The Path of Ascension

Matt quickly scooped up his bond and the abused bunny. It took more than a little gentle coaxing to get her to let go of the fluffy whitetail. Once he did get the bunny free, it jumped from his arms, to rush towards what it expected was freedom from its tormentor.

Instead, it jumped up and kicked his bond in the head before bounding away twice, then turning and wiggling its nose at her.

Aster flew from his arms and raced towards the disappearing bunny.

Allowing the two to play, he turned back to following Liz’s AI marker. He found her talking to another group of delvers, and was waved over once she noticed his approach.

“Matt, this is Amy, Gerald, Franklyn, and Dee. They got screwed over as well.”

As she spoke, Liz entwined their fingers, a little firmer than their usual hand holding. He squeezed her back. While he had been assured that she was fine through their AI, it was still good to see her up and moving about. He assumed from her hard grip that she felt the same way.

Amy was closest to him, and proffered her hand to Matt, which started a round of handshakes all around.

Amy had an odd accent that Matt couldn’t place, but he sympathized with her words. “We got a mission. They told us to take the fort if possible, and our reinforcements just went poof. Never arrived. It was fucking bullshit.”

Dee leaned in and added, “But guess who we found here?”

Matt just raised an eyebrow along with a shoulder to show he had no clue. He would have expected her to say one of the people they fought, but his short walk through the relaxation area showed him that it was only filled with Kingdom personnel. Separating people was a good idea when they had nearly killed each other, after all.

Gerald fell back and punched at the air. “A friend of mine, Jen. Dead like us. She was a part of a cobbled together relief team, and their commander forced them to hold back and wait until the team they were supposed to relieve had died. That way, they could earn the points for capturing the fort themselves.”

Matt gaped towards the still standing members of the team and said, “No fucking way... They just threw you to the wolves?”

“Yeah, fucking pricks. I...”

Matt missed what Dee said after that, as his thoughts slipped to their own team's situation. Heat seeped into his veins like molten metal. A glance at Liz was returned with a nod. She believed that they had been screwed the same way.

Wanting to see the full extent of the damage, Matt brought up his AI messages.

Team Merits.

Seventy two Alliance of Allied Queens Tier 5s killed. 1 point each.

One hundred and nineteen Alliance of Allied Queens Tier 6s killed. 5 points each.

Seven Alliance of Allied Queens Tier 7s killed. 25 points.

Eleven Alliance of Allied Queens Tier 6 Pathers killed. 50 points each.

Medium fort defended. First wave: six vs one hundred. 2,500 points. Five times normal points are awarded for difference in numbers. 12,500 points.

Medium fort defended. Second wave: six vs two hundred. 2,500 points. Ten times normal points are awarded for differences in numbers. 25,000 points. Failed.

Items and equipment looted but returned. 2834 points.

Personal Merits.

Thirteen Alliance of Allied Queens Tier 5s killed. 1 point each.

Fifty three Alliance of Allied Queens Tier 6s killed. 5 points each.

Two Alliance of Allied Queens Tier 7s killed. 25 points.

Five Alliance of Allied Queens Tier 6 Pathers killed. 50 points each.

Medium fort defended. 2,500 points.

19,254 points lost. No, Matt corrected himself. They had also lost the 16,298 points from taking the fort in the first place. 35,552 points vanished into thin air, as if they had never existed. That was without the 25,000 they could have received if they had been able to hold onto the fort.

The heat that rippled through Matt cycled with his mana. He wanted to break someone, and the leader of their reinforcements had a lot of explaining to do. He doubted that they could explain their decision to his satisfaction, but he’d give them the opportunity. Then he would do some breaking.

Matt wondered how many times he could challenge them to duels before the army would force him away.

Liz pulled him from revenge fantasies when she excused them from the group. It didn't take long to realize why. Annie, Emily, and Conor were at the door and glancing around at the colorful, animal-filled area in something between wonder and bewilderment.

He understood the oddity of the situation, but it didn't stop him from running a hand through a sheep's silky curls as it brushed up against his leg. He still didn't know how he had gotten here before all of them. His fight had lasted longer, and he had died after them. His only guess was that their wounds were less severe, so they were a lower priority.

Liz reached forward and grabbed their hands, pulling them forward. “We need to talk, and we can’t do it in the doorway.”

Annie seemed completely distracted as a butterfly larger than Matt's head gently fluttered past. It took Emily forcefully dragging her with them to keep her from running off.

They found a secluded grove, and all sat in a circle.

Liz started them off. “We got fucked. Hard.”

The three recent arrivals looked confused, but it quickly turned to anger as Liz explained what she found.

