Floating Islands: SSS Gacha Lord-Chapter 351 - Blinding Gale

Several days passed as Atlas and his alliance continued coordinating daily, striking the enemy as efficiently and effectively as possible. Even though they could no longer wipe out enemy forces as quickly as Atlas had during the first ambush. Mainly because the opposing side was far more alert now.

The strategy still worked. Altogether, they managed to eliminate around 600 more enemy troops.

At last, the long-awaited day arrived. A sequence of system messages appeared, confirming the start of the next great phase.

[The Dominion Convergence – Official Commencement]

[The time has come. Prove which alliance stands as the strongest and most unified. Dominate the battlefield through strategy, coordination, and will.]

[Event Rules:]

[ - Qualified Lords must unite under a single alliance banner and register one representative. A minimum of 8 Lords is required to participate.]

[ - Lords who choose not to participate will receive a compensation reward of +50 Rank Points.]

[ - Demonstrate your power. The victor of this first round will earn an Arcane-grade Artifact.]

[ - Winners will also gain access to the next round Event Series, where the rewards escalate greatly. Including the chance to obtain Divine-grade Artifacts.]

[ - Remember: victory alone is not enough. Your score, efficiency, and performance determine your final ranking.]

[ - Prepare your troops. Every order and every strike will shape the outcome.]

[Good luck, Challenger.]

Atlas closed the interface, exhaling slowly. The real beginning was finally here.

The reward for this event was an Arcane-grade Artifact! It stood two tiers above Legendary-grade, since beyond Legendary lay the Mythic-grade.

Even more astonishing, the champion of this first event would advance to the next, far greater challenge, with the potential to earn a Divine-grade Artifact?!

"Have you ever laid your hand on something like that, Edrik?"

"My lord, I have only ever owned an item of Arcane-grade, and even that was incredibly game changing when used with the right mastery. So yes, I am certain that with a reward this grand, the competition will become far tighter, and alliances that once thought of stepping back will likely reconsider and join the event again."

Considering that before being summoned by Atlas, Edrik had been a rank-5 Guardian, with his level somewhere between 250 and 300, it made sense that he already had access to Arcane-grade items. But Divine-grade? What kind of abilities could someone possibly wield with an artifact of that level?

But just like in the normal lord battle events, the score from the overall performance would determine the final rewards as well. This time, if Atlas truly wanted to claim the best prize, he had to make sure he secured the best score possible.

Like aiming for at least an S score, or even higher than that. He was fully determined to reach it.

Atlas then stood and coordinated again with all the lords in the room. At that moment, he had also registered their alliance under the name The Vanguard Dominion, consisting of 12 Lords. Yes, only 12, not 13. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Atlas had another major plan in mind, one that required excluding one lord from the original 13 lords for this event.

He immediately reviewed the list of all alliances that had signed up. There were thousands of them, and that was only among rank-2 alliances. If the ones mixed with rank-2 and rank-3 were included, the total number would easily double.

Normally, one alliance could only challenge another alliance with equal or higher calculated battle power. So they could not challenge anyone weaker than themselves.

And at that moment, Atlas noticed that Bolin’s alliance was also listed there.

"The challenge phase will be open for one month, so we have one month to make the most of it," he said.

"Are you sure Bolin will wait for us in this situation, Atlas?" someone asked afterward.

"They don’t have any other choice but to wait, especially if they know we’re still on the available list. Whatever the case, they’ll wait," he confirmed.

**

There were several rules that governed how the transfer of resources from one island to another was handled. For example, once a lord entered an official event, they could no longer send resources.

At this stage, especially when they had already found the alliance opponent they would face, all transfers became restricted.

Because of that, it meant they had one full month to move resources to other islands, as long as everything was returned before the official challenge was accepted. Once the challenge began, every resource and troop had to be back on each lord’s own island.

That day, Atlas and all the lords in the alliance planned to transfer their strongest forces to one island owned by one of the lords on the alliance.

The process soon began, and after a few hours, Atlas found himself on an island covered in wide fields of grass and rolling hills, with no visible buildings or structures on the surface. In truth, every structure on this island was hidden underground.

This was the floating island owned by Kaeris the Wind Spirit. She was gifted with the system ability B-Rank Blinding Gale.

He stood on a tall hill as one by one the lords began appearing near him. A young woman, looking like she was in her early twenties, with short green hair and a bright, cheerful face, floated toward him. Her light armor and white-and-green dress with a white skirt drifted gently around her as she hovered in the air.

"Atlas, I’m so happy you included me in this huge operation. I feel both thrilled and a little overwhelmed," she said with a soft laugh, gliding closer until her face was quite near his, simply because she could float so freely.

"Kaeris, we’re all going to trouble you for the next month with four thousand forces from the other twelve lords staying on this floating island."

"No, not at all... I’ll be more than happy. This is an incredible honor, and I’m ready to support this alliance’s big mission with everything I have," she said, her cheerful expression unwavering.

So the plan was simple: after each lord selected their forces, the total came to four thousand units, including Atlas’s own four hundred troops that he contributed to the operation. All of them would stay on Kaeris’s floating island, with one main objective: reach level 160 within one month.

And why Kaeris?

Because even though her ability was only rank B, allowing her to generate cutting winds that obscure vision and reduce the precision of enemies fighting within the affected zones, that was only her main battle skill.

There was another feature tied to her ability: she could move her floating island at speeds many times faster than a normal floating island. She could even hide it behind a wind barrier created through the special structures built on her island.

So, simply put, this floating island was a massive fast-moving vehicle that could travel quickly while staying well protected.

With four thousand forces joining this expedition, plus Kaeris’s original troops, Atlas planned to take the floating island to the Pan-African Leagues, where he had already marked around two hundred unoccupied floating islands to raid and exploit as much as possible.

This would massively boost the levels of every force under the alliance.

During a large event like this, most lords tended to reduce their hunting activities, making this the perfect and safest time to launch the operation. And because Atlas had only registered twelve lords for this event, any opponents who tried scouting would not suspect anything when they saw only twelve floating islands belonging to the twelve lords in his alliance.

Atlas stayed inside a structure that was surprisingly comfortable, with couches, full facilities, and four large magic screens lining the walls. Each screens displayed a view from a different direction, along with a radar showing the territory they were passing through.

"How long until we reach our destination, Kaeris?" he asked.

The wind spirit continued floating as she always did, never once setting her feet on the ground. Though strangely, she still wore shoes.

"Twelve hours, Atlas. This is going to be a very fun trip. Fasten your seatbelts, get some sleep or do whatever you need, the great flight will begin soon!" she announced with bright enthusiasm.

Right after all the combatants were fully transferred to the island, and the six lords selected by Atlas boarded for the expedition, the floating island immediately began to move, shooting away at high speed from the area where the rest of the alliance’s lords remained.

There was no significant difference felt while staying inside this floating island. It was as if the island wasn’t moving at all, even though the magic screens clearly showed that it was speeding forward at an incredible pace, far faster than Luna’s floating carriage.

The real question was whether the resources they hunted with this many forces would be enough to push them to at least level 150 within a month.

That was why Tessa was also in the room, ready to explain their plan in greater detail. They would quite literally work day and night without pause to reach this goal.

If they wanted to surpass every other alliance out there, then they had to put in far more effort than anyone else, and they all understood that clearly!