He sped up time around him and him alone, creating a bubble the same size as the one he had back in the Staging Room. He hadn’t practiced with the spell, so he didn’t know yet how much he could manipulate the time bubble—whether he could make it smaller or larger with repeated use. The spell, unlike others, didn’t appear to have a specific path to choose from.

Technically, he needn’t have waited until the beast had gotten this close to cast the spell, but it seemed more than necessary to do so.

The closer the beast was to the edge of his time barrier, the faster his spells would reach it once Xavier dropped the barrier.

Xavier took a breath, staring at the beast. He had a moment to think, in this time bubble of his. He tilted his head to the side and examined the boar a little more closely, wondering if there were any weak spots he should target—not that he planned to swing his Midnight Scythe at the beast.

That hadn’t done him any good when he’d been up against the wolven.

Xavier cast a series of spells intended to weaken his enemy as best he could. He’d kept his wolven puppets close enough that they were still within the barrier. Outside the barrier, everything was still. The forest was more peaceful than it had ever been. The leaves on the trees didn’t move a millimetre. The branches didn’t sway. Saliva that had dropped from the boar’s mouth had been frozen in midair.

Xavier blinked, looking at the saliva. It was… green? That was when he noticed the boar’s tusks. They weren’t just sharp, they were covered in something. Something green, like what Xavier had mistaken for saliva.

Some sort of acid or poison?

He definitely wouldn’t let this beast get too close. It had been long enough—more than twelve minutes—that he could use his Otherworld Phase imbued ability again if he needed to.

He was trying not to need to, however.

Then, something occurred to him. Something that probably should have occurred to him earlier.

It was true that he needed to take these beasts seriously. His very life was in danger in thses encounters, in a way he hadn’t experienced enough lately—but that didn’t mean he had to plan the fights with the fastest route of defeating his enemy in mind.

In the fight with the wolven, I gained at least one rank in practically every single spell I used, not to mention several ranks in Physical Resistance.

This wasn’t just an opportunity for him to gain levels. Adranial had told him that gaining levels as swiftly as possible wasn’t the best route to true power—that one had to ensure they honed their spells and skills along the way. That was why power levelling was frowned upon, and used only when necessary, and not as a primary way of levelling up those in positions of privilege.

Xavier had seen that to be true firsthand, especially when it came to gaining titles. But right now, titles weren’t what were on offer here.

Ranks were.

Xavier tapped a finger on his chin in thought. Here was an opportunity. He began to pace back and forth in the small time bubble, and couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.

The boar was close by. Massive. And a huge threat to him. Its mouth was open wide, acid or venom or whatever the hell that was dripping from powerful tusks.

That thing would do a lot of damage to him.

And here he was, casually pacing around in his time bubble as though the threat were miles away.

I have to say, I like this Time Alteration spell quite a lot.

Though he wanted his spells to be more powerful, it was his skills that he felt as though he should focus on. He might not primarily be a melee fighter, but he should still be able to do damage to them with his Midnight Scythe—especially in one-on-one fights.

He also needed to be better at taking damage. His health had reduced by 50 percent in the last fight. That was far too much.

So Xavier decided he would focus on a subset of his skills during this fight, and if the fight became too intense, he would use anything within his power to kill this thing. He could always regroup back at the Hunter’s Home tavern.

Xavier let out a breath. He cast the first of his spells—Spirit Break—he needed to get an idea of how much damage his spells managed to do against this thing.

Spirit Break would soften up the beast.

Soul Shatter was next—he needed to hurt this thing. He couldn’t waste his Time Alteration spell simply coming up with a plan.

The last spell he cast was Heavy Telekinesis. Xavier could have cast Core Burn. There was a part of him that wanted to finish this fight as fast as possible, because he knew what was about to happen next would be… most unpleasant.

I’m taking a huge risk, doing things this way. But taking risks… that has always served me well in the past.

Once Xavier had cast his last spell, he took a few steps backward until he was at the very edge of the time bubble.

Then he sprinted forward.

The instant he reached the edge of the bubble he deactivated his Time Alteration spell. His Midnight Scythe was in mid swing. Melee fighting—exactly what he’d originally said he wouldn’t do, but he felt a sense of glee in what he was doing.

God, it felt good getting back in the fray like this.

The boar didn’t see any of the attacks coming. Spirit Break. Soul Shatter. Heavy Telekinesis. All three spells hit it at the exact same time—or just about—because of time having been stopped when he cast them.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Then Xavier’s scythe-staff slammed into the flesh of the massive boar’s leg.

It wailed in pain, like a pig about to be slaughtered. The Heavy Telekinsis spell he’d cast hadn’t pushed the beast back like Xavier had expected. He’d thought the thing would fly through the air and he’d have to catch up to it to get a swing in.

That wasn’t the case. The spell had been only just strong enough to stop the thing in its tracks.

That will have to be enough.

The Midnight Scythe’s blade sunk into the beast’s flesh. It wasn’t deflected like that Alpha Wolven had deflected his attack earlier.

Well that’s good to know. Maybe I can hurt these D Grade beasts with my scythe-staff alone.

Xavier yanked the scythe-staff out, leaving a fresh wound behind that gushed blood. The boar made a terrible noise—pain or hatred he didn’t know, maybe a mixture of both—and tried to skewer him with one of its tusks.

Heavy Telekinesis!

The thing’s head stopped short. Xavier smiled. This was exactly what the telekinesis spell shined out. Moving heavy things. He slashed out at the beast one more time.

Physical Damage has reached Rank 81!

Xavier leaped backward with a grin on his face. That was exactly what he’d been hoping would happen. Looking at the beast, he wasn’t sure if he was willing to let it hit him to increase his Physical Resistance.

