Coop waited, balancing on top of the ship’s side railings while watching the fort slowly draw closer. Charlie was carefully steering the ship within the narrow channel that guided them through the treacherous reefs that earned Ghost Reef its name. They had passed more than one wreck. The ribs of old ships still reached toward the surface where they were sunk centuries previously.
Charlie had a significant advantage over the captains of past eras. With mana she was able to control the wind itself. Their speed was always predictable and their sail never emptied. Charlie had become an expert with manipulating and sustaining her wind abilities. She brought them close to the dock with ease.
Coop leaped from the boat’s railing with ropes in hand. He landed onto Ghost Reef’s sturdy dock. He was happy to be back, even if the circumstances weren’t great just yet.
He secured the ship and headed directly to the fort. His ethereal set had been returned to its more subtle coloration and no longer flickered with golden reflected light, though small ghostly wisps still drifted off of its surface. The dim light of the morning was all that illuminated the island, but it was more than enough. Coop quickly traveled the familiar trails, across the wooden bridge above the moat, and toward the main iron gate.
The group had agreed to let Coop do what he needed to do by himself. Camila and Charlie joined Mikey B and Amanda in staying on the ship until the job was done. They wanted to help, but Coop was sure that he would be fine and would feel better knowing they were as well. He wasn’t ready to trust Amanda and Mikey B completely either, so his two trusted companions would also be keeping an eye on them to make sure they didn’t try anything funny.
Coop expected to fight the rest of Kevin’s party at the minimum. The Puppeteer was one of the main members of the five man party, so that left four more to deal with.
Then there was the rest of Mikey B and Amanda’s party who they predicted would be loyal to Kevin and the Empire. They were completely onboard during training and had never hinted at any inclination for rebellion. Therefore, Coop added three more threats.
Finally, there was the full party of five that had guarded the ship and had only made it onshore after Coop had taken the vessel to the oil rig. None of them had interacted with them very much, as the group of five tended to stick together like a small clique.
All in all Coop would be confronting at least four, but maybe as many as twelve of the Empire’s lackeys. He hoped it wouldn’t end up with twelve people hurling spells around the fort.
He wasn’t worried about himself, he just wanted to minimize the collateral damage done to his settlement.
Coop entered straight through the main gate. He didn’t feel any need for a stealthy approach. He was at full health and full mana, and his experience with the Empire’s Chosen hadn’t made them seem very threatening. He really just wanted to get this whole thing over with. They had pushed and now they would be pushed back. He would provide the consequences of their actions, today.
As Coop moved through the tunnel to the courtyard, taking the direct route to the civilization shard, he was surprised by movement. He jumped backwards and aimed his spear toward the ambusher. Instead of a fight he was greeted politely by the upper half of a humanoid figure.
“Greetings, Champion. This one would like to give you a gift.” A robotic voice hailed Coop. It was the brewer that Coop had begun calling Brewbot. Coop hadn’t interacted with it much as it seemed happy to be left alone inside the Brewery. It had formed a torso, head, and arms out of the top of a barrel that hadn’t been in the entrance of the fort previously, as far as Coop could remember, it was a new addition. Coop’s aura had completely failed to detect the brewbot’s presence, and he flicked it in its direction to test his own control, but still felt nothing. The contracted aliens were still beyond his abilities.
“A gift?” Coop asked the robot, confused. Coop was distracted while he wondered if the brewbot was the barrel or if it was just inside the barrel.
“A gift. Please consume it immediately.” The robot presented a vial of a swirling silver liquid. It was interesting to look at, but Coop wasn’t sure about drinking it. It seemed like silver nail polish that moved up and down with a life of its own, or like it was inside of a lava lamp.
The robot ignored Coop’s hesitance and insistently reached out with the vial until Coop took it.
“Thank you for accepting this one as a resident. This one will be glad for you to remain Champion.” Brewbot finished and started folding back into the barrel, reconstructing the lid with parts of itself like the world’s worst Transformer. Coop looked at the barrel and wondered if he should pretend that he didn’t know the robot was either inside the barrel or actually was the barrel. He didn’t want to ruin the robot’s exit, but he wondered how it would get back to its brewery.
Coop turned his attention back to the vial. It seemed like the brewbot had good intentions, but how much could he really tell? It was a robot, so he had trouble reading it and his aura was useless. He didn’t think the contracted residents were capable of doing him any harm, but he was still confused at what this was all about. It was an odd time for a gift with him heading into a fight.
The contracted residents weren’t even allowed to give certain information on the system. Maybe Brewbot was trying to provide direct aid by calling it a gift. Coop couldn’t imagine such an obvious loophole would be left by the system, but he decided to drink the concoction anyway. It actually seemed like the safer choice to consume the mysterious beverage from the cryptic entity rather than ignore its not so subtle attempt to help.
He unstopped the vial and downed the silvery drink. It tasted like a tropical fruit punch instead of the metallic alcohol that he was anticipating, based on its appearance. Coop felt the same as before, but he noticed he had a temporary buff. Blood of the Machine God (Divine). He was immune to blood afflictions up to the divine level until the buff expired.
