Greed God chapter 129

February 27th 2016 Gemworld 3:00 PM EDT

The  exact amount of power that was expressed by my dragon breath was kind  of hard to gauge. Not because of any mysterious phenomena or anything,  but because the dust and smoke coming off the fucking crater it had  carved in the ground around Cesare was blocking my line of sight pretty  thoroughly after that huge ass beam attack. Despite my lack of grasp of  the scale though, I was absolutely thrilled by the sight of what my  breath attack had done, and I could hardly contain my enthusiasm to do  it again.

When the smoke finally DID clear, I admit to  being a bit surprised at how the field had turned out, because it was a  confusing sight even without the obscurement. There was a huge crater as  expected, and the lightning and wind had scoured it pretty much smooth.  Cesare was in bad shape, bleeding and burnt, but he wasn't sagging or  swaying around at all. He was hanging in the middle of the crater by two  of the many suddenly regrown trees.

Apparently the Vital  Tempest, even when I poured all the power into the storm aspects, had  some side effects on living growing things. Not people, or at least not  ones I was aiming to hurt I guessed, but the roots he'd been exploiting  had grown explosively (no pun intended). Several branches had speared  him through the chest, and he was limply dangling from a pair of  intersecting trees. I could hear a faint moan of pain as he hung there,  and I made the command decision that this fight was fucking over, then I  landed and shifted back to human with a smug smile on my face.

I  turned to see Amy staring at me with wide adoring eyes, and I winked at  her, making the pretty princess I was now engaged to blush and look  away. My whole swagger sort of fell apart though when I felt a draft  around my body and looked down to realize I was mostly naked, my wings  tail having torn straight through my clothes, which were now hanging off  me pitifully. That kind of explained the blush, as much as I wished it  was just pure awe. Oh well, I'd still proved a point.

My  belt, thankfully, was fine, as was the pouch on it, so I was able to  easily grab a new outfit to change into before walking over to meet up  with Amy. "So, he's not dead. That should be enough restraint right? Or  if it's too much those trees could break 'accidentally'. In the shape  he's in I doubt he would survive the impact from fifteen or twenty feet  up." It would probably be like dropping a partially cracked pyrex. Once  that last little bit of pressure was added the failure of the rest would  cause a catastrophic failure.

She turned back once she  saw I was dressed, giving a sub audible sigh of relief. "Oh, it's fine.  He doesn't really matter in any way, and he was the one who initiated  the challenge. While it would have impugned the honor of house Amethyst  if you declined something like that, the very attempt opens him up to  basically any punishment you want to give. I'm glad you didn't kill him  though. Then we would have to send our own messenger to go get Emmy, and  I don't feel like waiting for them to get through capital security."

I  shrugged. I was still riding high on the power I'd been able to bring  to bear. It wasn't like he was a real threat to me. If he tried to use  that bear Roderick would kill it, and in a straight fight I'd just crush  him again, though most likely in a more permanent way this time. We  walked over to where he was hanging, and I waited a minute to see what  his reaction to this would be. Inconvenient or not, I'd kill him if I  thought he was going to be a long term threat. I just had to find out  how he classified me now.

People like Cesare weren't  exactly complicated, but they tended to work in two modes, like most  cowards. Weak or strong was the default for bullies and the like, but  people with soft power tended to have warped definitions of what those  things meant. Background, wealth, social status, these things such a  fundamental part in their worldview that they would outright ignore  something as obvious as an absolutely crushing defeat, convincing  themselves that as the superior being they would always triumph in the  end.

Everyone had their pride, even whimpering pussies  like this guy, and if his pride decided to dig in its heels and insist I  was inferior for reasons of blood or privilege, then no amount of fear  or force would dissuade him from trying to find some backhanded way to  fuck me over. Even upto his dying breath he would desperately scrabble  to prove his superiority, telling himself fairy tales about circumstance  and how 'blood will out'.

One of the first things my dad  had taught me was that behavior like that was a pathetic extension of  the childhood fantasy that life was fair. Being a Lord wouldn't stop a  bullet if someone shot me, nor would being rich. Threats were threats,  and you should act accordingly, no matter what you thought about them  outside of their capacity to cause you damage. Cesare, in that vein, WAS  a potential threat. Even weaker than me he could easily pull any number  of cheap tricks to ensure I died, or at least to try to, and I wasn't  stupid enough to let him give that a shot because of MY pride.

I  glared up at him. "Tell me why you lost." My voice was a sharp bark of  command, and the first layer of my test lay in his willingness to  respond. If he thought himself my better then he would balk at listening  to what I told him to do. Even if there was only a split second of  hesitation, there would be something.

