Unchosen Champion

One hundred and one warriors fought on the broad coastline of the Mississippi Sea, kicking up gritty dirt with powerful lunges and calculated cooperative defenses. They were swarmed by black glass covered enemies that were twice as tall, with limbs twice as long, who sought to abuse their stealth abilities and gouge out the vital areas of their opponents. Their slender arms terminated in spear-like hands and were perfect for slipping past defenses to pierce exposed flesh. More frequently, they were shattered by the unyielding counter attacks of the disciplined phantasmal gladiators and sent back into the surrounding gloom as nothing but gouts of black mana smoke.

The collisions of pointed glass blades clashing with steel shields sent sharp clangs across the battlefield before being smothered within the encroaching darkness. The rattling of armor and shifting of mechanical joints inundated the makeshift arena, with the steady breathing of the Mistwalker at the forefront of it all. It was a condensed pocket of chaotic violence within an enormous and oppressive domain that threatened to suffocate the small area of fog.

The immediate area around Coop had transformed into a dreamlike chamber, where only a small portion wasn’t subsumed by the shroud of the Fallen Zone. Coop and the phantasms were like toy figures spotlighted on a foggy stage, completely surrounded by an impenetrable darkness that had been gathered together by the Omega Construct as it failed to make more direct contributions to the battle. Looming above the combatants were its six menacing eyes, the only reminder that there was more to the world than fifty square yards of barren beach, obscured by a murky haze and ringed by empty void.

Together, the phantasms whittled the Elite Primal Insurgents down, always beneath the watchful red eyes of the Omega Construct, ominously stationed within the darkness above the black water. Its efforts to support its minions were repeatedly thwarted by the abyssal spear of the Revenant until it was forced to alter its strategy. No longer were arcing blasts of turbid mana sent toward the skirmish. Instead, it waved its wand around in the darkness, causing the glow of its eyes to flicker when obstructed by its limbs, occasionally jabbing forward with enough force to create a gust of wind felt on the battlefield before another wave of Insurgents appeared from outside the pocket of fog.

They would fire their needles, sending a wave of thousands of projectiles that were inevitably blocked by the large rectangular shields of both Coop and the phantasms. One or two might slip through, wounding a limb, or embedding into a torso, but they weren’t enough to weaken the overall formations, especially because the Revenant was always the most exposed and therefore attracted the most focus. The constant flow of enemies was less of a threat and more of a source of mana and health once he was in the flow state of a satisfying grind. Any injuries incurred were almost immediately recovered as he fought with an intensity unmatched by Construct or phantasm.

Coop kept a close eye on his phantasmal companions, preventing them from dropping too low in numbers at any point from their own injuries. Over time, despite cutting down innumerable Primal Constructs, the human intruders were completely surrounded by the alien enemies. They were forced to defend from all angles, including leaping stealthed strikes from above, as if they were an individual squad that had overextended themselves into the middle of an enormous enemy army. They were simply outnumbered by too many Insurgents, and even as Coop picked up speed and destroyed their opponents out front, more came rushing from the darkness at the sides, as if to demonstrate there was an unlimited supply of manpower for the Primal Constructs.

The Omega Construct had its own strategy, one that unexpectedly had multiple layers. The threats of basic combat were obvious, but the mind games were a surprise. Even though it clearly had a limited number of Elite Primal Insurgents it could use at one time, much like the maximum capacity of phantasms granted by Legacy of the Mists, it created an atmosphere that made it seem like the enemies were endless, infinite, and inexhaustible. The full extent of the alien army was impossible to discern at any single point, as their opponents could only perceive a limited area, and the numbers of visible Insurgents were constantly fluctuating. They danced in and out of stealth and more were always bounding from the perimeter, attempting to flank, or assaulting them from above. It was clearly a ploy to crush morale as much as it was to mask their movements.

Any opposition couldn’t afford to lose too many individual fighters, lest they quickly be overwhelmed, so Coop made sure to be responsive with casts of Legacy of the Mists, holding on until the balance shifted back into his favor. No matter how many enemies were thrown at him, so long as he kept the mists flowing, his shield up, and his weapon moving, there was a chance that he would turn things around. If there was any individual person in the world that wouldn’t be overwhelmed by fathomless numbers, it was the Champion of Ghost Reef. Coop had never been one to be frightened or discouraged by unendurable challenges. He just took them one step at a time.

Fog of War played an integral part in preventing his phantasms from being swallowed up by the darkness. As the battle pressed upon them, constantly threatening to push beyond their limits, Coop incorporated Vaporform more and more. It was his best way to discern the hidden Insurgents who were constantly trying to generate ambushes upon him and his soldiers. The combination of Vaporform and Fog of War could effectively replace his mistjumps, so long as he remained within his domain, allowing him to flow with the mists himself, sweeping across gaps like a wraith, reappearing wherever he pleased in the misty domain. The tactics were slowly growing more and more natural to the point that whether he was in or out of the world of mists didn’t matter so much. He’d keyed in on the Insurgents so that they couldn’t hide from him any longer.

While Coop focused on the immediate battle, he couldn’t help but feel some sense of gratification as his platoon of phantasms racked up the kills and the experience built up. The fact that he couldn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel made absolutely no difference to him in the moment to moment battle. He crushed the glass heads of nearby insurgents with the edge of his shield while piercing their torsos with the black tip of his abyssal spear, then spun to sideswipe another with the shaft of his weapon, all with an inappropriate smile imprinted on his face as he eagerly anticipated the next level.

This was exactly the type of encounter he was conditioned for. At first his manifestations were barely hanging on, forced to adjust to the stealth abilities of the Primal Insurgents, but as they grew comfortable with the abilities of their opponents and Coop personally joined the fight with his own growth, they built momentum, and the battle became a satisfying challenge to tackle. It was definitely not the reaction the Primal Constructs would have hoped for, but they hadn’t understood what they were dealing with when they committed to taking over Earth in the first place. If the Omega Construct listened closely, it might occasionally hear joyous laughter in between clangs of glass and steel. Forget about manipulating morale and generating hopelessness in the face of an unfathomable enemy; they had successfully presented a worthy challenge that piqued Coop’s engagement to its maximum. His battlelust sparked joy.

The phantasms may have been outnumbered, but they proved themselves to be a difficult force to crack. The grind provided by the Omega Construct was good enough to satisfy both Coop and the nagging sensation of his Abyssal Dedication. Each level made himself just a little bit stronger, but those small gains were also applied individually to all of the phantasms as well, essentially multiplying already multiplied bonuses a hundred times, and as the fight went on, the momentum kept building in the ghosts’ favor. It was only a matter of time before the Omega Construct would be the focus of their efforts, and Coop couldn’t help but grin at the thought.