Xavier stood in the middle of a clearing on the hundredth floor of the Tower of Champions. D Grade wolven were howling all around him. He counted at least five different howls. He gripped his Midnight Scythe tightly.

Facing the first wolven, he’d been holding back. He hadn’t cast his most powerful spell, Soul Strike.

But there was a reason he’d been holding back from using that. Soul Strike was an incredibly strong spell for him, one that he’d used to great advantage against large numbers of enemies. Its strength was in the number of souls he was able to harvest, and when he was fighting great numbers of weak enemies, harvesting souls was an easy enough task.

On this floor, the hundredth floor, where none of the enemies were below D Grade—at least, as far as he’d found so far—gaining a lot of souls to work with didn’t seem like an easy task.

Maybe after this fight I need to make it back to the tavern—Hunter’s Home—and find Gimble, or speak to the barkeep. I could ask one of them where I’d be able to find some weaker monsters to farm for souls.

The last thing he wanted to do was step into Hunter’s Home and ask questions that would make him appear as though he were too weak for this floor. Well, that wasn’t true—the last thing he wanted to do was fail this floor.

And well, failure, in this case, would likely mean death.

The wolven howls had been more than one hundred feet away, so he hadn’t been able to see the beasts with his Farscope ability. But the howling sounds quickly morphed into swift running through the forest’s underbrush. The five howls had come from different wolven to the one he’d already been facing, which meant he now had six different beasts he needed to face, and all of them D Grade.

I need to hit them with Willpower Infusion. That might very well be my only way out of this.

Unless I want to exhaust my soul reserve.

And he definitely didn’t want that. Something told him he would need those souls when it came time to face the Magma Bull.

Xavier waited for the wolven to come to him. Using Farscope, he watched them all closely as they finally came into range, then burst into the clearing. They didn’t come for him right away, as he’d thought they would. Instead, they began to circle him. One of them was bigger than the others. It had silver fur and looked… weathered. It wasn’t scarred—scars were hard to come by when healing was so easy. But it looked more like a veteran of battle than the others did.

This has to be a beast from the board—has to be a part of a Hunt Quest.

Not that he would get anything for killing it even if it was. He had taken on a different Hunt Quest.

The bigger wolven growled.

Then it launched forward.

The instant it did, the other five wolven launched forward as well.

Xavier smiled. He’d been waiting for this. He hadn’t seen any of them use any ranged attacks, for which he was glad—he hadn’t needed to use Soul Block. Not yet.

Something told him their attacks were all of the melee variety. That first beast, its jaw clamped on his arm, that could have very well been a spell—one he’d only been able to avoid because of Otherworld Phase.

Xavier waited until the enemies almost had their teeth clamped around him, then he activated Buffer.

Buffer was an imbued ability from his Dark Steel Bracer. It was an ability he hadn’t found the need to use much, but one he’d always kept in the back of his mind. It could push back all enemies around him twenty feet back for a period of ten seconds. It was a powerful ability. Though it had a catch—it could only be used once per day. Or, more accurately, once every twenty-four hours.

Xavier had to wonder how it worked—it couldn’t possibly work against any opponent, could it?

A C Grade wouldn’t be pushed back by a simple imbued ability.

Regardless, it worked on the wolven.

Xavier watched as all six wolven were pushed backward from him. It was a beautiful sight, one that made him feel as though he were in control again.

Now, it was time to even the odds. Xavier turned his attention to the first enemy he had faced on this floor. The wolven was still breathing a little raggedly. Xavier could tell that it had taken quite a bit of damage from his attacks, even if it hadn’t succumbed to them. The very fact that the beast had called for help was rather telling.

Another thing that was telling was that it had only used its teleportation spell twice since their fight had begun, which meant it had limitations. Xavier was assuming those limitations were time-based—a cooldown.

And the beast had only just used the teleportation spell a moment ago, when Xavier had swung his Midnight Scythe down at its head.

It wouldn’t have teleported away from my Willpower Infusion spell if it were able to resist it, would it?

Xavier was about to find out.

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He cast Willpower Infusion, focusing it on a single enemy. He could have used it on the other enemies around him, but he wanted to make sure he had a strong lock on this one. Until he could feel the beast’s mind, he wouldn’t be able to know how strong his hold over it would be.

The purple mist shot for the wolven. This time, it didn’t teleport out of the way. It tried to turn. Tried to dodge.

It failed.

The Willpower Energy that was the purple mist thrust in through the beasts’ nostrils, ears, eyes, mouth. Fear struck the beast like a hammer as this happened.

Then the beast’s face slackened.

Xavier stood in the middle of the clearing, six wolven around him, all circling the twenty-foot radius created by his buffer spell, but unable to push forward and attack him. He felt strong again, looking at their lacklustre attempts.

He felt even stronger when he realised how much weaker the wolven’s mind was than his own. It would be hard to control the whole pack with his Willpower Infusion spell—even if he managed to get them under his thrall without each of them teleporting away… one of their minds was weaker than his, but all six combined would be a challenge he wasn’t sure he was up to.

That made his rage return—the rage he’d been feeling when he’d come in to attack the first wolven with his scythe-staff.

I should be able to crush these beasts with nothing more than my pinkie finger!

