Unchosen Champion

The oil rig was lit by nothing but the waning moon when Coop moved to the fifth floor. It had taken until late in the evening for Coop to feel comfortable continuing further into the zombie infestation. He had to wait for his health and mana to recover after the previous fights.

When he first stepped foot on the fifth floor he was regretting his caution. The darkness gave the entire platform a spooky ambience that made him nervous. Deep shadows filled the corners of the platform, raising concerns about what could be lurking where Coop couldn’t see.

He carefully made his way along the narrow metal walkways that led to the first series of buildings. Ideally, he would spot whatever enemy awaited him long before they spotted him. He moved a lot more cautiously after his experience with the quick zombies.

When Coop rounded the next corner, he spied the occupants of the fifth floor. It was basically an army. He quickly estimated more than 200 zombies were present. They were lined up with as much discipline as one could expect from zombies, which wasn’t much. Coop inspected the rows of monsters and found that they were all the same regular zombies that acted as meat shields on the previous floors. He stayed still and continued to search for any elites within the crowd.

The zombies were lined up along the perimeter of the buildings, down the walkways and against the stark walls and rigid pipes. It seemed like they were waiting for directions. Coop thought it was lucky that they had all been confined to this offshore oil platform and hadn’t been able to roam where more people were. He could imagine the zombies quickly getting out of control. Their ability to spread through applying zombification buffs with bites could become a huge problem.

He continued observing nothing but aimless wandering from most of the zombies, until he spotted one moving with more purpose than the others. He tracked the zombie until it entered a darkened doorway that led further into one of the larger buildings. He suspected he would need to go inside to find the elites that were his quarry.

As he carefully picked his way through the platform, Coop felt like he was looking at a haunted house and hesitated, but he had already come this far, and he was still in a hurry to finish his quest, so he forged on. The front entrance needed to be avoided if he wanted to remain undetected, so he’d avoid kicking down the front door and going in guns blazing if he could.

Coop stuck to the shadows on the perimeter of the floor. He took a circuitous path toward the suspicious building, away from the mustering army of listless zombies. He would try to get in without alerting anything of his presence, and depending on what he found, he would have to decide on where and how to fight.

As he did his best to sneak around he lamented the fact that he didn’t have a stealth ability. This particular floor in the dead of night was giving him assassination mission vibes.

He reached the back of his target building stealthily enough to avoid detection. After climbing a series of pipes, he entered through a broken transom window. He paused in the darkness of the interior to let his eyes adjust before he moved forward.

Peeking around corners and delicately stepping through empty rooms, he was doing his best to check all of his corners and remember his escape route. After just a few rooms, he found his first group of zombies. He quickly inspected them to see what he was dealing with.

[Elite Human Zombie (Level 35)]

[(Intelligence)]

[Minion of the Breathless]

[Elite Human Zombie (Level 31)]

[(Agility)]

[Minion of the Breathless]

[Elite Human Zombie (Level 25)]

[(Strength)]

[Minion of the Breathless]

[Human Zombie (Level 21)]

[(Body)]

[Human Zombie (Level 20)]

[(Body)]

Holding his breath, he backed away from the doorway to consider his options. He had discovered a full party of zombies sitting in a dark room together with a much larger group of regular zombies waiting around outside. The party of monsters consisted of a Strength zombie with a pair of meat shields like he found all over the third floor, an Agility zombie like the ones that aggressively attacked him on the fourth floor, and a new Intelligence variant that he hadn’t seen before.

Coop peered through the darkness and confirmed that the group hadn’t moved. The Strength zombie was sitting in a chair, face down on the table, while its two regular zombies stood behind the seat on either side like bodyguards protecting a passed out executive. The Agility zombie stood on the opposite side of the table, twitching and fidgeting like it was itching to move, and the Intelligence zombie stood straight with its arms crossed, adjacent to the Agility zombie, presiding over the conference.

Coop decided to leave this group, for now, and see if he could find another one. He carefully navigated the hallways of the building in the dark. He created a mental map after finding five more of the exact same zombie groups at various points within the building, waiting for something just like the normal zombies outside.

A plan started forming, but before Coop acted, he exited the building to explore some of the neighboring structures. If the patterns of the previous floors continued, there should be 40 elites on this floor, so he should be able to find at least 13 groups of elite zombies.

A quick reconnaissance of the other buildings confirmed his theory. He was still missing one elite, but 39 were accounted for. Knowing his targets were there, waiting, Coop resolved himself to get his mission done. It was time for some guerilla warfare.

