Unchosen Champion

Landing in the dirt, scanning the area, then throwing a spear as far as possible was a series of actions that were becoming so rote, Coop’s brain was practically switched off while he went through the process. The unwavering Underlayer lacked the personality that made local trips on the surface more engaging. There were no interesting stories being told by local flora and fauna, no hints of previous action in decaying ruins, and no real suggestion of future prospects. As far as Coop could tell, the enormous tunnels were a pristine environment for sterile mana to circulate, and nothing more.

Coop had checked out from the potential of an exciting discovery, instead mechanically noting how many stone pillars he encountered so that he could compare the number to how many settlements were being assaulted by Primal Constructs. Of course, the state of the Underlayer led him to ask questions about its formation. Was it intentionally made this way? For what purpose?

Unfortunately, there weren’t any reliable ways for him to get answers. A worldwide assault was occurring anyway; it wasn’t an appropriate time to deviate from the simple mission he had given himself. Capturing objectives wouldn’t become easier if he could confirm a purpose for the Underlayer or determine the survival rate of civilization shards during the assimilation of Earth. Those were simple curiosities that didn’t change his current mission and would be better sought out after the fighting was over.

Instead, he pushed all thoughts out of his mind and eagerly sent his spear across the plains, aiming to cross as much distance as he could, as fast as possible. He was at ease with being a single-minded hunter.

That’s why he almost tripped over himself, sending his spear off into the distance before recognizing the mass of Primal Constructs off to the side of the Underlayer tunnel. Discovering another settlement had come much sooner than expected. His pursuit had almost concluded too soon.

Shenandoah was only a handful of mistjumps in the distance behind him, but a second settlement was right there. It was close enough to have been more to the side of the massive tunnel than it was farther down, less than 100 miles away from the previous control points in total. Coop had to return his weapon to his armor due to prematurely launching it when the next challenge was so close.

“Damn…” He whispered to himself, quickly escaping the mindset for a long haul in favor of visiting an unexpected attraction.

Coop gaped at the mass of enemies for a moment, losing some of the confidence that had been bolstering him as he grew in the assimilation. From his position, near the center of the tunnel, he could clearly see a single fortress, significantly larger than any of the previous ones he had already conquered, as if the Primal Constructs rediscovered their own modular designs and used them to expand a fort into a massive castle.

In the distance, closer to the edge of the tunnel, masses of Constructs extended to the limit of Coop’s vision, protecting their own hazy castles that each undoubtedly housed individual event objectives. The other three control points were tucked against the outer wall, at the edge of the tunnel, but the quantity of enemies was so large, they were forced to put significant distance in between each other in order to avoid overlapping.

Coop hummed in awe as he tried estimating their numbers. The armies of invaders had to be pushing nine figures across all of the control points.

“The territory of this settlement must be huge.” He concluded to himself, wondering exactly which it was.

He was pretty sure the civilization shard’s control would rival Ghost Reef’s claim, but the event objectives weren’t limited to being placed on a chain of islands and therefore covered much more ground. Coop absently pinched at his eyebrow with his empty hand as he approached what must have been a truly enormous settlement, at least compared to any he had witnessed.

Surrounding the nearest fortress, at least a quarter of a million Elite Primal Constructs formed orderly columns, transforming the empty dirt into a dense grid of metal aliens. However, it wasn’t the sheer number of invaders that had Coop momentarily hesitating, though the giant increase was a leap he had not expected.

The nearest stronghold also had 14 Field Bosses rotating up and down the armies, behaving a bit like officers inspecting their troops, or lions pacing through a circus tent’s audience. But even they weren’t the real surprise that had Coop reconsidering the event as a whole.

What ultimately shocked the Champion of Ghost Reef was the sight of a single Siege Boss, looming in the vast expanse of the Underlayer. The gigantic enemy put the scale of the underground tunnels into perspective, making it seem truly massive. The skyscrapers of a fully developed city could comfortably fit, leaving an expanse of artificial sky wide open for aviation, if such a development was possible with the eroding pure mana flowing through the caverns. The scale was truly immense. It was a complete contrast to the dark and claustrophobic caves he had anticipated before the start of the event.

The titan construct stood protectively among the nearest army, adjacent to a stadium-sized castle, making it look small. One stronghold was near Coop’s position and three were further in the distance, with what seemed like miles of Constructs in between. The Prime Construct Siege Boss during the Siege Event had been a fluke, and though he expected to see another one eventually, he hadn’t really anticipated them for years yet. He especially didn’t think he’d see one idling beneath an unknown settlement.

To throw his expectations off even further, he knew the settlement this army was preparing to conquer wasn’t Neon Park. There were no humans embroiled in battle, despite the scores surrounding the high ranked settlement constantly climbing. The Constructs here were left waiting in the dirt. That meant one of the subordinate settlements in the northeast alliance had been large enough to grant the Primal Constructs a full contingent of their known forces, and it was a settlement that wasn’t even on Coop’s radar, insignificant from a perspective based on leaderboards.

