Champion

Victor of Tucson #9

by Plum Parrot

Being a hero has its perks, but living for the fight means one must be ready to die for it, in the ninth book of this action-packed LitRPG fantasy series.

Victor Sandoval—now hailed as the legendary Lord Victor—has leveled up his rank and skills like no other Sojourner in memory. He now has thriving lands, ever-increasing power, and a new love, the warrior woman Valla. That is, until she decides she needs a bit of space—away from Victor’s, shall we say, expansive shadow—to discover herself. But when you may live for millenia, you don’t want to rush into a romantic commitment anyway, right?

Wrong. Heartbroken, Victor focuses on learning the ins and outs of the spirit realm from his tutor, the great Ranish Dar, while simultaneously fine-tuning his cultivator talents and continuing combat training. And his trusty axe, Lifedrinker, has undergone a major growth spurt, making it even more lethal—if that’s possible.

And Victor’s going to need a big weapon where he’s Rhun, where everyone is giant and dueling to the death is a way of life. He’s been summoned to take over the role of champion for Ranish’s granddaughter, Queen Kynna Dar. Luckily, he’ll soon discover the best cure for a broken heart is sharing your pain with others . . . again . . . and again . . . and again.

The ninth volume of the hit LitRPG adventure series―with more than a million views on Royal Road―now available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook!

Tropes rags to riches, leveling up, fight to the death, and politics is war.

Genres: Fantasy

383 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 4, 2025

About the author

Plum Parrot is the pen name of author MC Gallup, who grew up in Southern Arizona and spent much of his youth wandering around the Sonoran Desert, hunting imaginary monsters and building forts. He studied creative writing at the University of Arizona and, for a number of years, attempted to teach middle schoolers to love literature and write their own stories. If he's not out walking his Airedale Terrier, you can find Gallup writing, reading his favorite authors, or playing D&D with friends and family.

Reviews

[J.D. Glasscock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful as always

One of my favorite authors in the genre.. I've of the most skilled in creating real characters with real interactions and emotional layers and depth
Highly recommend
JD Glasscock
Author of the Series Blood Brothers, Nocturne and Warborn

[Andrew G · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much better book that Books 7 and 8, but still not a complete story.

This series has taken an unfortunate direction since Book 7. Books 7 & 8 were filler with some really minor side quest stories, usually just a couple chapters. These books followed the trends in this genre with many series as they near the 10-book mark. That is in the author dramatically slowing the pace of progression, padding word counts with pointless filler and outright filler/setup entries, and drawing actually interesting main plot elements over multiple books.

These first six books of the series each had a tier rank up, Books 7 & 8 had a total of 8 levels gained, that’s not a single tier. Book 9 finally addresses that issue by gaining something like 13 levels, and crossing two tiers in the process. I don’t feel like the leveling makes much sense. MC takes out an entire undead army in a dungeon and gets a single level despite this ridiculous feat taking over a week to accomplish. Yet, he slays some random champion easily and gets a level. He takes out some hunk of junk golem and gets a level. It’s really just arbitrary and plainly up to whatever the author wants more than logical consistency. But all that said, the progression pace recovered from its two book cash grab, sorry “stagnation”.

However, this book is not the entire story of MCs journey on this weird planet where they don’t fight wars for some indecipherable reason but instead have champions fight death matches to determine who wins a war with a bunch of plot convenient rules to go with it. This book is maybe the first act of the story on this world. Most of this book isn’t the champion fights, of those there are only three actually, instead it’s a lot of pointless filler, and one awesome dungeon delve for the ages.

As much fun as the dungeon delve episode was, it’s padded with so much filler. For example, we spend 30 pages or so just climbing the mountain, where literally nothing happens on the way, to reach some cave only to then need a key for some mysterious door and then go back and spend 15 pages looking for the key. That entire hiking and key hunt episode, pointless filler. Meant to pad the word count. And there’s a lot of that all over this book as the only real progression in story and character could be described in a paragraph.

Finally, this isn’t the whole story, it’s just the first part of one. Crossing my fingers it wraps up in the next book, but would it surprise me in the least if it does not despite us all knowing what’s gonna happen. It’s sad to see a story about a berserker, implying a phrenetic and chaotic pace, have that pace for the first six books, then slam on the brakes and start milking this series like a cow. Why can’t this author publish AND maintain that pace? Are the ideas that hard to come by? I mean you’ve already got two baked in with the death world and the warlord world to return to. Are those gonna last multiple books too? Why? Why not write a series that’s good from the first book to the last, not open-ended and milked to death until no one is left reading them, why not do that and take those fans with you to another series. But I know why, this is easier. Easy money.

