Unchosen Champion

Once again, Coop woke up with Jett on his chest, purring. She was a good kitty and he told her so. He had the feeling she already knew it and that she thought he might be a little dim for repeating it. He didn’t mind reminding her anyway.

Today, he and Jones were continuing the hunt for Ancient Defenders. They planned to push to level five in order to unlock their classes. He thought they would be well ahead of the curve and couldn’t wait to see where he would land on the leaderboards. Even if he was behind right now, he knew that properly crafting a build through his class, skills, and attributes would catapult him forward. It wasn’t that he doubted anyone would be more competent than he was, he knew, when the competition was the entire planet, that many exceptional individuals would make their presence known. But he doubted even those people would stay at the top if they were just choosing things on a whim.

This time, Coop had relegated his machete to a sheath on his back in favor of the pole spear. The plan was to seek more efficient kill shots by striking at the creature’s red lights rather than the more arduous process of dismembering the machines. They were slowly making their hunting tactics more efficient. They had also abandoned their pseudo armor cosplays since the bits of armor had proven ineffective for both of them.

Coop and Jones followed the same route as they had the day before and found the mechanical creatures in the same locations. The Ancient Defenders obviously respawned relatively frequently, but Coop hadn’t figured out the timeframe just yet. They had even defeated some of them in the same location multiple times in their circuit yesterday. In Coop’s mind, figuring out the creature’s spawn timings would be the next step in improving their hunts.

They utilized the same tactics they had refined the day before with the addition of Coop going for the eyes with the pointy end of his faux spear. It was devastatingly effective, allowing them to defeat the Ancient Defenders three times as quickly.

Coop tried to distract himself from the notification messages by speeding up their route. Jones could easily keep up thanks to his additional attribute points. He had earned a significant number by leveling up his Archaeology profession during their down time. His profession level had already surpassed his class level. He had saved a few points for the inevitable class, but he had still spent some in Agility and Body, believing they were more universal than the other attributes.

Eventually the anticipation grew too much and Coop started to immediately check every notification that he received, anticipating the level up every time.

He was rudely interrupted by a uniquely large Ancient Defender strolling along the beach. The different behavior and unusual size of this specimen prompted an Identify from both of them.

[Elite Ancient Defender (Level 5)]

They looked at each other and nodded, confirming they were on the same page in deciding that this creature would make a worthy final opponent before unlocking their classes.

Applying the experience they had garnered from defeating so many of this Ancient Defender’s weaker brethren, they approached with the confidence of predators. But this elite immediately behaved contrary to the lesser Ancient Defenders by moving to engage them as soon as it noticed they were advancing toward it. None of the others had shown this level of awareness.

When Jones thrust his rake at the creature it didn’t just raise one of its oversized legs to block, like all the others, but also flung its leg forward as if it wanted to kick the offending attacker away. The extra movement effectively countered Jones’s attack and forced Jones to stumble backwards before Coop had even engaged.

Coop opened with a front kick into the waiting guard of the elite, but after witnessing Jones be pushed backwards he prepared for the counter. When the creature drove its guarding leg outward, Coop used his extended foot to launch himself up, before the creature’s momentum pushed him away. This gave Coop a gap above the creature’s guard to thrust his spear at the red light.

The elite creature was much quicker than its lesser brethren and it was able to shift a second leg guard horizontally to protect its face, preventing the kill shot. If Jones had been able to occupy that leg the creature would have already been defeated. Instead, before Coop’s backwards momentum took him out of range of the creature it flung its second guarding leg into his spear, tearing its strap and tossing the flimsy weapon aside, out of Coop’s grip.

Coop only landed a few feet away from the creature, but before he was able to completely recover his footing in the wet sand, it was upon him again. Rather than lunging with two legs like the rest of the Ancient Defenders had, it only committed one leg at a time. Each leg stabbed forward, one after the other, and Coop was barely able to avoid a crippling wound as he dodged backwards, up the beach toward the palms.

At this point, Jones returned to the fight, attacking the creature’s flank by slamming the pointed end of his rake in an overhead strike into the top of one of its back legs. The prongs weren’t long enough to reach the vulnerable body-connecting cylinder, but it was enough to stall the creature and allow Coop to regain a fighting stance, even if he hadn’t had a moment to draw the machete.

