Chapter 91

Chapter 91

Prince Albert watched as his surviving defenders streamed out of the north gate once he retreated from his decoy attack on the west gate. He was glad for his helmet, as it hid his smile. The smile felt impossible to remove, but with effort, he kept it off his face to issue a few commands.

After a week and a half of brutal bloodshed and determination, the Queendom had finally taken the city. Despite the loss, things went far better than he could have ever hoped for, with the escape of his top earners too.

Things were looking up.

His grin slipped out as he watched the soldiers filing into the rubble that was the razed city. His enemies had fought, bled, and died for the city. After such a costly victory and rebuild, they would naturally treasure it, and hold the city close.

Exactly where he wanted them.

Albert smiled and turned to leave the anti-flying formation with his men.

This had been a great success.

***

Princess Sara stood outside a daunting metal frame. It was the door shed been staring at for the last ten minutes. This meeting would not be pleasant.

Finally, she lifted a heavy hand and tapped on the door twice. The gesture didn't even echo. The door behind her slid shut, and the one in front of her opened as the seal completed.

Her mother sat at a plain wooden table, watching a projected map of the planet spin at its center.

Diana smiled at her daughter and lightly patted the seat beside her.

Come sit, honey.

With considerable effort, Sara resisted the instinct to slouch down and slink towards the couch. That would only make this worse.

Her mother popped a brush out of her storage ring, and as she was reaching to brush her daughters hair, she paused. Dearest, when was the last time you showered?

The affectation gnawed at Sara. Her mother's Tier was so high, shed known the answer was days the second the door was unsealed. When it was just family, the Queen always pretended that she was no stronger than anyone else.. As a child, that was wonderful. As an adult, it grated. Preferably, her mother would have just called her out instead of babying her like this.

Mother, its been incredibly busy the last week. I...

The Queen tutted at her. Ah, ah ah. Young lady, what do I always say about appearances?

Sara let out a heavy sigh. Ones appearance is a weapon like any other. And only a fool allows their weapon to rust.

Go enjoy a hot shower. Then we'll discuss your latest plan.

Diana sent her off with a gentle smile that made this whole debacle a million times worse. Resigned to her fate, she headed towards the side door.

Normally, raiding her mother's bathroom was a great time. Compared to most people at her Tier, Queen Diana cared little for the trappings of wealth or power. Even this temporary apartment housing her during the war lacked even a single piece of decoration. There was one major exception though. The plain walls outside were in stark comparison to the opulent white marble lining the bathroom, and the luxurious thick high Tier rugs felt like standing on clouds, almost literally.

Her mother always splurged on one same thing. Sara wasn't surprised to see the bathroom decked out to a degree that more than made up for her mothers frugality elsewhere.

Stripping her clothes and armor, the items vanished before they even hit the ground. Sara still wasn't sure how that worked. Maybe it was her mother or some automated system in the bathroom. All she knew was that by the time she was done with her debrief, everything would be immaculately cleaned and returned.

Sara stepped into the gentle rain pitter-pattering down in the spacious shower. Turning on the jets, she gradually increased the pressure until the hurricane pounding down on her started to hurt a little. For five minutes, she stood there brooding until she was able to tear herself away to actually clean herself.

It felt... good. Better than shed admit. The shame of her disaster of a plan wasn't gone, but it felt marginally less important. It was over, and she needed to accept the outcome of the siege and move on to the next plan. After choosing from among the dozens of soaps and shampoo pairs and finishing her shower, she exited the room in the fluffy bathrobe that was hanging next to her mother's.

Right before leaving, shed poked her mother's high Tier garment, but her finger indented instead of the light blue fabric. Phooey, that meant it really was her true robe, and not a prize for Sara to steal.

The Queen sat waiting for her daughter to finish. As soon as Sara appeared, she patted the chair in front of her combs and brushes. They were at the ready, hovering around the spot where her mother wanted her to sit.

Sara sat and let the Queen mother her for a good five minutes. She relaxed into the soothing feeling of the brush gently working its way through her hair.

Sensing she was ready, her mother asked, So what went wrong? What went right? Start from the top.

The lack of condemnation rankled. She felt as if she deserved it, and its absence only made her guilt even worse.

We took the city, but lost over one thousand important small forts that guarded strategic resources. Seven hundred medium forts and thirty large forts. Sara ground her teeth until her jaw hurt, but finished her summary. The city was leveled, and will take at least four million points to start the rebuilding process. And their final defenders escaped with their points. It was a disaster, mom!

She hated how petulant she sounded at the end. Her mother's gentle brushing of her hair and the comforting pat on her arm were like nails scraping down a chalkboard to her guilty conscience.

Where did it go wrong?

