Book 4: Chapter 28 - A Step Forward on the Path_Accidental Champion: A LitRPG Apocalypse Tower Climber (Book 1 Amazon Release on June 25)

Xavier cast Willpower Infusion on the wolven, with only seven seconds until the Buffer ability stopped working.

Purple mist shot from his staff and made its way to the beast. It didn’t need to cover much distance, what with how close the wolven was. Either the beast didn’t have a chance to teleport away, or it was too enraged to realise the threat.

The spell hit it dead on, purple mist flowing into its eyes, nose—everything—until Xavier could feel the wolven’s mind.

And what he felt was power. It was far stronger than the other wolven he’d just taken over and then killed. There was something else about this beast, too.

It felt… ancient.

At least, ancient to him. It was most certainly over a thousand years old.

How has this beast managed to stay alive around this forest for a thousand years, when there are Champions running around doing Hunt Quests every day?

Xavier figured now wasn’t the time to ask those questions.

He focused his mind to a point, trying to pierce through the wolven’s mental barrier. He’d dealt with blocks like this before, but it had been a while since he’d felt this spell truly challenged. He’d only ever been able to control the Lord of the Endless Horde for short periods of time, after all.

I can do this. I have to do this.

Another second ticked by, and with it, 20 percent of Xavier’s health disappeared.

Your health is at 50%.

Halfway gone. This is getting serious.

It was that moment when another of the wolven broke through the Buffer ability with a massive growl. It leapt into the air straight for him just as the first had.

Then another broke through.

And another.

There’d still been a few seconds left on the Buffer spell, yet all the beasts were breaking through it!

Xavier was a split second away from casting Time Alteration or Soul Strike, and if that didn’t work, he’d go all the way to Summon Otherworldly Spirit—the Spirit of Vengeance had worked for him in the past—when something in his mind clicked.

He felt a vulnerability in the wolven’s mental defence, something that he could break through. A crack in its armour. It only took him a millisecond. He managed it faster than the other wolven were able to reach him.

Suddenly, the strongest wolven among them was on his side.

The first thing Xavier did was command it to release him.

Xavier jumped straight upward with all his strength. The jump took him high—higher than he’d even expected. He wasn’t yet used to the extra strength that the Midnight Staff offered him.

He was, however, used to adapting to surges in his attributes—he’d had enough of them, after all.

I’m not going to let this pack of wolven take me down.

Now that he was high in the air, he saw an opportunity to flee. He could make it back to Hunter’s Home. He’d be safe in the tavern.

But fleeing was not on his agenda.

He was going to make these beasts pay for making him feel this vulnerable.

Still high up in the air, Xavier was out of range of his Farscope ability. He couldn’t see the battlefield as he had before—only from a bird’s eye view. So, he split his mind in two. His thoughts were suddenly clear, up here in the thin air. Once his mind was split, he sent part of his consciousness down into the wolven he now controlled. The control felt weak, tenuous. Far weaker than his control over the other wolven had been. But he knew he would be able to hold onto it for long enough to do what needed to be done.

In the same instant he was looking out from the wolven’s eyes, Xavier cast Soul Puppet. He raised the other wolven from the ground, the first one that he had killed. This wasn’t one of his most powerful spells, but he’d discovered the stronger the soul he used it on, the stronger the puppet he could control.

Now, two of the six wolven were under his thrall, even if they were being controlled by two very different spells, and one of them was technically dead.

Xavier smiled from on high as he watched the two wolven he controlled go after one of their kin. He cast several more spells as he began to plummet back down to the ground. Spirit Break, to weaken the target beast’s resolve. Soul Shatter, to cause it tremendous damage. And Core Burn, to finish it off.

With the other two wolven attacking it, the spells were enough. It couldn’t shrug off the Core Burn while it was trying to defend itself—and the big, ancient silver wolven was far, far stronger than it, ripping into its neck with a fierce attack that, coupled with Xavier’s spells, left the beast dead on the ground within less than a second.

As Xavier fell back down to the ground, he used Heavy Telekinesis to slam his next target straight into the earth. The spell was so strong that the wolven dug a hole ten feet deep until it hit solid rock and finally stopped.

The rock behind it cracked, and the wolven lay, disoriented, in the crater.

Soul Puppet!

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The second dead wolven came under his thrall. He had all the wolven he controlled attack the one down in the crater.

And thus the process was repeated, until all the wolven were dead—and had become his puppets—except for the final, silver wolf, who remained alive and under his Willpower Infusion spell.

Xavier’s control of the beast had somehow solidified, as though its mind had weakened as its pack died, one by one, around it. Xavier couldn’t imagine what that must be like from the beast’s perspective—being forced to kill its kin, without having any control over its own body. He had seen it happen—half of his own mind had been split, controlling the beast from within. But he knew that wasn’t the same as feeling it.

