Chapter 160: Guardians of Ghost Reef
The Sapphire Armada continued their bombardment of Ghost Reef through the night. The Armada tried to keep the pressure on the fort even as the number of their battleships diminished. The blockade started to fall apart with the smaller ships parading toward the furthest island to discharge the troops they carried. Both forces were conserving their strength in anticipation of a major engagement. Even though Shane and Gideon wished to keep Coop in reserve, along with the hidden group of phantoms, Coop remained on the walls. He felt like he had been absent long enough.
Coop finally began contributing to the defense with high arcing spear throws, joining some of the coordinated attacks with his own version of the devastating meteors, but as the night went on, the fighting slowed. The Sapphire Armada had nearly finished gathering their forces on the other end of the island chain, and as they did, they fully abandoned the blockade of the fortress. Only the battleships remained, but even the siege ships’ numbers had been cut in half thanks to the coordinated strikes launched by Ghost Reef’s defenders.
Jones had been in charge of the northern wall’s defense, leading the most devastating attacks with his own powerful spells. As the siege evolved, he rotated along the walls and Coop added his firepower to the old caretaker's tactics. The additional damage provided by the ethereal spears resulted in a few more defeated battleships, but Jones was clearly pushing himself to his own limits.
“Take it easy old man.” Elder Olani continually advised as Jones prepared yet another cascade of spells with a long countdown from ten to help with the timing of variable abilities with different velocities and cast times. She had been supporting Jones with her own runic spells as the old caretaker applied his lifepool in empowering his bloodstone meteors to the absolute maximum that his stats would allow.
“I am only going as far as necessary.” Jones argued stubbornly as he braced himself against the ramparts, weakened from another meteor. He was wielding the Unique tier weapon that Coop had commissioned from Garod. “I’d have to be fully incapacitated to let anyone else chip away at the fortress without retaliating.”
“You’ll put yourself into another coma if you don’t take enough breaks.” Olani pointed out. The fact that Jones utilized his health pool as fuel for his spells meant that he was under a different type of strain than most other casters. During the siege, dealing with mana had resulted in exhaustion for the casters, both mental and physical. Jones was going even further, repeatedly putting himself on the verge of death to cast his spells with the maximum potency that his body would allow. The strain was magnified by the expense.
The arguments between the pair went round and round while Coop listened in, waiting for his spear to crash into a shield before he resummoned the ethereal weapon for another throw. Coop had to insist on the old man taking a short break when he first started throwing his spears, but Jones was back at it after a quick meal. Inspecting Jones, it was clear that the man had already taken on quite a bit of responsibility.
[Bloodstone Human (Level 54)]
[Bronarch Mountain Adept (Intelligence)]
[Chosen of Collegia Universal]
[Stone, Blood (Cursed)]
Jones was catching up with some of the other residents who had been able to gather experience during the entire siege. At the very least, the old man would already match up favorably with most of their potential adversaries. Coop was impressed and moderately perturbed by the fervor his friend displayed in the settlement’s defense. It was a bit more intense than the steady defiance Coop had cultivated, but it was getting the job done. Coop hadn’t expected the scholarly caretaker to become quite so bloodthirsty.