He stared down at me  fearfully, and immediately responded, dropping his gaze. "You are  dragonkin. Your kind are unmatched at the same rank." The eye drop was  good, it meant he was abasing himself, but it wasn't the end. I needed  to hear a second aspect of his submission before I would let him live,  and as I stared up at him, he opened his mouth and gave it to me. "Your  bloodline is powerful my lord. I yield. I will bring your betrothed's  greeting to the princess so she might pay you a visit."

I  grinned internally. There it was. That was the trick. People with  excessive pride needed to use that pride to justify themselves, and by  doing so they lent credence to the system it was based on. The entire  concept of someone like that deciding you're unworthy is basically a  case of them designating you an out of context problem. They tell  themselves 'oh, well that doesn't count because they aren't the same as  me'. By justifying themselves like that they can ignore your strength by  the same logic of unfairness.

If they accept you as  someone in their system of authority though, things become much easier.  Rather than being an unfair problem or variable, you are instead an  example of why the system works. You have power in the same way they do,  which makes their own power more legitimate. After all, people have to  obey them because of their strength, so them obeying their betters is  only natural. It's not a sign of weakness for them to get in line behind  someone in the position above theirs, just them being consistent with  their worldview.

Since he'd accepted my power as being  bloodline based, and even mentioned the strength of dragon bloodlines  within the context of that metric, it meant he was choosing to use the  'this is how the world works' justification instead of the 'this is  unfair' version. I would still keep an eye on him as much as I did  anyone, because I wasn't an idiot who trusted assholes who tried to  murder me, but I sincerely doubted he had the stones to actually try  anything. In fact, I was betting he would try to suck up before he left,  if only to prevent me from holding a grudge. After all, that would be  what he would do.

Satisfied I could let him live, I  flicked my fingers, tugging on the heavy presence of my own energy in  the atmosphere around us and siphoning it back into me. If I'd let it  disperse a bit I wouldn't have been able to grab onto it again, but the  breath attack was so densely concentrated that it kind of remained  cohesive in the air just by virtue of its sheer mass. I sucked it all  out of the air, and while I couldn't get it all, I DID manage to siphon  out the bit holding up the tree branches he was impaled on, causing them  to crack and break off so he could drop to the ground below. I flicked  another finger, mindful of his condition, and created a cushion of air  for him to land on, one that dispersed on impact but softened his fall  enough to touch down gently once it collapsed.

I  debated saying something else to him before I left, but honestly I  didn't need to. Dominance had been established, and at this point  further  interaction was on him, so I just turned and offered Amy my  arm, leading her away out of ear shot before I brought up a question. "I  expected him to fold, but I didn't think he would do it that fast. What  about that fight had him so spooked that he had that kind of reaction?"  I somehow doubted it was the raw power, for the previously stated  reasons he could have explained that away to himself.

Amy  just rolled her eyes like I was being silly. "You know as well as I do  that breath attacks of a specialized element are a mark of higher level  dragons." She gave me a knowing smirk. "You know, you didn't have to  show off so much because of the engagement. I already liked you plenty.  You might have trouble getting out of it once things calm down if you're  too impressive. Though I'm guessing Emmy will be pressured by her  family to try to steal you away. Your bloodlines seem pretty  compatible."

I  wondered if it was a dragon thing or a me thing that the idea of  breeding a princess sounded so hot to me, but since I had two women with  ongoing pregnancies I made the intelligent choice to squash that  desire, especially since I was engaged to another one and trying NOT to  start a war. To that effect I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled  her against me. "Who says I want to to cancel it. If I didn't know any  better I'd swear you were trying to get rid of me." I had to fight the  urge to grope her soft little ass, which was probably the second or  third most fun to play with of any of my girls.

She  blushed and looked away. "I'm not. I mean...I guess that wouldn't be so  bad. If you wanted. Just an engagement I mean. It's way too soon to get  actually married. But betrothals are a part of being a princess, and I  could do worse." She looked away, trying to keep me from seeing her  bright red face, and I tried not to snicker. This girl was absolutely  doomed. I might have to play along for a while but she was going to be  mine. When we got to the town I pulled away. "Alright, why don't you  head to the orchard and get ready for your friend's visit. I have to go  check on things at home." Barbie was going to be absolutely furious, and  I wanted her calmed down before they met. I suspected I'd be putting my  redhead through the ringer to calm her down, but I didn't mind. She'd  be a better fuck pissed off anyway.