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Chapter 204: Kukulkan
🕑 Added 2024-03-01 16:11:01 +0000 UTCCoop had let his guard down for a split second, and the High Priest sought to take advantage immediately; he had been waiting for the opportunity, but he sold his potential victim short.
Coop twisted back toward the lunging Kul-Hau, moving like he was in molasses, but powering through in order to defend against the latter’s ambush by raising the tip of his spear directly toward his sternum. The High Priest of the Cult of Chakyum, and self-described Voice of Kukulkan, was already committed to his attack, displaying a pair of sharp talons between his fingers that would have torn into Coop’s kidneys if his ambush had gone unnoticed. The Priest desperately tried to abort the maneuver once it became obvious that the lightning bolt distraction hadn’t been enough to occupy Coop’s attention for long enough to catch him by surprise.
Coop was barely able to adjust his stance in the time that the Priest closed the gap, with his own muscles screaming in complaint at the sudden demand to move. His experience with the Battlemaiden had taught him not to underestimate his own speed, so he moved with purpose, exactly the amount necessary and not an inch more. He told himself there was no need to panic, even if the Priest was demonstrating some truly extreme acceleration.
In the end, the Priest barely manipulated his own momentum enough to avoid a self-inflicted death, shifting wide of Coop an instant before impaling himself on the firmly-held ethereal spear. The tip of the spear tore a long bloody strip across his ribs before he crashed into the bushes far behind Coop with a loud series of curses. The awkward flailing would have been comical if he hadn’t attempted to assassinate his audience.
When his head popped back above the bushes, Coop was facing him with his shield up and spear forward. The Champion was locked in.
“I… I underestimated you.” The High Priest admitted with shame dripping from his stammering voice. Leaves were caught in his feathery robe while he shoved his way back toward the clearing while giving Coop a wide berth. He side-eyed Coop and the barely held-together facade of friendliness disappeared. A more comfortable, but nasty scowl embedded itself onto his face as a replacement for the previously strained grin.
“I won’t forgive you.” The cultist declared as he returned to the clearing, as if Coop had apologized for something. He lowered his head to look at Coop from beneath his eyebrows. “You think you can stand alone against Chakyum?” He scoffed darkly. “Think again, before you make a fool of yourself.”
Coop grunted, swiveling the ball of his back foot in the charred dirt as he prepared for another bout while noting that the Priest didn’t seem to be aware of the stirring army back in Corozal. The Cult of Chakyum, like the High Priest in front of Coop, was focused upon his presence and nothing more.
The corner of Coop’s lips twitched as his greedy smile threatened to appear. The rarely seen battle freak that drove him to grind was bubbling beneath the surface. The short demonstration of speed had Coop eager to test himself, and the Cult promised to give him even more challenges in the future.
If Coop attacked, he could be upon his opponent in four steps, but he waited to see what the Priest would try next. Coop was keeping track of the dry cloud that lingered above the battlefield, filled with enough energy to continually spew lightning against the tips of the blackened tree branches without end. Until he had a better idea of how much control the Priest had over the lightning, he was hesitant to overly expose himself. As it was, he braced for an attack. He had enough experience around Charlie’s lightning to give it a healthy amount of respect, regardless of his overwhelming magic defenses.
The High Priest was also fast enough that Coop wasn’t entirely sure he would catch him should he attempt his own assault. It seemed like he needed to bait an attack from his opponent and successfully counter if he wanted to win. Coop was game.
One thing was certain. He was completely done with speaking to these cultists. Rather than try and decipher clues behind their words that would help him find and confront their leader, he would just rely on the Jaguar Sun. The next fool that tried to lower his guard with conversation would be in for a nasty surprise when Coop initiated the fight immediately. All these Priests would die.
Kul-Hau continued scowling at Coop, almost desperate for the Champion to engage him with words. “You believe you’re some kind of hero?” He spat into the dirt. “Pathetic fantasies. The world is crumbling. Only Chakyum can give us a chance. You may refuse to serve him in life, but in death, you will contribute all the same. We all will.” He stated, presenting the thought while spreading his arms.
Another bolt of lightning shot toward them, but these strikes were different from regular lightning. Instead of arcing through the air with crackling fingers, they shot forward with linear tracks. Most of them lined up with the tree’s lightning rod-like branches, making the ones that left the crown that much more obvious. Coop could immediately tell that it would miss him, so he was able to maintain his focus on the High Priest that circled toward the tree.
As he watched, the lightning struck Kul-Hau, surprising Coop enough for him to raise his eyebrows. Was this friendly fire? The feathers on the High Priest’s robe were charged, standing on end in a way that made him seem larger, and when the electricity rushed through his body and exited into the ground, the black, charred ash detritus exploded into the air with large clumps sticking together. Inside the blinding light, Coop could see the satisfied smile of the High Priest, charged with electricity bouncing between the gaps of his teeth and flickering from his eyes. It was an expression that should have been reserved for enjoying a hot tub, not being bathed in electricity.
Coop kept an eye on the man’s aura, and saw that his level had increased by five measly levels. Now a level 105 Sky Bite faced down Coop’s 181 Revenant.
