Unchosen Champion

Coop stepped inside the plush lounge. It had an elegant carpet and plenty of open space with a central square bar area. A massive skylight above the bartender’s area lit the spacious room. Only a few well-geared guards were present, relaxing on a black leather couch with a low glass table between them. Coop started to walk toward them, but one of them shook his head and pointed even further to an area with a sign that stated VIP’s only. Coop snorted at the pretentiousness.

When he walked in, the door slid shut behind him and a young guy stood from a stool in the center of the room next to yet another private bar. This room had blood red carpet and bright red bench style seating against the black walls. It was certainly fancy, but Coop found it garish.

He hadn’t ever been given first-class treatment at an airport, and hadn’t really understood what amenities were provided. This place was like the private area of a clean, too well-lit nightclub.

The man snapped his fingers and pointed at Coop with a finger gun, “You’re the guy?” Coop inspected him.

[Human (Level 29)]

[Mindflayer (Mind)]

Coop was surprised at how little he was able to detect from the man’s aura. Coop was a much higher level, and surely had a significant advantage in his Mind stat, but it seemed like the Mindflayer class provided him with enough bonuses to hide most of his information. Coop was impressed and wondered if this guy could see Coop’s level.

What was also surprising was the second aura lingering in the corner, behind the bar. Coop subtly checked it out.

[Human (Level 30)]

[Shadow Walker (Agility)]

[Chosen of the Endless Empire]

[Darkness]

Coop kept his face neutral and avoided looking in the direction of the Shadow Walker, doing his best to seem oblivious. It wasn’t like he expected a private meeting, but he thought setting it up as though it was and having a potential assassin hidden meant they were probably up to no good. Obvious bodyguards would make better security just by having a discouraging presence.

“I guess I am. Who are you?” Coop asked casually.

“I’m General Rod, right-hand of the Champion, future Viceroy of Empress City, and Legend of the Endless Empire. A meeting as absurd as this falls to me.” He paused when Coop seemed disappointed despite meeting a Legendary class Viceroy. “Surely, you didn’t think we would willingly expose our Champion to an outsider?” He started to laugh, but stopped and squinted. “Why can’t I see your level?”

Coop blew air out of his nose, stifling a chuckle of his own at getting an answer for his unasked question. “It’s an official protection that Champions can apply, haven’t you heard of it?” Coop lied, not liking the guy’s attitude from the start. Coop felt like he was interacting with someone cosplaying as a character rather than an actual person. Of course, Coop had done the same thing to get to this point, more or less, but in Coop’s case he was roleplaying his actual role, representing his settlement, instead of being a beach bum grinder.

“Hmph.” Rod responded with agitation. He turned to lean an elbow on the bar. “My people tell me you’re here for negotiations between our settlements. Are you even worth my time? As you can see, we’re well established. I can’t imagine you have anything we would find of value.”

“I’m sure we could find something your residents could use, but I just wanted to establish a diplomatic connection to start with. You could show me how your settlement has been arranged, and I’ll tell you about mine.” Coop offered, fishing for a tour that would reveal the location of the dungeon.

“I don’t think that will be necessary. Why don’t you have a seat?” Rod smirked as he indicated for Coop to move further into the room, toward tables along the side wall. Coop shrugged and went along with the suggestion, but as Coop moved into the middle of the room, Rod raised a ringed hand and scowled in concentration. Coop frowned as he received notifications.

[You resisted Mind Collapse]

[You are afflicted by Mind Wrack]

[You resisted Mind Parasite]

“Now! While he’s stunned!” Rod hastily shouted, stumbling back onto his stool and leaning heavily on the bar while his nose started to bleed and a shadow nearby solidified into a man.

But Coop wasn’t stunned.

His vision had blurred horribly, making him feel ill, he was confused, and felt like he had the worst migraine of his life, but he definitely wasn’t stunned. He propped himself on a standing bar table and squeezed his eyes shut, fighting off the migraine and making a decision.

Coop was a forgiving guy, someone that would tolerate rudeness and ignore arrogance. He still wanted to be that guy, even with the world changing, but there were lines he couldn’t let people cross. An unprovoked attack was obviously crossing one such line.

Coop snapped his eyes back open and locked them onto Rod. Rod’s eyes widened at the fierce gaze and tried to shy away.

