Unchosen Champion-Chapter 308: Breaking Barriers

Rows of spectral gladiators slammed into the beach, one after the other, their greaves driving into the ground as a prelude to their formidable presence. They were solid manifestations that had come to this plane of reality at the beckoning of the Mistwalker himself, forming a bulwark of resistance deep within the Fallen Zone. Dark sand, dirt, and gravel splashed in waves as they arrived and shifted into strict formations.

No words were necessary to establish a level of organization that would have taken years of training to execute so flawlessly. They interlocked their rectangular shields with the metallic clangs of iron and steel, immediately prepared to engage with the alien army that sprinted across the sand toward their position. Their opponents were long-limbed creatures with glassy shells smoothly masking their mechanical nature. They pressed forward, the desire to kill the phantasmal spearmen exceedingly obvious.

The warriors carried the same will as Coop, staring the approaching enemies in the face with grim confidence behind shining faceguards and polished ancient iron spears. Ethereal mana drifted from their positions, blurring the details that would make them individually identifiable, forever guaranteeing they were nothing more or less than nameless phantasms ready to fight to the last man.

The Elite Primal Insurgents barely disturbed the surface as they rushed forward, gliding across the shallow water and moving up the wide sandy shore, always precise with their steps, even in an all out attack. In contrast to the more immediate threat in the Insurgents, the giant figure of polished glass at their backs blasted disorganized waves of furious mana across the battlefield, and high into the air, as if it was performing a pyrotechnic show of black fireworks from the center of an entire stadium filled to the brim with spectators.

As Coop decided on his simple plan, the murky mana that the boss was expelling began to take shape. It was forming an expansive dome similar to those summoned by other Primal Constructs, except that it was completely opaque, like an oppressive polished shadow, gradually encroaching on a weakening light source. The dark reflective surface was like a distant smoky mirror, matching the skin of the Insurgents and the boss itself, and the images it projected were clouded by the haze of shadows that filled the domain.

The shield covered an area appropriate for the Omega Construct’s ‘Region Boss’ title, claiming a massive portion of the Fallen Zone as a personal domain. It was comparable even to the mana domes that isolated the civilization shard territory during settlement events, so much area was covered. The boss was guaranteeing the confrontation that Coop had initiated, preventing the intruder from any real chance of escape.

The Omega Construct continued to cast even after the dome took shape and solidified, keeping Coop’s attention, jabbing its black baton back and forth as if encouraging its minions to smash against the meddlers within its domain. The Region Boss was frantically conducting its army to crush Coop and his phantasms like they were insects invading a sacred place. Coop grunted. Obviously, he intended for his squad to be even more difficult to remove than simple bugs.

Coop had stretched Legacy of the Mists to call upon 90 phantasms, barely leaving enough durability for his ethereal spear to continue being usable. The last time he tested his manifestations, he had a limited capacity to summon phantasms, where if he called upon 100, his weapons would shatter, dismissing the phantasms as well. It had been a long time since then, and he had gained hundreds of levels and even a new affinity that transformed his relationship with mana in ways that he hadn’t been forced to test just yet.

His most recent challenges had not pushed his power level so much as they had stretched his coverage. The erosive pure mana of the Underlayer had also prevented his phantasms from existing long enough to summon more than a few dozen at a time, but the Fallen Zone was a different matter. The Omega Construct promised to rekindle his need to find his limits and push through them.

Coop, despite taking a few licks as he initially overestimated his superiority, was game. His wounds still leaked mists, but he was more than ready to fight at his best. He knew the challenges would just keep coming before finding this Region Boss, and he could feel the heat rising from his shoulders as the excitement for battle burned within him. His nostrils flared as he smiled toward the towering six-eyed face that glowed red, high in the darkness, more like an ominous building than an intelligent being, that had risen from the depths of the blackened sea.

Two armies, one much larger, polished like black chrome, and the other, a smaller group of heavily armored ghosts squared off in what would be a battle between worlds. The collision was only seconds away as the Insurgents chewed through the gap with leaping bounds.

A wall of misty red and gold shields, forming a testudo, braced to receive the first of the abnormally aggressive Insurgents while a tide of fog rose from the ground. Coop was happy for the opportunity to go all out, channeling a massive Fog of War even while his phantasms took their positions and planted the bottom of their shields into the soil with strictly regimented motions.

The stage was set, the battlefield decided, with both commanders stationed on opposite sides. It would be a cage fight with no option for either side to retreat.