But another step resulted in another strike, adding five more levels. Coop felt like he was watching slow motion footage of artillery fire landing in dirt, with the Priest at the epicenter of each crater. Chunks of scorched earth flew in all directions as the Priest embraced the lightning with every step, arms outstretched toward the sky.
“You’re dead.” The Priest proclaimed, voice thundering across the clearing as if the darkened cloud was speaking through him. Coop could feel the air pressure increase as if the cloud pressed down upon the clearing.
“Not yet.” Coop assessed.
The fifth bolt of lightning struck the Priest and the muscles in his legs flexed with sudden exertion. He zig-zagged forward, both hands gripping daggers so that the talon-shaped blade extended from between his pointer finger and middle finger. Kul-Hau’s punches would come with a deadly edge. Each of his following steps caught another lightning strike, and he accelerated with uncanny speed, taking a wide curving path. Five more steps and five more bolts already had him twisting around Coop’s spear and entering lethal range in an indirect path.
Coop rotated his body forty-five degrees to his right, drawing his shoulder back, which caused the first dagger to completely miss his neck. Timing the perfect moment, Coop’s shield was pushed forward from his left shoulder, crushing the Priest’s second blow before his arm could fully extend. When the dagger hit the shield, a lightning bolt struck them both, but Coop held his jaw tight and followed through. The shield pushed forward without losing any momentum, smashing into Kul-Hau's face, then his chest, while they were both lit in searing white.
Kul-Hau flew through the air and flopped to the ground, blood leaking from his lower lip and a clear impression of Coop’s shield already bruising on his chest. Coop stepped forward, smoke rising from his shoulders as the mists that drifted from his armor were singed by the heat created in the lightning. Coop’s limbs tingled, but he flexed as he gripped his equipment, shrugging off the physical impact of being struck by a bolt of lightning.
Kul-Hau was tougher than Coop expected. The collision had been like a high-speed motorcycle crashing into a brick wall, so a bloody lip and large bruise was a completely negligible amount of damage. The High Priest was fast, but he lacked either the Strength or the mass to truly elevate his speed into a dangerous tool in the face of Coop’s defenses. Relatively speaking, he was faster than Coop, but he wasn’t fast enough to catch Coop completely by surprise. It must have been the first time someone could even track the Priest’s movements, so being countered had him sputtering in shock.
Coop sought to expose his overconfidence, and lunged forward with a well-practice thrust of his ethereal spear while the Priest was vulnerable on the ground. Kul-Hau desperately rolled out of the way, covering himself in the black ash that decorated the field, but Coop followed on steady feet. The Priest crawled backwards, kicking and sliding through the dirt before another bolt of lightning gave him the fraction of a second he needed to roll to his feet.
He turned on Coop, using the blinding light that separated them to mask another sneak attack. Coop barely had time to wrap his shield in front of his right side when a translucent viper sprang toward his flank. The green snake manifestation curled around his side, large enough to bite Coop in half, but the round shield blocked its fangs and it immediately dissipated. At the same time, the High Priest twisted to Coop’s left side, desperately trying to sink his daggers into Coop’s exposed back with a furious shout.
Before he got into range, he was forced to abandon his attack, when the tip of Coop’s spear nearly impaled his thigh from beneath Coop’s shield arm. Coop had crossed his arms, defending against the snake attack while keeping his spear trained on the High Priest. Kul-Hau cursed as he kept his eyes on the tip of the spear.
When Coop pursued the High Priest, dropping his shield to grip the spear with both hands and thrust it forward, Kul-Hau ducked out of the way and actually turned to run. Six lightning steps created a wide gap between the two combatants, but his retreat was cut short when a ghostly phantasm dove from the mists directly in his path. He turned left, narrowly dodged Coop’s spear throw with pure luck, and headed for the tree line on the opposite side of the clearing, trailing lightning bolts the entire way.
Coop mistjumped to his errant spear, which had shot past the Priest. As soon as the monochromatic world retreated, he dumped the rest of his mana into Fog of War. A wall of fog climbed from the bushes at the edge of the clearing and Kul-Hau sprinted straight into it.
Three steps in and the Priest had realized his mistake. He turned, seeking an exit from the foggy domain and ended up rotating until he faced his original direction. The world had completely melted away. Only mists remained.
“Insolent bastard.” The Priest muttered, but his voice barely escaped his lips, suppressed by the mists.
The sunlight was filtered until the entire fog bank was illuminated by a ghostly ethereal glow. The natural sounds of the region were swallowed by the dense mists, and even his breathing became difficult, like he was being smothered by a damp cotton sheet.
Kul-Hau took a hesitating step backwards, dazed, feeling his feet sink into the soft, unseen ground. It was still the scorched dirt and ash that filled his clearing, but he had never concentrated on the tangible feeling so thoroughly until his other senses were stolen from him. The softness confused him. It was too fluffy, drawing his imagination to clouds. Walking on clouds truly confused his senses, feeling as though he had tripped into the sky.
The moment stretched as the all-encompassing feeling of isolation settled upon him. As soon as he began to feel relaxed by the silence, the mists shifted.
