Unchosen Champion

“Sister Luc-Hau?” The Elite High Priestess and Champion of the Yucatan settlement calmly addressed the battered Deathstalker, not bothering to wait for her ally to recover. She slowly pointed at the fleeing Cloud Dancer, watching her skip through the air toward the still growing Colossus. “You take care of that one.” She ordered impassively. “Brother Lom-Hau can deal with the other three, even without the support of Brother Sip-Hau.”

“...But I want to taste the death of this one.” The Deathstalker grumbled as she picked herself up off the ground.

Sierra had interfered at the perfect time, ambushing the Deathstalker when she least expected it, doing some damage, then moving to safety. Unlike her previous fight with a High Priest, the Cloud Dancer wasn’t trapped in a cage with limited avenues of retreat. She could be at least as much of a menace as the Deathstalker on the open temple with her exceptional mobility.

Dry blood stained the assassin’s face and her greasy hair was matted together, but the expression hidden beneath painted a picture of barely contained frustration. For as beaten as she appeared, Coop respected the fact that her movement ability and deadly attacks kept her dangerous. However, when it came to defenses, she was clearly the most fragile of the remaining High Priests.

“He has already figured you out.” The Elite High Priestess observed. “I will handle him. Just do as you’re told.”

“Yes, Mother.” The Deathstalker muttered indignantly, wiping fresh blood from her upper lip, adding a smear to her stained cheek as she conceded to the more senior Cultist.

The assassin shot a complicated look at Coop who had already hopped back to his own feet before the pair reorganized themselves. Coop’s ethereal spear was manifesting in his hand while he squinted back at the Deathstalker. He had no obligation to listen to the orders of the senior Priestess. It couldn’t be more obvious that he was making plans to aid the Jaguar Elites by continuing to engage the assassin. As much as he wanted to target the highest level of the High Priests, the others kept revealing themselves to be more important targets in the moment. In this case, he smelled weakness.

The Deathstalker vanished, and he watched for one of her swirling gateways to appear near where Sierra had drifted to support her companions. In a way, the assassin’s movement skill was similar to his mistjumps. The Deathstalker would be momentarily predictable as she arrived at the destination of her teleport. Coop expected to take advantage of that fact.

“Now, now, my dear.” The Elite High Priestess hummed at Coop, stepping forward through his thick knee-level Fog of War, drawing his attention back to her. “You have already proven to be far more trouble than you’re worth. It is time for you to be properly punished.” She cracked a small smile for the first time as she threatened him.

She threw both of her arms straight out from her sides, palms up, gesticulating with the most dramatic movements she had displayed since his arrival. Her singular sphere shot toward her chest as she focused her power. Coop felt what remained of his incomplete Fog of War split in half, parted down the middle with the Elite High Priestess at the center. The gap grew wider and wider until his low-lying domain was erased from existence with nary a flicker of resistance.

He grunted as he swiveled back toward her, anticipating something he would need to deal with before he moved on. The Deathstalker would have to wait before they finished their business.

Darkness emanated in front of the enemy Champion’s form. Coop frowned at the development. He had appreciated that the Elite High Priestess was mostly staying out of the fights, but it seemed as though the deferment was over.

The sphere shrank when she drew it back, starting out as a tiny ball that hovered in front of the Herald’s chest, barely the size of a marble, but it was positively vibrating with energy. Light warped around the absolute darkness of the object, making its presence exceedingly obvious despite its diminutive size. The miniscule sphere expanded, slowly spreading shadows at first, but it picked up speed as it grew. The sphere didn’t exactly absorb the light as much as it pushed it away. Lances of shadow claimed territory from the day, establishing a pocket engulfing the Priestess with perpetual gloom. The darkness at the center was formed by the complete absence of light and Coop felt like he was witnessing the birth of a black hole. Thankfully, it was merely a visual effect, lacking what he imagined would be bone-crushing amounts of gravity.

Coop threw his shield at the growing structure, unwilling to simply spectate. It was already large enough to encompass a person, but he intended to interrupt the formation of the High Priestess’s spell before it grew out of control.

However, when his offhand struck the edge of the expanding darkness, it was redirected. Instead of any type of collision, the shield skipped beyond the edge, as if its presence was physically rejected. Coop resummoned his shield before it flew beyond the perimeter of the temple. Unfortunately, he couldn’t strike the Priestess directly, as she was already protected by the shadow, standing alone in a featureless void of space.

