Unchosen Champion

When the sun came up, Charlie and Camila ended their slumber party. They used the elevation of the office building to view the coast and chart a course through the rest of the city. From their vantage point, they could see that the waterfront condominiums looked to be in pretty good shape. The poor condition of the downtown office buildings and lowrise apartments that transitioned the suburbs into the city had been weighing on Charlie’s psyche. They hoped there would be some friendly people on the waterfront.

They had seen dozens of people by themselves or in groups of two or three, and all of them fled as soon as they noticed the pair. All of them except the group of bandit trolls, at least. Camila thought there must have been violence between people in the city to make them so skittish.

As they traveled, another pack of wolves tried to ambush them, but Charlie repeated her wind weaving to create a tornado, catching all of them. Before they were destroyed by the tornado one of them was killed by an extremely powerful Assassin’s Execution, revealing the presence of their least favorite party member. He just loved to use his one shot, one kill ability, even when it was complete overkill.

Parker sauntered out from the shadows and called out to them, “What would you have done if I was an enemy? You’re so hopeless without me.”

“I would have smashed your face in,” Camila responded confidently. He just laughed it off, moving to put his arm around Charlie’s shoulders.

“It took me a while to catch up to you, didn’t you miss me?” He directed toward Charlie.

She shifted away and avoided the question, “Did you find a settlement?”

“No, I was hurrying to meet with you.” He leered at her. “I think the other guys might have had some luck, I’ve been watching the artifacts and they haven’t moved much. We should go to them!” He suggested.

The look on Camila’s face said she wanted to go in the opposite direction of their party members, but, since they were trying to find a settlement for the relative safety it would provide for people like Charlie’s parents, she motioned for him to lead the way. He tried strutting but it was ruined when she made him pick up the pace.

A few miles and a few wolves later, they were stopped at a checkpoint that had been created by cutting a hole into a semi truck trailer as a passage. The trailer blocked access to the next intersection, making the block a deadend other than the checkpoint. A group of people sat on top looking menacing while a pair stood in front of the passageway. The bearded guard in front of the passage demanded they identify themselves.

Despite leading them there, Parker put the girls between him and the guard, forcing them to figure it out. Camila simply took charge by returning the demand.

“Who’s asking?” Camila asked, taking a familiar stance of defiance.

“We’re in control of the settlement now. If you want in, you gotta register.” The guard made his requirements clear, while the people on the roof shifted, paying closer attention to the visitors.

Charlie thought she would be able to disable the entire group on top with a strong gust, but she was worried about their two flanks. There were people on a fire escape to their left and in some windows on the right. It seemed like they had prepared this position anticipating a fight. Glancing behind, she could spot people on the corners that weren’t there before.

“Who’s we?” Camila restated her question, not appearing intimidated in the slightest. As Charlie identified each guard, none of them were above level 15, but they were all above 10 and there were quite a few of them. Charlie could admit that she was a little intimidated, like they had walked into a trap, and judging by the way Parker had slunk behind them, he was too.

“The settlement belongs to the Endless Empire! If you got a problem, well I guess you could try running.” The bearded guard declared, doing his best to intimidate Camila. Charlie looked down at the symbols on her gear that supposedly identified them as being a part of the Empire. They seemed useless if no one even recognized them.

“Ah, perfect, we’re a part of the Empire as well!” Parker suddenly volunteered, earning an annoyed glance from Camila. “I’m Parker Lee! these beautiful ladies are Charlie and Camila, uhh, sorry I don’t actually know their last names.” He trailed off, regretting the attention he had brought upon himself.

The guard nodded, “Good, alright, you still need to register. Everyone’s gotta write down their names, class, affinities, and faction.” The guard pointed to a clipboard that sat on a desk within the trailer.

“Sure, no problem,” Parker readily agreed and moved to sign in.

As he was writing, Camila re-entered the conversation, “You can have my name and level, but we’re not giving you anything else.” She asserted, indicating herself and Charlie. The guard couldn’t hide his frustration when his little bit of authority wasn’t respected.

“You listen here, either sign in or you’re gonna have some issues.” The bearded guard stepped forward menacingly, in a futile attempt to get Camila to back down. The atmosphere grew tense, but was quickly broken when one of the guards on the top of the trailer yelled to just let them through. Another joined him pointing out their levels as proof enough that they were who they said they were.

The guard wasn’t ready to back down, Camila just crossed her arms like she was waiting to speak to the manager. The truth was that their affinities and classes were too valuable to share willingly. If Parker hadn’t gotten them cornered like this, she and Charlie wouldn’t bother with this checkpoint. There was no way any settlement had a secure perimeter yet. They could just waltz in somewhere else.

After a few moments, his partner put a hand on the bearded guard’s shoulder and agreed with the hecklers. Someone on the trailer laughed out loud while the first guard fumed, but he backed down.