“...Crazy.” He muttered, shaking his head. The more he thought about it, the more he realized being on a deserted island had really transformed his perspective.

Hopefully, the Underlayer was following the contours of the surface evenly, and he wasn’t unknowingly navigating tunnels that twisted themselves into knots, only to reveal this was some other top-ranked settlement. If he needed to double back to completely cover the settlements he wanted, the trip underground would quickly become extremely complicated. If it came down to it, he would simply push forward and wish for the best. For the time being, he would assume they were continuing to appear in order as they had in Florida.

That left a question on his lips. “What’s Neon Park fighting?” He briefly considered the possibilities, concluding that their assault must have been truly huge. He hoped Marcus was safe, though he doubted his Viceroy would unnecessarily volunteer for battle, no matter how hard he was working on getting on their good side.

Coop flipped his spear onto his shoulder, letting it rest for a moment as he planned his next moves. He left a series of footprints in the dirt, stamping his confident stride into the Underlayer as he recontextualized the massive army in front of him. The invaders were the perfect opportunity to experiment with Inheritance of the Mists. If he could adapt his tactics in a way that enabled him to efficiently defeat these Constructs, his confidence would be justified. A satisfying victory here would represent an escalation in scale for the way he applied his strength. It was exactly what he needed.

The Primal Constructs hadn’t even noticed his solitary presence, or if they had, they felt no need to react. He was just one person, after all. They had no context for the power humans could tap into, but how could they? The aliens were permanently handicapped after being integrated into the greater domain of mana, and that was before being further limited in power by the system in order to fit into the scaling of the assimilation. He was nothing to them.

Coop took a deep breath, lifting the ethereal spear off his shoulder, taking a firm grip as he picked up speed, jogging forward, before solidly planting his foot in the dirt. He felt the energy rise up from his toes, through his flexed thigh, across his hips, and into his rotating torso, all while his upper back, shoulder, and arm flexed.

His empty hand was elevated toward his target, with two fingers extended directly at the central weak point of the Siege Boss, no arc planned. The arm that gripped the spear was almost fully extended, windmilling from back to front while he hissed an exhale, braced by his tensed abdomen and balanced by a shift of his back leg as all of his weight transferred forward. When he released his clenched fingers, still rotating with all of the momentum generated by his entire body, the missile shot forward like a laser.

A drumroll of sonic booms echoed through the Underlayer, only slightly muted by the dirt, and at what seemed like the exact same time, the Prime Construct’s tremendous chest imploded. The metal monster was in the process of raising one of its enormous, pointed arms, as if to point in Coop’s direction and warn the army of the tiny threat in the distance, but it was too slow. The glowing red weak point located in what would have been its solar plexus erupted like an explosive clay pigeon, its wreckage flowing out of the exit wound in its upper back.

Coop disappeared a fraction of a second later, flickering from existence only to reappear in the immediate aftermath of his devastating ranged strike, among the flying debris escaping the posterior of the Siege Boss. He threw his caught spear again, twisting his body after sudden destruction rained upon the invading army, sending his weapon above the already debilitated Prime Construct, and mistjumped again.

While in the air above the head of the enormous titan, he quickswapped from the spear to his two-handed battle axe, and cast Inheritance of the Mists. Time appeared to slow, allowing Coop to witness the chaos he had already caused. Coop embraced the perceived time dilation, mind racing.

[Siege Boss: Prime Construct (Level 170)]

[Alpha XII (Agility)]

[Manifestation of the Primal Constructs]

The Prime Construct was mostly familiar. It was a clear variant of the titan that had climbed from the ocean to stomp toward Ghost Reef’s fort. If anything was different, it was that it had a sleek finish, more like a mech designed for speed and aerial combat than the mass killer that had assaulted his island. This one was already off-balance, falling backwards with what would have been a mortal wound if not for its ability to self-repair.

Unfortunately for the Siege Boss, Coop was already well aware of a Prime Construct’s capabilities, and he was in the middle of landing the coup de grace. As Inheritance of the Mists activated, he single-mindedly answered the question that emerged with every possession, one way or another.

“What is your purpose?” A woman’s voice spoke, enunciating his understanding while echoed by a thousand others, the query sometimes reworded but always with the same intent. It was a question Coop had asked himself in the earliest days of the assimilation, as he realized the opportunity Ghost Reef had given him, and evidently it was a topic the system had latched onto as it shaped his experience.

As Coop dragged the battle axe down, flying through the air, high above the ground, he responded with vehemence. “Death and destruction.”

Roaring laughter, crackling like a wildfire responded, taking the initiative over the rest of the potential apparitions. Coop’s battle axe exploded into flames, retaining its corporeal shape, but burning like a meteor crashing through the atmosphere as it bore down on the stumbling head of the Siege Boss.

A tornado of flames blasted from the Revenant, engulfing him in a terrifying heat that would have caused his skin to blister if it had not been generated from his own mana. The Apparition of the Greatest Fire Elemental burned with unadulterated indignation.

