A New Task

 "High General!" one of the guards of the headquarters greeted the young man, who gave the guard a quick nod. While he would love to chat, he needed to give the higher-up important intel.

 "Summon the general, I found something interesting during my little walk," the guard bowed to him before heading inside the main tent. Not long after, the general, along with several other high-ranking officers exited it before giving the man in front of them a quick bow.

 "High general, what did you find?" the general asked anxiously. Ryker merely took out the corpses of the Esel soldier before giving his reply, "It seemed the Esel force found a way to merge, or at least imitate a wild beast. This allows them to control the beasts in the Barony more effectively than if they had been roaming in the wilderness for a long time,"

 The officers let out a shocked gasp, "To think that they would do something like this, and some people would actually volunteer for such a thing-" the general stopped talking, merely shaking his head at the thought of such madness.

 "Does this mean we need to be wary of the wild beast too?" one of the officers asked, making the others look at each other in worry. The general was the one to give his assurance.

 "I don't think so. The Cultivation Art or Technique would likely be something hard to practice. If not, the Esel Barony could have overwhelmed our forces far earlier with the appearance of the beast,"

 Hearing it, the other officers could see the logic, "There is also the chance some of the soldiers were killed during the time, maybe by other wild beasts, or killed by some cultivators in the territory. After all, just being able to merge or whatever they did didn't mean they were successful in controlling a wild beast pack," one of the officers added his thought.

 The more they thought about it, the more they realized the threat was still manageable. "Thank you High General for showing us the corpses. Where would you go now?" the general asked.

 Ryker merely shrugged, "I'm going to walk to the other armies and see if they need my help. If you need my help again then you can always contact me," as he said it, the young man disappeared from their sight.

 -x-

 "The battlefield had been evened out for now," Ryker said to himself, looking at the plain that used to be a forest. During the first skirmishes, it was the high-level experts who made their move, resulting in the destruction of the forest and turning it into a barren wasteland plain.

 The only benefit is that the armies could then be mobilized on the flat terrain with no hindrance. This gave them a slight advantage, as the Mariz Barony had more powerful cavalry than their foes.

 This resulted in the Mariz Barony having some slight advantage on the northern battlefield. Ryker let out a sigh, while the stronger expert could get involved, they needed to get permission from the higher-ups, so as not to waste the advantage of having a powerhouse making their move.

 The coordination between the stronger experts and the soldiers is the most vital one, as this would allow a more fluid deployment and taking advantage of the situation on the battlefield. With most of the powerful experts being occupied by the other side's powerful experts, such maneuver, while not rare, is hard to do.

 However, the Esel Barony would not expect someone with the strength equal to the Genesis Source expert to roam around the battlefield and find a job to do. 

 "Haih, I do hope I get a more interesting job, other than walking around and helping any losing battlefront," Right when he said this, a communication token, one given to him by the Baron himself so that they could coordinate, lit up.

 Taking a quick look, Ryker let out a menacing smile as he quickly headed towards the designated location.

-x-

 "I do hope this task is better than the previous one," Ryker complained slightly before looking at the group of people behind the Hal Family ancestor.

 "Of course, and it will depend entirely on you, an expert that is equivalent to a Genesis Source expert. With them not knowing of your true strength, we could shift the battle in our favor," the ancestor exclaimed.

 Ryker nodded in agreement. Having someone like him, an unknown factor to the Esel would be devastating if used correctly. The reason he was tasked to watch over the other battlefront, is because the higher-ups have no idea how to use their new advantage.

 Only recently had the higher-ups finally come up with a good plan, or so he believed as they wouldn't have told him to come to the location.

 "Don't get your hopes up yet," he looked at the older man with confusion written all over his face. "This task required the most perfect timing, so you would remain with this group, one that you would lead until we gave the signal,"

 Ryker let out a disappointed sigh, "How long do we have to wait?" he asked, hoping it would not be too long. Once again, he was disappointed by the answer.

 "We don't have the concrete time yet, but it would be long, maybe during the later part of the war," Ryker let out another sigh before nodding in acceptance. 

 "Alright, and this is my squad," while the number was not too impressive, the strength of every single member was more than enough. In fact, with the strength of the group, they could contend with one of the larger armies of the Esel Barony.

 "This group of elites is something we could only able to form thanks to the resources we got from the secret realm. If not, even getting half of the numbers would be difficult," the ancestor let out a sigh.

 If not for their luck that Ryker found a secret realm of an Earth Source expert, then they wouldn't stand much of a chance against their current foe. He was grateful the person his great-grandson befriended would bring such a windfall to their small barony.

 'We must do everything we can to tie this young man with our family! Didn't little Shuri have some feelings for him? Better ask her later,' not aware of the thought of the ancestor of the Hal Family, Ryker did a quick scan on the group that he was supposed to lead.

 As he had said, most of the experts in the group were at the Genesis Foundation realm, with 10 even at the Genesis Core realm. No doubt the task that will be entrusted to them will be difficult but with the group's strength, he believed they could handle it.

 "I will be going now. If you have any trouble, contact me," the man said before leaving the area.