NOVPUBAs Coop absorbed the scenes surrounding Kata Tjuta, letting the profundity sink into his soul, he identified an approaching monster appearing far in the distance. A Field Boss was casting dramatically distorted shadows across the freshly illuminated landscape as it preceded a surge of Primal Constructs from beyond the horizon.
The lead individual was a large biped with an oversized crown that forced it to lean forward under its weight. It had an equally sized tail that acted mostly as a counter balance, though it terminated with a heavy club to match its crown, otherwise it would have been too unbalanced to be viable as a threat. Instead, it ended up with two obvious weapons.
Even with just a glance, Coop could recognize it as a variant of the Ancient Piercers back on Ghost Reef, though rather than spikes and a gorilla-shaped body, it was more bird-like in form with a skull prepared to hammer with blunt force. Coop anticipated that it would charge forward with its head down and leap into its frontal attacks in order to try and bludgeon him to death. If they ended up in a face-off, it would try to circle, so that both its tail and crown could be used. Coop grunted in acceptance, happy to get a little action while he waited for his turn with the Region Boss. If he avoided destroying the skull, he would be able to Scavenge more resources to take home when he was done.
The horde of enemies caused a rumble to gradually build as they stampeded toward the core of the Fallen Zone, with the sun in their faces, but Coop had detected them just as they breached the horizon. It was the largest collection of enemies he had seen in the area since the Region Boss was first challenged, but even then, it barely amounted to half a wave of the original Siege Event. These days, such numbers weren’t nearly enough to cause him to hesitate before deciding to engage, especially since they were upwards of 350 levels below his current status. The invaders were only slightly above the current standard of the assimilation.
To Coop, it seemed like the last gasp of a dying domain, but it still ranked among the largest swarms to form anywhere on the planet outside of a special event or quest. Sila Tupua and his allies were surely on the verge of victory to have generated such a reaction. Coop acknowledged their efforts as he clasped his ethereal spear and prepared to welcome the new Primal Constructs to their official retirement party.
Before the metallic invaders were within miles of their destination, Coop stepped from a veil of mists, directly in their path. He was a lone figure, silhouetted by the sun, positioning himself in front of a sea of alien invaders. They moved like the froth of a tidal wave made of dust and sand, harnessing enough power that it seemed futile to try and stop them.
The monsters climbed over one another, rushing headlong toward the call of the Omega Region Boss, with a single Field Boss slightly ahead of dozens of other equally ranked invaders. Thousands of Elite Primal Constructs trailed behind the pack of larger individuals, forming a throng of spikes and claws and jaws, appearing and disappearing as the dusty froth of debris swallowed them and others burst forth.
While they kicked up a cloud, rushing headlong into battle, Coop took his time shifting his stance and morphing his ethereal spear into a two-handed long sword. The single sharpened edge gleamed with a hint of danger as a gentle haze of mists drifted from the blade, making it seem like it had been freshly pulled out of a forge so that steam was still escaping its form. The sword was only slightly shorter than his spear, but it was almost entirely composed of a deadly edge.
At the same time, Coop formed his own domain, letting Fog of War gently caress the dawn-kissed landscape. The mists generated by Fog of War embraced the dawn light, spreading the ensnaring effect of Awakened Depths across an area wider than the army that approached. The fog bank was a pink and orange cloud that drifted along the ground immediately behind the solitary figure of resistance, mirroring the light that reflected off the sand while capturing the atmospheric glow that was tinged red by always elevating concentrations of activated mana. With Coop at its helm, his domain stood in stark opposition to the wave of dust and sand, poised to absorb the surge of enemies.
The Primal Constructs didn’t slow down, planning on trampling Coop and crashing through the fog on their way to the Fallen Zone. A single individual human, surrounded by gently flowing vapors, failed to capture the intimidation factor that might have been appropriate when facing the Unchosen Champion. They barely recognized him as an obstacle greater than a breakable stone or wild tree.
