Unchosen Champion-Chapter 317: Rank and File

Marcus wielded his unique scepter in one hand as he stepped toward the front of the battlelines. He activated his base abilities and liquid gold mana condensed on the pommel of his weapon, dripping with thick globules that shone with a reflective illumination. The droplets evaporated before touching the ground, revealing themselves to be splashes of an almost spiritual molten fire. The effect established the impression of a weapon crafted from sacred flowing metal.

Others parted ways for him, silently yielding to his determined steps. His relatively small entourage composed of Shane’s party followed close behind. Most of the people present were subordinates to the representatives of their settlements and were apprehensively awaiting further instructions. The tornado sirens stirred them into action and word spread that an ‘unknown’ rank boss approached, but many were waiting for directions. They had already faced Elites and Field Bosses with enough regularity that it wouldn’t have been such a big deal, but an unknown boss drew the likes of Neon and Sila Tupua out from the bunker. Marcus intended to be at the forefront along with them if there would be a major confrontation.

Though it was late in the evening, the settlement was lit with countless different lights beyond his own glowing weapon. It was the site of a massive conference and the staging area for the upcoming effort to subjugate the notorious Fallen Zone. None who had made the journey had done so without bringing their own forms of security, so there were many different warriors with a wide range of equipment and skills present.

There was a sense of competitiveness carried on the dry winds of the sweeping plains. Each group wanted to prove their own credentials against the Primal Constructs, especially in the absence of Ghost Reef’s Champion: the Siegebreaker and Underking. There were more than a few individuals among the crowds that believed they would fill the role of strongest on the planet, and there were even more politically inclined representatives who were encouraging their strongest fighters to step up in order to establish leverage over the rest. They all still underestimated Ghost Reef.

Marcus could feel his energy magnified after cycling through his weapon and into his bones before expelling from his body like a sparkling vapor, giving his head and shoulders a delicate aura of yellowish flame. Though he was an important figure, the Viceroy of Ghost Reef, and one of the leading officials of humanity’s only established faction, he was more than capable of contributing in a fight. Since Coop wasn’t present, he would take it upon himself to continue to build their reputation on his behalf, holding down for his friend while others jockeyed over his perceived role.

At his side, Shane organized his party in order to support the Hierophant. The buffing and debuffing domes that Shane channeled were enormous, providing tangible benefits to hundreds of thousands of soldiers within his range, making it clear that the way they were positioning themselves was not just for show. The Dragon Knight and Tomb Blade revealed avatars of flame and bone as they prepared an opening salvo to follow Marcus’s lead. His level might have been low for a resident of Ghost Reef, but Shane’s party was still the strongest, if only by a hair compared to Gibson’s party.

The confident organization of the highest level party present incited the participation of other groups. They stepped forward, taking their own positions in the front, not wanting to be left behind and maybe trying to make a good impression on Ghost Reef for the future.

The five squads of special forces from the European Emergency Community took their positions beyond Arthur, checking their equipment and giving each other hand signals when they were ready. Of all the different groups, they were dressed in the most modern seeming equipment, looking exactly like anonymous operatives prepared to breach an enemy enclave with warriors in kevlar armor and scouts in ghillie suits.

Rather than craft something completely new, they had adapted pre-mana kits to function with mana. They had full face masks and what must have been modified night vision goggles hiding their individual features. Overall, their getups rivaled the looks of the Ghost Reef Standard Issue armor created by Garod himself, but they lacked the bonuses that were provided by the grandmaster crafters of the island settlement. Still, they were consummate professionals with far more experience than most humans when it came to conflicts of life and death and there was little hesitation once it was decided that they would participate by their non-combatant handlers.

They contrasted with the individual champions of the Assembly of Settlements, who relied on no equipment whatsoever. Imara, the champion of champions, generated a personal whirlwind that whipped dust into the air while one forearm flared with deep red fires up to her elbow and the other flashed dark blue with bursts of electricity. When she clapped her hands together, a shower of embers and sparks cascaded from between her fingers before falling toward the ground. Another warrior shadow boxed at her side, in nothing but boxing trunks and knuckles protected by tape, while the other had water swirling between his fingers. Behind them a man that looked like a professor seemed ready to merely observe, though mana was physically flowing through his feet, up his body, and into the sky. They clearly brought a different level of combat experience that Marcus expected would be a mistake to ignore.