But despite as annoyed as I am about the direction of this series being so contradictory to not only what came before, but the main character himself, what this book does well is still awesome. Loved the dungeon delve. Liked the fights we had with the champions. Loved that Vala is in the rearview, she sucked. Love the character progression of the MC with regard to those things and focusing on what he wants from his life. Loved the lore dump with the titans. All that is five star stuff, like much of the other books of this series.

But it’s only half a story, so have to count off for that. Four stars. As much as I love some of this series and how that deserves to be ranked on my profile’s favorite series list, I think the author’s poor choices with the narrative direction of this series warrant a rating on the low end. Hoping that will change, not gonna hold my breath.

[Shonari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This instalment is all about momentum. Victor’s power curve is ridiculous in the best way, and the book leans into it with big fights, wild dungeon moments, and some of the most brutal duels of the series. The arena scenes are tense and messy, and the way his rage builds into something almost volcanic was genuinely fun to read.

There’s still plenty of worldbuilding and a bit of politics around Gloria, but nothing that slows things down. Victor mostly deals with problems by facing them head-on, axe first, and somehow it keeps working for him. The quieter moments with letters and reflection were nice breaks between all the chaos and helped balance the story.

Overall, a solid, action-heavy entry that pushes Victor to new heights and sets up trouble for the next book. Exactly the kind of high-energy ride I wanted from book nine.

[Spencer Lambert · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were elements of this that were fun (Victor's back in an arena where the series is at it's best) and then some areas that were surprisingly mundane/redundant (the crucible of fire section).

Overall the Rhun storyline is good, though there was a decent amount of intro to even get there as Parrot wraps up characters he seemingly lost interest in (Edeya/Darren storylines). Ranish Dar is great, but there isn't too much personality to Kynna yet.

Tes being back is a nice end of story note, but the story seemed to get sidetracked (almost eveyr book does) & lose focus from political/arena duels. Sometimes the "side quests" (Hopefully gets back on track next book.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are a first-day read when possible, and this is no exception. Victor continues to grow, both in character and stature. He is notably smarter and wiser than he started off, so the author does a good job with that. Ends in a natural lull in the action, but he has a long row to hoe in his latest world, so I expect the next book to be all about that.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

Honestly folks plum parrot is the best author iv read in a long time pug the magician good Density another book by the author is so fucking good and with the art is AMAZING and trust me iv read over a thousand books.

[Danial Ashmun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Installment of the Victor of Tucson Saga

Well written continuation of the Victor saga. Victor continues to grow into his epic bloodline and supports his mentors goals. Very well written continuation of the Victor’s story.

[Garrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic

This book went by entirely too quick. I was just enjoying the story as much as I possibly could and then it was finished. Why must it already be over?

I need more and I need it soon. Absolutely recommend this series.

[RJ Meyer JR · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Saga continues

The Saga continues with clear direction. Victor my be an OP Titan, but that’s the fun of it. Despite this, his heart remain human…unless he’s eating one… LOVED the last chapter and it leaves me looking forward to the next installment!

[Michael Barselow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a bit weak for the series in my opinion. The romance feels a bit contrived, and the relationship spit up is kinda forced, and odd. The fights were lackluster due to our hero holding back constantly.

Also, the page count is so low.

[Timothy McGowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! Could not put this down! This author’s writing really does captivate throughout the entirety of their work. Where most other authors would make some of the plot points drag on PlumParrot cuts to the chase and keeps the book moving forward

[Shane Costello · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Get's better and better each book read, take time off as you will not want to put them down. If you like these kinds of books this is a definite read. I was let down by the obvious ai layout of some books. This series is well written.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

Stellar work once again from Plum Parrot! Lots of action and adventure, magic and monsters. Looking forward to the next one!

[Mr. J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic chapter in Victor's life. Incredibly excited for the next book.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spectacular as usual.

Great story as always, though I'm concerned that Victor might be getting a bit to strong. Can't wait for the sequel to hit.

[Chris Ludlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Axe-wielding, rage-fueled barbarian battles through a colleseum to determine the fate of a kingdom? YES. I love Victor of Tucson so much

[Johnny Beck · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm enjoying this series somewhat. It's not my usual horror or high fantasy, but it's something different.

[Dr Adam Paris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

Another great book in the Victor of Tucson series. I loved that we got back to the characters roots from the first book in the fights he faced at the end.

[Stan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great addition to the series

Book 9 is one of the best in this series. I enjoyed the entire read and the ending has me looking forward to the next book!