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Chapter 164: Duel of Champions
🕑 Added 2023-11-29 16:11:01 +0000 UTCCoop let himself drop through the transparent protective shield from directly above. The enemy flagship had taken a distant position beyond the end of the Ghost Reef island chain, threatening his settlement with its continued presence. They had every opportunity to retreat, call off their invasion, or otherwise give up in the days that their assault had been resisted, but the Sapphire Armada still lingered. The Armada had been bombarding the settlement for the better part of a week and they had been taking a beating that entire time. How many chances did they need? They’d had enough.
Coop braced himself as he shot through the air. Not so long ago, falling from such a height would have been terminal, but this time he was mostly worried about the stability of his landing zone. While he was aiming to create a ruckus, he didn’t want to shoot straight through the massive ship and end up swimming in the deep dark ocean.
Luckily, the ship was sturdy enough to withstand his landing. When Coop smashed into the alien decking, the surface flexed under the pressure like a spring floor designed for gymnastics. Coop somersaulted forward and returned to his feet without an issue. The tingling sensation from passing through the shield spread from his toes to his teeth and was stronger than he anticipated, but he attributed the resistance to the speed of his arrival. The smaller shields he had already experienced back on the pig’s island were presumably weaker than the one they used to protect their entire flagship.
Coop wiggled his fingers on each hand to bring back the feeling before gripping his armaments and seeking a target. His shield and spear were held ready, but none of the invaders were present to witness his arrival and receive him.
“So much for shock and awe.” He mumbled, almost feeling disappointed that his sudden appearance hadn’t sparked any amazed reactions. He was a bit spoiled by the Endless Empire. It was almost like the flagship had been abandoned. Coop thought that maybe it was even a bit too quiet. He didn’t let his guard down while he scanned the interior.
The elevated perimeter of the ship was a solid wall of the same material as the deck, making it seem like he was standing in the middle of a stadium that had been constructed out of a mold. The edges had been filled with flat layered platforms, almost like massive scaffolding that grew from the surface of the alien material.
Rather than a standard boat, the Sapphire Armada’s flagship was fitted as though it was intended to be a mobile city with a large public space in the central areas. In a way, it was something like a modern aircraft carrier, but it had traded in the flight deck for a sunken place-of-arms. The outer edges were clearly below sea-level and were lined with four storeys of the wall-less platform buildings, like someone had mostly completed construction of enough dormitories for an army but neglected to complete the exteriors, and they were staggered with shorter structures forming giant steps such that the roofs were open balconies for the upper level.
A series of cylindrical structures interrupted the open space in the center, forming something of a spine that was embedded into the deck of the ship. They could have been the smokestacks of a steamship, but rather than emitting clouds, each one was illuminated with a gentle blue glow at its tip. Additional points of light were spaced out around the perimeter of the ship, forming a blue constellation that appeared to power the ship’s shields.
Coop wasn’t sure if it was lucky that the parade grounds were empty, considering he was actively looking for a fight, but there was a severe lack of soldiers present for him to engage. He had to assume that the massive ship was intended to transport whatever was left of the Armada’s assault force after their assumed victory. Clearly, they didn’t intend to bring everyone home, regardless of the outcome in their siege of Ghost Reef. Destroying their own transport ships had made that much obvious, and the flagship itself wouldn’t be able to hold the bulk of the Armada’s soldiers.
Coop prepared himself for a mission that was more like quietly clearing out one of the platforms of the oil rig rather than the all-out skirmish he had originally anticipated. Utilizing Presence of Mind, he confirmed he was truly alone. Aside from a pocket that was completely absent of mana behind him, the atmosphere was normal. Fog of War wasn’t an option since the phantoms were continuing their guerilla campaign back on the island. It would take hours for the domain to naturally dissipate, so Coop had time before he needed to return and support his comrades.
The tallest layer of the ship, a stack of the open platforms at the rear of the ship, seemed like a suitable destination, so he shifted to get moving. However, as soon as he took a step on the deck, an alarm began to chirp a warning. If there was any crew left, they would know that he was there. Rather than a piercing alarm, the sound was more akin to a crosswalk signal, if a bit alien. Additionally, Coop was spotlighted in a glow that seemed to emanate from the ship’s towering facilities, like a dozen spotlights had triangulated on his position.
“Huh.” Coop grunted in surprise. “No room for subterfuge, I guess.” Coop noted to himself. He felt like he was standing in the center of a theater’s stage, preparing to recite a soliloquy as the rest of the ship remained in darkness.
