Chapter 80: Torment
Coop glanced at the ridiculous number of timers on the edge of his vision and tried to parse how far along they had come as left the basement and made his way back to the courtyard. He’d lost track of the time and was surprised to find it was night again when he reached the open air.
[000:00:00]
[000:00:00]
[000:00:00]
[012:36:24]
He counted on his fingers as spells flew around the battlefield. Just five and a half days so far? The system should have given them a progress bar instead of all these timers. For some kind of supposedly omniscient entity, the system’s UI left a lot to be desired.
They had a solid two weeks to go before the last timer was completed. The days and nights were bleeding together for Coop. It was just one constant fight punctuated by desperate moments of flux as new complications made themselves known. He shifted his focus to the defenders that had surrounded the gaping chasm that had become the centerpiece of the northern town circle to see how the defenders were handling the current wave.
Even Charlie had joined the defense. She was maintaining a whirlwind that swirled around the exit of the sinkhole. It was weaker than her previous tornadoes because she was doing more long term crowd control than damage. The monsters were being whipped back into their hole or lifted helplessly in the air. Other casters seemed to be experimenting with skill combinations that could make her winds more deadly.
The glass droplets that Coop had witnessed devastating the Enraged Defenders seemed particularly potent as the tiny projectiles were swept into Charlie’s winds. The underside of the hard carapaces on the Frenzied Excavators weren’t tough enough to protect against the glass bullets when they picked up speed. The tiny volcanoes also seemed like a natural combination. They launched fiery magma balls that temporarily made streaks of flame among the winds when they collided with monsters.
The residents of Ghost Reef weren’t only getting class levels from experience, but also actual battle experience. It seemed like it was yielding some unexpected methods of coordination. Coop liked that. He had hoped his residents would focus on building their own potent classes that they would be passionate about, rather than stuffing themselves into a particular archetype, because he wanted to encourage the type of enthusiasm that might lead to creativity. He wasn’t sure how much customization they could have possibly accomplished at this point, but he still imagined the freedom to do as they wanted was motivating them to push the limits of their abilities.
His own enthusiasm had led to discovering a variety of hidden possibilities with his own skills after all. Mistjumping was of course the ultimate example.
Coop crossed the fortifications at the beachhead which were leisurely protected by shielded melee phantoms who weren’t seeing any action at the moment. He crossed the bridge and found Shane, Arthur, and Kayla near the civilization shard.