The expansion accelerated as the darkness grew. It was clear it would be unavoidable due to his proximity to the Priest. The largest sphere she had revealed thus far threatened to engulf the entire top of the temple as its size continued to swell. Coop uselessly stepped backwards as the outer edge rushed through him, but the Jaguar Elites never acknowledged any changes.

From his perspective, the world dimmed until it was more like he was on a spacewalk than on the stone temple somewhere in Guatemala. Light was actually being pushed away by the expanding sphere, condensing along its edge until it looked like a tear in the fabric of reality. The shining edges only enhanced the contrast of the darkness within.

Coop was temporarily bewildered. The impression of the rest of the world stayed with him, but he felt utterly isolated, like he had been plucked from reality and dropped into a private prison cell for solitary confinement.

Then, the recognition of what he was experiencing hit him. This was another version of the monochromatic world of mists. Mistjumping and Vaporform had provided a window into the ethereal world of spectral mana, revealing the ghost world of mists that existed as another layer on what his normal senses perceived. This was another example, just from the perspective of someone who had Stellar and Void mana affinities.

If anything, he believed he was experiencing the perspective of someone trapped inside his own obscuring Fog of War with all of its oppressive effects. He grunted to himself, already leaning on Presence of Mind to focus on the auras of himself and his opponent. It wasn’t his first time being caught inside of someone else’s domain, and he immediately fell back onto the strategy that had won the day against the Zombie Lord’s thunder cloud-like area skill. The Priests had prevented him from establishing his own domain and the Elite High Priestess had gone ahead and created her own.

Then, with a suddenness that snapped him out of his thoughts, the Elite High Priestess brought her hands together as if she would clasp her fingers around the darkness. The domain collapsed with her motion, edges chasing her hands until it abruptly shrank to the size of a grapefruit between her palms. Coop was struck by an intense bout of vertigo as he felt his aura shrink along with the domain, like he was actually inside the formation between her hands. For a few moments while the Priestess struggled to complete her spell, he was completely incapacitated by his own senses.

Her fingers were rigidly splayed out as she redoubled her effort. The veins in her neck bulged as she fought to shrink the blackness into a smaller and smaller sphere. The whole process required significant exertion on her part.

When the sphere ultimately reached the size that it had started with, like a small obsidian bead, the wave of nausea that had struck Coop disappeared. He glanced at the Priestess, anticipating an attack after the culmination of her spell, but she simply finished by clapping her hands together around the miniature sphere and catching her breath. Her eyes had never left Coop.

“This is my Event Horizon.” She stated between breaths, then threw her hands apart as if they had cupped a small amount of liquid that she wished to splash across the temple. When her hands parted, they only revealed shadow, but the world rumbled as a thousand small spheres popped into existence across the domain and faded into the darkness, hinting at the extent of her domain. The Elite High Priestess smiled contentedly.

As she watched him, the ground and the sky rotated with the entire rest of the world, rolling like he was standing inside of a giant invisible tube, causing him to flail his arms despite remaining stationary. His senses fought with his balance, each equally confused. Gravity remained in place despite what he was witnessing with the sky sliding beneath his feet. The world flipped, but he remained upright with both of his hands extended in a futile effort to prevent himself from stumbling.

When the motion finally ended, he found himself standing in what he could only presume was a mirror of where they had previously stood. His senses barely kept up with the carnival ride that he imagined. Whether it was them or the world that had flipped was irrelevant to the queasy feeling he had in his stomach. If he looked up, he peered into the dark void of space. If he looked down past his feet, he could see the overcast sky in the distance, covering the temple’s rooftop with a solid layer of gray.

He could see himself reflected through a thin sheet of transparent glass. Beneath them both was the world as he had known it, viewed through a transparent screen, as if he was standing on top of a giant window. He was clearly still there, standing on the stone temple, frozen in place, but he was also caught in the domain of the Priestess.

In the distance, he could see the Jaguar Sun’s four leaders engaged in battle. Tzultacaj had his axe raised above his head, blade wrapped with purple lightning that extended to the oppressive sky as he assaulted the Colossus. Felix was in mid air at the Priest’s flank, massive claws extended with Juliana at his side, her face the picture of concentration as she attacked the giant’s ankle with her own verdant glow emanating from her eyes. The trio aimed to attack the giant golem simultaneously. Mateo still aimed his lasers, but he was smiling as his eyes had found Sierra, pirouetting through the air with the Deathstalker scowling further behind after whiffing her first assassination attempt. All of them were motionless, and from Coop’s perspective, flipped upside down.

