An Initial Plan

Lynx was actually another name for cheetahs. There was no denying that cheetahs were among the best-looking of all cats. Sleek and agile, with beautifully proportioned muscles, they could be called the handsome men of the animal kingdom.

In terms of looks, tigers and lions had plenty of imposing strength, but they really could not match them for beauty. Moreover, prolonged exposure to the Sunwell's energy had turned many lynxes' fur blood-red-a favorite among elves who loved flashy colors. Boars, on the other hand, were the sort of fellows in the animal kingdom who had absolutely nothing to do with beauty. They could give hippos a run for their money, so naturally nobody liked them.

He laughed. "Don't judge them only by their looks. In terms of fighting ability, lynxes are actually the weakest of these three battle pets. Besides, the Bloodfang Boars are still on their way from Sunsail Archorage, so there's no point arguing. You have no idea-these are the biggest boars in the Eastern Kingdoms. I went through all sorts of trouble for this herd. There are boars northwest of the human city of Stratholme too, so why didn't I go there? Why did I go all the way to Stormwind City instead? Do you have any idea how big they are? I'm afraid they'll scare you. Let me tell you, once they're properly trained, you could even ride them. There aren't many boars like these in the Eastern Kingdoms. Only two places have any. Heh!"

Seeing that the elves were still struggling with the decision, Yu Lin Bloodhawk smiled. "Whether you listen is up to you. Today, decide among yourselves who will join the Lynx Special Forces and who will join the Steel Torrent and the Bear Iron Fist. Don't forget why you came here. I hope that when you return, the units you take with you will have all three kinds of battle pets. Each kind has different traits, different ways of fighting, and different training methods. I hope you can take all of them back with you. Discuss it now, and give me the lists tomorrow."

With that, he walked out. At the door, he remembered something and turned back. "Put the training matters aside for now. The Spellcasters sent by Falthrien Academy can explain how to use the arcane Spirit Beast Trinket and teach everyone the Spirit Link Spell. Tomorrow. Start learning tomorrow. You must master this one. If you can't, you won't be allowed to learn any other skills."

Leaving the noisy conference room, he returned to his office and considered who could serve as training officers in the future.

He had no combat experience. There were two reasons he had somehow been pushed into this position: a compromise among the various factions, and the fact that he had been the first to propose the concept of the Battle-Pet Ranger and put it into practice. He had also been the first to suggest many of the new skills. With the Windrunner family's support added to that, things had reached their present state.

Beyond those things, however, he had little experience with real combat. His mindset had changed; he no longer regarded these people as NPCs as he once had. That was why he never felt confident about actual battles.

As for training, he really did not know much himself. At the very least, he currently had no idea how to train beasts. He could only feel his way forward.

When playing the game, he had mostly left his pet alone after sending it out. All he needed to do was recall it or summon it when necessary, and at most control when it used its own abilities. Now that he was dealing with real beasts, he did not even know whether they possessed those innate abilities, much less how to train particular beasts to perform specific tactical maneuvers.

He had chosen these three types of beasts only after thinking it over repeatedly. From what he remembered of watching Animal World, most animals attacked primarily by biting, while only a few did not. Some others relied mainly on biting but also possessed powerful secondary means of attack, such as charging. That was precisely what he valued.

His main target was the undead army, and the biggest difference between the undead and other armies of the living was that the undead carried viruses or plague. That was exactly why he did not think highly of leopards and wolves.

If a single battle killed off a batch of battle pets through plague, how could they be replaced in time? Battle pets were not easy to train. Worse still, if they brought the plague back to the troops, even an overwhelming victory could end with an entire unit ruined. That would be a fine mess. For that reason, he never considered using Dire Wolves and leopards as his main fighting force.

Although leopards and wolves, with their agility and rapid attacks, currently seemed well suited to fighting poorly armored Trolls, he did not dare equip his forces with them in large numbers. If he had not harbored a faint hope that leopard-type beasts possessed an innate Stealth ability like their counterparts in the original game, the lynx unit would have been the first to be ruled out.

In his view, lynxes were simply unsuitable for military use. It was not just their relatively small size; numbers were an even greater concern. When an army needed to be equipped on a large scale, they could not meet the demand. Their breeding rate was low, and they were not social animals, making them unsuitable for raising in captivity. That was their fatal weakness.

Wolves, whose capabilities were slightly inferior, were more suitable for military use. At least they lived in packs and bred quickly, allowing them to be raised in large numbers and supplied to the troops. But his main hypothetical enemy was the undead, and wolves' claw attacks were so weak compared with those of other beasts that Yu Lin Bloodhawk discarded them without mercy as well.

He believed that even if they were used, it should only be in small numbers, primarily for internal security, like a police force. Alternatively, they could serve units responsible mainly for keeping watch and patrolling. After all, those creatures had keen hearing and noses, and they moved swiftly, silently, quickly, and nimbly.