Coop returned to the main building. If he needed to retreat, it had the clearest path back down to the previous floors. He was going to try to fight each group as an isolated party and avoid creating another horde of zombies. The groups at the perimeter would be his first victims as they were the most isolated and closest to his escape paths.

He recalled the behavior of each type of zombie while he decided how to handle his target prioritization. The Strength zombies growled and shambled, but didn’t otherwise alert each other. The Agility zombies, on the other hand, were loud and screamed constantly. The first time he saw one it attracted every single one of its comrades right away. He had no idea how the Intelligence zombie would behave as they were a complete unknown up to this point. He could only assume they would have magical attacks. Magical attacks could be loud or flashy enough to alarm other zombies.

The plan would require him to prevent other groups from joining in the fights, so he would need to quickly dispatch the Agility zombies. Getting rid of the fastest zombies would also benefit him if he needed to abandon the fight and run. He wouldn’t be able to create distance if all the Agility zombies converged on him. Luckily, the Agility zombies were frail compared to the others, so his first target in each group would be a fragile one.

The unknown variable that was the Intelligence variant would be his second target. He could assume they had ranged abilities and they were the highest level by a wide margin, so he considered them dangerous. Even if his magic defense was superior to his physical defense, thanks to his investment into his Mind stat, he didn’t want to give them a chance to retaliate and test his durability.

Once he culled the party down to the Strength zombies, he would be able to easily clean them up. The first three floors had already proven that he could handle them.

Coop crouched in the darkness and considered how the zombies had been completely ignorant of his presence. How did zombies detect him anyway? Smell? It didn’t look like their eyes were very useful anymore, pupiless and deteriorated as they were. His camouflage might just be the caked on blood and gore that he was still covered in. Coop accepted his good fortune when he failed to clean up previously.

He inched over to the middle of his current room, giving himself line of sight on the Agility zombie in the next. The commercial carpet muted his already careful steps and the dim light made him nearly invisible to a human eye. He peered through the murky reflections to spot his target. The Agility zombie stood in the center of the group, squirming with energy. Coop swapped his sword for his spear. He would open the fight by killing his first target with a spear throw.

The zombie party he targeted first was standing around a conference room desk. The room was lined with metal filing cabinets and one side had a white erase board with some remnants of pre apocalypse data still on it. Their zombie meeting was interrupted when the Agility zombie’s head exploded.

Coop deftly stepped out of the gathering mist that formed behind the dying zombie and swapped the spear for a sword that cut the Intelligence zombie’s neck before it had even unfolded its arms.

He spun on the waking Strength zombie and executed it with an overhand chop, like he was splitting a log, before it even rose to its feet. In three seconds Coop was left with two weak normal zombies that were as much of a challenge as the Ancient Defenders back home.

Coop didn’t celebrate, instead retreating back toward his escape route, tip-toeing, crouched, and controlling his breathing so that he could listen for additional zombies. He waited to see if the commotion, as limited as it was, had notified any others. He heard nothing, but he still waited. Five minutes and he gave himself the all clear. The strategy was a resounding success. His only regret was that he still had no idea what the Intelligence zombies could do. He thought it would be fine if he never had to find out. He moved to the second group.

Coop remained cautious as he navigated the dark and narrow hallways. His next target was inside of a small gym. He felt bad for the workers that had to make due with the pitiful equipment when they lived and worked on the rig. He imagined the five zombies crowding the room were already pushing it toward its maximum capacity. They stood between a smith machine and a wall full of gray exercise balls suspended behind a bungee cord.

He threw his spear through the skull of the Agility zombie and immediately activated his mistjump to carry him into attack range of the Intelligence zombie. As he reappeared he swapped the spear for his sword and brought it down into the top of the monster’s head. It split like a watermelon and he leapt toward the Strength zombie. One of the regular zombies got in his way, but only managed to delay him the length of time it took Coop to swing his sword once. Two more swings and the last elite of the group was defeated. He cleaned up the last regular zombie and retreated again.

He waited in the dark along his escape route, confirming that he remained undetected. His prudence was costing him time, but he preferred being slow and methodical when the alternative was fighting hundreds of zombies at once with an uncertain outcome.

When he was satisfied that he was still hidden he continued stalking zombies one group at a time. His weapon swaps were costing him some mana, but his slower pace was giving him time to partially recover in between every fight. He wasn’t in danger of running out of mana any time soon. Including his recovery, he was only dropping a little more than 100 mana after each engagement.