In retaliation, the creature lashed out at Jones without turning, catching him completely off guard. The elite hadn’t bothered to rotate as all of the others had and leveraged its radial symmetry to its advantage. As its two back legs consecutively stabbed at Jones it rotated like a carousel until it was facing him with its red light.

Jones had retreated backwards as quickly as he could, hopping to avoid the legs until he was ankle deep in the ocean. The extra resistance slowed him down, allowing the creature to tear into one of his thighs. He didn’t cry out, but his teeth were visibly clenched.

Coop panicked, about to witness his friend and colleague be impaled by an alien machine. Coop was preparing to make a desperate attack with the newly freed machete to the flank of the creature when, instead of ending Jones who was sitting in the water surrounded by a cloud of red blood, with only mental defiance left in him, it used the familiar two-armed lunging attack toward Coop. The attack caught Coop completely by surprise as he had thought it was still focused on Jones.

The creature flew 10 feet up the beach, closing the gap between it and Coop in an instant. One of the spiked legs pierced his gut and the other went through his left forearm, knocking him backwards and pinning him to the sand before retracting the bloody appendages from Coop. Coop painfully noted that he had lost 47 HP, 17 HP, had a bleeding debuff, and a crippled limb debuff. Coop wasn’t as stoic as Jones and vocalized his shock and agony.

The elite dismissively left him bleeding in the sand and walked toward Jones, content to leave him incapacitated. Coop once again found himself flat on his back staring into palm fronds. He briefly recalled the last time, even though he might be on the verge of dying right now, it was much scarier back then, when the meteors were blocking out the sky. Stupid monster should have finished him off. He lost another HP point to the bleeding effect.

He thought it was weird how quickly he was able to push the pain out of the forefront of his consciousness. It was like he had years of experience subconsciously avoiding feelings, or maybe it had something to do with mana. Either way, he felt like he had options. It had only been seconds since the elite left him, Jones had put a little distance between himself and the monster, basically floating away to avoid using his injured leg. He still had a few seconds before he was in danger of attack.

Coop had to decide what to do. He rolled onto his side, ignoring the shooting pain from his pierced abdomen, and used his good arm to get to his knees before standing up. He retrieved the dropped machete and, observing the path that the elite was taking, finally chose how he would kill this monster.

He had attribute points banked, he could spend them now to gain some advantage or extend his life, but that’s not what he decided to do. Instead he scrambled up the palm tree, balancing along the trunk as it angled out over the water. This was one that had seen some pretty significant growth when it was exposed to mana, making it plenty wide for someone to use as a path. Coop ran along the trunk as the elite slowly caught up to Jones.

Coop wasn’t sure if he would make it before the monster killed Jones, but just as he began losing confidence the monster exploded into red flames. Jones held the spent flare gun above the water in one hand with his teeth still clenched.

The flare burned hot despite the wetness and the creature's momentum was arrested as it tried to shake off the damage. It slowly recovered with the help of the shallow water.

As Jones faced the creature down, Coop leapt off of the tree. He intended to land on the body and stab the monster directly in the eye. Surprisingly, it almost worked out exactly as he envisioned. At least he was on target.

When he landed on top of the creature, the creature collapsed in a heap, weakened by the fire, and Coop ended up collapsing along with it, receiving 10 HP of fall damage. Coop’s machete swing missed its mark, but did crush one of the leg connectors. Before the creature lifted itself out of the shallow water Coop’s second swing struck true and smashed the red light eye.

Both Coop and Jones were bathed in the white light of a level while the monster evaporated into mist.

[You defeated Elite Ancient Defender (Level 5)]

[+76 Basic Credits]

[+1 Elite Monster Token]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]

[New Affinity acquired!]

[Class options available.]

Finally! Level five already! Coop would have been jumping for joy if it hadn’t ended up being such a desperate battle where they both sustained horrible injuries.

Saving his attribute points had ended up being a dangerous gambit, one that he should have lost. He had lost 75 HP. He would have died without the bonuses provided by the Champion title. Before he checked to see if it paid off, he checked on Jones.

“Coop! You look terrible.” Jones couldn’t help but point out. Coop thought he was secretly impressed by Coop’s palm tree maneuver.

“Speak for yourself,” Coop retorted as he helped Jones back to his feet.

“Oh, don’t give me that. I only lost 30 HP. I just have a debuff called crippled limb on my leg. I have to heal double the HP lost from the injury in order to cleanse it.” Jones retorted.

