The Elemental Dragon was a fraction of a second away from joining the fight. This was a critical moment. One that, Xavier knew, if he messed up, would spell his demise.

  Xavier had learnt multiple ways to kill the Skeletal Dragon, and the way that he had killed it to keep himself fresh when the other dragon entered the fight the first time—when he’d been frozen in the air, forced to use his Portal spell to carve away the ice around him—wasn’t the way he was about to kill this beast this time.

  Over the course of the hours that had passed since this battle had begun, Xavier had weakened the Skeletal Dragon’s body and mind to an incredible degree. Now, both were fragile, vulnerable things.

  It was the Skeletal Dragon’s body being weakened that had brought the Elemental Dragon out of its den, where it was protecting the egg that would become Xavier’s prize—the egg that would soon become the vessel for Volkarin.

  But Xavier had been focusing his true attacks against the Skeletal Dragon’s mind, so that finally, he could have full control over the beast.

  Willpower Infusion!

  Purple mist flowed from the Lost Bone of a Dead God in its scythe-staff form, soaring through the air between himself and the beast. Xavier had been growing his prowess in Willpower Infusion steadily over the course of this fight, but this time he had infused Soul Energy into the spell.

  To give it that extra kick.

  While Soul Energy was a finite resource that had real consequences when he used too much of it, Xavier was being as frugal as he could with it.

  He wasn’t going to let himself suffer from soul sickness—not unless he was able to kill both of these dragons before it set in.

  The purple mist flowed toward the enemy. It seeped straight into the beast’s bones and suffused into its mind, a mind that Xavier now had an intimate knowledge of. A mind that was now completely vulnerable, its mental walls stripped and stripped until everything was laid bare.

  Attack! came Xavier’s command as his control solidified.

  And attack the Skeletal Dragon did. It zoomed through the air and slammed its body straight into that of the Elemental Dragon, latching its powerful jaws onto the other dragon’s neck. The Elemental Dragon was taken unawares, so shocked it was at the attack by its mate.

  Xavier pressed on the Skeletal Dragon’s mind, ensuring that it would use a particular spell.

  A pulse of energy erupted from the beast, one so powerful that it slammed into the Elemental Dragon and knocked its spirit straight out of its body.

  Xavier grinned maniacally.

  God, it felt good when a plan came to fruition.

  Xavier acted. There was little time. Very little time. The Elemental Dragon, though it had been taken unawares, had a powerful spirit. Usually, there would be no telling how long that spirit would remain outside of the dragon’s body.

  But Xavier knew exactly how long it would take for the spirit to return.

  One and three quarters of a second. Not very long at all. Certainly not long enough for Xavier to do any actual damage to the beast.

  But more than long enough for Xavier to do what he needed to do.

  Xavier cast Time Alteration. There were several times during the fight when he could have used this spell. The fight with the Skeletal Dragon had gone on long enough that he would have been able to use it and have it reach its cooldown more than a dozen times. He hadn’t needed to use the spell then, however. It would have been a waste, when he had needed his cooldowns to refresh enough for him to continually attack the Skeletal Dragon and break down its mind.

  But right now was the perfect time for him to use the attack.

  One of the things that Xavier had learnt during the different iterations of this battle was how to better use his Portal spell—how to actually move the portals he created.

  Right now, that wasn’t something he was actually able to do. In this timeline, he had yet to push the spell hard enough to increase its rank to manage such a thing.

  And that was why he had frozen time.

  Xavier cast Portal. The time dilation field he’d created was just large enough for him to practice what he needed to do. He needed the field to last for a long time, but he also needed for less than a second and three quarters to pass outside of it during that time.

  The first time during an iteration of this battle, it had taken him weeks to develop his Portal spell enough.

  This time, he knew, it wouldn’t take near as long, for he knew exactly what was needed to advance it.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  The ranks came swiftly as he worked. His Portal spell kept growing and growing in rank as he better learnt to manipulate it.

  His entire focus was pushed toward this one task, his mind sharpened down to a point. He was glad—as he often was—for his training with Liana.

  That woman had instilled a degree of patience into him he wasn’t sure he would have pursued without her guidance.

  If Xavier became bored as he worked, he didn’t notice it. His focus never wavered. His resolve never cracked.

  When finally his training was over, he could do what he needed to do.

  Xavier expanded two things—the size of the time dilation field, and the size of the portal he had created within it.

  Soon, the portal became large enough to encompass both the Skeletal Dragon that Xavier currently had control of, and the Elemental Dragon that currently didn’t have its spirit within its body.

  Soon, he was able to move the portal over both of the dragons. They wouldn’t appear on the other side of the portal until Xavier dropped the time dilation field, but he sighed in releif the moment they’d gone through.

  Xavier had accomplished two vital things by sending the two dragons through that portal.

  First, he had taken the Elemental Dragon outside of its territory. This would severely weaken the dragon, for as he had discovered, much of the dragon’s strength came from its proximity with its territory—it relied heavily on that, and it was the reason Elemental Dragons, even when they weren’t guarding an egg, rarely moved far from their dens.

