Unchosen Champion

Coop joined other residents and phantoms that were similarly rushing toward the civilization shard. The distance between the southern wall of the fort and the southern town circle was crowded with half-rested reinforcements that abandoned their breaks in order to protect the shard. It had only been two minutes since the buzzer alerted them of the start of the third wave, but those few minutes were enough for another battle line to be drawn.

Rear Admiral Gideon, the leader of the phantom army, was personally leading the forces on their second front. He had posted himself directly between the glowing red civilization shard and the enemy forces across the bridge to the north. Gideon stood ramrod straight with a gleaming cavalry saber in his hand as he calmly directed the wraith messengers around him. Other soldiers and residents rushed around the town circle in a chaotic scramble to find suitable positions, but the Rear Admiral had established a zone of calm that was slowly spreading thanks to his steady presence alone. His formal leadership style was the polar opposite of Captain Kayla’s charismatic approach, but his competence was as clear as day.

Balor’s dirt and rock barriers had already been manned on either side of the end of the bridge, facing north, with phantom archers lined up with buckets full of arrows behind them. The bridge was completely blocked by shielded fighters, side by side, in a phalanx that waited for the gathering midrange fighters to form at their flank. They were preparing to push forward, across the bridge, to reclaim the open ground on the other side.

The monsters were streaming across the bridge and finding themselves stymied by the shields. The invaders couldn’t reach a critical mass as long as the volleys of cannon shots kept thinning their numbers. The Eye of the Storm was moored on a diagonal, halfway down the eastern half of the canal. The Tempest Fleet flagship was firing a series of cannon barrages, one deck at a time, stifling the accumulation of monsters and giving Gideon’s forces a chance to mount their defenses.

The cannon barrels that poked beyond the portholes glowed orange with heat as they waited for their turn to fire. Windchaser mirrored the much larger ship on the western side, though it only boasted a handful of cannons. Pirate casters held themselves up on rigging as they added their spells to the suppressive fire.

Coop walked into Gideon’s command area, intending to share information on the Ruin Excavators, but the Rear Admiral was already prepared. He interrupted Coop with a polite greeting and his own explanation of their enemy: small enemies with strong carapaces, weak to blunt damage, debilitating afflictions from both the claws and the tails, elites with a capacity for launching projectiles, preference to ambush and swarm, and a possible concealed commander.

Coop thought that covered it.

Gideon gave Coop permission to fight autonomously, whenever he was ready, with the simple direction of ‘go wild.’ The rest would follow his start.

Before Coop incited their offensive across the bridge, he pulled Mikey B away from the back of the phalanx to find out where Amanda was. Mikey pointed her out among the fighters, so Coop brought them together and gave them a special assignment, asking them to relay a message on his behalf and to recruit one of Kayla’s corvettes to do it. They promised to get it done. Coop let them go and prepared for another fight.

Balor’s stone bridge connected the settlement’s two town circles. Where the southern circle held the civilization shard in its center, the northern circle now had a brand new cavern as its centerpiece.

Ruin Excavators were crawling out of the hole and scampering into the north half of the courtyard. The monsters were scattering as soon as they reached the surface, spreading like a wave of insects that were suddenly exposed to light. Some were launching attacks on the shielded buildings and others seemed to search for places to set up ambushes, all while more were constantly leaving the darkness of the cavern. Many of the monsters wanted to rush across the bridge to attack the people gathered on the south side, but the Eye of the Storm’s cannons concentrated on the monsters that left their lair from the southern edge and reduced the monster’s numbers to a manageable level while Windchaser took care of stragglers.

Coop inspected one of the monsters from his position behind the phalanx.

[Frenzied Excavator (Level 45)]

[(Body)]

[Minion of the Primal Constructs]

The Ruin Excavators had topped out in the high thirties when he and Jett had cleared them out of the fort, so these represented another escalation in levels compared to their regular counterparts. Thankfully, it wasn’t as much of an increase as the Defenders had demonstrated when their Enraged counterparts appeared, but it was still much higher than his allies. The phantoms and many of the residents only had a few days of training and leveling before the event was initiated. He was worried about how they would fare if the enemies continued to climb in levels with each wave. So far, each wave had increased relative to the previous.

A quick inspection of a few of his allies surprised him. Despite most of them starting the event with levels in the teens or early twenties, he was hard pressed to find anyone below level 30. This event was making everyone grind experience whether they planned to or not.

He checked the event leaderboards before he lost the opportunity.

