Unchosen Champion-Chapter 341: The Enigma
The atmosphere was bursting with a strangely familiar energy. Coop let his eyes wander across the clouds, sniffing at the particularly stimulated smoke with curiosity, eventually coming to the conclusion that he was detecting an obvious variant of abyssal mana.
The flowing currents that clouded the region weren’t exactly the same flavor as Coop’s newest affinity, but they were close enough to be incontrovertibly recognizable. He imagined that if he had selected a different abyssal sponsor, they would have matched up perfectly. He couldn’t help but wonder if his first forays into the Coral Forest had primed him to receive the affinity in the first place, assuming that simply living on Ghost Reef hadn’t been enough.
Where his affinity seemed to be embracing the depths of the abyss that he was most familiar with in Earth’s oceans, something about the final layer of the Coral Forest was markedly alien, making it different enough from his own to be distinctive. If he hadn’t gradually delved into the habitat, he would never have guessed that he was still in the mana well outside of his settlement. The tinge of strangeness throughout the environment was enough to throw him off.
The slate ground, with its linear stripes and geometric patterns all pointing directly forward, to the final gout of mana, made the whole zone seem like an alien planet teetering on the verge of collapse. The mana seed was the core holding it all together. The last section was completely free of sand, instead completely covered in fine layers of ash that thinned as they approached the end.
The almost explosive gouts of mana billowing through gaps in the surface resulted in a truly apocalyptic setting, like the whole underground region was simultaneously being broken and rebuilt. It was somewhat similar to new environments that were being established by an active volcano, gradually creating new islands through what was ultimately an extremely destructive process. The mana seed was carving its own habitat through the seafloor which was then colonized by extant life.
Thankfully for the residents of Ghost Reef, the seething atmosphere was limited to the bottom of the mana well, rather than anything larger. The unusual erosion and creation caused by the churning mana wasn’t like anything Coop had seen before, but it wasn’t like he was particularly well-traveled in the first place. Still, if there was anywhere that had similar markings decorating the landscape, he was sure it would have been a defining natural wonder that even he would have been familiar with.
The pulsing illumination, glowing from floating spheres that faded from bright lavender into purple ash within the churning smoke, was even more unnatural. The vivid shade of color seemed like a rarity in the natural world, but the bubbles of light painted the entire underground level in peculiar hues, highlighting the oddities of the layer.
There were no visible growths, establishing the exposed stone as brand new real estate, freshly revealed as a result of the powerful cauldron of mana that flooded the domain. Even the extremophile invertebrates that lived in the shadow of the hydrothermal vents hadn’t made it to the proximity of the core of the dungeon. By the time they did, Coop suspected that the seed would have already sunk deeper into the crust of the planet, extending the layer further away from the surface while leaving behind a new vent to become the most premier in the area.
By the process of elimination, he knew that the Enigma had to have made its home there. Like the other individual Faders, it relied on a steady flow of mana to maintain its position as boss of the coral abyss. It made sense that the final, most potent vent would be its lair.
However, Coop still had no sense of its presence. He stepped forward, ready to approach the mana seed that had formed the entire Coral Forest, knowing that no boss would willingly give up on its territory so passively. At least, he was pretty sure it couldn’t be that easy to conquer the well.
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“Come out, come out, wherever you are.” Coop muttered, nerves already taut as he anticipated the culmination of his grind in the form of a final boss battle.
A few seconds went by, and Coop was starting to doubt his convictions. Perhaps the monstrosity had been observing him more carefully than he imagined, and it had recognized that accepting the challenge of the Revenant was a bit too risky. Or maybe it had already identified weaknesses that even he was unaware of, and it was waiting for the perfect moment.
Coop was amused by the thought, blowing air out of his nose as he considered the possibility that a mutated creature based on one of the more simple animals he could identify might just be wiser than many humans. Of course it was wishful thinking, and though Presence of Mind and his mana sight failed to identify the boss, the air was thick with the scents of salt and something else. His mind made the connection that it was something ancient and fleshy, but he assumed that was just an association based on his few experiences with the manifestation of Sethrak, the Deep Dweller.
It was like he could smell the strange and unnatural abyss. The memory of his aborted evolution made him want to gag, but he just scowled instead. As he scrunched his face, distracted by the trauma, the rolling clouds of smoke finally gave way to the first tentacle, almost mocking the fact that he couldn’t notice it.
