Chapter 403 - Six Barons

Vanessa

A small smile played at her lips for the first time in weeks. Somewhere in the back of her head, she knew that getting joy knowing people were dying was wrong, but she just couldn’t help it.

After watching her glorious red markers slowly get pushed back day after day, as their numbers were continuously, albeit slowly, cut down, she allowed herself a touch of joy.

Joy at watching white marker after white marker disappear.

Rapidly and in large swaths.

If this goes on, I’ll be able to take the field as the aggressor.

That thought caused her smile to widen. She was sick of watching and waiting. Her fire demanded action, to be stoked in battle, and being refused, angered it. The Dragon Essence in her Bloodline amplified that feeling, wanting to defend what was hers.

Wrangling both her fire and remnant Bloodline emotions was a struggle, but here she was. Watching.

When she first imbibed the Fire Wyrm Bloodline, she feared she may have reached too far. Dragons were powerful, and even the lowest Tier was pushing it back when she’d done so. Upgrading it to Fire Drake had pushed it a second time, but she’d needed the power. She wasn’t sure of beating Zuri without it.

The evolution had nearly caused her to lose control. Nearly. And nearly only mattered with hand grenades and horseshoes.

Vanessa had seen what happened to people who weren’t so lucky. Reaching too far and losing control left them irritable and erratic at best, and feral at worst. Most were in between, at various ranges of animalistic, depending on severity.

The instincts of their Bloodlines overpowered their will, driving them to behave and act as it demanded. She’d seen people hiss and growl, eat raw meat, and prune themselves like birds.

Having the urge to protect what was hers, which she already felt without the Bloodline, was tame in comparison.

All of that was from her own Bloodline, which was one of the strongest there was, yet she couldn’t help but wonder what kind of Bloodline Christopher had.

She still remembered when the deep, rich blue marker, the same shade as Rachel’s, first appeared. It appeared on the eastern border of the map suddenly, and rocketed across the distance.

The speed involved was… astounding.

Vanessa knew the strengths of the most notable people. She knew Zuri was like herself, with high Intelligence and Wisdom, that the Admiral’s highest stat wasn’t Strength, like people assumed it was, but Endurance. That Travis had more mana than people thought.

Which was why she knew Agility wasn’t one of Christopher’s top stats. His top three stats were Strength, Fortitude, and Endurance, in that order. It was hard to estimate exacts, especially with a Spirit Anchor that amplified his Endurance, but she was confident enough that Agility wasn’t among his highest.

It has to be a skill, she thought; there’s no way he has such strength and toughness in addition to high agility. Even if he has a Legendary Class, as I assume, there are only so many stat points it gives.

But what kind of skill allowed a speed increase like that?

It took a few directions relayed through Rachel, but his arrival was swift, devastating, and brutal. Exactly like she had been told. Zach reported that the entire contingent of Zuri’s forces had been wiped out to the last man. That the encampment had been so thoroughly destroyed that it would be easier to raze it and rebuild than to fix it.

Vanessa had already been happy with that alone.

Then he woke up the next morning and did it again. Then a second time. Twice in one day. Twice, Vanessa watched as the markers vanished.

At this rate, he’s doing more to defend than I am.

That made her angry. The building's anger at being left to watch finally boiled over. She looked toward her staff and battle armor resting on a stand and picked them up.