Siege Event Individual Scores

Charlie Seraphin - 61,155 (+36,035)

Coop - 60,285 (+39,021)

Shane Peters - 18,251 (+10,128)

Elder Olani - 17,744 (+8,499)

Reese Maddock - 13,242 (+5,741)

Derek Anderson - 11,855 (+3,783)

Camila Alvarez - 7,621 (+5,298)

Hozanek - 7,358 (+5,221)

Emmanuel Seraphin - 7,348 (+5,276)

Arthur Anonymous - 7,322 (+4,084)

The combination of the Enraged Defenders with the Marauding Prowlers had forced the battlefield to shift. The reduced stability and shifting frontline seemed to have affected some of the support classes more than others, with Shane and Olani’s skills continuing to prove their utility as Shane’s was proximity based and Olani’s were castable, lingering runes. Derek’s more time limited skills meant it was harder for his song buffs to contribute with the more random flare ups of combat as the Prowlers unpredictably reached windows.

The melee brawlers picked up their own paces since they were more involved in keeping the second floor secure. Essentially, during the last two days, the melee fighters took the role of the rotating casters who had more consistent opportunities to contribute during the initial portion of the siege.

A quick peek at the event leaderboards showed that the settlements with x125 multipliers had at least begun their first waves, but the individual scores were still completely dominated by residents of Ghost Reef.

Siege Event Settlement Scores

Ghost Reef - 1,124,046 (x48828125)

Kurradering - 4,873 (x125)

Neon Park - 2,994 (x125)

Wintermeer - 2,065 (x125)

Shinjuku Gardens - 1,184 (x125)

Valdava - 880 (x125)

Aotearoa New Zealand - 584 (x125)

Turnhal - 388 (x125)

New Elega - 182 (x125)

Reyes - 86 (x125)

The other settlements were finally getting in on the action, but it seemed like, based on their scores, they had only been fighting for a few minutes. Coop tried to look at the bright side. Ghost Reef had a nice head start for the leaderboard.

Gideon cleared his throat from behind Coop. “If you’d like to say something inspirational, now is the time. Otherwise, feel free to engage as you see fit. We will work on securing a beachhead on the opposite end of the bridge. When the Prowlers cease their assault, Captain Peters and his forces will join us before pushing to the source of the enemies.” Gideon gave a polite bow before he stepped to the side to observe their progress.

Coop tried to think of something to say to the gathered forces, but decided on something better and more his style.

He threw his spear in a high arc above the bridge, drawing everyone’s attention to the shining missile as it flew through the sky over the phalanx and then the swarming monsters. He mistjumped while it was still soaring through the air. Coop swapped the spear for the ethereal morning star, spikes included, while he rocketed towards the ground. He’d received permission to go wild, so that’s what he was going to do.

He smashed into the ground from over a hundred feet in the air, slamming the morning star into the unluckiest individual out of all of the monsters. The Frenzied Excavator was evaporated by the force of Coop’s immense Strength, multiplied by his momentum and Mind based weapon. A wave that lifted dust, dirt and smoke emanated from the indentation that Coop created with the gleaming head of his weapon. It blasted outwards like a miniature sonic boom, an undeniable signal that the battlefield was changing. Coop cocked his morning star back and swung at his next target.

The army responded to the sound of Coop’s crushing entrance with shouts that triggered their charge across the bridge. The phalanx of shields shoved the much smaller monsters that sought gaps in their defenses out of the way, leaving the Excavators to be trampled and destroyed by the second line. Coop knew from experience that the monsters wouldn’t be content to just die without trying to retaliate, but he had to trust that Gideon had prepared them with countermeasures.

Coop’s weapon crashed into monsters far quicker than they could swarm him. This was one matchup where Coop benefitted from recklessly destroying his enemies. His superior reach meant that his best defense was preventing the Excavators from getting in range to swipe at him with their shovel-like claws or stinging him with their triple pronged tails. As long as he killed them before they applied any debuffs to him, he was golden, but that meant he had to be in a frenzy as much as the monsters were.

The army’s phalanx made much slower progress. They were constantly forced to rotate their frontline as they caught debuffs that would cripple them. Occasionally, they weren’t able to swap fast enough and someone would collapse from the tail barb’s Soul Rot affliction. Coop was happy to see they were prepared for that eventuality, relying on the second line to quickly drag the victims behind the rest of the shields and seal the gaps. The victims of the debilitating afflictions had a chance to recover without being swarmed by skittering Excavators where the archers had been set up.

They had arrived with over 2,000 people, ready to fight, even after days of dealing with other monsters, so they had enough replacements to be considerate of the afflictions and hold the chokepoint. The experience of fighting the first waves had already given them a grim determination to survive and trust in their leaders to help them do so, though he hadn’t met a phantom that didn’t already seem wholly dedicated to Ghost Reef.

