Chapter 396 - Make it Even

Chris

Abigail's voice echoed in my ears long after her skill fizzled out. We were still reeling from the battle we had just taken part in, yet there was another on the horizon. One in a place far from here with stakes larger than this.

The one just fought had a field of just under ten thousand men and women. The one ahead of us would be one of hundreds of thousands.

Vanessa had sizable reserves, but she wouldn't be able to withstand the onslaught of what Zuri could throw at her. With New Boston and New Canada at her back... she would fare even worse.

And here I stood miles away with no quick way to get there. Marcus hadn't even gotten over this challenge yet, and I was being called elsewhere.

After hearing the words, I wanted to tear off east and sprint off towards where I was needed, but I couldn't do that. I was needed here. But I was also needed there.

And I couldn't be at both.

"FUCK!" I yelled in frustration at the sky.

Anders, the brave lad, came walking over as the rest of the leadership was occupied elsewhere.

"What is it, my Lord, your aura is... churning..." He broached gently.

I put a lid on it as best I could, even though I hadn't noticed letting it out in the first place. I gazed at the bloodied man. He had a few wounds, but was mainly alright. He was waiting for a healer to work through those who were worse off, just like I was.

"Sorry, Anders, I'm just... frustrated." I sighed, "We are needed in the east..."

"But we aren't-" He began.

"Yes, you see the dilemma."

Anders thought quietly for a moment before responding, "Even if we take who can and run off now, it'll be weeks before we get there..."

"Months," I corrected, "We'll have to go all the way around Lake Michigan. It hasn't frozen over completely, and I don't know if I can force it. I might, but it may take longer or leave me unsuited for what comes next."

There was just too much water, and it was too far south. The edges iced over, but not the middle, or far enough away from the shore.

"Elliot feared this would happen," Anders said, taking my attention away from my thoughts.

"What?" I asked.

"Elliot," Anders repeated, "He feared that this would happen. He brought up the possibility that both Marcus and Vanessa would call on us at the same time."

"And what did he come up with as a response?"

"He didn't come up with one. At best, he feared we would have to split up our forces, but that was thrown out just as quickly as it was brought up." Anders explained.

"And nothing else was proposed when he brought this up?"

Anders hesitated.

"What?" I questioned.

"He brought up the fact that we may have to choose." He said.

I didn't like that. I didn't like it, yet I knew it was true.

Gears were turning in my head faster and faster as I thought the entire problem through. My base instinct of running off had been denied, and now I needed the rational and logical side of my brain to chew things over and give me something to work with.

I refused to just leave things as they were. I gave my word I would come to Vanessa's defense if she called, and she called.

We had wounds we couldn't just leave, we had a battle to recover from, and we had over a thousand miles to march through before Vanessa got overrun.

"There's another issue, my Lord," Anders said, drawing my attention. I had so much on my mind, I didn't even get annoyed by his address.

"What is it?"

"We need to know what to do with those who surrendered. Some are in dire need of healing as well." He said.

Fuck me, I forgot about that.

It was one thing to win a battle against monsters, where you went around executing those left behind, but it was another to fight humans. You could still kill everyone, but that was for savages and barbarians.

As much as people called me a barbarian, I wasn't going to stoop so low.

"Get our own healed first, then tend to who you can. It sounds bad, but it may be better to amputate and seal certain wounds to regrow later than to die of blood loss or something else." I said.

I wasn't sure how we would go about the second part, but it would at least keep them alive. Was it on us to regrow what we cut off? I didn't know, and I had other things to worry about. That would be a future problem to ponder.

"We'll give them back when they surrender formally, and in person," I said.

"What if they offer ransom?" Anders asked.

God dammit. Why does this have to be so hard?

"No for now, but that may change later." With what I was just told, we weren't in a position to be giving any potential fighters back right now.

Before Anders could bring up another problem, I said, "I need to find a healer." I walked away before Anders could respond.

Ashley was working on Zion, and I didn't want to take her away from that with my minor wounds, so I found a healer outside the tent, chugging down mana potions, and pulled him away.

He protested, but gave in when I didn't relent.

The ice covering my side fell away, and he got to work diagnosing and healing as best he could. I heard mutterings of 'how are you standing' and 'why didn't you come here sooner,' but they were ignored.

Maybe my side wound was worse than I thought. Tasunka had used a devastating skill empowered with Spirit energy to rip through all of my defenses. While his defensive prowess left a lot to be desired, his offensive and evasive maneuvers were admirable.

