Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 82 - A Dangerous Game

The moment the barrier disappeared, Siobhan ran. She turned and sprinted away from the circle of Champions. The last thing she wanted was to get mixed up in the initial frenzy she was sure was about to happen. She remembered watching the Hunger Games. Being in the thick of things, where death could come in an instant, wasn’t where she wanted to be.

As she ran, she summoned her Divine Guardian. A purple puddle of light materialised on the ground, quickly forming into her construct as it rose, becoming solid. She ran and got behind it, hiding and not feeling ashamed even in the slightest.

The construct was a walking suit of full-plate armour, far taller and broader than herself. When she’d first summoned it, it had been seven-feet tall. As she’d ranked up the ability, it had grown a few inches. Regrettably, she hadn’t had a chance to train with it as much as she’d liked.

When she looked back at the middle of the arena, two of the other Champions were already dead, and four were missing.

Six left including myself. And how can four be missing? What, were they obliterated or something?

She glanced around the arena, wondering if they’d simply moved as she had. Then she looked up. Ever since Justin had gotten wings, she’d kept reminding herself to look up for enemies. They were rarely above her, but when they were, she was glad for the habit.

All clear up there too.

Then it came to her—they’d… surrendered?

She supposed she couldn’t blame them. Surrendering was certainly an option for her, but it wasn’t one she wanted to consider. Though out of all the members of her party, she had a Communication Stone. A direct line of contact with Xavier—even if it currently didn’t work right now, because she was out of range, it would certainly work if she surrendered and was sent to another world within her sector.

Siobhan bit her lip.

That’s a last resort. A very, very last resort. I don’t want to be away from everyone for a hundred years. Besides, how would I even be able to survive out there on my own? What if I was sent to a hostile world, where everything was a higher level than me and also wanted me dead? I’d be so doomed.

She didn’t waste any time. The remaining Champions in the middle were all focused on each other and blessedly not on her. She wondered if it was obvious that she was a support class, and that they were ignoring her because she didn’t look like a threat—not that she thought she was a threat.

Divine Beacon!

She rarely got to use her Divine Beacon spell. It had the drawback of needing to remain in a single place, but right now she didn’t want to be moved. A puddle of white light—similar to the purple puddle that had formed into her Divine Guardian—had materialised. The pillar shot upward out from it, growing to five feet in height. That pillar’s height was also the length of its radius, which meant she was under its protection as long as she didn’t step out of the dim aura it provided to the area.

Siobhan glanced at the timer. Only ten seconds had gone by. She watched the other Champions. Another of them disappeared after taking a sword slash to their shoulder, one that sliced straight through their armour. The woman must have surrendered when she realised she was outmatched.

That’s a dangerous game, that is.

There were only five Champions in the centre of the arena now. Siobhan eyed each of them in turn, trying to discern their level of threat, wishing she could scan them, though she knew that knowing their level wouldn’t necessarily tell her how powerful they were. She wondered what she would do if one came rushing at her. She simply wasn’t an offensive fighter. The only real offense she had was her construct. And, well, she could bonk them on the head with her staff, but that wasn’t going to do much of anything.

Another Champion died. One of the elves. He’d been slain by a powerful looking man with glowing red eyes. The mage had robes the red of blood and wielded strange magic. From a flick of his staff, a violent red slash cut down yet another Champion—one that hadn’t even been facing him.

He’s just killing indiscriminately.

That made her wonder what the other members of her party might be doing. Would Xavier destroy everyone in his path, or would he let the other Champions live? He’d been kind, in these last few floors, saving people wherever he could, so she was leaning toward the latter. Still, she knew the man was capable of the former if he wished it.

The remaining few Champions noticed the red-robed mage’s power and aggression. They glanced at each other. Short nods were exchanged—all of this happening within the space of a second—and the three of them rushed their enemy. One of them, a woman in full-plate armour wielding a long spear, took a violent slash across her chest. The slash seemed to ignore her armour somehow, as it wasn’t damaged at all, but blood seeped through it, and she’d clearly taken a lot of damage, as she looked like she would fall straight to her knees.

She wasn’t dead, however.