Sara wanted to blame Albert and his overly competent second in command, but that was petty and unhelpful. She should have anticipated everything better. That was her job.

I was overly ambitious with the idea of moving so much earlier than in a normal war. I thought if we could take that city fast, we could spread out and hit multiple places at once. Possibly even surround a second city and siege that down as well, over a longer period of time. If Im being honest, I was far too greedy.

That wasn't actually true, and she corrected herself. No I was overconfident. On paper the plan was sound, but didn't account for the Pathers, and things like the modification of equipment. She chewed on her lip and continued on. I only thought in terms of standard specifications, which doesnt account for the chaos of a real battle. That's what led to the formation pillars getting destroyed, and the Kingdom of Seven Shits being able to fill the city to the fucking brim with troops.

What else can you say? Both the good and bad. Be objective. The last was the gentlest of reprimands, but it stung.

Sara thought over her decision leading up to this point and sighed. I shouldnt have gotten hung up on taking the city with minimal danger after the initial plan failed. Our losses were heavy, and we... no, I... Sara took a deep breath. I should have ordered them to fully bombard the city and just accepted the point cost to fix it. Because of my inflexibility, now I not only have to pay the rebuilding cost, but also have two million soldiers cooling their heels in recovery.

Good. Now dearest, what are your next plans going forward?

We hunker down and wait for the numbers to even back out. We just need to survive this next week. Once all of our troops are back in the field, Ill take back our forts. With a few exceptions, I doubt Albert plans to hold on to them. Almost all of them are too far outside of his zones of control for a permanent transfer to be feasible. It was a way to punish our concentration of forces, nothing else. But it worked. They took a huge portion of our highest-earning locations. She paused and said, And we probably wont get them back in a functional condition. Shit, I need to be ready for that.

Queen Diana poked her in the rib, causing Sara to jump and glare at her mother, who ignored it. Don't get distracted, honey. Anything else?

Sara thought about keeping her thoughts to herself but finally said, The Pathers. Their performance was well beyond my expectations. They were pivotal on both sides. They made the city much harder to breach, and were also the ones responsible for finally breaking through the Kingdoms defenses. Though, our dropships played a large part in that as well.

Her mother just hummed at her to continue, so she did. Their leaders were monsters, one of them in particular. And the other Pathers were a much tougher nut to crack than expected. I have good combat analytics on most of them, which honestly might be worth the cost of all the dead soldiers.

She flicked a finger at the projector, and a collage of the two dozen most influential Pathers appeared on the screen for her mother to view with her. This entire apartment was locked down to prevent her mother from interfering in the war, and information was strictly controlled. The only exception was what she brought in during these reports. Her intelligence teams had scoured all over to find out what they could about the most notable Pathers. All that information was listed under each picture.

Sara had already reviewed the information, but not much stuck out. So when her mother visibly stiffened, she spun to question her.

What!?

Her mother smirked at her and said, That explains a lot.

Sara started poking her mother back, but the woman didnt even notice it. The woman wouldnt have noticed if Sara had fired a mana cannon in her face.

I was wondering why they slapped me so hard. This explains it.

Slapped? What?

Diana reached up and parted her robe to expose her upper chest. Sara gasped when she saw her mothers beating heart through a perfect, handprint shaped hole. The flesh around the hole was imbued with purple tinged, void-aspected mana that gave the wound an ominous feeling.

A hand around her mother's heart was not a subtle threat.

What the flying fuck is that!? Who did that to you? Mom!

Her mother closed the robe she wore and tried to soothe her daughter, but Sara was far too shocked and angry at seeing her powerhouse of a mother so injured.

What did I say about language!? And honestly honey, it's fine. I tried to peek out of here when the war settled into a rut. I'm a higher Tier than the general, so I figured the risk was minimal. Well I was wrong, and someone instantly put me in my place. She pointed at the gaping hole where the wound was. This is my spanking, so to speak.

Enemy vassal killed, Tier 5. Worth 1 point. Performed 15,574 times.Enemy vassal killed, Tier 6. Worth 5 points. Performed 12,692 times.Enemy vassal killed, Tier 7. Worth 25 points. Performed 914 times.Repelled major assault on ally city. Worth 1,500 points. Performed 23 times.Destroyed major enemy siege asset. Worth 500 points. Performed 13 times.Constructed minor emergency fortification, crude quality. Worth 1 point. Performed 53 times.Items and equipment looted but returned. Assigned worth: 27,874 points.