A flash of light from above had Coop instinctually dodging. A blue lash smashed into the deck where he had been standing. Rather than cutting through the surface it appeared to be absorbed by the ship, dissipating along the surface in a wave.
Coop quickly tracked the attack’s trajectory and spotted the culprit. Against the backdrop of the darkened sky, a woman had leapt from the tallest cylindrical structure, clearly in pursuit of the intruder on her ship. Long streamers of blue energy trailed behind her back, extending across the upper sections of the ship like tentacles of mana, connecting the constellation that he had observed initially. The web of mana connected her with points all along the edges of the massive flagship.
In response to the warm welcome, Coop threw his own spear, planting his foot with enough force to cause the deck to flex as it had when he first landed. His pursuer had no way to dodge while in midair and took the spear to the torso, but it was deflected by a mana shield just like the ones that protected the pyramid ships before. A ripple bent the limited moonlight as the ship’s entire shield struggled under the pressure, apparently protecting his attacker. As he resummoned his weapon, he inspected her aura.
[Human (Level 84)]
[Mirym Enchantrix (Intelligence)]
[Chosen of the Sapphire Armada]
[Siphon, Torrent (Champion)]
When she landed on the deck a circular blue rune appeared beneath her feet, humming with energy. Neon blue highlights erupted from the lines of the alien scripts. Her hair and loose clothing hovered like she was standing on top of an exhaust vent, lit by the neon blue underlights emitted by the rune. Instead of air escaping, it was clearly accumulated mana that whirled around her. Coop could feel it.
At first the rune only glowed brightly, a few feet in diameter with complicated alien symbols burning all along the edges beneath her stance. It quickly faded to a dimmer, darker blue and the streaks of neon that rose into the air dulled, without completely disappearing. Before it completely diminished, another rune expanded in an even larger ring beyond the edges of the first, glowing just as brightly. The second rune was six feet across and even more complex than the previous. As the second rune faded a third rune appeared and the cascade continued, accelerating as it went, until the entire ship was glowing with tiny scribbles on every surface, centered on the woman who had arrived. Coop had no choice but to stand within the lustrous patterns, but they didn’t react to his presence.
Her eyes were glowing with similar blue energy and Coop found himself a bit uncomfortable matching her intensity. The web of mana streams continued to connect her to the edges of the ship, like a dazzling web with her at the center, pulsed with mana. While Coop was highlighted by spotlights, she seemed to be illuminated just a bit more with her vehemence.
Coop shrugged, and gave her a chance. “I’m here to accept your surrender.”
The Enchantrix smiled at him, but her eyes were sinister. “You’ve made a mistake.” She stated through her grin. “Champion…” She added with a bit too much hunger in her voice.
Coop squinted at her, wondering if she was deranged. Had she not been following the progress of the Armada’s siege? “You’re the ones who made a mistake. Attacking us was never going to work out.”
She continued smiling. “On the contrary, all we need to do is defeat the Champion. It isn’t over until one of us falls and I have the advantage. We all know this.” She stated, spreading her arms as if they had an audience. “You will be the one to determine the victor.”
Coop stopped holding his aura back, and spun his resummoned spear with a flourish toward her. “The last person that wanted a duel ended up regretting it. Briefly.”
Her smile shrank and her glowing eyes grew slightly wider as the pressure of his titles washed over the ship, but her posture didn’t change. “A duel? How quaint. Did you think we would come without preparing counter measures for the strongest being on Earth?”
“Strongest human.” Coop corrected proudly.
She just snorted, and a cloud of blue mana exited her nostrils like she was some kind of dragon. Coop wondered if he could do that with his mists as he prepared for the fight.
“You could still have your troops retreat.” Coop offered, though he had already taken a combat stance with the bottom half of his face behind his shield. If he was honest with himself, he was a bit curious as to what they had prepared. Powering up a lower level with the ship’s shields? There was no way that would be enough to take him on. The difference between them was too great, but with Presence of Mind, he could see that she had no back up nearby. Only the streams of energy connecting her provided any support.
She just laughed in response. “That’s not how this whole contest works. Conflict will occur regardless. Only those who fight will be the ones to inherit Earth at the end.”
Coop sighed, feeling a wave of fatigue he hadn’t expected. “The planet is a big place, I’m sure we could just mind our own business.”
