Chapter 296: Lord of the Abyss
Mists were coursing into the Underlayer and Coop flowed along with them. He practically danced through the billowing clouds, letting the rhythm of his strikes dictate his movement. The streaming motions added a transformative hint of elegance to the Revenant’s typical brawling.
His stats had been elevated to such high default values compared to his opponents that his actual combat style was altered. As a result, he was developing a measure of gracefulness that would have surprised his friends back home. Pure aggression was giving way to something approaching refinement.
The natural distribution of his stats firmly established the Revenant as a brutish skirmisher with all the advantages that came from superior power and durability. He had twice as much Strength compared to Agility due to the differences in their respective passive skills. Adamance applied a Strength bonus at a one to one ratio with Mind, but Practical Application only added half the value in exchange for reducing flat mana costs as he repeated actions.
As a consequence of the disparity in his stat distribution, he typically forced his opponents into submission with more muscle than technique. Planting his feet and digging deep into his well of power or leaping into his attacks to go all out were his routine methods of leveraging his attributes.
There was nothing wrong with doing things his way. He thought it made perfect sense to lean into his greatest strengths when faced with a challenge. It kept things simple.
However, in a situation where all of his stats were far beyond what his opponents could hope to achieve, he could afford to truly express his lesser advantages and practice with a bit more complexity. He didn’t need to put all his power into his attacks to defeat something that was 300 levels his inferior. It was complete overkill and lacked the efficiency that he was always overtly chasing in combat situations. Of course, overkilling was fun, but there was a time and place for such things.
Back during his earliest grinds, he had grasped another angle for development. Managing his resources by letting go of some of the savage attacks in favor of enhanced precision to avoid wasting energy had already proven to be more efficient. He was applying that philosophy to his current battles, but it went beyond merely conserving his stamina and moved into the economics of movement.
He didn’t smash through the Elite Primal Construct bulwarks, leaving craters in the battlefield as he had before. Instead, he engaged them with Presence of Mind and Fog of War at the forefront of his strategy, minimizing his motions and effort while accurately targeting weaknesses. More often than not, he found it easier to avoid a guard than to simply crush it.
It wasn’t necessarily as intricate as it seemed before he got into it. Basically, Coop’s current strategy involved more slicing and less smashing. No need to overcomplicate things.
Coop twirled through his mists, skipping into a backswing that cleanly severed the protective shield arm of a Ruin Construct, bypassing the solid defense in favor of an easy strike. Then he crushed its exposed triangular head with the edge of his round gladiator shield, maintaining his spinning momentum with a flourish before using the impetus of his motion to dive into the rest of the Construct’s freshly exposed party.
His ethereal short sword flashed as it caught a hint of the external illumination, raised above the fog. A slight red tinge highlighted the streaks of aquamarine spectral mana that chased the blade, providing a colorful deviation that contrasted with the dark shadows of abyssal mana that dripped from its edges. The sword sheared the air before repeatedly cutting his targets down with whirling slashes. The party of Constructs fell to the most elegant iteration of the Champion of Ghost Reef yet.
The next party of alien invaders experienced something completely different, meeting Coop as his debuffs faded and Inheritance of the Mists became available for the first time since Gangcheon. The Apparition of the Autumn Wind possessed Coop, enhancing his short sword with energy as it surged forward.