Unchosen Champion

The Siege Boss launched itself toward the Eye of the Storm, using the effigy it had originally carried on its back as an engine to sprint across the beach. The dozens of arms now behaved like arachnid legs and the main body dangled uselessly in the center, almost like the host of an extremely creepy parasite.

The Eye of the Storm tried one last cannon barrage, but the monster’s momentum wouldn’t be stopped.

With a crash that came prematurely, The Fearless slammed into the flank of the monster, flaming battering ram lit, shooting fire across the surface of the shallow ocean. The pirate crew on board immediately started hacking at the limbs of the monster while they shoved it off its trajectory, sparing the flagship from an attack. The center mass of the monster was pinned under the hull of the corvette, dragging it along the bottom until it was pinned between underwater coral rock and the keel of the ship, a hundred yards into the shallow reef.

The legs of the monster found purchase on the ship and started ripping through the ghostly wood, shearing planks off the sides and tossing them away or thrashing the hull with frenzied attacks. After the boss had been pinned, the ship was torn apart in a matter of seconds.

The Siege Boss rose out of the water on far too many remaining legs while the debris from The Fearless dissipated into mana smoke. The main body hung from the center limply, dripping water and black ichor from dozens of wounds while the effigy started making its way back toward The Eye of the Storm. It moved at a slightly slower pace with its reduced legs seeming lethargic. The flagship remained in the shallow water, using its oars to rotate where it would have run aground if not for its spectral properties.

The monster barely managed to lunge forward before Coop’s spear slammed into the main body, tearing straight through one of the dangling legs of the Construct. Coop mistjumped to the still flying spear, catching it in the air and swapping to his glaive to cleave another of the effigy’s limbs as he flew past the rear legs.

A massive purple tentacle wrapped itself around one of the many other legs, ensnaring the boss as Kayla cast her spells from the bow of her ship. The boss tugged at the offending conjuration before it adjusted its strategy.

The monster paused and directed another affliction at Coop. “You will perish.” It whispered into Coop’s mind. Coop couldn’t avoid the miasmic pulse that passed through him before he landed in the shallow water.

[You are afflicted by Pronouncement: Demise]

Coop winced as he splashed into the water and prepared to continue his attack. The world lost its color, but he hadn’t mistjumped. He checked his debuffs and found Impending Doom. It lacked any description at all. Each one of the afflictions had been ominous with descriptions that implied finality. Now, he felt it. An anvil sat on his heart and he struggled to take a steady breath. He figured it was about time one of them managed to land. Throughout the entire assimilation, it seemed like only physically applied afflictions ever made it past his magic defenses.

The Siege Boss sluggishly rotated in place, stretching its trapped leg in order to keep after Coop, who had become equally sluggish. The shallow water further limited Coop’s mobility, but it seemed like the boss was struggling even more than he would without this affliction, especially if his allies were able to continue adding their support.

The Siege Boss appeared to be rapidly weakening and Coop was surprised by how much its condition had already deteriorated. Coop sensed how much danger the Siege Boss was in and with bleeding eyes, he grinned a bloody smile as his gums leaked crimson. He was at full health and mana, despite whatever was happening, and he wasn’t dead yet. He couldn’t hear anything but the ringing of his ears as it gradually got louder, and the edges of his vision closed in like he was being engulfed in darkness. But, he knew they would win.

Coop swept his glaive above his head, meeting a sword shaped limb as it followed him along the surface of the water. He jumped backwards, out of the way of the hammer limb, and prepared to retaliate, but he was beaten to the punch.

Camila practically ran on top of the water before she rammed the stretched limb that was still held in place by Kayla, applying her momentum into a generating pulverizing blow that cleanly severed the limb from the effigy at its base. The boss had been tethered by the limb, but it stumbled forward once it was released, not expecting the loss of resistance.

Coop swapped to his morning star and mustered all of his strength to bash the still planted hammer limb while the rest of the limbs tried to secure the bulk of the monster. When the weapon connected, the monster’s limb flew in a full rotation around the effigy and the boss staggered while it strove to maintain its balance while adjusting its other legs.

A gust of wind unexpectedly pressed down on the area with enough force to push all of the water out of the way, exposing the wet sand bottom to the open air and drying it out. Coop’s knees almost gave underneath the pressure, but the already off balanced monster was flattened against the sand. The wind ceased as abruptly as it had begun.

The remaining phantoms descended on the prone monster, wielding their teleports and unleashing a flurry of attacks while the opportunity presented itself. The boss was vulnerable.

“Coop.” A distant sounding voice spoke from behind. He spun around and Olani stood, leaning on her gnarled driftwood staff in the shallow water. “Hold still.” She stated simply as she plunged a bone dagger into his heart.

He sucked in air and stifled a cough as he almost choked on his own blood. The Elder pulled out the sharpened rib bone, now covered in sizzling black ichor and tossed it into the air, over her shoulder. A vulture made of bones appeared, and chomped it down. Olani drew an orange rune over Coop’s wound and pushed it forward, into his chest, where it absorbed into his skin and sealed the gap between his ribs.

