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Chapter 336 - Justification and Reticence
🕑 Added 2025-07-18 22:33:39 +0000 UTCChris
Camp outside Lakeshore
"The Walls look strongest here, here, and here. If we are to break through any spot, it would be here, on the back side facing the Lake. The other three sides facing land have recently been reinforced, yet they neglected the side facing the water." Hal detailed the information he had gotten from the Scouts.
Some of them even had Skills dedicated to identifying weak points, but they were low-rarity. There hadn't exactly been a lot of chance to use them.
"We can't exactly attack via water, now can we?" Jonathan rebutted. "We have no ships, and even if we did, that would put us at a disadvantage. Amphibious landings are always more difficult."
"We can wait," Abigail reasoned, "That part of the Lake usually freezes over and with Winter just begun, it should soon, especially if we help it."
A few heads turned in my direction. "I do not want to wait. It is also not my intention to rush things for no reason, but laying siege to Lakeshore for months was not what I had planned when I blew the horn."
"It doesn't matter what you intended back then; it matters what we are going to do now. You want to assault the city, I get that, but we also need to do it without getting all of us killed." Hal said, "Or what would be the point?"
I studied the markings on the map deep in thought, "I can freeze a small area, sure, but it won't be enough. While the Southern side facing the Lake is comparatively weaker, it still has defenses. The range of their weapons, arrows, and spells would require us to go out hundreds of yards into the water."
I sighed, "If it were only fifty yards, or just one hundred, I could maybe do it with help, but it wouldn't be worth it, and it would take weeks. Not to mention, they would counter our attempts with fire or another alternative."
"Even with the help of every Ice Mage we have?" Abigail posed.
"Yes, even then," I answered.
It wasn't often I had to admit to things that were outside my capability, but freezing over a thousand cubic yards of water was one of them. Even with help.
"Then by land, then." Hal transitioned, "That limits our options to three. Over, though, or under."
My base instinct was always through, but I didn't voice it immediately. Going through appealed to the primal part of me that liked to smash through every obstacle in my path, but that was hardly conducive reasoning to throw out the other options right off the bat.
"They used sappers in history to get around fortifications like Walls. Dig a tunnel to ruin the foundation of the wall, causing a portion to collapse. Or plant explosives, later in history." Jonathan answered. "Besides siege weapons, of course."
"How is that going, Elliot?" I asked. Professions were wildly varied among the Orders, but an above average number of those with Engineer, Builder, or Carpenter were in Elliot's, for some reason.
They were in charge of building the trebuchets.
"The wood has been measured and cut, all that's left is to build them. It won't take long after we get there to put them together." He answered.
The boulders wouldn't take much longer, as Earth Mages were a thing of beauty in cases like this. There was the option to enchant some of them or otherwise empower either the machine or the projectile, but we could make that decision when we got there.
We wouldn't know if that was needed until we saw how powerful their Wall and Wards were, and we couldn't know that until they activated it. Which they would most likely do when we arrived in the morning.
"I'm still not comfortable with that." Abigail voiced, "There are innocents in the city. Thousands of them. We can't just bomb the city like we did in the tutorial."
We'd talked about that option briefly before, but it was put aside then. It wasn't worth hashing out at the time. Now it had come up once again.
"You guys did this in the tutorial?" Elliot asked, confused. It was sometimes easy to forget he hadn't been with us then.
"Yes, we did." I said, "A man had an army of mind-controlled beasts and human thralls inside a city that we attack, similar to this, actually."
"And you guys..."
"Yes, we bombed the city and set fire to it," I said without remorse. It was what was necessary.
Elliot coughed uncomfortably, but nodded in understanding.
"We've been over this, Abigail." side note aside, I turned back to Abigail's objection, "We will warn them. Ask the innocent to exit the city if they can, or otherwise find a suitable position to wait out the siege. Worst case, ask them to vacate the area near the Walls."
"Yes, the leaflet defense. That worked out well in history. We're gonna bomb your city, please leave." Abigail scoffed, "Turning trebuchets on the city has incredible potential to have unintended casualties."
