Ruthless: Path of Conquest

The public comment segment of the meeting passed by relatively quickly, at least compared with what Mina had expected. James’s committee heads all introduced themselves and what they were responsible for, and then the body took questions and comments—almost entirely questions.

“Um, sir, what can you tell us about the strange dreams so many of us have been having?” the first speaker asked, staring straight at James.

Hearing that out loud feels surreal. I never expected to wake up one day in a world where people would have bad dreams and ask my husband why they had them—and have a reasonable expectation that he would be able to answer them! Next thing I know, they’ll be asking him for nicer weather.

“Before I answer that, how many of you are here with a question about the dreams or about the forest behind the wall we recently put up?” James asked.

More than half of the people in attendance raised their hands.

“Okay, I’ll give an explanation that conveys everything I know about the situation, so we can get those questions addressed all at once.”

James discussed the same material he had gone over with the Council in the closed session, even including what the plan was to deal with the monster. He didn’t reveal the bit about Sister Strange giving him visions that she asserted represented the future—or even that the monster’s name was Sister Strange—but those came across as minor omissions to Mina.

And of course no one but her knew there was anything left out at all.

Mina assessed the crowd’s response as fairly good. People liked the transparent approach.

Most importantly, it’s fitting with James’s character as they’ve come to know him. He’s a straight shooter, more or less. I think they expect that he’ll solve the problem—or tell them that he’s failed if he can’t. Probably much better than most of the leaders they’ve dealt with in their lives.

“Okay,” James finished. “Other questions?”

There were other questions, but any sense of urgency around the meeting dissipated with James’s explanation of the dream monster problem. As the more mundane questions—about future food, housing, electricity, and running water plans—continued, Mina found herself wanting to check on baby James.

“Do you mind if I excuse myself?” she whispered into James’s ear. “The baby probably wants food.”

“Go ahead,” he whispered back.

Mina rose, and half the people in the gallery rose with her. That was a little startling.

But I guess I need to get used to it, she thought. We’re royals now.

It still sounded absurd in her head, but people smiled and parted for her as she made her way down the center aisle and through the front doors.

—

The meeting went on for almost an hour before James sensed an excuse to end it.

“Sorry to cut this short,” he lied, “but there is a minor issue on our border I’d like to deal with.”

It is interesting that people don’t simply go to the committees or the committee heads with some of these questions. I need to work on encouraging that more in the future. He thought of Samuel’s advice. If people are looking for me to tell them what’s going on all the time, there’s no way I’ll be able to stay ahead of my rivals in enemy territories.

He sent the rest of what he wanted to say as an announcement using his powers.

[Citizens of the Fisher Kingdom, a group of flying monsters has entered our airspace. While I do not yet have specific reason to believe that we have cause for alarm, I would appreciate the help of available individuals who have effective ranged attacks or weapons in dissuading the creatures from any possible aggression. We will try to resolve this incursion peacefully if we can, but it’s always best to be prepared for violence. If you are willing and able to help, please meet me outside.]

At some point, James would need to give names to landmarks within his territory so he could give more specific directions than “please meet me outside.” For now, though, he was confident this would do the trick.

“All new residents,” he said aloud, “it’s a pleasure to welcome new people into the Fisher Kingdom. Please give your names to the Council’s Secretary, and if you’re interested in staying, he’ll also be available to coordinate times for you to take the citizenship oath.”

Rotter rose from his seat at the end of the table and gave everyone in the gallery a little wave.

James turned to his mother and whispered, “Why don’t you grab Alice and go meet the baby? Anyone on the Council will be able to tell you which apartment is ours.”

She nodded, and a satisfied smile spread across her face.

“I can’t wait,” she said quietly.

Then James hopped down from the stage, walked through the center aisle, and stepped out into the open air.

There were already dozens of people standing by ready to assist him, and more followed him out of the Community Center.

This is what, a hundred people, total? James thought. Most brandished guns. Others, who held staves, appeared to be Mages. Plus about twenty Goblins, armed with what appear to be homemade slings.

He was a little hazy about the exact human population of the Fisher Kingdom, mainly because more people were arriving each day, but he knew it was still somewhere under a thousand. Still fewer humans than Goblins. He was surprised there were so many willing to fight, when he’d tried not to sound particularly worried in his announcement.

Then he sensed a change in the movement of the flying enemies he’d sensed. They had turned in their flightpath.

They’re heading toward the farming space.

And James could feel that there were a few workers out there at the moment. He had a bad feeling about this.

“Follow me,” he shouted. “They’re near our crops!”

Then James took off jogging. He would have run faster, but with more than one enemy, and with his opponents airborne, he genuinely thought he might need help dealing with them.

How many is that?

He tried to figure it out as he ran, but when it came to sensing objects in the air, his powers seemed to be relatively weaker than they were on the ground.

Tracking the number of humans on his land was difficult, but only in the sense that counting how many ants were crawling across his skin would be hard if there were more than a few to look at. Trying to narrow down the number of flying enemies was more like trying to count the insects flying through the air while blindfolded, relying only on the sound of buzzing.

James quickly got a better idea of how many they were when the enemy descended to ground level.

Not good!

A dozen monsters landed, setting down close to the farmers who were still out in the fields.

James decided to accelerate. If he left his entourage behind, that was fine.

He turned his head and shouted, “Just keep running in the same direction!”

Then he started running full out, cutting the distance quickly with his superhuman speed. In less than a minute, he was a mile ahead of his allies.

Then he started to make out shapes. Creatures moving on air and ground. Humans fighting together to defend against them. Fighting to protect one man who was tightly held in the beasts’ clutches.

James was still too far away to see them clearly, but the outlines of the creatures gave him a good idea of a monster type from a distance. They had massive wings attached to slender bodies.