The Elite High Priestess had dropped Coop into a transparent cage of shadow repelling light, excluding them from the regular world. Peering back into it made it feel like he was gazing into a resin filled diorama.

Coop looked back at the calmed Priestess. She seemed satisfied by his trepidation. Coop had the impression he was witnessing a more advanced domain skill than his own Fog of War, and despite his hesitancy, he was even more excited by the potential evolutions of his ability. The Elite High Priestess was giving him something to aspire toward.

He smiled at her, unable to stifle his enthusiasm, and she responded with her own satisfied expression fading slightly in confusion. Excitement wasn’t an emotion she anticipated finding in one of her victims.

Coop planted his left foot on the glassy floor, noting that the mirrored version of him in the real world didn’t follow along, and threw his spear at the Champion of the Yucatan. He didn’t care for her light show, specifically. He was stimulated by the prospect of his own progression. Naturally, he would treat the encounter much like any other.

It was time to test the limits, he told himself, just as the first sonic boom erupted from his missile.

The spear stopped inches away from her throat, vibrating as if the energy he had put into his throw hadn’t dissipated, though a counter force held it back. Wind from the air chasing the spear blasted against the High Priestess and she laughed in shock as her gray-streaked hair whipped backwards and the hood of her robe was pulled askew.

“You are impressive, indeed. Master was right about that.” She complimented him as she looked away from him and closer at the spear. “I didn’t expect you to have the self-control to gather yourself after being torn from the world.” She took her time walking around the side of the weapon to peer at the tip while it struggled against the invisible force. “Most others are irreparably broken.” She mumbled to herself.

The ethereal spear seemed to think it was still flying through the air, ripping ahead until it found its target. However, from his perspective it was making no progress at all. It was so under her control, the Priestess was able to wander around the weapon like she was analyzing a piece of high art in the calm setting of a museum.

“It’s a shame.” She concluded, turning back to Coop. “For all of your courage, you still rely too much on mana.” She sneered at him. “You are no match for me afterall: unworthy of Master’s approval.” She flicked the fingers of her hand toward his spear and it broke apart into tiny particles of mist before disappearing completely. It was like she deconstructed his manifestation, releasing the individual molecules back to wherever they came from.

“Between you and your little friends, only the Cloud Dancer is any threat to me. I can strip away Tzultacaj’s strength, break Juliana’s soul, and completely avoid Mateo’s power; just as I can atomize the weapons that you so heavily rely upon.” She waved toward the rest of the shadowy domain. “This is the might of the Void.”

She stepped forward while another ethereal spear manifested in Coop’s hand and he prepared to test her words.

“Fighting you without your weapons will be like fighting Sister Luc-Hau without her shadow portals or Brother Lom-Hau without his Earthen armor. Simple and sad.” She concluded.

“It would have been better if you focused on fortifying your body instead of a mastery of mana.” She added dismissively as she glanced at Coop with her head tilted to one side. “Did you really expect your little tricks to be enough to stand against the Cult of Chakyum?”

Coop shrugged.

She raised her other hand like she was lazily getting a waiter’s attention. “It doesn't matter. You will die before the Master's ritual is complete and be incorporated into his might either way.” She smiled menacingly. “Allow me to welcome you into Chakyum’s embrace. The Death God is generous. He welcomes all.”

She flicked her wrist forward. A cascade of tiny specks shot toward Coop, manifesting somewhere behind the Priestess. Coop stepped into a second spear throw, not willing to abandon the pressure his attacks could apply and let her freely cast, but the brand new spear drifted into mists before it even reached the granular projectiles that she had already launched toward him.

He raised his shield, but it disintegrated before it had the chance to block anything, following the lead of his second spear. The Priestess dismissed his weapons with barely any effort and he had no way to counter her interference. Retribution was completely negated by the Champion of the Yucatan.

He was forced to rely on his ethereal armor to take the brunt of the attack, raising his forearms to protect his face while hunching over to make himself smaller with respect to the horizontal hail storm. The projectiles were too miniscule to dodge individually. They shone with light, but from his perspective they were like individual dead pixels on a television screen, shooting toward him in the imitation of a meteor shower.

