Who's Left

The way that the alliance that concerned Baron and the other's worked like this. The top figures would be the Meng duo, Guan Yu, and Yue Fei. Slightly below them was Baron, this was to keep any potential spies from discovering the relationship between Baron and the 4 at the top. Though Baron had been seen together with these 4 before, not people were aware of their dynamic.

To ensure even higher success, there were a total of 2 others that had the authority that Baron had. These 2 were semi aerial pros, just like the Meng duo, but were far inferior in terms of tactics. They were called commander Byron and commander Hops, the two of them only respected talented people and would only listen to Meng Tian and Meng Yi's orders while not caring about anyone else.

Right now they were all discussing an incident that had happened with the dark horse of this competition. The immensely powerful and unheard of group that didn't reveal anything of themselves, the Bair fighters. This group had broken the deadlock of no one wanting to attack and took over one of the strategically most important territory on the map. It was the bases that were at the very near edge of the western part of the map, directly opposite of where Baron and his group were located in.

(CH) "This is what I am talking about guys. One of the enemies have taken the element of surprise and used that to successfully take over such an advantageous position." Commander Hops shouted, already aggravated.

(CB) "I will have to agree with Hops on this one, it would have been better if we had launched an offensive on any one of our neighbors, but now they will be more alert than ever to an enemy attack." Commander Byron agreed.

(GY) "You two don't get it do you? The fact that no one made a move despite some of them being able to easily take out one or two of their neighbors is because then a different group will swoop in and take all of us out." Guan Yu lectured them.

(CB) "Tch, you don't know that." Commander Byron scoffed.

(MT) "This competition is to determine who is the strongest, and anyone who has made it this far either has great skill and talent, or great amounts of luck. Most belong to the former group, and with that being the case, it is better to act with caution rather than charging blindly into enemy fire." Meng Tian said trying to get them to behave.

(BM) "Let's not fight amongst ourselves, we have gathered to discuss our next course of action. Haven't we?" Baron reminded everyone.

(CH) "Humph, who do you think you are? You are the lowest ranked amongst us here. In my opinion, you shouldn't even be allowed to be in these meetings."

(CB) "Haha."

(MT) "I could say the same for you two, though you two have some skill, I value him more than I value both of you combined. At least he didn't come to us to beg for an audience."

This shut the two of them up on the spot and a smile appeared on everyone else's faces.

(MY) "Now, this meeting should really get to what we have all been wondering for the past month or so. What are the other factions up to? Well, according to our reports, the 10 or so groups of the Sun Alliance members seem to be deliberately trying to avoid each other and I believe that they do this so that once all of their competitors are gone, they would duke it out with each other to see who would emerge the victor." Meng Yi told them.

(BM) "Oh my, how scandalous. Do they plan on forming an alliance to take out everyone beforehand?"

(MY) "Unlikely, I've had a few contacts with them before, and going by that I think that they won't ally together into a single entity because they love to compete with each other."

(MT) "What about the others?"

(MY) "The two groups that are part of the Yellow Wang faction don't seem to be making any moves, it seems they are planning for something big. The mysterious Bair fighters seem to be recuperating from their losses from their most recent campaign. There's another 2 or so groups that are likely belonging to the Vesper faction. One headed by the infamously cruel head elder, and another headed by Wu San Gui. Heh, remember him?"

(BM) "Indeed I do, I don't think I thanked him enough last time for helping me foot a quarter of bill for the Deepstrike missiles. Perhaps I should do so this time."

(MY) "Anyway, the rest of the groups we are facing against seems to be a collection of random masters that entered and wound up together. Though there are still some hidden masters in here, we should still be able to last up until the top 15, I'm not certain for anything further."

(MT) "Thanks for the update brother, going by our experience, all 7 of us should be able to place within the top 2,500 for accomplishments by any individual. The reward for this category is not too bad, but the rewards that everyone in this room wants is not some cash reward. It's something from the personal treasury of the Sun Alliance, for prizes like that, we need to place within the top 1,000 for that."

(BM) "Easier said than done, even if we do make it into the top 15 territories left standing, that doesn't guarantee us anything. Just that we outlasted them, this tournament is after all, judged by a group of individuals that we don't know the identities of."

(MT) "It is indeed as you say, Baron. However, for now I believe it is best for us if we just continue to strengthen our forces, and when the time is right, we will strike our neighbors with all that we have got. I don't expect to get much further in this tournament, let's go out with a bang.