Chapter 287: Master of Carnage (Patreon)

Before Coop discovered Nyiragongo, he encountered an army.

He stood still, observing from a distance as he tried to come to terms with the scale of conflict that was occurring across the planet. By this point, he expected to have grown numb to the expansive forces established by the Primal Constructs, but he was also inevitably surprised by humanity’s capacity for adaptation and survival.

Warriors stretched across the horizon, organized into their smaller squads that all carried matching shields. Where Ghost Reef had a standard set of equipment, Africa had settled on emblazoned leather shields. Casters and unarmed fighters kept them strapped to their backs while more standard warriors paired them with spears, axes, and one-armed glaives.

This was the combined force of the Assembly of Settlements, the single major organization within all of Africa. Before, Coop had seen Neon Park’s generous force and been majorly impressed by the numbers, finally getting some perspective on how many people were still out there. They had made the populations of Empress City and Neptune’s Bridge seem quaint, and were better compared to the Cult of Chakyum’s peak than what any of the Lighthouse settlements had scraped together. Neon Park had something like four or five million people in the Underlayer, and even bringing that many people was such a massive undertaking it would have been impossible without their complicated web of leadership delegations.

In comparison, Coop was staring at a force that could have been two, three, even four times as many people compared to Neon Park. The difference between a continental force and a regional force was something he had completely underestimated. It was absolutely ridiculous, but if he considered the extent of humanity before mana had activated, it would seem rather bleak. The transition to apocalyptic survival had taken a toll that was difficult to comprehend.

Still, the Settlement Events were designed by the system to be challenges for individual settlements to confront. Even combining subordinate settlements seemed almost like a cheat, because the intention of the events were for the settlements to contend for themselves, as they were literally competing against each other. The challenges were based on factors surrounding the individual shards.

To have approximately 40 settlements, many of which were already large enough to generate ambitions for total victory if controlled by an alien faction, all working together at once seemed crazy. Even without his contribution, many places around the world would have handled most of the Underlayer Event with relative ease, and that was best exemplified in Africa.

That wasn’t to say he was useless. Inevitably, if humans battled the Primal Constructs, they would experience losses. Coop was sparing those who may have been unlucky or were simply outmatched at the moment from a premature defeat. The more time people had to survive the assimilation, the stronger they would become, and the more ready they would be for future challenges.

If there was any chance they would die in the Underlayer, they should be gaining experience on the surface instead. Simple.

It didn’t take long for him to be noticed, conspicuous as he was just staring at their army as a lone ethereal gladiator in the distance. They had been carefully tracking his movement over the last full week as well, so his arrival was more or less expected. In a few minutes, various groups formed from the larger squads and drew close enough to get a better look at him, but none of them made any effort to get into range for a conversation. It seemed like they didn’t want to accidentally step into a challenge with the one that was sweeping across their holdings, haunting their settlements like some kind of unstoppable conqueror.

When Coop walked forward, they kept an even distance, pressing against each other to avoid encroaching on his path by a large 50 yard margin. Coop felt like a shark among a gigantic school of fish, but eventually a few broke from the crowd and approached him directly. Coop inspected them, finding the three highest levels yet, along with one familiar face.

[Human (Level 231)]

[River Lord (Strength)]

[Typhoon (Dauntless)]

[Human (Level 233)]

[Blazing Tempest (Agility)]

[Storm (Dauntless)]

[Human (Level 231)]

[Arithmetician (Intelligence)]

[Order (Dauntless)]

[Human (Level 219)]

[Atomic Fist (Strength)]

[Kinetic (Dauntless)]

Coop smiled at the bare knuckle boxer that had inducted him into the championship dueling system, excited to see him again. Surely, they were friends at this point.

“Safiri! Are you ready for your rematch?” Coop called to him, remembering his name as it had been revealed to him after the fact by several other fighters that had been surprised to hear about his defeat. The Atomic Fist had actually been one of the coolest classes on the trip, in Coop’s opinion, so he was looking forward to meeting him again.

“Hell no! My ear is still ringing you crazy bastard. I have 40 more hours on the tinnitus debuff you gave me!” Safiri shouted back, rubbing his jaw as if even the reminder caused him discomfort.

“Ah, my bad.” Coop responded, sincerely sorrowful. “Maybe afterwards then.” He really felt bad, but at least he hadn’t done any permanent damage. It was hard enough to hold back his stats in the first place.

“After I catch back up to your level.” Safiri stated, apparently confident he could do such a thing even though Coop had been dramatically extending his lead while the Underlayer Event was ongoing.

Coop shrugged, open to the challenge whenever they wanted. “What about you three?” Coop shifted gears. “All at once?” He wondered, unsure if he could actually win without using any skills in that scenario. He was certain it would be interesting.

