Chapter 200 - The Noose Tightens

Note : Chapters 201, 202 and 203 have been written and added to the queue !

Chapter 200

Red Sands Desert, Barony of Darthar

Alesian Fortress Line

Falmagar, duke of Lorenz and by the grace of the true Queen of the Asarian Kingdom, leader of the Southern Army of Restoration on behalf of the duchy of Sunrise, sighed as he leaned back from the table, rubbing his eyes.

He had spent so much time looking at estimates and intelligence reports he swore he saw them even when he closed his eyelids. He blinked the pseudo after-images away, and looked to the side at the map hung over the wall of his war tent.

Less than three hundred kilometers. That's all he had to go before he could put Darthar to siege. An enormous distance for most, but not for the Asarian Kingdom, who spread from one coast of the continent to the other.

And most of that distance was open desert. No vast fields inhabited by potential guerillas and rife with ambushers. Relatively easy and straightforward to cross. With the slave brands and light equipment, his troops could even make good time, about forty kilometers per day, even in the treacherous terrain.

Unfortunately, there was a rather large obstruction on the way, in the form of the crescent of forts that had once contained the free city, and now protected it, the so called 'Alesian fortress line', after some famous battle from wherever the extradimensionals came from. Technically he could punch through between them, but only by blocking a potential retreat…and cutting off his own supply lines. Which only a madman would do when preparing to march into the desert, let alone when they were expecting to sustain a siege.

That meant he had to take them. He frowned as he considered his options once more, all less palatable than the last.

An infantry assault was the obvious solution, but it would bleed his assault battalions dry. And he would need them, badly, when it came to assaulting Darthar itself. There would be no opportunity to replenish his troops until he took Darthar itself either, and that meant simply swarming with his low grade infantry and feeding them into the meatgrinder was a no go either.

He could send forward his siege artillery, and reduce the forts to rubble with trebuchets and catapults, but that would cost him time. Time he was starting to become unsure he had.

Or…or he could beg for help and request assistance from the northern army. Except that not only would it destroy his reputation, but there was also no guarantee they could spare anybody significant enough to make a difference, let alone get them here in time!

At least he wasn't falling behind the northern army anymore. That was something, however bittersweet it was.

To say that the time table for the invasion had gone out the window was a considerable understatement. According to it, they should have been besieging the capital already, and he should have been flying Sunrise's banner above Darthar's battlements.

Instead Grant had bled the northern force dry…and slowed the army down enough for the Queen and a column of royal troops to reinforce the beleaguered loyalist army.

With their sovereign leading them, the royal troops had gone from beaten dogs running from a whipping to an indomitable wall. They were still falling back, but they were fighting like demons and it seemed that for every one that fell, ten slave troopers did, it was insane.

At this rate the northern generals were going to run out of people to impress into the army, especially as the royal army had started buying enough time for the civilians to finish evacuating before the soldiers fell back. Only the stubborn or the foolish were left behind, and they did not make good troops, even with the new brands.

The duke once again asked himself what sin he could have possibly committed in a previous life to get his job, before shaking himself. His duchy had been a linchpin in Sunrise's ambitions since time immemorial, when the Saphire Kingdom still ruled the continent. He held the land between Sunrise and the wasteland, serving as both a bulwark and an intermediary for the trade caravans coming from Gorromar. Centuries ago it had meant his ancestors were perpetually at Sunrise's throat and the greatest supporter of their majesties, something which had caused the failure of one of the duchies' early attempts at taking over the whole Kingdom. But Sunrise had inherited a crafty, sneaky son of a bitch of a duke after the inevitable round of beheadings, and he'd proceeded to weave alliances through different means. Now his line was so intertwined with Sunrise's he was on the larger duchy's line of succession! Distantly, true, but still. They even had to cancel an arranged marriage between his daughter and the duchess' cousin by fear of inbreeding.

Which meant that he had far more leeway than other commanders. He tapped his fingers on the table, before taking his decision.

He would trade time for lives. Set up a proper siege with his artillery and crush the fortresses under the power of his trebuchets. He simply couldn't afford to lose too many of his slaves, however disposable, on those forts. And the artillery would be useless on Darthar, might as well draw some benefit from dragging the damned stuff all the way out here.

He would catch flak but he would survive. He'd probably get one hell of a chewing out by the duchess for allowing even more of Rebirth's disgustingly abundant armaments and golems to flow to the capital, but he would at least ensure the taking of the city, and he was sure her fury would be only token once he handed her the trade city and began marching on Sarth.

After all, push came to shove time was on his side. The slave brands were not set to expire before several months, and if nothing else waiting would simply make the loyalists' situation more desperate as the capital was finally encircled and slowly ground to dust under Sunrise's heel.

He nodded to himself, and called in his aide. Time to put thought into action, and give the siege engineers something to do other than complaining about the lack of alcohol or bed slaves.

*****

"Sergeant. You have to stop blaming yourself." Said Allya, sighing internally as the bodyguard refused to sit down and simply stood at attention in front of her desk.

"I respectfully disagree my lady." Said Éclair, her back as straight as an arrow as she looked straight at the wall. "It was my decision as lady Windwrath's bodyguard that lead to the death of my men and her capture by the enemy."

Allya idly noted that the pink haired bodyguard had conveniently forgotten to mention she'd been killed as well, although thankfully the terrorists hadn't used their soul sealing weapon on them. Mostly because the Scarlet Swords had been the one to overwhelm the bodyguards, but still.

