Unchosen Champion

The first Primal Kite initiated its ambush, bursting out of its hiding place, launching water and sand into the air. The group wasn’t even halfway across the shallow waterway before they found their first enemy. Coop had previously readied his ethereal armor and spear to the surprise of Shane’s party, but he wasn’t the one who would be fighting this monster.

Coop wanted to observe their combat abilities and they wanted to prove all of Coop’s warnings unnecessary. Shane’s party would fight the Primal Kites during their short expedition. They had been traveling in formation with the Dragon Knight and Tomb Blade side by side in the front, and the Illusionist, holding up her robes to keep them dry, with Shane behind the frontliners. Coop followed the group from behind.

The water was merely knee height at this point and Coop thought it would be possible to high step his way to any monsters even if he couldn’t teleport. It wouldn’t be a viable strategy for repeated engagements, but for one or two combat periods he felt confident it was possible without becoming too exhausted to continue.

When the Primal Kite began casting its ranged lightning spell, the Tomb Blade slammed the flat of his black long sword into his small rectangle shield. A series of runes had appeared on the length of the blade and one of them floated in the air with the collision. The action triggered a spell that sent grasping skeletal hands forward in a trail from the shield to his target. The cascade of boney fingers was meant to immobilize the group’s target.

The grasping hands didn’t appear to disturb the ground even though they were clawing their way up and reaching through the water. They would be able to grab Coop all the way up to his knees if they were targeting him. The Primal Kite’s hanging tentacle-like arms would only barely be in reach of the hands if it remained stationary.

Before the Primal Kite was grasped by the hands, the Dragon Knight began her initiation skill, crouching down and gathering flames that swirled around her lower body, causing steam to rise from the water around her legs. She lifted her oversized shield and once the flames reached a threshold, she thrust her jagged sword up at an angle, facing forward, and leapt.

Coop was shocked by her jump, as she flew into the air in an arc toward the Primal Kite, she covered quite a bit of distance. Unfortunately for her, the monster completed its cast before it was grasped by the skeletal hands and it lunged backwards, out of the way of both initial attacks.

The Dragon Knight landed with her shield slamming into the ground and one knee bent, almost kneeling. Water splashed in all directions and flames and steam swirled upwards where she landed. The Primal Kite was well clear of the slamming attack and merely dodged a second time, returning to its maximum range to begin casting a second spell.

The first electric bolt had slammed into the Tomb Blade, and even though he blocked it with his small shield, he was still struck with the after effects of being shocked and stunned. Shane channeled his first spell, creating a dome of swirling gold energy around the remaining party members who hadn’t left their formation. Coop felt himself bolstered by the buffing fields and noticed the Tomb Blade immediately began to recover.

The Illusionist also joined the fight, abandoning the effort of keeping her robe dry and casting a series of quick spells that each summoned an identical copy of herself, wielding a wand, surrounding the Primal Kite. They were each within melee range and held the wand forward, casting a purple beam of energy that wrapped itself around the target and connected with the others. The monster wouldn’t be able to dodge in any particular direction with the simultaneous flanking attacks surrounding it. They didn’t do damage, but instead snared the Primal Kite, allowing the Dragon Knight to complete her rush forward, through the water, while the rest of the group followed, remaining inside of Shane’s dome.

The Primal Kite didn’t remain stunned by the Illusionist’s summons and instead used its melee ability, spinning with its tentacles extended like blades. The twirling attack landed right as the Dragon Knight high stepped her way back into the fight. All of the summons were destroyed as the tentacles passed through them, they shattered like pink glass, but the Dragon Knight held onto her massive shield, planting it into the ground, and blocked the monster’s ability with a series of loud cracks from the contact of each tentacle.

The monster simply dodged away at an angle once again. The party regrouped inside of Shane’s dome and behind the Dragon Knight’s shield. Coop could tell they were already stymied by the simple monster. He was really starting to believe that the factions had handicapped their Chosen by withholding professions to the point that their stats were only the equivalent of monsters half their level. It seemed like the invaders were balanced around the defenders having leveled their professions... Or maybe they weren’t balanced at all. He inspected the monster and prepared to finish the fight.

