaw to relax. He had to remain calm. As calm as he could.

The purple mist found its next victim, clutching onto a weak mind. The line between Xavier and his new thrall snapped into place. The strongest connection he’d ever possessed with one of his thralls.

And he was about to make it stronger. At least, that was the plan.

Xavier had no idea if this would work. No idea if the thrall would even live long enough for him to try this. He didn’t command the thrall to move. He just let it stand there, hoping that would stop the E Grade wave boss from killing it like it had the others.

Then Xavier shoved one half of his split consciousness into the thrall’s mind.