It was my turn to scoff, "Attacking the city has already assumed the risk of unintended casualties. No matter what we do, there will be unintended casualties. We will announce our presence, our intention to siege the city, and express the potential danger of not heeding our words. After that..."
"After that, what?" She pressed.
"After that... the fault does not lie with us." I finished.
"The fault? Is that what you just said? The fault? I can't beโ"
"Abigail," I silenced her outburst, "I will not hinder myself and potentially incur even more deaths of our citizens just because of the fear of unintended casualties. While it is not my goal to cause them, so too will I not veer away from them to our detriment."
She was quiet for a beat, and when she spoke, it wasn't the heated and loud tone from before, but a colder, resigned one. "All of that was a convoluted way of saying it's better them than us."
She was right. It was a way of saying 'better them than us', but it was the path we had set out on when we first left. That hadn't changed in the month it had taken to march here.
"Before we left, I asked if you were with me, and you said yes." I redirected, "But I won't force this upon you. I won't drag you kicking and screaming to do it." I looked at her, and turned to the others, "Any of you. I've asked, but I won't demand. If I must do this alone, so be it."
Abigail pursed her lips, "All of this for an attack on the mine."
My face hardened, "Abigail, while I understand your... reticence against this course of action, don't trivialize this. People are dead. Over forty of our citizens are dead. Murdered, and the person responsible sits just over there."
The month had done a lot to take the edge off, but it hadn't taken away my resolve. While it may have dimmed it, it hadn't taken away my anger at the fact that people under my banner were killed. Knowingly so.
"You're right, and I'm sorry," Abigail admitted, "I wasn't trying to trivialize their deaths, and I shouldn't have said that, but I also can't as easily use them as justification to cause thousands more."
Hearing her words felt... odd. Was it wrong that I could? That in my head, I could justify exactly that? It felt like, to me, that this line of action was the direct result of cause and effect.
They attacked the mine, we attack their city. Cause followed by effect. Natural.
Is it all the death that's changed me? Or was I always like this? It was hard to think back on how things used to be. I could only guess at and wonder if my past self would feel justified in the here and now.
All I knew was that the me sitting here now felt justified. Maybe all the deaths and all the fighting had changed me, but even if it did, did it matter? That was only natural. People grew and changed from experiences, especially traumatic ones.
I had never set out to have people to call my own. Never intended to feel protective over citizens under my banner, the people who had sought out my protection, but I did. It was only now that I realized that I was protective enough to kill for them. To avenge those who had fallen.
While I sat there, thinking about the past and whether I had changed, the room was mainly quiet after our back and forth. Quiet until someone broke it.
"You'll have me." Elliot was the brave one to break it. "You won't do this alone, you'll have me. I knew some of the Miners and guards who were killed. I won't let you fight alone."
"I agree," Hal spoke up next. Both Captains had sent their members as guards, and both Orders had lost people. It wasn't a surprise that they were the first two to speak up.
One by one, the rest of them voiced their approval. Only Abigail hadn't, and we all turned to her. "I said you had my support, and you still do. I just ask that we try to keep things contained."
"Good. We shall try, but I make no promises." I nodded, "Now, we have a battle to prepare for. Sunrise won't wait for us to be ready."
We got back into planning somewhat somberly, but it was without any further deviations. Everyone had said their peace, and now it was time to go through with it, for better or worse.
It wasn't a surprise to me that Abigail was so heavily against it. While the initial call to arms had been quick, the time it had taken to finally face the music had given her time to think. To go over things with a fine-tooth comb, and she was nothing if not good at doing that.
It wouldn't surprise me if she had second-guessed every decision leading up until this point along the way. It wasn't so far as to say she got cold feet, but they were certainly chilly.
It was late into the night that we finally exited the tent. Later than I planned. With us arriving the following day, this was the last chance to rest without being in an active siege.
Tonight was the last night until it was over, however long should it take.
My tent was set up just the same as it had been before the Orcs. It was familiar to be back in it again. The first time I'd set it up along the trip felt nostalgic, both good and bad, but now, it was just familiar. It was where I had lived for nearly a year on the way back.
Sadly, I didn't bring something as valuable as the Ice Bed, which left me sleeping on simple furs instead. I did fluff it up with some snow, but it wasn't the same as the bed's energies, even though it tried.
