A couple of days passed.
By now, the River Tribe had been in existence for slightly more than two weeks. Yet, in these two weeks, it went from a Tribe with no Lord to a powerful hegemon that devastated the surrounding thousands of kilometers.
Huge swathes of land were empty of any powerful beasts. Yet, weaker beasts that were usually ignored thrived.
Where did the weaker beasts come from?
Every Tribe left the weaker beasts alone. After all, eating them wouldn't increase the Tribe's power at all. Because of that, it was like there were two separate worlds. It was very similar to the world of cultivation and the mortals in the lower worlds.
The weaker beasts just lived with each other. Occasionally, they would notice a mighty beast pass them. Yet, these beasts would only ignore them. Sometimes, the weak beasts would also hear and see these powerful beasts fighting. Yet, these mighty beasts never interacted with the weaker beasts.
Only when a beast became a Spirit Beast would it be noticed by the Tribe. Basically 100% of the continent was occupied by Tribes, Kingdoms, and Empires. These weak beasts just didn't know about this. Because of that, every weaker beast was living inside the territory of an organization without their knowledge.
Yet, when strong beings fought, the weak would suffer. Due to that, there were still a lot of casualties among the weaker beasts. After all, who cared about them?
Because of the vast empty lands without any Tribes, these beasts thrived. No more fighting appeared around them. Sadly, these beasts were too stupid to realize the change. Even if they were smarter, they still wouldn't know the concept of a Tribe. To them, it just appeared like all the strong beasts had vanished.
Yet, what had the Lords of the River Tribe done in that time? How many Tribes had they killed?
In these couple of days, most Lords only killed a single Tribe. On top of that, three Lords from the River Tribe died in these fights. These fights were not without danger, after all. Ironically, due to that, the River Tribe had even fewer Lords than before.
These couple of days were too short for the recruits to reach the power of a Lord. Therefore, no new Lord had appeared inside the River Tribe. Yet, the surviving Lords had become more powerful, even though their level or Rank didn't increase.
As said before, most Lords only killed one Tribe in this short amount of time. After all, they needed to heal themselves, digest the prey, and think about their fights. Starting at the Unity Realm, there were no stupid beasts anymore. Therefore, they also reflected on their fights and what they could have done better.
Of course, there were also some beasts that killed more than one Lord. These beasts were Morn, Orthar, and the panther from the Land Camp, who had made a name for himself inside the River Tribe by now.
Yet, there was one beast that had already left to kill a third Lord. This beast was Silva.
When the announcement about the new program had been made, Silva had noticed the suspicious absence of Shira. Normally, she should have appeared at such a momentous occasion. Because of his doubts, he had gone to Orthar to ask about her whereabouts.
Orthar had only told him one thing, but this single thing made a lump form inside Silva's stomach. Orthar had only said that Shira had gone to Gravis to ask for guidance.
Initially, Silva had been shocked since he had never expected that, but he quickly grew incredibly nervous. He had seen what Gravis' guidance had done for him and the Land Camp. If Shira followed Gravis' guidance, it would prove devastating to Silva and the Land Camp.
When two beings fought regularly, it often happened that they knew their opponent better than even themselves. Shira and Silva had noticed the other's weaknesses and tried to use these weaknesses to their advantage.
Because of that, Silva quickly realized what the worst-case scenario would be. Shira wouldn't be able to make the Sea Camp rise by itself. After all, the Land Camp had way more powerful Lords, and also more of them.
As soon as a Lord from the Sea Camp appeared, the Land Camp would directly kill them. Therefore, there was only one path left.
Shira had to increase her own power so that she became powerful enough to directly kill Silva. Without Silva, the Land Camp would fall to Shira's machinations in due time. When Silva noticed this, he immediately decided that he couldn't take a break now. He had to become way more powerful to protect the Land Camp from an unfair death.
Because of that, he killed three Lords. His third fight had been the most difficult by far. The Lord from that Tribe didn't only have above-average Battle-Strength, but the Tribe had also attacked him with an impressive amount of coordination.
Silva had only won by sacrificing nearly half his body to kill the Lord. Luckily, as soon as the Lord died, the other beasts stopped attacking him out of fear. Even though Silva had been on the verge of death, he still instilled incredible fear and respect among the Spirit Beasts.
