Xavier stood, fuming. He was struggling to contain his frustration.

Rhaalir, the elf spirit, was giving him a strange look. Why so much anger, young Denizen?

Gimble put me in the Support group.

Gimble, the Raid Leader, had assigned all the Champion present into three different groups. The Vanguard. The Main Host. And Support.

The Support group consisted of Champions who were there to stop the D Grade wolven packs from distracting the other Champions from their goals.

Gimble had gone on to project a map of the area where they would be fighting, assigning the different groups and subgroups to their respective areas.

Xavier was tapping his foot on the ground rather hard. So hard that there were cracks in the tiles beneath his feet. He looked around and saw that he was getting a few nasty glances at the noise he was making. He didn’t much care.

He needed to be in the middle of the fight. At the front of the Vanguard. He wanted to take the fight to the C Grade beast—that was the whole reason he was here in the first place. He might be a little wary of being a part of this raid, but that didn’t mean he wanted to stand back as the others fought against the enemy. No. Certainly not. He could face D Grade enemies by himself—he didn’t need to be a part of this raid to do it.

Deep breaths, young Denizen. This Gimble does not know your strengths. To him, you are untested. Show him what you are, and things will be different in the next raid.

The spirit was right, of course. Gimble didn’t know how powerful Xavier was. How could he? He didn’t know Xavier at all. Still, that didn’t mean he was simply going to wait until the next raid—if he waited that long, he would be D Grade by then. No, he needed to face the C Grade beast now so that he could get that soul bound weapon Felicia had been talking about. There was no other way to go about this.

When the meeting had been adjourned, and the Champions were told where to be two hours from now, Xavier strode through the crowd and walked right up to the dwarf and his party.

Xavier paused before he spoke. He felt the anger building up inside of him. This was something he was growing used to recognising within himself. Something that he’d been trying to control. No, not trying, he’d been succeeding.

He reined in his emotions, ordered his thoughts, and spoke when Gimble gave him a nod.

“Why did you put me in the Support group?” Xavier thought he’d controlled his tone rather well, but the fact that the dwarf rocked back on his heels and widened his eyes almost imperceptivity, made him realise he must have let some of his anger show.

Or maybe that was because as he spoke, his claws had grown and sharpened, and the dwarf had noticed that.

“I’ve never seen you fight, lad. Do you really wish to be in the Main Host?” The dwarf blinked, clearly a little confused.

“No,” Xavier said. He took a breath. “I’d like to be in the Vanguard.”

Gimble raised an eyebrow. “Only those who’ve been through a raid before are in the Vanguard, lad. You certainly don’t fit that. No offence, but I wouldn’t think you’d want to jump into a fight like this without a bit of experience. And, as you don’t even have a party…” The dwarf ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. “I was trying to protect you.”

“Is that why you didn’t tell me who you really were?” Xavier asked. “You lied to me in the tavern—I thought…” Xavier sighed. I thought we were friends. He didn’t say those words aloud. He figured they’d only make him sound like an annoyed child. But he had grown fond of the dwarf and their chats in the tavern.

“Ah, well, I was trying to feel you out, ya see. There aren’t a great many Champions that come to this floor to solo it. And those that survive as long as you have… well, that’s something to pay attention to. If you stuck around long enough, I was going to tell you about the raid. I was even going to invite you to them—though not this soon. I figured someone soloing this floor would be up to the challenge, and even welcome it. Which, clearly you have.”

Xavier took that in. “You didn’t tell me because you didn’t want me trying to prove myself?”

“Aye. Wanted to see the real you.”

“Ironic…” Xavier sighed. He was used to speaking his mind. Even before the integration, he may not have been the most social being, but he tended to tell things how he felt they were—even if that meant openly arguing with someone in authority.

He realised that was, whether he meant to be doing it or not, something he was doing right now.

He shut his eyes and ordered his thoughts once more. Apparently the first time he’d done that, it hadn’t actually worked. When he opened his eyes, Gimble was staring at him with a curious look.

