Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 18 - This Will Turn The Tide

Willpower Infusion – Rank 1

Upgrade Quest:

As you have now used this spell, you have begun your first step on the path to upgrading it to Rank 2.

Available paths:

1. Willpower Infusion (Defensive) – Infuse defensive Willpower Energy into armour and oneself to gain magical and mental resistance, physical and mental resilience, and confidence – to upgrade, take 1,000 magical attacks while infused. Progress: 0/1,000

2. Willpower Infusion (Offensive) – Infuse offensive Willpower Energy into weapons and enemies to weaken mental fortitude, strike fear, and influence and control one’s enemies – to upgrade, strike or influence 1,000 enemies with Willpower Energy. Progress: 20/1,000

This spell is locked to your secondary core. Gaining Rank 2 in this spell will not require you to forget another spell, and this spell cannot be forgotten.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Influence 1,000 enemies… that’s not going to be too difficult.

Though Xavier knew he should probably try out the defensive nature of the Willpower Infusion spell, he didn’t think that defence was his main problem right now. A familiar phrase entered his mind: The best defence is a good offense. And though it was certainly oversimplified, in this situation it was definitely true.

He didn’t think more confidence would help, either. Feeling more confident wasn’t exactly going to deal damage to his enemies.

All he really needed to do right now was figure out a way to kill these guys faster than they could kill him.

So, he made his decision. Even if he wasn’t in a situation like this, if he were honest with himself, he was sure he would have always chosen offensive Willpower Energy. It wasn’t that he had a desire to control the actions of others, it was simply that it would be another tool for him to use while in battle. It would add to the variety of options he had to choose from, which would only serve to make him an even more deadly opponent.

And, even if it was a bit creepy, controlling other people’s minds… it was also incredibly cool. Yes, it was invasive, but so was trying to kill him, and that’s exactly what these bastards were doing.

Way to justify yourself there, Xavier, he chided himself.

Xavier pushed forward. The spell had a short cooldown of only five seconds. He assumed this was because he’d already developed his Willpower and Intelligence to such a high degree. Though he did worry that the cooldown might go up when the spell got to its second rank, that had only happened the one time when upgrading Spiritual Guidance to Spiritual Trifecta.

Xavier continued his normal onslaught against the enemies before him. The wolven that were a part of wave one-thousand-and-two had begun to join the fray as he’d thinned the enemies of wave one-thousand-and-one to the point where he could see very few humanoid Denizens.

I still haven’t encountered the three E Grade wave bosses that will be around.

He put that out of his mind.

Xavier cast the spell on ten enemies instead of twenty, distributing the misted Willpower Energy half as much as he had the first time. He grinned, watching as it had the desired effect. Ten Giant Wolven, each the size of a bus, hesitated as they’d been heading toward him. He felt their mental walls come up, but this time he was easily able to blast through them and push his will.

The wolven turned upon their allies and began to tear into them. They snarled, digging vicious claws into their allies’ flesh and snapping powerful jaws about their necks. The other wolven, though not mindless beasts, reacted in just the way Xavier had hoped—with anger and aggression.

It’s working! Xavier had an odd inclination to laugh maniacally and shout, “Muahaha!” at his foes, but he was sure the wild grin on his face made him appear mad enough that he didn’t need to add to the picture.

Though controlling ten enemies for a short time wouldn’t change the tide of the battle to the degree he needed it, it added to his arsenal and occupied more of the enemies that were in his vicinity than he could before. It didn’t take long for the wolven to kill each other. Those who’d struck first—the ones he’d controlled—had been the victors, as they’d been fighting beasts at the same level of power as themselves.

The mental connection snappedrather abruptly when the task he’d given them had been complete. He kept a close eye on the beasts—as close as he could, with Soultaker sweeping around in wide, death-delivering arcs.

At first the beasts looked highly disorientated. Then they looked angry. A rage overtook them that went beyond what he’d seen in the other beasts. They whirled, turning that anger upon him.

Interesting. They’re intelligent enough to be aware of what just happened.

Watching these beasts, he’d often wondered what the difference between them and the more sapient bestial enemies he’d faced were—why had they not evolved to be more… intelligent?

A question for another time.

Every five seconds, Xavier cast Willpower Infusion again, all the while cultivating more Willpower Energy into his core. Unfortunately, he could cast it faster than he could recover from it—this definitely seemed like it would be an issue as the spell progressed in rank.

Something that didn’t take very long.

Willpower Infusion has taken a step forward on the path, upgrading to the spell: Willpower Infusion (offensive).

Willpower Infusion (offensive) is a Rank 2 spell.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Yes! Xavier thought. By the time he’d managed this, he’d ran out of Willpower Energy twice, but the more he cultivated it, the better he became.