Similar to the soldiers of the EEC, they had their own leaders to answer to, but Marcus had immediately recognized that their dynamic was slightly unusual. The group that prepared to fight at his side were far more influential than the diplomats that had come to represent the pseudo-government of their settlements, but the fighters had no interest in attending the meetings between settlements, leaving that to the supposed leadership. They were the group with which Marcus had made the least progress because of their lopsided framing. It was clear that fighting at their side would be for the best.

Then, there were the commandos of Can Gio. They watched silently, stoically waiting for the opportunity to assess their opponents before committing to any particular stance. Collectively, they appeared more like fishermen or farmers at a glance, carrying long bamboo poles or short rusted blades, dressed in ragged pre-mana clothes, mostly barefoot or wearing worn sandals, with woven hats and patient demeanors. They were out of place on the open fields of Kansas, but that didn’t mean they were helpless without their well-practiced guerilla tactics. One of their scouts appeared to argue with his own shadows at their backs, the only one of the group to have his eyes anywhere but the horizon.

The Great Khan stood behind them, along with a pair of his generals. One was dressed neatly with a dark manicured beard, a tightly wrapped turban on his head, and a long curved blade strapped to his back while the other was completely blanketed in beige cloth coverings, holding a staff with a falcon perched on top, raptor eyes glowing an icy blue. Though the Grand Horde had brought a cavalry army, the nearest underground connections to the surface did not accommodate horses, so they remained in the Underlayer awaiting the return of their Khan.

The Apache warriors at their side had been given a wide berth by the others as a storm of crows fought over space on the squad leader’s head and shoulders. He completely ignored the chaotic mob of birds as they flocked around him, standing as patiently as the commandos nearby. The smaller black birds kept a close eye on the adjacent falcon, unafraid of the predator, revealing a touch too much intelligence in their gazes. They squawked and cawed, hopping with their wings spread wide as if challenging the predator to try something so that they would have an excuse to exercise their avian dominance and tear it apart with their numbers.

On the other side of Marcus, Reina Kitawa had drawn her own oversized sword, keeping her eyes closed as she seemed to meditate with the weapon in front of her face. It was as if she was moments away from entering a tournament bout while her pink-haired sister rebelliously twirled the smaller of her two distinct blades and boisterously laughed with the leather jacketed gangster of their party.

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Beyond them, Tzultacaj raised his ancient axe so that he could catch a bolt of purple and red lightning that erupted from the clear sky. It sent a wave of deafening thunder rolling across the plains, and jagged fingers of blood red electricity dancing through the fields. Many people flinched at the eruption of sound, but even more barely acknowledged it, as if it wasn’t intimidating at all. Marcus wasn’t afraid to admit that it was certainly intimidating, but Reina Kitawa hadn’t even opened her eyes.

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Sila Tupua was the closest to the forceful blast and was among those completely unsurprised by the lightning. He already had a giant apparition of war standing directly behind him, arms crossed and head tilted back. Sila’s own eyes sent individual turquoise flames above his head and his tattoos blazed with mana. A trio of his companions glowed equally bright as they empowered themselves with ancestral power that flowed through their tribal markings.

The mixed New Zealander party also included a pair of what Marcus assumed were the Australian rangers, kitted out in wide-brimmed hats, bandanas, loose long-sleeved shirts, lightweight jackets, and long pants tucked into sturdy combat boots. He had been briefly told about the difficult evacuation of the continent as Primal Constructs encroached on the few Australian settlements from strongholds deep in the Outback. The New Zealanders were present in Kansas specifically to determine if they had their own massive Fallen Zone in Australia to deal with, already well-networked thanks to their interactions during the Underlayer Event with one of Ghost Reef’s armies.

The growing line of warriors, stepping up to face the unknown, peered into the distance, spotting unimpressive enemy figures as they slowly approached the edge of the settlement from a grassy highway, barely at the edge of the horizon. The representatives of humanity wouldn’t underestimate the danger of an ‘unknown’ rank boss, but these two didn’t seem to be in the same league as the Siege Bosses that had become familiar to the warriors of Earth, at least in terms of size. Marcus kept watching, seeking the third, but unable to find it.

Further down the flank of the human warriors, Platinum revealed her own glowing staff of pure light after forming a matching visor that made her look like a cyberpunk valkyrie, taking her place in front of Neon Park’s army as they mustered themselves. At her side, Champion Neon rolled up a single sleeve, as if to show off the building radiation within his upper arm. He made no effort to provide orders to his soldiers, already passing word to his subordinate leaders that they would organize into offensive plan: delta. The organized chaos of Neon Park was unique in the vast gulf that existed between disciplined leaders and the rest of the rabble, especially when compared to the rest of the factions.