“This means a lot to you, lad, doesn’t it?” Gimble asked.

“What can I do that will make you put me in the Vanguard?”

Gimble shook his head and shrugged his shoulders high. “Do well on this raid, and maybe next time you come along you’ll be ready.”

I’m ready now, Xavier thought. He knew responding like that would just make him sound petulant. There wasn’t a time limit on what he wanted to do. Even so, he was itching to push forward, and being in the Vanguard would help him do that.

Xavier swallowed his pride and inclined his head in a nod to the dwarf. “Understood.” He almost added “sir” to the end but figured doing so would definitely sound disingenuous.

Gimble nodded curtly. “Good lad. I’m sure you have a lot to offer, assuming you don’t wind up dead. There will be more raids than just this one. Besides, you wouldn’t want to be up close and personal with this beastie. It’ll tear you apart if you ain’t careful.”

Xavier watched the dwarf and his party depart from the courtyard, along with the rest of the Champions in the raid group.

Rhaalir looked over at him. “You must have anticipated something like that would happen.”

Xavier didn’t deign to reply to the spirit. Instead, he walked back into Hunter’s Home and ordered another coffee.

He knew he had to follow orders on this raid, but he was hoping he would find some way around what Gimble wanted him to do.

That was when something occurred to him. The C Grade Iron Wolf could summon those under its command to its location on a whim. The wolven in the forest were most certainly the enemies who were going to be summoned. Those were the very same wolven he’d been tasked with keeping away from the Main Host and the Vanguard.

If there were fewer of those wolven to be summoned…

He skulled the remainder of his coffee, thanked Felicia for being able to brew the stuff, then headed straight out the door of Hunter’s Home, on a mission.

~

An hour later, Xavier stood where he’d been instructed to be. He’d cleaned the blood off his claws, but there was still some stuck underneath, which he was working on prying loose as the other Champions began to gather around the area.

Between leaving Hunter’s Home and reaching this place, Xavier had gone on a killing spree, tearing the wolven apart limb from limb, locating as many as he could in the forest. Xavier could only move so swiftly, but an hour was a long time for someone like him.

He managed to take out ten different wolven packs. Roughly sixty different beasts. It wasn’t as many as he wished, but it would have to do—it would at least minimise, in a small way, the number of beasts the Iron Wolf was able to summon to it.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He had a plan, one that he was sure would let him face the C Grade beast even if he was in the Support group. He just hoped the C Grade beast didn’t go down too easily, otherwise his plan wouldn’t work at all.

Xavier’s plan was a simple one—kill every single D Grade wolven the Iron Wolf summoned as swiftly as possible, allowing the Support group to join the Vanguard and the Main Host against the C Grade enemy.

Before leaving Hunter’s Home tavern, Xavier had ensured he’d grabbed the Hunt Quest from off the noticeboard. An interesting thing happened when he did—the notice duplicated itself. Participating in this raid would benefit every single one of the Champions there…

But Xavier had to believe if he didn’t personally damage the C Grade beast, he would get a far worse reward for his efforts. He imagined it was much like completing a floor of the tower with a party—their participation would be noted by the System.

You could always wait for the next raid, Rhaalir said. Time moves differently on the hundredth floor. You aren’t in any sort of real rush here.

Xavier ignored the elf. Though the spirit’s words were true, and this was exactly the type of behaviour he’d been trying to curb in himself since coming to this floor—the reckless behaviour of throwing himself at enemies he shouldn’t be able to face—it was also the very same behaviour that had gotten him here in the first place.

So he was struggling to see a better way to do this.

A horn sounded, far off in the distance. Gimble’s signal that the fight was about to begin. Though none in the raid group had fought this monster before, information on where the beasts would appear was rife in the Greater Universe.

Only a mere few seconds after the horn was blown, bright lights flashed around the area as wolven appeared left and right.

Xavier got to work. He moved as swiftly as he possibly could. A part of him wondered if he should activate his Time Alteration spell—it would be his most efficient way of carving through the enemies. But as good as his cooldown with the spell had become, he couldn’t bet on this fight lasting long enough for him to use the spell a second time.

