Book 4: Chapter 31 - A Genius and an Idiot_Accidental Champion: A LitRPG Apocalypse Tower Climber (Book 1 Amazon Release on June 25)

Xavier stood across from the giant boar, staring it down through the trees. Two of Xavier’s most powerful spells had had no effect on the giant boar, but there were five wolven puppets that had yet to even enter the fight.

Sick em, boys, Xavier willed to the souls controlling the puppets.

The five dead wolven surged forward. They didn’t howl, growl, snarl, or otherwise make a sound as they sprinted at the enemy.

The Soul Puppet spell was different to an average necromancy spell. It didn’t create mindless minions. Instead, it placed one of the souls from his reserve into the corpse he wished to control, and it was that soul that controlled the corpse. As Xavier had just reaped the souls of the wolven he’d killed before puppeteering them, it was their very own souls that were controlling their bodies—they weren’t lumbering, uncoordinated messes.

They were killing machines.

Xavier watched as the five dead beasts surrounded the boar.

And Xavier joined them.

For the first time since the fight had begun, the boar actually looked afraid. It tried to back away from the dead beasts surrounding it, but it wasn’t able to. There was nowhere for it to go.

Xavier was angry that he hadn’t been able to use Core Burn or Willpower Infusion. Mostly because of how much he’d grown to rely on the two spells. Creating an army with Willpower Infusion had been one of the ways he’d become so powerful when he’d been facing the waves of the Endless Horde—hell, it had been the only reason he’d killed the Lord in the first place.

He looked at his soul puppets as the first of them moved in to attack and wondered it perhaps he had been taking this spell for granted. The only problem was using it took at least a single soul, and the longer that soul controlled the beast, the more it degraded—these soul puppets were in no way permanent and would only last so long.

The souls also couldn’t heal the damage taken by the corpses.

The first wolven leapt at the boar and was gouged by one of its tusks.

The other four wolven moved in—almost as though they’d been waiting for the first to distract it. Each tore into one of the boar’s ankles, clamping their jaws hard on them. They couldn’t utilise any of the spells that the wolven had in life, but they were still more than strong enough to do damage.

Once the wolven had clamped onto the beast’s ankles, Xavier moved in. He swept his scythe-staff across the giant boar’s belly, making it squeal in pain.

At the same instant, he cast Soul Shatter on it. Core Burn might not have worked, but it wasn’t the only spell at his disposal.

Physical Damage has reached Rank 82!

Xavier grinned. He hadn’t been expecting that to happen so swiftly, especially as he was sure he wasn’t doing a great deal of damage to this thing.

The boar kicked one of its legs, and a wolven puppet went flying through the trees until it slammed straight into one, snapping it in two with the force.

Xavier winced, imagining the pain the beast would have gone through, then he remembered these things wouldn’t feel pain—they were already dead.

The fifth wolven moved in and grabbed the leg that had kicked. But it was too late. The boar had an idea of what to do to get these things away from it now, and so it repeated the procedure.

Only it didn’t last long. Soon, the wolven had returned, and were digging their fangs into him once more.

Xavier wasn’t idle as this was happening. He sent Soul Shatter after Soul Shatter at the enemy. The problem was, Soul Shatter was an area-of-effect spell. It did great against a good number of lower-level enemies, but when it came to damage higher level, D Grade beasts?

It isn’t enough.

Magical Potency reached Rank 71!

Well, that’s something at least.

He had decided to farm these beasts so he could gain more ranks in his spells and skills, after all.

He was paying closer attention to the different notifications he received during this fight, now. He had split his mind, and one part of it was simply waiting for notifications so they wouldn’t distract the main part of his mind.

Split Mind has reached Rank 51!

Split Mind has reached Rank 52!

Xavier blinked. He was mid-leap, coming to land on the beast’s back. He hadn’t expected to gain another rank in Split Mind.

The ranks are coming so easily to me now!

But if E Grade was anything like being F Grade, he knew that at some point, those skills would no longer keep progressing past a certain rank. His assumption was they wouldn’t push past Rank 100, but he could be wrong.

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He hoped he was.

Why didn’t I ask Adranial that question? She would have been able to tell me in a heartbeat. She probably has the different rank caps for every grade memorised.

Xavier wondered if that was the kind of information that he would be able to find back at Hunter’s Home. Every single one of the Champions inside of that place was a higher level—and higher grade—than him, after all. They would know a lot more than he did.

Xavier pushed that thought to the back of his mind and dug his scythe-staff straight into the beast’s neck. His leaps had taken him plenty high, and he used the momentum from falling to further enhance the attack.

