Although the coalition still had 65 million soldiers left to do battle with the capital base of the Bair fighters, they were barely able to encircle the base as much as they liked. This was due to the capital base being three times as large as they had expected to be. No one had ever seen a base as large as this one in the Chinese community because everyone would be putting most of their resources into building a powerful army. That said, the Bair fighters didn’t exactly have the same problem as no one really challenged them for the first year and a bit so they would have sufficient time to get their base to such an astronomical size. It was honestly more of a fortified city rather than a base.

After the one day of rest that their soldiers deserved was up, the high command of the coalition finally managed to plan out how they would be attacking this absolute powerhouse of a base. No doubt the defenses would be hard to break through, the soldiers well trained, and the artillery top notch. The big question was whether or not the Bair fighters would be leading their base to victory. One would think that, but the Bair fighters were still a mystery to everyone but themselves.

It was a truly magnificent sight, the image of millions of men, weapons, trucks, fighters, bombers, and everything else rushing towards one common goal, to take down the capital base of their most powerful enemy. The fighting was intense but manageable. It took them the better of a month to get a foothold, and a few more to actually get momentum, but they were making steady progress. They had breached the walls of the base a long time ago, but the inside of the base was a complex maze of confusion for everybody who didn’t know its secrets.

Nonetheless, they were finally able to take care of all of the troublesome aspects and completely made it their own after a difficult 5-month long battle, plus the sacrifices of over 15 million men. However, there was still something that did not add up and every one of the strategists knew it. Where was the Bair fighter? They had not shown up to defend any of their regional bases, they had not shown up to defend their most important base, the capital base, so where were they? Everyone within the coalition still felt uneasy about the situation, but what could they do other than discussing the matter for now? This was when Li Guang of the Sun Alliance met up with the all-stars of Lian Po for a friendly meetup.

(LG) “Ah, Xuan Feng, Jiang Yan, Jie Zi Fang, and Lun Hu, how are all of you? I haven’t seen some of you in ages.” Li Guang, the genius of the Sun Alliance greeted them.

(XF) “Li Guang, long time indeed. We’re still so-so.” Xuan Feng replied respectfully.

(JZF) “Oh, my, Li Guang, still as perfect as ever I see.” Jie Zi Fang said with a hearty laugh.

(JY) “Indeed, how about you drop the polite way of speaking with us, we are peers after all.” Jiang Yan asked.

(LG) “We are still in the presence of our superiors and juniors so I still have to keep up my appearances. Forgive me if I come off as rude.”

(LH) “How about we go to a more private room then, Li Guang, we should all catch up with each other.”

(LG) “Sounds like a plan. I do believe we will stay here at the Bair fighters capital base for another few days anyway.”

With that, the five of them left to get a little bit of privacy so that they may speak to each other like friends. Normally, all of them would be glad to see each other, they were, after all, part of the same generation and viewed each other as competition. So far, Lun Hu and Li Guang were at the top of this little group, and near the top in their generation overall. They managed to find an empty room far away from the chatter of everyone else and they let out a sigh of relief. In public, all of them had to have a certain composure about them that befitted someone of their rank and position. But in private, they were just a couple of guys that liked to be direct and playful.

(LG) “So, I had heard that you guys wiped off Baron and Zhang Da Zhi off the map for good?”

(XF) “Yes we did, they were fun for a few days, but that’s about it.”

(LG) “Dang it guys, we really needed them to go on for as long as they could to inspire others. Did you all forget what this tournament was about in the first place?”

(LH) “Think of it this way, Li Guang, the blue beam weapon that they had used is sure to cause a commotion. I’m sure that in and of itself will do more to your cause of inspiring others than simply them continuing to survive.”

(LG) “I suppose, but you 4 didn’t even know about it until they used it, right?”

(JZF) “Well...yea, hahaha.”

(JY) “Worry not, even with the brief exposure that we had with them, we are fairly certain that they will go on to do great things, it just might take some time.”

(LG) “They were nicknamed the hidden gems for a reason because we need to polish them before they get swallowed up by the other factions.”

(XF) “We tried to get Baron aboard with us, but he declined saying that he wanted to form his own faction. Same with Zhang Da Zhi but he wanted to create 3 within the faction selection tournament, so we didn’t even bother with him.”

(LG) “Is that so. They ruined such a great opportunity by not joining you guys, and they will for sure reject my proposal if they didn’t care for yours. It’s a shame, but there is not much we can do to make them more powerful, it’s all up to them now.”