Xavier watched in idle fascination as the claws cut through every single defence he had.
The Iron Wolf cut down the Bulwark spell.
It cut through the Shield Walls.
It destroyed every single one of the Floating Shields.
In the fraction of a second that he had to respond to this attack, Xavier cast Soul Block. He did not hesitate to pour over four thousand souls into the spell.
He had never seen so many soul apparitions burst into life, then be utterly destroyed. The Iron Wolf’s attack made it through every single one of them.
And finally, it cut into Xavier, coming up against his last two defences—the Karma Armour, and Saving Grace.
They weren’t enough to stop the strike from hurting him.
Xavier felt pain blossom in his chest.
Your health is at 99%.
The Iron Wolf had just enough time to widen its eyes as a smile crept onto Xavier’s face.
The C Grade beast had hit him with everything it had, and it had only dealt 1 percent of damage toward him.
That… well, that actually frightened him a little. He had hoped, given all the defences that he had, that the beast truly wouldn’t be able to hurt him at all.
And yet it had.
He wouldn’t be able to muster up those defences for a second time—and it was a good thing he didn’t need to.
The flow of time turned itself back around. As it did, Xavier couldn’t help but notice something. There was something new in the eyes of the Iron Wolf he faced. Something that hadn’t been there a moment ago—as though it had only succumbed to it the moment its attack had been seemingly so easily thwarted.
Fear.
Xavier had, somehow, struck fear into the heart of a C Grade beast. The Iron Wolf had attacked Xavier, and its attack had been taken without even so much as a flinch.
Then Predator’s Gaze had become free to do its work.
Time did not stop for Xavier. That wasn’t exactly how this worked. Right now, he was within the time dilation field, speeding time up within the bubble to its maximum capacity. He was manipulating the relativity of time within the space he occupied.
Outside the bubble, everything was a blur. Xavier could make out some of what was happening with his Farscope ability—but it just looked like colour streaming past faster than his eye could discern.
In less than a blink of an eye, the Iron Wolf was dead, succumbing to thousands upon thousands of spells and attacks doled out over what could have been hours or days for all Xavier knew.
The plan had been a simple one. All of the wolven minions in the area were dead. All that remained to be fought was the Iron Wolf. With the support of the raid group behind him, Xavier didn’t need to worry about his safety whilst in the bubble.
He had done something like this before—back when he had fought the Stone Bear—and the only reason he’d felt confident doing it was because he’d been in an instance.
The reason he’d felt confident doing this was because he was being backed up by countless other Champions.
Xavier could have deactivated the Time Alteration spell, but he wanted to take a moment for himself. So, instead, he switched the flow of time around. He was fast approaching the end of the spell’s capacity—he knew it would run out rather soon.
But he had enough time to take in what was going on around him.
The Iron Wolf was still trapped within the time dilation field. It had died standing up. The moment Xavier had seen the kill notification, he’d changed the flow of time and paused the time dilation field farther out so it would encompass the beast as it fell to the ground.
Now, he could have the first opportunity to loot the beast.
Xavier walked over to the dead Iron Wolf. He tilted his head to the side in wonder. He had seen Gimble resist an attack from this beast. Xavier had had to put up every single defence that he possessed to resist the same attack. He may have only taken 1 percent of damage, but he was sure if he had done anything less it could have killed him.
Gimble had said he had some buffs on him. They must have been incredibly strong buffs—from the looks of things, no other Denizen in the area had survived being hit by this thing.
He’s a tough little dwarf, that’s for sure.
Xavier stepped up to the corpse of the first C Grade enemy he had a hand in defeating. He was a little disappointed that he hadn’t actually dealt the beast any damage himself. He’d used his skills and spells to the best of his ability given the situation, and doing what he’d done had seemed like the smartest course of action, but the gulf that separated how powerful he was with how powerful this beast must have been… it was larger than he’d expected.
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I have a lot do before I can take down a C Grade enemy on my own.
It would be poor etiquette for him to loot this beast before any of the others had the opportunity. He imagined the Raid Leader would be the one to split the spoils. A part of him thought it would only be fair, considering the hand he’d had in its destruction, but he couldn’t have killed this beast alone—he knew that for sure, now.
He refrained from looting the beast, but he did not take down the barrier.
He had some notifications to look at. The first of which was the new spell he had just gained, for striking fear into the heart of the C Grade beast meant he had finished his Spell Quest for Fear Dominion.
Congratulations, you have completed your Spell Quest and gained the spell Fear Dominion!
Fear Dominion – Rank 1
Fear Dominion is an epic spell only available to those Denizens who are truly worthy of being feared.
Fear Dominion gives the user the ability to strike fear in their enemies. This fear can trigger them to flee or to freeze, and sometimes it can trigger an enemy to have a psychotic breakdown. Striking fear into an enemy greatly compromises their mental capacity and mental defences, and sometimes it can incapacitate an enemy completely, sending them into a state of shock.
