Unchosen Champion

Coop was inside the Eye of the Storm. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but he was in a spot of relative tranquility, isolated from the controlled chaos outside.

Captain Kayla was accommodating enough to allow him to stay within her quarters while they sailed to the mainland. A proper sailing ship on a quick voyage was a busy place, and Coop had felt out of place without anything to do to help. The phantom pirates were constantly in motion, pulling ropes and hustling back and forth, but Coop was just a passenger. They wouldn’t let him contribute even when he offered. He worried it was because they doubted his competence, but they claimed it was because he was their Champion. He didn’t really believe them, but he still ended up taking up the captain’s offer and leaving them to their roles.

He had been alone inside of the captain’s quarters and wound up taking a nap on an extravagant red sofa that occupied one side of the room. It was a fancy piece of furniture with dark wood highlights and elegant flourishes on the arms and legs.

A wood framed oil painting was secured against the wall above the sofa that displayed a landscape where oversized waves crashed into a cliffside island. A matching mahogany coffee table with one red sofa chair on each end accompanied the sofa that Coop reclined on. The small table had a model ship inside of a large glass bottle in the center. On the floor, an elaborate reddish brown patterned carpet tied the area together.

The sofa wasn’t really that comfortable as much as it just looked nice. A small bunk was tucked against the wall on the opposite side of the wide room that looked much more comfortable, but Coop stuck with the sofa.

The huge galleon was large enough that if he hadn’t known he was inside of a ship he wouldn’t have realized they were on the ocean. It would take much larger swells to rock the boat than the calm sea offered on the average day. There was no risk of sea sickness, even for those with a weak stomach. A large ship meant a large cabin for the captain. The single room could have been an entire apartment in Coop’s experience. He found no signs of its ethereal nature from within, it was just a sturdy ship as far as he could tell.

The walls were lined with sturdy wooden shelves that were shaped like trays and filled with books and scrolls. Shark jaws, glass bulbs, buoys, and rope nets hung from beams on the ceiling and a series of thick red curtains were bundled into the corners of the walls. The curtains could be extended to separate the room into different parts. A living room, bedroom, and an office were all on hand. Coop counted six different treasure chests scattered between the sections, but he refrained from looking inside any of them, not wanting to mess with a pirate’s booty. If there was one thing he could do to turn the loyal phantoms against him, he suspected it would be being caught stealing their gold.

All of the furniture was dwarfed by the massive square executive desk that was positioned in front of the huge bay windows at the back of the room. The windows looked out the rear of the ship, giving a clear perspective of the ship’s wake as sea foam swirled in its turbulence. A chair that was more of a throne sat behind the desk and four smaller unadorned chairs were positioned for guests. Coop sat up from where he was lounging when he realized the captain’s chair was occupied.

Kayla had taken a seat at the desk while he was dozing. She was leaning back in the large chair with a scroll unfurled and held up in front of her. She had her feet crossed with both leather boots propped up on the expensive looking desk, apparently unworried about the state of the antique. Several other maps were spread across the surface and an old globe was on one end.

When she heard Coop stir she casually tossed her scroll onto the pile of maps and, without sitting up, put both hands behind her head and rested against the back of her seat.

“You could have taken the bed.” She nodded toward the bunk, “I wouldn’t have minded.”

Coop shrugged, “The sofa was fine.”

Kayla gave a knowing smirk, “That sofa is not fine. It’s uncomfortable on purpose.”

Coop didn’t think it was that bad, but it definitely seemed more like a show piece. He turned his head to look at the back a little closer.

“I only ever used it for negotiations.” The pirate commander explained. “Usually, the person sitting there had already surrendered and we were discussing terms.” She swung her legs around the desk to put her boots back on the ground and leaned forward onto her desk seizing Coop’s attention with her gaze. “What about you Mr. Champion? What is it that you’re after?”

Coop couldn’t stop himself from feeling nervous, like the sofa really was an interrogation chair. “What do you mean?” He hesitantly asked the captain.

“I mean what are you fighting for? It’s no accident that you’ve become a Champion. Is it for fame? Or wealth? Would you like to be rich beyond your imagination? Maybe you want women? You wouldn’t be the first with that kind of greed.” She paused and pursed her lips, tapping one finger against the arm of her chair, thinking.

Coop thought it kind of was an accident, one that was borne out of desperation thanks to the isolation of Ghost Reef, but he turned the question around on her instead of answering. “What about you? How did you end up a pirate commander in your past life?” He asked.

She smiled at Coop like she was glad to remember, “I ran away from home as a teenager. I used part of my family’s vast fortune for passage across the ocean where I bought a ship. I got started after I found a blacklisted crew that had fed their previous captain to sharks and won them over. It was always about freedom for me. Being free and staying free.” She pulled one leg onto the chair and rested her chin on her knee with a content look on her face, waiting for Coop’s answer.

