Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 14 - Once More Into The Breach

Xavier took a step back and swallowed. The werewolf-beast didn’t seem phased by the strike he’d just landed on its neck. The gash already looked fully healed. The green glow about the beast from what must have been a Speed Infusion was still present—if anything, it seemed to glow brighter than before. But maybe that was his imagination.

I need to act. Need to kill this thing. Fast.

Xavier didn’t have a timer telling him when the next wave would come, but he knew it was only minutes away from how many times he’d used his Soul Strike and how long the cooldowns had been.

Can’t let this fight go on for much longer.

The cooldown for Soul Strike was still going. He would have to use it on the beast, he was sure of that now.

The werewolf beast bared its teeth in a large smile that made it look even more terrifying. There was something about facing a beast that had no hint of fear in its eyes after seeing what Xavier was capable of. A beast that had no desire to speed things up. That spoke to him almost casually. In fact…

It’s stalling! That’s why it was hanging back.

The waves of the Endless Horde, as far as he could tell, were compelled to fight him. Not once had he seen any of them hang back. Yet this beast had done so. There had been plenty of sapient Denizens among the other waves, yet none of them had done the same thing. It would have been seen as cowardly by the system. But this beast? It wasn’t being a coward. It was being tactical.

It’s trying to draw out the wave, so I get attacked by the next one while it’s still alive.

Xavier gritted his teeth and slammed a Heavy Telekinesis into the bastard beast as he sprinted forward. Melee fighting might not be his specialty, but he’d done his fair share.

Time to end this.

Xavier needed to disorientate the beast. Needed to send a barrage of attacks at it so fierce and unyielding that it couldn’t regain its bearings. If it healed so quickly from a deep gash to its neck, it would need to take a lot of punishment.

Then he would hit it with a Soul Strike, the second he could.

The beast slashed at him. Xavier slipped out of its reach. It might be tall, with a massive reach and elongated claws, but Xavier’s scythe-staff still had more reach. An instinct told him to avoid blocking that thing’s claws with Soultaker’s shaft. The weapon he wielded was only for an F Grade Denizen, and though Xavier loved the weapon he’d probably already outgrown it.

An E Grade’s claws might slice straight through it.

Maybe that’s why the wound had healed so easily. It might have looked like a deep gash, but that didn’t mean he’d actually caused a great deal of damage.

Xavier slammed one Heavy Telekinesis at the beast after another. It was getting even faster at shrugging off the spell. But that didn’t matter. The cooldown on the spell was practically non-existent now. He could keep barraging it against his enemy, over and over.

Slice.

Soultaker’s blade slashed the beast’s leg.

Slice.

Soultaker’s blade slashed the beast’s shoulder.

Slice. Slice. Slice.

Xavier inflicted one wound after another against the werewolf beast. A few minutes must have passed since he’d engaged the E Grade enemy, as he felt Soul Strike renew.

Finally.

He went to cast the spell.

Nothing happened.

What the hell?Xavier thought. Why hadn’t the spell worked?

He backed away a few steps, trying to gain his bearings. The spell should have worked. He’d attempted to infuse 100 souls into the spell and… nothing had happened.

I have more than enough souls to spare. He hadn’t used too many when he’d been using Soul Block—

Oh. The reason became instantly clear. It almost knocked him off his feet. How could he not have noticed? How could he have been such a fool? His Spirit Energy was incredibly high. Far higher than anyone else of his own level ever would have been. The limit he could hold was nearing two hundred thousand points for god’s sake.

And yet, as his spells had ranked up and up and up all the way to 50, so had the cost of each of those spells. Even with his Spirit Recovery being so powerful…

Xavier had exhausted all of his Spirit Energy.

Not good. Not good at all.

He brought up his Spirit Energy.

Available Spirit Energy: 1,200/182,600

Crap, crap, crap, Xavier thought. Once upon a time, 1,200 Spirit Energy would have been a great deal. Now? Most of his spells cost 5,000 Spirit Energy, with Spiritual Trifecta costing 10,000.

It was recovering fast. But he couldn’t cast a single spell until it reached 5,000.

Then he’d have to wait again.

Xavier had become so used gaining Spirit Energy from killing countless enemies that he hadn’t needed to worry about running out of the stuff since the first floor of the tower.

The werewolf-beast tilted its head to the side with that same fearsome grin that it had had before. It took a step backward. The beast, he realised, had barely even tried to attack him. It hadn’t even shown Xavier what spells it had—for it definitelyhad some powerful spells it wasn’t utilising.

Why is it backing away? Xavier thought.

Horns blared. War drums thundered, their sound even louder than usual as Xavier was far closer to the Endless Horde’s frontline than he usually might be.

Wave one-thousand-and-one was about to begin.

Xavier released a long sigh. He’d miscalculated, and for the first time since he’d come to this floor, he hadn’t killed every enemy in a wave before the next one arrived. He wouldn’t have time to learn the new Willpower Infusion spell. Wouldn’t have time to learn what he needed to advance to the rank of E Grade.

And this wave would be harder than the last.

The E Grade wave boss disappeared back into the lines of the next wave. Xavier wanted to pursue it. To kill it. Leaving that thing alive just meant he would now have twoE Grades to deal with, as the next wave boss would now be in play.

He gritted his teeth, wishing he had some sort of teleportation spell, or that he could be summoned back to the wall by Siobhan—though the woman would likely be sleeping by now. Besides, she couldn’t use her summon spell on him. Not if he wanted to gain the solo title for this floor.

Still, he wanted to confer with the others back on the wall. But there simply wasn’t time for that.

Once more into the breach.

His Spirit Energy was back over 5,000 points. In the grand scheme, it hadn’t taken long to recover that much. In fact, it had only taken seconds.

Just long enough for him not to have it when he really needed it.

Xavier had to find a new plan, facing this wave. He couldn’t simply do what he’d done on the last wave, or the hundreds before that. It may have worked for him in the past, but he wasn’t gaining in power while his enemy was.

How do I get stronger?

He couldn’t rank up his skills. Couldn’t rank up his spells. Though he did gain Mastery Points, they were coming in so damned slowly that he wasn’t about to reach the next level any time soon.

The new wave charged forward. This wave was comprised of human, elven, and demonic Denizens. These waves were usually more difficult for him to face than the ones purely made from wolven or other beasts. They wore armour. Had more varied spells. Used clever tactics. They tended to take him longer to clear.

I can’t let this one take longer. I need to clear it faster than ever.

Not wishing to wait for Soul Strike to refresh that long again, Xavier decided to use 100-infused Soul Strikes instead of 1,000 infused Soul Strikes. He didn’t know if it would be more efficient than what he’d been doing in the past, but he did know he would have access to the spell every minute and twenty seconds.

Which meant if he came across another E Grade, he’d be able to use the spell on them.

He cast Soul Strike, clearing enemies farther away from him so he wouldn’t need to move as far to engage the front line of this wave. Usually it would take him longer to engage in melee at the beginning of a wave. But this time, he wasn’t far back on the wall.

Every second counts.

As Soultaker slashed through one foe after another, taking them down with an ease that felt comforting after he’d faced—and not defeated—the E Grade wave boss, Xavier considered his options.

I can’t expect to defeat this wave faster than I did the last. Not if I haven’t gained more power. And the only way for him to gain power…

It clicked, and Xavier knew what he had to do.

But it wasn’t going to be easy.