The Path of Ascension

Their remaining troops gathered together, and a debriefing was conducted by the still wounded Olivia. Matt listened in while he acted as a mana battery for the healers, who were hard at work getting the survivors combat-ready.

They had moved into the small fort, and she was permanently stuck on her flying device, as her legs would need to be regrown before she could walk. For now, while under the anti-flying formation, she was carried on a stretcher. That still didn’t diminish her contributions to the earlier fight.

Olivia had regained consciousness from one of the blasts that took out the rest of the command staff, and immediately started issuing orders despite her charred off legs. She quickly found that all of their comms were jammed, and began working on a solution. As it turned out, an opportunist spy hidden among their mid-level commanders had taken the opportunity to sabotage their comms, after starting the charge himself.

It had taken her half an hour to even be able to send messages at all. But once she had regained some measure of control over the system, she ordered all the troops she could reach to organize an offensive.

Matt and the other Pathers in the army were totally unaware of the situation, as their comms had remained obfuscated until there was a complete wipe of the system. It had only taken place close to the end of the battle, when Olivia felt secure enough about a victory to slacken her micromanagement. The entire process took about two hours.

After reviewing the telemetry of the battle, Matt had personally messaged the woman with how impressed he was with her orders. Her commands and decisions, while only communicating with a fraction of her forces, hadn’t simply been practical and smart.

They were inspirational.

She had predicted everyone's moves; even her own unreachable allies. She moved her few troops to counter enemy movements, while also assisting faltering sections of their ranks during chaotic and brutal melee. The disparate forces that should have been beyond her control were seemingly shepherded into place.

The meeting started with Olivia relaying orders. “We won the fight, but our unit has been rendered combat ineffective, so we’re going to be absorbed by General Lupis. We did well, but our overall mission was a failure. I'd like to thank the Pather Annie, who took out the enemy leadership early enough to let me direct our troops mostly uncontested.”

Matt sent Annie a thumbs up in their private team chat, but there was grumbling from half a dozen indistinct voices transmitted over the AI. Olivia let the remaining mid-level commanders vent for a minute, but she quelled the moderate dissension shortly after.

Her voice cut through the murmurs, “I don't like it either. And that's why we won't be sticking around for reinforcements or another enemy unit to come finish us off.”

That only caused another round of questions, which she answered with a casual, “I intended to get started on our original objective. We’re down to one hundred and fifty thousand combat-capable troops, which is more than enough to start the initial push. We won't be able to secure as much ground as I’d like, but we only need to keep things going for a day or so before our reinforcements arrive.”

There was more chatting, but Matt tuned it out. He was concerned. They had nearly twenty thousand heavily injured fighters who only needed time and mana to get back on their feet. This didn't seem like the best course of action in his mind, and it was at odds with Olivia's earlier decisions.

“Our preliminary scouting shows that the medium forts and large forts are reinforced, but not to the degree that this fort was. They’re just doubled up in defenders. I want us to surround them and keep their forces contained. We won’t be engaging, just clearing the way for our reinforcements.”

That seemed a far better use of their time, and Matt nodded along with the questions being asked. Nothing jumped out to his AI or his own experience. The plan seemed sound enough.

The wounded were going to be shifted into the fort, and its defenders would be the Kingdom fighters who were too injured to fight and fly, but could stand on a wall on guard.

Olivia ordered Team Bucket to join the fourth squad, which was more of a quick reaction force than anything else. They were to stay with the command structure, and be ready to intervene any time the fort's defenders tried to sally forth and break free.

Matt hoped at least one fort would try and break the siege, but none sent their troops out. They had a boring day of easily advancing. They moved forward as a unit, flying when they could, but dismounting and jogging when they couldn't. It was slow, but their numbers ensured that no one could easily attack them while they engulfed each fort on their way.

It was late evening when their reinforcements arrived. Matt saw them approaching from the rear, not by sight, but from the pillars of smoke that rose up in the air. They were from the splinter groups that dropped off to siege down the surrounding forts. It was a fiery testament to the devastation that a million-strong force could muster.

Matt and his forces had already arrived at the city's edge, and were busy setting up a small camp, while the general troops were digging defenses and preparing the siege engines.

When the leading elements caught up with them, Liz and the rest of Team Bucket were unpleasantly surprised at what they found.

Alyssa was leading the force in an armored skirt while twirling her obnoxiously colored parasol. Their team followed her into the command tent.