  But even outside of its territory the beast was the most powerful thing that Xavier had ever faced. It certainly wasn’t a threat that he wasn’t willing to take lightly.

  The second thing that this accomplished, however, was something Xavier thought was absolutely perfect. It was perhaps the most ingenious plan he had ever come up with.

  A masterstroke.

  Assuming it actually worked—this was the idea that he had come up with. This was the very thing he’d discovered he needed to do to win this battle once and for all.

  Xavier had put together all of the different pieces—his Body Cultivation spell was strong enough to make him fast enough to avoid the Skeletal Dragon’s attacks enough to inflict mental and physical damage to it to bring it to the perfect balance. His Willpower Infusion spell grew in strength in that process, giving him enough power to take over the Skeletal Dragon’s mind—even though he knew that control would last less than ten seconds.

  His Chronomantic Mindforge spell had also allowed him the ability to seep strength from the Skeletal Dragon during that entire process, so that he could infuse that energy into himself.

  And finally, the growing in power of his Portal spell was the final piece in the puzzle before he’d even realised it.

  Had he not experienced so many iterations of this fight, he knew he never would have been able to accomplish something like this.

  He still wasn’t sure if he had accomplished it, for he didn’t know how long that Elemental Dragon’s spirit would survive outside of its body.

  Xavier hadn’t just sent the Skeletal Dragon and the Elemental Dragon outside of their territory, he’d sent them to the absolute farthest distance that he could manage with his Portal spell.

  Further separating the Elemental Dragon’s body from that of its spirit.

  Xavier soared through the portal himself before shutting it down behind him, timing it perfectly. He didn’t know if spirits could even travel through portals. That was something he wasn’t in a position to test.

  It also wasn’t a risk he was willing to take. Not when he was so close to victory.

  As he made it to the other side of the portal, and the portal shut down, he knew that the time dilation field would have shut down as well.

  He hadn’t yet become powerful enough to keep the time dilation field going even when he wasn’t inside of it. He could see how that could become a powerful trap for an enemy—something like a Time Prison, but with the ability to shoot spells into it.

  Like what he’d done his first time joining Gimble’s raid group. It was strange to think that he would never be a part of a raid again—he’d gained a lot going on those raids, and now he was capable of doing things the entire raid group hadn’t been able to do as a team.

  That’s… That’s absolutely insane.

  On the other side of the portal, Xavier found himself above the massive forest of the hundredth floor, a few hundred miles away from the mountain that the dragons called their territory.

  The Skeletal Dragon had its powerful jaws clutched around the neck of the Elemental Dragon. The Elemental Dragon’s spirit was trapped far behind its body, and so it did not fight back.

  It did not do anything.

  That spirit knockback attack… God it’s strong.

  But he had never imagined just what it would be capable of doing when he’d first encountered it. He knew that the only reason the spirit knockback attack had even worked on the Elemental Dragon was because it was so close in level to that of the Skeletal Dragon. If Xavier possessed the same attack… He would have to somehow weaken the Elemental Dragon’s spirit enough for it to work.

  Either that or it simply wouldn’t work at all.

  Even if weakening his enemy would make it work, he wouldn’t be strong enough to fight the Elemental Dragon for long enough to weaken it—not in the same way he’d fought the Skeletal Dragon, and certainly not without observing more iterations of the fight.

  I’m simply not strong enough to take that thing down… Not without a few tricks.

  He brought up the description of the status effect, from back when it had affected him.

  Your spirit has been ejected from your body.

  You have 5 minutes to return to your body before your soul is forced to depart from this world.

  You may only return to your body if it remains alive.

  Xavier stared at the amount of time he had. Five minutes. That was either too much time, or not enough. He couldn’t quite decide.

  This was where things became unsure for him. When the Elemental Dragon’s spirit had been ejected from its body, Xavier hadn’t been able to see it.

  He also had absolutely no idea how fast the Elemental Dragon’s spirit could move. When he was ejected from his own body, he was able to move just as fast as his normal flight.

  The dragon’s normal flight… Five minutes… A hundred miles…

  That was math he didn’t know how to do, as he didn’t know just how fast that damned dragon was.

  What he did know was that for someone like himself, five minutes was a long damned time.

  That was what made him worried about the outcome of this fight.

  But he had an idea for that. Ways to solve this.

  First, however, he needed to deal with the Skeletal Dragon. He may have a hold over the beast’s mind, but that hold wouldn’t last for much longer. He needed to end the beast before it came back in control.

  There was a very good chance that it would be able to ruin his plans—especially if it had a way to call a target’s spirit back into their body.

  Xavier soared straight at the Skeletal Dragon and slashed at a section of its skull that had countless cracks already. He’d done this before, in the different iterations of the battle.

  He knew exactly where to strike to kill this thing.

  One more strike was all it took.

  Accidental Champion!

  my patreon has 29 ADVANCED CHAPTERS to enjoy!

  https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-tier-book-4-116513628

  https://discord.gg/nsgnbpWJ7S