Instincts Siobhan had honed on the battlefield kicked in in that moment. The last thing she wanted was for the red-robed mage to survive. That bastard would just turn on me and kill me in a second. The same might be true for the warriors, but Siobhan had to take a chance.

She raised her staff, power coursed through it, a glowing white pulsing at the staff’s crystal head.

She healed the woman.

The woman’s eyes opened wide, her brow shooting up her forehead. A heal in the arena must have been the last thing she imagined receiving. The other Champions all glanced at the woman. The ones rushing the red-robed mage didn’t pause in their assault. They went straight for him. But Red-Robes himself stared directly at Siobhan, holding her eyes, his own still burning red, rage evident within them.

Oh, wonderful, now I have the homicidal maniac’s attention. Great job, Siobhan. Let’s just piss off the most powerful Champion here.

Red-Robes raised his staff, aiming it toward her. He flicked it forward, one of his trade-mark slash spells heading her way.

The spear-wielder, whom Siobhan would henceforth dub Spear Maiden, saw the attack coming. The woman gritted her teeth and dove in front of it.

Huh.

Siobhan healed the woman instantly.

Spear Maiden just took a hit for me—put all her trust in me. Something tells me she can’t take more than one of those.

The other two warriors reached the man. The first, a hammer wielder, slammed her hammer straight for Red-Robes’ head.

Red-Robes flashed away in a pulse of red light, then reappeared somewhere else in the arena.

Just outside Siobhan’s Divine Beacon’s radius.

Sick ‘em, Siobhan thought, sending a mental command to her Divine Guardian. The massive construct stepped forward, far more nimble than anything that size and weight had a right to be.

Another flick of Red-Robes staff brought a slash hurtling toward her. The Divine Guardian ate the damage. Siobhan could feel how much damage it took. Unfortunately, though she could heal everyone else, she couldn’t heal her Divine Guardian—only the beacon had an effect on it.

Sorry, construct, but you’re not the best of protectors, are you? She supposed she wasn’t being entirely fair. She’d always considered the Divine Guardian a last resort, and she hadn’t had much of a chance to gets its ranks up all that high, though she knew its strength was directly related to her stats. If I get out of this, I promise I’ll use you more.

Siobhan had a connection with the Divine Guardian, one that made her instantly know exactly how much damage the thing took. That one strike had brought its health down to 15 percent. There was no way it was going to survive another hit, and though the bulky construct was nimble, it wasn’t fast enough to avoid Red-Robes magical slashes—they were too fast, with seemingly no way to block them.

It’s a shame my construct doesn’t have a shield, though I’m not even sure how much good that would do.

Siobhan stepped behind the five-foot pillar of light. Something told her it wouldn’t be much of a defence, but what else could she do?

My party is supposed to be here to protect me! That was the only reason I felt comfortable taking on a support class in the first place!

In video games, Siobhan had never liked playing a support class, mostly because the majority of her male friends always assumed that she would be the healer. That alone made her despise doing it. But the other members of her party… they hadn’t asked her to do this, and being able to heal in real life, versus being able to heal in a video game? Two very different things.

Now, she was filled with fear and regret.

Her Divine Guardian slammed its sword down toward Red-Robes head. Red-Robes slipped away from the strike was ease. Siobhan’s first thought was that a mage didn’t have a right to move that fast. Then she remembered that Xavier was a mage, and the old video game and tabletop roleplaying rules she was used to didn’t exactly apply here.

There was a flash of red light. A slash slammed into the construct. It didn’t bleed—constructs had no blood. When a slash had struck Spear Maiden, it hadn’t cut through her armour, it had skipped over that and went straight for her flesh. Whatever spell this was, it seemed to have the powerful ability of completely ignoring physical protections.

As the construct’s armour wasits flesh, the slash cut straight through the Divine Guardian’s torso. It was split in two. As it died, it turned back into a purple goo, melting to the ground, then disappearing into nothing. Siobhan’s defender had died.

Red-Robes gave her a sinister grin. He looked kind of insane. Someone who only cared about winning, and seemed to have forgotten that they’d all been thrown into the exact same boat here.

