Unchosen Champion

Coop left the fort motivated to expand his horizons. He had decided to check the next island in the Ghost Reef chain. While he hadn’t explored the mangrove forest at all yet, he was a bit scared of heading in there. The thick muck combined with the tangled mangrove roots would make any movement a real challenge, especially in a fight. He would need to adapt a new combat style before setting foot in the mangroves. Coop didn’t feel ready for such a challenge yet.

Instead he would head to the eastern beach, the one that he hadn’t visited a single time since mana was introduced to the system. All his battles had been up and down the west beach or between the lighthouse and the fort, so he wasn’t sure what he’d find. Across a shallow channel from the eastern beach was the next island in the chain. During the highest tides the water between the islands would only reach Coop’s waist, so he could easily wade across.

As he left the fort behind, he glanced toward the Mana Well that had carved itself into the ocean off the west coast. Coop judged that it had graduated from a sinkhole to a canyon at this point. He hoped it wouldn’t continue to expand. Even though it looked to be more than a mile, maybe even two miles offshore, he was a tiny bit worried that it would swallow the island if it grew indefinitely.

He took a fork in the trail that cut across the dunes and led to the eastern beach. The scrubgrasses were the main feature on most of the interior of the island. He didn’t spot any monsters among the grasses. The flat open areas were roamed by the local sandpipers who flew in short bursts only inches off the ground. They were joined by the land crabs that never seemed to leave the entrances of their holes, where they stood waving a single claw at each other. He wasn’t sure if they meant to be threatening or inviting. He was just glad none of them were bear-sized.

Coop thought calling his destination the eastern beach was a bit of a misnomer. It really faced more south than east, unlike the west beach that was on the west side and faced west. It didn’t help his sense of direction that Rock Key wasn’t so considerate to just be an obvious geometric shape. If the lighthouse wasn’t visible from every corner of the island, he would probably manage to get lost.

The western beach itself was pristine. It was a wide, picturesque white beach with the calmest waves on the island. It was backed by evenly spaced palm trees and framed by the mangroves on one end and the rocky point that held the lighthouse on the other. All Coop needed was a lounge chair and a piña colada with a tiny umbrella and he might be willing to abandon his ambitions of defeating monsters in favor of enjoying an extended vacation.

With a deep sigh, Coop waded into the water, heading toward the next island. The beach itself was already outside of the settlement territory, but there didn’t seem to be any enemies gathering strength anywhere in its vicinity. It was even more peaceful than the eastern beach.

Halfway across the channel, the warm waters reached just above Coop’s knees. It was too shallow to properly swim and it was too deep to highstep, forcing him to just drag his tired legs through.

Coop didn’t have time to gripe before something large breached the surface of the water with enough energy to splash Coop, 20 yards away. Coop summoned his shield and raised it to protect his upper body while keeping an eye on the water in his vicinity, afraid of what might still be swimming as much as whatever leapt out of the water.

His large round shield blocked water and sand that had been thrown in the air. Coop spotted what had been hiding under the sand as it hovered above the surface. He quickly identified it.

[Primal Kite (Level 10)]

A new monster. Coop was surprised at the level jump between the Defenders and this thing. He didn’t have time to worry about whether he skipped something when a pulse of energy slammed into his shield. The attack had enough power to force Coop a step backward, but his shield protected him from any damage.

He quickly corrected his stance and began advancing on the creature. It hovered in the air above the surface of the water but was still near enough to the surface for Coop to strike it, if he was close enough. It was obviously a cousin to the Ancient Defenders he had become so familiar with, the primary difference being that the four legs were hanging limply from the body of the creature like the tentacles of a jellyfish. The body was the familiar symmetrical shape with a red light in the center. It was even the same size, but because it was hovering above the water, it rose about a foot above Coop’s own head.

Once Coop closed five yards on the creature it pulsed all four of its legs and lunged five yards away at a diagonal from Coop. At its new location it raised one of its arms like a pitcher winding up to throw a baseball and launched another attack. Coop easily blocked it with his shield, but the attack stymied his forward momentum.

Coop retaliated by throwing his spear but scowled as he watched it sail wide. The creature was maintaining enough distance to prevent an accurate spear throw. Resummoning his weapon, he tried closing the gap, plowing the water with his legs, but as soon as he made it five yards closer, the creature lunged five yards away.

The creature kept moving diagonally, so Coop tried to cut it off by approaching at an angle. It simply lunged diagonally the other direction.

