Ace

Ace Ridge, usually called Ace and known in combat as Dauntless, is Randidly Ghosthound's former best friend, Sydney Harp's former partner, and the founder of Refuge. His charisma, physical courage, and genuine devotion to his settlement coexist with a deep need for recognition. That need turns rivalry into envy and eventually drives him to construct himself as the villain opposite Randidly's hero. (Chapters 3, 337–341, 1121, 1373, and 1410–1413)

Biography

Friendship, secrecy, and the founding of Refuge

Ace meets Randidly at Rawlands University and uses his effortless social confidence to pull the anxious newcomer into company, beginning a friendship that gives Randidly a rare sense of belonging. Ace later dates Sydney, but her decision to conceal her illness from him while confiding in Randidly creates a wound neither friend handles honestly. When the System separates them, Randidly's search for Ace and Sydney becomes one of his earliest reasons to leave safety and grow stronger. (Chapters 3–154, 1132, 1410, and 1965)

By the time Randidly finds him again, Ace has survived, founded Refuge, and built the theatrical identity of Dauntless around his strength. Their reunion begins with affection and a sincere attempt to set the old deception aside, but Ace immediately measures himself against the changed Randidly. When Randidly refuses to remain within his influence, Ace puts on the mask, demands a wager for his soul, and is decisively defeated. The encounter restores contact without restoring equality or trust. (Chapters 337–341)

The Raid Dungeon and responsibility for others

Ace joins the Zone's Raid Dungeon expedition under pressure to prove that northern fighters can stand beside Donnyton's elite. He is theatrical and competitive, but he also works within the party: he recommends disengagement when the group is outmatched, coordinates through shared communication, and physically diverts Jemma's attack from Randidly during the advance. These choices show that Dauntless is not merely vanity; the persona gives Ace a way to act decisively when other people need a defender. (Chapters 397–459)

The expedition also reinforces the tension that will define his decline. Ace enjoys manipulating intelligent opponents, bristles at being treated as a subordinate, and sometimes frames capable allies as henchmen in his private thoughts. Even so, he can set Dauntless aside and fight efficiently with Alana when survival demands it. His pressure is not a lack of courage or competence, but an inability to accept shared purpose without also asking who receives the glory. (Chapters 431–483)

The image of an unconquered sea

Years later, Ace works with Ezekiel Ghosthound to bait and confront Straud. His nascent image depicts an iron-bound wooden figure and a drowned ship enduring a black, storm-tossed sea: everything that reaches it is swallowed while Dauntless remains. Straud's superior image repeatedly breaks his body, but the punishment exhilarates Ace because it lets him experience the weight he envied when Randidly stood above Earth's challengers. The conflict turns his old rivalry into the stated motive of his image development. (Chapters 1120–1122)

Rather than use that realization to rebuild the friendship, Ace organizes his life around mirroring and opposing Randidly. He merges himself into dangerous memories, gathers Lifeblood Essence, and cultivates the Impending Rock as a living blood egg. He deliberately seeks a neglected threat who can transform it, reasoning that a hero requires a villain and that Randidly's own egg-shaped image should have an answering rival. Rose supports the operation while fearing that his obsession will kill him. (Chapters 1243–1373)

The blood egg and Ace's death

Ace's plan ends in a confrontation with Sydney after his schemes have hurt Drake and endangered the Zones. Sydney apologizes for lying to him but refuses his claim that abandonment excuses his later violence. Ace answers by combining fragments of Straud, Yystrix, and a warped reflection of Randidly into a blood-infected image, feeding it into the egg even as his own body is torn apart. The incompatible pieces weaken one another, leaving his construction dangerous but far less coherent than Sydney's elemental image. (Chapters 1393–1410)

Randidly enters an old basketball memory through the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night, hoping to find words that can reach his former friend. He learns that the younger Ace's private dream was not conquest but fatherhood, then returns and finally admits that Ace had been right about his love for Sydney. The admission comes too late. Sydney disables and kills Ace, and Randidly later helps Rose bury him, honoring a life that cannot be reduced either to his final crimes or to their lost friendship. (Chapters 1410–1413)

Appearance and personality

Ace is a broad, muscular man whose body becomes wider and more toned after the System. At the reunion in Refuge, his hair is short and turning blond from the sun, while his dark eyes are expressive and quick to laughter. His ordinary combat dress develops from a leather jacket into chain mail and leathers. As Dauntless, he first uses a featureless grey mask and later a motorcycle helmet with a black visor, hiding the face behind the role. (Chapters 337, 340, 416, and 1121)

He is charismatic, reckless, competitive, socially intuitive, and capable of fierce practical loyalty. Ace can make Randidly leave his shell, take responsibility for every need in Refuge, and act without hesitation in a crisis. The same qualities become possessive when he feels surpassed: he wants attention, treats conflict as proof of worth, and uses Dauntless to turn emotional pain into grandiose violence. His tragedy lies in the coexistence of real care and a refusal to stop himself from hurting the people he loves. (Chapters 337–341, 459, 1121, 1373, and 1413)

Abilities and progression

Ace's combat style combines exceptional physical Stats, unarmed fighting, rapid adaptation, resistance to magic, regeneration, and an image organized around the Dauntless identity. His later plans add stolen or cultivated image fragments, but their incompatibility demonstrates the difference between gathering power and developing a coherent self.