Once they collided with his stretched aura, there was a noticeable hitch in their steps, but as manifestations, they lacked the necessary impetus of self-preservation to flee. Coop wasn’t aiming to intimidate anyway. His passive presence revealed that he was fully unperturbed in spite of the enemy raid.
He took a slow breath, closing his eyes as he lifted the ethereal long sword into the ready position, feeling loose and relaxed even as the rumbling grew more and more insistent. His feet were shoulder width apart, firmly planted on the ground, feeling the subtle vibration caused by the Primal Constructs. His knees were ever so slightly bent, absorbing the movement so that the rest of him was still. His back was straight, his shoulders were at ease, and his expression was untroubled. The grip of his fingers on the hilt was so gentle, the only friction was from the weight of the blade itself.
He did his best to flip the switch that drew his focus inwards and activated Lucid Dreaming, but it usually required a bit of subconscious prompting that was difficult to deliberately summon. Without the physical meditation that normally allowed him to sink into a deep concentration, he had to collect himself and focus, but the point of activating the ability against such enemies was to continue his practice.
As a mental exercise, he imagined that his mana pool was a literal body of water that established a placid nearshore lagoon in a dreamlike domain of his soul. A misty fog was caught in the sheltered bay, softening the border between water and air as he stood in the center without breaking the surface of the fathomless depths.
All was still until he exhaled and a gentle breeze parted the mists and flowed beyond the inlet, representing the relaxed power that would accompany his blade, drawn from his core. Lucid Dreaming empowered his stance as the gentle zephyr took form, visible by its subtle influence on the mists and the tiny waves at the surface of the abyss. The Principle was Calm.
Coop opened his eyes as his heartbeat slowed and the serene tranquility ran through his veins like a cold drink on a summer afternoon. His pupils shrank into pinholes as his vision locked onto his targets, almost like his eyes were on a dolly rushing away while simultaneously zooming in. There were no more thoughts, only the focus earned from extensive training.
He slid his right foot a few inches back, digging ever so slightly into the sand, feeling the difference in the already warmed grains on top compared to the cooler layer that was hidden below. With a smooth, unbothered motion, exemplified by half-lidded eyes, he turned his body slightly to the side, drawing the lengthy weapon back, building tension in his body as he prepared to meet the lead Field Boss.
The form reminded him of the brief time he was instructed by the Battlemaiden, though in his case, he only embodied a specific portion of her tactics by himself. If anything, she had represented principles that he had not secured. This was entirely his own.
When the lead Field Boss lunged forward, attempting to catch its disinterested target by surprise with the startling acceleration applied at the last moment, Coop pushed off his right foot, leaping backwards just as he felt the wind pushed by the attack. He moved the same distance as a full body length of the monster, halting at exactly the same moment as his attacker, anticipating its precise level of strength and agility. The size advantage was clearly in favor of the Primal Construct, but Coop was over-prepared.
Coop replanted his stance, landing on the baked sand surface with both feet, and countered from a perfect dodge. The blade whipped around, from where it had waited on his back right, crossing to center left. The motion was invisible to the eye, but highlighted by a watercolor trail of mana that hinted at something building. The simple slash cleaved the monster at the neck before the Field Boss could adjust from its failed assault.
Coop shoved his right foot against the ground, shifting his weight so that he would slide to the left and reposition. The second monster stampeded in the wake of the first, too slow to recognize that it had already become the leader of the pack. Coop planted his left foot before he entered its path, leaving barely enough space to avoid a collision.
At the last possible moment before the window for another fatal attack closed, Coop suddenly lifted the blade, producing a rising slash from his backswing that beheaded the second Boss in another blur of motion from bottom up. The sword sang in the air while the monster collapsed into mana smoke, still rushing forward as its remaining momentum carried its bulk forward to crash into the sand before reaching the domain of fog.
Coop continued to flow with the movements, completing his first exhale and raising the longsword directly above his head with the strength of his left arm and the momentum of the rising strike, then replanted his right foot. Simultaneously, he twisted the edge of the sword and brought the blade straight down, shifting the impetus to both his arms for even more strength.
