Shifting Tides

 The strongest, or the one that was supposed to be the strongest opened his eyes, despite the pain that was felt in his entire body. He looked around to see the rest of the group suffering the same fate as him, all of them bedridden and bandaged.

 Seemingly by fate, the rest of them woke up, only to groan in pain, something he could understand as his everything still hurting from the beating he received yesterday. The rest of the group seemed to suffer the same thing as he did too, showing how strong their supp- he meant leader, is.

 When they woke up, no one spoke, especially the one that insulted their leader. Thankfully, someone said something, though he was not part of the group, "Looks like you are all okay," the referee from yesterday exclaimed.

 "Okay, I felt like I got beaten up by a Genesis Source expert," the strongest of the group jokingly said. However, his little joke seemed to garner sympathy from the referee.

 "Well, you are right in a way," hearing this caused the rest to look at him with incredulity, "Are you telling me the young man from before is a Genesis Source expert," one of the more outspoken in terms of asking Ryker to give his job to someone else ask in horror.

 "Of course not," this caused them all to let out a sigh of relief, "His strength is only equal to a Genesis Source expert," and then back to shock and disbelief.

 "What did you mean by that?" the strongest one asked, hoping that the referee would shed some light on what he meant.

 "Like I said, he could fight against a Genesis Source expert. I was there when he sparred with the ancestor of the Gurdon Family, even pushing him slightly. Then again, they both didn't unleash their full strength to avoid damaging the city," his words were met with open mouth.

 However, the strongest heard something far more terrifying. "What did you mean by 'didn't unleash their full strength?" he hoped he heard wrong. Unfortunately, his prayer shall not be answered.

 "Like I said, the young man was not using his full strength. If not, he could hold his own against the ancestor, someone at the 6th Stage Genesis Source. I also heard he exchanged moves with the ancestor of Hal Family, with neither getting an advantage.

 He, in terms of power alone, could be considered the 10th Genesis Source realm expert of the Mariz Barony, the reason why he was ordered to lead this group, even if you seemed to incur his wrath, which, I would say, good luck with that," the referee then promptly left, replaced by a more terrifying person.

 "I do hope the training session is fruitful to all of you," Ryker said with a smile. The one who in the receiving end of the smile feels like they were hunted by a powerful beast.

 "I'm going to say this only once, you will listen to my order, and respect it. If not, I'm going to show you how I deal with disrespect, got it," they had never nodded so hard in their entire life.

 "Good, now get some rest," he ordered, the group nodding fearfully. The tension didn't leave them until Ryjer left their line of sight. A look exchanged between all of them made them all think of the same thing, do not anger the strongest person in the group for no good reason.

-x-

 After dealing with the little trouble, as they wouldn't have posed a threat to him at all, he decided to ask the Hal Family ancestor about possible missions for now. Unfortunately, he was met with disappointment. 

 "Unfortunately, there is no task, or even if there is, we will not give it to you as you have a more important job. Just focus on cultivating and getting stronger. You need it for the coming mission. Also, listen to the coming report so you can tell the state of our two forces.

That's all the advice I could give you for now. I hope you will accept the current state for now," Ryker let out a sigh. He had hoped to face some challenges. In the end, he had to accept the current state affair.

 He was about to head back towards his tent before realizing he had passed his very own. Apparently, it was something that was set up for their leader but was not shown because they believed he didn't deserve it.

 He added that to the list of the things he would find fault of his subordinates. His train of thought was stopped when he felt several powerful aura. He then remembered the place was considered dangerous because of the population of beasts inhabiting it.

 Then again, he could hone his strength by fighting against the beast tides. When one big beast comes towards them, he easily defeats it. He soon realized the place around him would suit to be some kind of training field.

 With so many beasts, he could challenge them so he could fight strong beasts one day. Not to mention, killing so many beasts would give them the advantage of the resources they gathered from the core of a Genesis Beast and selling the materials they procured from the corpses of the beast.

 As he thought about it some more, he concluded that it would be something that brings him great benefits.

-x-

 As the war wages on, the losses the two sides suffered began to pile up. Even the Esel Barony with its seemingly never-ending reinforcement couldn't handle the losses for long. By then, only a small trickle of soldiers would be sent to help their armies inside the Mariz Barony.

 With the war slowly reaching its climax, both sides began to show their secret weapon. While the Esel Barony seemed to gain an advantage with their never-ending numbers, it was the Mariz Barony elites that changed the tide.

 When the soldiers engaging the enemies began to show an increase in terms of quality, the Esel Barony began to suffer greatly. Their soldiers couldn't handle the might of Mariz Barony's soldiers, most of them had reached the 9th Stage Genesis Formation, some even being at the Genesis Condensing realm, making it impossible for the Esel Barony to utilize their number advantage.

 Subsequently, the number of dead soldiers on Esel Barony's side began to rise, while not able to inflict a similar tol to the Mariz Barony. Even when more soldiers were sent, along with a couple of elites to help offset the Mariz Barony advantage, it was not enough as the soldiers that continued to appear on Mariz Barony's side were powerful elites.

 In the end, the Esel Barony could only try to consolidate their hold while hoping their numbers would prevail. At the same time as more reinforcement poured in to help the Esel's Invasion Force, Ryker received a message from the higher-ups.

 "It's time,"