In his mind, battle pets intended ultimately to fight the undead had to be large, powerful beasts that could inflict tremendous damage by methods other than biting. After thinking it over and over, he could come up with only a few kinds: bears, gorillas, boars, and ravagers.

Raptors were out of the question for the same reason as wolves. After all, combat was a far more intense activity than hunting for themselves. If they relied on biting alone, their teeth would probably all fall out after only a few battles. Besides, the undead carried plague. After biting those foul, disgusting corpses a few times, they would probably refuse to bite again. How could they fight then? Unless they were creatures as huge as the Devilsaurs of Un'Goro Crater, which could kill plenty with a single stomp. But there were simply too few of those, leaving him with far fewer choices.

Bears and tigers were both excellent helpers. He remembered an episode of Animal World saying that a tiger's swiping force could reach two or three hundred kilograms. His jaw had dropped at the time. Unfortunately, both creatures had the same habits: they lived alone and occupied large territories. Not only were they difficult to capture, but their numbers were also limited.

This was nothing like the game. A single bear's territory could generally cover anywhere from 30 to 1,000 square kilometers, with its size determined mainly by the local food supply. Plenty of food meant a small territory; scarce food meant a large one. Special environmental conditions could also limit it. Bears living on islands, for instance, had smaller territories. All these drawbacks meant they could not become the main battle pets of ordinary units and could only serve in elite units.

Lions, gorillas, boars, and ravagers were social animals and could be raised in large numbers. If they needed large territories, he could simply fence off a stretch of land and make it a national forest park.

But gorillas bred far too slowly

, so they were the first to be ruled out. Lions' breeding rate was barely acceptable. Though weaker than tigers, they were much stronger than lynxes, making them one of Yu Lin Bloodhawk's choices for the main battle pets of elite troops. As for ravagers, they were not available yet, and that prospect was far too distant. Besides, he found those spindly legs of theirs extremely unappealing. Who knew how many blows they could withstand? So they were ruled out too.

That left boars, the weakest option. Their overall combat strength was indeed somewhat inferior to that of other fierce beasts. But they had incomparable advantages. They were omnivorous, did not mind living in groups when food was plentiful, and bred at an incredible rate. A single litter could contain eight to more than ten piglets. They were also easy to raise because they were not picky eaters. Beyond biting, they could charge and ram with their heads, either of which could cause tremendous damage.

Thus, boars became his ideal main battle pets for military use. He intended to train them into a heavily armored battle-pet force for the Ranger troops. That was right-heavy armor! He would outfit every one of those boars in plate armor, particularly around the head, with faceplates modeled after rhinoceroses. Only then would they become a true Steel Torrent.

A herd of steel monsters weighing nearly a ton apiece, charging back and forth through the undead like heavy cavalry-that was his dream! Could the undead's battered swords and spears kill them? If not, they could wait to be knocked flying and then trampled into pulp. He had never intended to pit people directly against the undead.

So you've got numbers, have you? Then I'll send a flood of steel crashing through you and trample you down in swathes. As for those spider warriors and abominations, the Bear Iron Fist will give you special attention. Let's see whether your almighty Death Knight corps dares to face my Steel Torrent.

He thought viciously. He had always believed that the reason High Elves could not hold off the undead army as humans could was their military's lack of large numbers of melee fighters. The handful of Spellbreaker and Knight units guarding Silvermoon City were no more than a drop in the bucket against an army of hundreds of thousands of Ghouls.

How could Rangers, with their flimsy armor, withstand a charge by Death Knights? Ever since accepting his identity as Yu Lin Bloodhawk, he had constantly studied the composition of the undead army.

How had the undead army come into being? First, the Lich King had controlled large numbers of Ghouls-the civilians and Warriors who had died in the Arctic. Their fighting strength probably had not been particularly great. Then he had defeated the Spider Kingdom and converted large numbers of spider people into undead Warriors. Those creatures possessed natural shell armor and were quite formidable too.

Only later, when young Arthas brought the expeditionary army to the Arctic, had the undead gained their strongest troop types: Death Knights and large numbers of heavy infantry. Then Lordaeron had fallen. Only then had the numbers of those Death Knights and Warriors increased dramatically, along with vast numbers of cannon-fodder Ghouls. Their finest troops were the Death Knights, followed by heavy infantry and spider warriors, then Ghouls.

Abominations were powerful, but there would not necessarily be many of them. There were some Liches as well, but those were the Arcanists' responsibility. At worst, he could have some Rangers with strong magical abilities deal with them. He believed that once the Death Knights were broken, the rest of the undead would be nothing to worry about. Heavy infantry and spider warriors might be strong, but how fast could they move? Faster than Rangers? Could they withstand the charge of the Steel Torrent?