Death... and me

After having decided that, Roan took his War Points and left. He knew that Tixa probably had many questions in her head, but he wasn't about to go tell her anything anyway. Instead, Roan was more interested in Rean's performance during the five days since they arrived. 'How's it going? Are you making enough points?'

Rean, who was using Healing Aura on another batch, immediately nodded, responding, 'But of course! I've accumulated about 20200 points until now. They're bringing batches of 200 cultivators for me to work on every time, so it's always 200 points. They're even giving me Rank One Divine Stones to recover my Divine Soul Power faster. If not because my Healing Aura uses a huge amount of Divine Soul Power, I would have much more now.'

Roan wasn't surprised by that. At a war of this scale, Rean simply wouldn't need to worry about running out of injured people to take care of. In fact, even 100 Reans wouldn't be enough to take care of everyone to start with. 'Good, you're earning faster than me. I got 12740 points during the days I was out. In any case, I should be able to increase the amount now, so just continue focusing on the points. Kentucky and Celis are cultivating in our stead anyway.'

Rean nodded. 'Sure. Just don't go die out there as I'll die as well.'

Roan ignored Rean's final statement as he returned to his battalion. According to his and Tixa's agreement, he would be the second in command of these people, so he decided that they should change the way they work to optimize how they gained points. "Listen up, we're going to spend our time following a training schedule I devised. I already obtained Tixa's permission, so follow my orders. I'm now the second in command of this battalion."

"What?!" Everyone was taken aback.

"Bullshit!"

"There's no way you became second in command!"

"I won't follow the orders of some Initial Stage Saint weakling."

"You just got lucky during the last battle. Do you think you can repeat what you did again?"

Suddenly, Tixa's voice echoed in the entire battalion's ears. "Shut up! He's telling the truth. From now on, he's second in command. Don't judge him for his cultivation, as you have no idea where he came from. Those who complain will be sent to other battalions. That's all I'll say."

If they were surprised before, they were now left aghast. The only ones who didn't seem to care were the ones who fought with Roan in the previous battle. They knew very well that Roan's abilities weren't a fluke. If anything, they were unhappy that the source of their war points was now having to control the rest of the battalion instead of them alone.

Even though Roan said they would need to follow his commands, the war wouldn't wait for them. Because of that, his training only followed the most basic parts of his strategies. If he really wanted a perfect team for offensives, it would take several weeks until they could perform to his liking. Naturally, he didn't have that time. 

Tixa then asked Roan through Divine Sense. 'What do you plan to make with my battalion?'

Roan looked at her before replying, 'For now, I'll devise a training regimen that will first focus on survivability. To make the perfect team for offensive, I can't have too many people being swapped by new cultivators every time a battle is over. Last time, our battalion lost 30% of its forces, so I'm aiming for 5% or less this time.'

'5%?! Is that even possible?!' Tixa was amazed by Roan's words. 'No, wait! Even if you can achieve 5%, will you be able to accomplish the objective in that case? It's through the sacrifices that we achieve our powerful offensive, you know?'

Roan nodded, saying, 'It's hard since I probably only have two or three days to whip them up into shape, forming the basic form at the very least. In any case, it should be possible to at least not repeat your grievous amount of losses.'

Tixa narrowed her eyes in response, feeling like Roan was blaming her. Well, he truly was. It's just that he didn't have the patience to discuss it.

Roan then looked at the cultivators and began to issue his commands. "Before, we had several groups with 50 cultivators forming each group. From now on, I want small groups of ten people, with one leader among them. Then, I want ten small groups to form one large group, consisting of a hundred people. Finally, ten large groups of one hundred will form, having me as their commander. There are still more cultivators coming to replace the dead people of the last battle. In any case, our division should have something around 3500 people. Because of that, I'll form one elite group that will have 500 people while the others will take on a more supportive role."

Sure enough, more new Dark Element manipulators kept arriving to replace the dead. The difference was that now, Roan didn't send any of them away. He had his uses for each type of Dark Element user, even if they weren't good at concealing. Tixa found it strange at first. However, after witnessing his training methods, she finally understood that those bad at concealing could still work well as long as their positioning was good.

Well, Roan kept complaining about them all from start to finish, though. It was as if everything they did was wrong, to the point that to them, their existence was wrong. Tixa wondered if her division would end up hating Roan. In the end, she could only stay to ensure that they would follow his order at the risk of severe punishment if they didn't.

Eventually, three days later, Tixa's division was called once more. This time, however, Tixa shared their objective with Roan instead of being the only one to know where they were going.

However, after checking the battle information and what his division was supposed to do, Roan's expression turned darker than usual.