“Good afternoon, everyone. You all look spiffy after losing most of your forces.” She beamed at them like she had just given them the greatest of compliments.

“Where is General Lupis?” Olivia seemed suspicious, and Matt prepared to summon his sword from its ring at her shift in demeanor.

“Little Wolfie will not be joining us, unfortunately. An unexpected guest arrived and sent him on a vacation. I'm the new general. How convenient! It seems the Queendom was quite upset about someone killing their generals in the middle of a major battle, and took revenge. Or maybe they were just so impressed with how effective that tactic turned out to be, they decided to copy it.”

She shrugged as if none of it concerned her. “Either way, our generals all seem to have a number of assassins gunning for them now. Between that, and all the major movements happening, there just aren’t many generals available to step in for poor Wolfie and Alister. The only other candidates are all leading smaller forces right now, and they each seem to be thoroughly tied up at the moment. They simply wouldn't be able to get here in time.”

Alyssa’s mouth stretched from ear to ear as she finished, “Which leaves me the highest-ranking commander for this siege. Wonderful, no?”

Everyone present knew that absolutely none of this was a coincidence. There was no chance that every available field strategist could be simultaneously held up. But if she was rightfully in charge, she wouldn’t be removed easily.

Seeing the looks on their faces, Alyssa continued with a laugh. “Oh, don’t be like that. Ever since the auction, it’s been chaos out there. Combine that with a few of the wrong wild mushrooms being cooked into some meals, and a very messy incident between a member of the peerage and their less-exclusive-than-expected mistress... Well, our beloved Kingdom finds itself with a shortage of high level commanders to send our way. Nonetheless, I’m confident we will prevail.”

To Matt’s shock, Liz beamed right back at Alyssa. “Wonderfully said. We have all the leadership we need to win right here. I’m sure then you’re prepared to suborn yourself to General Olivia and her orders?”

Everyone froze, particularly Alyssa and Olivia. The latter of whom made a face like she’d swallowed a bug.

Alyssa looked ready to spit fire but played it cool. “My, my. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I'm the only person here with a general's title.”

Liz’s smile grew sharp, and her yellow eyes glittered. “Ah, but you yourself said that Lupis was your original general. If you took over from him, then you’re technically just an acting general. No?”

Matt could see Alyssa debate lying, but she finally shrugged and asked, “So?”

His girlfriend looked like the cat who ate the canary.

“Then, when two acting generals meet in the field, the acting general who was on site first retains command. Per section 9 subsection 14B of the Kingdom’s articles of war.”

Her words were accompanied with a smile that could cut glass, and an AI message listing the relevant passages straight out of official Kingdom protocol.

Alyssa just glared at Liz. “As a representative of the peerage, even the younger generation, I have the authority and responsibility to take over battlefield command from someone I deem unfit.”

Annie shrugged and said, “I don't know... Is someone who can't stop a fire in their closest better than someone who single-handedly salvaged a disastrous battle?”

Alyssa stilled, then pivoted to stare Annie down. With bared teeth, she smiled before closing her eyes and biting down hard on her lower lip. Taking a deep breath in through her nose, she twirled back around to face everyone else with a gentle smile.

“I will, of course, follow the letter of the law. My troops are at your disposal. Oh, and should things get a little too tall for you, I’m ready to step in and shoulder the burden. Best of luck to you, General.”

As she made her exit and passed the command tent’s anti-listening bubble, Olivia spun to Liz and nearly roared, “What the fuck was that?!”

“I...”

“No! You just threw me under the bus as a political tool to get back at her! Everyone knows how you hate her, don't pretend differently. We all know the laws, but everyone also knows they aren’t applied equally. Alyssa can ruin me and my family if she wants. Easily. I would have happily agreed to her command to avoid that kind of trouble.”

Liz looked crestfallen and worked her mouth for a moment before she cleared her throat and tried, “Sorry. I...”

“No, don't. Just don't. That situation was about as nuanced as a rift break. That stunt you pulled? You’re either politically braindead, or knew exactly what you were doing, and just didn’t give a fuck about the collateral damage. And if the Pather Union negotiations Alister brought to me were any indication, it sure as shit isn’t the former.”

Olivia looked ready to puke, but Matt stepped forward. “This… this isn't all bad. You can foist blame on us. We can handle the little pressure anyone in the Kingdom can put on us. But remember what Alyssa said; she will follow the letter of the law. If you don’t show gross incompetence, she can't oust you.” He clapped her shoulder lightly. “We believe in you. You can do this.”

