Unchosen Champion

Marcus held his glowing weapon tight with one hand as it dripped with golden mana. Thick drops of metallic liquid leaked through his fingers and he could feel the power flow up his arm and into his shoulder until it warmed his chest. The radiating heat was a welcome contrast to the cold ocean spray that had been constantly battering them on their journey. The golden rod shimmered in the night, sending a gentle light across the deck of the ship that revealed all of the struggles they were enduring.

The five diplomats that accompanied him on the expedition had taken a defensive posture at his rear. They were all equipped in the Ghost Reef Standard Issue equipment, and though they hadn’t concentrated on combat as much as many of the other residents, they stood firmly in the face of the assault. Even they had experienced the worst of the siege event, and they maintained their training with party combat and Ledwidge’s training. Two of them jabbed with spears while another’s flame ball erupted over the ocean like a surface level firework display.

With Marcus’s other hand, he casted a simple blessing on Gabby that would briefly empower her, lasting only for a few seconds or until her next attack connected with a foe. Sign of Awakening would nudge her forward with Divine Guidance. At least, that’s what the skill described. In practice, Marcus’s ability would increase her already profound damage by supplementing her with a golden aura that added a secondary impact to anything she struck for a brief time.

She swung her scuffed baseball bat into the slime green globule that had been belched from the surface of the contaminated ocean with a simple one-handed motion. Golden flecks erupted upon the collision, shooting forward like glittering shrapnel, piercing the liquified intruder. The combined attacks caused the globule to lose form and splash back down onto the deck and dribble back into the sea.

“Hurry!” Carlos shouted from the rear as his stringy shadow tendrils wrapped themselves around and within another globule that had formed on the deck. The tendrils struggled to tear through the watery body, as if they couldn’t find purchase on the liquified minion.

Charlie merely grunted in response from her protected position behind the Shadowdancer, but everyone else felt the gust of wind that filled the sails. Charlie’s wind simultaneously pushed them forward while suppressing the water around the Eye of the Storm. The green malformations bulged like blisters on the surface, but they stopped climbing into the air and splashing corrupting acid on the ghost ship as it rushed beyond their domain. The Fearless and Sea Burial remained at the flag ship’s flanks, the former lighting its own path with unceasing flames, and the latter firing shrapnel bolts at their rear.

Camila’s sweeping kick punted another slime blob over the edge, finding just the right amount of force to prevent it from exploding upon contact, and Ms. Sofia sent a spike of orange energy after it for good measure. The gout of water that exploded into the air was a mixture of green and orange, but the Eye of the Storm was out of range before the droplets fell back down to the sea, leaving the monsters in its wake.

Carlos collapsed onto his back, chest heaving from the short battle, staring at the night sky as they raced north. It had been the last of more than 20 assaults on the ghost ship, but it certainly hadn’t been the worst. Marcus shuddered at the thought of engaging with the leader of the minions they had been encountering in the ocean.

“We should have stayed further offshore…” Carlos complained half-heartedly. None of their options were notably better than any of the others.

“Give it a rest.” Gabby responded. She also took a knee, exhausted by being repeatedly put to task in combat.

Marcus checked on his subordinates, but found all five diplomats unwearied. He wished he could have brought his entire contingent of trainees. Unfortunately, there was only so much manpower available to Ghost Reef, and many of those he had taken under his wing were too valuable in other arenas. On the upside, he could trust each and every one of them to be capable of handling themselves should they need to be dispatched to settlements on their own.

The sight of Admiral Kayla jogging across the deck ceased his musings. “Is the ship okay?” Marcus prompted, worried that their most recent encounter could have deteriorated their transportation enough to force them ashore.