An ethereal glaive sheared the fog. Kul-Hau used every ounce of his supreme speed to dodge the decapitating scythe. He saved his head, but lost his ear, and howled in pain. His shouts were smothered by the mists, but that didn’t stop him from declaring Coop’s gruesome death and that of everyone the Champion held dear.
The High Priest only had one option remaining. The massive tree, with its brittle branches stretched toward the thunder cloud, began to crumble. The lightning abandoned its charred form, redirecting to the fog bank with a steady stream of electricity, charging Kul-Hau with his hoarded experience. No longer was he only empowered with a single bolt each time he stepped. Instead, a stream of energy blasted out from his frame and Coop’s mists dissipated further with each wave.
While the tree collapsed into a massive pile of charcoal, it sent a cascade of ash across the clearing and into the edges of the lowland forest. The dry thunder cloud shrank with each blast of lightning and the fog was completely stripped away. Kul-Hau’s level rocketed another 100 levels beyond Coop’s.
Coop acknowledged the sudden development of his opponent, but resumed his assault all the same, rushing at the man as he was struck by lightning. The High Priest charged up with each blast and continued to receive more levels. With the levels, the Priest’s speed continued to increase. With each strike of lightning, Kul-Hau was better able to dodge, and became even more difficult to follow, but with each swing of the ethereal glaive, Mindbender made Coop a little bit faster as well.
The two were locked in a rapidly escalating dance. It was almost like a choreographed capoeira routine, time kept by lightning strikes, but both participants actively sought the others’ death. Coop had the images of Kul-Hau seared into his vision thanks to the constant chain of lightning bolts and steady light from gained levels.
The High Priest constantly tried to catch Coop off guard with jabs that concealed his talons, but Coop maintained superior range with his glaive. Kul-Hau’s attacks were deceptive, and he manifested vipers to add to the complexity of countering his speed. No matter what the Priest tried, he was still forced to risk his neck each time he even tried to scrape the Champion’s extended arms. With 200 levels more than Coop it continued to feel too dangerous to land a blow, with Coop’s efficient strikes, flourishing blade, and steady stance.
When he finally thought he had successfully breached Coop’s range, Coop’s arm turned to mist and the dagger found no resistance as it sliced through a cloud of vapor. In return, Coop’s glaive cut a line across the Priest’s straining thigh, causing him to stumble backwards.
Kul-Hau was infuriated, but he didn’t have time to express his freshly bolstered hatred for the Champion. A single lapse of concentration would be deadly. Coop pressed forward, sliding his feet through the fluffy dirt while aggressively flicking his glaive at the Priest.
The pair continued until the lightning stopped. When the flashes finally ceased, Kul-Hau’s eyes bulged, dry and bloodshot, as he had a single moment to realize he had lost. Coop’s glaive finally caught his neck.
Coop was breathing heavily as Kul-Hau’s body collapsed into scorched dust and mixed with the burned dirt across the clearing. Coop’s Agility had begun around 1,500, but he had been pushed until Mindbender increased it to just over 7,000. Kul-Hau’s speed had never dipped below Coop’s, even with the absurd scaling that was occurring with his bonus stats. In the end, they simply found his limit. Coop, on the other hand, was still escalating when Kul-Hau was pushed to the edge. Without a larger speed advantage, he couldn’t compete with Coop’s Haunted title enhanced technique, Strength, and overall stamina.
Coop looked around the charcoal and ash filled clearing. Even the brush-filled forest around the edges was painted black by scattered debris, as if a charcoal building had been demolished in the center, but the sky was clear. The bright sun illuminated the area without a single cloud to obstruct the light. The thundercloud had completely evaporated.
He received a measly two levels for defeating the High Priest, and Coop hesitated to feel any relief. With his weapon ready, he kept his eyes open, scanning the battlefield. There were so many potential threats, he wasn’t even sure what he was looking for. An Icon of Mana? Minions? Snakes? Nothing caught his eye, but Coop shifted his grip on the glaive, just in case.
Before he let his guard down, he shifted through some of the remnants of the thunderstruck tree with the end of his glaive, wondering if he should dig into the area in search of more relics. As he half-heartedly dislodged the flakey blackened wood from scattered piles, he checked his notifications.
[You defeated Oathsworn Human (Level 380)]
[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]
[Congratulations! You have leveled up!]
The High Priest hadn’t quite risen to the level of Huracan, but it was close enough to be considered the same. They were both around level 400 after Coop pushed them to their limits. The Cultists were demonstrating an absurd amount of experience. It would take many months for Coop to catch up to the levels they were keeping hidden. Still, his steady, unremitting growth and the synergies of his skills were proving to be significantly beyond what the Priests could demonstrate.
Coop grunted under his breath as he came to the conclusion that the Cult of Chakyum was in deep trouble.
Comments
Azulmar
Coop keeps blowing all his mana on fog just to have it disbursed. Seems a bad habit 😋
Inon Sinn
tftc
Nyroe
Can't wait for Coop to fight Ambatukum
Aidan Bolten
tftc