“I'm not qualified.”

Emily scoffed. “We don't believe that for a second, and neither do you. Everyone could tell in ten minutes that you and what’s-his-name were the real brains behind that other idiot.”

“Alastair, isn't dumb. He's just... busy.” Even Olivia must have heard how weak that sounded, because she wilted in a bit. “He has other strengths. He's nice, at least.”

Liz looked subtly chastised as she nodded to Olivia. “You're right. That was wrong of me to put you in the middle of our pissing match, and treat you like a pawn. I'm sorry, and I’ll make sure to head off any fallout from it.”

Matt looked around to the few command staff in the tent and said, “I know who I would rather have commanding me. If we do our job, we’ll have a much better chance of getting through this.” He knelt down and said only loud enough for her to hear, “Remember that you’re being watched, and if you impress the right people, she can’t touch you. You’ve already proven that you can do this.”

Olivia got a hard look in her eyes. Keeping her voice low, she responded, “Fine. But I still need to hedge myself against the political blowback you’ve brought down on me. If I’m going to foist the blame on you as suggested, then I need to make it publicly clear I think you’re to blame, and don’t trust you now.” Raising her voice once again, she continued, “Effective immediately, you’re no longer officially part of senior command. Your presence in the command tent will be by invitation only from here on out, which I will still provide for the daily strategy meetings. It’ll cost you your leadership bonuses, but it will also probably placate Alyssa enough to keep her from taking the first opportunity to smother you all in your sleep and blame Queendom assassins.”

She almost looked as if she enjoyed the thought of the last comment. A hand snapped towards Liz’s face. Only Olivia's lack of legs kept the pointed finger at bay. “But if you ever play games with me like that again, I will personally see to it that your whole team spends the rest of the war on latrine digging duty. Now get the hell out.”

With that, Team Bucket moved to exit the tent as Olivia started barking orders. Matt doubted that Olivia could follow through on that last threat, but he wasn't going to call her out. The last thing they needed was for him to dig the hole Liz had dug even deeper.

He could only sigh as he heard Liz berating herself under her breath as she stomped past him. “Fucking fuck. I didn’t even think about Olivia when I made the move. I just saw an opportunity to get back at Alyssa. Birdbrained idiot. I can’t fuck up like that.”

Matt wanted to console her, but she had messed up. And she didn't need or want to be lied to. All they could do was move on.

By the time they moved out of the tent, the new troops were already on the move. It was frightening to see over a million troops begin to engulf the city.The space locking pillars were set up at the maximum range of standard anti-siege defenses, but they were also paired with semi-portable shielding units. If the Queendom tried to recreate Matt’s prior success, they would find the pillars a much more resilient target.

Their scouts who flew out at the edge of the anti-flying formation reported two million troops in the city from their best estimates, using the best telescopes they could carry.

That wasn't ideal. If they wanted to take the city, they would need three times their current numbers at a minimum. They would also need to worry about any troops in the surrounding area. The Queendom would surely try to perform hit and run tactics, as Prince Albert had.

Matt was assigned to handle that eventuality, and with a team of earth mages, they raised a fifteen-foot wall around the entire city. It took them a day and a half, even with their use of mana crystals when he was forced to take a break. But eventually, they had a passable defense set up.

After that, they created a five-foot berm to render sallying forth a more dangerous decision for the Queendom defenders. Several mid-level commanders balked at what they called 'overly cautious behavior,' which meant they would earn fewer points.

Matt and Liz privately thought that Alyssa was behind that little cabal, but she publicly defended Olivia's actions.

On day three, the trebuchets started launching their payloads. They were being built and staffed as fast as possible, once the first siege weapons found their range. Olivia had already given an order stating that they wouldn’t be trying to take the city intact. Instead, they would be battering it to rubble before they fell for the ploys that the Kingdom had used in their defense.

Team Bucket covertly agreed that it was much better to be on the attack and not the defense. It was a lot less stressful to watch the giant rocks fly away from them instead of towards them.

It took half a week to batter through the shielding. Despite their greater number of trebuchets, and no desire to take the city intact, the Queendom had extra months to perform various upgrades. Those enhancements now allowed them to hold more mana, and as they learned when the shields faltered, improved the Tier of the wall’s stone to 7.

That caused their summoned rocks to be nearly ineffective, but that was when Olivia pulled out her plan. She wanted to bring down the walls from underneath.