After the attack ended, Coop stood back to his full height. His armor leaked mists from a hundred different punctures and he had a few pinpricks of blood forming where his skin was exposed, but he came out the other end with nearly full health. The Totemic had done as much damage with his fists pounding against his shield. Coop wasn’t impressed.

“Hm.” The Priestess reassessed Coop, apparently expecting him to have been defeated by the simple bombardment. “I see.” She muttered before snapping her fingers.

Coop’s ethereal armor followed the example of his spear, breaking into individual particles of mist before disappearing. He was left in the darkness with nothing but his Under Armor equipped.

She smirked, letting her eyes wander like a predator eyeballing its prey. “Yes, you have definitely leaned too heavily on the enhancements provided by mana.” She shook her head as she concluded the assessment of her opponent. “Too bad.”

Coop clenched his fists and rolled his right shoulder while he took a deep breath. “Well, I suppose I have some bad news.”

He lunged forward with just as much force as he had demonstrated with his gear equipped. His bare feet had no issue gripping the domain’s floor and he blasted forward, proving that it wasn’t that his equipment was empowering him so much as he was empowering his equipment.

The Elite High Priestess had the wrong impression of his abilities. It wasn’t his weapons accelerating his attacks, it was his Strength stat. It wasn’t his armor that prevented him from being torn to shreds by her assault, it was the magic defense granted by his Mind attribute. If she didn’t understand, she would find out soon enough.

She stepped backwards, quickly summoning another bombardment of pixelated dust. Coop raised his left arm to protect his eyes and smashed straight through the cascade. He crashed through the assault and came out the other side without slowing down, scattering the glowing stellar dust particles like they were obstacles designed for children.

Drawing his right arm back, he aimed his fist toward the Elite High Priestess’s jaw. He wanted to see how her plan held up after being punched in the face.

She pulled even further backwards, deceptively mobile within her own domain. Coop adjusted his attack by summoning his glaive and jabbing it forward with his punching motion. Sure, he recognized that she could destroy his weapons, but she would have to be quick if she wanted to avoid the cleaving blade.

The Elite High Priest was quick. Even as his glaive formed, it fell apart. While Coop was gripping the dispersed mists, she attacked him again, in one smooth motion. Rather than a shower of cosmic projectiles, she conjured a single larger sphere of pure white with a core of impossible darkness, like a replica of the domain they occupied. It was the size of a beach ball, but at a glance, it seemed like an impossibly solid globe of mana.

Coop ducked beneath the larger projectile, slowing his momentum. The High Priestess continued revealing more obstacles, sliding backwards, and in a few moments, Coop went from charging across the void of space to dancing between the projectiles of an orbital map. The Elite High Priestess placed herself in the middle, like she was the center of her domain’s solar system, and conjured dozens of planets to swing around herself at various speeds and trajectories. She wasn’t limited to a single sphere within her domain.

Coop stopped himself from stepping back. The projectiles in the center were moving at a much higher pace than the ones on the outside, but he didn’t want to give her the advantage of distance. He had already learned that lesson with the Tide Priestess and her underwater domain.

He slipped forward, dancing in between the glowing balls of energy with spins and slides. They came from all directions, including above and below, ignoring the solidity of the ground, but Coop’s Agility was more than a match. When he drew closer, he caught a glimpse of her grinning at him, then a larger white sphere eclipsed his vision. She had set a trap in the event that he managed to close the gap, and he had impetuously run into it.

Coop punched the orb. Refusing to concede to any obstacles in his pursuit of his goals, just as the Revenant class was designed.

He felt a searing cold explode across his fist before engulfing his entire body. Light fragmented throughout the domain as a miniature stellar body cracked like a glass ball. When the light faded Coop was already stomping forward, knuckles bruised but unbroken, skin shimmering with an oily sheen of Stellar and Void mana.

“Maybe you’re the one relying on mana too much.” He suggested as his glowing fist bore down on the Herald of Cosmos.

When his clenched fist connected with her jaw the crack reverberated through the Mind-based domain, sending her to the floor. At the same time, the Void and Stellar formation shattered, spell broken, and the world rocked as everything flipped back to normal. With the domain scattered, Coop had been released. With his eyes locked on the Priestess, he noted the Jaguar Sun Elites returning to normal speed as they continued to engage the Colossus and Deathstalker.