[Primal Kite (Level 12)]

[(Intelligence)]

[Minion of the Primal Constructs]

Coop put a stop to the party’s efforts and stepped forward. He blocked the following electric attack with his own shield and shrugged off any after effects thanks to his layered magical defense. He stepped forward in the water. Utilizing all of his improved Strength and Agility, planting his foot, and throwing his spear in a flat trajectory directly at the Primal Kite.

Anticipating the dodge, he prepared his mistjump. But the monster didn’t get the chance to avoid the tip of his spear. His throw actually connected with the evasive monster, smashing the mechanical body and destroying it in a single blow. Coop paused as the monster dissipated into mana smoke.

Coop’s spear had flown fast enough to catch the Primal Kite before it could dodge out of the way. He didn’t even consider that hitting it with his ranged attack was a possibility, but his stats had improved such that his power had grown to yet another level, and all of the practice while fighting had developed his aim.

He was definitely ready to start grinding the Primal Kites. Once he finished with the Ancient Prowlers, they were next.

Shane’s party looked at him, stunned at the Strength he had put into his spear throw and the speed that it had traveled. Coop was honestly just as surprised at his attack’s effectiveness, but he didn’t show it. He resummoned his spear and watched as all of their eyes were drawn to the mist as it solidified in his hand.

“Let’s keep moving…” Coop offered to the four staring people. “I’m sure there will be plenty more to fight.”

He led the way and considered their tactics. He thought they were pretty good actually. Shane’s party was much more coordinated than he expected, with each member building off the others. Individually, they might not be all that impressive, but together they filled gaps and created opportunities for the rest of the party. He imagined that, with the addition of the ranged damage and support of Arthur, they were a formidable group.

They only ran into a handful of Primal Kites before they made it across the sandy channel. The one time they ended up engaged with two monsters at the same time, Coop made sure it didn’t get out of hand by defeating the additional monster right away.

The Tomb Blade took a direct hit from an electrical attack that nearly took him out of the fights. With his much lower Mind attribute, the attack took more than half of the Tomb Blade’s total health in one hit. Coop gave him one of Olani’s healing tinctures before they moved on. The potion healed him for 50 health.

Coop couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed with the small amount, but it was Olani’s very first batch, so they would probably improve with practice. The party was excited by the potion’s potency, given they had much smaller health totals. The Tomb Blade reported that it went down smooth and tasted a bit like strawberries, but he had a debuff that prevented more drinks from being effective. It seemed that the healing potions had a cooldown.

Coop also got to see even more of the party’s abilities. The Dragon Knight’s were by far the flashiest, with flames accompanying charged abilities. She also had the only movement skill of the group. Coop had seen it in the very first engagement. It had a long lead up time and was much slower than his own mistjumps, but it was also a source of damage as she slammed down with her shield.

Watching the Dragon Knight gave Coop some ideas about incorporating his shield more offensively in attacks rather than solely relying on it for defense and the occasional desperate bash.

The Tomb Blade surprised Coop the most with how different the class was from Coop’s expectations. Instead of being a melee brawler like Coop expected with his heavier armor, black longsword, and shield, he was actually a close range Strength-based caster. He summoned skeletal spells that had various utilities, like the grasping skeletal hands, but also had some interesting finishers. Coop’s favorite was a 10 foot semi-transparent gray skull with a giant black rune on its forehead that appeared out of thin air above his target, facing the ground, chomped once, and disappeared.

The Illusionist had various types of summons that applied a few kinds of crowd control or mirrored the actions of the other party members. She was able to successfully fool the monsters a few times by copying the Dragon Knight and having the clone attack from different angles, wasting the monster's lunging dodges. Coop thought she had a ton of potential with the way she could manipulate appearances. He imagined situations where she could trick enemy groups into fighting each other, crippling them before the real fight even began.

