While I wait for the enemy soldiers to arrive I turn my attention to the mice pups. They are all juveniles, too young to be of any help… I can change that.

I quickly take all nine of the mice pups. I wince knowing that most of these pups are going to die. It matters little. The adults are already pregnant once again. The first mice pup, I channel fire, and the greenish nature mana, being a mix of earth, and wind, and some other form of mana, inherent in life. It grows large, bigger than the adult mice. I smirk in joy. The new mouse foams at the mouth, is quick, large, strong, and completely insane. I smile. Perfect.

I repeat this process nine more times, and am left with nine mice, nearly half a foot long. I guide all nine of them towards the tunnel where I place them at the forefront of the crowd. I smile. Oh this will be fun. Their desire to rip apart everything around them is so strong I need to use mana to control them.

I smile, and return my attention to Lychee, who has completely transitioned to the larger piece of granite. He is breaking it apart slowly but it is taking time. I don't know if he will be done before the enemies arrive.

Speaking of enemies, they have officially arrived in my domain. I quickly turn my attention to what will be attacking my forces, and I grimace. A vanguard of a possum, who appears to have a severe case of rabies. Ok, so we've found my new copper creations opponent. We don't want any of my creatures getting rabies. I gather my units in formation at the exit of the tunnel. My berserker mice are inside of the tunnel, while my snakes, and my copper creature gather just outside the opening to surround anything that attacks. Lychee is situated near my core at the back of the dungeon. Lychee still hasn't completely taken control of his new rock, but he should be done, a little bit after the enemies arrive.

I notice the enemies arriving at the front lines of my mice. One of my mice dove forward, and swiped a claw at the possum leading the charge. The possum responds lighting fast by dodging backwards, and springing forwards again, biting my poor creature in half. I close my eyes, and grimace as the screams of my poor mice echoes through my lair. I open my eyes once again, and I smile in surprise, a group of my mice has surrounded the main possum up front. They spring forward, claw, and bite. One of the mice manages to distract the possum, but the rest of the mice dive at its left back leg. They bite, and tear, pulling flesh from bone, and disabling the invader. My mice are all dead. But the possum is severely injured.

I smile. The possum flies out of the entrance to the tunnel. Landing upon my copper raccoon, who twists, and grabs the possum before throwing it, in between Heracles, and Julia. Julia dives forward, planting a fiery bite wound, on the possum neck, before the copper raccoon jumps atop the possum, and tears its head off with its razor sharp copper claws.

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I need a name for you. I could call you razor, but honestly kinda cheese so instead i'll call you razzle. I smirk. Razzle. Perfect.

The first raccoon exits the tunnel, and is quickly murdered by Heracles, and Julia. Before my forces can recover the third raccoon dives out of the tunnel. Landing on top of Heracles who tries to squirm away. The fourth, and final raccoon also dives out, and lands atop Julia.

Uh oh.

I close my eyes. Oh no…

*Ker-Chunk.*

Lychee stands above, a dead raccoon, with the spiked hunk of rock attached to his arms buried in the skull of the raccoon standing over Heracles. I smile, and turn to check on the fourth raccoon, which is being torn to ribbons by Razzle.

I shudder in ecstasy as the mana from so many creatures channels itself into my core. Spectacular. I need to kill more.

I chuckle, and check on my minions. Lychee is nearly a foot and a half tall and wide. With thick heavy clubs for hands, unlike the sharp but fragile blades he had before. Heracles, and Julia have grown in size, and become thicker, with strong rippling muscles beneath their scales. Razzle has grown in size as well, but his scales seem to be too tight on him. I tilt my head, and watch with interest as Razzle walks up to a wall, and begins to sniffle, and push at it with his nose, before using its claws to tear away dirt revealing a hunk of Copper. he bites into the raw ore, his teeth purpose built for this, and begins to chew away at the metal. As he eats his scales grow in size, and thickness.

I smile in amazement. That is really interesting. Wait a second… Razzle is not a he… Oopsie. Oh well, nothing to be done about it.

I return my attention to the corpses of the Mice, as well as the corpse of the raccoons, and the Possum. I smile, and move their corpses to the back of the cave, and direct my small squadron of animals, and a rock to guard the tunnel, and kill anything that comes through. I turn my attention back to the corpses, and begin working. First I recreate the bodies of the berserker mice. Same size, and muscle mass, and just the exact same. But this time I don't alter their minds leaving them completely sane. I then mass produce that 9 more times to produce nine, very large mice. I did alter their minds to make them eat meat, hunt, hunt in groups, and be more accustomed to their large size.

I smile. Perfect.

Now I have an army, in the making...