Chapter 81: The Prodigal Daughter (Patreon)

Another day of the siege went by and the Frenzied Excavators finally ceased spawning. Ruin Excavators appeared in the darkness but they behaved the way the Ancient Defenders did, listlessly waiting for someone to get in range and otherwise being harmless. Coop took note of the potential Ruin Excavator grind zone and was excited about being able to return to the pearlescent chambers to complete quest chains, but that would obviously have to wait.

Gibson and his squad headed for their own long break, to rest up and recuperate, but Coop rushed to get involved with fighting the Tormenting Kites. It didn’t take long for him to be knee deep in the aquamarine sea, west of the moat, with his spear and shield gleaming in the late morning sunshine. Coop was excited for a new enemy to fight and to be out of the dimly lit caverns underground. It felt good to have the tropical sun on his skin again. The huge pig watched him as he lounged at the end of the channel. Apparently, the Kites weren’t enough to rouse the big fella.

There hadn’t been any new developments, like an unknown Field Boss joining the fight, and the ranged fighters had scraped a stalemate with the Kites by just exchanging pot shots at each other. Most of the actual defeats of the monsters had been from the pirates, who were using the corvettes to strafe the tormenting monsters, periodically running them down as they slowly and inevitably collected outside of the walls like flotsam drifting with the currents.

Defeating the Frenzied Excavators inside of his Fog of War had become routine enough for Coop to spend the full day coming up with ideas for fighting the Kites, and he had several tactics to try.

The obvious choice would be to liberally throw his spear, using Retribution to return it to his hand for free. He’d never run out of projectiles that way and he was strong enough to defeat the Kites with every throw.

However, the reliable choice of spear throwing was his second backup plan, only to be used when he ran low on mana. The first backup plan was to abuse his mistjumps, taking the wave as an opportunity to exercise his Practical Application passive and reduce the cost of teleporting as much as possible. He was sure he would end up applying both tactics during the course of the wave, but he had one more experimental idea to try out first.

He resummoned his hoplon, the round shield that was also tentatively a frisbee like projectile if he sufficiently developed his offhand throws. The shield was slightly different than normal. It was still solid, but he had altered the composition. He wouldn’t be able to use it to block anything at the moment. It was purely a weapon with his current alterations.

Coop viewed the approaching Kites and selected his target. The monsters were spread apart and looked very similar to a smack of jellyfish drifting above the surface of the ocean. It wasn’t obvious where they were coming from other than it seemed like they were spread evenly along the entire horizon. They were slow and spread out, but they were inevitable.

Coop could see thousands with the group of Kites extending all the way to the edge of the mana dome. Some of them were engaged with ranged defenders on the ramparts, applying their dodges when projectiles were launched at them and lobbing their own attacks back. It was the most leisurely of the waves as the creatures weren’t an aggressive surge of monsters like the rest had been.

Without the walls, this wave would have been a nightmare, but with the fort it was certainly among the easier ones. Ranged monsters coming from all directions without cover to hide behind wouldn’t be a good time.

Preparing to throw his shield and really enter the fray, he aimed and fired with an overhand motion like he was switch pitching. The hoplon flew straight and even though Coop still lacked the natural fluidity of a practiced throw, he managed to put a good amount of power into it. The Tormenting Kite failed to dodge, not fast enough to match Coop’s Strength, even when he clumsily applied it, and the shield slammed into the monster’s tentacle-like appendages.

The alterations he had made to the shield worked exactly as he intended. The shield exploded into shrapnel as it shattered against the metallic Kite. He had come up with the idea when he considered how it had broken into pieces in the past and also remembered some skills he had observed previously. The skill of the Shattershot back on the oil rig who had fired ice arrows that shattered on impact and dealt incidental damage in an area instead of piercing, then there was the glass mage that was synergizing with Charlie’s winds, creating bullets out of raindrop sized projectiles had both been sources of inspiration.

Coop had basically tried to make an ethereal grenade. The Tormenting Kite that ended up being his test dummy was defeated, but that was the end of the good news. Resummoning the shield cost the full price of Retribution, making the move less efficient than just mistjumping at this point, and the shrapnel effect had been really underwhelming. Without anything to propel the shards, it really was more like throwing a glass plate with a ton of Strength. He would almost certainly do more damage if the shield had been completely solid instead.