Half a dozen teams were given orders to start digging, and Matt was assigned to try and keep the earth mages full of mana, so they could reinforce the walls and move the dirt to the side. It worked until the Kingdom sappers approached the walls, where they found that the enemy could feel the earth mages work, and resist their efforts. The mages played a game of back and forth, while the Queendom defenders tried to collapse the tunnels. Meanwhile,the Kingdom sappers tried to punch through the queendom forces, and reinforce the tunnels they dug.

Despite her critics, Olivia gave orders to keep the plans intact and move forward. They also criticized how she flatly refused to create siege towers or ladders to take the walls, calling her a coward, among worse things. Her counterpoint was that they were more worried about their individual points, and less about the overall situation, which put a halt to anyone questioning her decisions.

Matt personally felt the sapper plan was a lost cause, but when publicly asked, he backed up her decision to keep up the attacks.They could receive reinforcements and resupply,on top of his own mana contributions, which weren’t insignificant. He remembered well enough how mana became a valuable commodity on the other side of the siege, as the days ticked on and supplies dwindled.

As Alyssa stated, all of their reinforcement generals had various accidents, leaving them indisposed. Since they were unable to make it to their camp, it left Olivia in command with no appointed general to supersede her. Matt found headquarters' response of shrugging it off concerning. But when the third wave of troops arrived without a general, putting their numbers at seven million, he assumed that Alyssa had worked things out so she could remain in command.

A week after the start of the tunneling efforts, Olivia sat outside watching the wall and smiled at all the important commanders.

“You said my efforts were wasted, but here we go. Perfectly as I predicted.”

Someone interjected, “The only thing perfect is the condition of the walls!”

Olivia turned in her chair, and Matt had to give her credit. She was sitting down, and still managed to glare at the man. “Do you know how saboteurs work, Claudius?” When the man just wilted back, she pointed down. “Normally it's a battle of earth mage versus earth mage. But what happens if you dig with mundane forces?”

That stumped everyone. Even Matt had no idea.

Olivia spun her wheeled chair and pointed back at the wall. “I used our earth mages as distractions, and now the walls will fall. If they had been paying attention to their surroundings, they could have felt us. But , they were too focused on our own mages working to dig through the walls. They completely missed the mundane diggers.”

As she spoke, a deep rumbling sound and backdrafts of dust rushed out of the grass-covered areas without sapper tunnels. At first, nothing of consequence seemed to follow. But as the ground in the middle of the closet wall slumped down, the wall bent slightly. It buckled forward, and then, as if trying to resist the pull of gravity, crumbled inward.

“Now we have access to the city proper. Or at least, one out of four sections.” Olivia tried to sound calm, but her pride and smugness shone through. It was as if she was calling out everyone who questioned her early actions.

She had lied to everyone, but with their recent spy problem, he had to give it to her. She had planned her deception perfectly, and pulled down the walls with the Queendom caught totally unawares..

“Now we move forward with phase two, which is us bringing down the other three sections of wall. Then, we’ll create a breach head. But first, I worry about being harried from our rear, and the defenders saving enough mana to bring up the shields when we have troops inside.”

The other three sections of wall came down with water.

Olivia had the ground soaked, turning the area at the base of the hill that the city was built on to muddy slush. They then flooded the existing tunnels to create enough instability that the walls collapsed once explosives were set at the ends of the tunnels. It normally wouldn't have been enough to take down the walls, but the weight of the stone, combined with the weakened ground, caused the walls to slump outwards as a portion of the hill collapsed.

It was an impressive feat of structural de-engineering.

Olivia's prediction proved true as well. The night the walls fell, they were beset from their rear with arrows and other distractions. The attackers didn't show themselves, nor did they stick around long enough to see the siegers muster a response. The Kingdom forces didn’t need to worry themselves too much. The large rear wall they had set up greatly limited the amount of damage that the Queendom could inflict through guerilla warfare.

That only lasted until a million-strong army approached, hoping to force their way through the east side of their fortifications and reinforce the city. They were repelled with minor casualties, but when the assaults repeated day after day, it became an ominous sign. The Queendom even set up their own siege weapons to bombard the Kingdom army. Olivia responded by mustering twice that number of troops, and sending them to harass the enemy with Alyssa in command.

