Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion - Chapter 45 - There Are Only So Many Risks I Can Take

Xavier, gripping his Spirit Staff of Might tightly in both hands, ran toward the enemy army of five hundred elves.

Knife-ears, Sergeant Bradley had called them. It was a slur Xavier had recognised. Strange, hearing it from a real person talking about real elves.

Real elves. Elves actually exist, and I’m about to fight them.He supposed that shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, considering he’d already fought against goblins, massive Black Pumas and Giant Mole Rats.

As he ran, he looked over at the enemy soldiers. How many archers and Mages do they have? And how long will it be until we’re in range? Would they think to target me?

He’d already called for “his” army to charge. The sound of five hundred soldiers—all of them superhuman compared to a normal army back on Earth pre-integration—was close to deafening.

Howard was to Xavier’s left, Justin to his right, and Siobhan behind him. Surrounding them were twenty soldiers handpicked by Sergeant Bradley to stick to them like glue and protect them. They had their shields up as they ran. Twelve soldiers ahead, four flanking on each side of them.

Xavier wondered what would happen if projectiles came down from above. Those shields they carried were massive, rivalling Howard’s in size. Were these soldiers all tank classes? Did they have some sort of protective barrier spell, like Howard’s Bulwark spell?

Xavier’s first instinct had been to run ahead of the army. To slam a Spiritual Trifecta reinforced Heavy Telekinesis strike straight at a cluster of the enemy soldiers and see how many he could take down at once.

They would slam into each other, maybe even behind into their allies’ spearpoints.

Rushing ahead of the army would be the wrong decision. He needed to learn from his mistakes. Despite the fact that nothing he’d done had caused his death, he knew it was only a matter of time if he kept acting the way he had been.

Howard had been right. He should have been able to take that Rat King on his own… but it wasn’t only that.

I’ve almost died too many times. Everything I’ve done has paid off, but there are only so many risks I can take until they stop helping me. I can’t keep doing everything so rashly.

He needed to train his instincts, lest they get them killed.

Howard was right, but he went too easy on me.

Bright spells, fireballs and fire arrows, bolts of lightning and large shards of ice that reflected the sky’s twin suns began to flare above them, coming from the human army—the army Xavier and his party were leading.

He looked ahead. The elves were charging forward, unleashing a volley of arrows and spells of their own. The ground began to shudder. Earth mages?

Xavier’s eyes widened in wonder. This battle wouldn’t be like anything from Earth. Wouldn’t be like the medieval battles he’d read about when doing research, nor would it be anything like modern warfare.

This would be something altogether different. Something that none of them had any experience with.

The enemy arrows and spells began to fall upon the human army. A bellowing shout rang out from ahead of them—Sergeant Bradley, shield raised above his head—“DEFENSIVE MEASURES!”

Howard had his own shield raised above his head. He activated Bulwark, and a transparent shield enveloped the four of them.

Xavier had to wonder how large that shield would become in the future, and how long it would last. Could the man control how large it became?

He worried about his three party members.

Howard and the others have strong titles, even if they aren’t as strong as mine. They should be able to hold their own out here. Besides, this army will protect us with our lives.

Xavier didn’t know how many different types of arrows fell upon them. They glowed different colours as they bounced off the Bulwark spell. There were the fire arrows—arrows he doubted would work without magic (he’d seen a YouTube video in his writing research detailing all the reasons why fire arrows are only a thing in movies and not history). Then there were green-glowing arrows. He wondered if those were poisoned.

A purple-glowing arrow penetrated the Bulwark protective barrier without trouble. It whizzed past Xavier’s ear and lodged itself into the ground. Had he been just a little to the left, it would have lodged itself into his skull instead. It must have been some sort of penetrative, anti-magic defence arrow.

I have 89 Toughness. I’m sure that would have been enough to withstand that arrow… right?

It wasn’t exactly something he wished to test.

The soldiers around them had better weapons and armour then a Basic Warrior, not to mention they would all have their next class, but he couldn’t imagine their stats would be very high.

They might not have any titles at all.

Still, Xavier needed to be careful—this would be nothing like fighting beasts. The beasts that he’d fought rarely had any type of spell, for one. And he wasn’t used to dealing with ranged attacks.

Maybe I need some sort of protective spell myself…

But that was what Howard would be for. Of course, he might not always be able to rely on others.

They were nearing the enemy army now. Xavier felt a little frustrated that he didn’t have any long-range spells he could use in this situation. Packed in, with the honour guard of twenty soldiers ahead of him, and even more ahead of them, his Heavy Telekinesis spell would only hurt friend not foe.

He thought about the differences between this battle and a “normal” human battle. They don’t have any cavalry. I’m glad for that.Especially since he imagined the soldiers might be astride bestial mounts, rather than normal horses. Perhaps we just got lucky.