Coop tried throwing his spear at it, again and again, while pushing toward the mechanical monster, but most of the time his attacks missed completely. When they didn’t miss, the monster was able to comfortably dodge out of the way. The water was further diminishing his accuracy, but even without the water he wasn’t sure if he would land a suitable attack. Coop yelled in frustration as he wildly threw another spear after blocking an energy attack.

The monster was living up to its name, kiting Coop around the channel while consistently launching ranged attacks from one of its tentacles. Eventually, Coop was ready to give up and come up with another tactic.

He was never going to catch the creature when the tide was this high. He thought he could rush the monster if it was low tide, high stepping through ankle deep water. It would be even more exhausting than fighting in the sand, but there was no way it would be worse than charging through the deeper water as he was right now. It had only been a matter of minutes and he was already physically done.

Coop started to back away from the creature instead of charging at it. Moving backwards was even slower than moving forwards, he had to be extra careful not to lose his footing and it was just more difficult on his legs.

After a painfully slow five yards in reverse the creature simply moved closer to continue lobbing attacks at Coop. Coop felt dread rising in his chest. Would the monster chase forever? Coop felt like he was being hunted.

Before the panic set in, he decided that he would have a better chance on land. He would kill the thing if it was foolish enough to keep following him. He continued his slow reversal with his shield raised toward the monster.

He had only made it a quarter of the way back towards the relative safety of Rock Key’s west beach when a second eruption of water and sand destroyed Coop’s last hope of salvaging this miserable expedition. He identified the additional monster.

[Primal Kite (Level 12)]

Coop wasn’t able to block both angles at once. He tried to corral the creatures by charging at a slight angle toward the nearest one to force them onto the same line. He successfully made the nearest lunge toward its brethren but his maneuver earned him an energy blast to the back. His muscles seized as he had the painful realization that the attacks were electrical in nature.

His high magic defense from the Mind stat and the protection of Mind Over Matter saved him from true danger. He took 62 damage to both his HP and MP but could only imagine how much damage the magical attack would have done without his magic defense. Without his layered defenses, it might have been lethal. But for now he wasn’t in immediate danger since he started with 520 health and 750 mana.

He recovered in time to block both of the creatures’ follow up attacks. He retaliated with another disappointing spear throw and started his slow, sad retreat. At the rate he was going he might even need to worry about fighting in the dark.

Another failed spear throw after trying to bait the creatures just a little closer left him clenching his teeth with frustration. He looked at the spear embedded in the sand and sticking out of the water in between the creatures with a scowl on his face. He needed a more reliable ranged option before he hunted these monsters again. He wished he could conjure himself at the spear instead of conjuring the spear to himself.

Suddenly, a heavy fog clouded his vision that made the world seem black and white, the world stretched momentarily, and the fog lifted. He fell to his hands and knees and retched. What the hell happened? His face had only been inches above the water when he was slammed underneath, once, twice, four times in quick succession. Then he was blasted with an electric attack, his muscles seizing while he clenched his fists in the sand, enduring the pain.

He lost 85 HP from the four combined physical attacks and 60 HP from the energy attack. His MP dropped the same amount with an additional 50 disappearing somewhere along the way.

He rolled away from the physical attacks to get room to recover his balance only to find one of the Primal Kites right next to him, while the other lunged five yards away. Had they yanked him back? He lifted his shield as the nearest monster raised all four tentacles and extended them into rigid blades. It rapidly spun its body, swinging the tentacles like horizontal blades into Coop’s shield. The more distant creature lobbed another attack at Coop’s flank that Coop barely blocked with a shift of his shield arm.

He belatedly recognized the spear in his hand and stabbed it into the nearest creature with an overhand thrust. He had lost all semblance of technique and the attack was more reminiscent of the times he bludgeoned Ancient Defenders to death with his machete. He missed the red light but the spear pierced the body of the Primal Kite, severely wounding it.

He repeated the savage overhand attack three more times for good measure before it began to evaporate into smoke. As the first was defeated, the second monster shocked him with another energy attack.

He turned to the creature, took two desperate steps through the water, and lunged toward it, leaping forward with his spear raised. The creature dodged backwards, but Coop’s lunge had brought him close enough to hug the thing before it dodged. His arms combined with the length of the spear were enough to jab the tip into the body and drag the creature down into the water. Coop showed no hesitation to stab the monster to death while standing over it. It finally disappeared into a cloud of smoke that rose out of the shallow water.