The army of phantasms was less than one tenth the size of the wave of Insurgents, and the Omega Construct was far more intimidating than the Unchosen Champion of Ghost Reef, but that made no difference to the combatants. They would contend with each other on multiple fronts, whether it was through domains, minions, physical strength, or real durability. Coop would stand toe-to-toe with the most oppressive Construct yet.

“The bigger they are...” He muttered to himself, shaking his head at the absurdity of the situation. He was just some guy, and the Omega Construct was clearly a conqueror of planets, but he intended to use it to teach the galactic community yet another lesson. Coop shrugged to himself, knowing what had to be done, keeping his eyes on the enormous opponent.

In the moment before the first of the Insurgents clashed with the bolstered spearmen, the first wave of aliens vanished in coordinated groups, activating their stealth in waves representing linked parties, suddenly throwing off the timing of the phantasmal defense. The Insurgents bypassed the long spears, seeking to get close and use their pointed, black glass arms to stab at the necks of the ghostly warriors standing in their way.

The first line turned into chaos as the phantasms did their best to expertly adjust for the sudden deceptive movements of the Insurgents, covering for fallen comrades and retaliating with precise counters that crippled the aliens, but Coop was distracted by the Region Boss at the back. It was gathering more clouds of mana around its baton, and even if he hadn’t seen such a reaction in the past, he would have known something was coming. Charlie had taught him to be wary of such cascades of mana just by her own demonstrations of strength, so while the battle lines fell into chaos, he was focused on the opposite commander and the flow of mana around its instrument.

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His Fog of War was a highlight within the darkness, creating a screen for the phantasms to shift within, while also subtly revealing the motions of the Elite Primal Insurgents. They flickered in and out of sight, utilizing their camouflage to add an element of surprise to their stabbing motions, but they were displacing his Fog ever so slightly as they did so, and the second line of shields were already adapting. The phantasms were even more in tune with the world of mists than Coop was, and they adjusted far more promptly to the presence of invisible stalkers than he had. An equal number of spears impaled the slender alien warriors when compared to the amount of ghosts that collapsed into mists by the second round of attacks.

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Still, they needed to be even better, considering just how outnumbered they were. Legacy of the Mists cost Coop zero mana, so replacements would be brought as soon as his attention was back on his platoon of warriors, but at the moment, he had to contend with a giant arcing orb of trailing smoke, reminiscent of a flaming trebuchet shot, flying over the beach from the sea. The Omega Construct fired its attack from the tip of its wand, swinging the tool like it was weighed down with an immense pressure before launching the orb. Coop risked his army to counter it, stepping into a quick spear throw to act as an intercepting surface-to-air missile.

The spear blasted through the murky atmosphere, painting a trail of mists as it dragged bits of Fog of War high above the beach. It moved a hundred times faster than the mana bomb it was meant to intercept and when it connected with the bulbous shot, Coop worried that the low durability spear would be outright destroyed. If he lost his weapon, it would remove his army with an action meant to preserve it. Instead, his spear surprised him, piercing the arcing projectile with ease, blasting even further toward the top of the dome before Coop resummoned it back to his hand.

A brief flash of acidic green lit the beach as the dark magical attack burst like a smoke-filled balloon, sending enormous gouts of murk in different directions above the battlefield, further clouding the area, but it hadn’t drawn close enough to cause direct damage. It only had an indirect effect, sending a shower of acid rain that sizzled on the phantasmal armor while drawing the gloom contained within the region even closer. The rest of the world beyond the battlefield seemed to disappear, leaving the beach where the fighting was taking place like an island of fog as the oppressive domain swallowed them up.

Only the six red eyes remained visible from a distance, like a menacing beacon that Coop already knew he would try to use for target practice. The forest at his back was lost to his senses, shrouded in the darkness.

Coop resummoned his spear, casting Legacy of the Mists enough to add a new line to the back of the phantasmal formation. He noticed that his spear seemed as solid as ever, despite what should have been a significant loss in durability. He had held the ethereal weapon in his hands enough times that the weapon was as familiar to him as his own fingers. Any weakness in the manifestation would have been immediately detectable the same way the roughness of a grain of sand rubbing on the tip of a finger would be obvious.

It might have been the worst time for an experiment, but he told himself that necessity was the mother of invention. He added a few more phantasms, pushing the number to 99, and still couldn’t detect any diminishment of his spear. It should have deteriorated to one percent of its normal durability, but as he tossed it with one hand, then squeezed it until it creaked from the pressure, it seemed fine.