The bridge was narrow enough that it would prevent the defenders from exerting their entire capacity to fight, so the first priority was getting across to establish a perimeter from which they could launch their counterattacks. If they couldn’t stem the flow of enemies, they would be ceding half of the fort to the invaders.

The entire northern half of the courtyard was infested by the Frenzied Excavators and more were pouring out of the sinkhole. Coop intended to drive a wedge directly to the border of the hole, giving the defenders a chance to establish themselves, then he would round the circle and start wiping out the monsters that had charged toward the Training Yard, Blacksmith, and Town Hall.

None of the buildings seemed to be in any particular danger, with various types of significant looking defenses, energy shields, and plating protecting their surfaces. The other crafting services seemed a bit weaker, but he couldn’t really judge the alien preparations. In any case, the Excavators would need a longer period of free reign before they could destroy any of the settlement’s services. If they had been digging at the fort’s walls like the Enraged Defenders had, Coop would have been a lot more worried as they were better equipped for such a task.

The only other force in the northern half of the fort was the fifth division of phantoms. They had been manning the cannons and scouting from the battlements while the rest gathered at the south wall. The soldiers on the roof had to split their attention between the outside and the inside now, and the cannoneers would need to watch out for Frenzied Excavators flanking them. Coop would lead the way to making sure the interior of the northern walls was clear once again.

As he smashed his way up to the sinkhole he made the mistake of glancing over the rim. Thousands of the red lights lined the edges so that the entire tunnel appeared to be squirming while the monsters climbed out of the darkness. Watching that many monsters swarming at once was a disconcerting experience that Coop could have done without.

He didn’t let himself be distracted after staring into the abyss. He continued his efforts to curb the monsters, smashing them as they came over the edge. Mana wouldn’t be a limiting factor while he went berserk on the Excavators since he was just banging away with his morning star. There was just the simple equation of his Strength combined with his Agility competing with the Excavators’ physical defense and health pools. It was a contest that regular monsters had no business in. Even elites should avoid such a straightforward matchup with Coop at this point.

Outside of a few specific instances, Coop rarely had the opportunity to explore just how much his Strength attribute translated to real world strength. He was definitely multiple times stronger than he had been before mana, but most of the time, when he was fighting, maintaining some level of control and restraining his movements was a primary concern. Grinding demanded that he be quick, efficient, and often precise.

He had to consciously force himself to really flex his power, and not just because he didn’t really practice pushing himself to another level. It seemed like he had a mental block, as his subconscious prevented him from overexerting himself by going beyond a regular human’s limits. He was reminded of Ledwidge’s first lesson regarding the mental aspect of utilizing mana. Normally, subconsciously restricting himself wasn’t an issue, since none of the regular opponents he faced could withstand even just a portion of his Strength anyway. Coop thought it was probably a natural aspect of the brain to act as a limiter to prevent individuals from hurting themselves outside of the most extreme of circumstances.

Coop thought that fighting alien monsters as they invaded his home was the perfect time for his brain to let him go, and these particular monsters were tough nuts to crack. He smashed the metal carapaces of the scorpion-like creatures with unrelenting force, experimenting with his own Strength. The sound of his morning star slamming into the relatively soft ground gradually rose above the sounds of battle until Coop himself could hear the bassy thumps echoing back to him from across the courtyard. He embraced the rhythm and smashed away.

He was starting to enjoy himself. It was different from when his Haunted title rewarded proper technique, though that was also contributing. This was a more primitive excitement that came from smashing things than being properly technical with his attacks. It was more like being in the middle of a workout and having an insane pump. Nevermind that this particular workout had already been four days long.

His rampage continued until the end of the bridge had been fortified and dozens of midrange fighters started skirmishing in the field, attempting to surround the sinkhole completely. It seemed like their particular archetype would be feasting during this wave.

Camila flashed across the courtyard, beating Coop to a defense of the service buildings. Her Interceptor class wasn’t strong enough to smash through the armored carapaces of the Frenzied Excavators and she was a pure melee fighter that didn’t use weapons, so at first glance it seemed like she would be at a massive disadvantage when facing Excavators, but she was clearly as confident as ever.

She was fast enough to completely flank the monsters, even when they tried to face her. She used her superior positioning to drill them with powerful kicks that turned them into projectiles that smashed into their comrades. Where Coop was smashing them one at a time with the conclusive strikes of his morning star, she was able to destroy multiple monsters with one kick as they exploded into each other.