“The relief commanders were playing fucking games with us. They intentionally let us die so they could get more points for a capture of the fort. I talked to two other teams who died in the same way.”

Emily looked ready to spit fire, which matched Matt's feelings. “What fucking pricks! I lost thirty-five thousand points! If this is true, I'm out. I'm switching sides and killing that mother fucker as many times as I can.”

Matt was about to agree when Liz held up a tempering hand. “I was thinking the same thing, but two things are keeping me from going through with it.”

Seeing all of their displeasure at that, she continued. “Juni wanted to talk to us. His message was short, but he seemed just as mad as we are. Second, if we change sides, we lose the leverage we have over the Prince, and more importantly, Juni.”

Annie shrugged, unconcerned. “I don't think that anything they say can convince me to stay. If we stay, I won't get the chance to kill whoever failed us.”

Conor surprisingly spoke up. “Not necessarily true. I talked to my healer's assistant. It's what made me take so long to get here. Apparently, the army has a system for assassins, and they don’t have any restrictions on who you kill as long as you give them a heads up. You just need to pass a practical test or something. They didn't know much more, but I think haunting the leader for weeks then killing them could be worse.”

They all looked at Conor with blank stares. He hadn’t yet shown such a dark side of himself.

Annie looked like she had discovered a new facet of the man, and wanted to gobble him up after seeing how ready he was for her to do wetwork. So had Matt, for that matter. He had underestimated the quiet man.

“I’m pissed as well.” He answered all their unspoken questions with a shrug. He didn't look pissed as he scratched a raccoon's head.

Liz nodded, “That's a good idea, but I don't think there were just the other two teams who got fucked over. I think this was pretty widespread. Historically, there are a few things that Pathers do in retaliation. One is to form their own faction and make a third or fourth party in the war.”

Matt liked that idea. And images of burning down the Prince's plans gave him quite a bit of pleasure after all the man had bungled.

But Liz shot that down. “That isn't likely to happen. There needs to be a whole lot more corruption for us to get to that point. What we can and should do is form a sort of Pathers’ union, with Pathers from both sides. If we do that, we can get more bargaining rights. If we do that, we can try for a few better things, but I need to network a bit more before I can make it happen.”

The others looked at Liz like she grew a second head. It was long enough for her to get uncomfortable and ask, “What?”

Emily shrugged and asked, “Where did you learn this? Seems like you’re always two steps ahead.”

Liz scoffed. “No! I bought and read Ingrid's Path Vassal Wars. It's dry reading, but it explains almost everything we need to know about this. This has all played out dozens of times before, and the rules are purposefully lax, so problems arise. They aren’t just testing us but the various leaders on both sides. If things got so bad that we, the Pathers, weren't getting a good war out of this, the army would step in and impose harsher rules. But that's only happened once.”

Still getting odd looks, she scooped up a passing puppy and held it like a shield as she cuddled it.

“I thought it was interesting, ok?”

Matt knew it wasn’t, as she had read parts to him when the war was first announced, but it was the best sleep medicine.

Emily said, “Well, first we need to decide if we’re going to move in a group or not.”

Conor just shrugged. As the lone solo member. He was free to do as he wished.

Matt threw his two cents into the ring. “I don't know all of what Liz has planned, but I think we should move as a group. I know we won't stay together after the war, but we work well together. While we may have lost at the end, we kicked major ass before we went down. I don't really want to risk being separated if we don't have to.”

He didn't want to step on Liz’s plans, but added, “I wouldn't mind leaving the Kingdom side, but I also think we should hear Juni out. We’ve known him for a while, and he's done right by us so far.”

No one else had anything major to say, so they just sat together, trading stories about how they went down while petting the animals who wandered past. No one bothered them until they received a message requesting a meeting from Juni .

They accepted it as a team, and a conference call started.

“Oh, good. You’re all up. Is this a good time? Or would you rather I call back later?”

Liz spoke first. “No, it's fine now. We expected your call.”

Juni winced, and his AI translated that into the image of him projected to them. “You and everyone else. Today was a disaster.”

Liz and Emily both opened their mouths, but he cut them both off.

“I'm not blaming you. Unless being competent has become a bad thing in the last few hours, and I hadn't noticed. You deserve an explanation to start, though. First, your own success was against our expectations. Or at least, the chances of the Pathers’ success as awhole was significantly underestimated. We, the Prince and his headquarters staff, added the line about taking a fort as a throwaway. We expected maybe a team or two to succeed, but we’ve had nine, including yourselves, take their assigned forts. It's been a disaster.”