She laughed again, sounding even more amused than the first time. “We are but minnows dancing in front of sharks, our survival is up to them.” The smile disappeared from her face completely and the blue light in her eyes erupted into miniature flames that rose beyond her eyebrows. “Come Champion, let’s see who will claim this planet.”
Coop shot forward, blasting a hole into the flexible deck as layers folded on themselves in his wake, despite its previously verified toughness. The destruction ruined the ring of runes that had extended beneath his feet. He lunged straight at his opponent, trusting his stats more than any other detail. If they had special defenses prepared, he would crush them, and if they had countermeasures, he would withstand them.
The gap between the two Champions closed instantaneously. His spear thrust straight forward combining his Strength with his Agility as he leveraged his momentum into his strike. Behind him, each layer of runes exploded like he had stepped on a landmine, releasing blue mana as if it was napalm. He had simply blown past them.
The Enchantrix was completely unable to react to Coop’s speed, practically frozen with how much slower she was compared to Coop’s uncoiling attack. But, to Coop’s surprise, when his spear point would have collided with her neck, it was instead met with an unmovable shield.
Mana exploded in all directions, but Coop was unable to add any follow-through to his attack, despite all of his accumulated power. His muscles ached in a way that reminded him of being blocked by the Avatar of the System herself, but his form didn’t falter. He hadn’t held back in any way. It was a strike meant to end the fight before it really even started, but it seemed like they actually had been prepared. He’d give the Sapphire Armada that much credit at least.
One of the streams of energy that connected the Enchantrix to the external empowerment of the ship popped like a chain of firecrackers speeding up a string. Coop watched the avalanche of blue sparks in the corner of his eye as they traced the beam until it reached the top of one of the cylindrical structures that ran down the spine of the ship. A single burst of blue flames erupted at the end, a fraction of a second after Coop landed his strike, like something spontaneously combusted. The top of the structure lost its blue light and the Enchantrix was down one connection, whatever they did, but she had about two dozen more.
The Enchantrix had a new expression on her face, one that could have been awe if not for the sinister way the edge of her lips twitched upwards, she almost looked like she would try mocking him, but Coop’s followup attack was already connecting. A second explosion of mana erupted at the base of her neck, flying out behind her, but Coop’s spear didn’t cause any obvious damage. The second attack failed to elicit another chain reaction down any of the streams of energy, though they all lit up the night with their glassy blue illumination. The third in his triple thrust had the same limited impact as the second and the sky was covered by an electric blue spider web that began to feel oppressive.
Coop slid backwards, slightly out of range as whips of liquid mana lashed at his own neck. One of them snapped in the air where he had been, splashing clear water in all directions while a second smashed into the ground, absorbing into the deck and reigniting a rune, and a third flicked toward his new position.
Coop caught the spiked ends with his shield. To his surprise, the force of the blow caused him to stagger backwards with a grunt. He raised his eyebrows as he realized she was much stronger than he had guessed. That wasn’t the power of someone 50 levels beneath him. The matchup was closer to even.
As he slid into the fifth ring of runes, a liquid crystal box sprung into existence around him, blurring his vision from within the rune prison. The Enchantrix hovered towards him, as if she was being guided by the strings of mana that connected to her body. Coop could see that she was much slower than he was, as she wound up with her right arm to attack him with her water whips while he was trapped in the rune’s walls. Before she could lash at him, he stomped his foot into the ground, blasting a hole in the deck and destroying the neon blue activated rune. The cage shattered like a sheet of ice.
Coop was lunging forward again, speartip steady as he aimed to repeat his first attack in the form of a counter that interrupted his opponent’s assault. She didn’t flinch, opting to trade blows rather than brace herself. Coop’s spear smashed into her torso, creating another mana explosion that drove her down to the ground.
To his surprise, the whip still thrashed against his extended arm, drawing three clear lines deep into his flesh down from his shoulder almost to his elbow. He blew air out of his nose as he stepped forward, acknowledging that she had managed to do more damage than expected. All the more reason for him to not hold back.
She was already back to hovering slightly off the ground, this time gliding backwards, away from him to try and leverage her water whip’s superior range. Coop threw his spear instead of chasing her, letting it fly just past her shoulder before he mistjumped to her side. Instead of using the edge of his weapon, he bashed her with his shield, choosing to put her off balance while his warhammer manifested in his other hand.
