Max woke up on a small bed with a naked Asiva in his arms.
For a moment it seemed like all the problems in his life had disappeared with her sleeping so peacefully in his arms, but then he was reminded about the reality of the situation.
He was in the northern fortress of Maralago and all his pleas to secure more troops to take down the southern fort had been rejected.
It was either the internal politics within the clans that stopped Max from getting more support because the Titus clan would get all the glory should Max win it for them while the others got nothing, or it was the fallout from Max giving Marcus the whopping.
Either way, Max was screwed with only about 1500 troops at his disposal to take down the Southern fort and it's massive army of 18,000 strong.
All his victory celebrations had been dampened when he got all the congratulatory letters in the world alongside a couple of rejection letters that stated that his requests could not be serviced due to ' Shortage ' of capable troops. Which was basically the higher ups way of telling Max to go fuck himself.
Max was in a terrible mood over all this when Asiva showed up to his room and spent the night over, as being in her warm embrace calmed Max down enough to give him more perspective into the situation.
It was make or break time for Max now, his plans for the future did not see him spend years of his life as a military man in service of the Titus clan.
Max was either going to make it big and become a lord within the Vampire ranks soon, or he was going to go outside the system and use his brother's contacts to become a vampire lord through sheer force.
He had the backing of the Elites, his sister in law, the elves, the won knights and Kremeth.
He had enough money to hire a huge mercenary army to take down the Kingsman clan territory should he be hellbent on doing it and although that would make him the enemy of the vampire state as a whole, Max was not worried about being defenceless.
It would spell out a more dangerous route for him to become vampire king should he walk outside the system as the entire vampire clan would become his enemy. But he did not mind doing it should he have no options.
" You look sexy when you're seriously brooding " Asiva said as she smiled kindly resting on Max's chest watching his expressions change as he thought about the future.
" You look beautiful no matter what time of the day it is " Max said as he kissed Asiva on the lips.
" So what's on your mind today ? " Asiva asked Max knowing full well what exactly was weigh-ing on his mind.
" Well, I'm planning to fuck it all and go for a YOLO operation on the southern fort.
Sebastian will be our backup, in case everything goes south he will bail us out with his teleportation technique.
But I just want to say fuck the odds and just charge into that fort.
If we win, we win
If we lose we lose ". Max said as he transparently spoke exactly what he felt like
Asiva chuckled, she knew the urge to go YOLO all too well but this was real life and not a video game, they could not go YOLO with the lives of so many soldiers under them at stake.
" Well you do have the dragon princess to count on don't you?
Didn't you say she's stronger than even you now?
You can call her for help… " Asiva suggested as she wondered if Max could call on Mira for help in these tough times.
Max grit his teeth at the mention of Mira, that kid was growing faster than a bamboo shoot having already surpassed Max in terms of levels.
Although dragon's aged differently from humans, in Max's mind Mira was still a 3 year old baby and he absolutely did not want to call on her aid if he could help it.
That aside, Mira was going to be a big help if Max did call on her and he realised it too.
Her infinite mana with her ability to fly and breathe strong fire was enough to trouble any fortress defences.
As Max began to think about it more and more, he began realising that if he took the aerial approach there was a lot of ways he could cause major problems for the enemy troops.
Gears in Max's mind began turning at full speed at this suggestion as Max felt his blood pumping at the thought of a potential aerial attack into enemy territory.
The only problem was, that he was the only fighter who could potentially survive such a fiery showdown that he was imagining.
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( Meanwhile Erasmus )
" Send 10 tier 4 warriors to the southern fort, create an executive order to reinforce that place.
Should the southern fort fall, it would open 3 new fronts of action for the vampires and it would be chaos for all barbarian clans should that happen.
We have already lost the northern fort, if the south falls too then we would only have flat lands between the vampires and our central towns, there would be no stopping their March and there will be unnecessary bloodshed.
I don't care what that kid Mazda thinks, his territory is way too important to be treated with such negligence ". Erasmus ordered as he understood that irrespective of Mazda's personal feelings of wanting to secure the fort with his own might, Erasmus had to reinforce that place with his best warriors not because he did not trust Mazda, but because the consequences of failure were too catastrophic to even think about.
" I'm getting too old for this, I should be promoted to god-hood in the next 2-3 months, let me retire from this planet with dignity. I beg you all ". Erasmus said as he concluded the council meeting with all chieftains.
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/// A/N - This bonus sponsored by patron Zippo2019 please thank him in the comments for this one. ///