The tactic was ineffective, and Alyssa struggled to pin them down long enough to accomplish anything of note. Her forces spent most of their time chasing the enemies between the forts that they controlled in the area, while trying to limit their own casualties. They had to contend with ambushes, traps, and battlefields of their opponent’s choosing.

As it turned out, it had been a distraction from the start.

With the million Queendom troops keeping their two million pursuers occupied, the city’s defenders attempted to break the siege. With yet another reinforcing army of two million troops arriving on the outside, they tried to pincer the Kingdom at the weakest point in their encirclement, and rout them.

They were fighting off a major push against their rear berm when the front gates of the city clanged open behind them. A massive wave of troops charged into the field to flank the Kingdom forces amassed on the berm. Olivia ordered her forces to ignore them and focus on repelling the greater number of enemies flooding in from the outside.

Matt felt like he was back in the first city siege. He cast spell after spell and repulsed the Queendom fighters as they scaled the smooth and steep berm. The flanking army worried him, but he followed his orders and kept the enemy fighters from gaining a foothold in their defenses. He had his team travel from breach to breach, plugging them once the enemy made even slight gains.

Team Bucket was handling an enemy formation that cleared the top of the wall when a series of explosions rocked the world and rattled the air.

Everyone instinctively came to a halt and turned to see. The city defenders were falling to shambles just short of their targets. More and more explosions went off at their feet, which were soon accompanied by a devastating synchronized barrage of cannon and catapult fire right on their location.

Matt’s attention was wrenched back to the fight behind him as an arrow plinked off his armor. He threw himself into the still wide-eyed defenders as the melee resumed.

Once he was deep in the enemy ranks, Matt filled his mana pool and cast [Flamethrower], letting the flame wash over the Queendom attackers around him. Screams followed, and his team secured the breach, only to migrate and do it again as the battle raged on around them.

As they were fighting off a dedicated charge from an earth mage who broke down their berm, screams started to be heard from the rear of the enemy's formation. There, Alyssa was busy tearing a hole through the defending ranks while attacking from the rear. The Queendom army was caught between the berm and the two million attacking troops led by Alyssa. Unable to advance or retreat, the enemy fought like monsters, turning to try and overwhelm the attackers in their rear. But when they did, Olivia called for a general charge.

That signaled the end of the enemy army, as they shattered and ran. Alyssa's forces must have been prepared for it, as they opened a hole for the enemies to retreat out of. Any who stayed were cut down, savaged by the kingdom troops.

Nothing was held back, and no quarter was given.

More than one of the commanders said that it was dumb to let over half of the two million-strong force retreat out of the ambush. Most of the level heads agreed that forcing them to fight to the death would have cost them far more troops than necessary. After all, there was already a million man unit out there, which could have hit Alyssa’s force from the rear as well.

That night, the army celebrated their success. The massive fight had earned everyone a large amount of points, and the general troops were happy to see the increase in their balances. Matt didn't bother to check. He wanted to see a massive increase at the end of the entire siege.

With the city missing half of its defenders, Olivia turned her attention back to the main siege. The next morning, the first probing attacks were sent in.

Matt and his team wanted to be in the first wave, but they were told under no uncertain terms that they wouldn't be a part of any initial waves, and would instead be saved for the true push with the rest of the elites.

So, they had to watch as the first wave moved up under withering fire from the intact portions of the walls. It was a long and brutal fight that inflicted heavy casualties on both sides, but the first wave retreated after the well-protected earth mages created even steps for the next wave to climb.

It was far worse to watch the others go and fight. Matt felt like he should be out there, leading the troops in each attack and watching them come back with far fewer troops than they went out with.

After two days of attacks, along with the trebuchets constantly battering the city, they were ready to launch their true assault. Their scouts reported that the inside of the city was flattened, and the defenders had lost most of their anti siege weapons atop their walls from the bombardment.

Matt and his team were a part of the assault formation, and he had to calm his nerves as they neared the city walls. They were so much larger from this side. Even as arrows and spells rained down on them, they ran forward with disposable shields raised.

They hit the stairs, and Matt took them two at a time, throwing himself off the cliff that the defenders created in the stonework. He launched into the defenders standing at the base of the tower.

It was a similar scene to the formations he had constructed when he was defending the Kingdom city.

To their side, a flurry of mana cannons and other long-range spells lashed out at the attackers as they tried to take the breach. They pushed through the enemy fire as they closed the distance to engage in melee combat, where the ranged weapons had the chance to hit their own troops.