It would take months for everyone to get there, but I can get there in a couple of weeks. At a full sprint with [Glacial March]... a week and a half, maybe? If I run throughout the night and sleep every third day... And if it's just me, I can definitely freeze my way across the lake. My stats are a third higher with [Glacial Presence], and that won't go away.

The math was against me, but I could get there pretty fast, all things considered.

I could cover a massive amount of ground at a run and had the endurance to last a long, long while. My top speed might not be as high as Hal's or Austin's, but I could keep that speed going for hours at a time.

While I can get there, can she hold out for long enough?

The answer being yes seemed likely. Rachel wasn't super close to Vanessa and wasn't inside her inner circle, but she was in Flame Falls enough to know some details. She knew that the Faction had been preparing for this conflict for years.

They had known it was coming for a long while. That led me to believe that extensive preparations had been made. While they might not win in the long run, I doubted they would lose so quickly.

Coming to that conclusion led me to another.

Would I make a difference?

I was strong, yes, but I was one man. Zuri had tens of thousands. Boston had thousands. New Canada had thousands.

My mind ground to a halt before I went any further. It did not matter if I would make a difference. I would go because I could and I said I would, not because I would make a difference.

I had a plan. Not a very thought-out one, but a plan nonetheless.

The Healer fussed as I got up and walked away, but kept pace as I tracked down the Order Masters and Jon.

Elliot was covered in more blood than Anders was; not a spec of metal covering him was without it, but he seemed without any wounds to his body. The fact that he could remove the gaps in his armor felt like cheating to me.

Hal looked worn, but otherwise fine. Gabriel was nursing a mana deprivation headache, but was whole. Jon was similar to Elliot, but without the blood covering him. The outer layer of Earth had fallen off, taking the worst of it with it.

All four men were confused, but understanding dawned as I began to speak.

"Vanessa has called on us. Zuri has begun her attack." I stated simply, "How we are now, we won't be able to get there in a reasonable timeframe. Months, if we take the healthy and just run now, but that will leave Marcus weakened.

Elliot made to speak, but I waved him off.

"I know." I said, "But I refuse to be forced to choose. I won't do it."

"You may lose both," Jon said somberly.

"Then I shall lose both." I admitted, "But I will do it all the same. I said neither would stand alone, and I will honor that, even if it is just me who goes. My current thinking is this. The wounded will have to stay regardless. They just aren't fit to make the trip, and forcing them to is folly. They also can't stay here unguarded in case of another attack. We beat them badly, but if they see all of us leave, they could turn around.

"That being the case, some will have to stay."

Elliot spoke up, "Splitting our forces is–"

"Ill-advised, yes." I finished for him, "I know that, but we can't do anything else. That being the case, we will do so as logically as we can. Those who will be of the most use to Marcus and the least useful in the east will stay. Marcus needs Earth Mages most right now to hold his forts. Also, those with the Ice, Snow, Frost, Blizzard, Arctic, Glacial, or Tundra affinity will stay here as well. There will be too much fire in the east for them to be overly useful.”

I looked at two of the four men in front of me, "So Jon and Gabriel will stay here to lead those left behind." I turned to the other two, "Hal and Elliot, you will wait here and recover as best you can before joining me in the east with as much haste as you can without causing determent."

"And you?" Jon rumbled, "What will you do?"

"I will run for Flame Falls with all haste right after my wounds are healed, and my things are packed. If I sleep every third day and the night before I arrive,  I should make it there in just over a week at my current estimates."

"Alone?" Elliot asked.

"Yes, until you and Hal catch up with the rest," I answered.

"The numbers..." Hal began, "Over two hundred are dead, with double that wounded. With what you listed off, a quarter of what's left will stay here. You'll only have two thousand, if that."

"Than two thousand is how many I shall have," I stated firmly.

"This is madness..." Gabriel whispered. His first words of the meeting, but not unfitting ones. Seeing how the three of us were looking at him, he spoke up, "Zuri has over fifty thousand to Vanessa's twenty. With the other two..." he trailed off as just how outnumbered we would be set in.

Those numbers were generous, too. Zuri probably had more, and Vanessa probably had less. Twenty was based on how many she could field in the defense of her home. Nothing gathered up volunteers like defending your home.

If she had to march off herself, it would be doubtful she could field that many. Zuri, on the other hand, was a victim of logistics rather than manpower. If she had the food and supplies, that number could be a lot, lot higher. Reinforcements from her city would be frequent to fill in any we cut down.

"Then I'll just have to kill thirty thousand to make it even," I said.