Coop raised his eyebrows, “You too? I wonder if that thing had some special effect. I got the same thing on my arm.” Coop checked his HP status. “I also have the bleeding debuff and I’m down to 25 HP.” Coop frowned when he realized his health regen would be much slower than the bleeding effect.

“Well, let's get back to the fort. I’ll patch you up, I can damn near see straight through you right now.” Jones cringed. “Then you can take the next week, or however long it’ll take you, to decide on a class.”

Coop kept an eye on his health as he aided the hobbled Jones along the trail to the fort. If he got too low he would be forced to spend some attribute points. Jones had already confirmed that points in Body would add 10 points each to his current amount when they increase the pool. By the time they reached the fort he was down to 19 HP. Once he was patched up, the debuff eventually faded, but his HP didn’t recover from the first aid.

Jones was making all sorts of faces as he went through his updated status screen, and Coop left him to go over his own. Coop parked himself underneath one of the normal sized palm trees inside the safety of the courtyard, deciding that this was his new second favorite tree.

He opened his status screen but hesitated. He was anxious about making a choice, feeling like he had built it up to be of such extreme importance that he needed it to be perfect. But that wasn’t really the case. With a universe of possibilities, he felt like anything could be viable. In a video game, the scenarios are more static making some choices more correct than others, but in real life the possibilities weren’t so limited. At the very least, there were class evolutions waiting for him in the future, if he needed to rectify minor mistakes. He tried to relax and recall the island vibes.

Sitting beneath his second favorite tree he began imagining his perfect build. Even if this choice wasn’t the end-all, he was still hoping to manifest an ideal outcome into reality. He wanted to be tough with lots of regenerating capability. He wanted to have high burst damage and also relentless consistent damage. He needed a movement skill, area of effect abilities, crowd control, maybe even stealth. And he wanted to be fast and do it all from range so that he could stay out of danger.

As ridiculous as his greed could get, when he thought about all the skills he wanted he could imagine certain affinities that could probably encompass almost every single one. He’d bet that some kind of air or wind affinity class could have everything he wanted except maybe stealth and toughness. He didn’t even know what the limits were for affinities, his imagination was limited to the natural elements. He finally ripped the band aid and looked at his own affinity.

His heart leapt into his throat when he saw it. Spectral Affinity. For those who are haunted by the dead, frequented by spirits, or are themselves ghostly existences. The memories he had subconsciously been avoiding for years surged back to him. The implications of his affinity bound him into an unavoidable confrontation. The crippling survivor’s guilt he had effectively deflected washed over him.

He remembered the day of his freshman orientation, being notified that his parents had been killed in a car accident on their way home after moving him into the dorms. How he utterly failed to grieve properly, refused to take time off, and just continued on like he was unaffected. He quickly established routines and distracted himself with a daily grind that he wouldn’t let go. He thought it was his fault they died. Was he haunted by his parents? Had he become the living ghost of his previous life? Why would he be given such an esoteric affinity?

His affinity was supposed to be the foundation of his power in the new reality that Earth faced. But instead he felt like it was exposing a weakness he had buried as deep as he could. He had transformed into a hazy shadow of his parents’ only child. Outwardly busy, but internally uninterested and hollow. He contemplated whether or not this was some kind of message for a long time, unwittingly sobbing as the evening passed without him.

Coop was being forced to face his past and come to terms with what he had become. It wasn’t all bad. He thought they might even be proud of his mediocre, but slightly above average accomplishments. Despite his regrets, eventually, his resolve began to build. Realization that his parents’ memory didn’t need to be forgotten.

He didn’t need to run away from the memories everytime they came up even though they hurt. He let himself reminisce about the good times when they were together, and in a way they were still with him, they had left him with their legacy, and even now they were equipping him for the future. They taught him how to become strong and successful while encouraging him to build those attributes to help others.

He finally started to come to terms with his loss, and slowly pushed away the feelings of guilt by accepting that it was a tragedy but it wasn’t his fault.

Eventually, he embraced the healing that he had unknowingly begun when first arriving on Rock Key broke him out of his routine of avoidance. He was definitely happier after he got to the island, appreciating the paradise and all the tropical life. Coop could mourn properly and live well as he knew his parents wished for him to.

He looked up at the night sky through his tears and watched as the stars twinkled back at him.