Xavier stood across from the silver wolven, with five wolven soul puppets around him.

Attack! he willed.

And the wolven did.

They tore their alpha apart while Xavier watched, his health slowly ticking back upward from where it had been halved.

He raised his chin as the alpha wolven died.

There was a part of him that felt very tired. The fight had been more mentally draining than he’d expected it to be. Now that the silver wolven was dead and no longer under his thrall, the different parts of his mind came back together. It was an odd feeling, having his mind snap back into a whole. But that wasn’t why he felt tired, and it wasn’t his body, either, even if he’d taken a fair bit of damage to his health during the ordeal.

He was mentally drained from the entire fight. From controlling the wolven. From being in so much danger. For being so stressed and vulnerable.

At the same time, his heart was pumping hard in his chest. He felt invigorated. It was an odd dissonance. Exhaustion and invigoration. He supposed he’d been here before. In a near-death experience.

And that’s not even the closest I’ve come to dying. It isn’t even in the top five.

Still, it was the closest he’d come in a while. And instead of being angry about it, like he had earlier in the fight, he was… glad. He’d been wanting a challenge. He’d been wanting his fights to actually mean something. And while this fight hadn’t been the closest he’d come to death, if he’d made a few more wrong moves…

Things could have been far more dire.

He went over to the dead alpha wolven and tilted his head to the side as he stared down at it.

“You and your kin were worthy opponents,” he said. “But that won’t stop me from harvesting your soul.”

Xavier used Soul Harvest, then he touched a hand to the beast’s hide and put the corpse into his Storage Ring.

He didn’t do the same for the other wolven. They were arrayed behind him. His puppets—his protectors—at least for now.

Before Xavier moved on through the forest, he sat down in the dirt near where the silver wolven had died. He split his mind into several parts, each doing something different.

One part of his mind was keeping watch, his eyes wide open, his ears perked.

Another part of his mind was reading through the different notifications that he’d gotten from the fight. He’d put off reading them after the first two had come through, ranking up his Physical Resistance spell—the fight had been too high focus for him to take his attention away from it.

And the final part of his mind was going over the fight and all of the mistakes he’d made.

Because from his count, there were many.

The first mistake he’d made was not taking the initial wolven’s attack seriously enough. He could have cast Time Alteration before it had reached him. He could have used Soul Block—from both times the different wolven had made it to him.

It was the Time Alteration spell he knew he’d underutilised the most—well, underutilised was putting it mildly, considering he hadn’t used it at all.

He wasn’t exactly sure why he hadn’t used it. When the first wolven had clamped onto him, it wouldn’t have been all that much help. But it certainly would have been helpful before that had happened, or after, when he heard all the different wolven howling.

He’d known they were coming for him, yet he hadn’t done what he should have.

He also hadn’t used Soul Block. When the first wolven had attacked him, it was true that it had taken him by surprise—but that was no excuse.

His mind worked fast enough that he should have been able to do something about the attacking beast. He could have easily used his Soul Block spell to stop it from clamping onto him.

Because I didn’t take the threat seriously, I let the beast attack me.

Xavier had assumed the alpha wolven had been a beast from the board—one he didn’t have a Hunt Quest for—but he was beginning to think that wasn’t actually the case.

If it was just any old beast from around here, then I’ll be in for a surprise when I come up against the Magma Bull.

Now, knowing the strength of some of these beasts, and—if he was right—knowing that they likely were nothing compared with the beasts from the board… well, he would need to be more careful.

And less prideful.

He still thought not using Soul Strike had been a wise idea, even if it had put his life in danger. There was a part of him that was trying to tell him he shouldn’t worry so much—he’d defeated his enemies, hadn’t he? He hadn’t come out unscathed… but he was healing quickly enough.

I need better supplies. I had a chance to use health potions, but I didn’t touch them because I’m not used to having to.

Xavier shook his head, wondering how he’d gotten himself so complacent. Though he supposed he knew the answer to that well enough.

At the same time, another part of his mind was going through the notifications that had come up during the fight.

Firstly, he was surprised to find that he’d gotten a few more ranks in Physical Resistance than he first realised.

Physical Resistance has reached Rank 83!

Physical Resistance has reached Rank 84!

Four ranks, in a single battle?

It had been a long while since he’d managed something like that. He smiled to himself. This… was an opportunity, one he shouldn’t pass up.

That wasn’t the only rank up he’d received, either.

Soul Puppet has taken a step forward on the path!

Soul Puppet is now a Rank 61 spell.

Soul Puppet is now a Rank 62 spell.

Soul Puppet is now a Rank 63 spell.