Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion - Chapter 72 - Three More souls

Xavier stood, staring in awe at what he’d just done.

In awe of his first use of Soul Strike.

Though Xavier had certainly killed more enemies in a single strike than he had in that moment, that didn’t tell him much about the potential of the spell he’d just used.

Soul Strike. It had created an apparition of the soul he’d harvested. That apparition had soared through the enemy wyverns, taking all three down without leaving a single scratch on them.

Xavier’s smile grew.

You have harvested 3 souls.

Harvested Souls: 3/10

The dark pit within him filled with three more souls. It did not in any way feel sated. No, if anything, the pit had deepened. Widened, even if the threshold he could keep harvested had not increased. The hunger he’d felt before was nothing like what he felt now. It was as though… as though the hunger had been sleeping, and reaping that first soul had only wakened it.

And all he wanted was more.

There were still six Dark Wyverns remaining nearby. He could see their auras soaring toward him, though not near as fast as they had when they’d first come his way the first time.

These must be the most injured of the lot.

And there were more heading his way, streaming toward the floating chunk of rock he stood upon—feet shoulder width apart, planted in the dirt, Soultaker grasped tightly in his fists—flying in groups of ten, all their auras in a V formation.

Like flocks of geese.

Xavier turned toward the six wyverns closing in on him. Soul Strike has area-of-effect damage, and I can infuse as many souls as I want into each strike. Mere seconds had passed by since he’d used the first Soul Strike, but the spell had already refreshed—he’d only counted a single second for the spell being on cooldown.

That feels overpowered.

Though he wondered how many Dark Wyverns a single soul could take out, he wanted to test all three souls in the spell.

Xavier smiled widely and cast Soul Strike for the second time. Infusing the number of souls he wished into the spell was something purely instinctual. Power coursed through his staff-scythe, Soultaker, once more.

Then three white bolts of lightning streamed through the dark sky, arcing toward the enemies. When the bolts of lightning neared, they came together and created a wyvern apparition even larger than the first.

A single, massive, white-glowing, translucent beast soared straight through the six Dark Wyverns and took every single one of them down. Once again, the soul damage left no visible trace.

The white lightning lit up the area, illuminating the next group of wyverns closing in on him, their dark pits of eyes wide in a fear that brought Xavier joy.

That snagged his attention. I’m relishing in their fear? Xavier didn’t know how to feel about that, but there wasn’t time to think on it.

He refreshed Spiritual Trifecta as it wore off, and harvested the souls of the six enemies he’d just killed, their pure white like streaking toward him in pleasing swirls and arcs.

Like auras, and unlike when he used Soul Strike, the souls he could see did not illuminate the darkness around him.

The souls entered through his chest. He drew in a long breath.

You have harvested 6 souls.

Harvested Souls: 6/10

Xavier released a deep laugh as the pit inside of him filled with souls, the hunger deepening.

The limit of ten souls he could store in his reserve galled him, the number offending his eye.

Only then did he realise he hadn’t looked at his Upgrade Quest for his Soul Strike spell. He’d been too entranced by the power of it. Too thrilled with the feeling of harvesting souls, and overtaken with the need for more.

He quickly brought it up as the next group of ten Dark Wyverns flew toward him, seconds away.

Soul Strike – 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. Soul Strike (Ranged) – Use Soul Strike to attack at range – to upgrade, infuse 100 souls into ranged Soul Strikes. Progress: 4/100

2. Soul Strike (Melee) – Infuse a melee attack with Soul Strike – to upgrade, infuse 100 souls into melee Soul Strikes. Progress: 0/100

3. Soul Strike (General) -  Allows the user to cast Soul Strike in both ranged and melee attacks at the cost one third damage – to upgrade, infuse 50 souls into ranged Soul Strikes and 50 souls into melee Soul Strikes.

Ranged – Progress: 4/100

Melee –  Progress: 0/100

This spell is locked to your Soul Reaper class. Gaining Rank 2 in in this spell will not require you to forget another spell, and this spell cannot be forgotten while you remain in the Reaper line of classes.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Xavier was glad he hadn’t accidentally upgraded the spell without even trying both paths, though he had to say he was heavily leaning toward the former path—ranged attacks—before having even used the melee path.

Mostly because of the situation he found himself in.