Before she had finished reeling from the shield blow, he brought the end of the relatively small hammer down in an overhand blow. A flat energy shield appeared, catching the blow six inches before it reached her, unlike his spear blows that had been right at her skin. It rippled like he smashed an impossibly viscous sheet of water, giving her a chance to twist and rake him with a wild swing of her other whip. The horizontal slashes gouged his protected abs with his ethereal armor preventing the attack from drawing blood, though he still received an unusual amount of damage.
Her other arm followed suit, but he comfortably ducked underneath the wild blow and swung his hammer with a side arm blow aiming for her knee. Another liquid shield appeared before his blow landed. Coop could feel the heat rising off his neck as his frustration built. A lower level challenger that was tougher than he was and almost as strong? He was silently scolding himself for becoming too comfortable. In the middle of the fight, he felt the desire to go grind.
He swept at her ankles with his shield, releasing his grip and letting it slide through the neon blue runes, but she avoided the low telegraphed attack, falling into his trap as he brought the nasty end of his hammer to her chin in an uppercut that had him leaping off the ground as well. When it collided with her chin, another explosion of blue mana burst into the air and a second stream of explosions destroyed one of the beams that appeared to be empowering the Enchantrix. That was two down.
The blow lifted her further in the air so that she would fall onto her back. Coop mistjumped to his sliding shield and brought his hammer down into her torso as he rose to his feet and before she hit the floor. The hammer blow destroyed another beam and smashed her into the deck with a yelp of surprise. It didn’t seem like he was hurting her at all, but a third beam was severed as a blue flame exploded near the end of the ship.
She jerked back up into the air, rushing out of the human-sized indentation in the deck before he could pin her down. Her whips flailed around her, wildly striking at him repeatedly, but they were nothing compared to the Construct arms wielded by the first Icon of Mana. He easily side-stepped the uncontrolled attacks, leaping over one after ducking another, throwing his shield forward to block a forward attack while he was in the air, then diving between a pair that came from above and underneath the gap his shield created before he mistjumped to his flung hammer.
He didn’t know what mechanic she was using to be so strong, but he would test its limits. What kind of stamina would she have while wielding such power? He wondered.
When he caught up with her, his ethereal bo staff whipped through the air, smashing one liquid mana shield after another with cracking sounds that snapped through the night air. The only interruption to the whooshing blows came when he opted to dodge her whip attacks. They bit at his limbs like snakes, and he accepted many of the strikes, only avoiding being wrapped up or slowed down, trusting his attributes to be enough to withstand glancing blows.
The next time he found himself inside of a rune prison he swapped to his morning star and smashed through the wall. She hadn’t rushed forward while he was trapped, instead making distance, but Coop steadily stomped after her. A second rune prison barely slowed him down, using his shoulder to plow through. He caught her with his first Legacy of the Mists cast, having saved it to catch her by surprise. She hadn’t expected the phantasm appearing above and behind her while Coop chased after her with a strictly melee weapon. The phantasm smashed her to her knees right in front of Coop who was already bringing his morning star down like a sledgehammer, anticipating the combination move to deliver.
A liquid mana shield appeared before he struck her, but the protective barrier exploded from the effort of blocking his smash, and Coop was already bringing the morning star down again, using the recoil of the barriers to reset his attack. Another barrier exploded and another flame erupted.
The Enchantrix tried trading blows, expecting to out sustain Coop with her barriers, but he didn’t let up. “Die already!” She shouted as she raked Coop with her whips and he smashed another shield.
He destroyed barrier after barrier and with each strike his Strength increased. Mindbender was kicking in, piling his ridiculous stats into Strength alone. 2,000 Strength with one blow, and a shield smashed into glittering fragments. 2,500 Strength with the next, and the shield was nothing but dust. On and on until he was bringing his morning star down with 6,000 Strength and smashing the Enchantrix with the followthrough after disintegrating the mana shields with each blow. Each attack resulted in a smashed barrier and another spontaneous blue flame somewhere on the flagship.
After two dozen bursts of sapphire energy all around the ship, the Enchantrix herself simply exploded. The same blue flames that had been erupting in various places on the perimeter of the ship launched Coop backwards until he was sliding through the ruined blue formations of spent runes.
[You defeated a Champion - Civilization Shard claim priority enabled.]
Comments
mathieu brassard
Another zealot with a different color. The big shots upstairs dont know how coop got so strong without backing while peons think he is weak. Someones need to lay off the juice
Amadhe
Honestly, that went down just like I expected it to. Coop Smash indeed. The Enchantrix truly couldn't compare to the Icons of Mana Coop has defeated.
