Entering the city hall, he made his way down the richly carpeted corridors, and into the war room. There were always a few of the captains in the city hall, either dealing with some measure of urban planning, or working around the demands of the citizens. Today, all of them were unfamiliar to him. There were three aliens, and one of the human captains that he had picked on recommendation. As soon as he entered, they stood to attention, and saluted.

“Faction Leader!” They said, snapping to it.

“At ease, captains. Any progress on finding the other Titans?” Sam said.

“Yes. Would you like to hear the full report? Our surveillance networks have found the true names for all of them as well,” one of the alien captains replied, seeming pleased with the progress. As soon as Sam nodded, he continued. “Two of them are in the U.S, with both of them having attacked the faction headquarters of the other two factions of Earth. The Flood Titan devastated Kane City, and the Solar Titan drove the Overlord out of his canyon stronghold. However, we witnessed a massive energy spike coming from that location, and saw the Overlord use an attack that seemed far more powerful than anything he should have had access to. It almost looked like an Ancient skill.”

“What exactly did it look like?” Sam asked, intrigued.

The Overlord was an enigma wrapped in a mystery, and his skills were just as mysterious. He was able to leverage the concept of Supremacy in ways that required immense imagination, yet also acted like a brute at times.

“An explosion of red light, with the Dao signature of the Overlord. It pierced the clouds, and dealt a good amount of damage to the Titan. Even though he is our enemy, I am impressed.”

It seemed that the Overlord had not been idle during the time Sam had been away. The other man had not used his training token yet, which meant that he could potentially become far stronger. Sam was still a bit ahead, what with his teleportation skill and finisher, but the gap was one that could be narrowed easily enough.

“What of the other Titans?”

“Three of them are in Europe, three in Africa, and four in Asia. Gaea seems to be content to remain in the Atlantic, off the coast of France for now. However, she is slowly moving towards the Mediterranean. She is gathering power from something, as our satellites can see the water bubbling, as if intense heat is being challenged through it.”

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“Well, the Flood Titan seems to be the biggest threat as of now. What intel do you have on it? Strengths, weaknesses, etc.”

“It is almost impossible to damage without some sort of energy ability. Dao energy works best, from what we were able to tell, given that it has the same weakness in that area as the Corpse Titan had. However, Earth elemental energy, or Fire in sufficient quantity would also be able to harm it more than normal. Right now, the monster is about two thousand miles away, but with its size, it could close the gap very quickly. As its body is made entirely of water, it can also merge with rivers and clouds to transport itself great distances.”

“So we’re sandwiched between two Titans? You said that the other factions were forced to flee. Where exactly are they now?”

“The Overlord and Rodney Kane seem to have been content to cut their losses. Both of them make up the majority of the strength of their factions. As for the other top ten tournament finishers, other than the ones we have here, they remain unaccounted for.”

Sam nodded, and thought over his options. With the strength of the city fortifications, that meant that they would be better served to wait for the Titans to come to them. Hunting them down would mean putting together a task force, and embarking upon a possible deadly expedition to find a monster that could easily kill them. With the protection of the city, especially considering that the other Titans were unlikely to be summoners like the Corpse Titan, it would be a lot easier. However, it would be smart to send out an advance force to lure the Titans back.

In addition, it would be in their interest to upgrade the city defenses some more with all of the money that they would be pulling in from the Corpse Titan parts. That would be enough to upgrade the shield some more, and increase the power of the city’s armaments. At that point, the city would be far better equipped to deal with the Titans. However, the other Titans were likely more individually powerful than the Corpse Titan had been, as they were not Dao based summoners. Sure, they could probably create minor elementals, but that was not the same thing as summoning actual undead out of nothing. When the next Titan came, the defenses would need to be ready.

Sam listened to the rest of the briefing, and then headed towards the Metropolis Core. It was time to check what exactly he could upgrade. He walked through the ornately decorated hallways of the governing building, and reached the Core a few minutes later. He laid his hands on it, and connected with the interface. There were a sizable amount of credits within the treasury, enough to buy quite a bit. However, what Sam was really interested in were upgrades to the existing defenses. The wall and its lava moat had been rapidly overshadowed by the strength of the monsters of Earth, and Sam wanted to make them relevant again.

Spending a hair under twenty five million credits on them, he upgraded the walls to double their height and width, as well as upgrading the lava moat to a plasma moat. Now, instead of molten rock, it would be filled with ionized gas that was far hotter than any lava could be. Any monster stepping in there would be in for a nasty surprise.