“You better hurry it up.” She warned him as the colors of the world returned to his vision as blinked away unsummoned tears. “Long cooldown on Dirge Eater.” She explained as she applied another glowing rune that buffed his stats. She tapped her staff on the ground and a group of wolf-sized runed spiders climbed out of the sand and leapt toward the boss, latching onto a stationary limb and biting, while she retreated away from the fray.

Coop spun back around, no longer bleeding, but feeling like he just recovered from a very long sickness. He took a deep breath that swept away the rest of the brain fog that had been engulfing his senses.

The Siege Boss was recovering from the wind blast that had temporarily stunned it and was beginning to retaliate against the phantoms from the ground. The effigy’s limbs simultaneously attacked in every direction, but the phantoms had retreated as soon as the monster stirred. Coop moved in and had to hurdle over flailing limbs like he was jumping rope, but he noted that the monster had become even slower.

All three Cleary brothers took turns punching the shield limb as it slid across the sand and the lower part of the limb erupted as the Warbusters combined their armor countering attack on the most armored part of the Siege Boss. One of the other limbs split in half when an invisible blade sharp enough to cut the air itself bisected the arm. Coop recognized Jett’s most casual default claw attack, but he also noted that the black ichor didn’t spray out of the amputated wound. It appeared to have coagulated while still inside the boss’s limbs.

Coop took advantage of the gap in the monster’s flailing, created by Jett and the Cleary brothers, and pounced toward the main body. He silently gritted his teeth as he slammed his morning star straight down with an overhead strike that crushed the main body’s head. There was no flash of a level, so he continued to savagely pulverize the body with a rapid series of rhythmic thumps as the morning star made craters in the sand beneath the boss.

“Damn Siege Bosses won’t die quick.” He muttered through gritted teeth, one word between each slam.

Once the effigy’s base had been dismantled underneath Coop’s pummeling, the boss’s flailing limbs finally gave up and the defenders finally received their levels.

As the Siege Boss dissolved back into mana, Coop watched as hundreds of sea urchins were left behind from where their spines had been embedded in the limbs and body of the boss. Coop looked at his fingers, tightly gripping the shaft of his ethereal morning star, a bit surprised to still be standing. He took a moment to wipe the blood from his face, rinsing with seawater while his strength seeped out of him.

He started to carefully walk back toward the beach to join the celebrating defenders, feeling the accumulated exhaustion like a ton of bricks, as they cheered and hugged each other in relief, finally rid of the incessant timers that had haunted them for three weeks. But before he joined his companions, a beam shot through the top of the mana dome with an audible cracking sound, at what Coop had to assume was the speed of light.

The red mana dome that had been the standard background throughout the siege shattered and peeled away, deafening the residents with the roar of miles of shattering glass. The beam engulfed the area that the boss had occupied with blue light.

Coop raised a hand to protect his eyes as the beam expanded with the same velocity that it had arrived with, swallowing him, the defenders, the fort, and the rest of the settlement’s territory until they were inside another mana dome. The former red color had become so ubiquitous that the new blue color was jarring. It was like being transported to an alien mirror dimension.

As the beam flooded the island, Coop’s ethereal weapon and armor dissipated. His lingering Fog of War was cut off and Presence of Mind ceased feeding him information. When he checked his allies, they were all bewildered, though he noted that Madison and Charlie had both passed out, along with a handful of others. Coop checked his status.

[Sta#~s…

“Status is gone?” Coop frowned, trying to understand what was happening, perking up as the adrenaline came shooting back through his veins.

He couldn’t check his mana, but he knew that it was completely drained despite being full after the defeat of the Siege Boss. It seemed like all of his active skills were disabled. However, as he clenched his fist and flexed his forearm, he was sure that his stats remained. It was like having the Empire’s prison collar snapped around his neck again, but the sensation was far more all-encompassing.

They’d come too far to back down now. If another phase was starting, he’d start swinging first.

“Enough is enough.” He complained.

Another entity started to take shape above the craters that Coop had formed while he smashed the previous Siege Boss. Coop watched as a humanoid formed piece by piece from the tiniest building blocks. It was almost like watching the reverse of a monster dissipating into mana smoke, or maybe it was more like one of the service buildings constructing itself, from the ground up, out of thin air. He’d never seen a monster spawn, so it was possible they always came into existence in a similar way. He wondered if the same had happened with the black stake.

While the being solidified, Coop took careful note of the details. He couldn’t use his aura to inspect it, so he looked for weapons, weaknesses, and any clue that might help defeat it. Contrary to the mannequin-like Constructs, if he hadn’t watched this individual materialize from mana, he wouldn’t be able to distinguish them from a human. An intensely beautiful human at that.

Golden hair floated in an extremely long ponytail. The ends of her hair defied gravity and locks of hair framed her face with light as the strands shone under the setting sun. Her bangs were parted in the middle and gently brushed her jawline. A white blindfold completely covered her eyes, but tiny golden runes glowed along the top and bottom of the cloth with a calming pattern.