My armor stand stood in the corner, covered in what I would wear. It was the before picture, where the metal was pristine and polished. Unmarred by both battle and blood. My hammer sat next to it, calmly waiting to be used.
A small armoire, a trunk, a small table, and a pair of chairs were the last items that made up the tent besides decoration. Apparently, my tent was 'too drab for a titled Baron.' My sister had ganged up with Sophia to decorate it so it wasn't just fur and canvas.
A soft, luxurious rug covered most of the ground from a D-rank wolf I had fought. I had aimed for a bear, but had settled for the wolf after searching. A few smaller knick-knacks were set along the tent walls, but it was otherwise 'drab', as they described it.
It was how I liked it.
I had rested a day prior, and didn't necessarily need to sleep again, but since tomorrow was the big day, I settled in to sleep once again. I wasn't sure whether to be glad or horrified that it came easier than expected.
___
I woke up alert and confused. My mind was firing fast, like I was in battle, even though I was just in my bed. What in the-
[Aura Detection] flared as I covered the camp. It picked up nothing, but I couldn't help but feelโ
A dagger appeared out of nowhere and began plunging toward my chest. Instincts triggered, my hand shot up and grabbed the offending wrist, only to hear sickening snaps followed by a cry of pain.
The wrist in my hand had shattered like plywood under my full, undampened strength. I didn't waste time trying to figure out a level or compare who was stronger; I reacted with a punch to where I assumed the person to be standing.
My right hand clamped on the offender's wrist, my left tore through what appeared to be a weak barrier, until I felt the warm liquid sensation of blood on my skin. The familiar metallic scent filled the tent, and it dripped from my extended arm.
My arm was through the man's torso.
I was soundly sleeping, and in less than a second, I was elbow deep in a man's torso. My mind hadn't even caught up with what was happening by the time it was over.
Assassins!
"Assassins!" The thought was quickly followed by my alarmed shout. I wasn't worried that it wasn't heard, as it was loud enough to rouse the entire camp.
I threw the corpse aside and rushed out of my tent to see chaos. Guards were running around trying to find ghosts while others dressed and armed themselves from a dead sleep. Chaos, but no active fighting or cloaked enemies. Just a camp jumping to alarm.
A jet of water tore through the air, and a flapping tent canvas followed after it from Abigail's direction. With her tent ripped into the air, it revealed her and Jon both in night clothes with a body covered in black at their feet, missing a head.
It was also soaking wet and crushed at the same time.
Seeing that they were both standing made me focus on the corpse first, to make sure it was dead, but I soon turned back to the couple and found a dagger sticking out of Jonathan's side.
Abigail's hands turned a vibrant blue as she removed it and sealed the wound as quickly as she could, but her face was murderous.
She saw me looking at her, "Fuck unintended casualties. We do what we have to."
Hal dashed in next, wielding a short sword instead of his bow, "We found three more after your shout. We aren't sure if there's more." He turned to Abigail and Jon, saw that they were both fine, relatively, and turned to me. "Ashley!"
Why is he calling for her?
I looked down and understood.
Huh, there's a dagger sticking out of me. I hadn't felt anything, yet here it was. A blade was protruding out of the left side of my chest. It confused me until I figured it out.
He didn't even try to defend himself. He plunged a second dagger after he was caught, even though he knew he was dead.
The wound was turning a concerning color of black that made it obvious the blade was poisoned.
A poison cloud before, and now a poison dagger. We'll need to be prepared for more.
I ripped out the offending blade and flared [Frozen Patchwork] to seal over the wound. The poison, on the other hand, was more difficult. My natural resistance was high, but not invulnerable.
My high Fortitude helped my body resist while Vitality attempted to fight it off. My Body of Stone also helped, but neither refinements were designed for poison resistance, but there was still a general resistance that came from a stronger body.
With Ashley close at hand, along with plenty of other Healers, I wasn't that worried.
But it didn't give me warm and fuzzy feelings about tomorrow.
If they resorted to this, what will they do then?
Comments
James Faulkner
Butcher them Chris.
Demonlord
Thanks for the nice chapter ๐ Chris' aura detection is crazy good. It really compliments his build