“Alright, then. Thanks, Brewbot.” Coop directed at the dormant barrel, before he continued down the main street. He didn’t know why the robot had insisted on giving him the gift, but he could make the reasonable inference that it would help in the upcoming fight.
He walked past the stonemason. He spotted Balor in the upstairs window. Balor nodded and Coop nodded back. He approached The Clumsy Shark and found it magically boarded up like it was prepared for a real proper siege. The upstairs windows had been covered by what looked to Coop like blast shields and the walls shone with power. They pulsed and flickered with waves and sparks of mana reinforcement. Desmond and Maeve had been in enough settlements to have added modifications to withstand damage. A fight at this level wasn’t much of a threat to their enterprise. It wouldn’t do them any good to lose their contract every time a settlement changed hands.
He continued past the tavern to the future town circle where only three figures waited.
“Stop right there!” Kevin the Hammer commanded before Coop had entered the circle. He and two others had settled in, around the civilization shard. “Kid, some fancy armor and an aura skill that hides your level isn’t enough to take us on!” Kevin warned, but Coop internally disagreed. It was probably more than enough.
“Where is your Champion anyway?” Kevin demanded. “We can get this all settled a lot faster if he would show himself.”
Coop just gave a noncommittal gesture with his hands. He didn’t feel the need to clarify who was the Champion at this point.
“I guess we gave him quite a scare if he sent you to negotiate in his place. He won’t even face us when his settlement is at risk.” Kevin concluded.
“What did you do with Jones?” Coop asked, feeling his eyebrows furrow.
“I sent some people to collect him, but they never returned. He must have defeated them somehow… Unless you came back early and caught them by surprise.” Kevin admitted. Coop was relieved to hear that Jones had managed to escape them.
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“Either way, he seems content to let us claim the shard… I can’t believe he managed to upgrade the settlement and get all these services!” Kevin exclaimed. “A challenge only lasts a few hours for a Camp, but this is already an Outpost, so we’ve got a few more days of waiting.” Kevin went on.
Kevin grunted as if he just got an idea, “Why don’t you go enjoy the tavern until it’s all over, kid. There’s no point in you getting killed at this point, you’re welcome to stay a resident after we take ownership.” Kevin so generously offered.
Coop took a deep breath and sighed while he inspected Kevin and his two party members.
[Human (Level 27)]
[Crusader (Strength)]
[Chosen of the Endless Empire]
[Tectonic]
[Human (Level 26)]
[Crystalsworn (Intelligence)]
[Chosen of the Endless Empire]
[Glittering]
[Human (Level 26)]
[Immolator (Intelligence)]
[Chosen of the Endless Empire]
[Heat]
He stepped forward, ignoring Kevin’s suggestion to take refuge inside the tavern.
“Wrong choice.” Kevin declared. “Light ‘em up!” He ordered. One of his companions, the Immolator, stirred and made gestures with his hands.
As Coop entered the town circle tall pillars of flame suddenly erupted around the perimeter. They formed a wall of fire, blocking the main street, wrapping all the way to the canal in both directions. Coop noted that a mana shield had formed around the tavern, preventing any of the flames from reaching its walls. The flames themselves appeared impressive, but they didn’t match up to the Zombie Captain’s flame waves that had singed Coop previously.
Coop casually walked through the ring of flames. He didn’t need to take any extra precautions, they were just that much weaker at this point. Even if the Immolator had taken every single point he had earned from leveling and put them into Intelligence, neglecting his defenses completely in favor of offense, he would still only have 130 points. Five unallocated attribute points per level with no profession wouldn’t be enough to surpass Coop’s stats.
Coop had 440 points in Mind, and every point added to his base magic defense. Then Salvation’s ethereal armor added defenses on top of that. He doubted the Immolator had assigned every single point to Intelligence anyway as it would be borderline suicidal to completely ignore defenses, so he was working with even less attributes.
When Coop appeared on the inside of the ring of flames, completely unconcerned by the inferno, Kevin’s expression changed from disappointment to seriousness. Kevin looked at the Immolator questioning his preparations, but the Immolator’s openmouthed expression was all the answer he needed.
Kevin the Hammer pulled out his weapon, which was a huge two-handed mallet decorated with jewels that glowed in various shades of red, gray, and black.
“Last chance, kid.” He proclaimed, but Coop didn’t pause his stride.
Kevin raised his hammer and slammed it into the ground with a roar. The ground actually shook and a fissure expanded from the impact, snaking toward Coop. Coop sidestepped the destruction and turned to watch it continue down the main street with tiny cracks extending from both sides. The fissure created rock spikes along its edges that cascaded out and magma sputtered out for a moment from within the rift before solidifying. They were going to make a mess for Balor and the laborers to clean up, but it hadn’t reached any buildings.
