Ruthless: Path of Conquest

James allowed himself to bask in the glory of the crowd’s approbation for a long few seconds.

He smiled, wiped some gore away from his mouth, and then waited for the cheering to die down.

“Thank you to all the brave fighters who accompanied me here,” he said. “There will be other battles, but for now we have won the day and secured peace.”

There were further enthusiastic cheers, but James saw the bats staring down at the ground, looking uncomfortable, and he instantly knew he needed to say something conciliatory to them.

“I am also grateful to the late Bat Queen—” he began.

“For dying!” called a voice from James’s side.

No, I can’t have that, he thought. We’re better than that.

He allowed his smile to falter and his expression to become stern.

“No,” he said loudly. “I am grateful for the Bat Queen’s willingness to face me honorably in single combat. She could have chosen otherwise. It would have been a bloodbath for both sides—and a tragic one, since this conflict was based in part on a misunderstanding. Together, she and I prevented that by putting our lives on the line instead of our people’s lives. Thanks to her courage, we will gain new neighbors, instead of making a population of fierce and devoted enemies.”

The crowd was quiet for a few seconds, as if people were processing what he had said.

Then they began to applaud. Dave was the first one to really grasp what he meant, James noticed, and he nodded wordlessly along with clapping.

James turned to look at the bats and flying squirrels. The bats had lifted their heads and were looking at him uncertainly as if they expected some trick. The flying squirrels looked happy. Their emotions were very obvious in their body language.

James said his next words both aloud and telepathically, directly into the minds of every bat that was now his subject. “To the bats, I must say that your Queen was a fierce opponent.” He bent down and used Pillage on the body, selecting a Title to steal.

[Black Bloodsucking Bat Queen Barbara’s body processed.]

[You obtained Royal Aeromaster Cloak, 4x Bloodsucking Bat Queen Meat Bundle, and Ego Bloodsucking Arrows!]

[Title obtained: Aeromaster!]

Those all sound quite interesting, he thought to himself. He looked forward to testing them out.

James threw the Royal Aeromaster Cloak—a cape fashioned from the Bat Queen’s wings—around his shoulders and continued communicating with the bats.

“Now I will carry her strength with me into the battles to come,” he said. “I want you to take a few days to mourn your late Queen and then choose a new, strong bat who will serve me directly and represent you within my Kingdom. I intend to treat all of the surviving bats and squirrels as I would have liked the Bat Queen to treat my people in the event that I had lost the fight. I will place you under my protection. Any bat who is unwilling to accept this is welcome to leave, of course, but I will assume that any who remain within this territory after five days' time have accepted the new order.”

The creatures bowed low again, and James turned back to his soldiers.

“Thank you again to the soldiers who accompanied me here to ensure peace along our border. With your help, we have once again secured a region of the Kingdom against the possibility of external threat. Soon we will secure all our borders. In time, we will spread peace, order, and security to every corner of Central Florida!”

Another cheer went up. This time, people were shouting an array of different words.

“Peace!”

“Security!”

“Florida!”

“Fisher King!”

“James!”

“Victory!”

James waited for the cheering to die down, but it took several minutes. People seemed to be very energized.

Well, they did just spend months in a strange place, worrying that they might be killed any day. Of course it makes sense they would be happy to have some sense of control back.

Eventually, even the bats and squirrels joined in. In their shrill and chirpy voices respectively, they chanted, “Peace! Fisher King! James! Peace!”

The bats were chanting for peace, while the squirrels were taking their cue from their leader and chanting along similar lines to his soldiers.

Interesting.

He was optimistic that this victory would be another great milestone in the growth of his Kingdom. He could feel that it wasn’t a vast territory he had inherited from the bats and the squirrels. The combined geographic region was, in fact, smaller than Samuel’s massive swamp or the pre-swamp-acquisition Fisher Kingdom.

But there were other gains and large ones at that. He felt that the power of his aura had changed and enhanced as he absorbed the authority of the two additional Rulers thanks to his Usurper power. He looked through the System alerts until he found what he was looking for.

I took the power of the Ruler of the Tropical Forest and the Ruler of the Humid Skies and merged them into my Ruler of the Dark Waters Title. I guess that explains it. He now felt that his aura extended above the ground further than it had before. He intuited what the change would mean. I’m guessing I should be able to influence not just the soil and water within my territory now, but also the sky above. I’ll have to experiment with it. See if I can change the temperature like the Bat Queen did. Maybe if I practice, I’ll be able to make lightning strike my enemies. That would be pretty awesome.

For now, James put off any experiments. He collected Hester from where she had been watching the battle. He bid the bats and squirrels farewell. He promised to give the former Squirrel Queen a blessing later, but for now he was feeling drained. He didn’t want to use more of his energy, especially knowing that he would encounter Sister Strange that evening.

Once he was out of sight of the monsters, he conjured some water to wash off the Bat Queen’s blood—it felt somehow disrespectful to do that in front of them, and wasteful of his effort in giving her a quasi-eulogy.

Then he clothed himself once more—minus armor this time, simply because it seemed unnecessary in a pacified territory—took Roscuro out of his magic satchel, and led his soldiers back toward the place that had been the border.

Not a single death on our side, he thought. It is mostly my fault that the Bat Queen had to die, but the results are excellent otherwise. I think we won hearts and minds back there. From my experiences with the Goblins and alligators, nonhumans think differently about these struggles than humans do. They seem to cling to the strong loyally and not take it as personally if they saw you beat the tar out of their loved ones.