Towering directly in front of him, bathing in the smoke ejected from the core of the well, a gargantuan monster of titanic proportions revealed itself one tentacle at a time, almost as if it was borne of the smoke itself. Its grayish, leathery skin was slick with humidity, and the moisture hissed as it rapidly evaporated after being exposed to the heat beneath the smoke clouds.
It was equally tainted by the soot that covered Coop, making them both seem like they had climbed out of a mucky swamp for this face off. The surface writhed and pulsed, so widespread, Coop couldn’t imagine where it would begin and end. It was just a mass of tentacles, each as wide as a river at its base, flowing over each other like a nest of bulbous snakes. It extended up and around before disappearing into the haze, presenting as if it was infinite. He had no idea how they avoided being tangled together.
Coop clenched his trident, unable to avoid the second thoughts regarding his decision to delve this deep. He still hadn’t seen the creature’s actual body. It was just a tangle of fleshy limbs, floating above the seed, but it was already massive. A few of the limbs seemed to have a mind of their own as they responded to his presence, inching away from the cloud layer toward the ground. The fact that he couldn’t detect it until the moment it willingly showed itself was disconcerting, to say the least.
With just a hint of his increasing fear exposed, Coop gripped his weapon a bit tighter, deciding that maybe if he just fought the limbs, the rest of the boss would appear, like a later stage in a multi-tiered battle. He stepped backwards a bit, and as if the creature had gone through the exact same thought process, they both launched their first attacks at the same time.
Of course the monstrous boss had sensed the intrusion to its domain, and as Coop slammed his foot against the slate floor, cracking the surface of the stone, and launched the trident at the nearest tentacle, the knotted mass unfolded, spreading out like a firework of wriggling flesh, frustrated by the fact that Coop hadn’t turned to run at a mere glimpse of its bulk. A deafening bellow that shook the foundation of the mana well erupted from somewhere within the horizon-blocking beast while the ethereal weapon shot through the wispy smoke that had been trapped between the two contenders.
The trident pierced the outer skin of the creature in the thickest part of just one of the many tentacles and simply disappeared in the conveyor belt of flesh. The boss didn’t give any indication that his attack had done any damage at all, continuing its own motion without interruption.
Coop swapped weapons, shifting to a more defensive posture with his spear and shield, still backing away as the tentacles crashed down one after the other. Each collision of gray flesh and ashen slate shook the walls, sending shockwaves all the way to the surface. Anyone enjoying the calm waters at Ghost Reef’s beaches would be presented with a few turbulent waves for each mass of flesh.
Coop held his shield firm, anticipating a suitable counterattack for his opening throw, but other than loose stones skipping across the ground and the occasional dislodged coral rock pebble falling down from high above, it seemed like more posturing from the giant boss. That was until the everpresent clouds of black mana smoke that roiled above the layer, separating it from the rest of the domain, suddenly collapsed toward the ground, like an avalanche of soot and ash.
For a moment, it seemed like a disaster, where scaffolding that had been holding up an incomplete roof was pulled out, causing everything to crash down with Coop trapped inside. Coop hadn’t been able to to use any of his senses to penetrate the turbulent mana the entire time that he hunted on the sixth layer and that trend continued when the entire floor was suddenly engulfed by the impenetrable energy. He squeezed his eyes shut, feeling the heated ash cake onto his skin, keeping his last view of the gargantuan creature in his mind, and moved even further backwards, bracing against the lacerating smoke.
Though his movement was mostly just a desperate attempt to dodge imagined attacks, he was also trying to buy himself time as he dumped 100,000 points out of his own extensive mana pool into Fog of War. He hoped that with a bit of distance from the actual superheated hydrothermal vents, his channel would last a bit longer than in the rest of the layer.
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The mists mixed with the black smoke, at first creating rivers of familiar ethereal energy that competed with the abyssal heat and pressure, but they quickly merged as more and more of his pool was spent. It was as if his spectral mana was already accustomed to the presence of the abyss and naturally sought an equilibrium. The fog spread throughout the raw mana clouds, forming a mixture of abyssal and spectral energy that matched his base affinities as his own domain grew to encompass the deepest portion of the well.
In a matter of seconds, the tidal wave of mists reached the mass of tentacles once again, reestablishing the zone as an even playing field. Coop kept his eyes shut, but with Presence of Mind bouncing through every bit of mist, he had a hyper-detailed picture of hundreds of yards in every direction, so comprehensive, it felt like his brain was folding in on itself to accept every characteristic.
