The Systemic Lands

Chapter 79: Day 203 (2) – No Good Options

We just stood there in a silence. A Captain finally ran up to Tyrese. “We have swept the areas near the plaza. Nothing found. No one suspicious. Keep up the search and patrols?” Tyrese looked at me.

“You lead the guards, so your decision,” I said calmly. My rage had cooled down and had become ice now.

“Double patrols, heightened state of alert. There will be a declaration of war tomorrow morning. Inform Captain Gerold to take his squad to the North gate. He is to remain there and inspect all people entering and exiting, to make sure that they are from Purgatory. He can rotate his men, but he should keep enough to retreat from a skill user while also guarding the gate.”

“Yes sir.” The Captain ran off and we went back to staring at each other.

“You asked what we would do if we were you. What about the reverse? If there was someone with unimaginable power that could kill you at any time on their whim, how would you feel?”

I took a deep breath and let it out before responding. “Threatened. Which is why I didn’t bring this up before now. But the situation has changed. Now you absolutely need me to fight, and I can’t have enemies pretending to be allies.”

“You are too extreme. It isn’t always enemy or ally,” Ken said.

“Why do you think you both are still alive?” I asked and he shut up. “I can’t kill you unless I want this place to collapse. But I can’t have you spying on me either or paying people to report on me like that. So, what would be the appropriate response in this situation?”

“I can step down,” Tyrese said. Ken turned towards him in surprise. “It was my idea and my fault. I can step down as Boss of the Red Guard.”

“Then the next person will have to learn this lesson as well. DAMMIT!” I shouted and they both jumped. Several guards looked our way, but they didn’t come over and kept their distance. “I want you both to remember this and remember it well. I won’t…no, I can’t forgive a third time.” I let out a long sigh. A punishment would only build resentment, while killing or removing them would create turmoil here in Purgatory and create more problems I had to deal with.

“Consider this a second warning. Don’t mess with me or people I am with. At all. No excuses or exceptions. I hate making a threat a second time, since it meant the first time wasn’t taken seriously. Also, we are amending the charter, my entire team is off the hook for taxes. Consider that my compensation for spying on me.”

“Got it,” Tyrese said. I looked at Ken.

“I understand,” Ken said, and I nodded at that.

“Good. Now I am going to sleep, and we can meet first thing in the morning to make an announcement about this mess and a declaration of war.” I turned away from them and walked back to my home to get some sleep. I was so tired, both mentally and physically.

Ken

“I can’t believe we are alive,” I said.

“He is violent, but he isn’t an idiot. Definitely not an idiot,” Tyrese said.

“I might have misjudged him. I thought he was about to explode.”

“He was close to exploding. He just has the self-awareness, that keeping everything running here in the city is a full time job, or two full time jobs,” Tyrese let out a sigh.

“So, our plans?”

“We can shelve them. He was also right about the other city. Unless you have a better idea than throwing our beloved Champion at them to depopulate the entire city.”

“No. Three skill holders, confirmed?” I wanted to be sure.

“Yes, unknown skills too. Got confirmation from one of my guards.”

“If only we had a gun,” I muttered.

“By the time we have the resources to develop one, he will have already hit 10,000 stat points and be untouchable. We have made our bed with the devil now we must lie down.”

“How is he so much faster and capable? Stat points, mentality, luck even?” I rubbed my face in frustration. “I had been hoping a team could counter him, but it isn’t possible. With all the crystals he has taken from helping people get skill points, he is even further beyond our reach.”

“I guess the title of Champion is well earned. Now a war. I will need to recruit even more to shore up our defenses. I will need to make a personal loan to Red Dawn to make this happen.”

“What interest?”

“I want to say 10%, but I suspect our resident Champion won’t be happy if he finds out. I don’t know how he found out about Ruth in the first place.” Tyrese frowned at that, and I considered the issue as well.

“Some people like him and he is rich. If people have information, he won’t hesitate to pay out. We can’t compete with the amount of wealth he can throw about casually with our expenses.”

“He has money, but no people, we have people but not enough money,” Tyrese complained.

“Zero percent then?”

“Zero percent.” I nodded at that.

Gerold

“Guarding the North gate and inspecting people indefinitely. Why?” I looked at the guard who had run up to convey Boss Tyrese’s orders. An alert had been called and I heard the bell ringing in the plaza, which meant an emergency mobilization.

“Assassination attempt on the Champion. Skill users from another city to the North.” My eyes went wide at that.

“Damn, how many?”

“Three, completely new skills. Boss Tyrese and Ken are talking with Michael right now. Overheard there will be war declared tomorrow morning.”

