The first few months of the tournaments were the most intense and battle ridden times, but once there becomes a distinct set of groups that dominates the rest, the territory naturally draws itself. Past this point is when the large scale battles will occur, though most prefer to be conservative when deploying troops. This was due to the possibility of another group coming in and taking advantage of the chaos, however, the other reason was that this was when the defense was the most important factor of all.

Baron’s group had begun to strategically place their forces throughout their territories in order to defend from any attackers, while many others were sent to go claim land from their enemies. Their most recent conquest led to the downfall of a decently sized army as well as a couple of capable strategists that swore their allegiance. Anyone who had any potential was folded under commander Naire and commander Byron.

These two, along with their new subordinates, were stationed to wage war on the territory to their north. Meng Tian and Meng Yi made this decision because they wanted to get a grasp on the skill of the two commanders as well as any noteworthy that were under them. Meanwhile, Baron and Yue Fei were stationed to go and try to take as much territory to the west of their base. Meng Yi was tasked with just keeping an eye on the lands to their south and make sure they did not make any offensive moves, and if they did, stop them to the best of his ability.

The two commanders and everyone under them were by no means bade aerial strategists, but just the high-level competition that they were up against was just too much for them and in no time they had taken grievous losses. A few strategists were even killed in the confusion and crossfire.

Baron and Yue Fei, on the other hand, might not have been taking too many losses, but they still were being stalled quite masterfully. The two of them did their best to strike deep into their targets lands, however, no matter what they did, they were still losing the important battles. Meng Tian, the mastermind behind all this, instead had Meng Yi switch with Baron and Yue Fei. As extra insurance, he himself took it upon himself to go and assist his brother Meng Yi.

This meant that Baron and Yue Fei was now keeping an eye on the lands to the south while Meng Tian and Meng Yi were out trying to conquer the turf of their western neighbors. This left Guan Yu to control everything in the main base and all the responsibilities that went along with that. It did not bode well that the Meng duo, their groups most powerful, would have to personally take to the fields to win battles.

Even with the Meng duo personally leading the charge, they also made slow progress against the people to their west. A week went by, two weeks, a month, and they were getting quite close to the main base of the enemy, but just when the main base was in sight, Meng Tian ordered his entire army to fall back to their own lands and gave orders to the two commanders to the north as well as to Baron and Yue Fei to the south.

A day after this incident that surprised many, an army containing mostly fresh troops from the other two battlefields set out to take the rest of the territories adjacent to them. In no time flat, they fell and the main strategist that had managed to give no end of trouble to Meng Tian and his group was finally captured and pledged his allegiance to his conqueror's group.

Though he was an aerial master, he could not keep on pushing the Meng duos back since he himself did not have any notable strategists under him as well as having to split his attention 5 ways. His name was Chen Di and quite a talented strategist for someone who has only been here for a few centuries.

With him in their camp, they became a much more powerful group, but in the grand scheme of things, they were still one of the weakest groups around. An ally as skilled as Chen Di was a great boon to them, but he was still only one extra person they could rely on, whereas their opponents had hundreds if not thousands. This was still going to be a very arduous uphill battle.

Time went by and a full year since the start date of the tournament began and only 18 groups remained. The party that was considered to be on top was the Bair fighters, they had taken out over 2,000 strategists all on their own, and they only consisted of 5 strategists no less. The next 12 or so would be a mix between the elders of the Sun Alliance, the 2 Yellow Wang groups, and the 2 from the Vesper faction. Aside from Baron’s group, the rest were all backed up by some other, fairly impressive factions.

Baron’s group was now considered the weakest out of all of them and were the most likely to be targeted next. Their territory was also the smallest, but this was intentional because that meant they would be able to defend better. One of their neighboring enemies was a group from the Sun Alliance, and the other was one that was from the Vesper faction.

In the meeting room where they all gathered to discuss the most important matters of the state.

(MY) “We have our response, it seems like the envoy that we sent to the Sun Alliance elders came back positive. We now have a temporary alliance with them so we can focus on taking down the Vesper faction led by Wu San Gui to our south and west.” Meng Yi said quite happily.

(BM) “This is good news, I have been wanting to see just how powerful a strategist that Wu San Gui was.” Baron casually mentioned.