And perhaps most importantly, James had seen what his existing citizens could do when the situation called for violence.

He was rather impressed, and the feeling seemed to be mutual.

The soldiers kept coming up to him, clapping him on the back, shaking his hand, and offering him compliments. The ones who had not been present for the fight with Samuel were particularly affected.

“I’ve never seen you fight, Your Majesty, but you fought like a demon back there! I feel like we’re all so much safer with you at the head,” said Ardal Byrne, a middle-aged man who spoke with a faint Irish accent.

“Professional wrestling has nothing on you for showmanship, chief,” said another man.

“The other Goblins who saw what you did to that bat are all thinking about how they can impress you in the next battle,” Duncan said. James wasn’t certain if that was a good thing or not.

“I think the next monster that considers invading the Kingdom will give it a second thought,” said a young woman who seemed a bit nervous to speak with James.

That seemed to be a common reaction by the female soldiers who had witnessed the fight, James noticed. There hadn’t been that many of them in the sudden, informal militia he’d thrown together—he counted eight women out of the nearly one hundred humans—and they seemed slightly less enthusiastic in the aftermath of the battle.

Several of them joined their male colleagues in approaching him, but their expressions as they mentioned the fight were noticeably more squeamish.

The only thing he could figure was that they didn’t like how gruesome the fight became.

I could have ended it much more quickly and easily with Soul Magic, he thought, but what kind of impression would that have left on the other bats? They’d probably feel as if I cheated their Queen. Like they were being forced to follow some evil sorcerer.

He tried to think if there was some way he could have won the battle that would not have looked too grotesque to the female viewers. Then he shrugged.

I guess I’ll just have to kiss a lot of babies to remind them that I’m also a Dad, he thought. Completely harmless.

As the group continued moving forward, James found a chance to pull Dave aside from the group for a private chat.

“How did you feel the invasion went, Dave?” James asked.

“Well, when I got up this morning, an invasion was the last thing I expected to be a feature of my day,” Dave said. “However, it was much less horrifying than the last invasion I was a part of.”

James had heard some stories about the Sino-American War, so he didn’t know quite what to make of that remark. Dave seemed to be forcing himself to put on a brave face, but the two men weren’t exactly friends yet, so James didn’t want to pry into how he was really feeling.

“I’m thinking about the fact that this might have to happen again at some point,” James said. “If you were to review our performance, what would you say?”

“What, do you want me to rate it out of ten?” Dave asked. He sounded slightly needled.

“I want you to tell me if these people are ready to defend our land from the world out there,” James replied bluntly. “I’m still not sure what would have happened if we’d had to fight the bats and squirrels together. I have an ability that normally lets me calculate the odds of winning a fight, but I had no data at all on the squirrels, so it wouldn’t work in that situation. But I have a bad feeling I know what would have happened.”

Dave nodded slowly and spoke quietly as he replied, “You think we would have been slaughtered.”

“It was one of the major reasons I was eager to fight alone,” James said. “I don’t accept it as an inevitable outcome. I want to know what you think. And I want to know how you would improve upon the status quo.”

Dave shook his head. “I’m not in the military,” he said. “Not anymore. I guess what I’m doing for you—well, it’s sort of like I’m serving in your military. But this is officer stuff. I’m no general.”

“I don’t see any other generals around here,” James said. “And I don’t need a general. I don’t have a whole army in the first place. But I could make you a captain.”

Dave’s facial expression changed, and he stopped moving for a moment. James stopped, too, and then the whole group stopped with him. The chatter of the soldiers among themselves died down as they stared at James and Dave.

That finally got Dave moving again. The rest of the column resumed their triumphant march home.

“What is it?” James asked.

“The System just offered me a job,” Dave said, looking and sounding as if he was trying not to laugh—or resisting the impulse to scream. “Captain of the Royal Fisher Army.”

“Royal Fisher Army,” James muttered. “I guess that has an okay ring to it.”

“Do you think I should accept it?” Dave asked. His voice had an edge of anxiety to it.

“I think you have to make that choice for yourself,” James asked, putting a steadying arm around Dave. “But if you’re asking me personally what I would do, the answer is yes. You know I’m going to treat you like you’re the captain of my troops anyway. You might as well get the prestige that comes with the rank. And any boosts to your Stats the System is offering. But there’s no pressure to give me or the System an answer now. The offer isn’t evaporating.”

Dave sagged a bit as if he was slightly less worried.

“While you wrestle with that and consider how our force can become more effective, there’s one other task I’d ask you to carry out for me,” James added.

“What’s that?”

“Select six or so of the most valiant and effective soldiers from this group,” James said. “Human, Goblin, wolf, I don’t care, but I need a good handful of heroes to reward for their service today. The seventh one is you, of course. I think seven’s a nice number.”

Dave looked as if he was about to protest, but James shook his head.

“You’re going to want this decoration,” James said. “It’s not some plastic medal I’m handing out. I’m going to publicly give every one of these people my Blessing. It should accelerate their growth. And you deserve this just as much as anyone else. I relied on you here, and I relied on you when we invaded Samuel’s swamp. In fact, it would be pigheaded of you to refuse to be honored in this way, even if you don’t want to be a Captain.”

“Oh, would it?” Dave snorted.

“Absolutely,” James said in a tone of the utmost seriousness. “You would be diminishing your effectiveness in service of King and country. What could be worse than that?”

Dave shook his head, and both men grinned.