“We had three relief teams ready and waiting, but that obviously wasn’t enough. We were forced to find bodies, but they weren’t the leaders we originally wanted to use for a reason. By the time your team needed reinforcements, we were scraping the bottom of the barrel, and your team suffered for it. I apologize.”

Juni sighed and continued. “Fortunately, or unfortunately rather, this petty bullshit wasn’t limited to the Kingdom. We have intelligence suggesting that four out of six of their Pather teams were wiped out, just like you were. Their Pathers just weren't as good as ours, and didn't take as many forts. We lost six teams from the nine forts we captured. You should talk to the Queendom fighters you're recuperating with to verify.”

Emily took the man's pause to ask, “So how are you going to make this right? I assume that's your intention. And if you thought there was a chance of our reinforcements bailing, you could have told us to leave and not risk it.”

Juni didn’t look bothered by the interruption and pressed on. “The Prince intends to reimburse every one of the points you’ve lost, if you choose to come back into the war. And yes, we could have ordered a retreat, but Alyssa was supposed to get there a lot sooner, making it a likely capture.”

Annie opened her mouth, but Juni spoke faster. “Even if you wish to leave our side, we will still reimburse you.”

Annie shook her head. “Good to know, but not what I wanted to know. I want to know who fucked us over.”

Juni looked surprised for a brief moment but answered her question readily enough, “Alyssa. She’s the daughter of a Barron and has an incredibly pure bloodline. She's a manipulative piece of… well, let’s just say she’s a piece of work. Believe me, she’s the last person in the entire Kingdom that we wanted to send, but we were backed into a corner.”

He looked to the right and said something to someone else that wasn't transferred through the conference, before looking back to them. “Sorry. I'm handling a dozen things at once right now, and wanted to start with some familiar faces. The Prince will also be pushing through changes in the way points are handled. He can't do anything with the army AI, but he intends to reward those that think strategically, and those who can see the bigger picture.”

Liz nodded and gave a noncommittal answer. “We’ll need to think it over. Getting our points back helps, but we’re still on medical leave for two weeks. That's not nothing.”

“It's not. And if you want to do some grunt work in the headquarters or working a station, we’ll be happy for the extra hands. But that's optional, and not worth a ton, really. I can't do much more than that right now. All I ask is that you hear the Prince out before making a decision. I know he has a few ideas that he's bouncing around, and you can always choose after with little issue.”

“If any of you have more questions, please let me know. I just got word; Prince Albert will be having a meeting in two days, when everyone can leave the hospital. And the people responsible will be in attendance so you will have your chance at revenge. And while we can't force them to accept a duel, you might be able to pressure them to accept a challenge. Maybe even offer a large enough bribe to get them to risk it. You can't fight for two week, so you should have plenty of time to figure it out.”

With a few more pleasantries, Juni ended the call.

Emily said through gritted teeth, “Did you notice how he didn't say there would be personal punishments for the bitch?” She reached out and strangled the imaginary person in front of her before turning to her sister.

“What are your chances of getting a license to kill thing that Conor heard about? Passing the test or whatever.”

Annie looked around, and to Matt's surprise, she looked slightly panicked. “I don't know. Pretty good, if it's a practical test. But I don't know. The idea sounds amazing, but I don't want all the pressure on me.”

Matt had never seen the team’s rogue be quite so vulnerable.

“It's harder to work in a city than most people think. There are more layers to security than just getting into a door. Even while invisible, there’s a dozen things to bypass. It's not that easy.”

Liz brought their focus back to the main topic. “Are we all ok with the Kingdom’s proposal? We’ll get half our points back, and...”

“Half!?” It wasn't just Matt who exclaimed. Why would they only be getting half the points back?

“Did none of you read the actual rules? Go try to buy back in.”

Matt did as Liz said, and found a message greeting him.

You have accrued 35,552 points since your last death.

If you choose to leave the war, you will be able to spend all of these points, but will have one standard day to leave the world, and will not be able to participate in any fighting.

If you choose to stay in the war, you will have to spend all of the banked points. Half will be lost, and half will be saved until you choose to leave the war. The half that is set aside will not be accessible in any way, shape, or form, until you cash out. If you die once again, half of those points will be added to the cash out pool.

Your current cash out pool is 0 (17776).

Please think carefully. All decisions are final.

Stay in the War?

Yes. No.

Matt looked back to Liz. Once she saw that she had everyone's attention, she repeated Juni’s words. “The Prince intends to reimburse everyone for the points lost, if they choose to come back into the war. He said the points lost, not the points earned. So if someone cashes out now, they would get nothing. If someone comes back, they would pay half the points we had. It makes us whole, but it's not perfect either. That's why I mentioned the time we lose with the healing cooldown. It was a long shot, but I was hoping for more points.”

