Chapter 2068: Best Option?

This Heir-Grade upgrade was probably the easiest of them all. The defenses of this city were far more useful than even the Water Lotus Territory. The whirlpools forward the waves of oceanic beasts to split before they could reach the city, and funneled them into concentrated lines that the stingrays were more than equipped to handle. At the same time, the stormy skies above made it so that the attacks of the Skies family were even more devastating, amplifying them to a new degree.

First Nova could only shake his head as he watched this. He had been so cautiously preparing for his first Heir Grade upgrade despite the fact he had tens of times the number of people in comparison to Leonel under his command. And yet, Leonel, with just barely over a million subordinates, much of which were untamed beasts, was actually crushing such a challenge right before his eyes.

He realized, though, that even if another person had this exact same setup, it would have been impossible for them to accomplish what Leonel had. Even setting aside the Life Grade armors all of those stingrays were wearing, just the seamless commanding of them was on another level entirely. It was clear that Leonel wasn't just an excellent Force Crafter, but he was a commander the likes of which First Nova had simply never seen before.

Soon, the battle came to an end and Leonel gave everyone a rest. This might very well be the last opportunity they received to have such a thing.

But as this was happening, in the various circles of the night side supercontinent, there was an uproar.

The first reason for this was because First Nova had suddenly disappeared, not just him but the whole of his subordinates as well. There were only two explanations for this, either it was a ploy on his part, or the more likely explanation.... He had lost to someone and he was forced to use his badge to vanish, resulting in all of his subordinates being teleported out as well.

This was an almost unacceptable reality for many. It had happened too quickly, and far too silently. Was it an assassin? Did they have to be cautious against such a person? What was happening exactly?

But this shock was only compounded by the matter that happened not long afterward. With the claiming of the fourth and final sea, Leonel had suddenly become the owner of the entire ocean. But this was only a small matter, mostly because no one was even aware that this had happened, at least not any still in the Heir Wars.

What was more important was that the last of the territories within the ocean had been unceremoniously booted out. Leonel had crushed the dreams of anyone who had planned to expand into the ocean. All of the work they had put in, and all the effort they had diverted from their main territories, was all laid to waste.

For Orinik, because there was still a sea that remained unclaimed, his territory was pushed out to an unclaimed sea. But now that Leonel owned all four seas, the territories that remained and the ones that had been previously pushed away were destroyed entirely, leaving them in waste.

With these two pieces of news descending one after another, it was hard to know exactly how to react. None of them could seem to understand what had happened, and the wariness they had toward their neighbors grew. How could they conclude that a single person had already claimed all four seas for themselves? Instead, they believed that four different territories had succeeded in forming Heir Grade territories before them.

This conclusion was asinine to many of them, but they believed that the simplest answer was already the truest answer. The idea that one person could accomplish all of this on their own was most definitely not the simplest answer, the hoops one would have to jump through to accept such a thing were far too numerous.

Ironically, because of this conclusion, despite a juicy piece of meat like Adawarth's territories being on the chopping block right before them all, no one dared to move rashly, and there happened to be a person who knew that exactly this would happen.

Leonel's grasp of human nature was quite excellent, and thanks to the Umbra family members, his comprehension of the goings on of the night side supercontinent were deeper than most would know. As such, not only did he act upon this moment of caution by everyone else, he capitalized on it.

Before the night side powers could react, Leonel had taken over Adawarth's territory silently and seamlessly, using all of the points he had just gathered from his last two Heir-Grade upgrades to outfit the large region with a complex network of outposts.

Once this was complete, Leonel calmed and took his time. Now, it didn't matter when they realized that the ownership of this land had been changed. In fact, if they took too long, it might very well be too late.

Leonel stood in silence near the coastline. This was Adawarth's main city, and it was located on the waterline just like Leonel's original territory had been.

Out in the sea, several Rain Beasts floated in silence.

Because they had sent these Rain Beasts in using a loophole, just like the Lio family of before with their Seventh Dimensional beasts, they were left behind even after their badges were cracked. As such, ever since the end of that battle, Leonel had had access to them. The trouble was that directing them wasn't as easy as it was the stingrays.

The stingrays were a reward, and as such, they were designed to follow his orders. However, these Rain Beasts were independent creatures. Although they were docile, their intelligence was low. They were only able to understand the direction Rychard had given them, so it wasn't convenient to use them. As a result, until now, they had just been lingering around, unused.

Leonel stood in silence, staring at them... What his best option here.