Coop guided Lyriel back toward the tower, hoping to continue their journey and find a way to use the Ark to their advantage. It seemed like Lyriel only needed a bit of encouragement before she was locked back in on her idea of success. Whether the Ark was actually on her side or not didn’t matter, so long as it provided the connection with mana necessary to enact her plan.

The laser focus she had on achieving her goal was a bit alarming to Coop. He appreciated the determination, but it was just a bit scary to have a singular objective rise so far above any other. It seemed like she had readily abandoned her position as Avatar of the System and maybe even discarded her association with the Exiles in favor of her own designs.

As they turned away from the ring of compartments and returned to the central tower, rededicated to the search for the core, a challenging howl was issued from behind them. The sound caused both Lyriel in particular to jump in surprise.

“Huh? Are you kidding?” Coop mumbled as he also spun around to face the opposite end of the narrow bridge, the howl still resonating in his ears.

The first thing he noticed was that a small patch of compartments around the border of the landing had been drained of the color while he and Lyriel tried wrapping their heads around the situation. The viscous, honey-like mana spilled from the transparent borders before disappearing from the hexagonal tiles. The seed pods contained within the liquid had hatched fully-formed alien creatures.

It was only two compartments, but as his eyes were drawn to the change of color, another was added to the total. The invisible membrane barrier that sealed the altered compartment slowly retracted while the deep red substrate gradually lost its color. The gap created by the retreat of the membrane let the liquified mana dribble out onto the other compartment landings with a bit less grace than he would have expected from a standard procedure. It evaporated quickly, but it still created a temporary oozing mess.

The pod held within broke its seal once the mana receded from its upper surface, hissing with pressure before the top fell to the side and sank into the evaporating pool of fluid. A bulky monster grabbed the edge with chunky stone digits and unfurled itself, climbing out, and taking a moment to stretch its earthen body while still in its cell, waiting for the last of the liquid to fade away.

The way it moved gave Coop the impression that it had been asleep for a long, long time rather than just being birthed from the container. When it was ready, it leapt down to where the bridge connected to the landing and joined the others.

“What did we do?” He wondered out loud. “And with that timing?”

Lyriel almost seemed resigned to die, but she had an answer. “I shouldn’t have come.” She concluded. “Neither of us should have.” She added, referring to herself and Palisteon rather than including Coop.

She gestured toward her alien companion. “We are branded enemies of the forces of mana. If they have a home here, then of course we would be detected and targeted for execution. Your paranoia was justified all along.”

Coop grunted back, somehow unsatisfied by her conclusion just as the first of the demons, the one who had howled, bounded toward them with an explosion of fire that sent a wave of energy crashing against the hardened legs of the other two. It seemed determined to confirm her words, though Coop was not exempted from its fixation.

The initial monster moved on all fours, like a wolf made of volcanic stone and rough layers of partially cooled magma. A pair of glowing embers represented its eyes, fumes leaking in a way that made it seem like it had dramatic eyebrows rising past the rest of its head. It kept both of its eyes locked on Coop as it started a rush forward, clear in its intent and initial target. ‘Unlucky,’ was the only thought that came to mind as Coop shifted his weight.

A plume of black sooty smoke escaped from a strip of flame that followed the rock spine of the creature, extending all the way into a wicked tail of fire. The flames marred the gray tiles with dark stains after the beast ignited in the first motion. Its extended jaw was slightly ajar while it moved forward, as if excited to wield its actual teeth for the first time in untold ages, but there was no tongue inside. The jagged weapons in its mouth were backlit by a throat that burned with the color of lava.

It was a Hellhound made of scorched stone and liquid fire, and it had already identified its prey. When its forelegs scraped against the hexagonal tile and pushed again, the other two golem-like creatures began lumbering forward, invigorated by the hound’s action, though the pair of more humanoid stone demons were comparatively slow. At the same time, the next containment cell started to drain its color, preparing to add yet another to the growing pack of enemies.

Instead of rolling over and being killed, Coop activated his mana for the first time inside the Ark. He sought Salvation and Retribution simultaneously, intending to end this quickly, before it got out of control.

Mists swirled, conjuring a set of ghostly gladiator armor that locked into place on his bare skin, covering the portions already protected by his Under Armor as his Soul Shroud wrapped around his bicep. His dependable spear solidified in the palm of his right hand, and for the first time since they entered the Ark, he felt a sense of self-assurance he hadn’t fully comprehended that he was lacking.

The Hellhound leader was terrifyingly fast, ripping across the empty space at a breakneck pace. Each leaping bound increased its velocity, transforming its solid bulk into a careening rocket. It streaked across entire hexagonal platforms with single steps.