Matt wanted to sigh, but refrained from it. Those kinds of word games were exactly why he hated dealing with people in power. He would have completely missed the difference that Juni’s phrasing made.

It was one of those things he just never wanted to deal with. But a smaller part of him whispered that he needed to at least try to learn some of Liz’s interpersonal skills. If he read the book she bought, like she suggested, he would have known that they kept half their points upon dying.

He had taken the army leader saying that they lost all their points at face value. He figured that they were permanently gone. Not half of them gone, and the other half put into what was essentially a savings account.

The revelation also changed how he saw the overall strategy of the war. Dying still was something that should probably be avoided, if for no other reason than to not build bad habits. But it wasn't so strong a detriment that it was to be avoided at all cost.

Even if they had died and lost half their points, standing their ground had earned them quite a few as well. It mostly meant that teams with fewer points could make more desperate stands, as they had less to lose.

Matt redirected his attention back to the conversation just as Liz finished her thought, and he missed it. His teammate was on a warpath, getting teams together and bargaining for support. He agreed that amassing their political power was a good move. At the very least, they could demand points being returned for unjust deaths going forward. But from the look in Liz’s eyes, she had more planned.

“What do you need us to do? How can we help?”

Almost everyone she approached seemed interested. Even Annie had stopped pestering Conor to stay engaged. Emily was also locked in. They were all far more engrossed in Liz’s appeals than Matt himself.

Liz nearly glowed while she was the center of attention. “We can't talk to the Queendom side until we’re out of the rest area. It’s a pretty reasonable restriction, considering we just killed each other. But, if you could all talk to the other Pather teams, that would be great. A word of caution, though. When I approached a team, I got a warning from my AI, but now I know that we can skip that step. Don't approach anyone if they look to be in distress, or talking to a therapist. Honestly, I'm going to make one round here, then move into the rec rooms. This is meant to be a mental health recovery room. Actually, now that I think about it, we probably shouldn’t talk to any more teams here. I kinda got ahead of myself with that one.”

She pulled herself back to the topic at hand. “Anyway, my idea is, we get as many of the top teams together as we can. Then, we argue for better terms for ourselves, and harsher punishment for anyone who purposefully abandoned allies for points. Although, if the Prince is having a larger meeting, he’s probably already planning something along those lines. It would be silly to gather everyone, and show leniency towards the people responsible. It would be like asking for a riot. Still, we can demand our own terms. I'm not certain on what exactly I want, but if we talk to the other teams, we can come up with something appropriate.”

The crowd appeared as if they were ready to leave, so Matt motioned for everyone to sit down.

“Before we go, I think it's important that we all talk about how we did in the fight. We should address what went right, and what went wrong too.”

Annie snapped, “We got fucked over. That's one.”

Emily bumped her sister's shoulder with her own. “Yes, but we still weren't perfect. I’ll start. The timing was awful. I didn't have time to fully absorb my new skills, and selfishly chose to continue absorbing the skill I was on, even though it would have doubled my damage output had I stopped. I prioritized getting it to my core spirit over the team as a whole. Sorry.”

She was looking down and pulling at the grass by the end of her critique. Matt didn't hold her decision against her in the slightest.

Conor spoke first, though. “I doubt you would have chosen that if real lives were at risk. In the end, this is a game. I don't blame you.”

Liz patted her knee. “It would’ve taken months for you to fix that. Don't feel bad. Anything else?”

The mage twirled a blade of grass around for another moment before she added, “My synergies with Aster were good, but not perfect. Same with all of you. [Bolt] isn't the perfect skill for aiming, but it's my highest base damage skill. I’m happy with how I handled the wall, though. I had never done anything like that, and I was able to hold my position when they were shooting at me.”

Annie went next without prompting. “My lack of range fucked me over pretty well. I need to spend time at an archery range soon. We never really needed it before, since I usually protect Em. But now, I don't need to block for her. I could do a lot more damage if I had a ranged weapon.”

As she paused, Matt offered, “Feel free to keep the crossbow. I have a few more. Besides, the bolts are standard, and pretty cheap. I can offer a little training, but I’m no expert.”

“Thanks.” She grinned at him and said, “I think I might take you up on that, but we'll see. For what went right... Hmm. I’d like to think my killing of the healer and leader went really well. It would have been better if I got away, but I never expected that to happen.”

Conor, who was sitting in between Annie and Matt, took her finishing as his cue.

“My lack of range is always a problem, but same with my defense against range and magic. That was what finally got me. An arrow went through my thinner stomach armor. Speaking of that, does anyone know what happened to our gear?”