The movement produced a plunging slash that cut the third Field Boss down before the second had fully dissipated. The energy was building in his blade such that it extended the strike a few yards beyond the tip, half a monster length again, as sharp and precise as the weapon itself. As he embodied a Principle, it elevated his expert swordsmanship into the realm of fantasy.
With the sword held parallel to the ground, Coop braced his grip, twisting the blade another ninety degrees to the side and thrust forward, driving ahead and into the back layer of Field Bosses with a simple, single-step lunge that skewered a fourth boss, head to tail. It didn’t matter that it was far beyond his normal reach, the monster exploded into mana smoke that was unusually bright and wispy, falling under the influence of his current style. In a way, it was almost as if his blade was poisoned with Calm.
He drew the extended blade to the right side, aiming for the bulk of the boss rank enemies that had formed the raid. As the blade exited the burst of mana from the fourth boss, it produced a whirling slash that painted a crescent in the air, parallel to the ground.
The ethereal blade caught some of the crimson light that painted the world and seemed to physically expand with the stroke, lengthening so that it would reach far beyond his natural range. Eight Field Bosses ceased their forward progress, simultaneously collapsing into halves as their metallic forms sheared into colorless crystal shards that then disintegrated into mana smoke.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
In five strikes that required a fraction of a second, a dozen Field Bosses were defeated. None had reached his Fog of War, but that just meant he didn’t need the insurance.
With his sword, Coop lacked the special attacks that made the Kitawa sisters so impressive with their blades, but he made up for the lack of active skills with the raw power produced by hundreds of thousands of attributes resonating with his internal reservoir of mana. Both portions of the equation were absolutely massive and the final result was independently compelling. All he needed to do was name the moves, and he might be able to trick others into thinking he had an unlimited supply of skills.
From within the remaining crowd of Field Bosses, Coop flicked the sword into an imaginary sheathe on his left hip, allowing several monsters to bypass his position. Then, he drew the sword and performed an unnaturally wide round slash that whistled through the air before dividing another swathe of Field Bosses in two. The sheathed strike doubled the range of the first whirling crescent slash, starting from his back left and ending almost a full rotation on his back right. Light flashed from the cuts, so precise, it took a moment for the dissipation to even begin. With each strike, his blade seemed to harness more and more mana so that the final attack had carved out a huge section in what would have been the battlefield with raw energy rather than sharp blade.
Coop followed the motion of his sword, angling so that his back was to the mass of approaching Elites and he faced the few Field Bosses that had avoided his previous strike by moving past his position. Before they were out of reach, he cut them down with another single whirling slash, embracing the expanded reach of the long sword and clipping their critical points with the end of the blade as he slashed across the gap. The motion formed another visible whirl that dragged a trail of gray smoke, ethereal mists, and cold abyssal fumes before the monsters collapsed.
With the Field Bosses systematically dispatched, Coop abandoned his calm posture and escaped the dream. He released his grasp on his weapon and dropped the sword, letting it disappear into the mists before it hit the ground, wishing he had smelling salts or something to reset his mind. He was actively switching tactics as he turned to face the mass of Elites.
Coop swapped to a new weapon, delaying the re-engagement with the rest of the raid by a fraction of a second to maximize the effect of his skills. The mists swirled and thickened until they solidified into an unsophisticated hunk of heavy metal, revealing a completely oversized two-handed hammer.
Once the manifestation was firmly within his grip, he pumped the density up to its max. His veins bulged all the way down his arms and his core tightened as he braced himself against its increasing mass. The weight increased to obscene levels and as it grew heavier, the ghostly color disappeared, replaced almost entirely by the darkness of the depths. The mists made way for the abyss and the absurd pressure that it specialized in.
He strained as he raised the hammer above his head, clenching his jaw and showing his teeth as he loaded up a massive slam. He flung the hammer down, striking the empty ground with all the force he could muster, and activated Depth Charge at the same time.
