"So the U.S. really capitulated," Lisa said softly. She and Bath were in Lisa's private quarters above the Spire's office. "Well...shit."
Bath sat next to her on the floor. "Yeah. That was faster than expected."
Lisa looked up into his eyes. "We should tell our parents, right?"
Bath's mouth thinned slightly. "Probably."
Lisa scooted closer, then leaned her head on Bath's shoulder. "What were you doing today with the tournament?" She knew Bath must have a reason for the challenges, though she wasn't exactly sure what. "Were you preparing the competitors for gruesome battle? Psychological warfare?"
Bath sighed. "I was trying to remind them that there will always be things more powerful than themselves. Endless numbers can overwhelm you and lead to defeat. Inorganic enemies, such as robots or the like, will also overwhelm and destroy."
Lisa blinked. "You're already preparing them for other worlds?" And not even those nearby...none of the planets that they had visited seemed to have powerful fighting forces. Lisa expected that they would breeze through.
"Yeah," he replied simply. The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes. Lisa thought of conflicts to come, of improving herself and further progressing as a leader. Bath thought of home, of the McLanes, of Avery. He hadn't hidden his face in Basalith, rather he just prevented any photography or video recordings of his appearance. As soon as his family became integrated into Basalith--which they would be, and soon--they would recognize his human form at once.
'I might as well finish with the legitimacy ploy,' Bath thought to himself, redirecting his attentions.
---
Scranton didn't even care at this point who the hell Bath was. He'd given her the finding of a lifetime in Bathiosaurus Exorexus. And then, as though the kid pulled amazing paleontological digs out of thin air, he directed her to three areas on different continents of the world: one in Mongolia, one in Peru, and the last in Egypt.
She was in Egypt now, surveying the final dig site of the three. Over the past week, she'd been using a myriad of technological devices to better understand the structures of the three skeletons Bath had pointed her to. All of them were utterly baffling. Like Bathiosaurus Exorexus, they all appeared to be some kind of mutant off of known Earth species. Based on a few bone samples that Scranton was able to test, the fossils were all from around the same period of time Bathiosaurus Exorexus would have been alive--just on the cusp of the Permian Extinction.
Bath hadn't even needed to fabricate the fossils like he did Bathiosaurus Exorexus. He'd actually gone through a phase, a few thousand years before the Permian Extinction, where he entertained himself by changing the compositions of Earth's species. The phase had only lasted around one hundred years or so, and almost all fossil evidence of his creations had long since been lost. A large reason was that he'd tried to devour most of the creations in the hopes of sating his hunger.
Of course, he realized in short order that no amount of organisms created by himself would satisfy. However, there were three fossils he left behind in the locations he gave to Scranton. He hoped that she'd connect the dots on her own, create some type of snappy narrative that would tie in with the Dragon. He was also prepared to intervene and give her some guidance.
He'd been waiting for her to email him, and finally, two days ago, she sent him a message.
> Bath,
> You're the craziest SOB I've ever worked with. Yeah,
> I've figured it out. I didn't require my paleontology
> degree to do that. I still have no idea why you even
> came to me to do an internship, me, an untenured professor,
> but frankly, I don't care.
>
> If you were the personal envoy of the Dragon, you could've
> just said so. At least you could've mentioned that after
> the Dragon once again appeared on Earth...And I mean
> 'once again' because I've figured it out. I think.
>
> The Dragon clearly came to Earth millions of years ago,
> likely in search of other intelligent life. Finding none,
> he left and went somewhere else. Who knows where. Then,
> he happened to return now. Lo and behold, humans existed.
> That's why everything's been happening.
>
> I assume that's why he sent you to me: he wanted to lead
> me on an unofficial quest to discover his backstory and
> provide the information for all as proof of the Dragon's
> message. All that going off world stuff that has everyone
> so skeptical.
>
> Reply to this is you need to correct anything that I've
> already said; else, I'm going to go ahead and quickly publish
> my findings. I can tell that time is of the essence with
> the speed the Dragon has been moving. I'm planning to make
> my way to Basalith soon, and I figure that I'll see you there.
>
> Thanks for choosing me,
> -Eliza Scranton
Bath smiled when he read the email. He was happy that Scranton managed to come up with a fairly rational explanation for everything, taking the fossils as evidence that he'd been on Earth millions of years back. She was certainly stretching things a bit, and Bath was fairly surprised that she connected everything back to COTD so easily.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
'Maybe she connected everything because of my name,' he thought. He hadn't made his name a secret, after all, announcing it to Basalith. As a result, practically everyone worldwide knew the Dragon's name was Bath, even though most referred to him respectfully as the Dragon.
Bath was hopeful that Scranton would publish her findings soon: hopefully, they would increase the rate at which other nations joined COTD. While the U.S. capitulating clearly sped up the process by a significant amount, several countries still spouted adamant anti-COTD propaganda. Bath didn't particularly want another violent conflict, even if he wanted to test out Dean's suggestion to only incapacitate--not kill--enemy fighters.