As he’d been stuck for a few days, unable to enter the next floor of the Tower of Champions, Xavier had thought long and hard about whether he should generalise in Soul Strike and Soul Block. Unlike Spiritual Guidance—the Rank 1 spell that had become Spiritual Trifecta—and Spirit Break, generalising had a heavy cost.

For Soul Strike, that was one third damage.

For Soul Block, that was one third defence.

Seeing Soul Strike in action as a ranged spell, Xavier imagined the types of battles he would be in in the future. What he saw were grand armies of invaders, perhaps one-on-one fights against other World Champions…

Either way, he simply couldn’t see himself going with the melee only path for Soul Strike, and losing a third of damage sounded like a high price.

Still, I should test out what it can do.

Xavier aimed his Heavy Telekinesis spell as best he could, trying to keep one or two of the Dark Wyverns on their path toward him while throwing the others farther away.

He didn’t want to know what ten reaching him all at once while he was perched on this little floating chunk of rock would do.

Probably have me falling to my death.

But one or two? He could take.

The Dark Wyverns screeched in anger as they were thrown off course. But it wasn’t just the screeches he heard. Bones cracked. They’d been heading toward him, fast, and Xavier pushing them back with Heavy Telekinesis must have been like them slamming into a stone wall.

A stone wall moving toward them at a hundred miles per hours.

It proved far more effective than sending them flying into each other, like the first time he’d cast Heavy Telekinesis on the Dark Wyverns, but it didn’t kill them.

Though as that hadn’t been the plan, it didn’t bother him.

What Xavier had planned worked. Now, two auras streaked toward him through the dark sky. He widened his stance, bent his knees, and waited.

When the first Dark Wyvern came into view, Xavier’s staff-scythe still infused with Spirit Energy, glowing with power, he poured a melee Soul Strike into the weapon.

The shaft and blade electrified, white lightning crackling and buzzing up its length. Xavier could feel the power pulsing within Soultaker, ready and eager to be unleashed.

And so Xavier unleashed it.

He stepped aside, out of the wyvern’s immediate trajectory, but still below its massive wing. Soultaker came down like an executioner’s axe. One swift strike. Xavier already knew that he could take down one of these Dark Wyverns with a single hit, so it might be difficult for him to see how much deadlier this attack was.

The moment the blade impacted the Dark Wyvern’s black, leathery hide, right at the back of its neck, an explosion of power was released.

This power did not have a physical element to it. It did not explode the platform Xavier stood upon, nor did it destroy the flesh of the Dark Wyvern. Just as in the ranged attack, this was an explosion of soul damage.

The attack was more concentrated than the ranged attack had been. It did not flow through the Dark Wyvern as an apparition and then head toward the next. It simply struck and exploded, power rippling and burning through the dead beast.

Though Soultaker still cut through the neck of the Dark Wyvern easily enough.

You have defeated a Level 14 Dark Wyvern!

You have gained 1400 Mastery Points.

You have gained 1400 Spirit Energy.

The second Dark Wyvern came at him. Xavier’s first instinct was to leap and roll off to the side—but there was nowhere to go.

He cast Heavy Telekinesis on the beast. Crack went its bones as the wyvern was sent flying away.

The first eight had found their wings once more, though more than one seemed as though they might be unsteady.

Soul Harvest.

White light poured into him from the Dark Wyvern he’d used the melee Soul Strike on. Xavier drew in a breath as the soul came into him, filling his harvested soul reserve back to three.

As the next few Dark Wyverns came to him Xavier made a swift decision.

Ranged Soul Strike appears less concentrated than melee Soul Strike, but it causes area-of-effect damage. Melee Soul Strike could probably cause a more damage to a single enemy, especially since it wasn’t just the power of the Soul Strike damaging a target—it would have the damage of my normal melee strike as well.

The wyvern’s decapitated head rolled straight off the platform, its body sliding off on the other side.

Xavier glanced around, rapidly counting the groups of ten auras floating around in the dark expanse.

There are definitely over at thousand of these things here. I need to focus on the challenge in front of me, and this kind of damage will help me win a war against an army better than a single melee strike ever could.

He let out a breath, smiled.

Ranged Soul Strike it is.

It was time to get the spell to Rank 2, and see how truly powerful it was.