As Matt landed, he swung his longsword and let loose a [Mana Slash] that created enough room for Conor to land next to him and activate [Demon Zone]. Together, they cut a path to the stairs, trying not to get bogged down.

Team Bucket fought their way up the stairs to the portion of still intact walls with Conor in the lead. Matt reached around him to unleash a never-ending torrent of flame on anyone attempting to prevent their ascent. Liz and Emily took care of protecting their heads from attacks from above, with Liz creating a roof of blood and Emily blasting anyone that stuck their heads out to fire.

Together, they cut their way to the top of the wall and created a beachhead, as Annie anchored and lowered rope ladders down the other side of the wall.

They were attacked by what Matt expected was a QRF team, but they couldn’t stand the onslaught of Conor’s [Demon Zone] and Matt alternating between [Flamethrower] and his blade. They held their position long enough for reinforcements to scale the ropes, even as they were attacked from all angles.

A massive Tier 7 with a hammer that had to weigh in the dozens of pounds made his way to the front. With his heavy armor, he was able to shrug off both Matt and Conor’s attacks. As the fight drew out, the man seemed to increase in size until he was nine feet tall. Liz called for them to retreat once the hammer wielder shrugged off one of Emily’s [Bolts] as if it didn't even affect him.

Liz gilded forward on a streak of blood as more and more of the ruby liquid poured out of the glove on her hand, and she grew to equal the man's size. The Tier 7 brought his hammer into Liz’s golem form, sending a spray of blood everywhere, until Liz activated [Blood Crystal Armor]. Her golem form subtly shifted, growing solid and angular, with its ruby hue acquiring a tinge of gold.

The next hammer blow only cracked the solidified blood, which quickly melted and reformed back to full defensive power. In ten seconds, Liz’s liquid form enveloped the man, and he was gone. How she killed the Tier 7 in Tier 8 armor, Matt had no idea, but she used her already formed golem to start clearing off the top of the wall..

Seeing that she was fine, the rest of the team waited for the reinforcements to climb the rope ladder, and set up another three. They spaced them a dozen feet apart, creating enough room for more and more people to flood the top of the wall.

Matt, Aster, Emily, and Annie climbed partway down the stairs and started peppering the makeshift barrier that the defenders had erected from above. It was a long, bitterly fought battle of attrition, where they whittled down the defenders. Without the high ground provided by the walls, the defenders couldn’t stop the never-ending waves of Kingdom soldiers.

Liz joined them half an hour later, as they were resting at the first makeshift barrier. They were busy scouting the Queendom defenders at the second layer of fortifications. The Kingdom’s assault had devolved into more of a stalemate. The Queendom’s position was fortified by mana cannons set up and ready to hit anyone who poked their head over the edge.

The Kingdom set up their own fortifications and troop stations in the breach as they flooded in. They had managed to take three out of the four holes in the wall, and the fourth was falling, thanks to a concentrated force that punched through with an extra unit of elite troops.

Matt had to marvel at how much better this siege went when compared to their first one. When you didn't care about the collateral damage, and smashed everything with siege weapons from the start, things went a lot easier.

Once they had captured the city walls, Olivia gave her most controversial order yet. She ordered them to man the walls with their own mana cannons, and simply blast the defenders away from their entrenched positions from range.

Some mid level commanders called her a coward, along with everything else under the sun, because they were losing out on potential personal points since they weren't fighting themselves. It was a selfish complaint; the overall strategy was safer, and inflicted greater casualties without risking themselves.

Nonetheless, it pissed off enough people to nearly inspire a coup, as the commanders openly spread their discontent to the rest of the troops. But to almost everyone’s surprise, Alyssa again backed up Olivia's decision, and forced the malcontents into a simmer.

As they pushed the defenders to retreat deeper into the city, they were forced to endure more and more casualties. The opinion of the Kingdom general soldiers shifted as they saw the wisdom in the decision to bombard the Queendom from afar.

Finally, the defenders tried to break out for a second time and repeat the Kingdom's tatic from the last siege. They tried to break out from the gate opposite of Team Bucket. But unlike when the Kingdom made their escape, the defending troops were defeated in earnest.

Three and a half weeks later, the city had finally fallen. It was a massive victory.

Matt knew he had made out well from the siege, even without engaging in the final battle. He had his AI check his point total for taking the city.

Prior Total (last updated 25 days ago): 102,050 points (47,292 pending transfer; 54,758 available).