Once he realized that this was the case, he began to wonder why. Why didn't he want another conflict? Now, as Lisa rested her head on his shoulder, he asked for her view.
"Lisa, why avoid a conflict you will assuredly win? Hypothetically."
"If you know you'll win, then the conflict itself is pointless," she replied, as though the answer were obvious.
Bath frowned. "I'm not sure I understand."
"For instance," Lisa began, "why not destroy the Earth? You could, you know."
Bath paused. "So what you're saying is that conflict exists to find out who will win."
Lisa smiled. "Why else would we have wars? Even underdogs win against seemingly insurmountable odds. That's why we have conflict. If a war has a completely foregone conclusion, people might fight for other reasons. Pride, glory, greed."
"So, unhypothetically, when should we fight?"
"Well, whenever the people we want to conquer fail to submit. In reality, whether or not a conflict will occur is up to the people we're subjugating. To them, if they truly grasp that the situation is unwinnable, the logical course of action will be, of course, to capitulate."
"Unfortunately, sapient species aren't typically rational," Bath chuckled. "Then we should engage the human states that defy us. When?"
Lisa removed her head from his shoulder and gazed up at him intensely. "One more day. Then, we strike. Give them one more day to change their minds."
Bath nodded. "I wonder...aside from the wasps and the fossil thing I've told you about, what's another way we can convince nations to abandon absurd notions of fighting back?"
Lisa smirked. "You can send someone as an ambassador."
Bath raised an eyebrow. "You mean, different than the ambassadors we're sending to form new city-seeds."
Lisa's eyes glinted, her mouth curving up into a devious grin. "I mean, myself."
---
"You have the rest of today to train your with your new boons," Bath stated. He and Lisa were alone in a large training room Bath had created explicitly for his own usage. This was, incidentally, the room where Lisa, Nimesh, and Dean had first met.
If Lisa was serious about traveling to hostile nations--away from Bath's protection--as COTD's ambassador, Bath was going to ensure that she could both impress others and keep herself safe. Magnetic sense was useful, and Lisa really was becoming quite adept at using it to move around, but she still hadn't received the full strength and endurance boons Bath bestowed to close combat fighters. Moreover, she still hadn't even received land-shaper boons, relying explicitly on her power as a kursi to manipulate dragonleaf. While this was effective, land-shaper boons would drastically simplify the process and make it far easier. Bath hadn't actually given any of the other kursi land-shaper boons, and so was curious to see what land-shaper and kursi abilities would look like side by side.
He also had a host of other boons he wanted her to try out, such as the administrator drop stun--which he anticipated she could use in tandem with magnetic sense to sidestep the need for a rod-shaped focus--and the ranged fighter accuracy boons. He hoped that she'd be able to use both boons in tandem to direct her magnetic sense out and disable enemies remotely.
Lisa was eager to begin. "I'm finally going to be as strong as Dean, right?"
Bath snorted. "Right. First, I'm going to give you the strength and endurance boons together. The endurance boon shouldn't require any work to adapt to since it's passive. However, it'll make it possible for you to better use the strength boon to its fullest capacity. After the bestowal, you'll practice by sparring with me."
Lisa cracked a grin, then cocked her index finger in the universal 'bring it on' gesture. "I'm ready. What's a little pain, right?"
These boons were significantly less painful than the magnetic sense boon, partly because they only further improved upon preliminary boons Lisa received before. Additionally, since the boost in strength wasn't so drastic, Lisa quickly got the hang of the full strength boon.
"I feel so graceless sparring with you," Lisa grumbled. "I can't even land a hit."
Bath laughed raucously. "That's what everyone said in the beginning. Reaching the Advanced tier close combat boon, however, should help significantly. I'll give it to you now, in tandem with the artist profession's visualization boon and the specialized educator's adaptivity boon."
"What do those do?"
"Well, the third combat boon, instinctive strikes, will make it far easier for you to hone in on where you should be attacking, and how to attack. The visualization and adaptivity boons will make it easier for you to envision possible techniques on the fly and adapt them to use your body's capabilities to their fullest potential."
Lisa gaped. "You've been keeping all this from me!?"
Bath held up his hands in surrender and gave her a coy smile. "It's been hardly two weeks since this all began. You've been busy."
Lisa sighed. "Fine. Better late than never."
Lisa spent the next hour adjusting to the three new boons. By the end of it, she was consistently landing deadly blows of Bath's form. Of course, Bath would fully reform himself after each attack, but the damage Lisa inflicted still served as a testament to her already immensely improved combat capabilities.
"You really did make this easy," Lisa said, voice tinged with awe. "I barely have to even think about how to strike you, or how to adapt my fighting strategy to best inflict damage. It's insane."
Bath gave her a knowing grin. "That's the idea."
Lisa bounced eagerly on the balls of her feet. "So, what's next?"