Parker had already written down half of his information, but he wasn’t sure if he should finish or not. His eyes darted from Camila to the guard a few times while the gears in his head visibly turned. Eventually, he finished signing in, but then remained outside the checkpoint in an effort to appease everyone. Charlie thought he was a weasel.

Camila gave the angry guard a sweet smile as they walked past. It would have agitated him if she wasn’t pretty enough to make the guard fall in love instead. Charlie thought no woman should be so powerful. Parker followed along through the checkpoint, after the girls.

After the checkpoint they walked across a perimeter road into an expansive grassy field that was partially covered in hastily constructed shelters scattered in small clusters. Charlie recognized the international airport beyond the field.

“It’s in the airport! Nice!” Parker exclaimed, apparently referring to the civilization shard.

Charlie didn’t see what was so nice about it. It was like an unorganized refugee camp, but it didn’t make sense when there was a mostly empty city right there. She thought the people would be more comfortable using the still salvageable buildings around the city instead of sheet metal and scrap wood huts.

The people in the small camps looked shell-shocked. She was sure most of them had been sponsored, but hadn’t received anything beyond a quick introduction to the system before being sent back to deal with the revelations themselves. She commiserated, it was a lot to take in.

At least she and Camila had found the nearest settlement, completing the first part of their plan. As they walked through the shelters, she estimated thousands of people were already settling in, and this was just one side of the airport. If the camps extended all the way around, a large portion of the city might already be here.

They moved beyond the grassy ring and walked down a runway toward the airport, in the direction Parker claimed they would find the rest of their party. The girls would propose their expedition to Ghost Reef soon.

—

Coop had finished hunting Ancient Defenders for the day after defeating a bit more than 1,100. He was taking a break in the cozy atmosphere of the Clumsy Shark Tavern. The colorful, layered rugs and fabrics hanging on the walls were illuminated by the flickering light of the fireplace. Coop would have expected it to be too warm, but Maeve assured him that they magically controlled the temperature in all the rooms. The fireplace was simply an aesthetic choice.

Balor was emptying mugs almost as fast as Desmond could fill them. The handsome bartender had just finished telling an amusing anecdote and Balor was filling the room with his booming laughter, while Jones added his own, more subdued, chuckles.

Even Jett was in attendance, sitting on the bar in a place of honor with a saucer of milk placed in front of her. Coop was surprised when he entered the Tavern and Jett was already inside. Typical behavior of cats to act like they own the place, but she received as much attention from the bartender and waitress as anyone else did, so it seemed like she had the right idea.

The only absent resident was the brewbot, but he didn’t think it would ever leave the Brewery. The robot still counted toward the settlement’s population, so he planned to visit every once in a while to make sure it was content with its living arrangement.

Coop was eating another bowl of stew with Maeve right behind him, checking to see if he needed anything. She had one of her hands on each of his shoulders while she leaned in to see how he was doing, an open smile on her face and her hair close enough to leave just the hint of a pleasant fragrance. Coop hadn’t taken up her offer of a free bed for the Champion, but she hadn’t been discouraged. It had only been two nights since the Tavern opened.

The cheerful ambience of the Clumsy Shark was almost enough to forget about the apocalyptic scenario planet Earth was facing. Coop had to acknowledge how well things were going. He tried not to imagine how it was anywhere else on the planet.

Coop planned to stay in the Tavern until the sun went down. When night came he would head back outside the fort to hunt the Ancient Prowlers until his health precluded him from continuing. His experience with the glaive was accumulating. He predicted that in a few more nights he would be as comfortable with it as he was with the spear. He was already prepared to swap between them mid battle if the opportunity arose. Summoning his weapons was quick enough that, if he was suitably flexible, he could catch opponents completely off guard with a sudden weapon change. The more weapons in his repertoire the better.

After a few hours, the atmosphere began to die down. Jones was the first to retire, Jett followed soon after, on her way to begin her nightly patrol. Balor finished one last drink and he and Coop both cleared their tabs. Coop amusedly noted that Jett was the only one who hadn’t paid. He said goodnight to Desmond and Maeve and headed down the Main Street to the fort gate.

Casting Salvation to summon his ethereal armor followed by Retribution for his ethereal glaive he made his way to the Ancient Prowler’s territory. He spotted several milling around separately, but knew that each one really represented a pack of five. He chose the nearest one to start with and Identified it.

[Ancient Prowler (Level 10)]

He charged forward with the glaive held in front of him, both hands gripping tight. His target faced him and held its ground, baring the teeth within its elongated jaw. Coop swung his weapon down in a deadly attack that he didn’t expect to land. The monster dodged to Coop’s left so he twisted the shaft and urgently transformed his attack into a horizontal swing that the monster couldn’t avoid.

The attack cleaved the monster, not quite finishing it off, but Coop was already dodging backwards. He narrowly avoided the second monster’s surprise attack, anticipating that it would come right then. The monsters had no aversion to using their own comrades as bait in order to land their attacks.

Coop’s dodge left the second monster sailing past, giving him a valuable opening to raise his glaive in an upward arc and dissect the Ancient Prowler. Its body scattered into smoke before it hit the ground.

