Unchosen Champion

Pure luck had Coop returning to Corozal right before a suspicious figure ripped across the bay toward the outpost. If he had been an hour later, he would have arrived to find the town annihilated by a tidal wave.

Coop had taken responsibility for the four freed prisoners of the Voice of Kukulkan, and he was leading them through the Maya Lowlands toward the safety of the Corozal Outpost. Coop was perfectly happy to travel at their considerably slower pace because of the prominence of Ruin Nebulas in the region, and not necessarily because he wanted to protect the weakened survivors. Coop’s attention was split between the group and Presence of Mind’s constant stream of information on the surrounding environment.

A thin mist, like those that might briefly appear after an unusually cool night, had been drifting through the land along with the group. It was hardly noticeable outside of a few wisps that swirled within invisible breezes of air flowing along the contours of the jungle’s tree branches. The occasional burst of mist would rain down from the canopy in the distance as a phantasm leapt into existence and slashed through another of the Primal Construct, but Coop was always the only witness. The victims of the Priest were unaware of the battles that unfolded ahead of their path.

The spontaneous escort mission was doubling as a satisfying grind session for Coop. The four former prisoners explained a little of their experience after being captured, but Coop had already pieced together a better picture of the goals of the High Priests than they could. As far as they knew, they were simply being tortured until they gave in and joined the Cult, and as a result they intended to join the Jaguar Sun. Instead of letting them linger on their experience, he ended up telling them about some of his adventures throughout the Yucatan, mostly concerning the Primal Constructs rather than the Priests.

His progress as they walked and talked was such that he might have received another Slayer title before the group reached the protection of the outpost. The phantasms summoned by his Legacy of the Mists skill were making quick work of the regular monsters. He had already accumulated 336 out of the 11,111 necessary to complete the fifth and final stage of the quest chain before the grind was prematurely interrupted. The progress wasn’t quite halfway through the total requirement of kills, but it was close enough to leave him feeling satisfied.

About 50 miles down the peninsula, Amanda was leading Mikey B and the trio of formerly cursed Chosen, Cap, Grizz, and Dan, away from Corozal to confirm Coop’s mission and update him on the developments that had occurred in the town while he was away. Amanda’s Outrider class synergized with Dan’s mana guidance abilities and made them an extraordinarily potent search party. They hadn’t wavered from Coop’s trail, even across more than a hundred miles of tropical wilderness, and it wasn’t like he was leaving footsteps when he mistjumped across the region. They easily found him and his domain of drifting fog.

It hadn’t even been two whole days since Coop left, but in the interim Juliana had received a message from Tzultacaj that kicked off their war campaign and had them leaving Corozal with all of the fighters that had gathered in time. Things were escalating in Central America, and Coop’s companions deemed it necessary to let him know as soon as possible rather than wait for him to return. Coop’s role would be unchanged, as the Jaguar Sun aimed to let him roam as he pleased, and they expected their movement to stir up the Priests that had become so difficult to find. They would be stirring the nest, so to speak.

Coop left the survivors of the High Priest in the capable hands of Ghost Reef’s expanding scouting party once Amanda shared the news. He headed back on his own in order to touch base with Juliana before the war host got too far for him to catch.

The Jaguar Sun wasn’t beholden to an outsider like him in any way, but he found himself wishing they had consulted him before they made their move. When he left, the presumption was that they would be waiting several more days for Tzultacaj to physically return, at a minimum, leaving Coop with plenty of time to clean up the outermost Priests before the real war began. Apparently, that was no longer the case. The settlement event had prompted the stoic leader to kick things off without much delay.

He understood that they were essentially on a deadline with another settlement event approaching, and he had wanted them to pick up speed, but the fact that the High Priests weren’t even aware of the Jaguar Sun’s active presence seemed like an advantage that they could make use of. Coop was concerned that they might regret throwing away the element of surprise with a premature start. Coop wanted to inform Juliana ahead of time, and maybe she could spread word to Tzultucaj and the other leaders of the Jaguar Sun before it was too late to grasp the opportunity to strike where they weren’t expected.

It didn’t take long for Coop to cross the region when he wasn’t pacing himself. Shortly after leaving his companions behind, he was mistjumping high in the sky in his rush to arrive in Corozal. Each toss covered at least a mile and only took a bit more than a minute when considering flight time of his spear and the travel time of the mists. If he waited to land, planting his feet for the next throw, he could send the spear ten times as fast, but the reckless speed would have him losing his way after a single jump. As it was, the world was dancing between the monochromatic mists and regular daylight as Coop took a direct route back, flying high above the canopy. He only paused when abnormal behavior in the Caribbean Sea caught his attention.

A series of foamy water pillars had grown far in the distance, visible only due to the clear day and his elevated position. The pillars climbed toward the sky like the columns for an incomplete and glassy Parthenon, large enough to make an impression even when they were many miles offshore. For a second, Coop thought he had accidentally discovered Atlantis, but the columns crashed back down into the sea at unpredictable angles, at first toppling over, but ultimately driving themselves into the ocean like they were violently swatting at an elusive fly. More were erected just to crash into the water again and again.