Shane had simultaneously the easiest and most complex role in the party. He had four different channels that Coop had seen. Each one summoned a large bubble that the entire party would be able to use. One of them buffed the party’s attacks, another their defenses, and the two others debuffed the enemies by weakening their attacks or their defenses. Shane had to channel the appropriate bubble depending on the state of the battle. A difficult task considering how quickly battles tended to change. Shane’s anticipation of the flow of battle was key for utilizing his skills properly. It made sense that he would make a good field commander.

The whole party revolved around Shane’s position and which of his spells he channeled. They might go on an assault if he channeled an attack buff to capitalize on the offensive synergy, or his defensive buff could enable them to be even more reckless in their offensive. It all depended on how he directed their tactics.

The only problem was that they had very little actual experience outside of the Empire’s simulations, which made them slow to adapt under shifting circumstances. They were coordinated, but they weren’t smooth. Coop really wanted them to hunt monsters around the territory and they reluctantly agreed after they compared their combat experience with his own.

When they finally climbed the sandy beach of the second island in the chain that made up Ghost Reef, Coop was excited to have a look around. Before the apocalypse he had visited frequently. Taking surveys of the wildlife was one of his responsibilities so he was able to explore the entire island chain.

This island was mostly covered in scattered palm trees with very little undergrowth. Historically, it had developed this way because the past inhabitants of the fort kept pigs on the island, and the pigs ate whatever they could reach. The inner portion of the island was full of tall coconut palms and the outer ring, just above the tide line, had short stubby trees. They never grew taller as they were more exposed to the elements compared to the inland palms.

Coop led the way straight down the middle of the island, intending to see if any monsters had made their home on the interior of the island within the palm groves. They walked up the golden sand beach and crunched over dry palm fronds and piles of old coconuts before finding decent footing on the packed ground of the inner section of the island. The coconut palm grove opened up as the old palms had long ago staked out their own little sections of the dry land. The first time Coop visited this island, Jones had warned him to watch out for falling coconuts, and he passed the same warning along to Shane’s party.

They didn’t get deep into the interior before Coop stopped the party. Up ahead he could see yet another metal monster. While most of the Primal Constructs had similarities to animalistic counterparts of the island like rats, jellyfish, or crabs, Coop couldn’t compare the one he spotted to anything he was familiar with on the islands. The monster leaned forward on all four limbs and had a head full of sharp metal spikes.

Coop counted seven straight horns of varying lengths on its head, all facing forward at progressively tighter angles. The longest horn was in the center and aimed directly to the front. The first pair of horns on the outside could have been mistaken for a single spike that went through the monster’s head where its ears should have been. The second pair was more than twice as long and were the thickest of the bunch. They formed a 45 degree angle between the center spike and the outermost spikes. The third pair were shorter once again and extended directly in between the longest pair and the center spike. The center spike was the only one that gleamed silver while the rest were a gray-black.

Beneath the crown of horns was a featureless metal face with four red light eyes that were lined up horizontally. There was no nose or mouth, but three more small spikes jutted out from the bottom of the head, all facing forward. The body was almost entirely covered in small dull metal plates that looked like a snake’s scales, but they were interrupted by belts of metal that seemed to aid articulation at the shoulders, elbows, and waist. The scales formed gray patterns that were alien to Coop. Its posture resembled that of a gorilla, though the head of horns and the long spiked tail definitely didn’t help the comparison.

Its front limbs were like fingerless arms that ended in fists. They were twice as long and thick as the back legs. It balanced its forward lean with a tail that ended in another series of seven spikes. In contrast to the crown, this time the first set of spikes were the longest and also gleamed in the same silver as the center spike on the head while the rest of the spikes were progressively smaller with the final center spike the shortest.

Coop observed it for a moment and estimated that it was eight feet tall even while it leaned forward. The longest spikes on its head were three or four feet long and the crown of metal seemed heavy even for the thick beast. Without the tail it might even pitch forward. It remained motionless just like the Ancient Defenders on his own beach, idly waiting. He inspected the monster without alerting it of their presence.