The man raised his staff. Siobhan was well aware that she didn’t have a high Toughness stat, so she didn’t have nearly as much health as a warrior like the Spear Maiden likely did. Her Willpower was decent, which would lend her some Magical Resistance, but considering her Divine Guardian had taken 85 percent damage with one strike, she knew she’d not be able to survive this.

So she ran toward him, her staff raised, ready to give this bastard a serious bonk on the head, knowing it was futile—there was no way she’d be able to reach him in time. When this match had started, she’d separated herself from the other Champions, backing away until she was on the far side of the arena, which meant the warriors—like Spear Maiden—were too far away to do her any good.

Then again…

She glanced over at Spear Maiden. The woman was fully healed once more, thanks to Siobhan’s spell, and it was already proven she was strong enough to take one of these hits.

I’ve healed her twice now, and she jumped in front of an attack for me, what if…

Siobhan cast her Summon spell—a spell that only worked on allies—targeting Spear Maiden.

She targeted the other two contenders as well.

We’re allies in our fight against this man, after all.

White light flashed around all of them. A split second later, Spear Maiden appeared in front of Siobhan. She took Red-Robes’ spell, releasing a hiss of pain. Siobhan cast her healing spell on the woman.

The other two contenders had been enveloped in light. Those, she’d summoned not to her, but to the red-robed Mage. She willed them to appear on either side of him, hoping that he wouldn’t simply be able to teleport out of the way like he had before.

Red-Robes had enough time to widen his eyes in shock, but no more. Apparently, he’d had his full focus on Siobhan, unworried about the other contenders as they’d been too far away from him, and none of them ranged fighters.

A hammer crushed his skull. A sword pierced his side. The man cried out in desperate agony, but Siobhan felt nothing for him.

It didn’t take him long to die.

Red-Robes slumped to the ground. The two warriors who’d killed him looking down at the body impassively.

Spear Maiden was breathing heavily in front of Siobhan. Siobhan checked the cooldown on her Divine Guardian and cursed under her breath—she wouldn’t be able to summon it before the arena’s countdown timer ended. The warrior in front of her turned around. Siobhan swallowed.

Is she going to turn on me now?

The Hunger Games had been one of Siobhan’s favourite movies—she’d enjoyed the book too, but she’d watched the movie far more times. Whenever she saw the tributes making alliances with one another, she’d always wondered how trust could be possible between them. How they could ever turn their backs, when they knew they’d all have to murder each other later. How could an alliance be possible at all, when one was in that situation?

“Are you going to kill me?” Siobhan asked.

The four remaining Champions—Siobhan, Spear Maiden, the hammer-wielder, and the final warrior, a man who carried sword and shield, looking much like a classic knight might—all stood in a circle facing one another.

The man drew Siobhan’s interest for a moment. She hadn’t gotten a good look at him before this.

He’s… old? He had grey hair. A grey beard. Even wrinkles. There was no way this man could be from an already integrated world. The others—the two female warriors—were both young. Teenagers, just like Justin. System age.

It was the man who spoke first. “The System notification said nothing about killing each other.”

Siobhan blinked. She brought the notification up in her mind.

The melee will begin in 5 seconds and last for 5 minutes. If you are alive and have not surrendered by the time the melee ends, then you will have successfully cleared this floor.

“All it says is we must be alive by the end of it,” said Spear Maiden. She glanced at the others. “Though we are marked on our participation.” She looked over at the dead mage. “I think we’ve managed enough.”

The hammer-wielder nodded. “This isn’t like the first challenge, when we were pitted against another Champion from our own worlds. The System does not force us to kill, it simply rewards us on what we do.” She gestured toward the dead Champions. “Most do not see it that way, however. They see what must be a fight, and they kill without thought.”

Spear Maiden nodded. “That’s only something that should be reserved for true enemies.” She looked Siobhan in the eye. “It might be different, if we met on the battlefield.”

“Then I pray we never do,” Siobhan replied.

Spear Maiden smiled warmly in response, and the four Champions from different worlds and sectors around the Greater Universe stood in a loose circle about one another, inside the radius of the Divine Beacon, waiting for the timer to reach its end.