(Calculated for Tier 6 Combatant)

Enemy vassal killed, Tier 5. Worth 1 point. Performed 4,745 times.Enemy vassal killed, Tier 6. Worth 5 points. Performed 1,907 times.Enemy vassal killed, Tier 7. Worth 25 points. Performed 182 times.Repelled major assault on ally city. Worth 3,000 points. Performed 17 times. Leader bonus (lieutenant general, acting): 2x multiplier.Constructed minor emergency fortification, crude quality. Worth 1 point. Performed 19 times.Destroyed major enemy siege asset. Worth 500 points each. Performed 9 times.Delivered rallying speech to raise troop morale. Worth 2 points. Performed 1 time (limit 1 per day). Audience size bonus (2 divisions): 1.5x multiplier. Quality penalty (substandard): 0.5x multiplier. Effectiveness penalty (substandard): 0.5x multiplier. Reward of 0.75 points rounded to 1 point.

UNACHIEVED MERITS: For reference purposes only.

Defend an ally city against a siege successfully. Team contribution (estimated): 50,000 points.Defend an ally city against a siege successfully. Individual contribution (estimated): 25,000 points.Play a major role in defeating a far superior enemy force (509K vs 2,949K). Awards 5.8x multiplier to all merits. Defensive advantage penalty: 0.5x multiplier. Final reward: 2.9x multiplier to all merits.

New Gains: 243,161 points

New Total: 284,748 points

Pather Team Ranking (Kingdom of Seven Suns): 1st place.

Estimated Daily Stipend: 5,000 points.

Matt whistled. That was a whole bunch of points, no matter how you cut it. The war was a little more than a month in, and hed earned nearing a quarter million contribution points. Suddenly, the 1.5 million cost for the [Cracked Breach] skill felt within his grasp. His team had put in the work, and were now being rewarded heartily. The double-dipping and the steady, albeit small, percent of the Kingdom's total points would earn them quite a bit. But they earned more with grand feats of fighting.

That didn't even account for their first place in the Pather ranking. If they kept their position, they would earn around 150,000 total points each month just from the daily stipend. That was over half of what theyd earned for unsuccessfully defending the city.

When he scrolled to the merit for deliver a rallying speech, he was slightly mortified. Immediately, he decided to never mention that exact merit to anyone and moved onto the section for unachieved merits. The first two missed opportunities listed were straightforward enough, but he was slightly confused on the multiplier mentioned. As he focused on that item, a more detailed description was offered.

For fighting a significant battle (participants on each side exceed 1,000) as part of a far disadvantaged force, a multiplier is applied to merits earned during the battle. For fighting on the defending side from a heavily fortified position, this is multiplied by a defender penalty of 0.5x. Participants: 2,949,377 attackers versus 508,892 defenders. Final multiplier of 2.9x points applied (after defender penalty). Multiplier was not applied to point total as battle did not result in a victory against the enemy forces.

Now that would have been amazing.

If they had managed to hold out defending the city, Matt would be nearly half way to earning the perfect skill for him. His musing of single-handedly blasting down city walls was cut short by their turn at the teleporter.

Juni clapped his hands together and nodded deeply at Matt. Thank you all for your help. Without your team, I don't think we could have done nearly as well. Ive already talked to The Prince, and he intends to compensate you for the mana you supplied. If you were willing to help generate mana in the future...

Juni trailed off, and Matt shrugged but nodded. My Concept is beyond dry right now, but I'm happy to help for an hour or so a day to get some practice with my Concept. If the price is right.

The Prince's right hand man just nodded, and offered him a genuine smile before patting Matt on the shoulder and moving down the line.

On the other side, they were quickly met with healers who rushed them towards individual rooms on wheeled beds. A woman with snake eyes smiled from under her mask and asked, Is the armor keeping the blood restricted, and do you have the arm?

Yes and no. It was a void attack. The arm is gone.

She patted his still armored shoulder. Well, don't deactivate the armor just yet. Once we get you in the room, I'll let you know when were ready. Have you taken painkillers or had a pain reduction spell cast on you?

When Matt said no, the healer put a glowing finger onto his shoulder, it sank right through [Cracked Phantom Armor]. It was an incredibly weird feeling. He instinctively knew that he could have resisted the spell, but it felt like healing, and the woman was strong. If he resisted, she could have shattered his armor.

But as the energy settled in, Matt yawned.

He was so, so tired.

As he heard the healer tell him he could deactivate his skill, he crossed his legs and passed out.

***

Matt woke up feeling good. Really good.

He checked his AI, and saw that only an hour had passed, but the healer was done with her work. A new left arm was back where it should be. Looking around, he found himself in a large room, with dozens of others in hospital beds identical to his own. He debated rolling over and falling back asleep, but then thought to check up on his team. After reading a message from the hospital AI, he rolled off the bed and onto his feet.

Per the hospital AI, You are on a two-week healing cooldown for the arm. Do not stress it with more than light activities for at least two days. Regular exercise can be resumed after one week. If you need to see staff for trauma, they are available now, or later at your convenience. Otherwise, you are free to leave when ready.