Experimental plan number one would need to go back to the drawing board. Plan B was a go. Coop threw his spear, destroyed a Kite, mistjumped, threw his properly solid shield, destroyed another Kite, and mistjumped again. At 28 mana and accounting for his mana regen, he could mistjump nearly 400 times in a row. If his throw failed to defeat the monster, the mistjump would put him in range to finish the job.

The nearest Kites feebly counter attacked with their weak magical projectiles. Coop deliberately took damage from them, just to test, and lost 10 health. He would avoid taking unnecessary damage since it would also take away mana through Mind over Matter, and he wanted to be spending that on mistjumps, but it was nice to know he wouldn’t be in much danger from these monsters.

[Tormenting Kite (Level 40)]

[(Intelligence)]

[Minion of the Primal Constructs]

They really were lower level than the Frenzied Excavators. It was a two-fold relief. First, that they would be less dangerous, and second, that every wave wasn’t escalating in levels. There were just too many waves, to the point that if they were gaining as little as five levels each wave, the final wave would have been at least 50 more levels from the first wave. They’d be fighting higher than level 80 monsters and Coop wasn’t sure they’d be able to handle it. He was pretty sure he could do it, since they were just regular monsters, but the rest of the residents might end up being left behind. He shuddered at the idea of a Field Boss at that level.

Pushing aside his fears, he returned his attention to the Kites. Feeling confident about the current wave, he buckled in for a mobile grind, incorporating as many shield throws and mistjumps as he could.

—

Platinum barely made it back home before the mana dome locked her out. Neon hadn’t anticipated the red barriers spawning for the duration of each wave and she ended up being the only one capable of traveling between their allies. No one else was fast enough to beat the timers. Still, she had exhausted her solidlights and Neon Park was preparing to fend off their second wave.

The three settlements she had been in so far were all piecing together the mechanics of the event. Ghost Reef was a popular topic, with everyone trying to guess how they had achieved their challenge assessment. The popular theory was that they had a territory that encompassed hundreds or even thousands of miles already. She doubted that one. Neon Park was probably among the largest settlements, territory wise, because of its population, and their estimates put their territory at around 25 miles in diameter. She didn’t think there were enough humans left alive on the entire planet to force a settlement to encompass that much territory.

In any case, absolutely no one envied the Ghost Reef. Based on the leaderboards it seemed like they were constantly fighting for their lives. One wave was enough for everyone else, including herself. In fact, one wave was too much for some, if the number of settlements that were disappearing off the lists was any indication.

She entered her home and was going to take a well earned break before she joined in the defense up north. At this point they had confirmed that the waves were composed of the local monsters and they were already anticipating which would be next. They expected it would be a ground assault against their most secure sector in The Bronx. She wouldn’t even need to help, but she would make her presence known once she relaxed for a bit.

She let her silver, not platinum, hair down and let herself fall into the warm embrace of the raggedy couch that she insisted on keeping long after it should have been replaced. Neon barely relented in letting her bring it into his brownstone when she first moved in. One look at it had caused him to recoil in fear, but she was insistent, and it was comfortable enough to win him over.

As she let herself unwind after the long trip, the door to Neon’s study swung open and a party of four exited from where they were privately meeting with the Champion.

Platinum was surprised to see The Bronx Commander herself, escorted by a few of her elites, had come to visit. It was rare for any of the community leaders to leave their domains, and that was especially true for the strongest of them. Not to mention the impending wave on her territory. They were probably the only sector that could spare powerhouses and still remain secure at all times.

Despite being an old lady, the commander was a force to be reckoned with, even before mana. Now, she was one of the few people Platinum would definitely run away from if it came to a fight. Forget about levels, she wouldn’t risk it. The other three, all her grandchildren, weren’t any slouches either even if they didn’t engender the same level of respect from Platinum.

She politely nodded at Platinum as she passed by with elegance that bled into the room. She was one of those people that made others self-conscious of their shortcomings just by existing. The entire family was beautiful, but the matriarch was a goddess. Age had done nothing to diminish her presence

Platinum didn’t have time to straighten herself up after draping herself over the end of her couch like a slob before they had surprised her. One of the grandchildren knelt and gently snagged her fingers as if he was encouraging her to come with him.

She shook her hand free, not interested in the admittedly handsome man, “Leave me alone, Carlos.”

“C’mon, don’t be like that, weren’t you waiting out here for me?” He enticed.

Before Platinum could deny anything, one of the other escorts, Carlos’s sister or cousin or aunt, clapped him in the ear. “Leave her alone, this is a business trip.”

