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Aster got most of Luna’s praise today, though. The fox had used her growing intuition and intelligence to protect the mage, Emily. And she took out the little wannabe hive mind, Nael. Without a fire spell, he would have taken them all out in a few minutes, while the damage they inflicted failed to stop his regeneration.
She hoped that Liz could fight the young man in the future, since he was a good counter to her. Blood counted as biological material, and he would simply absorb all of her attacks.
But no. Aster noticed what everyone else had missed and froze the whole room. It was clever. The fox acted so quickly, Matt didn’t even notice the oddity of the Pather that he was fighting.
They each needed help and guidance, but they had potential. Oh, so much potential.
Seeing the c*****e, she made a note to monitor their mental states after this. This was the first time any of them had taken heavy wounds, and they would have died if not for the army’s intervention. She had a few experts that she could call if they seemed to slip into some kind of depression. Harvest Moon would be her last resort, but he knew his way around the mind.
She wouldn’t let her new toys break because of mishandling. It wouldn’t be the first time she broke her hands-off rule before she introduced herself. She had done it before and would do it again. The long-term gains always outweighed the ruination of her information gathering.
Luna scanned the rest of the battle and made hundreds of notes identifying where they could do better.
A shiver ran down her spine. A delicious one, the likes of which she hadn’t felt in at least a few thousand years. They would turn into her best work yet.
She could taste it.
Albert watched the projection of the planet as if it spun by his command. Various upgrades he could buy for mining sites or forts appeared in his vision as the globe spun—all things to spend the kingdom level points on.
He ignored them.
He was mad. No, he was angry.
He thought about it for a moment. No, it was worse than that. He was monumentally pissed off.
First, his father forced him to bank half of the points their side earned. His father didn’t trust him, so he hampered his progress, then used that as proof he was right. Thankfully, it was only for the first few months, but it completely negated the defensive advantage he had. If his father hadn’t done that, he would be out earning the queendom instead of being slightly behind.
Albert could disregard his father’s orders, and there would be nothing the king could do while the army was here. But they wouldn’t be around forever, so he had to acquiesce to his father’s orders.
That had pissed him off already, but the day had only gotten worse as it went on.
The real problem was that the Pathers were too damn good at their jobs, and too many of his mid-level commanders were only concerned about their own points. The larger strategy of the war as a whole was lost on them.
It was the Ascenders-damned point system. It rewarded the individual more for taking a fort than holding it. However, for the kingdom as a whole earned hundreds of times more points for holding the fort. The incentives were f*****g contradictory.
That caused his relief teams to hold back until they could take a fort back for themselves and split a larger amount of points between their squad. Breaking a siege was only worth a quarter the points a capture was worth.
A message beeped at him.
Alyssa had taken over a fort.
He checked the logs and slammed a crystal fist onto the table in front of him.
The loud noise frightened a few of the aides as they moved back and forth, so he mumbled an apology.
Another Pather team had taken a fort, only to have their reinforcements purposefully delayed, so they could take the fort back themselves.
The more he read, the worse it seemed. The leaders of the team had been a part of his golem disaster.
Matt, Liz, and Aster. He vaguely remembered them, and his AI provided the relevant details. They had been the top earners during the final push, while only being Tier five.
Now, they were Tier 6, and with three others, had single-handedly taken out a medium fort, then almost held it from an assault by three hundred people.
A quick check of the casualties showed that the attackers had lost a little over two hundred people, with Alyssa taking out the others. He read between the lines and through the provided metadata and found that most of the people she killed were simply Tier 5 perimeter guards.
Solely for her personal gain, she was screwing one of his top ten teams over.
He could only blame himself, really. This being the first day after the auction, and the beginning of true hostility on both sides, the orders had been over-optimistic.
Having the Path teams harass forts was one thing they expected to be easy. They had added ‘take forts if possible’ as an idle thought, hoping one or two might succeed.
But no. The Pathers were overachievers on both sides. Nine forts had been taken, and they had only prepared reinforcement teams for the first three. After that, it was digging deeper and deeper into the barrel to find more. After the seventh, they weren’t scraping the bottom of the barrel. They were turning it upside down and shaking.
That was where Alyssa came into the picture. Albert hated the smug woman and had given orders for her not to be used unless necessary. The order had only been half because of his personal feelings and half because she really was the worst blend of competent and vindictive. Best to keep her involvement to a minimum.
The fact that it had come to that only drove the point of the kingdom’s desperation home. She and her little band of nobles were worse than useless most of the time, as they had so readily proven.
If she hadn’t always been self-centered and conniving, he would have suspected his political rivals of trying to influence the war. He didn’t think it likely, as his father would take anyone’s head if they ruined his chances at winning the grand prize. But it was a possibility.
His only solace was that the queendom was having the same problem. Albert had to grin internally. While the queendom took nearly sixty percent of the Pather fighters who came in from the greater Empire, the kingdom had clearly gotten more of the quality troops.
The queendom had unexpectedly only taken six forts to their nine. His side might lose out slightly in numbers, but powerhouses could win wars if the quantity difference wasn’t too severe.
Albert was brought out of his musing by the sound of the door opening. After a quick glance back, he found Juni poking his head in, nodding at him.
That wasn’t good. It never was.
Albert moved into a private meeting room, and found Juni slumped over a table with his head in his hands.
“That bad?”
Albert didn’t really want to know. But he had to know. His position demanded it.
Juni mumbled into his hands, “It’s bad. Really bad.”
Albert moved over to sit next to his friend. It was a break in royal decorum, but they were alone, and it was the only reason that Juni would do it.
- Writer