“It was just desperation that got me started, no lofty goals.” Coop thought he wouldn’t have taken the entire scenario as seriously if it hadn’t just been him and Jones facing the apocalypse. He would have let other people worry about settlements and factions, but now he was a Champion. “I have a few more reasons now. I want Ghost Reef to be a sanctuary, and I want to beat the alien factions that think they're entitled to control our planet.”

Kayla gave him an approving smile. “It’s freedom for you too then. I’m happy to sail under that flag.”

Coop hadn’t thought of it as a fight for freedom, but he thought the charismatic captain was right. His petty grudge against the factions for not making him Chosen had slowly evolved into a desire to avoid their influence altogether. The competition for control of Earth would be a free for all, and Coop was already fighting for the factionless. He really didn’t see any reason for humans to deliver Earth to aliens that weren’t even really here. At best, they were manifestations projected across the universe. But for humans it was home.

Kayla interrupted his thoughts to let him know that they should be arriving soon. They had made record time traveling from Ghost Reef to the mainland. She was extremely impressed with Charlie.

The combination of a crew of experienced sailors and a spell caster with wind affinity was something special. Kayla wanted to keep the timid Aeromancer on the ship permanently, but Coop expected other sailors to reveal their own useful affinities as they leveled up, so he wouldn’t let the captain claim Charlie. Besides, he really doubted Camila would allow it.

The captain needed to update her maps as they were essentially sailing blind with all the changes that had occurred with the assimilation of mana. Without Charlie they would have been exploring uncharted waters. Coop had underestimated the physical changes to Earth since the changes to the islands had merely been an increase in size with a few additional canals. The pirate crew were dealing with changes to water and air currents, depths, distances, and topographical features. Even the star charts were slightly off.

He left Kayla to her charts and returned to the thick wooden planks of the deck. As he went back outside he found himself in Sharkbait’s shadow. He was loyally waiting outside of the captain’s door. When he saw Coop he imperceptibly nodded, it was more of a blink, in greeting and Coop returned the gesture with his own nod.

The ship was as chaotic as Coop had left it. Members of the crew were running back and forth with urgent tasks that he didn’t understand, shouting at one another in a shorthand that reminded Coop of playing in team sports.

Charlie was next to the ship’s wheel which was manned by a phantom who pointed at sails for Charlie to send gusts of wind into. Camila stood nearby, diligently making sure Charlie wasn’t overwhelmed by the sailors. It seemed like the pirates were more disciplined and better behaved than the Endless Empire’s Chosen, but she guarded all the same. He wasn’t sure if the comparison was more of an indictment on the Empire or a commendation for the pirates.

Coop stayed out of the way, climbing to the top deck above the captain’s quarters to lean on the railing in the back of the ship. Even from there he could see land approaching if he looked across the length of the ship. They weren’t headed toward the main port of the city, instead planning on staying a bit more incognito. They would be arriving at a private marina called Crane Point. It was closed to the public, catering primarily to the wealthy and their yachts. A mangrove lined canal separated the Crane Point private marina from the Crane Point public boat ramp.

Mikey B. and Amanda had joined them on the trip and Amanda was using her profession to scout for Ghost Reef. They would be staying with the sailors while Coop was in the city.

The pirate crew had left 50 people behind in order to retrofit the ship that Camila and Charlie had gifted Kayla in exchange for the ride. Kayla had already christened the ship Windchaser in honor of the two girls and their abilities, and a crew was being selected from among the pirates.

The crewmembers they left back home were also updating the dock at Ghost Reef to better accommodate the Eye of the Storm’s accompanying vessels. It would take a proper settlement upgrade to form a harbor, but they still had the expertise of their previous lives to make do, for the time being.

The plan was to drop the trio of Coop, Charlie, and Camila off at Crane Point, then have the ship explore up the coast to the north before veering further offshore and looping back to rendezvousing at the marina in a few days. The ship would wait in relative safety offshore for the trio to return with the new recruits.

Charlie and Camila would lead Coop to the suburbs where Charlie’s parents lived. If they weren’t there they would head to the settlement to continue their search. Whether or not Coop joined them would depend on how the settlement and the city looked. Both girls thought it would be better if he stayed away, just in case. It didn’t seem like anyone would be able to detect anything from his aura, but that alone would be enough to raise suspicions. They didn’t expect the settlement to have improved during their time away and wanted to avoid direct conflict.

Hopefully, they would find Charlie’s parents safe and sound, be able to quickly locate anyone else they wanted to bring back to Ghost Reef, and have Coop explore the city with enough distance from the settlement to avoid detection. Coop wanted to offer help to people who were still hiding outside of the settlement’s territory while also hunting some of the local monsters.