He wanted to be able to use Time Alteration the moment all the minion wolven were dead. He had a plan there, too, one he would tell Gimble if he had the chance.

I just hope this works.

Xavier tore through the wolven that appeared, using spells and claws liberally. He cast Willpower Infusion on an entire pack—the spell now strong enough to pierce their minds—and had them turn on another pack. All was chaos as he moved through the enemies, dealing death to every beast he passed.

The other parties of Champions—all of them D Grade—moved slower than he had imagined they would, struggling more than he thought they could. It appeared to take entire parties to face a single pack of these wolven. They dealt with them easily enough, but the fights weren’t swift.

Xavier could hardly believe what he was seeing. Since coming here, he had been surprised at how difficult the D Grade beasts he faced here were—they had almost killed him multiple times—but it hadn’t taken him long to become stronger than them. The beasts that posed a threat to his life when he’d first come to this floor were child’s play to him now.

He had always thought the Champions on this floor must be a great deal stronger than he was, but he hadn’t observed any of them in battle except for Liana.

These D Grade Champions were supposed to be the creme of the crop. They were supposed to be the strongest this floor could offer, else they wouldn’t be in this raid.

Then again, all he’d seen were the Champions in the Support group, not the ones in the Vanguard.

Still, he couldn’t help but be disappointed by how these people fought. It made him wonder how they’d all survived so many enemy encounters and Hunt Quests to begin with.

They probably have prior knowledge about all the different enemies on the noticeboard, knowledge they’d gained before coming to this floor, helping them devise strategies to deal with each one.

Xavier slaughtered wolven pack after wolven pack. He noticed that he’d gained a few followers. Parties that appeared to be following him around as he tore through the enemies. There was even a healer who kept throwing healing spells at him, not that he had ever needed them. As he fought, he received several different buffs, attaining different colours glows—buffs that boosted his Speed, Toughness, and Strength.

That was certainly something he wasn’t accustomed to.

In what felt like no time at all, every single one of the summoned wolven packs in the area had been slain. A horn blew, the signal coming from one of the Champions in the Support group, to inform the other Champions in the area of their success.

Another horn blew in return, calling them to the front of the raid group, to help face the Iron Wolf.

Xavier’s grin spread across his face. As he ran forward, he couldn’t help but see the gazes of others through his Farscope. A great many of the Champions were staring at him. Some had blank expressions on their faces, but they seemed like they were forced. Others were looking at in him open awe. Some, still, looked afraid.

There had been several wolven as he’d run through the area that had turned and bolted at the sight of him, his Predator’s Gaze skill doing its work. That had happened a lot when he’d been facing the Rhinoceros Monkey stampede—the second stampede—as well. It was starting to become normal, seeing beasts flee from him. Every time it happened it made something inside of him want to pursue.

He quickly checked his progress for Fear Dominion, remembering that he had been getting close to unlocking the spell. The more powerful Predator’s Gaze became, the easier it was to progress toward unlocking the spell.

To unlock Fear Dominion, you must strike fear into the hearts of a thousand enemies.

Progress: 999/1000

God, I’m so close.

A part of him itched to turn around and venture back into the forest to find a single beast to strike fear into, so that he would come back with a new spell. But that wasn’t something he had been ordered to do, and he couldn’t go back on the orders he’d received from the Raid Leader—he’d signed a contract to that effect.

I certainly won’t be able to strike fear in the Iron Wolf.

He pushed his attention away from that and glanced back at the parties of Champions that were trailing behind him on their way to the front line. It was strange, having so many allies around him when in the middle of a fight. He was so used to fighting on his own, even when he’d been in a party. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the way they were all looking at him. Part of him felt pride at how powerful he was, and at seeing that power be recognised. Another part of him just wanted to retreat back to the forest and fight beasts alone.

