Operation Ground and Pound

Proudmaw and Ramson were nearly standing back to back as waves of rats recklessly charged towards them. The piled up corpses of rat beastkin littered the ground as living rats ran over them to swarm their target. Proudmaw held his sword and shield while Ramson expertly wielded his large war hammer while defending their position. Most of the wave of rats were fodder used to create chaos and opportunities, and it had been successful a handful of times.

Both Proudmaw and Ramson had done their best to control the situation, but the occasional rat beastkin of a higher realm or sneak attacks by Void eyes had left the two with several injuries.

Soon, the current wave of rats thinned out, and the two took the time to drink elixirs to heal themselves and restore their stamina. As they stood their ground preparing for the next wave, a voice spoke to them, "I wonder how much longer you will hold out for, my friends."

"Void eyes!", Proudmaw shouted angrily, "First you attack our cities, and now you're bold enough to attack us? Stop this madness, or else face the wrath of the ancients!"

Hidden in the shadows, a rat beastkin with grey fur wearing dark clothing watched her two targets doing their best to recover from the multiple attacks. Her black eyes that she was named after were two obsidian orbs that didn't reflect the light stared at the two as she considered her actions. She was already angry that part of her army had been destroyed by these men, but as the holder of the stone of the rat, she was also aware if she pressed too far, there would be consequences.

"Send the next wave", she told her closest attendant.

"Master Void eyes", the attendant replied, "all the weakest fodder has been slain."

"Then send the ones above the weakest", she sharply relied, "Don't hold back so many off our stronger soldiers."

"As you command", the attendant ran off to pass her orders to the troops.

Proudmaw and Ramson soon heard the footsteps of the next wave approaching, so they readied their weapons and stood up.

Three more waves of rats had attacked the pair, each one slightly stronger than the last, and the repeated injuries was finally affecting the performance of the defenders.

"Something is wrong, Proudmaw", Ramson said, "I've fought in similar circumstances before, but didn't feel this tired before."

Proudmaw took a moment to smell the air, and even though blood was the strongest scent, he now discovered a very light scent that wasn't detected before.

"She poisoned us", Proudmaw informed Ramson, "Most likely very small amounts of poison were on the bodies of her army. Each time we killed them, it was released in the air until it accumulated enough to affect us."

"Very well done, Commander", Void eyes praised him as she finally made her appearance.

She slowly made her way across the field, pulling two bone daggers out of their sheaths, and carefully avoiding the bodies strewn about.

"If you're feeling the effects now, it won't be long before you are unable to move", she narrated as she twirled the daggers, "It will be easy to slit your throat, and collect your belongings. Then I can simply kidnap and raise other holders of the stone, but they will be under my control."

Just as she was about to reach the pair, she felt a huge amount of energy from Proudmaw and Ramson. When she realized that the stones they held were activating, she knew her gambled had failed. Void eyes had hoped that by poisoning the two, she could prevent them from triggering the final defensive form. But she didn't know that the stone had a will of its own, and could initiate the final form in self defense.

As the two began to change, Void eyes made the decision to run and hide. Even if they changed now, the last resort would consume the host, and she could take the stones afterwards. She turned to leave the area and find a new place to hide only to feel a painful impact as a metallic puppet slammed into her and flew towards the closest mountain.

Chief Bloodclaw, Elder Tidehunter, the wolves , and the merfolk arrived at the battlefield just in time to witness the transformation of their main target and one unexpected target. Their change complete, Proudmaw was now a giant dog with three heads, and Ramson was a giant ram, but he now had multiple sets of horns compared to the single set sheep normally have. Some of the horns curved forward, others pointed up, pointed backwards, or went to the sides.

"Everyone close their eyes", yelled Elder Tidehunter, "I'm throwing a thunderflash talisman!"

All the wolves and merfolk closed their eyes as Tiderhunter tossed the talisman in the air. Proudmaw and Ramson watched the talisman fly through the air, and was about to attack the new group of beastkin in retaliation when their vision went white, and their ears began ringing. Ramson immediately panicked as his sight and hearing was useless at the point, so he immediately charged forward randomly shaking his head, hoping to stab something by luck. The wolf chief howled, providing instructions to his fellow wolves, as well as, a strengthening enhancement to the pack. The other wolves answered the call, and the pack chased the impaired sheep ancient.

Tidehunter took one look at the departing wolves before summoning an array disk from his storage. He planned on setting up the capture formation while the three headed dog was blind. He raised his head to check on the target, only to realize in horror that the middle head was looking at him and preparing to attack.

Elder Tidehunter quickly dodge to the right while issuing a warning, "The middle head isn't blinded, dodge now!"

A stream of mostly clear liquid shot from the mouth of the middle head as all the merfolk in the line of fire quickly dodged. As the substance hit the ground, everything it touched bloomed in white as the temperature dropped and everything froze.

"Prepare the distraction", Elder Tidehunter ordered.

The rest of the merfolk summoned talismans in their hands, before one threw his out. When the middle head of the three headed dog saw this, it shut its eyes in response. Large fireworks began exploding into large blossoms of fire and thunderous shockwaves. Meanwhile, Elder Tidehunter activated the array disk, and watched as formation flags deployed into the shaped of a giant formation. When it was complete, he turned back to check on the situation, only to discover that the other two heads were starting to recover from the initial disorientation.

"Everyone, it's recovered, follow the plan", Elder Tiderhunter directed the group.