Xavier got a glimpse of the trapdoor to the Staging Room—their exit out of this place. The elves had reached it first.

Denizens, unlike normal, unenhanced soldiers, could run and fire their spells and loose their arrows all at the same time without slowing or losing much of any accuracy. And they could run faster. All that talking he’d done after they’d met Sergeant Bradley had slowed his army down enough that the trapdoor was now beneath enemy feet.

We’ll need to push them back. Secure that area.

The armies were near to clashing, though Xavier could barely see it with so many ahead of them. He wished he could have an aerial view of what was happening on the battlefield.

BOOM!

The sound was so loud Xavier was surprised it didn’t sting his ears. And it didn’t stop. Two charging, superhuman armies crashed into each other. The clang of metal on metal. The roar of flames. The boom of thunder. All of it came at once, mingling with shouts, screams and cries of men and women fighting and dying.

The battle began to feel more real than ever. A thrill of fear and excitement ran through him. He could see the enemy. Through the lines of soldiers ahead of him. They were close. Very close.

The barrage of spells and arrows had stopped falling upon them. They must be launching those attacks farther back, lest they hit their allies.

Howard disabled his Bulwark spell. Either that, or he simply ran out of it. It had the same impact: the protective barrier was gone.

Xavier ran ahead, easily able to overtake those around him as his speed was far superior. Now that he wouldn’t be a target ahead of the army, it shouldn’t be too dangerous getting close.

It’s not a risk throwing myself into the fray. Not as strong as I am. At least, he hoped it wasn’t, but he’d never experienced anything like this before. Why am I worried? With all the titles I’ve gained, I have almost 50 levels more worth of stats than these guys.

Even if the enemy soldiers received more stats when they gained their new class, they were only level 12. They wouldn’t have had long to take advantage of that.

It was easy enough to tell elf from human, something he was glad for. He yelled to the honour guard in front to make a hole for him. They responded instantly. At least they’re well-trained. More than could be said for me.

The line of human soldiers that had been in front of the honour guard were already falling. It appeared as though an equal number of the elves had fallen too, but there was too much chaos for him to be able to tell.

He scanned a few of the elves now that he was better able to see them.

{Elf – Level 12}

{Elf – Level 12}

{Elf – Level 12}

Just as I thought.

He quickly did the math. Assuming he received 1200 Mastery Points per kill, he would need defeat 124 enemies without sharing any of the points with others to reach level 9. And maybe twice that number to reach level 10.

Wiping out the entire army myself might be enough. Not that I’m going to try.

Xavier made it to the front. All that lay ahead of him now were the enemy soldiers. He smiled. He couldn’t help himself. The thrill of the battle was taking over, pumping excitement through his veins.

Time to do some damage.

Xavier cast Spiritual Trifecta and was engulfed in a brilliant silver light. The power he felt from it was like nothing he’d ever had before.

I have 100 points in Spirit. Did that break some sort of barrier?

He didn’t know, but it sure felt like he had.

If it did, I’m close to doing the same for Intelligence…

Facing the line of elves, their expressions contorted with anger as they rushed toward him wielding spear and shield, Xavier cast Heavy Telekinesis. A purple light flashed on the enemy soldiers—some sort of protection from magic?—but it didn’t seem to help.

His spell broke straight through it.

Countless soldiers were thrust backward. Xavier heard a symphony of elven bones cracking as they crashed into their allies behind them, then behind them, and so forth, and so on.

How much damage did I just inflict?

Over thirty kill notifications came all at once. He quickly read the first.

Magical Potency has reached rank 5!

Just from one spell? Xavier didn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

You have defeated a Level 12 Elf!

You have gained 1800 Mastery Points.

You have gained 1800 Spirit Energy.

1800? Shouldn’t I have gotten 1200? That’s 50% more Mastery Points and Spirit Energy than I expected! Xavier wondered why that might be. Maybe they give more because they’ve gained their first class?

He pushed the question away. He didn’t need to know why, he would just take it as a win.

Xavier felt his Heavy Telekinesis spell refresh its cooldown. Was that in two seconds, not three? It’s gotten even faster! He launched another spell, still benefitting from Spiritual Trifecta.

More and more enemies fell.

Magical Potency has reached rank 6!

What, again!?

Heavy Telekinesis has taken a step forward on the path!

Heavy Telekinesis is now a Rank 4 spell.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Spiritual Trifecta has taken a step forward on the path!

Spiritual Trifecta is now a Rank 4 spell.

One cannot walk backward on the path.

Reaching level 10 might not take very long at all!

There was a giant thud, thud, thud. At first, Xavier had thought it was from war drums. Then he heard a familiar voice call out.

“The enemy’s Champion has arrived!” Sergeant Bradley bellowed.

A shadow loomed over the battle, like a mountain in motion, and Xavier got his first glimpse of the floor boss.

He swore, loudly and colourfully.