Unchosen Champion

Coop fell into the abyss. The wind rushing past his ears was the only indication that he was moving, otherwise it felt like he was simply floating in an empty void. His eyes gradually adjusted to the gloom as he squinted into the darkness. The light from the surface hardly penetrated beyond the boundary of the cave entrance, but Coop was able to make out some of the obscured features within.

The walls widened beyond the breach in the surface and revealed the full extent of the dim cavern. The interior of the cenote was covered in lush green vegetation that desperately clung to the edges of the formation. The thick layers of green went all the way to the ground and were pockmarked by bursts of color where flowers bloomed and insects congregated. Plants and vines extended their broad leaves toward the middle in stratified layers, striving to catch the limited beam of sunlight that would shoot through the gap, spotlighting sections as the days waned. Dense clusters of flourishing plants competed on narrow ledges that were scattered along the walls. The ledges could have been used to climb in and out of the cave, but Coop had taken the more expedient route by dropping straight down.

Hanging roots decorated the ceiling of the cenote, extending down into the cavern from the trees on the surface like jagged wires caked with dirt. The elongated shapes were exaggerated by the faded light painting a macabre series of shadow puppets with stretched fingers grasping at the walls. Clumps of hanging plants intertwined themselves with the roots, finding spots closest to the surface to claim the light before it scattered through the rest of the vegetation.

The air was distinctly cool compared to the surface, but if anything, it was even more humid than the rainforest above. Coop only fell for a few seconds before he twisted his body forward. Once the walls made enough space, he made sure he would land comfortably.

Just a few moments after he leapt into the abyss, the placid water at the bottom of the cenote was disturbed with a foreign object cutting through the surface. Coop’s ethereal spear embedded itself into the bottom center of the cavern with a rush of wind and a splash. The spear implanted itself like a flag, claiming the subterranean land for the Revenant. Swirls of mists gathered around the shaft of the weapon, accumulating until they engulfed the spear and Coop solidified. A short mistjump left him standing in the cold groundwater up to his knees, illuminated by a gentle haze of unnatural gray light that lingered in the air as if carried by motes of dust.

Rather than butterflies, as the name of the cave system would suggest, Coop was confronted by a dozen white moths, each leaving trails of the dusty light as they escaped his unexpected presence. They were each only the size of a quarter, but they contrasted with the dark greens and browns that decorated the rest of the cave and gave the whole place an ethereal atmosphere.

The flying insects scattered as they sought sanctuary in clumps of gray moss that encircled the pool. The bottom layer of plants decorating the dirt-coated walls provided a tent-like cover around the perimeter of the space, protecting the edges. The waves caused by Coop’s spear gently washed the hanging leaves before splashing against the rock foundation.

Coop swapped to his one-handed warhammer for the moment, flipping it twice before catching it by the handle as he considered his surroundings from his vantage in the middle of the cavern. The whole area was only about 60 feet wide, but it still felt huge due to the height. Looking up, spotting the hole in the ceiling in between the tangled hanging roots was difficult. It was camouflaged by roots and leaves around 400 feet above his head, but he didn’t want to lose track of it, as it was his main ticket back to the surface.

There were only two possible exits from the initial cavern, three if he counted the hole he had jumped through to get in. Each of the passageways that would take him further were shrouded in darkness and narrow enough to limit him to his smaller weapons if they extended any distance. He wasn’t expecting monsters, but it was always better to be prepared, so he would keep his one-handed hammer ready at the start.

Tzultacaj and Juliana had only been able to warn him about the initial challenges he would face from the environment itself. They didn’t have any advice for actually finding the specific location of the High Priest’s lair since they hadn’t had much success in navigating the caves themselves. Hundreds of similar natural pits formed from collapsed limestone bedrock with varying levels of exposed groundwater and they had only been able to explore a fraction due to the priest’s traps. The caves would be connected by dark, uninviting, and narrow passageways, and Coop would need to anticipate magic-induced confusion thanks to the priest.

Fog of War would be the key to Coop’s navigation strategy. He would cheat, relying on an invisible mist to guide him through the maze while his extreme investment into Mind would provide natural defense against enemy influence. Other than the confinement he felt from being underground, he thought the environment suited his abilities quite well.

“Sucks for you.” Coop muttered. Having Coop, of all people, be the one to come looking for a confrontation was about as unlucky as someone could get.