Yu Lin Bloodhawk set a thick stack of documents on the table and had the soldiers distribute them. These were the key points he had compiled with the recruits, covering four stages: capture, feeding, training, and control. They had organized them into a booklet, and the recruits had stayed up through the night copying out more than twenty sets, just enough for everyone present to have one.
Once the documents had been handed out, he said, "Read through the documents carefully first. Save any questions for afterward."
The outline was not very long. It was only an overview and did not go into great detail yet, but it covered all the key points.
"Today's topic is establishing a Battle Pet Ranger Unit. Once you've finished reading the materials, speak up if you have anything to say, and we'll discuss it together," Yu Lin Bloodhawk said.
Although Sylvanas had not paid much attention at first, the mention of establishing a Battle Pet Ranger Unit struck her as something novel. She opened the documents and read them carefully, only to be astonished. The five stages concerning the capture, feeding, training, and control of beasts were described in considerable detail, with every key point addressed.
Then she read the description of the Battle Pet Ranger Unit, and suddenly it felt as though an entirely new world had opened before her. That's right! If beasts can serve as mounts, why can't they help us fight? She ended up being the person most interested in the meeting's topic.
Ever since Sylvanas had taken command of troops, she had always led Ranger Corps units, and the forces controlled by the Windrunner family were also primarily Ranger Corps. If this plan designed for Rangers could truly succeed, it would undoubtedly offer a quick way to greatly increase their combat strength.
It would do more than simply compensate for the Ranger Corps' weakness in close combat. If it could be extended to the entire corps or even the whole army, it would amount to a restructuring of Quel'Thalas's Ranger Corps.
"Captain! Can the control method described in these materials really let us capture adult beasts and control them directly?" a squad leader asked.
"These are the results of interrogating thirty-seven Troll Beast Tamers. We've cross-checked them, so they should be accurate!" Yu Lin Bloodhawk said.
"We've never seen the Troll Rune Beast Collar mentioned in the materials, either. It says a Troll Hexer has to infuse it with magic. Where are we supposed to find a Hexer?" the squad leader added. "We certainly can't trust those Troll Hexers."
"We have Arcane Archmages! We have Falthrien Academy! As long as we find a Troll Rune Beast Collar for them to study, it shouldn't be hard to figure out," Yu Lin Bloodhawk said. Then he turned to Sylvanas and asked, "Commander Sylvanas, could you help us resolve this problem? I imagine there must be quite a few Troll Rune Collars taken from dead lynxes among the spoils of our past battles."
Sylvanas was still reading the materials. At his question, she looked up and said, "That's easy enough to arrange, and so is getting Falthrien Academy involved. But I've noticed that the Beast Rune Collar described here doesn't seem to provide very effective control. In past battles, some beasts whose collars were broken immediately began attacking friend and foe alike. The same thing happened when their masters were killed. That makes them unsuitable for military use. They could easily cause serious trouble for our troops. That's also why, despite knowing that the Trolls have long enslaved beasts to help them fight, we elves have never been particularly enthusiastic about it!"
"That's precisely why we need our esteemed Spellcasters and Falthrien Academy to research it for us. Otherwise, aren't they just spending all our taxpayers' money for nothing?" Yu Lin Bloodhawk's joke drew a burst of laughter. He waited a moment, then continued with a smile, "As for that problem, I'm sure our Arcane Spellcasters can find a proper solution!"
After all, Sylvanas was the foremost expert on magic among everyone present. She said nothing at first, merely frowned in thought for a while before saying, "Strengthening the control is easy enough, but dealing with the death of a beast's master is another matter. Once a beast is no longer controlled, it will certainly attack friend and foe alike. Unlike a person, it can't distinguish between them."
Sylvanas's assessment brought the laughter to a halt.
"I'm sorry. I'm not trying to discourage you. I'm merely stating the facts," Sylvanas said.
"I understand!" Yu Lin Bloodhawk said. "Then would something like this be possible? Suppose each of our soldiers wore a small magical accessory that, through the beast's collar, created some kind of link with its master. Could that make the beast attack only enemies and leave our own people alone?"
"We've considered that before, too, but unfortunately, we have no way of doing it, at least for now!" Sylvanas said regretfully.
On reflection, that made sense. The elves had fought the Trolls for so long that they could hardly have failed to study how the Trolls trained beasts to help them fight.
"Then why not simply give the beast a magical accessory? When its master dies in battle, it would automatically be teleported to a designated location, such as a cage in the military camp. That way, it couldn't attack anyone else or interfere with the army's operations," Yu Lin Bloodhawk said, presenting the solution he had spent days considering. After so many days of brutally interrogating the Trolls, all his efforts would have been wasted if he had failed to discover even these shortcomings.
