Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion - Chapter 93 - Staff-Scythe Mastery (Patreon)

Xavier, standing on the battlements of Queen Alastea’s castle, gazed down at the first wave of enemies charging toward the wall.

There were too many for him to count, but there had to be a few thousand beasts in the wave. None of the ranks of Denizens in the distance had charged forward to fight.

The first wave of beasts were wolf-like creatures the size of horses. They had twin horns jutting out from either side of their head, curving downward. Xavier could imagine how painful being impaled on one of those things would be.

But, honestly, he couldn’t feel any fear looking down at those beasts. They felt like nothing more than the appetiser, and he found that to be confirmed when he scanned them.

{Wolven - Level 10}

They’re only level 10?

Xavier leaned over the parapet. Frowned. There wasa moat around the castle. Even a drawbridge—pulled up—at the main gate. The moat was filled with liquid, but it wasn’t water. It was green… and it bubbled.

Some kind of acid?

“You are wondering why they send beasts for the walls, and not siege engines, ropes, ladders, bridges to cross the divide?”

Xavier blinked, looking over at Queen Alastea, surprised that she was addressing him. “It is curious.” He motioned toward the first wave. There were archers and mages on the wall among the castle’s soldiers, readying their attacks for when the beasts were in range. Though for Xavier, they were already in range. “I don’t see how those wolves—Wolven—will be able to get past your defences.”

“This is a battle of attrition. For us, and only us. The Endless Horde does not worry about wasting its resources. This first wave will not harm us, this is true, but it will show the enemy how we respond, giving them valuable information for future waves.” Queen Alastea sighed. “Though I do warn you. Those beasts? They can leap over our moat, dig their claws into the stone battlements, and climb their way to the top. If we do not respond swiftly and ruthlessly, they will make it atop the wall.”

Xavier narrowed his eyes at the beasts. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised by that. He glanced at his fellow party members. None of them were long range fighters. Staying up on the wall wasn’t going to do anything for their training.

First he looked at Howard. “Do you think you can survive being in the middle of that?”

Howard’s forehead creased. The big man swallowed. “Maybe. They’re only level 10, but…” He scratched his beard with the top of the tower shield. “There’s a damned lot of them.”

Justin drew his sword. “I don’t want to just stand here. We’ll do enough of that when you clear this floor.”

“It would be easy enough to teleport the two of you out there, then teleport you back,” Siobhan said. “This could be a good floor for farming.”

Xavier shook his head. “No. We aren’t farming this floor. We are seeing what the first few waves are like, then we’ll regroup in the Staging Room, and I’ll clear it on the next refresh. So you’ll have to get as much as you can from these first few waves.”

The others glanced at each other, but none of them argued.

“Right, then.” Howard sighed. “I best get out there. See what I can do.”

Xavier considered the wave. The sheer number of beasts. “I’ll join the two of you down there.” He looked at Soultaker’s arm-length black blade. “I think it’s time I got in some more practise with this.”

Justin leapt up onto the battlement’s parapet, a grin on his face. “You don’t need to teleport me down there,” he told Siobhan. “I can make my own way.” He jumped straight off the wall, spreading his arms wide. When he reached the apex of his jump, wings sprouted from his back, flapping fast as he flew over the moat and landed gently on the ground.

“Those wings,” Queen Alastea said. “They’re… quite small.”

Xavier did his best to hold in a chuckle.

“I understand that Champions of the Void are inclined to do whatever they wish, but please remember why you are here.” The woman raised an eyebrow at Xavier. “It would be terrible for your party to lose your lives by taking unnecessary risks.”

Xavier dipped his head. “I assure you, Queen Alastea, we know what we are doing,” he said, thinking, for the most part. For a moment, he paused, wondering how the woman could be so poised, so composed, considering she said she would not survive this siege. Her chin was up, her back straight, her staff held lightly in one hand, its butt resting on the stone floor.

He could not see any fear in her eyes.

She isn’t truly real… is she?

He shook away those thoughts and took a few steps back from the wall, then sprinted straight for it, taking a running jump. Though his ranged Soul Strike spell would be able to make short work of this wave, he didn’t want to neglect his melee fighting abilities. Besides, it wasn’t often that he could test out his newfound Strength and Speed. Not to mention his Toughness.

It would be a good thing for him to get into the thick of things.

A moment before he’d leapt over the parapet, Xavier had activated Spiritual Trifecta, though he did not bother infusing any souls into the spell.

The Wolven were getting close enough to be in range of the archers and mages on the wall now, but they were avoiding attacking the enemies in front of Xavier and Justin.

As Xavier landed, a bright light flashed beside him and Howard appeared.

The big man shrugged. “I’m not really built for jumping and flying.”

Xavier slapped him on the shoulder. “We each have to play to our strengths.”

Howard gave a small smirk. “Indeed.”

Though Xavier lacked any physical-attack spells—he’d forgone Soul Strike as a melee spell for the ranged version, which he in no way regretted—his staff-scythe could still cause quite a lot of damage.

He was interested to see how much.

He sped forward, overtaking Justin, and made it to the enemy before the others. The beasts before him became enraged as he neared, as though his very presence infuriated them.

