Chapter 205: Charged Heartwood
Coop had successfully defeated yet another High Priest. This time it was the Voice of Kukulkan, a man who was named Kul-Hau by his master. Kul-Hau exploited supreme speed in his fighting style while sprinkling just a bit of deceptiveness into his tactics. The Priest’s hyper-focus on Agility wasn’t enough to overwhelm Coop’s wider spread of stats, and his speed hadn't been completely out of control thanks to the dynamic adjustments made by Mindbender during combat. As Coop used his toe to nudge the charcoal remains around the clearing, he was feeling relatively confident in his build.
Coop’s self-assuredness was leading him to consider skipping ahead. What would happen if he drove straight to the heart of the Yucatan? He assumed that most of the Cult’s forces would collapse inward in order to defend the settlement. Coop wasn’t completely sold on the Priest’s insistence that they had no need for factions or settlements with the way they were organized. If he rushed into the core of their territory and the result was Coop fighting the likes of the Avatar of Huracan and the Voice of Kukulkan simultaneously, could he win? Coop frowned at the twinge of doubt he felt. What if there were a dozen more High Priests? He suspected that he would be overwhelmed. Coop supposed he should be patient and trust the judgment of his new local allies.
Of course, even if he could guarantee a victory, the risk had always been that the Chakyum and his Priests would slip away, shifting their sphere of influence onto other groups of people and becoming a greater problem in the future. There was no actual evidence that they would rush to defend the Yucatan settlement in the first place, so Coop’s direct challenge would end up being a multifaceted gamble. He still had nearly a month before any kind of deadline approached, so he didn’t need to rush into things on his own. The closer they drew to the next settlement event, the more likely he was to bet on an aggressive push, but in the meantime he had capable allies in the process of organizing themselves, and his own outpost to safeguard.
The High Priest’s stronghold had been established within the territory Coop planned to take for Ghost Reef, inside of an enormous banyan tree in the northern interior of the Yucatan Peninsula. The tree’s form had been twisted by a constant stream of lightning erupting from a permanent thunder cloud above, transforming it into a lightning rod of blackened branches. The Priest sacrificed every speck of power he had accumulated, dissipating the storm and causing the charred tree to collapse into a massive field of ashen debris in his efforts to overcome Coop’s challenge. In the end, Coop’s slowly accumulated reserve of attributes had proven to be far too much for the flash of last minute growth demonstrated by the High Priest.
Even after the Priest was gone, Coop was unable to completely relax. The Avatar of Huracan’s mana experimentation had resulted in the appearance of another Icon of Mana, and Coop was concerned the event might repeat. He controlled his breathing while utilizing his glaive to poke around in the charred detritus that covered the High Priest’s clearing, keeping an eye out for any signs of escalating boss events while his mind ran through his future prospects.
The Lowlands were calm. A weak breeze partially disturbed some of the loose remnants of the tree, but there wasn’t much sound beyond the gentle rustling of leaves in the distance. Without any clouds in the sky, the sun was free to shine its light directly into the black clearing that scarred the environment.
When Coop finally started to let his guard down, feeling comfortable that nothing else would happen, he noticed one of the piles of debris shifting. Something was moving underneath. Coop took a combat ready stance and kicked the top off the pile before quickly backing away with his glaive angled forward. While he was relatively confident that a boss monster would have had a more dramatic entrance that included blasting mana waves or splitting the sky, he wouldn’t put it past one to have a more humble start.
A single hand emerged from the pile. It weakly shoved away the ash, skin smudged with the burnt char of the fallen tree. Coop instinctively rushed to help, ignoring the potential threat, grasping the hand with his own and gently pulling it out of the rubble.
After a bit of struggle the form of a man emerged. “Thank you!” The stranger weakly offered as he collapsed on his back, coughing as he tried to clear his lungs of any remaining pollution. “There are more.” He declared, gesturing to the pile he had emerged from while Coop inspected him.
[Human (Level 48)]
[Monk of Dusk (Strength)]
[Chosen of the Manakana Conspiracy]