He turned his attention away from the six eyes, instead focusing on the battle closer to his person, and summoned one more phantasm. The consequences he was most worried about didn’t come about. His spear didn’t shatter and his ghostly soldiers didn’t disappear, but there was something noticeably different about his spear after the last summon, and he didn’t have to be as familiar as he was with the ethereal manifestation to detect it.

The ratio of spectral mana and abyssal mana within the spear immediately began to change, like a lava lamp being flipped upside down. No longer was it in equilibrium. Instead, a darkness he associated with the Void seemed to take hold, transforming the ghostly wisps and aquamarine energy that leaked from the surface of the weapon into a blackness that was even deeper than the Primal Construct domain. His armor followed suit, draining ghostly energy in favor of foreboding blackness.

Coop tested his weapon for a moment, adding more mana in order to increase the density, just as he would if he was making a heavy, but non-volatile spear, and found that other than the aesthetic change, it worked as expected. He stepped into another throw, slamming his foot into the black sand, launching a missile over the heads of the phantasmal spearman, directly at the face of the Omega Construct.

The giant boss monster raised a forearm to protect its eyes, intending on smacking the spear away, just as it had blasted Coop back across the beach when he tried to mistjump onto its shoulder. When the thrown projectile struck the massive glassy limb, the heft of the missile caught the boss, and Coop, by surprise.

The attack was still easily blocked, but the gigantic arm recoiled as if it was unable to fully reject the energy put into the prodding spear throw. It was as if the weight of the spear was even greater than normal, and not by an insignificant degree. As Coop recalled the intact spear to his hand, he wondered if the weight was an inherent property of mana touched by the abyssal affinity. It didn’t actually feel heavier to him, but it was his own mana causing the change. His spear had inherited the weight of the abyss, but when he tried to add even more phantasms by casting Legacy of the Mists, nothing happened. The abyss was clearly a realm separate and distinct from the mists.

Still, the minor change was clearly not enough to properly damage the boss. It had already resumed waving its wand around to form another blast. Coop allowed the Omega Construct a moment to cast, shifting his attention back to the battlefield between the two commanders. It seemed like he and the Region Boss could more or less cancel each other out, but the battle between phantasms and Insurgents was more pliable, and when it came to actually defeating the Omega Construct, Coop’s idea for how he would get it done would work best with the support of as many phantasms as possible.

Coop launched his abyssal spear into the frontline, catching a stealthed Elite Primal Insurgent through the head before he mistjumped directly into the thick of it. The teleport worked as expected, but the world of mists seemed vibrant, almost electrified, vibrating as he flickered through. He thought maybe his ethereal mana was bordering on becoming overencumbered, but as long as his effectiveness didn’t diminish, he would happily push every aspect of his build to the limit. No matter what the battle dictated, Coop was always at his best when he was brawling and this was a fact he was fully aware of. Standing in the back just wasn’t his vibe.

He immersed himself in what he did best, occasionally blasting the Region Boss’s ranged attacks while he became a whirlwind of carnage. The Insurgents used their long arms in an effort to catch him by surprise, whipping through the air like the vipers, but Coop was much closer to the Region Boss than he was to its Elite troops.

His spear struck back, and with enough force that he didn’t simply impale their mechanical bodies, but he annihilated them. When one of his spear thrusts connected with his targets directly, there wasn’t anything left but a cloud of mana smoke that momentarily masked his next moves. There was a pressure behind his attacks that was difficult to fathom.

The Region Boss continued pulsing waves of mana as it struggled to manage its own army while launching periodic ranged attacks, only for them to be countered by the Revenant’s spears. When it finally tried something new, sending a tidal wave up the beach, Coop dove forward, bypassing Elite Primal Constructs in order to smash, shield first, into the wave.

The enormous splash was momentarily highlighted like a glowstick of neon green as the concentrated acid inherent in the Region was dispersed with a burst of energy. Coop managed to crush the energy in the wave, snapping it in half with his oversized rectangular shield, and as the black water fell, his spear exploded through the remnants.

The missile seemed to catch the Region Boss by surprise, smashing directly into one of its eyes. The boss had its head flung backwards, and when it slowly returned its gaze toward its opponent, its upper leftmost eye had a web of cracks that marred the solid red rectangle with fingers of black.

Coop spun back into the Insurgents, feeling like it was only a matter of time before he could break through the barrier represented by the Omega Construct.