Ryker didn't enter combat just yet. In case of the enemy having positioned a Genesis Source expert in the city, a very likely possibility, he had to prepare for them.
In the meantime, he remained watching over the rest of his troops battling the defenders of the Fortress City, which is currently in their favor.
Normally, they would be suppressed by the defensive formations of the city, but their bushes plus the concentrated attack on the formations rendered it weak, if not unusable.
As such, they can maintain their superiority over their enemies. While there were some losses, it was still in the tolerable range, one of the reasons why Ryker didn't interfere yet.
As he watched over the combat zone, he could sense a powerful aura emerging from the Fortress City.
"So, the big guy couldn't hold himself,"
-x-
As the Mariz Barony Elites rampaged across the city, suddenly, they felt a powerful aura enveloping the entire city. It didn't take a genius to realize the Genesis Source expert of the city had decided to show themselves.
Some of the more unfortunate elites, were too close to the Genesis Source expert position, making them the first to be targeted and killed by the expert. As for the rest, they disengaged from their current opponent and made a mass dash to the outer part of the city.
"Where do you think you are going?!" A thunderous voice roared, a powerful aura heading towards them all. Before they could despair over their perceived death, another aura appeared and engaged with the enemy's aura, stopping it from harming them.
The elites took the chance to flee while the aura was stopped. The Genesis Source expert soon flies towards the outer part of the city, looking at the flying expert with a frown.
"Are you with the Mariz Barony?" He asked, the other expert laughing when he heard the question.
"Why are you asking a question with such an obvious answer?" The other man replied playfully.
The Genesis Source expert snorted before swinging his spear at the other person without another word. For his part, Ryker calmly evaded the attack before doing a small jab to his opponent, which was avoided by his opponent in a nonchalant manner.
After the little bout, they both retreated, trying to assess their opponent's strength. The Genesis Source expert said with a frown to his men, "Repair the formations, if they attack again it would likely destroy it, making our hold on this fortress weakened and unable to stop their advance,"
The other experts defending the Fortress City gave him a court nod before entering the city. Meanwhile, Ryker looked at the entire exchange with a frown, "When I attack the expert, I want you to attack with full force on the location formations. Focus on those for now. After you destroy it then you can head to the other important target,"
His men nodded at his words before they quickly formed up and created a battle formation consisting of all the survivors of the first assault. While the strength they could unleash would be weaker than a Genesis Source expert, they could still protect themselves from the attack of the enemy's most powerful expert for a time.
Seeing his men already creating the battle formation, Ryker flew towards his opponent, the other men quickly retreated into the city to gain some advantage. However, Ryker didn't let him as he was able to speed up using the Law of Wind and get behind his opponent.
Surprised by his opponent's speed, the Genesis Source expert could barely stop himself from crashing towards Ryker. This allowed Ryker to take the chance to hit his opponent, the blow, while not too strong, still caused some injuries judging by how the other man staggered backward.
While he was holding the expert back, his men quickly took the chance to enter the city. The expert, realizing what they were up to, unleashed one of his strongest attacks towards them.
The elites froze, feeling as if they were ant about to be squished as the attack fell upon them. Before the attack could hit them, Ryker appeared in front of them, his skin turned hard and gravelly. The attack hit him, the shockwave sending his men further into the city, but with no other harm.
As for Ryker, besides some of the outer layer of his defense cracking and being blown away by a little bit, he escaped relatively unscathed.
Relaxing that some of the enemies entered the city, the expert tried to enter it but was blocked by Ryker who gave the man an unimpressed look.
"Do you think I will let you get inside?" He mockingly said. The other expert replied with a snarl, "How long can someone like you, a Genesis Core expert, maintain the power of a Genesis Source expert? Sooner or later, you will likely die from using a forbidden technique, so I could just wait it out,"
"Oh," Ryker said in amusement. To hear one of his opponents think he used a forbidden technique that consumed his life force to gain strength equivalent to a Genesis Source expert. While such conjuncture made sense, it was plain wrong as Ryker did not practice any such technique in the first place.
"In that case, let us keep this little stalemate then," while fighting against such an opponent is something that would rarely happen, he still has the mind to finish his mission, with as few casualties as possible.
The two then performed the cultivator equivalent of a staring contest, as they both maintained their position, waiting.
For Ryker, it was for his men to finish their part of the mission while for the Genesis Source expert, it was to wait for Ryker to keel over and die from the forbidden technique.
-x-
While the two strongest experts maintained their little stalemate, their remaining subordinates engaged in an intense fight in the part of the city.
The strongest expert inside the city was Ryker's second in command, a peak Genesis Core expert, who currently engaging with two experts at the 9th Stage Genesis Core.
Despite being outnumbered, the man was the one to have the advantage, as the difference between the peak of a major realm and the 9th Stage is just too wide if you are a regular expert and not a monster like Ryker.
Likewise, the forces of the Mariz Barony was the one to hold the advantage, though the Esel forces kept a strong and resolute defense on the target they were supposed to destroy.
It didn't take much brain power to know that the opponent was stalling for the formation to be repaired. Knowing they could not let such a thing happen, he ordered a more concentrated assault, hoping to destroy the enemies' formations once and for all.