Tier 3+ - Accidental Champion (Book 2) - Chapter 81 - Grave Robbing

Justin didn’t like this one bit. The barrier around him came down. He took a step backward. It wasn’t that he was worried about killing these people—maybe he should be worried about that, but he wasn’t. He’d do what do what he needed to do to survive, just as he had been doing since the System arrived on Earth and changed everything.

No, what he was worried about was losing.

I want to get back to Earth. Want to find my mother… and I want to protect everyone.

There was something else that he wanted, too. If he were completely honest with himself, he didn’t want to be separated from his party. He’d become close with them. Especially with Siobhan and Howard, as the three of them spent so much time together while Xavier was off doing his thing.

And he didn’t want to be separated from Xavier.

The world… everything… had changed so damned dramatically. Before the System had come, he’d thought he’d had pretty much everything figured out. He was an Olympic athlete at the age of sixteen! That was quite a feat. He knew he’d get a scholarship to the college he wanted to go to. He knew he wanted to study to be an engineer. His path was laid out for him…

Then it had all changed.

Xavier could singlehandedly save Earth. Anyone who stands by his side is going to be protected. Become powerful. Rich, even.

He wanted that security, after all he’d seen being taking from place to place by the Tower of Champions. He wanted to get in on the ground floor. Be part of the new elite, the new protectors of Earth.

We’ll be like the Avengers. Protecting our world from alien threats. It’s going to be awesome.

A few seconds after the barrier had come down, three different contenders disappeared.

What the hell? They’ve surrendered already?

That was the last thing he’d been expecting. Justin had to assume that the majority of Champions who made it here were from already integrated worlds, because most worlds in the Greater Universe had been integrated for hundreds, thousands, millions, some even billions of years, so statistically, there would simply be far more integrated worlds than non-integrated worlds, right?

Did some Champions enter the tower already knowing they would surrender when they got to this point? Were they too cowardly to deal with this challenge? He had trouble imagining that, considering what the first challenge that a Champion had to go through was—fighting another person from their own world who also wished to be a Champion.

He swallowed. Maybe this fight was even more dangerous than that one had been.

Of course it’s more dangerous. That was before any of us got integrated. Before we got our classes, spells, skills, levels…

One of the closest Champions next to him attacked. They sprinted toward Justin. It was a warrior, wearing full-armour similar to the full-plate that Howard wore. He even had a tower shield and an axe like Howard did, though he lacked a beard.

He looks so young. As young as I am.

Justin didn’t hesitate. He used Slip Dodge to get out of the way, activated Winged Flight, then sent an Air Strike straight into the man’s flank. The ranged attack took his enemy by surprise. It didn’t move him—if he were a tank, he’d be damned tough—but it did make the man falter.

He’s slow, just like Howard is slow. I can work with that.

Justin used his peripheral vision to ensure there were no other threats nearby, then he went in for the kill.

He turned off the part of his brain that worried about whether he should be killing—that was no longer useful to him, he’d discovered that pretty fast after the System had come down.

It’s a new reality. Kill or be killed. If I’m threatened, I’m not going to use half measures.

His strikes were fast, precise. The warrior, supposedly a tank, had been foolish to rush him. Justin was now within the man’s Bulwark radius—which meant he couldn’t activate the spell and keep him outside of it. Justin had sparred with Howard enough times to know how to get around his tricks. This warrior might not have the exact same moves and spells, but it was close enough.

Justin’s sword was long and slender. It made it through the gaps in the other man’s armour. The slit under his arm. Into his neck. And finally, straight through the slit in the man’s helm and through one of his eyes. A kill notification came up. Justin dismissed it and looked at the rest of the battlefield.

He blinked. Three Champions, not including the one he’d just fought, were already dead. The rest were… were they frozen?

In the centre of the arena, a woman with striking purple eyes and long, purple hair stood. She was clearly a mage—even her robes were purple. She had a smirk on her face, and she was… well, she was beautiful.

Not the time to think about that, Justin!

In one hand, the woman held a staff, raised high. Her other hand was also raised, but empty, palm facing outward. The other contenders—the ones who remained alive—had all appeared to try and attack her. And they weren’t frozen, exactly. They were… moving in slow motion.

Very slow motion. So slow that at first he’d only thought they were frozen. Justin stepped away from the man he’d just killed—the teenager, someone of his own age. For a moment he’d been surprised that all of the Champions around him were so young—for it wasn’t only the one he’d fought and defeated who was—but then he realised why.

People are integrated at age sixteen, just like I was, or some sort of equivalent age depending on their world or race. Of course they’re all my age. It makes the most sense.

And yet here this woman was, who looked just about as young as he was—though held herself as though she were older—exhibiting an immense amount of power and control, not to mention enjoyment. She was smiling in his direction in a way that gave him butterflies in his stomach. Cause he was, um, afraid.

Yeah, that’s why.

Justin bit his lip. Not even a full minute had passed yet. He didn’t really know what he should do in that moment except stand there. The mage clearly had some sort of localised time manipulation, which, admittedly, was incredibly cool. Justin folded his wings behind him—they had a much longer duration time these days—and glanced around the arena. There were enough stands to fit thousands upon thousands of people, yet every single seat was empty. He tilted his head to the side.