Looks like bat monsters?

James’s eyes focused on the farmers risking their lives to protect their friend. He saw one farmer gushing blood from some sort of wound across his chest. Even as the red liquid poured down, though, the figure threw himself back into the fight. He seemed to try and aim the blood at the bats’ heads—Oh, he’s trying to blind them!

If James wasn’t in the midst of a minor emergency, this would have made him feel some strong emotions.

This was the humanity that he loved and respected. His Orientation had turned him more jaded toward his fellow man, but this was his reminder. Humanity is awesome.

Humans might struggle and compete against each other every day of their lives, but when they stood together against a common enemy, no one would be able to break them. James had affection for both of these seemingly contradicting sides of human nature.

They were not wolves or Mole People, with their apparently inborn loyalty to their leader. They were no Goblins, to be led purely by fear, or alligators that would follow and respect sheer power. They chose their friends. They chose to follow their leaders—even when that leader was a King, he was still reliant on his human citizens to not try to overthrow him.

Humans would undoubtedly be the biggest pain to govern out of all the Races that James counted within his borders.

But he loved his kind, even beyond his own immediate family. It was moments like this that reminded him of why.

Then a slow boiling fury began to overtake him. How dare they come onto my land and try to eat some of my people?!

That was all he could think. How dare they. Don’t they feel my aura? This land is claimed. Find your own prey somewhere else!

The more of his citizens’ blood he saw, the angrier he became. How. Dare. YOU.

James saw red.

He closed his eyes to blink, and when he opened them again, he found himself almost in the midst of the human-bat monster scrum. The distance had turned to nothing.

James was barely aware of his own body as he threw himself into the fight. He grabbed the nearest bat creatures by their heads and instantly crushed them into jelly with his bare hands.

The rest of the bats suddenly turned their attention to him. They dropped the men they were trying to carry off and threw themselves at James.

Good, he thought savagely. Give yourselves to me! Die!

The creatures latched onto James’s body, shrieking angrily as they did so. James found the sound very unpleasant, but it was as if the noise came to him from somewhere deep underwater. He barely noticed it. He only noticed the vulnerable targets presenting themselves to him. There was a distant sound in the back of his head, and it took James a moment to realize that Hester was trying to suppress a scream.

But James couldn’t spare much attention even for Hester’s distress.

He punched and kicked with all four limbs as the bats took him to the ground with their momentum. Every strike he threw was potentially lethal—tearing through limb, torso, wing, whatever he touched.

They kept trying to go for his neck with long, sharp fangs. James lunged at the one that was closest and bit into the front of its head with inhumanly strong jaws. It gushed blood and brains into his mouth and then swiftly stopped moving.

James swallowed it down. I’m an omnivore, he thought, slightly giddy. I won’t waste any part of these things.

“Tastes like chicken,” he growled through a monstrous smile.

The bat creatures seemed to recognize how outclassed they were at that point. They started to visibly pull their bodies further away from him. James wouldn’t let the ones touching him go.

“You asked for this,” he hissed, barely aware that he was speaking rather than thinking. “How dare you come into my territory and attack my people…”

He began ripping them apart with his hands and teeth.

He could see the fear in each bat’s eyes now as they either struggled weakly or waited, almost paralyzed, for him to finish them off.

“Not having fun anymore?” he asked. “Not fun when you’re losing? When you’re the ones being eaten?”

He ripped another bat’s head off with his teeth and swallowed the neck flesh down like it was nothing. The meat seemed to make him stronger.

The bat monsters that were out of his immediate reach began taking to the sky, trying to escape.

There were still a dozen of them alive. James wasn’t satisfied with the dozen he had ripped to pieces.

“Oh no, you don’t,” he murmured. “Roscuro.”

The Soul Eater responded to James’s shapeless Will, his vague but violent intentions. It transformed itself into a hatchet, which James immediately threw at the nearest bat. James could hear the sharpness of the blade as it flew through the air. It almost sang to him.

Then it tore into the bat, chopping its body almost in half.

As the creature fell through the air, it let loose a horrendous scream of agony that James found slightly painful to the ears. Its body began to disintegrate.

Right. Roscuro eats their souls. That’s what that looks like. Good. Stay away from my people! Suffer for your mistake…

He threw a couple of Air Strikes, but he was too far away to do much damage. He chopped off a foot, slashed a wing, but the enemy were able to remain airborne.

I didn’t even manage to kill all of them, he thought angrily, though even now, only seconds after the enemy got somewhat out of reach, his wrath was fading. He looked down at his hands and noticed, seemingly for the first time, that they were drenched in blood and guts. He raised his arm and wiped his face off. It too was gross with monstrous flesh. He looked down at his feet and found that he stood atop a mound of corpses.

Huh. Something really came over me there. I guess it’s that Berserk Mode thing. He thought back to the deer he’d fought that he obtained the Skill from. If he had a power like that, it’s really something that he didn’t actually succeed in killing me.

“Are you okay, Hester?” he asked, his voice ragged.

“I’m fine, thank you,” she said in a shaky voice. If she was human, James imagined there would be little tears in her eyes.

He wanted to tell her it was all right, that the fight was over. But it wouldn’t be true. He wasn’t going to let these invaders escape. He would chase them home. So he kept silent, and he watched the enemy, trying to grasp their direction of flight and figure out where they would come to rest—where he would need to go to finish killing them.

James heard rather than saw when his backup arrived. Only a few seconds had passed. Time seemed to have slowed down a great deal for him. There was an incredibly loud noise of guns firing and an intense smell of gunpowder—almost overwhelming to James’s senses.

And some of the bats that had been out of range for him began falling from the sky.