Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion - Chapter 87 - Divine Beacon

“Divine Beacon?” Xavier’s curiosity was piqued. The names of Howard, Justin, and Xavier’s own class had felt more descriptive than hers did.

His mind worked, wondering about the name. He supposed the divine part could speak of her ability to heal others, where the beacon part could have something to do with summoning.

But she may have gained other powers seemingly unrelated to those two when she’d chosen her rare class.

Siobhan smiled. “Since I’d gotten that healing spell, I was worried it would make me… a less active member of our party. I always hated playing healers in video games, yet the guys I played with always thought that I”—she rolled her eyes—“as a girl, should be the one to play the cleric or monk, as though we can’t be fighters too. But…” She dipped her head. “I know that when we return to Earth, there will be so much to do there other than just fight. There will be so many ways for me to help not just this party, but others. And now, I also have ways to help the three of you fight even better.”

“What ways are those?” Howard asked.

Justin leant forward on his loot box.

Siobhan’s fingers were interlocked in her lap. “Well, first…” She sighed, her voice turning a bit sad. “I’ve lost my Cast Element spell.” She bit her lip. “The System said I might lose some of my spells, if they weren’t compatible with the new class, so it didn’t come as a surprise. Though it did prove to me I’m definitely not a combat fighter any longer.”

Xavier struggled to imagine what that might be like, to have a purely support class. He assumed she must still be able to cause some damage, even if just by hitting enemies with her staff—he’d certainly proved that that could work—but to not have anyoffensive spells? No, he definitely couldn’t go down that path.

But he was glad that there were others out there who could.

“I suppose you no longer need it,” Howard said in a soft voice.

Siobhan nodded. “Indeed. Fortunately, I have gained more than I’ve lost.” A smile returned to her lips then, her voice no longer melancholy, some of that bright excitement coming back. “One of the spells I received is called Divine Beacon, the same as my class. It says it creates a pillar, something that rises up from the ground, and all those within the pillar receive boosted health regeneration, physical resistance, and magical resistance.”

Howard grunted. “If we coupled that with my Bulwark spell as it grows larger, and you were able to summon people into it…”

“Then we could protect a lot of people in the middle of a battle.” Siobhan nodded. “And heal a lot of wounded, too.”

Xavier could definitely see how useful a spell like that could be, especially in some sort of pitched, defensive battle, like a siege, where a group of fighters were defending a singular place.

That’s definitely the type of fighting I can envision when we return to Earth.

“The second spell I got was Banish. It looks like an offshoot of my summoning spell, and allows me to teleport an enemy away from us.”

Xavier’s eyebrows rose. “Thatcould be quite an offensive spell. Can you choose where you teleport them?” His gaze flicked to the ceiling. “Like, high in the sky so they fall to the ground?” He imagined beasts falling down from unimaginable heights, hitting a stone or cement floor at terminal velocity.

“Unless they can fly,” Justin said.

Xavier glanced at him.

“What? Then they wouldn’t fall.”

Siobhan shook her head. “It doesn’t appear to allow me to teleport someone to a precise location like my summon spell. Rather it banishes them away from us to a safe distance. The more it grows in power, the farther I can banish an enemy, and the more enemies I can banish.”

“Assuming they aren’t resistant,” Howard said.

Siobhan nodded. “Yes. Always assuming that. Then there’s the third spell.” Her smile turned a little sly. “This is where, I think, I could really change the tide of a fight.” She looked at Xavier. “It allows me to buff a party member, giving them a percentage boost to their attributes.”

Xavier blinked. “All their attributes?”

Siobhan nodded. “All of them. There are two paths—one that will allow me to boost an individual, or one that will allow me to spread the attributes between multiple people.” She looked at Xavier pointedly once she’d said that. “I haven’t decided which way I’ll choose to go, yet.”

Xavier thought on that for a moment. He could be selfish, and push her toward boosting an individual’s attributes—namely his. But something told him that others would benefit from that boost far more than he would, so he didn’t say anything. Though he was glad that the others consulted him about their skills and spells, he ultimately wanted them to make their own decisions on what they should do with them.

“Did you get any more spells?” Xavier asked, as she’d only listed three so far.

“One more,” Siobhan said. “This one I’m less sure about.” Her forehead creased. “I thought that I’d lost the path of summoning beasts or… lesser deities.” Her frown deepened. “So I guess this must be something else? I suppose I’ll find out when I use it. The spell is called Divine Guardian. It says that it allows me to summon something called a Construct, which will help defend me from attacks.”

“Maybe you haven’t lost combat capabilities after all,” Xavier said.

“Maybe.” She bowed her head. “This is certainly the spell I’m most interested in trying out next.”

That made Justin perk up. “When are we heading to the next floor? Because I definitely want to spendsome time practising with my new spells before them.” He looked over at Howard. “How about a spot of sparring?”

Howard chuckled. “You can see if you can do any damage against me, flying in the air with those little duckling wings of yours.”

Justin’s expression soured. “And we’ll see if you can even land a strike on me, considering how slow you are.”