"That is true. But you were following standing orders and normal protocol, by attempting to regroup with the rest of the guard and bringing Pyn to the safest place in the city." Actually, second to, what, tenth? Safest place in the city, depending on if you counted the dungeon as one unified structure or different areas. The defences Alexandra had put into even secondary sections were just absolutely insane. "You couldn't know that it was the target. And no way to predict you were facing a small army, not a band of terrorists." Allya sighed, physically this time. "Look, you're off the duty roster anyway. You need time to recover after your resurrection." Even after going through the highest grade resurrection spell they had, which had meant enlisting Alexandra's help, the pink haired bodyguard was still going to be a shadow of her former self for a while. "If you're really that pissed about it, drag Anders by the hair and come up with better protocols. He's kicking himself like you are. You want to brood and blame yourself? Fine, so be it, but channel it into something fucking productive instead of moping around."

The bodyguard met her eyes, surprised, and Allya smiled mirthlessly.

"What say you?" Continued the baroness.

"I…I think I will comply milady."

"Good soldier. Now go back to your room and rest or I'll have Valker here tie you down to your bed."

Éclair shivered and stole a glance at the bodyguard standing by the door. She knew Allya well enough to know that it wasn't hyperbole. The baroness genuinely done that to Pyn when the elf had tried and failed to conduct business as usual after her resurrection, and even threatened to put the elf under an artificial coma if she kept trying to 'kill herself in the stupidest, most prideful way available'.

"Yes milady!"

The bodyguard turned around with parade ground precision, only undercut with a slight wobble, before leaving the baroness' office.

Allya sighed.

"Sometimes I regret all of my people being so driven."

Valker chuckled.

"It's why we were hired my lady."

"True enough, I guess. Alright, now, could you let the adventurers in?"

The bodyguard nodded, and stepped through the door, before returning with the small party.

Allya opened her mouth to greet them, but Raika beat her to the punch.

"Greetings milady. It's a pleasure to see you doing well!" Said the party leader, quickly echoed by her teammates, even the alchemist, who Allya could have sworn was mute had she not seen him request condiments at the dinner table.

Allya smiled.

"Thank you, likewise. Please, take a seat." She had enough chairs put in that they were all able to, and she cleared her throat as she leaned back into her seat. "Alright. So, I asked you here because I wanted to personally commend you for your initiative and assistance in defending the manor."

"No thanks are necessary milady." Said Raika. "Helping you was the least we could do. And your guards and tank did most of the job."

Allya's eyebrow rose, and Raika had the good grace of looking embarrassed. That was a bald faced lie and they both knew it.

Raika and her party had leapt out of their room when the fight had begun…and instead of going for the main entrance, proceeded to one of the secondary ones, reasoning that if there was so much noise coming from one side, there was bound to be someone sneaking around.

In that they were absolutely right. Allya had no doubt that the guards left at the secondary entrance would have been able to hold the line long enough for backup to arrive, albeit at a significant cost, but the adventurers had smashed into the flanking terrorists and assassins like one of Alexandra's artillery rockets into the Republic's army.

The terrorists had rallied, of course, but by the time they'd regained the advantage the spider tank, Alexandra's gift, had arrived. It was a good thing that the adventurers were so used to fighting by the golems' side by now, or she was fairly sure the party would have attacked it out of sheer reflex.

But they hadn't, and the terrorists had suddenly felt a very profound connection to lasagnas by virtue of being turned into some by a hail of shells and machinegun fire, their own attacks contemptuously swatted aside by the tank's wards.

"Regardless, a good deed deserve rewarding." Especially as doing so would stick another knife between Starvak's ribs, highlighting that adventurers would be rewarded if they broke the guild's neutrality and helped the town…and daring him to rise to the bait and fight her on it. She opened a drawer on her desk, and pulled out a handful of boxes. "So here, please accept these gifts."

Raika gave her a curious look, but Allya only smiled mysteriously. The party leader shrugged, flipped her box open…and her jaw dropped.

Inside were portable shield generators, similar to, if a step down, from Allya and Pyn's own.

"A gift from me and Eismi." And Alexandra, but they most definitely did not need to know that little tidbit. "I'm sure you'll find them useful."

"Milady, I-"

"Don't say it. You deserve them. And if it helps you repel more attacks on me or my own, well, I benefit as well, don't I?"

It started with a chuckle, then another, before ending in a full roar of laughter from the party leader.

"I see. Of course baroness. Then we gladly accept your 'gifts'."

Allya smiled. Still got it, it seemed. Now they'd be too busy commenting on her attempt at deflection and pretending self interest…and not investigate further on the fact that she could have offered them a full weapon and armor upgrade for the price of those shields. Instead, she had reached for what would keep them safe, not make them more effective combatants.

It wouldn't do for them to realize she was desperate about keeping them alive.

Especially as she was starting to get some idea of Alexandra's true power…and the depth of her fury when her allies and friends were threatened.

The baroness twitched as someone knocked on the door.

"Yes?" She called out, as the adventurers looked over their shoulders. The door swung upon, and Anders walked in.

"My lady, guildmaster Starvak is asking if you would care to join him at the foot of the docking tower. He says it is of extreme importance."

Allya blinked.

"Of course! I'll be there right away." And take her sweet time, to make sure the guildmaster understood just how low on her priority list he was. Just not enough to miss what he wanted to show her.