The earth quaked as he inadvertently formed a crater with his own physicality, the ground forming narrow fissures in all directions while small portions of sand slipped into the cracks. Monsters collapsed from the seismic pressure, undamaged, but incapable of maintaining their balance as a tremor ran through their army. A few geysers of muddy soil blasted onto the surface from deep underground, seeping through the gaps his slam had created.
The scenes were completely unrelated to his actual abilities. He had simply caused soil liquefaction with the localized pressure lurching through the subterranean layers. It was all a dramatic result from something that wasn’t even meant to be his attack. It was merely the setup.
He heaved the weapon out of the indentation it had formed in the ground with a groan of effort, neck flexing, back and hamstrings fully engaged, and repeated the action. It was like he was sledgehammering a titanic railroad tie into place, this time activating Sunken Grasp as he brought the immense weapon back down. The simple combination of active skills had already become his ultimate mass attack.
As soon as his weapon hit the ground for the second time, it was like a gravity well formed in the shallow crater. The bulk of enemies were pulled inwards, the closest having no time to even struggle before they crashed into a vortex of dark water that conversely only appeared to be an inch deep. The further away the individual target, the more they could struggle and claw at the sand to resist the yoink, many just barely stabilizing in time to avoid the outer edge of the ensnaring whirlpool while the furthest merely stumbled when pulled. The ones fully impacted by Sunken Grasp were piled on top of each other, forming a tangle of metal that was so tall, it cast a shadow on Coop.
The beeping of the implanted Depth Charge grew more and more insistent. The monsters struggled to separate themselves before the beeping reached a fever pitch, but they didn’t accomplish much in the remaining second. As soon as the blinking light turned into an uninterrupted warning, the charge went off, demolishing the entire pile in a surge of abyssal waters. A plume of black water, actually formed from his mana, climbed almost straight up from the circumference of the whirlpool, then rained down, dissipating before touching the ground.
A massive cloud of mana smoke clouded the area, drifting into the sky like the remnants of a missile strike. The Primal Constructs caught by his skills had evaporated in the explosion.
Coop quickswapped to his spear in order to eliminate the stragglers that had avoided the reach of Sunken Grasp, shaking his head at how his skills yielded no damage to himself or the environment, but absolutely demolished his targets. Meanwhile, his manual swings left craters and fissures that made him want to hold back. Once the mana faded away, the only other evidence of his efforts were all the drag marks from where the Elite Primal Constructs had been pulled toward his strikepoint, covering an enormous area that might tell a horror story from another perspective. It was like the earth itself had swallowed a mass of invaders.
He spent a few more minutes mistjumping through his Fog of War, executing the ensnared Elites that had been slowed in the Awakened Depths that enhanced his domain. None had been able to approach anywhere near the Fallen Zone.
When there were none left, Coop nodded to himself, flipping his spear onto his shoulder, and silently declared that it had been a job well-done. He definitely needed to practice entering the Lucid Dream, but once he was going, it was difficult to deny the potency. He wondered if the Apparitions summoned by Inheritance of the Mists had reason to be jealous, though admittedly, they were far more immediately potent.
Coop shrugged to himself, thinking that had been enough excitement for the day. Maybe he’d do some exploring and see if any other animals were returning to their habitats. The mobs of kangaroos that had been surviving along the fringes of the Fallen Zone were surely growing more bold after so many days of diminished threats, though they would be hundreds of miles away at best.
However, before Coop returned to his campsite and decided what to spend the day on, the signal for him to join the fight against the Omega Construct Region Boss finally came.
In a split second, he flipped his spear and launched it into the black clouds of miasma that still covered several square miles of the Outback, breaching the protected domain like it was nothing but a figment of their collective imagination. The sonic booms from his throw were so delayed, they wouldn’t appear until after he made his entrance. His prompt response had him in the midst of another battle within a second. It would take three for the sound of his spear to arrive.