Camila and Charlie had told him about the one monster type they found in the region and Coop thought it was a solid candidate for him to complete the invader quest chain with. A roaming pack monster that appeared in groups of five or six meant that it wouldn’t take Coop long to rack up the kills.

He just needed to find a place where they were densely populated. Since the monster appeared night and day, he thought he could probably finish their entire quest chain in two days, three at the most, as long as he didn’t sleep. He was assuming they wouldn’t be any more difficult than the Ancient Prowlers around his own settlement. It would take just over 16,000 monster defeats to complete the chain and he was motivated to give completion a shot if he got the chance.

The girls were encouraging him to grind monsters instead of trying to enter the settlement. They were worried about guards pressing Coop to reveal information about himself and being unhappy with his answers, no matter what they were. The Empire was trying to consolidate power in the region and that meant populating their settlement, but an effort to force Coop into joining them probably wouldn’t go well.

The ship approached the coast from the west and veered north in the direction they expected to find the marina. Coop watched the shore from the side of the boat. Thick vegetation formed a wall of leaves and branches that leaned over the shallow water. There was no beach here and the bottom was covered in thick mats of turtle grass and marine algae. The ghost ship was careful not to navigate into the shallower areas. Coop wasn’t sure if they couldn’t pull the same trick as they had when navigating over the coral reefs back at the settlement, or if they simply wanted to maintain some distance from the covered shore to avoid ambushes.

Eventually they spotted the boat ramp and marina up ahead and Coop noted the disrepair that the moored vessels had already experienced. Half of the private yachts were listing and a few were fully sunk with only canopies breaching the surface of the water. The long docks had room for dozens of boats and most of the slips were occupied. Even the dock itself looked like it desperately needed maintenance. He thought the apocalypse must have brought some serious waves to this area.

The Eye of the Storm slowed to a stop beyond the very end of the longest dock. It was quite a feat of precision to perfectly navigate the wind-powered ship, but they accomplished it without much more than a few shouted commands. The phantom sailors were kind enough to set up a gangplank for the three of them to walk onto the dock. Coop felt like they were exiting a limousine and walking down a red carpet. Kayla wished him luck and said she would await them offshore before the pirates pulled the bridge back onto the ship and started sailing away.

Coop let Camila lead the way while he took in the sights. Other than the oil rig he hadn’t been off of the island since the apocalypse. Ghost Reef hadn’t experienced much in the way of devastation, but his first look at the mainland was surprising. If he didn’t know any better, he would have believed a category five hurricane had made landfall right here at Crane Point.

The parked boats had been swamped, the dock was damaged, and even the fueling stations on the edge of the shore looked like they had been blasted by hurricane winds. They moved past the private marina and headed toward the more public boat ramp and parking lot to follow the road out. There was only a single pair of cars in the parking lot and both had seen better days. Both had flat tires and one of them had its windows smashed with the driver side door left ajar.

They kept moving inland as they had several miles to cover, wrapping around the city to the east side suburbs. Coop took in the sights like he was a tourist on vacation.

After the marina they went along a winding residential road that had walled mansions on both sides. The structures were set deep on their lots to keep the houses away from the traffic on the street. These too were damaged to a surprising degree. The roofs of some had collapsed and all of them had at least some superficial damage, with shingles missing, gates collapsed, or windows smashed. There were cars randomly scattered along the road, veered off the edge and onto the sidewalk or left in the middle of the lanes. Coop noted that the hedges had grown with mana, tearing holes through and collapsing the thick security walls that had protected the mansions.

Vegetation had done a lot of damage, but it couldn’t explain everything. He wondered if the damaged buildings were caused by people using their skills. Viewed through that lens, he could imagine small battles taking place in and around each building as people attempted to claim loot or defend pointless territory.

The first intersection saw traffic lights toppled over and when Coop looked to the north the street just ended with a perfectly smooth cut. The pavement was deteriorated with grass and weeds poking through gaps in the surface. Coop thought he and Jones were spot-on in recruiting a stonemason first. When they got back, Coop would make sure they were working on the fort.

Coop was periodically summoning his spear, still working with his Practical Application skill, but also in preparation for an ambush. Just because the girls had only seen one type of monster didn’t mean it was the only kind. There could be a suburban Primal Kite equivalent and waited for something to make an appearance.

They continued to travel through residential homes and suburban sprawl. If Coop hadn’t known when mana arrived he could have been fooled into believing the city had been abandoned decades previously thanks to the plant life. Camila and Charlie seemed to have expected the state of the structures and weren’t as surprised as he was.

It really felt apocalyptic, but they hadn’t found any other signs of life, human or monster.