His AI notified him that Conor, Annie, Emily, and Aster were together and not far away from him, so he moved over in that direction.

He found them loudly and aggressively whispering in the recovery room next door as soon as he opened the door.

Annie wanted to keep her twin sister in the bed, but Emily was struggling to get up. It was almost comical to watch. Annie tried to gently keep Emily down without jostling her sisters newly regrown limbs, while Emily tried to squirm out of her hold like a fussy toddler.

Seeing Emilys own fresh, pale-pink limbs, Matt rubbed his own left arm and sighed as he found no hair. That would itch like hell when it started to grow back in.

Aster leaped from Conors arms to nuzzle into his. Feel better? You smell better.

Thanks, Aster. I do feel better. He dramatically swooped up his bond and smooched her on the forehead, getting a playful lick in return. He was impressed that she didn't even ask for ice cream, and was worried for Liz.

Matt! Tell Annie to let me up. Emily sounded frustrated.

Taking in the situation, Matt instead ignored the woman's plight, and joined Conor in watching the spectacle. A sibling argument was neither his business, nor something he was particularly interested in getting involved with.

He turned to Conor and quietly asked, Howre you feeling?

The larger man nodded. Just fine. I got off easy. The healers cast a spell and moved me right along. I saw that void ball attack. I was just too far away to help. Ballsy move, trying to catch a giant ball of death. One-handed, no less. Fucking impressive that you took that on, and shocking that they didn't pull you out immediately.

I got lucky. Nothing crazy.

Conor rolled his eyes. Sure, man. Nothing crazy. Okay, those two are getting too loud, let's get them out of here. People are still sleeping.

With that, they herded the bickering sisters out of the room, to Annie's animated displeasure. She maintained that her sister needed to remain in the hospital for at least a few days after losing two limbs to a flaming sword. And while she did, Annie could get some assassination practice in, on a totally random and definitely not related target.

They reunited with Liz when she was wheeled out of intensive care an hour later. She wasn't asleep during her healing like Matt had been, and once the healers left, she pulled herself out from under the sheets and sat on the side of the bed.

She had the rest of her face back, but was bald where the skin had been regrown. The new skin was glossy smooth like his arm, but her other side was buzzed down to nothing too.

She saw him peering and sighed. Ugh. I'm going to need a hair regrowth elixir. I look like a ten-year-old boy.

Matt pulled her into a hug, only saying, It looks fine. This is just different. Buy the elixir if you want, but who cares.

Their team moved out of the hospital at a tired pace, but in good spirits. Together, they ate a heavy dinner at a nice restaurant. It was amazing, though that could have been from eating something other than military rations for the first time in over a week.

Aster, having eaten her fill of ice cream and a beef shank, claimed to be suffering mental trauma and demanded a visit to the recovery ward. A worried nurse had apparently spoken to the young fox about mental trauma, and what they could do to help her. Aster hadnt cared much until one particular option was mentioned animal therapy. When Matt heard Aster's claim, he immediately outed her for only wanting to chew on indestructible bunnies. To which she retorted that the bunnies were her friends, and he just didnt get it.

No one else had the energy to stay up late, so they retired to bed early, with Aster whisked off to enjoy chewing on her friends.

The predawn light was seeping through the windows when Matt woke up to use the bathroom, only to find Liz already out of bed and hogging it. After they both finished up, they slid themselves back beneath the covers.

Matt snuggled up to Liz, it felt so good to be able to hold her. After the hell theyd been through in the siege, feeling someone close to you, and knowing you were both safe was everything to them. He leaned in, giving her a modest peck on the lips. "Weve been on the verge of death for days, and thats the best you can do? Liz teased.

He brushed his hand up to her cheek before he pulled her in tight. Not even close.

The next kiss was the most passionate he could ever remember. They both felt worn down by all the days of battle, so to feel something like this they needed it. As their passion built up, they didnt stop each other. Not this time.

Matt reached for her shirt, trying to pull it over her head, and she smiled devilishly in response. Sir Matthew, you dare threaten a princesss virtue? she scoffed.

His lips curled in response. I do.

In Lizs amber-yellow eyes, a flame lit. No longer caring for the silly restrictions theyd placed on themselves, she reached back for Matt. Her hands didnt even bother with his shirt, going straight for his pants.

It was a while before they came back to themselves, both sweaty and smiling. It was the happiest Matt had felt in a long time, embracing the closeness that theyd skirted around in the past, but now fully dove into. I love you, Matt said.

I love you too. Liz replied.

Matt wasnt sure who moved first, but their lips started to meet. From there, hands slipped under shirts. Soon, the offending clothing was off and hitting the walls and floor, leaving them struggling in a tangle of limbs.

They didnt leave their room until well after the sun rose.