Coop collapsed onto his butt, feeling vertigo and exhaustion. Coop was just happy the situation hadn’t gotten any worse. With only his head and shoulders above the water he checked his notifications.

[You defeated Primal Kite (Level 12)]

[You have a new quest!]

[+4 Basic Credits]

[Congratulations! Your profession has leveled up!]

[Scavenge Defeated Enemies IV (298/500)]

…

[You defeated Primal Kite (Level 10)]

[+5 Basic Credits]

[+1 Charged Metallic Scale (Uncommon)]

[Defeat Primal Kites I (2/5)]

[Scavenge Defeated Enemies IV (299/500)]

Coop noted that these monsters had their own quest chain, but he didn’t entertain the idea of hunting thousands of them. He would need to figure out a better way to fight them before he was willing to hunt even three more. He thought about conjuring a long bow and making arrows for a moment before dismissing the idea. He doubted he could even do damage with arrows that he crafted and he would be electrocuted by their superior ranged attacks while he tried.

He noted that his Basic Scavenging had surprisingly leveled off the first defeated monster even though it had been relatively recently leveled off the Ancient Defenders. He suspected scavenging a new type of creature had provided him with a significant bonus. He might want to hunt a wider variety of monsters in order to boost his profession level. It had been lagging behind his class level even though the method of leveling both of them was the same: defeating monsters. At least it finally generated some loot, even if he had no idea what to do with it.

He did know what to do with his five unallocated points granted by the profession level, and put them into Mind.

Coop tried to recall the details of the fight. He had tried several different maneuvers, but he couldn’t overcome the basic move set that the monsters employed. He felt like a king chess piece chasing a knight around the board. At least until he had appeared directly next to both of the creatures.

It seemed like he had been the most caught off guard, but they had also seemed surprised in their own way, with one retreating and the other using a melee attack that neither had shown any interest in utilizing prior. Neither seemed ready for him to suddenly appear next to them. He doubted they had used some skill that pulled him into their midst.

He held the spear, resting it on his shoulder as he thought about the moments before the fight’s turning point. He had been agitated by the matchup to the point that he was grumbling in frustration.

The class and skills that he was so proud of were being completely dismantled by the second type of monster he had ever encountered. He had been wishing that he could summon himself to his weapon due to the futility of his spear throws. Summoning his spear back to him was useless when he couldn’t get near his targets. He reviewed the Ethereal title that enabled the weapon to return to his hand.

The Ethereal title was granted by the combination of his Salvation skill, which summoned his ethereal armor, and his Retribution skill, which summoned his ethereal weapons and shield, which formed a full set. The title stated that the ethereal set could not be unwillingly separated. It didn’t actually say it would summon the weapon to the armor, just that they couldn’t be separated. In practice, not being separated meant he could return his spear to his hand after he threw it, with the spear transforming into an ethereal mist before coalescing in his hand after only a moment.

Coop stood up and threw his spear toward the beach. It pierced through the shallow water and into the sand, standing like a leaning flagpole partway to the shore. Instead of willing it to his hand as he had practiced, he thought about the armor moving to the spear instead.

A thick fog clouded his vision veiling the world in a dreamlike black and white monochrome. The world momentarily streaked, like it was being stretched out, before snapping back into proportion. There was no sound. Then the fog in his vision dissipated, returning his perspective to normal.

He was hit by a bout of dizziness that left him stumbling into the water, but the spear was in his hand. He stared at it with suspicion.

Did he just teleport?

Coop let his dizziness fade before he once again stood up. He threw his spear to the beach with a high arcing throw, one that abandoned accuracy entirely for distance. It landed in the dry stand and stood almost straight up. He held his hand out as if he was gripping the spear and concentrated on moving to it.

The foggy vision and world warping returned before he stood on the dry sand with the spear in his outstretched hand. He would have laughed but instead he fell to his hands and knees and vomited.

His giddiness aided in his recovery. He rinsed his mouth with some ocean water before splashing some to hide the evidence of his embarrassing display. He noted that each teleport had cost him 50 mana, but with 900 mana it wouldn’t be a problem. Of course, he needed to be conscientious of the fact that his mana was supplementing his health, so he mentally added a new rule to always maintain at least as much mana as his current health. It shouldn’t be too hard a rule to follow since his health would essentially be half of his mana with the way his bonus stats were distributed.

He returned to the fort for the day, teleporting almost as much as he walked. As he used his new found ability he toyed with various names for it. Whatever he called it, it was a game changer.