Coop assessed the battlefield even as he reappeared from the monochromatic world of mists. Compared to the thousand miles the alien domain had started with, the zone was already in a sad state. Only the Region Boss clung to its position, rising from a coarse sandstone canyon, lined with various types of granite and basalt that were shrouded in darkness. Its angry red eyes were the primary light within the domain’s gloomy core, but Coop didn’t even need that much to triangulate his target. He was there for one reason, to end the Omega Construct.
Coop had mistjumped before his projectile struck anything, catching his spear and landing directly in front of the monstrous enemy, like a minnow coming face to face with a whale, unable to slow its momentum. Anyone else would have been doomed after putting themselves in such a position, but Coop, the Icon of Humanity, was a savage when it came to the invaders on their planet. His brows were furrowed and he instinctively showed his teeth as he embraced the hostility in his blood. This would be the end for one of them.
He let his ethereal spear manifestation morph into the short sword that had been his primary blade weapon before the Path of Aloneness. His sudden appearance dragged a portion of spectral mana into the real world as he arrived, and it continued to chase him as he exploded into motion, emphasizing his Agility with a slight blurring effect that made it seem like he was reaching through the planes of reality to confront the Omega Construct, though breaking into the murky barrier had actually required a similar feat.
Coop was on the attack before his sword fully solidified, taking two steps away from the burst of mists that heralded his arrival before leaping at the colossal enemy with unadulterated aggression. He raised the blade above his head, holding the hilt like it was a stake meant to be driven into the heart of his oversized enemy. A subtle purplish glow was added to the end of the blade, as the urgency of his action put him in the appropriate state of mind to reacquire the Lucid Dream. This time the Principle was Spite.
He assaulted the battered Omega Construct with a leaping raised strike, recapturing the momentum of his initial appearance with a massive jump instead of a powerful throw. His knees were bent and his back was arched as he flew forward, leaving a trail of mists as if he had been launched by a misty catapult himself.
His blade never wavered from its target, aimed as though it was magnetized toward the primary weak point of the Region Boss so that he could salvage it for parts. The boss barely flinched, decisively making an effort to crush the interloper, but its arm only managed to move maybe fifteen degrees forward before Coop was in striking range.
He embedded the weapon into the monstrous boss enemy with both hands firmly gripping the hilt before the boss had a chance to do more than acknowledge his presence and prepare a slight greeting. Coop could feel the blade sink deep into the monstrous core, tapping into the mana that flowed through the titanic manifestation before reacting to his own mastery.
Energy erupted from the tip of his blade, extending its reach and magnifying its power so that the stab carved a clean gouge from the chest of the Region Boss and sent a darkened beam of force that exploded all the way through its back and beyond the domain. It was as if his simple short sword had become an abyssal saber meant for slaying giants.
Tiny purple-black crystals broke through the armor of the boss, from the inside out, as the effect of a landing a properly spiteful attack took hold. The Omega Construct was riddled with damage as mana solidified all throughout its gargantuan form. When the boss finally fell, it broke against the edge of the canyon before dissipating into a volcanic eruption of darkened mana smoke.
Coop landed solidly on both feet, at the rim of the canyon, letting go of the Lucid Dream so that he appeared to be the same ethereal gladiator he had been since becoming the Revenant of Ghost Reef. It actually took a great deal of discipline to master the emotions that flowed through the dream. Like a possession, it would be easy to essentially overdo it and be swept away by the power, but Coop was definitely getting better.
From the perspective of his allies, he was outlined by the catastrophic failure of the Region Boss, his spectral equipment swirling with the abyss while contrasting against the billowing mana that poured from the former boss manifestation. Instead of a dark shadow standing against the rising sun as he had been for the Primal Constructs, he was the bright spot in a shattered domain of darkness.
The Fallen Zone began to fully collapse with the deconstruction of its boss, forming a mushroom cloud of black smoke that had its plumes highlighted by the levels accumulated by the enormous army. They had been battling for the week that Coop camped in the Outback. He was glad that, in a way, he was the one to grant them their rewards.