No one knew, so he continued. “I was pretty happy with how I handled myself, since Matt and I held the entrances, even though we aren't ideally matched. We made a good wall. Even when he went on the offensive, I was able to hold my own.”

Matt nodded. “I could have mentioned my Concept earlier. Sorry, mana is basically money, and people get weird about it. If we had more mana at the start, we could have done a little better, I think.”

He paused to think, and Emily looked as if she wanted to say something, so he nodded towards her.

“I don't want to nitpick, but you could have also flooded a room with ice, and Aster could have frozen it solid. If we thought of that, we could have just held up on the third floor with the second and fourth rooms solid. Then, we could’ve been nearly impossible to attack, and would’ve been able to rest and attack at our leisure. Eventually, they would have blown the building apart or chopped through the ice, but it would’ve been a lot better for us.”

It only took him a minute to agree with her. She was completely right. “You’re right. I need to think like a mage, and that's new to me. I've been blade only for a while, and when fighting monsters, I mostly use [Hail] to give Aster free ice. I should be treating it as the full skill it is. Any chance I can do some mage training with you?”

She looked surprised, so Matt explained. “Liz is more of a mid-range hybrid, and she relies a lot on her manipulation skill. That's not the kind of fighting style I need to work on.”

Emily looked pleased at his asking for her help. Matt really could have asked Liz, but he knew that she wanted to push her plans of creating a Path union forward. “I'd be happy to help. I'd also like to buy a crossbow and do some training. It would be good to see if my Talent works with enchanted bolts. Even if it doesn't, I could still save some mana with it.”

Liz was last up. “My blood spells were useful, and I was able to set up quite the trap downstairs on the first floor.”

Annie interjected, “Yeah, I meant to ask. What did you do? Even the ceiling was covered in blood. Shit, girl.”

Liz flushed slightly. “I left pools of blood and waited for them to come to the floor, and then I just started spinning it as fast as I could, with my Concept strengthening the blood. I made it sharp. But it could have been a lot better by using skills instead of [Blood Manipulation]. It’s expensive, and I'm not used to having skills to take up some of the burden. So, I fell back to what I was used to instead of what I could do.”

The five of them talked for a while, but when they exhausted their suggestions for each other, they all got up and followed Matt and found Aster half asleep in a pile of bunnies.

When he asked her what she thought she could have done better, he only got, "No mistakes. Good kills."

He debated grabbing his bond for a better answer, but in the end, left her in her pile of fluff. She was having fun, and could always find him when she wanted. He also knew that with this being a hospital, no one would harm her or be mad at her for foxing out. For all her increased mental intelligence, she was still a child.

Matt half expected to find more hospital beds on the other side of the relaxation room, but there they had a temporary suite for teams to bunk in. They were small rooms with three tall bunk beds, but they would work for a single night of sleep. He dreaded sleeping in them later that night. He doubted that he’d be able to roll over with how narrow they were.

No one was allowed to leave the hospital until they were examined the following morning.

This dorm area contained a distinct mix of vassal teams. There were even a few people that he remembered from their fighting. It was mostly eyes, chins, or body shapes, but he was ignored for the most part, due to his lack of armor.

Liz was not. It seemed that she had made quite the impression, as more than one person flinched from her gaze as they passed by.

Meanwhile, the gym was calling Matt. He wanted to work his body and make sure that nothing was amiss, but he put his urge aside and held Liz’s hand. He wasn't sure how she would respond to the attention. She did have a particularly visceral combat style. Getting sliced apart was one thing, but being eviscerated with your buddy's blood was another.

“You ok?”

Liz thankfully didn't play dumb. “Eh. This hurts a bit, but nothing I wasn't prepared for.” She patted his arm with her free hand. “I'll be fine. Really.”

They had a light dinner together. Neither of them really wanted to separate, so Matt hung out with her as she started to talk to the other teams. He tried to ingratiate himself with them as well, but it took effort, and he wasn't half as good as her.

Liz walked up to nearly any group, and after a little introduction, was chatting as if she had grown up with them. Once she did that, it was easy for him to talk to them as well. But when a second group sat next to the one they were talking to, Matt’s attempts to do the same yielded lukewarm results. Where Liz got a firm yes to her proposal, he got maybe’s.

When he asked her, Liz said, “You needed to look at them, and their body language. I'm avoiding the unapproachable teams. They either don't like us, or they don't agree with our ideas. The worst thing we could do is get into an argument with someone. We don't need everyone's support, just a decent amount of them. So, I'm going for the low-hanging fruit first.”

She surveyed the room, and as she pulled him forward, said, “You’ll pick it up as we go. Don't worry.”

I hope not. This political shit’s exhausting. When can I sneak away?