Fear Dominion had two paths: area-of-effect, or use against a single enemy. Choose your path wisely.
One cannot walk backward on the path.
Xavier tilted his head from one side to the other as he read through the description of the spell. It seemed like it was almost an evolution of his skill Predator’s Gaze, except now he would be able to use it intentionally…
He quickly decided the path he would take—he would use it against a single enemy. While crowd control was important, he had other spells that could offer him crowd-control solutions.
What intrigued him the most about the spell was that it could break down an enemy’s mental defences. Coupled with Willpower Infusion, that could be rather powerful…
This was not the only notification Xavier had received. There was something else that had popped up that he had never seen before.
Your skill Predator’s Gaze has been upgraded and is now an epic skill called Aura of Fear.
Aura of Fear - Rank 100
Aura of Fear gives the user the ability to strike fear into the hearts of those around them. It can be activated or deactivated at will, but who the user strikes fear in cannot be chosen.
Unlike this skill’s predecessor, Predator’s Gaze, an enemy does not need to make eye contact with the user for the skill to work on them—they only need to be within the influence of the aura.
The chance of striking fear in an enemy is higher or lower depending on the relative power level of the enemy compared to that of your own.
Xavier raised an eyebrow. His skill had been… upgraded? He hadn’t even known such a thing was possible. He’d come this far, an inch away from advancing to D Grade, and yet there were still so many gaps in his training.
It was also interesting that Aura of Fear could be activated or deactivated. He hadn’t encountered a skill that could be toggled—and skills, unlike spells, didn’t have cooldowns. So he wouldn’t have to worry about when he could use it. Though some skills, like Running, might physically exhaust him—he wondered if this spell could exhaust him in some way.
There were skills like Meditation that he could only activate when he was, well, meditating, but this felt a little different.
He grinned. He liked the idea of the skill.
More notifications followed.
Title Unlocked!
One Grade Up - Support
You have been a part of the demise of an enemy at least one grade above your own. While you yourself are not fully responsible for the death of the enemy, your support in its demise was invaluable.
You have received +20 to all stats!
Title Unlocked!
Two Grades Up - Support
You have been a part of the demise of an enemy at least two grades above your own. While you yourself are not fully responsible for the death of the enemy, your support in its demise was invaluable.
You have received +50 to all stats!
Xavier waited a moment for more notifications to appear, but was disappointed when none came. What he’d done felt more significant than only warranting two titles, but he supposed the description was right—he had only played a supporting role in this raid.
He did, however, gain a huge amount of ranks in his Time Alteration spell. As he skimmed through the notifications, his smile broadened.
He had finally reached Rank 100 in the spell!
To trap a C Grade enemy within his field and survive… it looked like that had been worth something.
Staring down at the corpse of the C Grade Iron Wolf, Xavier deactivated the Time Alteration spell.
Gimble was the first of the Champions from outside of the barrier to greet him. The dwarf came running with a massive smile on his face, one that could be seen even through his rather large beard. The beard swayed as he came to a stop.
He slapped Xavier on the forearm. “That…” The dwarf shook his head. “That was like nothin’ I’ve ever seen, lad.” He had his warhammer still gripped in his hand, blood staining every inch of the head.
Xavier had controlled the time dilation field in such a way that even melee attacks could get through, ensuring that it wasn’t only the mages and other ranged fighters who were able to get a hit in. The barrier had been extremely thin and close to the Iron Wolf—this had required much concentration to achieve, but from his perspective he’d only needed to hold it for a tiny fraction of a second.
There was another notification that Xavier hadn’t bothered to look at—the kill notification for the Iron Wolf. As he’d been a part of the raid, even though he hadn’t struck the beast, he’d gotten a portion of the Mastery Points.
Only, the problem was, right now he couldn’t receive any Mastery Points. He was at Level 200 and hadn’t yet made the advancement to D Grade, which meant he wouldn’t be able to gain another level until he did.
Still, gaining Mastery Points hadn’t been the reason he’d taken part in this raid to begin with. The only reason he’d done this raid was so that he could have a chance at gaining a soul bound weapon, like Felicity had said he might be able to do.
He glanced over his shoulder at the dead C Grade beast. With Farscope, he could see the mass of Denizens that were coming around, slowing surrounding him, every single one of them staring at him. Xavier could sense fear in more of them now than he could before, to the point where he mentally checked if his Aura of Fear skill was currently active—it wasn’t. These people were simply afraid of him because of what he’d done.
But more than fear, he saw awe in their eyes.
That made Xavier wonder about something… He still had several ranks in different spells and skills that he wanted to get up to Rank 100 before making the advancement to D Grade…
What if there was a way he could do that even faster than he’d imagined? He had gained over twenty ranks in his Time Alteration spell from being a part of the kill of the C Grade beast.
Just from being a part of it.
He looked over at Gimble. “What do you say about me being in the Vanguard now?”
Gimble threw back his head and laughed. “I’ll do more than put you in the Vanguard, lad. I’m making you one of the subcommanders of the raid!”