He was curious about the lady in the center of the trio in particular - a Blazing Tempest that had successfully combined her affinities into the Storm Affinity, like Charlie and her Aeromancer class, but with what he thought was an unusual main stat. Coop wanted to know about her.

Safiri spoke up, recognizing his interest. “This is Imara. She is acting as Commander of our army as she is the strongest of all of us - you aren’t allowed to fight her. The others are Azizi and Sefu.” He indicated the River Lord as Azizi and the Arithmetician as Sefu. “They are basically her right and left hand during this campaign.”

“Cool.” Coop nodded before waving at them with his friendly, unbothered smile. “I’m Coop, Champion of Ghost Reef, and Founder of the Lighthouse, the only human faction in the system. Have you heard about the Eradication Protocol? Would you like to join our faction?”

Though they seemed slightly taken aback by his random solicitation, Imara kept her composure. Coop felt like she was genuine royalty, though more of a warrior queen than someone that would have been pampered by servants, judging by her leather equipment and general demeanor.

“We have heard your warnings.” She confirmed, maintaining a certain poise that he found interesting. “We will inform all of our leaders when we return to the surface. I will say it is doubtful we would submit to anyone.” She added for his benefit.

Coop nodded, in too good of a mood to be bothered. “Alright, I wouldn’t call it submission - more like broader cooperation, but that’s good enough, I guess.” He glanced at each of them respectively, waiting for them to say something else, since they had approached him. When none of them continued, assessing him instead, he took it upon himself to ask. “So? Are we really not gonna fight?”

“Are you actually so unafraid that you would challenge us in the midst of our entire army?” The Arithmetician, Sefu, wondered in disbelief. “You couldn’t possibly survive if things got out of control, which they would, since they know the role we are playing.”

Coop shrugged. “I’d win though.”

Azizi made a disgusted face and Sefu just looked confused, like the math wasn’t mathing.

“If you’re not gonna play, I’ll keep it moving.” Coop stated, unaffected by the confrontation either way.

“Wait.” Imara put her hand up to stop his spear throw preparation. “Actually, I would like to propose an alternative competition.”

Coop put his weapon down, leaning on it as he expressed interest with his eyebrows. “Competition?”

The warrior queen barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes as Azizi glanced at her like he wanted to ask if they could believe this guy. “There are only three settlements left. Let’s have a race. Between yourself and our army, whoever clears their allotment first gets first claim on the final largest invasion.”

“Sounds fun. I wouldn’t have stopped you guys from doing your thing anyway.” Coop agreed. “Who goes where?”

“We will go that way, to Arusha, and you go there to Murchison Falls.” Sefu, the man on her left, pointed in two different directions. “We will take the settlement with a x5 challenge assessment, while yours is only x3. Isn’t that a fair handicap?” He explained.

“Nah.” Coop declined. “Gimme Arusha.” He suggested, waving his fingers in a gesture of quick denial.

 “If that’s what you wish. The prize you will give us is Nyiragongo, our largest settlement.” Sefu continued.

“We’ll see.” Coop remarked. Were they still underestimating him or were they that confident in their own abilities? He figured it was probably both. “Let’s get on with it.”

“On your mark, Champion Coop.” Imara stated, watching him with determined eyes as her lieutenants smiled confidently at each other. Safiri just shook his head at the whole exchange.

In response, Coop stepped into his spear throw, launching it with full force, letting it break the sound barrier, just to see their reactions.

Despite his demonstration, they didn’t even watch his spear, instead Imara began shouting directions that were then repeated in a cascade through the different squads as the enormous army received their marching orders and set off at a brisk run. Coop thought the discipline might indicate they would have an actual competition, so he was already smiling as he mistjumped, flickering to his disappearing spear.

It only took him a quarter of an hour to cover the ground to his allotted enemies. The first Prime Construct of the Arusha control points was innocently minding its own business when a missile pierced the crown of its head. His first advantage would certainly be his travel speed and his second advantage was definitely his firepower.

The ethereal spear that had been aimed at its forehead was heavy enough that when its spectral tip collided with the metallic armor of the Siege Boss, it pulled the boss down toward the ground, yanking it off its feet. If the invader wasn’t the size of a skyscraper, it would have seemed as though it was snagged by an invisible fishing line.

The volatile spear exploded when it whipped the head of the Prime Construct into the floor. Spectral shrapnel cascaded across the dirt landscape, shredding the unsuspecting invaders and littering the dirt with pockmarks before their primary opponent even arrived.

When he teleported into the chaos he had instantaneously created, he was already quickswapping to an ultra dense manifestation of his two-handed battle axe. He wanted it truly heavy.

