Unchosen Champion

“Super” Siwarak Supitaya was doing his best to keep busy. He was resting after a set of 1,000 crunches, just laying in the endless dirt, watching his chest rise and fall as he caught his breath. His pair of shadow companions mirrored his actions at his side, despite being unreal manifestations of himself. They weren’t really tired. The act of imitation was meant to make fun of him for even being able to feel exhaustion.

He ignored them, as usual, instead staring at the ceiling while his breath slowed. The vapor high in the sky slowly drifted across the spacious caverns, giving him the sense that he was situated on the bottom of a massive lazy river, gazing up at the surface. The shadow companion on his left bent one leg and rested his other ankle over it, bouncing his raised foot impatiently, while the shadow on his right put both hands behind his head and silently pretended to snore.

Super’s experience with Settlement Events was that they were full of downtime. The Siege Event left days between waves for everyone on the planet except Ghost Reef, and the Underlayer Event was similar, except humans were in control of the timing of the battles. During the assimilation, they were periodically stuck within mana domes, forced to play to the beat of the system. Super had decided that, more than anything, the events demanded patience. It was a virtue his clones didn’t have.

Super tried not to waste the downtime, continuing the same bodyweight exercises he practiced before the assimilation, but multiplied beyond his previous limits. Off in the distance, over a million Elite Primal Constructs stood around like metal soldiers on duty, ignoring his presence so long as he didn’t get any closer. Only the raid bosses shuffled around, catching the omnipresent light on their smooth surfaces and reflecting it across the Underlayer. The largest of them all, a Prime Construct, basically stared him and his clones down, daring them to draw a bit closer.

When Super lifted his head, it was there like always, monitoring the closest potential enemy as if a single human was a threat to the massive Siege Boss. Super scowled at the towering being, though he didn’t do more than that, staying on his back on the ground. He knew he couldn’t do anything about his audience, forced to simply bide his time. His clones gestured rudely at the alien invader on his behalf.

Super let his head drop back to the dirt. “Just wait. We won’t let you aliens have your way.” He threatened, still defiant despite the creeping feeling of helplessness that developed as time went by.

Three other control points were set up in the same manner, with a single lookout making sure no new developments caught the locals by surprise. It was tedious work, like being a night shift security guard for a particularly uninteresting building.

The small army of people who had entered the Underlayer with Super were set up around their connection to the surface, a full 10 miles away from the fortresses of the invaders. They formed an encampment at the bottom of the chasm they used to access the underground, more confident in their ability to secure their position than claim any new ones.

In the meantime, the Primal Constructs did nothing but wait. For them, this part of the event was obviously not meant to be the main activity. This was their staging area. They had their sights set on the surface.

He’d love to take another shot at destroying the invaders before they had a chance to reach their goal, but his instructor had relayed the mission to hold off until the Grand Horde joined them. The scouts of the well-known cavalry army carried a message that promised reinforcement in the defense of Can Gio early in the event, but they still hadn’t shown up. It had already been weeks and Super suspected they would need to save themselves, but the leaders of his settlement were far more patient than he and his clones were.

Super took a deep breath and sighed with dissatisfaction, forcing himself to relax before he started his next set of exercises. Can Gio was one of the largest settlements on the planet, but they still needed reinforcements. The feeling of powerlessness that permeated his thoughts was discouraging, but as long as he was alive, at least he could seek to do something about it.

Besides, the Underlayer Event was a rare chance for the two divergent forces to properly cooperate. Can Gio may have been one of the largest settlements, but the Grand Horde was an even larger empire. He doubted any could compare to them.