Time finally caught up, and the Elite Primal Constructs that had only had a moment to flinch as the Prime Construct Siege Boss was struck by an unexpected missile, struggled to brace themselves. The debris from the first attack clattered across a long strip of the invaders and the shock and awe had them fumbling as they tried to recover their composure. Fragments of the Siege Boss splashed toward the castle, clattering against its wall.

At the same time Coop brought the double-bladed flaming battle axe down into the top of falling Siege Boss’s head, aiming for a killing blow. The axe seared through the metallic armor, then cleaving flames sliced through its neck, carrying the barrage down its body. Flames erupted from each of the glowing red weak points that defined the Primal Constructs as the hungry flames exhausted the Siege Boss’s mana before it could be used to regenerate, then sought to consume the mana in the air.

The massive titan fell, crushing thousands of Elites as it went, taking down the outer walls of the castle and revealing the surprise attack to another contingent of Constructs. Flames danced from its joints like volcanic geysers and ignited those who barely avoided its bulk as the fires spread.

Coop, drunk on the hysteria of a burning apocalypse, fell into the momentum of the Fire Elemental as he targeted the masses of enemies, like an ember caught in the wind. After he landed in the dirt, between the dissolving feet of the largest opponent, he turned up the intensity, and the fiery tornado that spun into the sky from his form was bolstered by more of his own mana. He couldn’t let the possession go, when he had so many more enemies to kill. The destruction was just beginning.

Flames extended the range of his attacks, letting him cut down entire squads of the desperately reorganizing Primal Constructs. He leapt into a melee, aggressively pursuing the nearest Field Boss and with an incoherent roar, he accepted the desires of the Apparition as they matched his own.

“Ragnarok!” The Apparition howled with a voice of flames, and Coop raised his axe to the sky with an enthusiastic bellow that sent a blaze from his throat. He had to go all in.

The sky turned into a swirl of crimson and orange while Coop crushed his enemies. Embers twisted in the searing winds as mana ignited along the edges of the fiery inferno that followed his steps. As Coop slammed the battle axe through a mannequin’s head after melting its shield, the first extra projectile landed on the ranged Construct the tank had attempted to defend.

Flaming meteors began landing in Coop’s proximity, at first like a deadly hail, but larger chunks crashed into earth, splashing dirt and flames as they cratered the Constructs. The ground shook as the largest demolished squads of Constructs and the Field Bosses that they accompanied.

Coop embraced the role of harbinger of destruction, carrying the Fire Elemental as he went, aggressively chasing down groups of enemies as they desperately formed bulwarks. The Primal Constructs were granted a brief glimpse at the sort of apocalypse humans had envisioned. Perhaps they realized theirs was inadequate in the seconds before a flaming axe cut them down.

Thousands died at once whenever the largest meteors crashed into the surface, ravaging the otherwise uniform dirt of the Underlayer, planting incomprehensible craters. Pools of magma formed where the dirt was struck, forming rivers of fire that broke up the formations of the army as it spilled onto the surface, and the searing winds from the hungry tornado viciously stripped the armor of the Constructs.

It wasn’t until the battle was winding down, some hours later, that Coop truly realized what he had done.

“Oops.” He muttered awkwardly, pressing a hand against his sweat-covered forehead as the fatigue set in.

Viewing the destruction with clear eyes was stupefying. The exhaustion really hit him once he was standing still. He exhaled dramatically as the drain was fully realized and he confirmed that he had overdone it by quite a bit.

It would be some time before he could cast Inheritance again, maybe even days, but he had learned something more specific about the way the skill worked. The possessions were directly related to the purpose for which he accessed the apparition’s power. More severe penalties were applied for imprecise uses that were further beyond his own capacity.

While he was possessed, he was acting as a channel for mythical power to flow into the real world using mana as the catalyst. When he attempted grand, sweeping attacks with indefinite limits, he strained his physical presence beyond its rational depths, forcing downtime, or even risking more severe consequences.

He shook his head at himself, realizing that Inheritance of the Mists was a direct reflection of Legacy of the Mists. They were far more similar than he had previously considered. When he summoned phantasms, he could provide clear instructions to have them take specific actions upon their manifestation. When he was possessed by an apparition, they were granting him power for a specific purpose, like a sort of inverse relationship with different costs. He needed to make that purpose more precise just like he had evolved his coordination with the phantasms.

“I can work with that.” Coop confirmed with a hoarse voice, lungs no longer filled with fire, feeling encouraged despite his weakened state. He was still conscious, after all.

Beyond the countless craters and charred dirt, he watched as the nearest army, bolstered by Field Bosses, shifted, sending a portion to reclaim the control point he was in the process of conquering.

Coop grit his teeth at the challenge, excited by the revelations granted by the Apparition of the Greatest Fire Elemental, and accepted the price of earning a bit more knowledge. He may have to fight on his own for a while, but another layer of his abilities was emerging.