In front of the Pacific Republic’s army, on the opposite side, Alex Nova flexed hard, building his own empowerment while small rocks vibrated around him, on the verge of hovering into the air at his side. His power exploded upwards in bursts, as if he was crashing through new boundaries one at a time, sending his hair upright and making it seem like he stood at the center of a giant flickering firework. Cole Walker and Ashton Cliff, the other powerhouses of the west coast prepared themselves from either side of Alex, with one wrapping himself in layers of purple shadows while the other collected chaotic poisonous vapors in his palms while half a dozen others floated over each of his shoulders. General McCallister paced up and down his army, shouting specific instructions to individual soldiers as if he knew the roles of each and every one of them.

The two armies couldn’t have been more different, but there were plenty of reasons for both of them to have survived this long. Neither was obviously flawed, but they leveraged different aspects of strength among their populations.

Marcus assessed those who had risked traveling across the globe to attend this meeting and found himself genuinely impressed. If there was any group of people that could rival the accumulated power of Ghost Reef, this was it. They surpassed what had previously been the most powerful collection of individual warriors in Hai Yun’s caravan, drawing from almost every corner of the globe with much larger numbers than the ill-fated group.

If he was only observing, he would almost feel bad for their opponents in the upcoming confrontation, but he would be at the forefront, and he had to put on a good show. He aggressively stepped forward after already claiming the center, and Shane followed him in lockstep. They would meet the two monsters away from the buildings to avoid damage to the hosting settlement and hopefully the third would reveal itself in due time.

Coop’s absence had opened the door for many different people to step up. Others fell in line, making it clear that they would be a united front for the next echelon of challenge within the assimilation. Marcus couldn’t help but feel optimistic about what that said for their collaboration efforts. It seemed like a positive reflection of the previous discussions among the leaders. Actions spoke much louder than words.

However, before they closed the distance anywhere near what would be necessary for a proper battle, or even preliminary ranged attacks from the elevated snipers and their mana-modified rifles, one of the boss monsters activated its own empowerments. It was a clear response to the collection of human warriors preparing for battle.

A column of rich shimmering mana, flecked with brilliant gold and gleaming silver, shot into the sky. It was translucent, but shining bright enough to light the clouds far beyond the surface across the entire region. It reached so high it seemed to threaten to reach the planetary shield far beyond the atmosphere.

Marcus wasn’t the only one who tilted his head up to admire the impressive spotlight of energy, wondering just what they were facing. Gasps and quiet curses could be heard across the armies before suddenly being smothered. Simultaneous to the spotlight, a wave of power exploded from the boss’s position on the ground, cascading across the plains in all directions while pinning the grasses to the surface as it shot forward.

When the wave smashed into the soldiers of humanity, barely half a second after it appeared, almost every single person flinched or stumbled, and many fell to the ground. Marcus raised his scepter in front of his face, shielding his eyes from the dust carried by the blastwave as Arthur braced his back with one hand, barely preventing themselves from toppling over, despite being a massive distance away from the enemies on the horizon and partially shielded by Shane’s mana dome.

Marcus met Arthur’s eyes, then looked over at Shane, silently wondering if they should retreat. He didn’t want to vocalize it, destroying the burgeoning cooperation of such a wide swathe of humanity, but whatever that thing was, they were not ready for it. If that was the level of the Fallen Zone, they needed significantly more time to prepare themselves. The murmuring that started elsewhere seemed to agree.

The empowered monster seemed to be gliding forward, increasing its pace, aggressively approaching the human armies without any hint of fear. Rather than being intimidated by their display of power, it seemed motivated to respond on behalf of its partner, hovering like a magnet that was growing increasingly closer to its object of attraction.

Marcus held his position in spite of himself, though he felt less like he was leading the charge and more like he would be the first to be run over by a careening semi truck. He could admit to feeling intimidated, but this was a bit more than he had signed up for. He clenched his teeth as he did his best to channel the confidence of their Champion.

However, before the monster was close enough to be fired upon, a missile smashed into the center of what would become the battlefield. Its velocity had been so high, Marcus hadn’t even noticed its approach until it was already staked into the ground, preceding a series of sonic booms. It sent a wave of dirt as it dislodged debris from the packed soil. For a moment, all eyes were on the surprise totem.

Marcus wasn’t the only person to recognize the projectile. Shane actually laughed in relief and Arthur sighed with exasperation. A surprising majority of the human warriors that had stepped up to face the unknown boss were suddenly presented with a weapon that they were well-acquainted with, one way or another.