He’d done things like that before, and he’d even planned to do it in this fight, but staring at the massive boar right now, and remembering just how much damage the wolven managed to do to him, he wondered if it would be such a good idea.

Especially since he’d hit it with several spells and it was still standing tall, barely looking worse for wear.

That was when the massive beast’s tusks began to glow an acidic green. Xavier narrowed his eyes.

Evade, block, or take the hit?

His drive to survive told him that was an absurd question to even ask. It didn’t take him long to make a decision, mostly because he didn’t have long.

A beam of energy shot forth from the boar’s tusks. Xavier’s eyes widened. He hadn’t realised the beast would have some sort of energy beam! He sidestepped the strike just in time. Whatever that beam of energy was made of burned the very air that it touched. When it reached the ground, it melted the dirt and rock and grass and sunk, creating a crater.

Xavier was glad he’d dodged that.

Evasion it is.

Now, it was time to bait the beast into attacking him. The Evasion skill had been of great help to Xavier back when he’d been facing the Lord of the Endless Horde. He’d come a hell of a long way since then.

It was time to make use of it again.

Xavier got in close and slashed out at the beast, cutting into its leg. He ducked out of the way, narrowly avoiding being stomped.

He found himself beneath the boar and leapt upward, slicing underneath its belly in a long line with his Midnight Scythe. The beast let out another one of those pained squeals, this one even louder than before,

Maybe its underbelly is its weak spot. Wouldn’t surprise me.

Another stomp came his way. Xavier dived, rolled, avoided it.

Evasion has reached Rank 53!

He grinned.

It’s working!

Everything was going to plan. And it wasn’t even that hard. In fact, he felt like he could do this all day—

SLAAAAAAAM!

Xavier was hit in the side by what felt like a wrecking ball.

Your health is at 49%.

What in the hell was that?

Xavier was flung through the air. It took him a moment to right himself. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been taken by surprise that much. He’d been using his Farscope ability. He’d seen everything that was going on.

He should have seen the attack coming.

Where in the world had it come from?

Flipping himself in the air he landed horizontally on a tree feet-first—the force of his landing snapped the tree in half, but it managed to slow him down just enough.

Sometimes I wish Heavy Telekinesis could be used on me.

When he did finally land on the ground, he shook himself off and stared over at the boar.

It was barrelling toward him, breaking trees left and right and crushing everything beneath its hooves, just as it had on its first approach—only Xavier couldn’t use Time Alteration again during this fight. Not while it was still in cooldown.

Xavier split his mind a third time. He had an incredibly strong memory thanks to his Intelligence attribute. He used that memory now to look back at the fight and what had happened. It was almost like pressing rewind on a video.

That’s when he noticed something—the boar’s tail. He hadn’t really paid attention to it during the fight. He hadn’t needed to. Though he had been aware of it.

The tail was massive, longer than any boar’s had a right to be. It also had spikes. Xavier should have been watching out for it, but with Farscope he would have been able to see if the beast had been about to strike him with it, wouldn’t he?

In his memory, the boar’s tail disappeared completely a moment before something invisible slammed into Xavier.

It can make its tail invisible? Well that isn’t fair!

Xavier’s health ticked up, but far too slowly compared with how fast the boar was barrelling through the underbrush.

Over 50 percent of my health in a single strike, and I’ve been playing chicken with this thing.

Xavier bit his lip. It was time to end this.

He leapt high in the air where he hoped the beast wouldn’t be able to reach him.

Spirit Break!

The spell slammed into the beast, making it falter as it ran. It definitely looked weaker. Xavier had a bird’s eye view of the thing. Its head turned up the instant Xavier had leapt.

And its tusks were starting to glow.

Gonna be tough to avoid that energy beam up here!

Soul Shatter!

This made the beast stumble, but it didn’t fall.

And the glowing tusks didn’t stop glowing.

There wasn’t time enough for Xavier to cast his next spell. Instead, he cast Soul Block. He infused the spell with two hundred souls, hoping that would be enough. Considering the world he was on, he knew it was a risk using so many without a way to replenish them, but the last thing he wanted to do was risk getting killed.

If its invisible tail-whip attack took just over half of my health, who knows how much of it this attack is liable to take.

He contemplated using another spell—like summoning the Spirit of Vengeance—but he’d been dancing with this beast long enough that he was confident he could kill it without it.

Especially if he managed to gain control of it.

The soul apparition that appeared was an amalgamation of different enemies he’d recently faced. The kraken. The Wolven. Goblins. Humans. They appeared together, glowing and putting themselves between him and the enemy boar.

The acid-poison beam of energy reached the soul apparitions.

No damage came through.

The attack was completely soaked up by the Soul Block.

If I can find a good source of easy souls to reap in this place, I’ll be golden…

Until then, he would need to ration them.

Xavier cast the final two spells he’d been planning to use as he reached the apex of his leap and began plummeting back to the ground.

God, sometimes I wish I was able to fly like Justin. That would make things a little easier, wouldn’t it?

As Xavier almost reached the ground again, he cast Core Burn on the enemy for the first time.

Nothing… nothing happened. The boar shrugged off the attack.

What the…

That spell was supposed to be his biggest damage dealing asset after Soul Strike and Spirit of Vengeance, and the damned beast just ignored it?

How is that possible?

He didn’t stop to think about it. Just before landing back on the ground, Xavier cast Willpower Infusion—

Again, nothing happened.

The boar had a strange purple glow around it. A purple glow that was familiar. It only appeared when he’d used the Core Burn attack—then again when he used Willpower Infusion.

This beast… it has some fort of Willpower Infusion spell of its own—something that protects it against both Core Burn and Willpower Infusion!

Who knew a pig would have such mental fortitude?

Xavier felt a bit of anger well up in him.

But he hadn’t played all his cards yet.