Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 12 - Wave Boss

Hundreds of level 90 Giant Wolven leapt at Xavier. The beasts were each the size of buses and seemed to be carved almost entirely from muscle. Their fur was dark grey and spiked. Their eyes glowed a fierce red. Even when darkness fell upon this world, as it had now, those eyes were visible. As the waves of the Endless Horde had become progressively stronger over those first few days, Xavier had wondered if they would just continue to grow larger and larger. He’d had this absurd image of Wolven the size of mountains bounding toward him. An image that he was glad hadn’t become a reality.

Xavier pulsed a Heavy Telekinesis behind him. The spell felt so much more natural and versatile now he’d gained some skill in it. Roars, yelps, and bones cracking sounded after his attack. He pulsed a five-infused Soul Block every five seconds, blocking the enemies he wasn’t actively engaging. Soul apparitions materialised, soaking of strikes left and right. Fighting these beasts, the size that they were, he didn’t have to worry too much about them ganging up on him—they were simply too large—but that didn’t mean he could fight one of them at a time.

His staff-scythe effortlessly carved into their flesh, gouging long, deep wounds up their sides and through their necks—when he was able to avoid their outstretched claws.

One of the beasts got past his defences and crashed into him. No matter how strong and tough Xavier’s body had become since he’d been integrated into the System, and with Spiritual Trifecta glowing silver over his skin, it didn’t stop a massive weight crashing into him from knocking him backward.

Unlike Howard, he didn’t have any skill or spell that helped him keep rooted to the ground. And even with the density of his muscles, he didn’t way a tenth of what these beasts did.

Xavier was flung through the air and crashed into a beast behind him. Straight into the damned thing’s slavering jaws. Despite the fact that his most powerful attacks were ranged, Xavier often found there was simply no way to stay out of the fray if he wanted to defeat his enemies in a timely manner. He could no longer deal with a wave from afar. If he did, the next wave would be on its way before he’d killed the first. Letting that happen would mean the end of him being on this floor.

And that’s why he kept finding himself in these damned situations. Fangs digging deep into his skin. Saliva falling into his eyes and mouth—not matter how hard he tried to clamp it shut. Acrid, warm breath like a storm’s gale in his face.

It almost made him want to leave this floor early.

I haven’t reached E Grade yet. I can’t leave this floor.

He was more determined than ever to reach E Grade. More determined than ever to defeat the entirety of the Endless Horde, assuming that a thing were even possible—especially now he’d unlocked his secondary core.

But that wasn’t the only reason he wanted to remain here. And it certainly wasn’t because of the Mastery Points—he barely got any Mastery Points from these enemies now the System had adjusted to his power level.

When I move onto the next few floors, I doubt I’ll gain any levels at all.

The other reason he wanted to remain was because of Queen Alastea—Kiralla.

Xavier, Howard, Siobhan and Justin could leave this floor at any time. Once they returned to the Staging Room, the fifth floor would be complete, and the Endless Horde would never be able to touch them. Adviser Kalren could step through that portal still open in the castle’s throne room. He, too, would be free of the Endless Horde.

But Kiralla? She could never leave this place. And that would mean her death.

The Giant Wolven clamped its fangs around his body. Xavier didn’t scream at the pain, no matter how intense it was. When he’d been flung through the air, he’d summoned his scythe-staff back into his Storage Ring—the last thing he wanted to do was accidentally lose that thing in the middle of all this chaos. The beasts fangs sliced through his robes and dug into his skin. A crack sounded and for once it wasn’t an enemy’s bones being broken—it was his own.

Okay, that made a yelp escape his mouth. Once he’d gained his bearings, he cast Heavy Telekinesis.

The spell slammed into the top of the beast’s massive jaw and tore its head clean in half. The scope of the damage looked more like a cannonball had been shot through the roof of the thing’s mouth.

He manoeuvred himself out of the beast’s jaws—or, well, onejaw. Though manoeuvre was probably too fancy a word for what he did, considering he fell flat onto his face on the blood soaked, muddied ground of the battlefield. You would think, after having gained so many points in Speed and Strength, Xavier would have gotten a little more graceful than that.

He let out a sigh as he picked himself up off the ground. Not his finest moment. He looked at the cooldown for Soul Strike.

Soul Strike currently has a cooldown of 16 minutes and 40 seconds. It cannot be used for another 3 minutes and 2 seconds.

Dammit, he thought. That feels like an eternity.

This was by far his least favourite part of the waves. With Soul Block, Xavier could defend against incredibly powerful strikes. With Soul Strike, he could take down thousands of enemies—at this level—all at once. But he wasn’t being struck by a single powerful strike. Soul Block was nothing like Howard’s Bulwark attack. And Xavier had no movement spells—he wasn’t able to get the hell out of the way of this many enemies even if he wanted to.

He had to simply fight in the middle of a mess of thousands of attackers all out for his blood.