“You shouldn’t have done that.” Coop told him, then he lunged three steps forward, ignoring the shadow man, and crossing the rest of the distance between himself and Rod as the door that Coop had entered burst open.

Rod’s feeble attempt to avoid Coop’s unexpected movement was far too slow. Coop grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up while the well-geared guards rushed into the lounge. Coop spun around, still holding Rod in the air as the man struggled to release Coop’s grip. He inspected the three new guards while keeping Rod between himself and the four enemies.

[Human (Level 30)]

[Shield Sage (Body)]

[Chosen of the Endless Empire]

[Absorption]

[Human (Level 29)]

[War Disciple (Strength)]

[Chosen of the Endless Empire]

[Challenger]

[Human (Level 29)]

[Wasteland Binder (Intelligence)]

[Chosen of the Endless Empire]

[Stark]

The Shadow Walker turned into an incorporeal shade that flew past Coop and clasped a collar around Coop’s neck. Coop backhanded him with his free hand as soon as he solidified, still gripping Rod’s neck with the other, sending the man flying over the bar, crashing through the glass shelves, and smashing bottles.

Coop felt foreign energy run through his veins all the way to the tip of his fingers. Coop’s armor dissipated into mist and the other guards looked at him with various forms of surprise.

“Strong.” The War Disciple observed as a psychotic grin crawled on her face. It seemed like Coop would be facing a full party of five, though he’d already put them down one or two.

She pulled out a pair of shortswords and rushed toward him with giddy laughter that was completely out of place, and the Wasteland Binder cracked his hands into rigid poses that looked painful for his fingers. Coop threw Rod at the Binder, interrupting whatever he was doing and used Retribution to summon his ethereal sword and shield to meet the Disciple’s charge, and cast Salvation to return his protective ethereal gladiator armor.

No mists formed.

Coop strained his injured ribs to twist and narrowly dodged the swords that he meant to block with his unformed shield. Instead of countering with his own sword, as he intended, he landed a right-handed punch into one of the Disciple’s elbows, causing her to drop her weapon and gape at the injured arm, before he followed up with a left to her kidney, doubling her over. She was slow compared to him.

He went to finish her off, but the Shield Sage appeared as if he teleported to her side with his oval shield raised. Coop’s fist smashed into the metal and the Sage grunted as he was pushed backwards and fell onto the still folded over and coughing War Disciple.

Coop shook his fist after punching the shield and glanced at his notifications while moving to kick the Sage out of the way.

[You are afflicted by Soul Tether]

The collar had applied an affliction to Coop that disabled active skills. His armor dissipated when Salvation was cut off and he couldn’t conjure his weapons. Coop felt confident that his passive skills worked, given that he clearly still had so much speed and strength despite never investing in either, but he couldn’t pull up his status. Even without active skills he was dangerous, though his weapons normally multiplied his damage by giving his Mind stat a way to contribute.

Deactivating Presence of Mind had fully revealed his aura, but these elites weren’t deterred. Although, judging by his expression, the Sage seemed to have some regrets. The Disciple seemed enthusiastic when his aura washed over her.

Coop didn’t want to start rampaging without a solid escape plan or before completing his task, but they’d forced his hand. He knew they had access to dangerous artifacts and Brewbot wasn’t around to bail him out. Those artifacts were practically designed for high priority targets like him. He needed to end this fight quickly and decisively, before reinforcements were alerted or these guys got any bright ideas.

He looked at the cringing Shield Sage, who seemed to be nursing some injury instead of getting back up. Coop admired the indentation his fist had made into the shield.

“You guys started it.” Coop told him as he grabbed the War Disciple’s discarded sword and testingly swung it a few times. “What’s it gonna be? I might accept surrender, but you need to tell me where your dungeon is.”

The Sage spat in Coop’s direction. “We’ll take you there, then we’ll torture you until you beg for us to accept your settlement as our own.”

Coop was blasted with a spell that felt like sandpaper was tearing at his legs. The Wasteland Binder had resumed his casting. Coop grit his teeth until it stopped, noting that he didn’t have any visible injuries. Most of his magic defense came directly from his attributes. The Shield Sage had returned to his feet, dented shield raised and a needle-like rapier in his other hand.

