Chapter 165: Tribute
Coop only spent a moment on his back, staring up at the starlight as it twinkled in the clear night sky. The shockwave had sent him sliding along the deck of the Sapphire Armada’s flagship, but it hadn’t dealt any damage. The blue flame might have singed his eyebrows a bit, but when it came to magic damage he was truly a juggernaut.
“Magic defense is too good.” He acknowledged with only the stars left to listen.
Admittedly, he had been slowly becoming more exposed to various abilities that were more like hybrid attacks. His own Legacy of the Mists was the most obvious example where physical stats were dealing magic damage, but many of his companions had their own similar mechanics. The Armada’s Champion had magical water whips that dealt physical damage. It was probably only a matter of time before he felt the sting of some dual damage attacks again. However, it wasn’t like his physical defense was that far behind the extremes that his magic defense reached. Plus, he had multiple layers of additional protections, so he would be ready.
As Coop sat up the mental exhaustion really set in. He was tired. Physically, he was scraped up, but the real drain on his personal battery was due to the type of opponents he was facing. He just wanted a nice long grind session with monsters, but it didn’t seem like overcoming human nature would be easy or convenient. It was like he had a third resource bar that was diminished every time he had to kill another person.
He sighed as he returned to his feet and assessed the physical damage left on his body. Other than the stinging cuts on his arms and legs, he really was fine, though his health pool was lower than it had been in ages. Physically, he looked like he had drunkenly stumbled through patches of thorn bushes with all the cuts he had accumulated wherever his skin was exposed, but he’d heal up in no time. He didn’t even have any lingering negative afflictions.
The enemy Champion had managed to chip away at his health pool until it was depleted to below half even with the massive level difference between them. Obviously, the empowerment brought by the web of mana had drastically improved the Enchantrix’s status. Judging by the way the Champion of the Sapphire Armada had burst into mana when she was eventually defeated, Coop suspected that the other bursts of blue flames that had occurred around the ship had been individuals lending their own power. All of the settlement’s elites had congregated in one place for their final gambit. They had really pushed themselves to rise to Coop’s level and had ultimately fallen far short.
Coop shook his head, feeling disappointed with the result, despite his victory. The Sapphire Armada had been an organized and formidable force. They could have been valuable allies if they hadn’t been sold on the battle royale-esque premise of the assimilation. Compared to the Endless Empire’s incompetence, there really was a drastic difference in capability.
Plus, beyond the fact that they had demonstrated valuable proficiency, he felt like he had been brought down a peg, adding to his feelings of dissatisfaction. If he was going to need to fight, he wanted to be able to overwhelm his opponents rather than scrape by. Obviously, he wasn’t done progressing. He wasn’t as overpowered as he thought, if there were still countermeasures that could be taken by regular humans to rise to his level. He needed to keep going.
The Armada’s flagship was completely silent after the defeat of the Champion. There was no sign of remaining energy around the ship, even in the exterior shields. Evidently, they didn’t leave anything on the table in their effort to kill him. The gentle blue glows that signified the shields were active had faded, and other than the ocean breeze slipping between the empty platforms that rose above the edge of the ship, only Coop’s footsteps disturbed the silence. Even the body of the Champion had disappeared, vaporized in the blue flame burst. The enormous flagship was just a large piece of debris floating beyond the edge of the island chain’s barrier reef. He would leave it up to the pirates to determine whether or not there was anything to scavenge.
All in all, the Sapphire Armada had been soundly defeated. Coop decided he would rinse off before returning to the phantoms. The remnants of the invasion force would be cleaned up in short order and despite the Armada’s best efforts, all they had managed to do was deliver more shipwrecks around Ghost Reef and cause some insignificant damage to Coop himself.
“Shame…” He mumbled to himself, still lingering on the losses even if they were standing in opposition to Ghost Reef. Coop cracked his back and rotated his right shoulder before summoning his spear, preparing to bring his allies across the finish line before dawn broke.
“What’s a shame?” A voice interrupted his motion. “You won fair and square.” Coop spun, pushing Presence of Mind to its maximum as he faced a mystery person who had managed to sneak up on him.