TEAM MERITS:

(Calculated for Tier 6 Combatant).

PERSONAL MERITS:

(Calculated for Tier 6 Combatant)

ARMY MERITS:

UNACHIEVED MERITS: For reference purposes only.

SUMMARY OF GAINS:

New Gains: 312,324 points.

New Total: 414,374 points (47,292 pending transfer; 367,082 available).

Updated Pather Team Ranking (Kingdom of Seven Suns): 2nd place.

Estimated Daily Stipend: 2,500 points.

The points for the siege, along with their team keeping third place in the Kingdom rankings, earned them 36,000 points. It put Matt a little over a quarter of a million points. It was exhilarating to know that they were back over the points needed to buy the upgrade orb that Aster still needed. By his rough estimation, even Emily would be able to purchase an orb, with a little help.

The troops partied like crazy with the influx of points that first night, as they started to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure. They wanted to get the city in good enough shape to get the teleporter active. But to everyone's surprise, the Queendom pulled off of the Kingdom city that they were besieging, and were now making a beeline towards them.

They were ordered to abandon the city after only holding it for three days. It spoiled the jubilant mood that everyone had after such a massive victory, but with the Queendom’s estimated seven million troops to their remaining four million, there was no hope of holding the destroyed city.

With their forewarning, they were able to leave the city without resistance, but not before they set explosives to drop the remaining walls that had survived their initial bombardment. With the city leveled, they made quick time back to the coast, and flew over the ocean and back to the closest neutral city.

Matt and most of the general troops expected to find the Prince upset, but to their surprise, he was exceedingly happy at their return.

So happy, in fact, he even called all of the top commanders to watch as he made Olivia a peer of the realm, and promoted her to a Baroness. He didn't even wait for them to enter the city proper, and did it in front of the entire army.

“For her inspiring work securing us a city before the Queendom was able to repeat the feat! For forcing them to retreat without earning the points we have from such a victory!” The Prince’s voice echoed out over the field out of the neutral city, causing near-endless roars of approval and cheers for the Kingdom's newest noble.

Matt just smiled and clapped along with everyone else as they stood in the long grass that surrounded the gate to the city.

Even without her legs, Olivia seemed to stand tall as she received her reward, and clearly suppressed tears as she repeatedly thanked everyone and anyone who came close to her. She even thanked one of the waiters that the Prince had brought out to serve everyone, to her embarrassment. When she realized her faux pas, she nervously stammered an apology.

Alyssa walked over to where their team stood, and sighed with a glass of champagne bubbling in her hand. “What a lucky girl.” Still in her armored skirt, she bumped Liz’s hip with her own. “That could have been me up there.”

The ‘you took that from me’ seemed unsaid, but Matt heard it loud enough.

Apparently, so did Liz. “What do you need to be made a peer for? Your parents are already nobles.”

Alyssa sighed. “Yes, yes. They are. But there’s a key difference between earning my own peerage and gaining it through my parents. Namely, that all decisions related to said peerage also go through my parents. That title would have granted me power that belonged to me, and nobody else.” She didn't look hateful or angry, just tired. “Oh well, there is always the next plan.”

The colorfully dressed woman’s voice gained some heat as she turned to Liz. “You know, considering that favor you owe me from getting the Crafters to back your little Union, I expected you to back me up too. Or at least not get involved. Dirty of you to flake out like that.”

Liz nibbled on her lip before she said, “I didn’t even think about it. If you had messaged me, I would’ve kept my mouth shut to return the favor.”

Alyssa sighed and sipped at her glass. “It would have taken a favor for you to simply not actively sabotage me? At poor Olivia’s expense no less. Well, I guess I expected too much of you, that's on me. Here I thought we’d been quite friendly these last few months, with each of us keeping out of each other's way. One of us even lending the other a much needed hand on multiple occasions. Clearly I was mistaken. That’s not the type of relationship we have. Not at all. I’ll be keeping the favor in my back pocket for now. Be warned; when I do call it in, I won’t be holding back. Not anymore.”

Another cheer went up, and she raised her glass to where Olivia received congratulations, then downed the glass and walked off to the main gate.

The last thing Matt heard was a muttered, “Lucky girl.”

Their team moved to get in line and congratulate Olivia. Matt wouldn't call her a friend, not with how they had foisted her into this position unwillingly. Still, there was no denying that she had done well, and had earned her rewards. Adding a little bit of camaraderie to a celebration never hurt.