Healing that wound had taken him nearly a full day, but after eating and healing, Silva noticed that his Battle-Strength was more powerful than he had thought. A couple of days ago, he would have firmly believed that he wouldn't be able to win such a devastating fight. Yet, he had achieved what he had thought impossible.
After healing, he returned to the River Tribe.
Yet, a piece of shocking news reached him as soon as he returned.
Shira had returned, and not only that. She had immediately killed two of his Lords. The first one had average power in relation to the River Tribe's standards, but the second one was what truly shocked him.
The second Lord that Shira had killed was the panther. Silva considered this panther as the most powerful beast inside the Land Camp. The fact that Shira had killed him shocked Silva immensely. He had also estimated that the panther had the best chance at winning against Shira.
Yet, such devastating things often happened suddenly. On top of that, Shira had made an announcement to the whole Land Camp after killing the panther.
"I still have three more fights left until I become a level two Lord," she had said. "Any Lord from the Land Camp that kills one of my Lords will have to fight me next."
When Silva heard this report, his rage exploded. Shira was easily powerful enough to become a level two Lord, but instead, she used these fighting opportunities as a deterrent.
There were only two ways how Silva could deal with that. One way was that a beast needed to kill Shira. Yet, no beast inside the Land Camp was powerful enough to kill her, including himself. So, that option fell out of the equation.
The second option would be to sacrifice three Lords from the Land Camp. If a beast fought without eating the carcass, it would constitute as mindless slaughter, and Gravis didn't like that. The beasts better eat their opponent, or Gravis would quickly get rid of them.
Because of that, Shira would be forced to eat her enemies unless she wanted to go against Gravis. Of course, Silva knew that Shira wouldn't want to commit suicide. So, after killing three Lords, she would be forced to become a level two Lord.
When that happened, she wouldn't be able to challenge level one Lords anymore. This would force her to look on as the Land Camp completely suppressed the Sea Camp.
Yet, this solution had two issues. One issue was that Shira would then count as the second most powerful beast in the River Tribe together with Liza. On top of that, the road to power didn't end there. As soon as anyone in the Land Camp became a level two Lord, she would just directly kill them. Like this, the Land Camp would be suppressed again.
The other issue with that was that Silva wasn't willing to sacrifice three of his comrades to get rid of an enemy. He had had twelve Lords before the new program took effect. Three had died to the enemy Tribes, while two others died to Shira. If Shira killed another three, there would only be four Lords left.
Of course, in Silva's mind, his feeling of responsibility and companionship far outweighed the potential outcomes in terms of priority. He could deal with the fact that his companions died in fights, but he could never force them into suicide.
With this, a kind of unsteady and foreboding peace came over the River Tribe. The Lords of the Land Camp no longer dared to look at the Sea Camp. On top of that, Shira did something that made the urgency inside Silva's mind rise.
Shira was forcing the Spirit Beasts inside her Camp to fight each other. Silva had planned to keep the Spirit Beasts of the Land Camp away from the Sea Camp so that the Sea Camp couldn't challenge them. When Shira saw that, she forced the Sea Camp to battle each other with an absolutely frightening frequency.
In just two days, Shira managed to create her first Lord. Even worse, she showed no sign of stopping. She was fully taking advantage of the brief period of deterrence. After all, such deterrence couldn't hold forever.
When Silva noticed that, he realized that there was only one path left. Because of the panther's death, a giant gulf in Battle-Strength appeared in the Land Camp. No beast could be compared to Silva anymore.
So, it was his responsibility to take care of Shira. He needed to suppress the Sea Camp and become more powerful than her in the process. Then, he would need to put his life on the line to kill her. This was his only way out!
Yet, the new Lord from the Sea Camp was too weak to pose a challenge to Silva. Killing the new Lords wouldn't help him at all. It would only delay the issue. He needed something that genuinely put him through devastating mortal danger.
So, he went to Morn to ask about a territory that had two Lords instead of one.
Sadly, this conversation didn't take place. Because…
"Insect, you have gone against the Stone Tribe and created an abomination of a Tribe! Come out of your hiding hole and accept your death!" a powerful voice announced from above the Spire.
Every member of the upper echelon noticed this voice, and they were also shocked by this visitor.
It was a 500-meter-long shark, and it was flying above the Spire. Yet, what shocked them wasn't its appearance but its power.
This was a level two Lord, an Early-Rank Unity Beast!
