Sam looked at the shield, noticing that it possessed physical features now, with a spike in the middle, likely for retaliating against enemies. As a bolt of energy came his way from a nearby alien, he set his shield in its path. The bolt hit it, and then ricocheted off, hitting the alien that had sent it. Sam raised one eyebrow. It had increased in power by a lot more than he had expected.

Sam bull rushed forwards, using his shield to crush the fighters in front of him. They were sent sprawling to the ground, crying out in dismay, and Sam kept going, using his superior strength to bulldoze the horde in front of him. His shield was taking damage, but he was able to replenish it easily enough with his stores of elemental energy, which was close to full after having been used for such little time during this fight.

Sam banished the shield, smiling. It had been exactly what he had wanted. A way to prevent himself from being hit. He had his healing ability of course, but using it was clunky and awkward, seeing as he had not created it himself, and it was not exactly a pleasant experience to use it. If he was to truly master it, he would need to upgrade the skill and make it his own. Doing so would both increase its power and his control over it, a win-win situation in every sense of the word. He would gain great power from such a thing, and hopefully a way to increase his staying power in terms of battlefield healing. However, he was far away from that for now, and he was still unsure of how long he was supposed to fight here. Surely Manarox did not expect him to turn the tides of the battle on his own, did he?

However, the other man was still fighting over on the other side of the enemy horde, and was not available to question. Soon, Sam was hard pressed to keep fighting against the endless tides of aliens, and only the small number of Grakoth around him were helping to stem the tide. He could see that Manarox was starting to flag too, and he slowly began to make his way over to the man, wanting to see what the plan was. None of these aliens would be able to defeat him individually, but they would eventually be able to wear down his health and stamina to a point that he would be unable to fight any longer. There was only so much a person of the same rank could do to such a large army.

Someone like Gordanus could probably take out millions of these fighters, if not all of them, but Sam was not Gordanus, and neither was Manarox. As he reached the other man, he could see that the Grakoth was a lot worse off than he was pretending to be.

“Are you throwing in the towel now?” Manarox asked, trying to conceal the fatigue in his voice.

“You seem to be nearing the end of your stamina as well,” Sam responded, not bothering to hide how tired he was.

“So you saw through my pretense. My count is 27,354,” Manarox responded as he brained one of the nearby aliens with the flat of his sword. “Make that 27,355.”

Unlike Sam, the man had not lost count of his killstreak, and it was very impressive. To be able to kill tens of thousands of fighters who were only about twenty or thirty levels lower than oneself was insanely rare. Sam had not kept note of his killstreak, and he did not rally care. He knew that he had made a good showing of himself, which was all that mattered. The whole point of this was to prove his strength to his new allies, and he had certainly done so.

The corpses of thousands lay behind him, creating bulwarks of flesh across the battlefield. The corpses lay stacked on top of one another, and they were visible from hundreds of feet away. The living enemies seemed to avoid the area, not wanting to touch their dead comrades.

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Manarox sighed, and pointed one finger towards the sky, sending up a beam of light. A moment later, a tractor beam touched down and lifted the two men towards the capital ship hovering above. As they ascended, they could see the nearby armies rushing in towards the beam. However, it receded with their movement, meaning that none of the enemy soldiers were successful in reaching their goal. They reached the ship a few moments later, and embarked, heading into the same deck that they had arrived in the first time. As they stepped out of the beam, Manarox grinned at Sam.

“That was a most impressive showing, Sam. You have certainly proven to be an ally worthy of respect. Now that you have proven yourself, we are able to enter into a compact.”

“Very well. Extend the invitation then,” Sam replied.

Manarox nodded, and a moment later a notification appeared in front of him.

Representative General Manarox of the Almighty Grakoth Empire(High F Rank Faction) wishes to enter an alliance with your faction.

Accept?

Y/N

Sam hit yet, and he could feel a bond form between him and Manarox, tethering their factions together inextricably. A moment later, more text scrolled into his vision.

As a member of an alliance with an Arch Faction within this universe(Population Supremacy), and as the leader of another Arch Faction(Dao Supremacy), your factions will gain passive bonuses from one another as long as you are in accordance.

The Almighty Grakoth Empire will receive +10 percent Dao comprehension speed to all Captain rank individuals and above.

The Arbiters of Justice will receive +10 percent power while fighting against a larger force.

The notification was unexpected, but very welcome, and it seemed like Manarox, for once, was lost for words. Sam could tell that the other man had gotten more out of the deal than his own faction had, but it was of no concern to him. It was merely the way that the System worked.

It seemed that factions were ranked by unseen requirements that did not show up naturally. Sam’s was bolstered by his status as the first Dao wielder within the universe, as well as the most powerful one, and Manarox’s faction was propped up by its sheer weight of numbers. That led him to wonder just how many people were within Manarox’s faction.

“Manarox?”

“Yes?”

“What did your faction have to do to fulfill the Manpower Supremacy requirement?” Sam asked.

“To tell the truth, I had no idea of the existence of Arch Factions before now, but I suspect that it is to do with how many citizens were left of the old empire. My people once spread across an entire quarter of the Andromeda Galaxy, and although our numbers were diminished by the coming of the System, there are still untold numbers contained within it. However, I only count the fighters most of the time.”

“The Andromeda Galaxy? Is that where we are?” Sam asked, realizing that he was a long way from home. He had thought that he was still close to Earth, but he was actually millions of light years away from his home planet. That ring had sent him a lot further than he had expected. Perhaps it was done this way to avoid interference from other factions.

“Of course. Did you not know?” Manarox asked, looking askance at Sam.

“No. I had thought that I was closer to home. I suppose that makes sense, given that I had never heard of your race before. If there had been such a large empire near Earth, we would have known about it sooner than now.”

“Wherever you come from is not the center of the universe, Sam. My people learned that the hard way eons ago when we first spread to the stars and found that they were not the dark and lonely place that we had expected. The universe teems with life, some of it more powerful than anything we ever dreamed of. Even before the System, this universe was filled with wonders. Planet sized cetaceans swimming through the ether. Civilizations so advanced that they had tamed the power of their suns. Some that had even begun to use the energy of black holes to power their worlds. However, there was one thing that we found. War is universal.”