It was time to push the advantage and see how much she could burn.

~~~

Zuri

Empire City

“You’re saying Anthony is dead?” she asked, even though the Faction screen that was devoid of DeLuca’s name was staring her in the face. She just couldn’t believe it.

When war had been pushed and lobbied for, she never thought it would come to this. She knew it was necessary, and there was nothing that could stop it, but it still hurt seeing the reports.

She never wanted this.

She hadn’t even wanted to lead, but she knew who would if she didn’t. Gangs and warlords were aplenty in the big city, and if given the chance, those kinds of people were exactly who would take charge.

They would have come back from the tutorial with a bit of power and take everything like it was their god given right. They almost had, too. If Zuri hadn’t been forced to push herself and experience what she had, that was exactly what would have happened.

Thankfully, she’d had the power to stop it.

She’d beaten them once, and continued to do so every day, but it was draining. They eroded her leadership at every turn, undermined her whenever possible. Sowed descent and rebellion with every breath. Nearly all her efforts were on supporting and unifying her Faction. It was impossible to make everyone happy; there were far too many people for that, but she did her best.

So when they called for war, she let them.

Food was scarce and expensive, dungeons were few, and raw materials were impossible to get hold of in great quantities. Food she could import, crafting materials… not so much. Everyone had need of them, and no one was giving them up freely or in large volumes.

Dungeons were out of her hands. The three they had were more than most cities, but it wasn’t enough. Every beast worth the essence had been hunted long ago.

Her people were starving, without resources, and painfully low-level.

She couldn’t have held off the war even if she tried, and would have lost the Faction if she had.

And now a Baron was dead.

It felt so much more real, now. Sure, she got casualty reports daily and knew that people were fighting and dying. It was sad, yes, but she didn’t know those people. She’d never met, spoken, or gotten to know them.

That wasn’t the same for Tony.

She’d known him even before he’d risen to Baron. Back when he was just trying to keep his neighborhood in Brooklyn together, beating away would be gangs and underlings. He’d helped her win over the city when it came down to either her or Big John.

“Yes, ma’am, he was killed on his way to figure out what’s going on in the south. Reports have three contingents being wiped out rapidly, and he was sent to figure out why.” Her assistant, Amelia, reported.

“So we don’t even know who killed him?” Zuri scoffed.

“We think it was the Viscount of Frostheim. We know Vanessa called on him, but we don’t have any reports of his arrival as of yet, but they could be coming. We’re still trying to connect communications through Vanessa’s disruptions.” A different advisor said, the one in charge of her scouts.

I told them to fix the Stones days ago, she thought.

“Then why do you suspect the Viscount?” She asked, curious about the reason.

“While no one was alive to report what happened, Scouts and [Scrying] have reported the aftermath. Bodies were frozen solid. Snow and ice covered the camp in layers, and the wounds were made by a hammer. One swung with immense power.” The man handed over a matching paper detailing what he’d said for Zuri to read.

Funny that I’m just getting this now. I’ll probably have to replace him soon. I wonder if he’s just incompetent or in with Big John.

It was impossible to tell these days. Everyone was working for someone, and it felt like no one was working for who they said they were. It was a nightmare to keep track of on the best of days, and with so much changing by the second… nearly impossible.

The report detailed exactly as he’d said. A layer of frost coated all three camps, with snow piling up by the foot. What appeared to be hammer strikes devastated the land, buildings, and, by what was left of some of the bodies, the defenders.

Hammer plus snow, with the power shown, all indicated the same thing.

Zuri wanted to be annoying anyway, “How do we know this was him? It could have been someone else with a hammer and Ice affinity.”

Soon to be replaced Marco paused, unsure if she was playing dumb or actually asking. He settled on asking, just in case, “Scouts had to be healed of frostbite upon touching some of the ice left behind. Which was days after it had been conjured. Only one person has the skills and affinity to do that. It’s been reported that his ice lasts much longer than it should, and is much more potent.”

One person we know of, she amended mentally.

For all the years they had spent rebuilding the country, they were still ignorant of the rest of the world. Someone out there could probably do the same. In Russia, probably, or Scandinavia. Those seemed like the icy type.

Hell, maybe even someone in Alaska could, for all they knew. Even reaching the West Coast was impossible. Rumor said a path had been found, but it hadn’t been confirmed.

“…Ma’am?” Marco asked, drawing her attention.

“Yes?”

“I asked what we should do with the pylon in Brooklyn?” Marco repeated, “DeLuca’s sister is asking that the Title pass to her, but others have claimed it should go to them instead.”

“Let me guess,” Zuri said, “Jalen wants it?”

Marco didn’t answer, but it was clear Jalen’s name was among the list. He’d been fighting for his own Barony ever since the five boroughs raised their pylons high enough for the Title. Zuri would have helped him if he wasn’t such a scumbag. A scumbag who was more likely than not working with John.

“What level is Isabella?” Zuri asked. If she was going to side with DeLuca’s sister, she needed to know she’d be able to hold the Title. If she couldn’t, it would just be signing her death warrant.

“Level 116,” Amelia answered.

Anthony was higher, but he lacked substance.

Maybe comparing them to the other Leaders she’d met wasn’t fair, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t true.

Jalen’s 124. It would be close, and she wasn’t familiar with either Isabella or Jalen to know how the fight would turn out.

Let’s hope Isabella knows what she’s doing. “DeLuca’s wishes were for it to go to his sister, and I will abide by those wishes,” Zuri said. Amelia seemed happy with the decision, while Marco didn’t react.

Wither her blessing, the Faction screen updated so there were now six Barons once again.

~~
Viscountess Zuri Adeoye
   Appointed: Baron Jacob Rossi
Brooklyn: Baroness Isabella DeLuca
Manhattan: Baron Nathanial Whitman
Staten Island: Baroness Eloise Prescott
The Bronx: Baron Diego Garcia
Queens: Baron Isaiah Towns
~~

It was the most any one Faction had that she knew of. Yet they were failing to gain land. Spring would come, and there wouldn’t be room for enough crops. The harvest wouldn’t be enough, and people would continue to go hungry. The less fortunate would starve, eating whatever dungeon monster they could find.

It seems I need to get involved. I thought DeLuca and Rossi could handle it, but I guess not.

The only problem was that she wouldn’t be able to be gone long. Plots and schemes happened when she was in the city; Zuri didn’t want to know what the children would come up with when the parents were away.