Coop cleared the first building’s six zombie groups without any surprises. He snuck around and assassinated each group with the same method. Then he climbed into the second building that he had already explored, knowing there were four groups to be hunted.

The first group he engaged in the second building was the first time something went wrong. The Agility zombie died immediately, but the Intelligence zombie didn’t follow it in defeat. One of the regular zombies interfered while Coop was still mistjumping by wandering into his sword’s trajectory. The normal zombie intercepted Coop’s blade with its skull, giving the Intelligence zombie a chance to recognize the threat to its existence.

The tiny interruption was enough for the Intelligence zombie to lift one of its arms and blast Coop with an explosion of fire. The outstretched palm of the zombie was pressed against Coop’s solar plexus and had exploded like a shotgun blast, temporarily blinding Coop with the flash of light and leaving his ears ringing.

For a moment everyone stood still. Coop’s vision returned and he looked down at his chest, expecting to find a basketball sized hole. The Intelligence zombie stared at Coop, seeming confused. The Strength zombie was still rousing itself to its feet.

Coop was completely intact. He cut the Intelligence zombie’s head off and noted that he had only lost 25 health from its dramatic flameblast. He quickly dismantled the two remaining zombies and retreated to his escape route.

Before he made it out of the long corridor that led through the building he heard the distinct footsteps of another group of zombies. He cut his retreat short and stepped in between some industrial pipes and waited, doing his best to meld into the shadows. The fireblast had been loud enough to alert the nearby groups. He prayed the zombies outside remained ignorant.

While he stayed completely still, he pondered the zombie’s magical attack. They had both been surprised by the result, or lack thereof. Coop’s investment into Mind had really proven its value when a point blank magical attack hardly even scratched him.

Unfortunately, it seemed like the sound of the blast had been enough to attract all of the other zombies inside the building. He hadn’t heard any screams or howls, nor was there a stampede of hundreds. Only the nearby groups that were already within the building had been alerted. Thanks to his scouting, he knew that meant three groups.

When an Agility zombie sprinted past him toward where he had defeated the first group, Coop didn’t react. When a second Agility zombie ran by, he continued to bide his time. When the third entered the room Coop clotheslined it with his sword, beheading it, and followed the previous two.

He tracked the two Agility zombies to the scene of his group ambush. He moved quickly but stayed as quiet as he could. Both zombies were in the room among the defeated zombies, wheeling around, hunched over with their arms spread out, searching for the culprit. Coop swapped his sword for the glaive. He hesitated until both zombies turned away, then lunged into the room, aiming for a double kill with the lengthy blade. It flashed through the air, reflecting the limited light, and cut through the first neck cleanly. The second zombie caught the blade in the face, it wasn’t a clean kill but it still died before calling an alert.

Swapping the glaive back to a sword, Coop retreated further down the corridor, away from the path he expected the rest of the zombies to follow and waited in the darkness.

He watched, shrouded by shadows, as 12 zombies entered the room where their comrades had been defeated. Once they were all in, he left his cover and summoned his shield. He stepped through the room’s threshold and caught one of the Intelligence zombies by surprise, killing it from behind.

Without knowing the full kit of the casters, he continued to prioritize their defeats. He wasn’t as worried about them doing damage to him, but he wanted to make sure they didn’t do anything that would alert the zombies that were outside or in other buildings.

Coop mistjumped between angry Strength zombies and assaulted the second caster. When it reached out to fireblast, Coop cut its arm, then immediately cut its neck. He blocked a Strength zombie’s powerful attack with his shield before engaging the last caster. It was desperately forming a fireball between its hands, but the melee zombies failed to delay Coop long enough to complete its spell. He smashed into the monster, sword first, preventing the spell from detonating, causing it to fizzle into loose mana instead.

With the primary threats defeated, Coop’s full attention was brought onto the melee zombies. They didn’t stand much of a chance now that Coop had so much experience fighting them with his sword inside of enclosed spaces. He slashed through the normal zombies and isolated the elites, defeating them one after the other. As long as he didn’t let them get around him he wasn’t in too much danger.

Once he was finished, he dismissed his shield and went back to moving as stealthily as he could. He entered the last building to take down the last three groups.

The final three groups didn’t cause Coop any problems, being eliminated before rousing the attention of any of the others. He confirmed that his quest was almost complete, at 199/200. He still needed to find the final elite zombie.

Coop rounded the entire floor’s perimeter and explored the interior of all the buildings, but didn’t find his target. He observed the hundreds of normal zombies in the central area but they were unsupervised. There was only one way to go.

Coop went back to the main staircase and climbed to the top floor.