She was unique in being a melee fighter that left the shield wall behind. Coop didn’t see anyone else braving close range and risking the nasty afflictions that the Excavators could apply.

Arthur was another that extricated himself from the crowd at the beachhead. He was similarly advantaged, with his control of spacing, he was able to kite a dozen monsters at once as they leaked the red mist that empowered his Bloodseeker class. His shortbows kept him well out of their reach and his superior speed kept them skittering in his wake with no chance of catching him. He quickly established a cadence where the monsters were defeated one after the other like a fatal chain reaction was occurring, while he constantly added replacements to the small train of pursuers.

A phantom that Coop didn’t recognize calmly walked into the swarming monsters with his fingertips pressed together so that his palms were nearly touching. He had nine baseball sized gray metal balls orbiting around his body like electrons around a nucleus. They looped around him, spinning at varying speeds and distances.

When he cast his gaze on a monster, one of the balls left its orbit to bee-line into the target like it was a coin being slotted into a machine. The monster’s carapace glittered with bluish gray energy where it had been struck. It froze as if it was malfunctioning. The other eight balls shot bolts that matched the energy into the afflicted Excavator without interrupting their orbits, whenever they were closest to the target.

The monster was defeated before it had any chance to retaliate since its limbs couldn’t recover from the crowd control applied in the initial attack. A pair of gray metal balls reformed from where the creature had been defeated and flew into orbits around the caster, giving him ten protective moons instead of the nine that he started with.

When more monsters swarmed the phantom, he calmly teleported backwards, into an open space, without ever changing the position of his hands, and let the gray metal balls continue their work. Coop inspected the phantom, curious at how much progress he had already made to be comfortably handling the level 45 Excavators.

[Spectral Human (Level 42)]

[Charon’s Gaze (Intelligence)]

[Phantom of Ghost Reef]

[Collector]

Coop thought this phantom’s progress was utterly ridiculous. Captain Kayla had said that they progressed in a completely different way, but he didn’t expect the speed of progression to be that different! He didn’t want to try and figure out how many levels this guy needed to have gone up per day to be where he was now. Coop was just plain jealous. They might not get experience from defeating monsters, but defending the fort was certainly a major part of their duties, and serving their purpose was what gave them experience.

The phantom had a fascinating class as well. It reminded Coop of the spirit minion build that he had been offered. At least in the way it appeared to escalate in power as he defeated enemies. Coop thought the phantom would rapidly grow as he kept defeating monsters and collecting more orbs. He was glad the phantoms were allies. Keeping track of speedy classes like Camila’s and Arthur’s would be tough enough in a fight, but having an effortless teleport was a bit insane, especially when it applied to every class archetype.

Coop felt that the state of the courtyard was already becoming manageable, even with the sinkhole pouring monsters from all sides. Excavators without the ability to ambush weren’t playing to their strengths. With the battlefield stabilizing and the buildings being defended, he shifted his focus to the walls. He wanted to sweep the dark halls to prevent the monsters from setting up their annoying ambush nests.

He followed a group of the skittering monsters as they rushed toward an open doorway in one of the galleries of the eastern wall. They barely made it inside before he caught up to them, but they wouldn’t be able to escape his pursuit.

When he left the lit courtyard for the dark interior of the northern walls, expecting to smash some monsters, he was met by Jett lazing in the middle of the room instead. As his eyes adjusted, there were no signs of the monsters, so he looked at her like he was waiting for an explanation. The only one he would ever receive was that she was a cat doing her own thing.

She looked back at him before she got up and headbutted his shin, rubbing against his leg, then she walked to the corner of the room and melted into the shadows. Coop followed, interpreting her actions from experience, only to find that there was nothing but solid stone in the darkness. Jett had simply disappeared.

A few seconds later she just popped out of another shadow like nothing happened. Then she headbutted him again and walked into the next room, leading him like a cat that wanted to be fed. He followed her, realizing that the interior of the fort was most likely completely clear with the cat taking control of the shadows.

She only disappeared a few more times as she led him down to the basement, where he became more alert. He was wondering if there were Excavators swarming in the darkness as they exited their hive, but it remained quiet other than the distant clangs of swords striking carapaces, shields blocking claws, and the trickle of water as the ocean seeped through the ground. The basement was completely clear, but Jett led him straight back to the entrance of the hive, ignoring the puddles that made her paws wet. She stopped in the doorway and waited for him to head inside, peering over her shoulder with her tail flicking back and forth.

Coop peered into the tunnel, acknowledging that he couldn’t keep ignoring what everyone knew was lurking inside, but not ready to just enter the darkness on his own.