Coop ignored the caster for the moment and slashed his borrowed sword horizontally, telegraphing the blow in order to encourage the Sage’s block. The Shield Sage bit, holding his shield forward to catch the blade. Coop used his free hand to grab the edge of the extended shield to yank it towards himself. The Sage, strapped as he was to the shield and relatively weak compared to Coop, stumbled forward, completely off-balance after expecting to receive a blow rather than be pulled. Coop ran him through and tore the shield off of his arm while he fell to the plush carpet with a thud.

The War Disciple had finally stopped coughing and stood on her own feet. Coop tilted his head, wondering if she was done. She smiled unnervingly, way too excited to fight, with blood staining her chin. She charged again, with only one sword this time, and Coop blocked her attack as he intended the first go around, using the Shield Sage’s dented shield. He counterattacked with her own sword. She kept smiling even after she lifelessly fell on top of the Sage.

Coop turned to the Wasteland Binder who continued pelting him, casting with contorted fingers. The attacks stung, and he moved to end the annoyance when a shadow glided in front, solidifying as it thrust jeweled daggers at Coop’s still collared neck.

The bleeding Shadow Walker had tried to catch Coop by surprise using his speed, but Coop was still faster. Both daggers smashed into the dented shield, to the guard’s surprise, then a blast of sand ripped into his back. The Binder didn’t seem to care about his ally and intended to tear through his temporary savior to surprise Coop while targeting his eyes.

Coop sidestepped, and reaching as far as he could with the Disciple’s sword, cut the Wasteland Binder’s hand, then with another step, stabbed him in the throat before any scream could come out. The Shadow Walker was also dead, killed by his own party member.

Coop watched the door, anticipating reinforcements, but none had come. The lounges were sufficiently insulated to prevent sound from exiting, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have some other way to call for aid. Especially if Rod was so important to the Empire. Coop gave Rod a kick, realizing he was just feigning death, and Rod groaned in pain. Coop dragged him to his feet.

“Where’s the dungeon?” Coop tried again.

Rod responded by twisting his face in fury.

[You resisted Mind Spike]

[You resisted Mind Spike]

[You resisted Mind Spike]

[You resisted Mind Spike]

Coop finished him off, then moved the bodies behind the bar. No reinforcements had come and the VIP lounge hid the damage from the battle well, with its garish colors and the blood red carpet, the actual blood was invisible beyond some wet spots. Coop righted the fallen tables and the only obvious sign that something had happened was the smashed back bar. His ribs ached, but none of them had been strong enough to aggravate his physical injuries.

He took a deep breath, and checked the notification that popped up during the fight.

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

The system granted too much experience for killing other people. He shook his head, not wanting to think about it. He couldn’t place his unallocated points into Mind while he had the Soul Tether affliction.

Coop grabbed the collar that was disabling his active abilities and started to pull, but he stopped before he tore it off as an idea formed. He didn’t want to fight his way through the entire settlement, he wasn’t even sure if he could. He might have a shot if they came at him in smaller groups, but he could easily be overwhelmed by the Endless Empire, and he really didn’t want to commit a slaughter like that.

Maybe he could use the collar as his ticket to get that tour he was looking for instead. He decided to give it a shot. In the worst case he would just be back on square one. He left the War Disciple’s sword and the Shield Sage’s shield with their original owners and used some bar towels and alcohol to clean himself off. He found some signage and grabbed a whole stack.

Satisfied with his cleanup, he quietly opened the door to the VIP area, scanning the private lounge for any new Chosen, but it remained empty. Coop placed a ‘Do Not Disturb, Private Party,” sign on the VIP door, for whatever good it would do, and headed around the private lounge and the central bar to the entrance where the gate guards had escorted him.

Carefully opening the door to the airport corridor revealed the gate guard’s party waiting outside on benches adjacent to the escalator. He put another Private Party sign on the lounge door and discarded the rest, then stepped through and cleared his throat.

“General Rod says to escort me to the dungeon, then return to your posts.” Coop declared confidently, before the party noticed him.

The group shared looks of fear and surprise before they calmed each other down, apparently impacted by Coop’s aura. It seemed like they needed to be pretty close to notice it at all, but when they did, they had instinctive reactions to it.

The Secutor with the heavy shield was the first to get ahold of himself. Once the fear faded, he looked confused for a moment, then looked at Coop’s collar and lack of armor and a look of recognition slowly grew on his face. He looked like he wanted clarification, glancing at the door, but the Do Not Disturb sign seemed to be enough for him to accept the situation as it was.

