Chapter 424: Bisons Captured

"I suggest getting hold of a leader mouse and making it keep the horde in control... but."

"But?" Leo raised a brow.

"I don’t think there would be any leader mice here, and even if there are, it’s going to take time to train them."

"What if I tame it? Won’t the work be done in an instant?"

She shook her head rapidly.

"No, My Lord. I don’t want you to waste your limited beast taming slots on some mice. I will make sure the elves manage the Bisons. Matter of fact, since my 1-star sister sits idle most of the day, I will teach them how to handle the Bisons even when they are weak."

"Why are you so adamant about making them work? You should know I won’t throw them away if they don’t do heavy lifting. I will say it, their handling of daily necessities like cooking food, building structures, and crafting small items is more than enough," he continued, his voice steady and assuring. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"They allow the rest of the stronger ones to work without worry, so don’t force them into things they cannot handle. As for taming a mouse, I think you saw back on the stormy day what I can do. So, no tamed beast is weak under me. Rest assured, and bring me a good candidate to be tamed." Saying that, he looked forward, "I guess it’s finally time for our next step."

Sylrael opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it again and simply nodded.

After that, they revealed themselves to the Bisons. As if the herd had caught a second wind at their appearance, they began to struggle once more. But this time, the vines binding them only tightened. The mother bison grew increasingly frantic for their calves, ignoring the constricting hold as they thrashed wildly, hooves scraping the ground.

"Mwaaaa!"

The calves could only cry out, watching their mothers struggle in desperate attempts to free themselves.

This was the most difficult part—making them obey.

One option was to tame a bison to serve as a new leader and have the rest follow indirectly. Simple, but it would consume one of the two taming slots he currently had left—one of which he had already decided to use on the mice.

The second was a carrot-and-stick approach: reward those who obey and punish those who resist. That would be easy with beasts like Nyxa or Shyra present.

The last was fear—slaughter anyone who showed even the slightest aggression in front of the herd. Be it a rowdy male, a protective mother, or even a brave calf, spare no one until only a small, obedient group remains.

After a moment of deliberation, he decided to use a combination of all three.

I also need a handful of beast cores...

"Shyra, Nyxa, come out," Leo called. They appeared the next moment. Shyra had already been present in stealth, so her manifestation was the more dreadful one—made worse by her saber-tooth-tiger like form.

The entire herd fell silent in an instant at the sight of both beasts. Shyra, a 9-meter-tall physical monstrosity, and Nyxa, an 8-meter-tall terror incarnate. The Bisons were further unsettled as both beasts drooled at the sight of them, barely restrained by Leo’s command.

Leo snapped his fingers, and the corpses of the 3 leaders were brought forward.

Mraaaah—h

The hundred or so bisons began to shiver as Nyxa and Shyra started tearing into the corpses, the wet sound of flesh being devoured echoing faintly.

"Don’t eat the cores. I need them," Leo instructed calmly.

He turned to Sylrael.

"Sylrael, get to work and bring me a proper mouse candidate."

Sylrael nodded and called Elaris and Naelith for help.

Leo deliberately had them begin with the male bisons because—

Psh—psh—PSHH!

The struggling beast let out a harsh, grating sound as Elaris’ hand pushed through its thick fur.

"Shyra."

Leo spoke a single word.

In the next instant, Shyra’s form dissolved into shadows from where she had been feeding and reappeared before the male bison, her fangs already halfway through its neck. The kill was instantaneous.

Frosthide Bison [Male] (Peak 2-star) killed - 0 XP

"Ahh!"

Elaris stumbled back, falling to the ground. She hadn’t expected Shyra to appear in front of her so suddenly. Blood from the severed artery sprayed across her frame, soaking her in a warm crimson sheen and giving her a menacing look.

"Elaris, stand up. Lord’s beasts are very kind—they won’t hurt you," Sylrael called from the side. The bison she was handling had gone completely stiff from fear after witnessing the scene, allowing her to search efficiently and gather the mice into a wooden cage she had formed.

Elaris nodded and glanced at Shyra, who had already resumed eating the fresh kill. She rose and returned to work, not bothered by the blood splashed across her in the slightest.

The demonstration worked. Very few bisons resisted after that, and those who did were mostly males—swiftly dealt with.

Soon, the herd of over a hundred dwindled to 70. Nearly 30 females, 15 males, and 24 calves remained. That meant 24 milk-giving females. Among the calves, the split was roughly even, ensuring no breeding issues in the future.

By now, Sylrael’s wooden cages were filled to the brim with Frostwhisk mice. The cages were far from small—each one a spherical structure with a 2-meter diameter—and there were 4 of them, holding nearly a few hundred mice in total.

They moved on to the last of the females and calves. By this point, the beasts were exceptionally calm and obedient. In fact, some of the mothers even nudged their calves into silence as the elves’ hands sifted through their fur.

"Sylrael, if you and the others feel uncomfortable going through the cages and selecting a proper mouse, then leave it to me. I’ll handle it," Leo said.

It was one thing to pick them one by one, but plunging a hand into a cage writhing with mice was another matter entirely. If not for the elves’ past of catching and eating mice in their hidden realm due to limited resources, Leo doubted they would have managed even this much.

When Sylrael, Naelith, and Elaris heard him, their faces visibly brightened, and they stepped back quickly. Elaris even murmured a quick thanks before realizing her mistake and hiding behind Sylrael.

Her mistake was obvious—showing her discomfort with a task Leo had assigned—but Leo paid it no mind. His gaze had already shifted to the heaving mass of mice.

"So many..." he muttered, his vision filling with system panels displaying ranks and bloodlines.