The burst of energy that had sent it flying forward immediately revealed that it was far too fast to run away from, but it was only getting faster as its flames warmed up and expanded. If the system was still ranking stats, it was clear that it had far more Agility than Coop, even after he had so diligently spent time accumulating Slayer titles.

But before it could take its fourth vaulting push forward, enough to reach halfway across the rest of the bridge between them, Coop was planting his foot and throwing his spear. He wasn’t messing around, heeding the warning that Lyriel had provided regarding the relative power of the forces within the Ark. His opponent promised to be strong, but they would see.

The spear blasted through the air, surpassing the target’s speed by several times. The Hellhound would have pounced on them in two more bounds, increasing its range with each step, but the spear covered the rest of the distance while the monster was in the middle of a single dash.

The speed of the ethereal spear made it seem like a grayish laser bolt trailed by an aquamarine and blackish stream of vaporous mana. It ripped through the air, thrown with deadly intent, at least as threatening as the demonic monster.

The collision of the ethereal spear tip and blackened stone jaw would have been enormous, given the combined speed, but the hound turned its head in the last instant. It managed to avoid a direct blow with ridiculous, inhuman dexterity. To even react to the sudden attack took an incredible level of concentration and deftness, but to also decisively move while in the midst of another action, contorting itself despite all the inertia in its movement, was beyond impressive.

The spear still struck the monster, but only scraped across the thick stone shoulder, drawing a narrow line in the dark surface that smoldered but didn’t bleed before barely catching a thicker portion of mass where muscle would have been on a more traditional anatomy. The spear flipped end over end like a disconnected twig, failing to arrest the momentum of the monster while losing most of its own. The spear was flung into the air past the hound, revealing that the monster was several times larger than the length of the spear, even when there had been no question that it was more massive.

But Coop was undaunted, having some tricks himself. He mistjumped to the spear, mists bursting at the flank of the leader of the pack, and snatched the spear from its erratic journey. In one moment it was flipping away and in the next he was slashing it across the haunches of the larger than expected Hellhound, connecting the side of the speartip with solid stone as the balls of his feet found the surface of the hexagonal tile bridge.

The attack was meant to completely redirect the monster, sending it tumbling as its back legs were taken out. Whether they were destroyed or simply spun the monster around had been up in the air, but Coop expected the solid strike to give him the opportunity to finish the first monster and redirect his energy to the next set of golems.

That he hadn’t at least sent his enemy flying over the edge was a surprise, but he hadn’t actually done anything. The only reason the Hellhound stopped was because its target had moved. It turned on its own volition, sliding halfway across a single hexagonal tile with its back legs skidding before completely redirecting its momentum back toward him. If Coop had done any damage with his opening shot or his surprise followup attack, it wasn’t enough to cause a moment of hesitation in his opponent.

Coop grunted, ignoring the slower demons for a second, pumping his left arm like he was rolling up his sleeves, revealing the solidified round shield from another burst of mists. He rushed forward, matching the Hellhounds intensity, so that they met in the center of the middle hexagon for a proper clash.

He lunged at the demon, jabbing the spear forward to maximize his reach, seeing it as his biggest advantage just as ancient humans dealt with aggressive direwolves. The demon surprised him by feinting its first assault, leaping forward, then backwards a full body length before raising a foreleg and hesitating, patiently waiting for the right moment. Its raised paw revealed stone claws that glinted with sharpness while Coop failed to connect with his jabbing attack.

While Coop was stretched out, the monster committed to its own swiping assault, only needing to delay for an instant before finally diving forward with one paw raised. Coop shifted his shield just enough to redirect the claws, demonstrating his own earned dexterity. The paw was large enough to have cut him across his waist and neck at the same time. The monster almost seemed to have expanded since being released from its cell, repeatedly surprising Coop with its size.

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The force of its swiping claw sent Coop stumbling to the side and down to one knee, but he stayed upright and demonstrated his own flexibility by counterattacking with his spear from underneath his shield while he still leaned.

The attack was the first to land correctly from either party, but it only penetrated a few inches into the monster’s stone ribcage. When he pulled his spear back, a burst of flame shot from the wound before liquid fire dribbled onto the hexagonal tile that was becoming their personal arena, sizzling as it hit the cold air of the Ark.

Coop made to follow up on the successful attack, internally disappointed that it had only caused such minimal damage. A boss rank Primal Construct would have been torn apart, exploding into mana smoke from such force, but he was suddenly contending with power so much greater than his experience, he had to alter his expectations.

The Hellhound anticipated his followup, flipping sideways to swipe with its tail exactly where Coop would have been had he really committed, but it was his turn to step back. The flaming tail carved a glowing strip onto the impossibly solid material in the platform while sending a gout of fire forward.