Yu Lin Bloodhawk had gotten the inspiration for this idea from playing the game. In the game, when a Hunter died in battle, their beast automatically disappeared. But this was reality, so a beast could not simply vanish. Magic could, however, teleport it to a designated location, such as a specific cage in the military camp behind the lines.
"That shouldn't be particularly difficult for Falthrien Academy. But doing so would make the cost far too high, because most magical items are actually quite expensive! I'm afraid the Military Department wouldn't approve," Sylvanas said.
Sylvanas had a very valid point.
Yu Lin Bloodhawk fell silent as he pondered the issue, puzzled. If magical accessories were expensive in the Human Kingdom, I could accept that. But why should they be expensive in Quel'Thalas? Doesn't Quel'Thalas have the Sunwell, with its inexhaustible supply of magic? Look at Silvermoon City—even the streets are swept with Magic Brooms. Is it really so difficult to give each soldier's battle pet a simple teleportation item?
Yu Lin Bloodhawk put all these questions to Sylvanas. For a moment, she had no answer.
In the end, Sylvanas agreed to visit Falthrien Academy and see whether she could persuade those old scholars to develop something cheaper that would still achieve the desired effect. She could not give Yu Lin Bloodhawk a definite answer, only promise to try her best.
Even that was enough to make Yu Lin Bloodhawk very happy. After all, in the game, the Hunter class definitely existed among the Blood Elves. He would leave the problems of magical control to Sylvanas.
With the prospect of forming a Hunter unit now within reach, he was so excited that he could not sleep all night. He got up early the next morning and convened another military meeting.
The meeting had only one topic: whether to begin capturing beasts ahead of time, and which species to choose.
The other junior officers were also excited. Once this force had been established, it would be Quel'Thalas's first Battle Pet Ranger Squadron. At their captain's summons that morning, they quickly assembled in the command tent.
The meeting went very smoothly. Although the problem of magical control had not been fully resolved, everyone was surprisingly unanimous in agreeing to capture beasts in advance as preparation. The capture method was simple, too: shoot them with arrows coated in a potent Paralysis Potion, then carry them back once they were immobilized.
There was little debate over which species of Large Beast to use as battle beasts, because Quel'Thalas truly did not have much variety in wild Large Beasts. There were only lynxes to choose from, along with a small number of grizzly bears. But the grizzly bears lived in the forests where the elves and Trolls were fighting. Their numbers were low, and the risk was too great. They therefore ruled out grizzly bears, leaving only lynxes.
This place was different from the game. Spinner Spiders were only the size of a washbasin, and their shells were not particularly hard, making them easy to kill. Vampire bats were even more absurd, only about the size of an eagle. He did not know what they were like elsewhere, but that was how they were in Quel'Thalas.
Since he had yet to discover the relevant Hunter skills, such as the impressive Beast's Eye or the even more impressive Eagle Eye, scouting pets were set aside for the time being. The difficult part was catching enough lynxes. A hundred lynxes might not sound like many, but it was actually a huge number. They could not expect to stand up straight and shoot several of them with arrows as they could in the game. That was impossible!
The lynxes here were actually leopards. Generations of exposure to the Sunwell's energy had turned their coats crimson. The farther north they lived, the brighter and redder their fur became, since they were closer to the Sunwell. This also had much to do with the environment. Under the influence of the Sunwell's energy, the forests of Quel'Thalas gradually changed from their normal green in the south to golden yellow in the north. Naturally, the lynxes had changed in the same direction.
The lynxes here also followed nature's law of survival of the fittest, so an adult lynx generally ranged over a territory of several dozen square kilometers. This depended on the number of small animals in the area. Generally speaking, the fewer small animals there were, the larger a lynx's range would be. If their territories were as small as in the game, even rabbits, fawns, and other animals giving birth every day would not provide enough food for all those lynxes. In the end, the lynxes would eat one another, and their population would still fall to a level consistent with the laws of nature.
Thus, even using the lowest estimate of ten square kilometers per lynx, they would have to search an area of a thousand square kilometers. This was going to be a very difficult task.
The meeting therefore ended with the decision to divide the entire squadron into five-person Hunting Groups and send them out to capture lynxes in different areas. Since Tranquillien lay in the central part of Eversong Woods, all captured lynxes would be brought there, making both resupply and gathering them together easier.
By the time the meeting was over, it was growing late. Yu Lin Bloodhawk adjourned and told everyone to return, prepare their gear, get a good night's sleep, and wait for the order to depart.
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