He read Willpower Infusion’s Rank 2 description:

Willpower Infusion – Rank 2

Willpower Infusion (offensive) is a rare spell that is only available to those with a strong Willpower.

This spell allows the user to imbue Willpower Energy into their weapons. When an enemy is struck with a Willpower infused weapon, it can shake their mental fortitude or even strike fear into them. The user can also infuse offensive Willpower Energy directly into an enemy, giving the user a limited ability to influence an enemy’s thoughts and behaviour.

As this spell grows, so will its influence.

This spell is locked to your secondary core and cannot be forgotten.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Xavier smiled, focusing on one of the last lines. This spell’s influence will grow…

That made him wonder just how far he might take it.

Usually, gaining a single rank in a spell wouldn’t make a massive difference. But when it came to bringing a spell from Rank 1 to Rank 2, especially when one was specialising in a single path… well, he hoped this spell had just become a lot more powerful.

He didn’t hesitate to test it and see.

A shield wall had formed on his left flank. Humans, elves and demon warriors with large tower shields and long spears had summoned a defensive Bulwark around them, a spell that appeared far superior to the one that Howard possessed. Xavier had encountered this spell countless times in the previous waves—it was incredibly resistant to his spells. He’d quickly found that if one of these elite squads, as he thought of them, had this barrier up, he needed to take them on directly, as the barrier prevented any of his ranged attacks from doing any damage.

Even his Soul Strike spell couldn’t break the barrier, though he wondered if that was because he was using it with area-of-effect in mind. Either way, it wasn’t something he was about to test. Not for these worthless enemies.

There were twenty of them. Their spears had a ranged attack—a pulse-beam that shot at him whenever they thrust their weapons forward, something they would do in unison like a rank of archers releasing arrows in a volley.

Xavier tilted his head to the side, wondering something about the Bulwark spell. It defended specifically against attacks that caused physical, magical, or even soul damage—that last one had taken him by surprise, as he’d yet to encounter an enemy resistant to soul damage—but could it defend against a mental attack?

He shot the spell off, aiming it toward half of the enemies within the barrier. Ten was the highest number of enemies he’d found he could control at once. After having used the spell on a thousand enemies to bring it up to Rank 2, he’d experimented using it on different numbers of enemies.

For instance, when he used the spell on five enemies, the effect was instant. They turned on their allies the moment the spell hit them. And it lasted longer, too, allowing him to control those five enemies for a little bit longer after their first kill. He turned them directly against each other and was able to kill all but one in that process.

Meaning it wasn’t as effective as using it against ten enemies, even if the spell worked better on fewer.

He’d also used the spell on a single enemy and found that he could control them for much longer. Though, considering the situation, he hadn’t let the test go on for more than a minute as he’d been recovering as much of his Willpower Energy as he could.

Now, when the Rank 2 spell hit these ten enemies within the Bulwark spell’s barrier, its effect was as instantaneous as when he would strike five enemies when it had been a Rank 1 spell.

And the connection he had with their minds felt stronger. He could feel the invisible strands that tethered their minds to his own, as though they drifted in the air before him. These strands tugged at his enemies’ minds.

Xavier sent his will down the strands of Willpower energy and watched with fascination as they slaughtered their brothers- and sisters-in-arms.

A small part of him felt a stab of guilt for doing this to them, but the guilt dissipated quickly. The soldiers of the Endless Horde were the enemy. If he harboured sympathy for the enemy, then he wouldn’t be able to do what he needed.

Xavier released a breath. Even after the ten he controlled killed the others in their unit—taking down the Bulwark spell in the process—the connection remained. Xavier wasn’t sure how long it would last.

He had them turn on each other.

This… this will work. This will turn the tide.

He didn’t know how long he would be able to do this. Didn’t know how long he would be able to hold his own against multiple waves of enemies in play. But he was sure now that he’d found the answer he needed.

I’ll make this spell stronger and stronger. Then I’ll turn my enemy’s army against itself.

He envisioned the spell’s rank growing and growing—envisioned being able to control dozens of enemies, then hundreds of them… he didn’t know the extent of the spell’s limits.

But he did know it would help get him out of this mess.

All he needed to do now was figure out how to advance to E Grade. There must be something he was missing. Must be something he needed to do. It could be as simple as not being high enough level, but if that were the case, he didn’t know how he would be able to fix that.

As he cultivated more Willpower Energy into his secondary core, cycling the new points of energy through his lines at the same time, he felt something click, and three notifications popped up.

Skill Upgrade Available!

Skill Upgrade Available!

Skill Upgrade Available!