Coop used his retreat to plant his feet and leap through the blast of fire, his ethereal round shield temporarily acting as a blast shield, as he stabbed at the monster again. This time he caught the top of the demon’s head as it finished its turn. He drove forward, trying to pin the beast down, but it was easily strong enough to shake him off, this time twisting from left to right and smashing Coop across the chest with the stone core of its flaming tail. A wall of flames engulfed Coop’s entire body as he felt his chest compress and he rolled away.

The other monsters should have been on top of him, the bout with the initial Hellhound taking far longer than he had hoped. He allowed himself a moment of distraction, checking over his shoulder while smoke and steam drifted off his skin, but Lyriel had stepped in to hold the other demons off.

A reticle of pure silverish energy appeared near the center of the two golem-like demons, flat on the ground, two hexagons away from Coop and the Hellhound. The monsters all immediately shielded themselves, raising massive stone arms before a column of raw mana slammed into the surface where the target had indicated. They easily negated any damage, but also failed to make any progress on interrupting the duel, stalled as they were in defensive postures.

The second he took his eyes off the Hellhound, it launched itself forward, this time seeking to chomp on Coop while he wasn’t looking.

“Coop!” Lyriel shouted in concern, but he was already rolling further out of the way, having been back on one knee after the flame attack.

He quickswapped to a one-handed sword, keeping his ethereal shield, as he rose back to his feet, but he didn’t have a chance to swing it before the shoulder of the demon was colliding with his chest, already made vulnerable by the previous tail swipe. The size difference was more pronounced when he was being tackled by the monster. Coop’s head barely rose to its shoulders and the weight was like being smashed by an 18 wheeler.

The demon held its head low, as if its jaws were heavy, with the top of its back rising two feet above Coop’s head. Combined with its enormous strength, second only to its speed, and Coop had no chance of resisting its push.

He slid onto his back, settling just off the center of the hexagonal platform, lungs completely empty, and the monster pulled back to whirl on him, pouncing to finish its hunt with both of its back legs still planted. Its back teeth met the shield, front teeth dripping with flame onto Coop’s head as it tried to bite him in half. As it attempted to recoil in surprise at the rigidness of the object propping its jaw open, the sword flashed through the air, slicing a long strip from its throat to the end of its bottom jaw before it was finally released.

The demon jumped backwards, seeming shocked to be the one receiving damage when it obviously held the advantage. It stared at Coop’s sword, making special note of the black shadows that had swallowed the edge after Coop activated a Lucid Dream and presented the Principle of Dread. The Hellhound shook its head, sending embers from its mouth like fire was its saliva, then aimed its head up and howled, deciding a further powerup was necessary as Coop revealed the extent of his accumulated skills.

Fire exploded along its form, first near its neck, like a mane, then down its back until it reached the base of its tail. The fire doubled up, erupting so that its tail grew as wide as its whole body. Every inch of the monster was covered in energy, transforming the stone beast into one with a full coat of yellow and orange fire.

At the same time, Coop was rising back to his feet, spitting blood while mists leaked from the scrapes he had endured, just glad that only his breath had been knocked out. The flaming monster, twice ignited, rushed toward him once again, filling the air with black smoke before it leapt high into the air, seeking to smash him with its tail.

Coop activated Call of the Void, his ultimate Abyssal ability, in order to convert the damage taken into healing while he committed to his own attack that would end the fight. Cold, dark waters wrapped him like a cloak and when the tail struck, it slowed to a stop, its momentum restrained by the unbelievable pressure of the depths. Its fire was dispersed, quenched by the abyss, and Coop was fully healed while a wave of flame spread along the periphery, smashing into the tile with all the force that Coop had avoided.

Coop went for the mana core of the monster, instinctually identifying what was effectively its heart thanks to his vast experience with Scavenging. As his black sword pierced the stone flesh hidden beneath the fire of the demon, it let out a scream of fury, twisting to avoid a direct hit despite its confidence in landing the finishing blow.

At the same time, the ground went out from both of them, the smooth border of the hexagonal tile suddenly brightening as a warning before the whole block broke from the bridge and sent both Coop and the Hellhound tumbling. The compartment drifted away while the pair were locked together.

He heard Lyriel yell again, but Coop was engaged in a life or death struggle with the demon. It seemed like neither cared if the fall itself would be deadly. Each was trying to kill the other first.

Coop barely avoided being raked by claws as they sought to dislodge him from the underbelly of the monster, but for his part, he repeatedly stabbed at the chest with his sword, seeking the core even without firm footing or a clear target.