Merfolk started using hit and run tactics to attack the hind legs of Proudmaw in an attempt to turn him around. Unfortunately, most of the attacks didn't injure the giant dog, and the few that did healed quickly. Proudmaw didn't seem to know what was going on, but Tidehunter seem to understand that it was going to be difficult to herd the dog towards the formation. They had reached a stalemate, in which the merfolk could dodge and attack the dog, while the three breath weapons of the dog kept the merfolk moving. But neither side was able to hurt the other, and Tidehunter feared it would be foolish to try and wait out the transformation. So he summoned his Qphone from his storage, and made a call.

"Captain", Tidehunter said.

"Elder Tidehunter, what is the situation?", Captain Zhuo inquired.

"We are locked in a stalemate", Tidehunter answered, "We are unable to move the prey into the trap, and I believe we will fall into a disadvantaged position if we continue like this. Requesting fire support."

"I understand elder, we will begin in thirty seconds, let you people know", Captain Zhuo responded.

Elder Tidehunter informed his followers, "Incoming fire support in thirty seconds, flash the area again, and then get clear."

Two merfolk threw thunderflash talismans in an arc from behind the dog, and the talismans activated right in front of Proudmaw's face. This time, the explosion got all three heads and Proudmaw could only growl in frustration as his sight and hearing was taken away again. He didn't fear the weapons of the merfolk, so he decided to wait long enough for everything to return to normal. Just as he was formulating how to catch the merfolk off guard to break the stalemate, a searing pain blossomed on his right hind quarters causing him to yelp and spin around.

Captain Zhuo continued to give orders as the cannons on the flying ship fired on Proudmaw. This frigate class flying ship was equipped with two Searing Light cannons and two Lightning Force cannons. Each gunner was working in concert, placing each shot to guide Proudmaw towards the formation. Their teamwork paid off in the end, and the three headed dog finally entered the formation. The merfolk took position around the formation, and Tidehunter activated it. Captain Zhuo ordered the cannons on standby as Proudmaw was encapsulated inside the formation and the suppression began. Proudmaw panicked when he felt the suppression, and increased his power by burning his blood essence even quicker as he attacked the formation with renewed vigor.

As the array consumed Qi stones faster to continue functioning, Tidehunter and the other merfolk supplied more Qi stones to fuel the formation.

"Captain", Tidehunter called in, "We are safe now, thank you for your assistance. Please find the wolves or Daoist Wei and provide them support now."

"Are you sure, Elder?", Captain Zhuo asked.

"Yes", Tidehunter replied, "It will take time for Proudmaw to be suppressed, but we are in no danger of getting hurt or running out of spirit stone. Go ahead and help the others, and we will call in when things are done here."

"Good luck, Elder", Captain Zhuo remarked before ordering the crew to head towards Huoran.

Ramson had been running for almost a minute, and his vision was about to return to normal when he crashed into a cliff wall. The impact caused him to stop but he still managed to deal impressive damage for the rock wall in front of him. He shook his head, and his vision and hearing finally cleared up. Seeing that he had ran far from Proudmaw and Void eyes, he turned around to find the path of destruction he had created running here. He felt foolish for running blind and leaving Proudmaw behind, so he decided to return to the battle by using his previously made path to guide him. He ran for a couple kilometers when he sensed the pack of wolves approaching him.

"Scram before I kill you", Ramson bellowed as he lowered his head, and charged towards the pack.

The wolves easily avoided Ramson, and began circling the sheep looking for opportunities to attack. Jaeger Bloodclaw watched as his wolves would continuously run in to make attacks before dodging the horns of Ramson, and backing off. This kept happening over and over again, but it didn't seem like the giant ram was receiving damage from these exchanges.

"My brothers", Chief Bloodclaw called out to his pack, "Why does this seem to be more difficult than predicted?"

Jaeger immediately understood the elder's words, considering the type of beastkin they faced, the wolves were literally punching wool. This created a serious challenge for the pack, but Jaeger wasn't defeated yet. He found a higher vantage point, and watched how Ramson was combating the pack of wolves. It didn't take long to find a pattern, the sheep would either stand still using his horns to defend his position, or he would quickly accelerate and attempt to kill his target with his horns and hooves. It didn't take long for Jaeger to formulate a plan, and he located the ideal spot before releasing the array disk and setting up the formation.

He returned to the battlefield, and was relieved because even though Ramson had nearly killed a wolf on several occasions, everyone's teamwork had prevented any deaths.

Jaeger let out a long howl which said, (I've set up the trap over here, trick him into sprinting this way.)

The wolfpack shifted tactics, and harassed Ramson by attacking his front legs and lower chin. Ramson's level of frustration continued to build as his attempts to stomp on the wolves or stab them with his horns failed over and over again. Just when he thought his efforts were going to fail again, he felt leg make contact with a wolf. The body of the wolf flew across the battlefield, and Ramson wasted no time sprinting towards the injured wolf ready to take out his frustrations. Just before he reached his target, two other wolves grabbed the injured wolf and moved him away causing Ramson to miss. Just as he circled around to make another charge, an array activated and Ramson felt a horribly strong suppression bearing down on him. As he looked outside the array formation, he realized that all the wolves were now sitting outside feeding spirit stones to the array.

Chief Bloodclaw took out his Qphone, and typed in a chatroom [Target captured, will update when suppressed.]