Coop took one solid step forward, putting the injured first monster back into his range and brought the glaive down with the same path as his opening strike, chopping the first monster in half and defeating it.

He was already in motion as the body dissipated into the breeze, hopping out of the way of the third monster’s opening attack. The monster had taken a trajectory that prevented Coop from being able to destroy it in a clean blow, so he rounded on the monster and faced it as he had faced the first.

An overhead strike that the monster dodged, into a horizontal strike that it had no chance of avoiding. Unlike the first monster, this one caught the horizontal strike with its head, destroying it instantly.

Coop raised his glaive quickly, catching the fourth monster with the back of his blade, mid leap. The monster plopped to the ground, injured, where Coop’s glaive chased it, defeating the Prowler before it could recover.

The fifth monster’s attack came from behind. Coop barely avoided it, making a desperate lunge out of the way when he didn’t see the monster in the front or on either side. Only knowing that the attack was coming allowed him to react quickly enough to avoid taking damage.

Coop brought the glaive down, tearing through the air with its sharp edge, and when the fifth monster dodged, he adjusted once again. The horizontal adjustment clipped the monster’s legs, allowing Coop to finish it off.

Coop resummoned his glaive in an effort to make progress on reducing the cost of Retribution with his Practical Application skill. Readjusting his grip, he continued to the next pack.

Only about half the fights went as well as his first. On the others he would take one or two hits from the surprise attacks. Most of the time it was due to dodging incorrectly or too slowly. When those were his mistakes, the glancing blows that he received wouldn’t even be worth mentioning if it wasn’t for the stacking Vulnerable debuff. Occasionally, he would still be caught completely by surprise, when a sneak attack came when he didn’t expect it, and that was when he also took some damage from their attacks.

Whenever his Vulnerable debuff exceeded five stacks, he would return to the dunes and rest while he waited for the debuff to expire. It was a timed debuff that only lasted around 10 minutes. It was still an annoying intermission when Coop wanted to push the efficiency in his fighting.

Conveniently, there was a lot less travel time between fights when hunting the Ancient Prowlers, so the number of kills that he achieved was a high number by default. He just needed to reduce and eventually eliminate the accumulation of the Vulnerable debuff.

The glaive required a lot more use of his forearms as he twisted the weapon and adjusted his grip to slice the creatures with the business side of the blade. Both sides were deadly, but the blade itself was shaped a lot like the machete, with one side meant to chop. Compared to his usage of the spear, he was twisting the weapon a lot more to find the right angles.

When he used the spear, adjusting his grip when he needed to switch between an overhand jab or an underhand thrust was tricky because he was only using one hand to hold the weapon while the other was occupied by his shield. It felt a lot more like an exercise of balance, especially when he was also adjusting it to throw, and then retrieving it with one of the other grips.

When fighting the Ancient Prowlers, the glaive was the clear winner, but he would have to choose which weapon to use on a fight by fight basis. He anticipated defaulting to the spear most of the time just for the additional movement ability and the added defensive utility of the shield.

Coop fought the Ancient Prowlers with his glaive reflecting the moonlight for his longest session yet. He was taking a lot less of the Vulnerable debuffs as he became better at anticipating when he was leaving an opening that the monsters would pounce on. He was even able to bait them with false openings on occasion.

He only had to take a few breaks to make sure the Vulnerable debuff didn’t get out of control, but his health was still chipped away and after nearly four hours he had to call it a night. Checking his notifications he was pleased to have received one level.

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

It was his only level for the day, and it came so late that he didn’t anticipate getting two levels during the next day. His quest progress for the day was nothing to complain about.

[Defeat Ancient Defenders IV (3700/5000)]

[Defeat Ancient Prowlers IV (1525/5000)]

He should be able to complete the Ancient Defenders quest tomorrow, and the Prowlers would take less than a week. Coop was excited for the free level, but he didn’t think it was the last stage in the chain. His scavenging quest had five stages before it was completed. He thought these might follow a similar pattern, but he felt trepidation about finding out how many more he would need to kill. The first in the chain required 5 kills, the second 25, the third 250, and the fourth 5,000. Coop saw the pattern and he didn’t like it.

The second quest multiplied the requirement of the first by 5, then the next multiplied by the previous by 10, then by 20. Would the next stage require him to kill 200,000 monsters? He wouldn’t be completing it if it did. It wouldn’t be impossible, but it would definitely be a waste of time, and he would probably lose his mind in the middle of it somewhere. He frowned at the idea of grinding Ancient Defenders for years.

Shaking his head he strolled back to the fort. He listened to the breeze as it flowed through the palm fronds and the gentle waves as they barely climbed the western beach. The moonlight sparkled on the placid ocean. His eyes were drawn to the entrance of the Coral Forest and the mountain beyond. He wondered what else he would find. He took his routine cold shower after he reached the fort, before he headed to bed. He was wondering if his parents would be proud of him as he drifted to sleep.