Shit, that wasn’t good. Enemy skill holders would easily wipe out my squad. At least the orders allowed us to retreat and sound the alarm against a hostile force. “Any idea on what skills?”

“Nothing. Or it will be released tomorrow.” I needed to be present at that announcement. My men were quietly listening in.

“Nothing else?”

“No.”

“Dismissed. Alright, Sargent, you will take half the men and guard the North gate. Check every face, no exceptions. If you don’t recognize someone, check their knowledge about Purgatory. Like the name of the Boss or the Elected Representative.”

“Got it.”

“I will keep the other half here to gather up supplies so we can stay by the gate long term and hear what is announced tomorrow morning. Good news is we won’t be sent out to the front. Bad news, if the front comes to us, well we will be right in the thick of it. So, keep your heads and don’t get distracted.”

“Yes sir!” My squad said and got busy.

“You think we might have to fight?” My Sargent asked me.

“Maybe. Probably not. We have a Champion for a reason. My guess, he is pissed from the assassination. Going to melt every one of those assholes in that city to a puddle. If you aim for the top, you better not miss.” Not like I was going to try anything so foolish.

I had seen the idiots die one by one. I had been around when Carlos had been in charge. He took a shot and got melted. After I saw that, I swore to myself I wouldn’t get melted into goo no matter what. Step one, stay the heck out of the way of the Champion. Step two, if you can’t get out of the way don’t draw attention to yourself.

Like a cat, if you run or move, he will notice you and pounce. “Enough small talk, better hustle.”

“Yes sir.”

Laura

“Ken, I heard there was some excitement?” Once the bell had sounded, I had equipped my armor and weapon. Ken showed up along with two of his personal guard. Normally he didn’t take them around with him, wanting to be a man of the people. Apparently, whatever had happened was pretty serious.

“An assassination attempt on Champion Michael.” I listened as he explained in detail what had happened.

“I am guessing, you are calling off the idea of a direct combat team?”

“Yes. The risk of failure is too high.” You mean, you are getting cold feet after an enemy assassination attempt failed and now you want to cover your butt.

Good thing I suspected something like this would happen. I was milking all the benefits I could out of Ken to strengthen the Union as much as possible. If he really pushed to take out Michael, I would have informed him beforehand for a nice chunk of points.

Too bad that wasn’t an option now, since Ken was pulling the plug on the plan. “What about what has already been invested?”

“To be covered by those people’s contracts. I won’t be activating the combat clause in them. So, they can work to earn those points back.” Not unexpected, but not the best outcome. I would have removed Ken and gained enough crystals not to worry about the future. Now I needed to come up with something else.

“Fair enough. So, war. Anything decided on what to do?”

“There will be a formal declaration and announcement tomorrow. Beyond that, Michael has said he will depopulate the city.”

“Depopulate the city?” I repeated that just to be sure I heard right. Jesus Christ on a stick. Yeah, I wasn’t touching that at all. I had no doubt lots and lots of people were going to die horribly. He wasn’t the type of person to just let an assassination go.

No, he was the kind of person to hunt down their entire family and feed them piece by piece to monsters just to make a point. You poke the sleeping dragon, you and everything around you will get burnt.

“Yes. From what I could pick up he plans to go their himself and engage in guerrilla warfare to cut off their access to the store and starve the entire city to death.” That was both equally horrifying and terrifying.

“Doesn’t he need sleep? The energy?”

“He probably has over 1,000 stats already. He also mentioned he needs less sleep due to that. I wasn’t sure before, but now I am. He was making a point to flex his power. I just didn’t pick it up then, for being so blunt he can be subtle amazingly well. I need to ask. Could we stop someone from doing that? Guerrilla warfare?”

“Maybe. The only way would be to keep a set distance and track them. Maybe get someone up on the roofs.”

“He has a movement skill.”

“Then impossible to fight. With how big a city is, it is too easy for someone to run away and hide in a corner. The sheer number of deaths would be endless with the energy regeneration they would have.” I thought about it some more and shook my head.

“Honestly it would be better not to be in that situation, but you would need someone equally skilled to counter such an individual.”

“Nuclear deterrent,” Ken muttered.

“What was that?”

“He mentioned that he was a nuclear deterrent. I really didn’t believe it. You agree with that?”

“To a large extent yes. Thanks for letting me know. I will reroute teams away from the North and alert my people to keep an eye out. Unless there is something else?”

“I doubt it but stay ready in case the city needs to call on your teams for defense.”

“Don’t worry this is our home too. We won’t just roll over.” Against a Champion level threat, who could say.

“Hmm. Good night.”