Both of her arms were held demurely behind her back. She wore a blue wrap dress, hemmed with gold, that matched her hair and the runes on her blindfold. Sheer white cloth fluttered in the breeze behind her shoulders hinting at the shape of angel wings, though they were transparent enough for Coop to see it was an illusion created by the floating cloth. She had a thin gold belt that seemed to rest on her hips instead of holding her dress in place and gold bracers that covered her wrists. Blue cloth covered her hands, but not her manicured fingers, and her feet had the same blue cloth covers, but her toes and her heels were both exposed. She stood on top of the water, on the balls of her feet, without getting wet.

Coop found himself absolutely enchanted, like he was in the presence of a goddess. He felt like he needed to be on his best behavior, like he needed to do whatever he was asked, like they weren’t prepared to be in her presence. How could they receive a goddess and ever be prepared?

Coop rushed forward, surging through the shallow water as he realized this could be dangerous. He never believed in gods or goddesses and this could easily be a manipulation designed to drop their guard. They had been caught unaware by surprises during previous waves, and he didn’t want to fail now, when it seemed like they were at the finish line.

The goddess smiled with her lips pressed together as he approached, revealing cute dimples. Her eyes were hidden behind the blindfold, but he could still tell the smile was genuine. He thought she expected his eager supplication and watched as her lips mouthed, “Oh!” as he balled his fist and threw a running haymaker at her jaw with all of his prodigious Strength and Agility combined with frustration toward the system for putting them through so much.

Her realization of his intentions came in the moment before his punch landed, but it was still enough time for her to raise a single finger, from behind her back, as if she would press it against his lips to shush him, but instead used it to block his fist.

Coop’s wrist ached from colliding with an immovable object.

She scolded him like a misbehaving puppy with her finger still up. “No!” Then she flicked him with her next finger.

Coop flew backwards, a welt forming on his forehead, all the way back to the beach where the rest of the residents were watching in fearful awe. A blue mana bubble encased him while he flew and prevented him from moving any further beyond the shoreline.

He looked back at the goddess, along with everyone else, waiting in intimidated anticipation to see what would come next. They were obviously completely at her mercy. She’d completely dismantled him with two fingers when he had the element of surprise on his side.

She shook her finger as if it hurt, then put it in her mouth like a little kid with a booboo. Coop held his breath. He was totally immobilized and all he could do was let his imagination run wild. If she was an enemy, they were as good as dead. If she wasn’t an enemy, he might have just made her one by attacking first. All he could do was wait for the shoe to drop, trapped as he was inside of the mana bubble.

After another moment, she strode across the surface of the water until she stood on the beach in front of the residents. She faced Coop, and even though he couldn’t see her eyes, he felt her gaze boring into him. He stared back, waiting for his inevitable punishment.

“Hmph.” She looked away, dismissively.

Coop finally exhaled. The goddess looked around the island, paying extra attention to the sky. It seemed like she could see things that no one else could.

“50 days? That can’t be right.” She mumbled quietly to herself.

She started inspecting the gathered crowd. No one moved a muscle, and Coop couldn’t even if he wanted to. The goddess nodded approvingly when she looked over Camila and seemed impressed by Charlie and Madison though neither had regained consciousness after their mana was drained. Emmanuel stood protectively in front of both of his family members, appearing prepared to give Coop’s method of attack another shot, with both fists clenched tightly enough to hear them creaking and the goddess let out a “hmm” at him before she moved on. She pursed her lips when she came to Kayla, pet Jett affectionately, and gently patted Sunny on the head.

She finally stopped in front of Gibson, Charlie’s former neighbor. “You. Ally of Genesis.” She addressed him in an authoritative tone. Gibson kept his eyes on his feet, but he stood up straight. Gibson was one of the few people who still had a faction in Ghost Reef and she had identified it when she selected him. “Has it truly been 50 days since the assimilation began?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Gibson spoke clearly, though he was obviously nervous to the point of his knees trembling.

“And you defeated an Icon of Mana?” She asked with obvious disbelief.

Gibson for his part looked up, unsure, then he looked right at Coop. The goddess followed his nervous look and faced Coop once again, then sighed. Coop couldn’t even shrug inside his mana bubble.

“We defeated a Siege Boss, ma’am.” Gibson answered, looking back down to his feet.

“Amazing…” The goddess mumbled, though everyone was staying quiet enough to hear a pin drop, so everyone still heard. “What was the name of the Siege Boss?”

“Irrevocable Condemnation.” Gibson responded, doing a good job being the involuntary liaison.

“Truly?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

The golden haired goddess looked up at the sky where the beam had shattered the mana dome. “I guess this is the right place in the end.” She stated dismissively. “So few… and this soon…” She mumbled.

She walked away from Gibson and put some distance between herself and the crowd, apparently so she could address everyone. She ended up standing on top of the water again while they all waited with bated breath.

The goddess cleared her throat in a very mortal-like manner. “I don’t have much time, and since my entrance was ruined…” She paused and made it clear she was glaring at Coop. “I will have to skip the introduction and congratulations for an abridged explanation.”

“I’ve come with two messages. A warning and a proposal.” She took a deep breath.

She made it clear that it wasn’t her pleasure to be the bearer of the messages. “First, the warning…” She slowly turned her head as she faced each person individually making it clear the message was for each and every one of them. “You will all die.”