This was once a real place, wasn’t it?

The woman cleared her throat. “What, are you just going to stand there?”

Justin blinked at her. She had that same, self-satisfied smile on her face. She looked as smug as he might after winning a fencing match. “Well…” He gestured toward all of the frozen Champions, and then at the dead ones on the ground. “Seemed like the wise thing to do, considering how all of these ended up.”

“You figured the best thing you could do, was to do nothing?” She raised an eyebrow.

“Where are you from?” Justin asked. He was glad the System was translating their languages. The mage might be human, but that didn’t mean she spoke anything even close to English.

“I’m not sure I should answer that.”

Justin sheathed his sword. Every instinct in his body and mind told him that wasn’t a good idea, but he did it anyway. Sometimes you just have to take a chance. Something told him that if this woman wanted to kill every Champion here, she could do it with ease, and his sword being drawn wouldn’t do a thing to stop it.

He knelt by the corpse of the warrior he’d just killed and pulled the man’s Storage Ring right off his finger.

“You’re grave robbing the poor fellow?”

Justin grunted—a habit he’d probably learnt from Howard—and stood, turning the ring in his hand. “Well, it’s not much use to him anymore.” He nudged the corpse with a foot. “And this isn’t exactly what I’d call a grave.”

“The spoils of war are often ill-gotten rewards.”

Justin frowned at the woman. “That’s an interesting way to see things, especially considering…” He gestured toward the arena, trying to encompass the entire Greater Universe at large. “Everything.”

The woman tilted her chin up. “Where are you from?”

Justin considered his next words. He brushed a small patch of the arena’s dirt with his foot, kicking away a few pebbles, then sat cross-legged on the ground.

“By all means, get comfortable.”

He watched as one of the Champions the woman had frozen inched a little closer to her. It was an orc—a race he wasn’t sure he’d seen before, and only really knew from Lord of the Rings and video games.

Is there any harm in telling her where I’m from?

“I’m from a newly integrated world.”

The woman’s eyes widened briefly. Her smile slipped, then suddenly became more vibrant. “Really? You’re at the Edge?” She took a step forward. “That’s fantastic! I’ve always wanted to see the Edge, but travelling that far…”

The spark of excitement in her eyes and her smile betrayed her age. She was definitely a teenager, just like him, even if she could pass for older.

Justin checked the timer. Three and a half minutes left. This melee, so far, wasn’t at all what he’d expected. A fight to the death? Check and completed, without taking a single scratch. Talking to a pretty girl who could probably crush him with a single spell? That hadn’t been a part of his expectations.

Looks like I’ll be getting back to Earth after all. He’d been a little worried there. But not so much anymore.

“You must be from somewhere where the System is already established?”

The mage nodded vigorously, her purple hair bobbing around her face as she did. “My sector has been integrated for… a billion years?” She shook her head. “Something like that. I mean, that’s basically forever!”

“Your sector… a billionyears? The history of my people doesn’t stretch back a fraction that far! Not even the dinosaurs were alive back then…” He’d known this was possible, of course, but actually meeting someone from a world that had not only been around for so long, but had been inhabited by intelligent life for just as long? It felt… well, insane! “A billion years…”

The woman tilted her head to the side. “You know my sector’s still considered young by many of the older ones, right?” She smirked.

“Honestly, that just boggles my mind,” he replied. “Why do you want to travel to the Edge?” He’d never heard it called that before, but he liked the way it sounded. “Something tells me it’s safer where you are, somewhere that’s… established.”

“I want to see the frontier! I want to experience something new. You must still have wars.” She shook her head. “It’s such a strange thing to even contemplate.”

“You… don’t have wars?” Justin scratched the back of his neck. “I thought the System was all about pushing conflict?”

The woman shook her head and gave a sigh. “It is, but that doesn’t mean you have to give in to it.” She waved a hand at the arena, at what was happening. “There are… ways around the System, if you know how to manipulate it.” She tilted her head forward. “Many ways. My sector is peaceful…” She paused, got a sad look about her. “Not all are. Most aren’t… but mine is, because of the one who rules it. I suppose I wouldn’t need to go to the Edge to see war.”

Justin frowned. Ways around the System? What did that even mean? That simply didn’t seem like something that could be possible. How, exactly, could one get around the System? It was powerful enough to change entire galaxies, to bend them toward its will.

“How?”

The woman smiled sadly. “The System is watching. Besides, I can’t go spilling these secrets. Not while I’m under contract. My family are… very tight lipped about their abilities and knowledge. It’s rather unfair, really. For others.”

“Ways around the System,” Justin muttered. The words stuck with him. How could they not? If there were ways to circumvent the System restrictions… what exactly could that mean? The System was what was stopping them from being back on Earth permanently right now. What if they somehow found a way to travel to Earth whenever they wished?

“I can see I’ve put a few idea in your head,” the woman said.

Justin nodded. “A few.”

The woman walked over to him. Perhaps he should have been afraid of the powerful Champion, but he was used to being around power after having spent so much time around Xavier, and though he didn’t exactly trust this woman, he didn’t feel as though she were a threat to him.

She sat a few feet across from him on the dirt floor of the arena. “We only have a couple of minutes left. Tell me about your world?”