Ever since Boshita left the Lunaria Squad, Jose had been searching all over the map for him like an obsessed lunatic.
This behavior of using the entire group's resources to settle his private grudge had gradually sparked dissatisfaction among the Sund God's players, who felt their time was being wasted.
"Everyone joined you because they wanted to survive until the end and win the competition. But look at you now, instead of doing anything productive, you spend all day searching the map for one person!!"
It wasn't just him searching either. He even mobilized the entire group to look for Boshita.
Two riders on Velociraptors were weaving through the dense forest on yet another fruitless patrol. Sunlight filtered through the thick canopy and fell on their impatient faces, and it was clear they were long tired of this aimless searching.
"Damn it, this stupid forest again!" The rider on the left yanked his reins in frustration.
"We've been looking for that Marine Elf for almost half a month, and we haven't found a single trace of him!"
Hearing this, the rider on the right also loosened his reins and let the Velociraptor stop under a giant tree to rest. His eyes were also filled with resentment at the wasted time.
"More than that, just look at the Berserker Alliance. While we've been wandering around like idiots, they've continued their doings and are now incredibly powerful."
"And then there's us, venturing into the forests and eating wild fruit every day. How are we supposed to win the competition like this?"
The two of them went back and forth while venting their frustration.
They had joined the Sun Gods for the sake of winning the competition and claiming the prize. Who would want to follow Jose on some personal vendetta manhunt?
"If we keep following him like this, we'll eventually be slaughtered."
The rider on the left gnashed his teeth.
"Rather than waiting for death like this, I heard the Berserker Alliance is currently recruiting new members. Why don't we just go all the way and..."
The rider on the right's pupils shrank, and he reflexively looked around in alarm. After confirming there were only the two of them in the dense forest, he leaned in closer.
"Are you crazy? Aren't you afraid of the leader finding out!?"
Jose also had a faction loyal to him since they knew him from Real life, specifically the group that had migrated down from the north earlier after their defeat.
So the two were merely conspiring at this point without acting on it.
At this moment, a conspiracy was starting to brew in the shadows of the tribe.
Currently, there were only about three hundred players remaining on the entire Island after months of brutal competition.
The power structure had become clear and relatively stable.
The Berserker Alliance, through aggressive expansion and conquest, firmly held the top spot with eighty members under their banner.
The Lunaria Squad, after taking in the survivors of Peace Camp, reached sixty members. With its solid defenses and resource reserves, its strength was also not to be underestimated by anyone.
The Sun Gods, due to Jose's obsessive internal friction, had about fifty people but were somewhat demoralized and restless.
The Holy Sword Tribe had the fewest members, with only about forty, but with Nautia's Giganotosaurus, no one dared to underestimate them easily.
Meanwhile, the main dinosaur teams of the major powers had already taken shape through careful breeding.
Progress in the caves was significant across all factions, and various Artifacts had been collected from dangerous locations. However, due to the overlapping territories of all the factions, no one's progress in the boss arenas was very advanced yet.
First, they were afraid of being ambushed while challenging a boss in their weakened state. Second, the boss arenas and the caves were located within the territories of different factions, so moving a large force was impossible without being detected.
Just as the various factions were briefly silent while secretly accumulating strength for the endgame, the Berserker Alliance suddenly broke the peace and launched a new round of annexation plans.
Rows of war beasts were already prepared and ready for deployment.
And then, they went ahead and did it. They declared war on the Holy Sword Trube publicly.
Immediately after, the Holy Sword Tribe announced its alliance with the Lunaria Squad to jointly resist the Berserker Alliance's threat.
But no one expected the Berserker Alliance's next move.
Less than an hour after the declaration of war was issued, the war beast legion that was supposedly heading west suddenly changed direction and pounced toward the Sun God's camp instead!
Everyone was stunned by this deceptive move.
Jose was caught even more off guard by the sudden attack.
"Those bastards from the Berserker Alliance are playing dirty!" He immediately cursed on the World Channel for all to see.
As a neutral faction, he hadn't expected to be targeted first in this conflict. In haste, he began to establish a quick defense of his territory.
At the Lunaria camp, Rowan and Carter were somewhat amused by the development.
"Let them fight each other. It's better if they both end up wounded and weakened."
They did not choose to reinforce either side. Instead, they chose to stand by and watch while hoping the two sides would wear each other down through attrition.
That way, the Berserker Alliance's strength would also be depleted somewhat before any confrontation.
Inside the Sun God's camp, chaos had already broken out as the attackers arrived.
The two sides soon engaged in vicious battle across the defensive perimeter.
Jose commanded his tribe's players to resist with everything they had, and as the two sides became locked in a stalemate, defensive turrets spat tongues of fire while platform saddles in the distance mounted with cannons and other siege weapons continuously poured out ammunition.
Screams, sounds of slaughter, and the roar of artillery fire intertwined into chaos.
The two sides were evenly matched in strength, but the Sun God's defensive works were built to be extremely tough through careful planning. Relying on his familiarity with the camp's defenses, Jose managed to stabilize his position against the assault.
Just as he was calculating how to organize a counterattack that would drive them back, a sudden change occurred on the battlefield.
At the critical moment, the traitors who had already colluded in secret suddenly turned their weapons and pointed them at their own people.
"You guys..." Jose was shocked beyond words.
He originally had the confidence to resist the Berserker Alliance attack, but he never expected such treachery to happen at the critical moment when victory seemed possible.
By now, many people had turned traitor and caught him completely off guard.
"Brothers, there's only a future if we follow the Berserker Alliance! Kill them!" The traitors took the opportunity to cause chaos within the camp while coordinating themselves with the Berserker players to tear the Sun God's defensive line to shreds.
Dozens of Tyrannosaurus Rexes roared as they charged into the camp, and their massive feet crushed the camp's perimeter walls.
"Hold the line!" Jose shouted desperately.
"Leader, we can't hold it anymore! Let's ditch them! As long as we live, there's hope!"
Not everyone in the camp had rebelled against him. As the leader of the Sun Gods, although Jose had his own selfish motives from the start of the competition, he was truly beyond reproach in other aspects regarding the welfare of his tribe's players.
He never used the Implant cores harvested from kills for himself. He distributed almost all of them to his subordinates to support his members.
Coupled with a group of players who were already extremely hostile toward the Berserker Alliance from past conflicts, a core group of players was still putting up a stubborn resistance at this moment.
"Go! Flee through the back gate!" Jose steeled himself and led his remaining loyal subordinates toward the camp's back gate in retreat.
To cover his escape, those core subordinates voluntarily slowed their main battle dinosaurs and formed a living wall to firmly block the pursuing Berserker players and traitors.
"Leader, go quickly! We'll cover the rear!" they shouted with determination.
Jose looked back to see his most trusted subordinates fighting a desperate battle while resisting the enemy forces at great cost. His eyes were bloodshot, and he almost shed tears at their sacrifice.
He had originally only treated this competition as a game for fun and prizes. At this moment, however, his heart felt exceptionally heavy with the weight of his first real loss.
But he still steeled himself and quickly fled into the distance without looking back again.
The airspace had already been blockaded by the Berserker Alliance players on flying mounts. He did not choose to escape on a Pteranodon or Argentavis, since they would be easily spotted.
Instead, he rode a very fast Velociraptor and quickly dove into the dense forest where the canopy would hide him.
Inside the camp behind him, the flames of war gradually subsided and left only a mess of ruins behind.
Sry guys, I genuinely forgot to post yesterday. Sorrryyyyyyyyyy