A small part of Xavier, one that still survived from before, saw the thousands of enemies and screamed at him to run the other way instead of directly at them, but it was an easy thing to ignore.

As much as he knew Howard was a good tank and Justin was extremely mobile and adept at dodging, he wanted to soften the ranks before they reached them, so the two of them couldn’t be instantly overwhelmed.

The beasts roared as he neared. Xavier tightened and loosened his grip on Soultaker, infusing offensive Spirit Energy into it, making the weapon glow. He infused his robes with Spirit Energy as well. He hadn’t tested that yet. As he’d chosen the offensive route for Spirit Infusion, when enemies struck his armour—or, in this case, his Shrouded Robes—they would take damage.

The Wolven closed in around him. Xavier was still coming at them in a sprint. He swung his staff-scythe in a wicked arc as ten of the beasts leapt straight at him, their lips pulled back in vicious snarls, saliva dripping from their open maws.

The arm-length black blade sliced straight through them. Xavier felt barely any resistance. It felt more like a small gust of wind was working against him than cutting through flesh and bone.

Multiple kill notifications popped up. He only read one of them.

You have defeated a Level 10 Wolven!

You have gained 1000 Mastery Points.

You have gained 1000 Spirit Energy.

A thousand Mastery Points seemed barely worth the effort now that he needed a total of eight million to reach the next rank, but he supposed he wasn’t bothered about levelling up right now.

Xavier harvested the souls of the dead Wolven and did not relent in his attacks. With his Speed an effective 211, the Wolven felt as though they were moving in slow motion. Even so, there was such an abundance of them that he could never pause the swinging of his staff-scythe.

He had used Soultaker in melee before, when taking down some of the Dark Wyvern’s from the previous floor, but that hadn’t been on this scale. He’d barely gotten a chance to see how the weapon truly performed, and how he performed with it.

Physical Damage has reached rank 4!

That was fast.

His Physical Damage skill had lagged significantly behind Magical Potency. He knew that was a potential mistake. Though Heavy Telekinesis was a strong spell, and Soul Strike even stronger, he worried about what might happen if he one day encountered an enemy that could withstand soul damage—and if they were able to withstand soul damage, he doubted his telekinesis would be all that effective.

So he couldn’t let his melee abilities fall too far behind his magical ones.

Xavier’s blade carved through enemy after enemy until his Shrouded Robes were drenched in blood. Somewhere, in his peripheral, he was aware the others were fighting near him. He could see flashes of light in the corner of his vision. Siobhan—safe back on the battlements—healing or teleporting Howard and Justin.

And Xavier simply continued fighting. The Wolven were so damned slow, and his staff-scythe’s reach so long, that they never got in close enough to even attempt to gore him with those horns or maul him with their razor sharp teeth.

During that wave, Physical Damage levelled up three more times, reaching rank 7. And, the longer he fought, the more Soultaker felt like it was a part of him. As he wasn’t struggling to fight, he used this wave as a time to practice with the weapon. He didn’t flail around trying to strike as hard and swiftly as he possibly could—instead, he focused upon perfecting his technique.

He didn’t need perfect technique to deal with level 10 Wolven. He could swing his staff-scythe around his body with one hand using a fraction of his Strength and he would still be able to take them out. But he realised that wasn’t important. He realised that skills such as Staff-Scythe Mastery—just like Staff Mastery—required a little morefrom a Denizen.

So Xavier measured each strike, turning his body to amplify the force. He paid close attention to his footwork, never crossing his legs as he fought, always keeping a strong stance, even as he swiftly moved around the battlefield.

He felt like an Angel of Death as he destroyed the ranks of Wolven, and he was rewarded for his diligence.

Staff-Scythe Mastery has reached rank 2!

The longer he fought, the more every action felt natural. His body responded instantly to each of his commands. Once he’d gained Rank 2, he could pay a little less attention to his technique and still achieve the same result.

Staff-Scythe Mastery has reached rank 3!

Staff-Scythe Mastery has reached rank 4!

Xavier couldn’t help but grin as the notifications came. At some point during the fight, without even meaning to, he’d fallen into a deep state of meditation. Something he’d never managed to do while in the middle of a fight. Insights had come. Insights into his Scythe-Staff Mastery skill.

His Scythe-Staff Mastery skill increased several things, balancing between melee and magical benefits. It increased his Speed and Intelligence along with his physical and magical damage. Xavier had killed thousands of enemies with Soul Strike since obtaining the staff-scythe, and apparently those kills contributed to his Staff-Scythe Mastery skills ranking up—except the melee side had lagged behind, so he hadn’t accrued experience on that side of the skill.

So once he’d gotten truly started, practising his technique and taking down hundreds of Wolven with melee alone, the skill had finally had an opportunity to feel balanced and increase its rank.

Perhaps I should meditate more while fighting, Xavier thought. It seemed to be the best way for him to learn more about his class’s spells and skills, after all, as it wasn’t as though he had any manuals or masters to learn from.

But just as he had that thought, whirling around with Soultaker, he found no more enemies around him.

The first wave on the fifth floor of the Tower of Champions had been defeated.