“Ay! Gabby! Don’t hit so hard! You’re so much stronger now! I’m just being friendly anyway.” He whined.

“Too friendly.” She retorted, raising her hand again before he started walking again. “Sorry about him, Platinum.” She dipped her head apologetically.

Carlos just waved a sad goodbye at Platinum as they followed the matriarch through the front door.

Neon was the next to leave his study, holding his glasses in one hand and squeezing the bridge of his nose with the other like he had too much to worry about and had just added one more thing.

Platinum hoped they weren’t going to have any problems from that group. The Bronx had stood firmly outside of the safe territory of the settlement until the most recent expansion, and had done so while fighting off constant raids of elite monsters from the north and northeast. The same monsters that had driven a different civilization shard to destruction despite the advantages of a territory’s protection. They survived when others would have been forced to flee or perish. She believed they’d earned their survival more than most to this point.

“What was that about?” Platinum asked uneasily.

“Oh, you made it back!” Neon exclaimed, sounding like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.  He plopped down on the couch as well. The shard was most vulnerable when he was left alone, so he was relieved she was back. He turned serious after a moment. “The Lady had a request.”

“Uh oh.”

“Nothing bad,” he waved away her concern. ”It actually works out nicely as long as we work with her. It’s more of a build a better relationship with them sort of deal, they’ll be more proactive in watching out for us if we help. She’ll take the lead as we negotiate with all these last minute Elite Chosen groups, to start with.”

“Them again?” Platinum dismissively asked. “What’s the big deal? We’re already much higher level than them.”

On Day 30, as the settlement events began, the last of the Chosen arrived from their training. These were elites that factions believed could take over the entire world in lieu of an army, but Platinum wasn’t impressed, none of them that she knew of had even cracked the leaderboards upon their return.

Neon sighed. “They have the best equipment we’ve seen so far, we’re not sure what other tricks they got, and there’s quite a few groups of them. They’re all demanding control and loyalty on behalf of their factions. Even without us in the way it might be a bloodbath between them.”

“So we strike first, make examples of some of them to get the rest to back off.” Platinum asserted, not at all doubting whether the pair of them could take a full party of the Elite Chosen, regardless of any hidden tricks.

“That’s the backup plan.” Neon chuckled, similarly confident. “First, we’re gonna host a sit down in The Bronx and let them know their options: Settle down or exile. They can find a different shard to start their conquest if they think they can. All the borough commanders are onboard, though a few block leaders have aligned themselves with various parties already. I really doubt anyone will join them in exile.”

Platinum raised an eyebrow. “...and what did the Lady want?”

“You know how they held their community together with her family at the core, how they’re all super tight, like a completely united front?” Platinum nodded, everyone knew the bonds of that family were absolutely unbreakable, none of them stepped out of line when it came down to it. Even someone like Carlos was reliably with his family and the surrounding community replicated that loyalty and respect when they displayed the ability to thrive in the face of the apocalypse.

Neon continued explaining. “Turns out there’s a prodigal daughter, or granddaughter in this case. A driven girl that left home to pursue her own desires against her family’s wishes. Headstrong and self-confident like that. She left as soon as she finished high school. They stayed friendly, keeping in touch until the apocalypse made that impossible. Despite trying to get her to come back, she never did. They want us to invite her back home given the new circumstances.”

Platinum was surprised even a single member of that family would have voluntarily left the fold like that. “Is she even alive?”

Neon nodded confidently. “She’s been all over the event leaderboards. That’s what motivated the meeting. Seems she might be just as much a powerhouse as the rest of them, despite a completely different starting point.”

If she was on the event leaderboards, that meant she would be in Ghost Reef. They had completely dominated the event from the first day, but finding the settlement would be another challenge.

Neon anticipated her next question. “They’re going to start making inquiries once the event is over, and they aren’t in any rush to find her. They are completely confident that this wayward daughter will survive no matter what happens, they just want us to help with communication if we can.”

“Please don’t send me across the planet.” She begged, already tired of traveling around between waves. She didn’t like heading into the unclaimed wilds even before the event put time limits on her travel.

“Don’t worry, we’ll send Carlos.” Neon assured her with a chuckle.

Platinum sighed, trying to imagine how she would even get to the Ghost Reef in Australia. “So we just need to help find Ghost Reef, deliver a simple message, and The Bronx army will have our back? Isn’t that too good of a deal? Who is this girl?”

Neon pressed his glasses against his nose with a single finger. “Her name is Camila Alvarez.”