Coop returned his attention to the trio and jogged closer to throw his spear. Beautiful multicolored crystals formed on the ground around his feet as he moved. Starting the size of a baseball, the crystals swiftly expanded, adding jagged edges until they were large enough to match Brewbot’s barrel. Then they started exploding, sending shards flying in all directions away from tiny mushroom clouds of purple and pink dust. The flying shards then shattered and detonated in the air like unicorn themed cluster bombs. They were really pretty, but not much more dangerous than the flame ring had been to Coop.
Glowing orange runes joined the tiny crystals appearing around Coop, trying to intercept his path. These runes traced themselves with flames before blooming into blazing flashes of heat that burned the air. Coop just stepped around the runes, the proximity to the conflagrations wasn’t enough to dissuade his forward movement.
Once he was in range, he let his spear loose without interrupting his pace. Kevin stepped up to receive the spear with the head of his hammer. When the spear and hammer collided Kevin was thrown backwards like he had been hit by a train. He had been completely unprepared for the Strength that Coop had put into the throw, though he managed to hang onto his hammer. Kevin thought he would knock the spear out of the air like it was a mere stick, but instead he was tumbling backwards. Maybe he was finally done underestimating the factionless island boy.
“Quickly! Fortifications!” Kevin yelled from the ground after he rolled to a stop next to the civilization shard. Massive crystal walls sprouted from the ground around the shard. They formed a spiked transparent palisade that was difficult to see through. Light was bounced around the crystal creating a funhouse mirror effect that was filtered through blues, purples, and pinks. Coop admired it for a moment while gouts of flame exploded ineffectively around him.
Coop mistjumped to his spear, bypassing the crystal fortification completely. He suddenly stood next to the crystal mage and the fire mage. Before either of them reacted to his teleportation he made them an offer.
“How about you guys quit the Empire and join this settlement instead?” Coop proposed. Coop was really only giving them another chance for his own consciousness, but he still meant it.
“Die!” “For the God Empress!” The two mages spat back, summoning their mana to continue attacking him.
That’s just how it was, Coop thought sadly. He stabbed the crystal mage on his left, interrupting his spell, then thrust the spear into the fire mage on his right, killing him. Coop launched a third swing that finished the crystal mage off before the man recovered from the first blow.
He had already accepted that some people would zealously fight for their faction, deluding themselves that it was for the greater good, after his meeting with the Zombie Lord. In a way Coop was already doing the same thing, killing in the name of his own ideals, or at least in opposition of theirs. The principle of the factionless, Coop thought.
Kevin returned to his feet as Coop continued his march. Kevin brought out an artifact and held it toward Coop. Then he crushed it and a dark energy erupted from the crumbled remains, surrounding his closed fist before it shot out at Coop. Coop raised his shield to block the mysterious attack, but the energy simply passed through the ethereal shield as if it really was just mist. It absorbed into his body and he could see it moving through his veins. Coop felt dread.
Nothing else happened.
“What the hell?” Kevin angrily demanded as Coop opened and closed his fist, watching the veins in his forearm return to normal. The rage on Kevin’s face was unambiguous, he wanted to kill Coop.
Coop for his part had finally realized what the Brewbot was up to and now he had a theory for why it was allowed by the system. The Empire had provided aid to its Chosen from the outside. So the system allowed Coop to receive a counter. Coop thought it seemed a bit contrived, but there was still a lot for him to learn about the system. What was the system’s purpose anyway? Surely it wasn’t just to spread mana and play referee for all of the alien factions.
Coop had an inkling that the system was in conflict with itself.
Kevin interrupted Coop’s musings with an aggravated roar. Kevin rushed forward and swung a heaving two-handed overhead blow with his massive hammer. Coop raised his shield and brushed the attack to the outside.
Kevin whirled to face Coop and made another attempt to smash him with his faction-gifted weapon. A second desperate swing brought the hammer down directly on Coop’s raised shield. It didn’t budge. Even with gear potentially boosting his stats, Kevin’s Strength wasn’t a match for Coop’s.
When Kevin tried the same wild attack a third time, Coop sidestepped, allowing the hammer to complete the swing’s follow through. The momentum of the heavy weapon brought Kevin forward, chasing the hammer’s weight, where he found the tip of Coop’s spear waiting. Kevin died with a furious expression on his face. The challenge officially ended.
Coop stayed alert, anticipating Kevin’s reinforcements. He swept his gaze across the courtyard and spotted nothing out of the ordinary. He hoped there wouldn’t be anyone left willing to fight, but he had a twinge of worry that they would make him hunt them down before the business was done.
He watched as the flames died down without more fuel and the crystal fortification crumbled like a forgotten sand castle. The main street and the town circle were both scorched and cracked. Thankfully, none of the buildings had been harmed.
Coop dragged the three bodies to the side and deposited the hammer into his spatial storage. He also found that the two mages also had artifacts and they were still intact, so he collected them as well.
He approached the civilization shard. Coop double checked to see if any reinforcements were coming. He remained uncontested so he put his hand on the shard and accessed the settlement menu. He confirmed that his presence alone was enough to end a challenge to his ownership.
After a brief but flashy battle, Coop had successfully defended Ghost Reef.