Time was slowing to a halt as he raised the ponderous weapon above his head with both hands, aiming the tip between the double blades at the obstructed heavens. When the possession began, red and black lightning arced from the vaporous ceiling before striking the raised axe. Roaring thunder announced the connection of crimson energy from the sky to the ground. It highlighted his weapon before melting through the handle into his posed form.

The ghostly mists that flowed around him transformed into a ruby haze, framed by the mana of the abyss as an explosive metamorphosis took place. The Master of Carnage was the barbarian spirit that answered his call for the quick destruction of his enemies.

Coop’s armor shattered as his muscles swelled and he hulked out, smashing his raised weapon down into the nearest Field Boss with the fury of a thousand warriors.

For a moment, it seemed like that was the extent of his empowered attack, the shining, blood red axe implanted in the ground, but as if delayed by the process of defying reality, a thin vertical string of black split the horizon, and remained still.

The thunder had silenced the battlefield, and the only sound was a driving, deep bass, ‘boom, boom, boom,’ that shook the normally frozen dirt with such a low pressure, it actually smoothed out the battlefield with the vibrations. The bass grew louder and louder, until Coop realized it was his own heart, pounding with such force shockwaves were emanating from his position, staggering his opponents.

Then, with the sound of shattering glass, the bass was finally accompanied by a crashing orchestra of destruction as the vibrations culminated, drawing a reaction from the frozen tear in the horizon. A still frame of the world all around Coop broke, cracking the forms of the staggered Primal Constructs, breaking the walls of their castle, and the very air they existed beside. He was sure that if they could bleed, the attack would have been a bloodbath.

Thankfully, a wide section merely developed a gray haze of mana smoke instead as thousands of his enemies were destroyed at once. Thousands of Primal Constructs were evaporated from existence with the single empowered attack.

He released the possession, sticking to his strategy despite the seductive call of power he held in his grasp. The Master of Carnage called for blood, but there was no way he would falter when there was an actual competition on hand. All of the grinding was training for this kind of moment.

For exactly five minutes, he channeled his Fog of War and turned the first control point into a meat grinder that would have made the Master of Carnage proud, slaying the Primal Constructs with the diligence brought by rivalry. He guzzled the experience down, filling the void that had grown within, brought by his abyssal affinity, and he was satiated as another level was granted to the Revenant.

The shadowy mana of the Abyss swirled with the mists, adding an inscrutable layer to the haunting atmosphere. If the Primal Constructs could feel fear, there was no better time, but as manifestations, they threw themselves into his grasp, feeding his grind. Their preservation instinct was woefully inadequate.

Fists of lightning and barrages of fire accompanied his possessions, generating enormous punctuations within his steady aggression that ultimately cleared the field. When he moved on and time slowed once again with the second Siege Boss in his sights, he repeated the process that had resulted in the Master of Carnage giving him power, demanding the destruction of his enemies while wielding the ultra heavy double-bladed battle axe. A slightly different result took place.

The Siege Boss was whirling on its challenger, struggling against the limitations of its own speed as Coop watched it move in slow motion. From a storm of shadow at its flank, a giant coffin-like object seemed to manifest. Coop’s weapon cracked and mutated into a sort of key blade while the Bringer of Pain presented its contribution to his struggle.

The doors of the coffin opened, revealing the interior to be covered in dark iron spikes, dripping in viscous black blood. Heavy chains wrapped around the limbs of the much larger Siege Boss, and when Coop’s overhead strike finally connected, they pulled taut. The invader was dragged toward the mouth of the iron maiden, regardless of the difference in size.

When the lower back of the Siege Boss collided with the open doors of the manifestation, they slammed onto its form with crushing force as they struggled to close. Eventually, the boss snapped, folding a few times so that it would fit into the torture device. When the doors slammed shut, a cloud of mana smoke erupted from its hinges, and dark red energy glowed from within the keyhole as Coop released himself from the possession.

His boosted motivation had been tapping into some truly brutal memorials to humanity. Somehow, he couldn’t call himself dissatisfied, thinking the invaders were getting what they deserved. Admittedly, his feelings would have changed if they were more than manifestations, but as it was, he felt like their projections were fair game for all the cruelties he could summon.

Coop continued his harsh campaign against the Primal Constructs with gusto. While seeing all of the various skills of other humans in the many duels he had experienced across Africa, there was something far more satisfying about seeing his own skills in action. He didn’t let up until Arusha was completely clear of enemies.

He left the control points uncaptured, carving a few messages into the dirt to taunt his competitors as he blasted his way toward Nyiragongo.

The massive settlement was untouched, occupied by a pristine force of millions of Primal Constructs. Coop let himself in, continuing his grind with unstoppable momentum.

“Looks like I got dibs.” He happily declared, ready to feast on the enemies of humanity.