The Steel Inquisitor moved behind Coop with a laugh and pushed him toward the disabled escalators, but Coop didn’t budge, just turning to look back at the man. “Well, get moving, prisoner.” He barked, trying to enjoy the new authority over the outsider. The rest fell into formation around him. “I told you guys we’d take whatever settlement he represented. You owe me drinks.”

The Cavalier frowned. “I didn’t even think he was really from a different one.”

Coop had to decide whether or not to let them put him inside the dungeon, or jump them after they revealed the location. He wasn’t as confident about escaping a system constructed service as he was his fellow humans, but he was feeling like he had a deadline now. If he waited too long, planning a way to get in and out, someone might discover Rod’s party and put the settlement on alert.

As they walked him down the concourse, past the duty free shopping areas and hundreds of other Chosen milling around the airport, just killing time, he weighed his options. In the end he decided to let them put him inside. Either way, he was going to have to get inside, find Charlie’s parents, then get out. This way, they were knocking out the first part without any effort from himself. It was just too bad he couldn’t get a message to Camila and Charlie beforehand.

The guards walked him through baggage claim, through security gates, and past ticket counters until they reached the outdoors again, this time in a different direction than where he had arrived. They walked through a line of abandoned cars, waiting to pick people up, until they entered one of the massive parking garages. The parking garages had a central courtyard between them for pedestrians, but it was now dominated by a decently sized service building. It had the same footprint as the smaller shops, but it was much taller, peaking above the half dozen floors of the parking garages at each corner. Other than the top, it was concealed on all sides by garages.

They marched him through the stone door and stopped in the middle of the singular first floor room. Coop thought calling it a dungeon was a mistake, it was more like a spire. The first floor revealed that the entire structure was perfectly square, constructed of a dark stone that looked solid with flecks of mana sparkling from within. The guards let go of Coop and a seven foot tall pastel purple lady stood up from her position in front of a security gate that blocked a central staircase and walked over to them.

She took a good look at Coop then looked at the guards. “We can’t hold him.” She stated firmly. Coop got nervous, realizing that of course the aliens would be able to read his aura, given the level disparity they still enjoyed. He clenched his fists, ready to fight if he needed to. He’d just have to avoid confronting the alien directly.

“Just put him in one of the cells.” The Inquisitor spat back with a bit too much venom in his voice. Coop was taken aback by the disrespect he showed her, but she seemed used to it. Wasn’t she from their faction?

“Fine.” She said with exasperation, grabbing one of Coop’s arms and dragging him through her security gate. The guards didn’t wait around, leaving as soon as she took custody of Coop.

She stopped him on the second floor. It was another square room, but it had what seemed like iron bar cells lining the outside. Coop quickly counted five per side. Each one held a handful of people. None of them reacted to their presence and Coop suspected that the staircase and security area were concealed from their view.

“Listen here, baby Champion.” The alien spun him around to face her, revealing that she knew what he was. He had to look up at her and was frankly a bit intimidated to face her down. “I can see that you weren’t really captured by those weaklings. What game are you playing?”

Coop tried to look innocent, but wasn’t sure if his human expressions translated to the human-like alien. “I’m just visiting a neighboring settlement, seeing how they run things.”

“You humans are truly a difficult species.” She complained. They passed the third and fourth floors before she continued, “In the name of the God-Empress, I wish I was home.” Coop got the impression that the settlement wasn’t playing nice with the contracted resident.

They kept going up, and Coop kept checking each floor for Charlie’s parents. He knew what they looked like based on the pictures in their home, but he didn’t spot them. The cells held quite a few people. He could only guess at the alien’s organization, but it seemed like there was some system at play. Men and women were in separate cells, but still on the same floors, and the fourth floor was mostly empty despite even more people stuffed into the fifth floor.

The sixth floor only held a few dozen people and Coop noted that they were all sitting on the floor against the back wall, away from the bars of the front gates to their cells. There were no windows, but the walls emanated a steady gray and white light despite the black surfaces. He wondered if there was any due process involved in being held, but after meeting the settlement’s Viceroy, the answer was obvious. Of course there wasn’t.

The alien shoved Coop through the seventh floor’s security gate, then with a quick pull, opened one of the cells and tossed him inside. She smirked at him before she left, happy to flex how much stronger she was even when compared to Coop. As he fell, he thought she better enjoy the advantage while she could, it might not last forever.