The boar squealed in pain. It was weakening—slowly, but surely, he was whittling down its health.

Then Xavier had a flash of inspiration. Something that made him feel like a genius and an idiot at the same time.

Melee fighting hadn’t been something that he utilised much. Not for a good little while. And when it was, he was always fighting beasts that were significantly weaker than him—at least, that had been the case for a good long while.

Now, however, he was up against beasts that were tough-skinned and had a lot more health than he was used to.

And he’d just thought of a way that he could reinforce his attacks, one he probably should have been practising since day one…

Xavier landed on the boar’s back. As he did, he saw its tail go invisible. He was ready for it this time, and leapt back out of the way just as he heard a woosh go straight by him.

With Farscope, he could see exactly where the five different wolven puppets he had attacking the beast were. Four had their jaws clamped fast on the boar’s ankle—while it had been able to dislodge them the first time around, it seemed to be struggling this time.

It’s sluggish. Weak.

The final beast had been trying to bite down on the boar’s tail. It succeeded—a second before the boar whipped its tail out in an attempt to hit Xavier.

The wolven went flying.

Xavier landed nearby on the ground then sprinted straight at the boar’s front-right leg. He swung his scythe-staff and, a millisecond later, he cast Heavy Telekinesis.

He wasn’t casting the spell on the beast—he was casting it on his Midnight Scythe.

Xavier had to hold on tightly to the shaft of his Midnight Scythe so it didn’t get flung from his hands. He hadn’t focused his Heavy Telekinesis spell at the perfect angle—that would be something he’d need to work on. It had never been a highly accurate spell, but he’d been able to make it work.

But the technique had the desired effect.

His Midnight Scythe slammed into the beast’s leg. Previously, though Xavier had been able to break the enemy’s skin and inflict a deep wound, the beast’s bone had stopped his blade short of cutting any deeper.

This time, that wasn’t the case.

Xavier’s scythe-staff sliced all the way through the beast’s leg and out the other side. If this damned beast had been normal sized, instead of freakishly huge, maybe that would have taken the beast’s leg off completely.

As it was, it took that leg out of commission.

But the beast still wasn’t dead.

With its other legs, it stomped the ground, and Xavier leapt out of the way as the ground rumbled. With his Farscope ability, he’d been able to see the glow about its hooves. With its stomp, it had cast some sort of spell.

The ground rumbled, then opened in five places—it swallowed up the wolven. Xavier had been buried alive in the past—it wasn’t something he was about to suffer again. But he could see that the ground was softer than it had been before, like everywhere except for where the boar stood had been turned into quicksand.

If I touch the ground, it’s going to swallow me up too.

He couldn’t afford to be stuck down there.

It must be some sort of last-ditch spell, or else it would have used it earlier in the fight. Maybe it could only use this spell after it was damaged enough…

Which meant it shouldn’t be long before he managed to kill it.

Xavier was about to kick off a tree when he realised that might not be the best idea—he would probably just snap the damn thing, losing any momentum he wished to gain in the action.

Considering how high Xavier’s Strength attribute was, he was much denser—and heavier—than he looked.

Then Xavier grinned. Fighting an enemy like this… it was making him more creative. Making different options, different ways of using his spells, enter his mind.

With his Farscope ability, he was better able to target things with Heavy Telekinesis. He might not be able to push himself with the spell, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t push other things, and the cool down on the spell was so short that he could use it more than once per second these days.

Xavier kicked off the tree. The tree snapped, just as he’d expected. But before he lost contact with the snapped-off tree, he used Heavy Telekinesis on it from other side.

This little manoeuvre launched him forward, straight at the boar’s head.

By the time he reached the boar’s head, Heavy Telekinesis was ready to be used again.

Xavier swung the Midnight Staff straight at the top of the beast’s head. He reinforced the strike with Heavy Telekinesis, this time targeting the very base of the blade just as the tip of the blade made contact with the enemy’s head.

Like striking a chisel with a hammer, it made the blade dig straight through the beast’s skull and into its brain.

The beast died in an instant.

Several notifications rolled in at once, as though the skills and spells were waiting for the death of the enemy to pop up—and he supposed they were. Killing the beast must have triggered their upgrades, just as it earned him Master Points.

Physical Damage has reached Rank 83!

Magical Potency has reached Rank 72!

Magical Potency has reached Rank 73!

Soul Puppet has taken a step forward on the path!

Soul Puppet is now a Rank 64 spell.