Combined with the Principle of Dread, the emotionless demeanor of the Revenant made it a question as to which was the bigger monster. Explosions of energy raked the wounds he carved out, expanding like spiderwebs of glowing darkness that swelled beneath the stone surface, but none of them were critical. Partially transparent abyssal chains wrapped the demon with each strike, but they broke with every counter attack.

He held the jaws at bay with his shield before they both collided with the edge of a lower bridge, bouncing together and continuing their fall. Neither gave up on the struggle to end the other.

They kept falling and fighting for minutes before the floor of the Ark came rushing toward them. Coop abandoned his shield, giving the monster a clear shot at chewing him with its burning teeth, but when the demonic jaw enthusiastically snapped shut, excited by the prospect of victory, it only caught a burst of mists.

A split second later, the demon smashed into the ground, crushing a compartment with its momentum and landing on the interior of a hexagonal cell by itself. A cloud of mana billowed from the destruction of the hatch, combining with the black smoke that shrouded the Hellhound, following it all the way down.

It wasn’t dead, still burning with bright red flames, despite the fall. It quickly scrambled back to its feet, somehow not even really injured even after free falling up to a velocity of 10,000 feet per second and enduring Coop’s attacks most of the way. Liquid lava dribbled from a hundred wounds, but a sturdy stone skeleton and an unmitigated sense of rage held together.

Another split second passed as it shook itself off before Coop landed. His black blade caught the base of the monster’s neck, at the back, sending the heavy head to the dimly lit floor with a flash of fiery light while the body stayed standing. A burst of fiery mana filled the cell and flooded back across the surface, like a massive molotov cocktail had been smashed while Coop held his sword against the ground. Coop could only clench his jaw and endure it, incapable of outrunning the final death throes of the Hellhound.

After fire in the mana dissipated, Coop was left alone within the self-repairing compartment. Coop planted one hand over the edge while leaping back to the surface. His sword was chipped and leaking mana, and his shield nearly ripped through by teeth marks and claw scratches, but he was still able to stand after the defeat of the monster rejuvenated his spirit.

He was bleeding from a dozen of his own wounds, and mists leaked from twice as many more as he imperfectly applied his passive Infusion. Smoke drifted from his hair and shoulders and he struggled to clear his lungs after practically being suffocated by the heat. Even enduring the aftermath of the creature had been a harrowing challenge, but a win was a win. Sometimes they were ugly.

He put his hands on his knees, dismissing the damaged weapons, and struggled to catch his breath, feeling like he had been trapped inside of a furnace for the entire duration of the fight. His skin was stinging from all the burns, and he was battered about as badly as he had ever been in a single contest, minus actual broken bones, but he had come out victorious in what had been a significantly more difficult fight than he expected. A bit of pride seemed appropriate.

“Coop!” Lyriel called as she floated down with Palisteon bundled on her shoulders.

Her toes stopped just shy of the floor before she released her manipulation of mana and let herself stand. Palisteon leapt from her arms and rushed over to Coop, lunging like it intended to bite him. Coop watched with half a smile then flinched, surprised when the alien actually did sink his teeth into his leg, but Coop immediately felt the heals that were applied by the offending worm.

“Oh? You’re a healer then?” Coop wondered, and one of the heads chirped at him while the one biting him glowed with vivid red energy. It seemed like Palisteon was still developing.

“Did you kill it?” Lyriel wondered, scanning the area while her partner healed Coop, her face streaked with tears. She was still going through it even in the midst of battle, having to confront enemies that were a bit too familiar and surely brought up deeply repressed memories.

Coop stood up straight, already feeling as good as new. To his right, the bottom of the innermost ring of open compartments hovered about ten cells worth of space above the ground floor, each filled with the deep red of a filled chamber. To his left, the mana tube was protected by the bottom of the spiraling tower of hexagonal blocks. The ground floor had a massive entrance chamber. He glanced up, gazing off into space as the tower and the reddish-colored compartments extended beyond the limit of his vision.

“Barely.” Coop admitted after not spotting any other threats, feeling like he should be crowned the heavyweight champion of the Ark. “Was that another Icon?” He asked, sure that he had just accomplished something incredible.

“Not at all! That was the weakest of the massive legions serving the Monolithic Destiny.” She answered, checking on him like she was genuinely concerned despite her words revealing something else. “Only the true demons have the capacity of evolving into the Icon. That was a lesser being, like a minion.”

Coop just laughed at the idea that he had narrowly defeated a single low rank enemy, thinking that she must have been joking. Then, as it really hit him that Lyriel wasn’t the type to be funny in such a situation, his smile faded away.

“Oh shit.”