He gritted his teeth and ploughed forward. Soultaker carved through one enemy after another. Heavy Telekinesis crushed whole groups of enemies. With each death he wrought, another soul became his, fuelling his blocks. He would have put them toward Soul Harden, but the spell had long stalled at Rank 50 just like his others.

Xavier had restricted kill notifications altogether, otherwise they would be the only thing he could see, bombarding his vision practically every second.

No matter how many enemies he killed, they simply kept coming. He couldn’t get them out of the way fast enough. And with the size of these damned things he felt like a mouse being attacked by a pack of cats.

Is it a pack of cats? he wondered, then discarded the thought.

His mind always went to strange places while in the middle of battle.

He checked the cooldown for Soul Strike again. One minute. Technically, he could have kept the cooldown for Soul Strike visible in the side of his vision at all times, but he didn’t like doing that. It was like staring at the time when you were waiting for class to end. It always seemed to make it take far, far longer. Then again, when he didn’t have it visible he would bring the damned thing up every minute anyway.

By the time the cooldown finally came up, he’d managed to avoid being chomped by another of the beasts. The click in his mind as the cooldown hit zero sent a rush of relief through him. He cast another 1,000-infused Soul Strike at the enemies, focusing on those around him so he could get a little bit of breathing room. The apparitions filled the night with a brilliant light. The beasts didn’t even have time to roar before they died.

He took a deep breath as the enemies fell.

Which, of course—given where he was—was a complete mistake. The battlefield had an absolutely awful smell to it. One he still wasn’t accustomed to, despite how long he’d spent in this place. The fire mages of the Endless Horde burned their dead, turning them to ashes between waves, and the dust of his slain enemies filled the air as much as anything else.

Xavier’s moment of relief didn’t last long. Soon, it was once more supplanted by tension. For the first couple of weeks and few hundred waves, Xavier hadn’t felt afraid. He hadn’t felt a hint of fear from what he’d been experiencing—the waves had simply been too easy to demolish. The way he’d smashed through them made feeling fear a difficult thing, no matter how many enemies he had to face.

He wasn’t sure when that had changed. When the fear he’d experienced in the first few hours and days of being thrown into the System had returned.

Now, in these waves, he felt a constant pressure—not just the pressure that settled at the back of his mind from lack of sleep. This was far more intense, and wasn’t something he could simply ignore. As strong as he was, as many of the enemies’ attacks as he could shrug off, if he made a wrong move it could very well end up being his last.

Xavier leapt into the air and landed on one of the Giant Wolven’s corpses. He glanced around, trying to see how many enemies remained. He’d cast Soul Strike twice, which meant he’d been in the battle a little over thirty-three minutes.

Instantly, he knew he’d been a little bit foolish for using 1,000 souls in his last strike. He’d long ago learnt that he needed to be more strategic after his first Soul Strike of a wave. Now he wouldn’t be able to use his third Soul Strike until quite late in the wave. Had he used 700, or even 800, that would have reduced the time between strikes by a few minutes.

Which would have let him take out more of the enemies in less time.

Can’t dwell on mistakes already made.

He likely wouldn’t have acted so brashly if he hadn’t almost been eaten by one of these damned Wolven. Or maybe it was because his mind was elsewhere. All he wanted was to get to the end of the wave and see how quickly he could gain that Willpower Infusion spell. Discovering his secondary core was something he’d been trying to do for weeks. Finally, he’d gotten there, and there was no time to enjoy the achievement.

Moments like this made him wish he wasn’t fighting these battles alone. Made him wish he could have the others with him. That they could have progressed at the same rate as him. But even though he’d gained a ton of levels on this floor, he wasn’t about to give up the solo title. Besides, it was far too late to throw Howard, Siobhan and Justin into the mix. They would be far too weak to handle enemies like this.

Xavier tore through the rest of the enemies. There was perhaps less than a quarter left. He’d stopped counting the number of enemies in a wave, but from a glance he could generally get a good estimate. This wave was comprised entirely of high-level Giant Wolven and must have been ten thousand strong, which meant there were still over two thousand of them left.

Fool, he chastised himself. Yes, he’d just told himself he wouldn’t dwell on his mistakes, but it looked like he wouldn’t be able to clear these bastards until Soul Strike recovered again. Then I better be careful how many I infuse in that Soul Strike, or I’ll leave the spell in cooldown when the next wave starts.

By the time Soul Strike met its cooldown there were still a few hundred enemies left. He infused 200 souls into the spell and took them all down in one swift move.

Then a massive roar sounded. Xavier frowned. That shouldn’t have happened. The Endless Horde tended to remain quiet until a wave charged forth. I should still have almost ten minutes until then.

But this wasn’t the next wave. It was the wave boss. Most of the time, Xavier didn’t even notice the wave boss—he tended to take it down with one of his massive, area-of-effect Soul Strikes—but this one had been hanging back, at the front of the enemy’s ranks. As though waiting for this moment.

It looked an awful lot like a wolven. Except for the fact that it stood on two legs.

And Xavier wasn’t able to scan it.

It’s… it’s E Grade!