Chapter 170: Ensnared
Coop was hanging upside down, held up by a nearly invisible string that wrapped around one of his ankles. Rubbing the back of his head with one hand, he resummoned his dropped sword into his other, angry that he had been ensnared by a trap and frustrated that he hadn’t even been able to hang onto his weapon when caught by surprise. He had no idea what kind of monster, human or alien, had set such a strong snare, but he didn’t like that he hadn’t been able to react to an ambush, no matter the source. It wasn’t like he was growing complacent, but he had been forced to rely on his stats more often than not, regardless of how careful he was trying to be. Coop felt like he was identifying another gap in his build, but this time it was his own limited experience instead of a missing skill. Whether it was wisdom or luck that led him to make some of his early choices, it was his followthrough that had pushed him forward. He needed to keep developing if he wanted to succeed, even if it was in areas outside of his class.
With a situp and flick of his arm, his resummoned ethereal sword slashed across the nearly invisible thread that had sneakily looped around his ankle and dragged him into the air. When the edge of his sword sliced the thread, the trap refused to actually break. Coop frowned, the inkling that the thread wasn’t normal jumping to the forefront of his mind. Coop did another hanging situp and really put his Strength into severing the line, but he only showered himself in sparks as the thread refused to be severed.
“Fine.” Coop spat, not willing to be defeated by such a simple contraption.
He dropped his sword and mistjumped, but instead of entering the monochromatic world of mists, the reverse of what he intended occurred, with the sword returning to his hand as if he resummoned it. Confused, he tried a second time. Coop felt his panic rising as he stared at his ankle from his hanging position.
The string itself reminded him of the Puppeteer from so long ago, and he felt himself frown as he made the connection with one of his first enemies. The association with someone that had been antagonistic from the start had Coop’s mind racing. Was it possible that he had stumbled into one of Chakyum’s outposts completely by chance? The odds would be incredibly low, and he wasn’t sure if that would be a lucky break or not. Ultimately, if Corozal belonged to Chakyum, whether he could escape the trap would be what decided his luck. Avoiding the necessity of traipsing around the jungle would be a boon, but being captured? Much less of a boon.
In any case, he changed his target to the tree itself. There were only scattered trees within the town, causing the interior to lack the canopy that had housed so many elite monsters on his way in. The palms were separated by wide gaps along the sea wall, clinging to the little strip of grass between the sea and the road that Coop had followed. They were the individual specimens that endured every hurricane and storm surge that swept into the bay and remained standing. The palms had been hardened by decades of inclement weather.
Coop cast Invocation, harnessing Retribution to manifest his ethereal glaive, exchanging his sword in favor of longer reach. He gently swung himself back and forth until he was in range to slash at the middle of the persistent tree’s trunk. Coop thought it was a shame to harm the tree, considering it wasn’t at fault for the predicament Coop was in, but he resolved to make up for it when he had the chance. When the edge of his glaive hit the salt and wind smoothed sclerified bark the collision erupted with another shower of sparks that bounced to the ground while Coop was sent spinning away with aching elbows.
“Tch.” Coop did his best to stabilize himself once the vibration left his arms and the feeling returned to his numbed hands.
Coop cast Invocation again, this time using Legacy of the Mists to bring a phantasm to chop the tree down. The ghostly warrior stepped through the mists, almost casually compared to their typical leaping appearance, and settled into the horizontal chop of an experienced woodsman. When the phantasm’s glaive collided with the tree, more sparks erupted and the phantasm exploded into mists, but the tree remained undamaged.
“What the hell kind of string is this?” Coop muttered as he tried slashing at the bark again, realizing that the trees themselves were reinforced by a thin layer of the unbreakable wire, like a knitted sweater had been placed on their trunks. The string even killed his summon with the reverberation of its attack. The properties of the snare kept compounding.
Two more tries were enough for him to give up on the tree and return his attention to the snare around his ankle. Swapping back to his sword, he sat up and slashed again, singing his own hair with the sparks that the edge of his mist weapon blasted out of the string. He repeated the action over and over, curling his body up toward his feet and slashing at the taut line, but the single thread was seemingly unbreakable at his current level. Coop refused to give up, already dripping in sweat and feeling some pressure to free himself before reinforcements arrived. Mindbender had kicked in with each slash increasing his Strength, but even with twenty tries and over 10,000 Strength he couldn’t cut the line.
His thrashing had caused him to swing and bounce like a tether ball, and he started to lean into the motion, dismissing his sword and giving up on the idea of cutting the line for the moment. He desperately tried to escape instead, like a trapped wild animal, whipping himself back and forth, eventually causing the palm tree to bend and sway. The green coconuts in the crown started to be dislodged with the motion, smashing into his body, but Coop kept on building momentum, flinging himself further toward the ground before slingshotting high on the other side of the tree.