Anti-Magic Body, Adapt, and close combat

Anti-Magic Body sharply reduces the effect of Skill-based attacks against Ace, while strong Resistance makes ordinary magic of his early tier largely ineffective. Adapt gathers information during combat and improves his body's responses as a fight continues; regeneration repairs minor wounds and reduces the impairment caused by larger ones. These mechanics favor prolonged close combat, where Ace can learn an opponent and impose his strength. A large raw-Stat gap remains an effective counter, as Randidly proves by breaking his guard with basic physical Skills before Adapt can bridge the difference. (Chapter 341)

Ace uses punches, elbows, kicks, grappling, and direct physical disruption rather than a signature weapon. He can tear apart Level 50-plus Bloodbeasts once his image supports his grip and can redirect a charged magical attack by striking the caster's arms off-line. His approach depends on bodily commitment and close range; opponents who overwhelm his image or destroy his body faster than regeneration can answer prevent his adaptive style from reaching its strongest phase. (Chapters 459 and 1121)

Dauntless and the drowned-ship image

Dauntless begins as a consciously adopted combat persona. The mask does not independently control Ace, but wearing it encourages volatile emotion, theatrical commitment, and a refusal to retreat. That psychological mechanism can produce courage and focus, yet it also narrows his choices: insulting or rejecting the role provokes him, and his insistence on performing invincibility makes strategic withdrawal feel like a betrayal of identity. (Chapters 340–341)

The mature nascent image surrounds Dauntless with stormy brackish water, iron-bound wood, and the suggestion of a drowned ship that devours everything while remaining implacable. It adds nonphysical weight to his attacks and lets him contest stronger Bloodbeasts and endure Straud's image longer than his body should. Straud nevertheless tears it apart through superior density, showing that endurance cannot substitute for refinement. (Chapter 1121)

Image grafting and the Impending Rock

Ace studies dangerous memories and uses Straud's Lifeblood Essence to animate the Impending Rock, seeking a living image-creature that can mirror Randidly's egg. His planning identifies compatible people, materials, absences, and symbolic roles with considerable skill. This is an application of patience and narrative design rather than one automatic Skill, and it depends on allies such as Rose and on other specialists to transform the growing construct. (Chapters 1243–1373)

At the final confrontation, Ace combines fragments associated with Straud, Yystrix, and Randidly into a blood-infected mass and feeds it to the egg. The grafted images interfere with one another, making the result less effective than a single condensed identity. Sydney's focused elemental image suppresses him, and once she knocks him unconscious the infected images disperse and the egg calms, establishing concentration and internal coherence as major limitations. (Chapter 1410)

Leadership of Refuge

Ace delegates observation and reporting to Rose while personally handling Refuge's ongoing decisions and needs. He establishes rules, trains defenders, and makes time for the settlement even during his final obsession. His authority is paternal rather than merely ceremonial: Rose remembers that he functioned like a father to Refuge's people. That local devotion does not erase the harm he causes elsewhere, but it explains why followers continue to grieve him and why his leadership cannot be summarized as empty performance. (Chapters 337–341 and 1413)

Relationships

• Randidly Ghosthound: Best friend, rival, and eventual heroic opposite. Ace draws Randidly into friendship and action, then turns the power gap between them into a fixation that helps destroy their relationship.
• Sydney Harp: Former partner whose concealed illness and emotional withdrawal become central grievances. She apologizes for deception but ultimately kills him to stop the danger he has created.
• Rose Calloway: Administrator, observer, and loyal follower who supports Refuge and Ace's plans while recognizing the fragility beneath Dauntless. She mourns him and helps bury him.
• Ezekiel Ghosthound: Ally in the hunt for Straud. Ezekiel follows Ace's plan and witnesses the envy that fuels Dauntless's developing image.
• Straud: Enemy and involuntary benchmark whose dense image gives Ace the high-level clash he craves; Straud's Lifeblood power later becomes part of Ace's blood-egg project.

Items

Ace's featureless grey mask and later black-visored motorcycle helmet are the visual anchors of Dauntless, but neither is established as a separately named enchanted artifact. The Dreamcatcher of the Long Night reconstructs an important memory of Ace after his final defeat; it belongs to Randidly and never enters Ace's custody.