Lightning Is the Only Way

After Shira left the Spire, she immediately flew to the south. She realized that she didn't have any time anymore. The Leader had said that Silva was already more powerful than her, and, for once, she believed him. It would only be a matter of time until Silva challenged her. After all, Silva was ready to take this risk for his Camp.

Like this, Shira left the Tribe, and she wouldn't return until she had killed three Lords. If she intended to start right now, she would have flown to the west. After all, they had a direct neighbor there. Yet, she wouldn't go there in her current condition. First, she had to wait for her head to regrow. That would probably take some hours.

A day later, Gravis gathered the whole Tribe and told them about his new program. The reactions were mixed. The Lords grew excited when they heard that. Initially, they had believed that there wasn't enough food for everyone. Yet, this solved the whole issue.

The Spirit Beasts, on the other hand, didn't like this at all. An invasion was the easiest way to become more powerful. After all, a powerful commander would kill the enemy and keep them alive.

But why didn't the Spirit Beasts know that it was better to go through life and death tempering? After all, hadn't there been a devastating war some days ago?

The reason for that was simple. Every Spirit Beast, except for around ten from the Sea Camp, were new members. Every old member of the Land Camp had either died or become a Lord. They had seen the effect of tempering. That was why they were so excited.

The new members hadn't seen that effect yet. That was why they were unhappy about this development. A lot of them went to complain to the Oracle or Elder but without success. Yet, the Elder and the Oracle were able to alleviate their worries somewhat.

When the Lords went wild, a lot of Spirit Beasts would become homeless. When that happened, most of them would join the River Tribe. Like this, there would be enough food. Sadly for the Spirit Beasts, the new recruits had to go through a real fight to join the Tribe, just like them. This meant that they weren't easy targets.

This put the Spirit Beasts before a choice. There was no easy way to power anymore. They either had to go through perilous fights or leave the River Tribe. There was no restriction to leaving, and all beasts knew that.

that, over 30% of the Spirit Beasts left the River Tribe to join another Tribe as Prey. At least, if they managed to join another Tribe,

for a lucky invasion, and since they had no other way

one dedicated beast, Liza, overseeing the entire process, one new member after the other appeared. Because of this, even though nearly all Spirit Beasts of the River Tribe had died two days prior, there were more

as the Lords went crazy, there would be a gigantic influx of new recruits. Gravis had already foreseen this development and ordered the fungus to

and Oracle how they should proceed exactly. Gravis had informed Orthar and

a bigger territory as an advantage but as a liability. If the territory were bigger, fewer beasts would congregate in one spot, and therefore, there would be fewer fights.

of all these reasons, Gravis informed them that they would only annex the one territory to the west. Currently, the River Tribe was in the southern part of

soon as the territory to the west was annexed, they

longer and longer to get from A to B. Because of that, they would only expand north and keep

territories at that point, but they would only send some Lords to keep watch. Finding these Lords was actually not that difficult. At some point, a beast would feel comfortable enough to remain at its current

territories and rule over them like they were their own Tribe. As long as they kept the steady stream of new sea recruits going, everything would be

even better than actually having their own Tribe. If they had their own Tribe, they would need to be careful of beasts that became powerful enough to overthrow them. In that case, they would never dare to let another Lord

need to care about that with their new status. As soon as a new

recruits grew, and as the average strength of each soldier increased, he would create multiple checkpoints along the way. As soon as a beast reached the next Rank or

was far into the future. Right now, the Lords had heard something very interesting from the Oracle and the Elder. The whole expansion into the north only referred to the territory. It didn't

go absolutely