He had established his domain just in time to witness the mass of tentacles rotating forward, hundreds of them smashing through the energized mana, like the treads of a tank. Despite their bulk, they seemed light, barely putting weight on the ground, instead using their connection with the stone to propel the entire body forward rather than to hold it up. Otherwise, it was essentially floating.
Coop still couldn’t fully detect the main body, which would have been his primary target, knowing that the gaseous sac would be the most vulnerable part of a man of war. The sensitive bubble-like portion must have been hidden within the mass of tentacles, meaning he would have no choice but to contend with the thick limbs, whether he liked it or not.
While he made as much sense of his opponent as he could, he was reconfiguring his spear, filling it with mists so that it would grow as heavy as possible. The ethereal manifestation would become an iron spike, built to penetrate. Only a few moments went by as the boss closed the gap, but it was enough for Coop to throw his weapon like a javelin, testing the creature for weaknesses.
The Enigma ignored the spear, committing to its own attack. As a result, it received a massive wound that fully detached one of its tentacles at its thickest point. The spear bore a bus-sized hole through the leathery flesh, but it did nothing to halt the creature’s momentum, and it did nothing to expose critical areas.
Coop used Vaporform to slip out of the way of a simple titanic slam, moving backwards as he passed through the mists. The bulk of a giant tentacle blasted into the slate floor, creating a crater where he had planted his foot just moments before.
In his effort to conserve a bit of mana and spend as little time as possible in the world of mists, he left himself in the line of fire for more tentacles. The boss was effectively rotating its limbs so that it always had another ready to either use to pull its body forward or attack the intruder.
Coop may have accumulated a ridiculous number of stats in the most recent period of grinding, but he could already see that it would take more than his baseline abilities to defeat the boss of the Coral Forest. He clenched his jaw, not feeling the need to panic just because his literal auto attacks weren’t diminishing the unknown rank, unknown level, boss enemy.
Coop was just glad they were fighting out in the open. He had a brief flash of horror as he imagined the tentacles invading the tunnels of the sponge with him inside, leaving him with no way of escaping. He quickswapped to his sword as he used the open space and sidestepped the second attack with his own Agility, then raised his shield to block the thinner portion of the third tentacle strike as it tried to adjust with his evasive movements. In retaliation, he chopped with all of his Strength with the ethereal edge of his misty blade, severing a long section of leathery flesh and releasing a gout of black smoke from the wound.
The boss shifted, and to Coop’s surprise, his shield was ripped away, nearly taking his arm off as the tentacle that had been blocked raised itself in the air. The shield had been pierced by half a dozen stinging spikes, spring loaded within the tentacles of the man of war. At the same time, another tentacle bore down on his position.
Coop had been mistakenly under the impression that it was applying its bulk to defeat him, but it merely needed a touch to fire off dozens of nematocysts. The barbed spikes were nearly the same width as a crossbow bolt, and each tentacle was loaded with thousands upon thousands of them.
He narrowly avoided brushing with the following tentacles, giving slightly more respect to the lumbering attacks, chewing up 20 yards at a time as he dodged and the boss continued to apply pressure with its countless limbs. The shortsword flashed through the air, while Coop fought, his eyes still closed, severing as large a portion of the tentacles as he was comfortable with before liberally applying Vaporform to start circling the creature before he was driven back into the hydrothermal vents.
Each time he dodged, he drew upon the Legacy of the Mists to aid him with temporary companions. Phantasms applied more superficial wounds, and disappeared into the excoriating smoke as he danced between slamming tentacles, unable to withstand the passive damage being applied to the entire abyssal plain.
Coop kept slashing, occasionally separating entire sections of tentacle from the rest of the mass, leaving them wriggling and bouncing like the severed tail of a lizard, but mostly just leaving small wounds that didn’t even bleed, instead leaking smoke that just added to the atmosphere. He doubted he could win even if he applied a thousand papercuts, so he tried to skip right to the end.
Time slowed, at least from Coop’s perspective, as he cast Inheritance of the Mists. He had quickswapped back to his ethereal trident after Vaporforming away, reappearing at the edge of his Fog of War, all the way on the interior of the domain. He was hoping to be empowered by some mythical entity known for slaying Krakens, which was why he switched back to his trident. Whether or not there was such an entity recognized within human lore, he gave it a shot, recognizing that this was an occasion where he couldn’t be stingy with his firepower.