[Ancient Piercer (Level 41)]

[(Strength)]

[Minion of the Primal Constructs]

Coop sucked air through his teeth and quickly ushered Shane’s party back to the shore. The Ancient Piercer was well beyond what he expected to find. He thought the monsters were more or less following a pattern of growing one level per day until a settlement’s territory froze them. But it was Day 23 and the Piercer was level 41. He obviously didn’t understand the level curve for the monsters, if there even was one.

Shane’s party had been humbled by level 12 Primal Kites so they had no business engaging a level 41 monster with unknown abilities and wicked looking weapons. They needed to take quite a few more steps by fighting weaker monsters first.

Instead Coop led them around the edge of the island. The real reason he had come at all was hopefully in the water on the other side.

To be safe, they stayed in ankle deep water and made sure to have Coop in the lead. The last thing they wanted to find out on their survey mission was whether or not the Ancient Piercers practiced ambush tactics.

They were all pleased to remain undisturbed until they found the swimming pigs. It was a nice surprise for Shane’s party that Coop had kept from them. A few of the pigs were splashing around in the slightly deeper water but most of them were lounging in the shade of one of the other pigs without a care in the world.

One of the pigs had grown to absolutely massive proportions. It was so large that it could only wade in the water where the rest of them swam. This pig was the size of a van. It was laying on its side while others slept on top like it was an artificial island. Coop inspected it, already guessing it would be special.

[Gluttonous Wild Pig (Level 47)]

[Eater of Worlds (Body)]

[Chosen of the Shepherds of the Lost]

Coop nodded to himself. It was time to accept that he would just keep getting owned by random animals. At least he could be sure that the pigs would be alright with the enormous one protecting them. The wild pig must have been able to defeat the Ancient Piercers to level as much as it had.

Coop went a little closer to the pigs, leaving Shane’s party to watch. He counted the same number as before the apocalypse and was glad to find that they had all survived so far. When he got a little too close the van-sized pig lifted his head to look at Coop. Coop stopped and the pig huffed before putting his head back down, half in the water.

He decided to offer the pigs sanctuary in the fort if they ever needed it. It seemed a little crazy, but Jett displayed a level of understanding that was well beyond what was expected of a cat. So, he let the pigs know that they would be welcome. The large pig at least snorted in a way that Coop could pretend was understanding. He left the pigs to go back to their swimming and relaxing.

It was mission accomplished as far as Coop was concerned. He let the party know that he believed they had found enough and would head back. They couldn’t hide their relief at returning to the relative safety of the settlement after seeing the pig and the Piercers. He reminded them that it had become their job to keep the settlement safe, so they’d need to get stronger. They were already making plans to train together against the weak monsters outside of the fort.

They managed to avoid even more of the Primal Kites on the way back, only being ambushed three times before reaching the eastern beach of Rock Key. Coop separated from the group at the lighthouse and let them make their way back to the fort. He was going to wait until nightfall and hunt the Ancient Prowlers.

He decided he would be heading to the Endless Empire’s territory the next day, satisfied with Shane babysitting the island along with the phantoms. He wanted to finish the Ancient Prowler quest chain that night and get it done before he left. It would take an all nighter as he needed 7,000 more kills, so he relaxed for the evening on the stoop of his lighthouse.

He thought about all of the new faces that had joined the settlement. People would definitely be counting on him now, but he hoped he would also be able to count on them.

His days had become a lot more complicated in such a short time. He didn’t miss the confusion of the early days, but he did miss the simplicity of being able to focus almost entirely on his own progression. Coop just hoped he would be able to reestablish his routine. If he could break his days up into manageable pieces, it would help him manage all of the new responsibilities that kept piling up.

Tonight would be different, though. His routine wouldn’t recover yet. Instead, he had a late night date all planned out with his ethereal glaive.