Before their conversation turned into a friendly squabble, Xavier let them know that he wanted to head down to the tavern to visit Sam to see if the man could answer a few of his questions. He told them the questions would only be about the Sector Travel Key, but there were other things he might ask Sam. If the man seemed willing to talk.

Though… he wasn’t sure how much he wanted to reveal to the so-called bartender.

That presence I felt… at the end of the fourth floor…

The more he thought about it, the more he grew sure that it definitely wasn’t the System that had been looking at him. He hadn’t shared that detail with his party. There wasn’t anything that he could do about it. The only thing telling them would do was worry them, and they all had enough on their minds as it was.

The fourth floor hadn’t taken them very long to clear, so it felt strange heading out of the Staging Room already. Still, he was more curious about this Sector Travel Key than he’d let on, and if he could figure out what it was for sooner rather than later, he was happy to let the others play with their new spells for a little while before heading to the next floor.

In fact, Xavier couldn’t help but stop by the door for a moment. He leant back against it, crossing his arms over his chest, and watched as Justin and Howard stood and walked over to the sparring circle.

Justin drew his sword. Howard summoned his tower shield, drawing his own sword from its scabbard. Xavier tilted his head to the side. Perhaps it’s time to outfit them with better weapons and armour.

Justin began to circle around Howard, sending questing strikes toward him. Howard, true to form, stayed rooted to the spot. One foot never left the ground, only pivoting, his other foot making him turn so he always faced Justin. His tower shield came up, taking a few hits.

Does he already have his new Hold Ground and Backfire spells active?

Justin suddenly burst into action. He leapt up into the air, cocking his sword back, and unleashed Air Strike.

I suppose he doesn’t need to fly for it to work.

Howard’s tower shield suddenly glowed brown. Xavier narrowed his eyes, peering at the shield.

He’s infusing Toughness Energy into the shield.

He watched the two spar for a little while. If he were watching this, pre-integration, he doubted that he would be able to follow the movements, they were going so fast. They looked like two veteran fighters that had been at this for years, their skill transcendent, far above that of a normal human.

But Xavier followed their movements easily. And, well, even Justin looked a little slow to him.

Though the two fought hard, it seemed as though they were at an impasse. The two fighters were at the same level, and shared the exact same titles. And their fighting styles were such that neither was able to gain any true advantage against the other. When Justin proved fast enough to get past Howard’s shield, Bulwark was summoned to stop his strikes. When that wasn’t effective—or when Justin broke through it—the strikes that he was able to land on Howard simply didn’t appear strong enough to do much of anything.

And Howard? He was certainly tough for his level, but he wasn’t near as fast as Justin. Whenever he struck back at the kid, Justin was just too slippery. Xavier wasn’t even sure if that was because he was using his Slip Dodge spell, or if his speed was such that he didn’t even need it.

After a few minutes of this passed, Xavier couldn’t help but chuckle at the two of them. “You don’t even appear to be able to hurt each other.”

Justin paused his onslaught against Howard, stepping back from the man with a sigh. “I know. It’s… well, kind of infuriating.”

Howard smiled back. “It is a little frustrating.” He stood straight, out of his defensive stance, and rolled his head around his shoulders, eliciting a few cracks. “Also, it appears as though I cannot use the Taunt spell on my allies. Which, I suppose, is fair.”

“I can’t use Banish on any of you, either,” Siobhan said from where she’d been watching on the sidelines. “I just tested. I wonder if that’s because we’re in the same party, not just allies.”

Justin rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s probably the reason, right? Maybe the System knows we don’t wish any ill-will upon each other. But if we were fighting another human… I can’t imagine it wouldn’t allow us to use some of our spells, especially in self-defence.”

Siobhan sighed. “There’s still so much we don’t know about how this all works, isn’t there?” She took a step forward, drew in a deep breath. “Now that your little sparring match has been put on pause, I think it’s time for me to see what this Divine Guardian is.”

The Mage—(Or do I call her Divine Beacon now?)—summoned her staff, holding it in both hands. A moment later, a glowing purple light enveloped Siobhan. The glow drained from her, being taken up by the staff.

Then the purple light poured out of the staff and onto the ground, where it coalesced and formed a puddle.

“Your Divine Guardian is a purple… puddle?” Justin said, an eyebrow raised, chuckling slightly. “That’s…” He trailed off, eyes widening.

The puddle grew upward until it formed a bulky, seven-foot suit of armour. The suit looked like something you’d see freestanding in a fancy old castle. And like those, this one had no one inside. The helm’s visor was up, but it was completely empty. Gripped in the gauntlets of the seemingly empty suit of armour was a great sword.

The Divine Guardian didn’t move a muscle. If Xavier didn’t know any better, he would have thought it was just a statue.

Justin took a step toward Siobhan, as though to inspect the Divine Guardian. His sword was still gripped in his hand. The Divine Guardian moved swiftly and suddenly, raising his—its?—sword up in a defensive posture and standing in front of Siobhan as though to protect her.

Siobhan grinned, her face lighting up. She clapped a hand on the Divine Guardian’s shoulder, having to reach up quite high to do so. “Oh, I think I’m going to like this spell.”