Controlling the first wolven, Xavier made it attack one of the others. The buffer spell lasted for twenty seconds. He’d been keeping track of the time as it had passed—only two seconds had gone by. It felt like longer, but he knew that was simply because time moved different for people as fast as him.

Xavier still had a few tricks up his sleeve, ones he wasn’t sure he was ready to use. Ones didn’t want to have to use.

He wanted to see how he could do against these wolven without them.

Xavier focused his attention on the wolven that he had his thralled beast attack. Xavier cast the same three spells again—Spirit Break, Soul Shatter, and Core Burn.

They’d always worked for him in the past.

There was a part of Xavier that was regretting making Soul Shatter an area-of-effect spell. While it clearly hurt these wolven—all of them, in fact—had he made it a single-target spell, it would have done a hell of a lot more damage.

I can’t just soften all six of these enemies, I need to go in for the kill. Take them out one by one. Far faster than this.

The beast had been distracted by its ally attacking it—apparently too distracted to even think of teleporting away.

Each of the three spells Xavier cast landed on it easily.

That was when it teleported. Straight out of the one-hundred-metre radius.

God dammit.

Xavier’s anger flared even more. This was ridiculous! He knew for a fact he was still stronger than these wolven, but he hadn’t killed a single one of them.

I’m going about this all wrong.

He still hadn’t shifted his mindset. He wasn’t taking the threat of these wolven seriously. If he wasn’t careful, that would come back to bite him.

Literally.

Fifteen seconds left before Buffer falls.

It felt like an eternity, but he couldn’t become complacent.

Xavier refocused his attention. He still had one of the wolven under his thrall. That was the enemy that was most vulnerable.

And that was where his focus needed to be.

Take them out. One by one.

Xavier cast Core Burn on the wolven. Now that it was under his control, there would be no way for it to fight back against the spell.

It’ll be dead within seconds.

The core burn spell did its work. Xavier, being in control of the beast’s mind, could almost feel what was happening to it. Could feel the chaos in the beast’s cores as it burned through the energy in each of them one after another, until finally there was nothing left.

The spell had taken five whole seconds to kill the beast, which was longer than he’d hoped it would take. The wolven had been tough.

But finally, the spell had done the job, and there was still ten more seconds of his Buffer ability to go, keeping the enemy wolven at bay.

The silver wolven howled incredibly loudly the moment that first wolven died. Then it snarled and began to glow a fierce red.

The beast broke through the Buffer ability and leaped straight for Xavier’s throat.

What the—

Xavier’s thoughts didn’t even move fast enough to react. He threw up his arm in defence, a reflex he shouldn’t have even had. Not anymore. He should have cast Soul Block.

Why didn’t he cast Soul Block?

My mind is panicked. Chaotic. I can’t get control of myself. All of this feels wrong.

There was nowhere for him to run to. If he fled, he would be fleeing straight out of Buffer’s range into the fangs of more wolven.

The beast clamped onto his arm instead of his neck. At least that was something. Pain pierced his mind as the wolven pierced his flesh drawing blood. Xavier saw his health go down 10 percent.

And that’s just from one bite!

If that thing had gotten to his neck…

The beast was still glowing red. Xavier tried to yank his arm away, but it only made things hurt worse. The panic in his mind intensified.

Physical Resistance has reached Rank 81!

Physical Resistance has reached Rank 82!

Xavier blinked. He hadn’t had that skill go up in what felt like a while. The notification stripped him of his fear—at least for a moment—and helped him refocus.

He breathed and let go of his panic. There was another glow about the wolven that hadn’t been there before. This one was around its jaw, and Xavier knew what it must mean—the bite wasn’t just a normal melee attack, it was some sort of spell.

There would be no dislodging those jaws off his arm, and his health was steadily declining the longer the wolven hung on.

I have to kill it.

He didn’t know how the beast had gotten through his Buffer skill. All the other wolven were still stuck outside of it, even though a few of them had begun to glow red just like the first one. It seemed to be some sort of berserker spell, as the wolven were flying into a rage.

Your health is at 75%.

God, it’s going down faster than I thought!

Perhaps now was the time for Xavier to use one of the aces he had up his sleeve…

No. I can do this without those spells! I have to, if I want to move forward today. I can’t use all my soul reserve on this one damned beast!

Xavier cast Spirit Break on the beast, hoping to cause it enough pain to let go of his arm.

The beast didn’t even yelp.

The spell only caused it to growl ever louder than it already was and yank Xavier’s arm left and right in its jaws. Xavier slashed down at the beast with his scythe-staff, one-handed. The blade slammed toward the beast’s silver fur and was…

Deflected?

What the hell is this beast made of? It must have some sort of defensive spell active!

Your health is at 70%.

There were still eight more seconds until Buffer fell. He was glad for that. It felt like a hell of a lot more time had passed since this thing had broken through.

Xavier blinked. What a fool he had been! These wolven had teleportation abilities. If he wanted to get this one off him, all he would need to do was threaten it with the Willpower Infusion spell. That had been what had made the first wolven teleport away when he first encountered it.

And if the wolven didn’t teleport away?

Well, then it might just fall under Xavier’s control…