Even after creating as large a gap between himself and the Enigma as was physically possible, tentacles were already bearing down upon his position. They lacked the crushing bulk that it had reserved for its open attacks, but they stretched toward him all the same, still inching forward even in the nearly frozen time as the possession took place. There was no front or back on this creature, so it had felt no hesitation when he flipped the battlefield.
The prongs of his trident pushed forward, empowered by his solid stance, both feet firmly on the ground, body leaning forward, and arms rigidly flexed, he aimed for the base of the seeking tentacles. His posture was perfect for establishing a powerful throw. He hoped that the Apparition would appreciate it.
When the possession took place, the Apparition of Livyatan simply swallowed his entire existence as it answered his call. Rather than some boisterous voice, calm incantations, or decisive instructions ringing through his mind, he was engulfed in almost complete silence, all of his senses momentarily restrained. A faint ringing, like he had developed tinnitus gradually increased, like he was recovering from a flashbang, just as the tips of his weapon seemed to spark black fire on each point, still a few yards away from colliding with the nearest flesh, still connected by his fingertips.
The spikes raked the air as the weapon blasted forward, and before penetrating the skin of the nearest approaching tentacle, the space between himself and the monster tore open along where his weapon had moved, revealing a fissure of absolute darkness that rapidly expanded across the battlefield. The distance between himself and the tentacles warped, creating a vast fracture in reality, that would have paused the fight if not for it all happening the moment that the possession took place. The edges peeled away, dripping with red wine colored liquified energy generated from the reservation of half of Coop’s entire mana pool, rolling outwards as the portal grew larger and larger until he and his target were completely separated by crimson darkness.
From his perspective, the image being revealed was flipped, but he could still see an ivory whale covered in pinkish scars, emerging from the blackness, enormous jaw agape, with eyes blood red with fury. It charged at full speed into the Enigma, brightening until even in Coop’s mind’s eye, he was blinded. The boss was directly impacted, both by the stunning echolocation that had muted all of Coop’s own senses in the first place, as well as the following physical attack, borne from his trident and extended by the ancient white sperm whale.
Coop barely recognized the gnashing violence that had emerged from his mana, but as quickly as it had begun, it ceased. It was immediately followed by the wet thumping sounds of countless loosened tentacles collapsing onto the ground.
When the migraine-like flash started to diminish and Coop’s pupils halted their involuntary vibrations beneath his eyelids, he observed the aftermath, and noted that he had been pushed another hundred yards back. Meanwhile, the Enigma had been disarmed, but it wasn’t dead at all.
Instead, its main body had been revealed. It was like a zeppelin, burning with purple mana, filled with even more fuel that was rapidly being ignited. In response to its damage, it lit the zone with abyssal flames, shooting an expanding ringed gate forward, its edge spinning with translucent energy that burned both the churning mana smoke as well as Coop’s Fog of War. It blinded his senses a second time so that he was forced to open his eyes. As the pulse of plasma rushed forward, it spread across the entire layer, digging through the ground and widening to encompass the entire battlefield similar to a settlement’s mana dome.
Coop braced himself, shielding his face with his forearm, and when it seemed to be over, he found himself standing across from the monster on a perfectly circular platform, made of the exact same slate ground as he had been on before, except the patterns all pointed directly at the boss rather than the mana seed. The background was a brilliant display of stars and celestial bodies, vividly glowing in a swirl that rotated upon itself, as if the man of war had made itself into a black hole at the center of the entire universe. The battlefield had transformed into a floating arena, centered on a disk of slate stone, at the center of an abyss.
The boss was fully revealed, hovering like a two-toned blimp, this time with a hundred tentacles of partially transparent blue energy, surrounded by stars and stellar dust. All the damage it had taken was undone, replaced by solid manifestations. Coop wasn’t sure if he could compare them to his manifestations or to Infusion, but either way, the boss made itself seem undiminished despite absorbing a direct attack from Inheritance of the Mists.
Coop abruptly shook his head, trying to reset his brain after such a dramatic shift took place after just a few seconds of actual fighting. He supposed it made sense that a boss named the Enigma wouldn’t have been such a clumsy, purely physical fighter. Its attempt to use its relative bulk and crush the tiny invader had been a simple reaction, the same way Coop might have swatted a fly away from his face after it flew too close, but he didn’t expect it to create an actual stage for it to demonstrate the rest of its abilities.
Coop took a deep breath, recognizing that the fight was only beginning.
