After the whole battalion was assembled, Sam and the main supervisor who just talked to him walked towards the midpoint of the canyon, where they would meet with the other party.

Sam looked at a youngster who seemed to be in his early twenties and also a Novice at peak stage in a luxurious battle attire, with a high-quality armour of rank 4.

Behind him stood a Great realm cultivator who is the supervisor from the other side.

The Supervisor is an early stage Great realm cultivator and is he is in his late thirties.

After the both parties met, the supervisors exchanged the documental agreements, which has the seals of Dukes which states that the town of the loser would be in the winner's control and the loser cannot attack the winner and try to grab the town back until the eight months which means before the next war meant for testing the candidates.

Sam was quite intrigued by this documental system in this type of civilisation and particularly between two empires.

In modern earth, there are similar treaties between various nations, but there is an international court and United nations to question the deal breaker.

But who has that right and power in this world? Sam has yet to see them and for now there is only one group that Sam suspected, the people who are controlling this competition.

Anyway, Sam didn't think much about the issue and right now his focus is on the young man in front of him.

This guy gave Sam a serious and most disgusting first impression. Rich and arrogant. Sam is even thinking if the whole world consisted of these guys. Wherever he went, he would at least on of this kind.

The young man is looking at Sam as if he cannot wait to move away from him place and it is his misfortune to breath the same air as Sam.

He is way past a normal rich second-generation kid.

After the brief exchange of the supervisors they then came back to the positions and Sam's supervisor spoke first.

"Your battle is a competition between your two armies, the winner will be decided, if the one party surrenders completely with no one willing to fight and that includes the commanders which is you two.

Or there is other way and that is if either of you two dies first, then the remaining one will be the winner.

You can fight along with your troops or you can command them from behind, that is your wish. But the main thing is the supervisors wouldn't interfere, otherwise it would be a massive breach of the rules.

They are only here to see if any of you are using any forbidden means.

Both of you may exchange a word if you want."

Even though, Sam didn't have much of an impression on this guy, he still extended his hand to for a hand shake. After all, this is a competition not some life and death enmity. Sure, the soldiers might die, but they will have to face this situation even if not for this competition.

These two nations are warring for decades.

But the reaction of the opponent didn't surprise Sam at all.

"Puny commoner. Do you really think that you are worthy to shake my hand? You must be dreaming if you think that you are my equal just because southern star Duke sent you here. I am of noble birth and I wouldn't even touch a strand of hair from a person of filthy blood like you."

As he said, he turned his head away and left.

Sam didn't take it to heart and only smirked to himself. His expectations were spot on. He is not just arrogant, he is a border-line racist, but his racism depended on his noble status not of colour or language.

That means, everyone who is not a noble is filth to him.

Sam smiled coldly as he thought of the expression this proud peacock [1] will have after the battle and that won't be long.

"You can begin the war as soon as you can."

The supervisor said to Sam.

Sam nodded and without speaking he took out Harbinger and disappeared in a flash.

The Peacock and his supervisor didn't notice this as they are too busy with their self-centred pride filled moment of humiliating Sam.

Sam is back to the soldiers' temporary station in a minute. As soon as he came, he said in loud voice.

"I am not going to give you guys any strategy and I don't think you need one. I trust my way of training you and I believe you already know how to defeat them without my advice.

One thing I do want to say is, one day. I want the battle to be finished by today and I want to have dinner in the mansion of that town's head.

So, begin."

Sam said these words and as soon as he did, the soldiers started marching rapidly. It cannot be called as marching but more like running, but they are doing that too in an orderly fashion.

The red rock canyon.

It is around 700 meters wide but the space between the two cliffs is still filled with uneven rocks. The distance between the two armies right now is around two thousand five hundred meters. If not for the improved eyesight of the cultivators, they wouldn't even be able to see each other.

Sam's army rapidly approached as they observed the surroundings. The earth elemental and the wood elementals are mostly looking around and their minds are working on high speed.

The red rock is not that hard but not soft either. If they are fortified with spiritual energy, they can take around two hits from a normal Late stage Novice.

As for flora in the area, there are mostly shrubs with a lot of thorns. There is not much greenery around, but these shrubs which are short and almost looked dried are full of thorns.

They are having different thoughts and how to utilise the terrain to their absolute advantage.

On the other side. Peacock is only halfway through the distance towards his station, but he could hear the sound and feel the vibration of running.

When he and the supervisor curiously turned back, they were stunned.

The whole battalion is intimidatingly marching towards them in an orderly fashion, but with force and battle intent surging. They could feel the excitement in the soldiers.

Only after a few seconds did the peacock come back to his senses and he immediately panicked. The supervisor beside him was also shocked and immediately ran towards the nearby cliff as he climbed upwards.

All the supervisors are on the either side of the cliff as the observed. They are mainly here to check if they are using some forbidden tricks exclusive to this match and those are, Great realm cultivators, the usage of high-level inscriptions and formations, they can only use the second rank items.

Only the candidates, which means Sam and Peacock have some privileges of using some life saving measures.

Peacock immediately started moving, he seemed to be a Warrior. He ran as fast as he can and he is using a movement technique.

When he was near his soldier's station and they were in his audible range, he shouted.

"Immediately move, the enemies are attacking all of you move."

The Soldiers are still lazing around a bit.

One of the reasons is that they are an elite squad of Novices trained by the Duke himself. They are a part of Duke's special regiment and they have intel from their spies that Sam is training the soldiers himself, so they are a little over-confident.

Another reason is, generally the wars wouldn't be this abrupt and direct. Since, the cultivators are powerful and if they are underestimated the casualties will be severe. So, both sides have a tacit understanding and will test the waters with some small battles.

Duels between individuals, squads, companies. All these are normal and these are the main reasons that War goes on for that many days.

These small tests will not only make them delay the time, but also make the commanders on both sides think and estimate the enemy's strength.

Sometimes, a side will deliberately send weaker opponents to make the other party over confident and catch them by surprise.

Sometimes, one party will have weak overall strength and they will deliberately send their trump card soldiers to bluff in the duels.

In this way, there are way too many possibilities, which will make the people think and they don't dare to make a full-scale attack unless they confirmed the enemy's strength either estimation or spying.

But Sam didn't feel like waiting. At first, he wanted to entertain the other party by making a couple of duels possible, but after that peacock opened its feathers and started looking down on him. He lost his interest.

After all, how dare a peacock look down on a Roc just based on its looks. The Roc is the one that rules the sky and a Peacock is just a small part of it.

Foot notes:

1: Peacock from the saying Proud as a Peacock. Describes a Vain and self-centred person who is proud of himself for nothing of substance.