Xavier flitted through the trees on his way to where the bulk of the Champions fought the C Grade Iron Wolf. The trees were taller here. Stolid giants with thick trunks, shooting high into the sky, their branches blocking out much of the sunlight. They were twice as tall as the C Grade Iron Wolf—a beast that stood fifty-feet tall on all fours as it was.

The beast loomed over the Champions down around it. The Champions looked like children up against a dinosaur—especially those among them who were dwarves.

There were several corpses scattered about the ground. Champions that had already met their death at the hands of the C Grade beast. They each had devastating looking wounds. Some of them were missing half of their bodies. Xavier struggled to see how they had a hope of defeating this thing, especially as so many of them already lay dead.

The Iron Wolf’s muzzle was soaked in the blood of those from the Vanguard. The battle had barely begun, and yet already he counted twenty dead Champions.

Xavier couldn’t help but wonder if all the raids went this poorly. Why would the Champions choose to return, knowing it might court their death?

The rewards are high enough to take the risk, and no one ever thinks it is them who will die.

Xavier saw this carnage when he was too far away to do anything. Spells and arrows and other projectiles were being flung and loosed and shot at the Iron Wolf, and yet none of the attacks appeared to do much at all to it. Xavier wondered how powerful this thing’s Toughness was. The attacks only appeared to enrage it.

And god, it moved fast. It seemed to be toying with the Champions beneath it. Xavier couldn’t help but see a smile in its expression as it batted its paw down at one Champion who went flying—in two pieces—straight into, then through, one of the giant trees.

Gimble was at the front of the Vanguard, his warhammer moving fast as lightning, striking down as loud as thunder. Each time he impacted the enemy, the Iron Wolf shuddered—at least one of these Champions was damaging this thing.

They’re all damaging it, just… not enough.

But the tide was turning. Spells were being cast. Chains appeared about every inch of the beast, immobilising it. These chains disappeared a second later, but were replaced with ice encompassing the beast, again stopping it from moving. None of these spells lasted long—not even for a single second—but there were so many being cast by so many mages that it was slowly making a difference to the fight.

Xavier moved through the crowd of Champions, pushing his feet as fast as he could. As he ran, he cast spells—Spirit Break, Soul Shatter, Core Burn, Willpower Infusion—watching what impact they had on the enemy.

Spirit Break was shrugged off with nothing more than a hint of pain in the beast’s eyes. Soul Shatter didn’t even make it wince, but he had to believe it did something. Core Burn didn’t penetrate the beast’s mental defences, and Willpower Infusion had no hope of breaking through.

But that wasn’t all Xavier was capable of. He had some tricks up his sleeve—he just had to speak with Gimble first.

The Raid Leader had to have complete awareness of Xavier’s plan if it was going to work at all.

“Gimble!” Xavier yelled as he neared the Iron Wolf.

Gimble grunted as his warhammer struck the beast’s ankle. Something snapped, and the wolf snarled. A split-second later and Gimble was flying through the air—straight above Xavier.

Xavier took in the battlefield. The cogs in his mind turned as he thought about what he needed to do next. Then everything clicked.

He cast Time Alteration, pushing his spell forth to encompass the Vanguard around him—along with the dwarf who was currently flying through the air.

Then he leapt up and caught the dwarf, bringing him back down to settle on the ground.

The dwarf fought out of Xavier’s grasp. He had far more strength in him after that attack than Xavier had imagined he would, but he was still incredibly injured.

“Gimble!” Xavier shouted at the dwarf, taking him by the shoulders and giving him a strong shake. The force and power of that shake seemed to snap his attention onto Xavier. Then he realised where he was—that he was in the middle of a time dilation field, and the Iron Wolf was outside of it, frozen in time.

“What is it, lad?” Gimble ran a hand through his hair. His forehead was beaded with sweat, his beard stained dark with blood. His eyes were wide, red veins standing out in the whites. And there was a gash through his chest that had broken through his armour and exposed the bones beneath his skin.

“Take a moment to heal, Gimble. Then, I’m telling you me plan.”