Horter watched the swarming, enraged insects that were under the control of his undead butterflies as they charged at the grass serpents that were all in one giant mass, constantly moving over each other as they attacked all the insects that got close. Horter watched this all with a bemused detachment as his forces, despite having many casualties, were not behind in his plans for his victory.

As Horter had watched how each group of grass serpents had responded to each of his probing attacks. It has been a bit difficult for him to admit to himself to keep all the different grass serpents separate from each other in his head and not mix them up, especially so far above the battlefield as he was, but he had managed it.

So with the intelligence his probing attacks had gained him, he would soon have his forces make a coordinated strike that should utterly destroy the grass serpent army. Horter was about to give the order that would put his plan into action and end his probing strikes so that the true final blows could be struck. But before he could give the command, he noticed the grass hydra, his opponent in this game of strategy, beginning to move rather oddly.

"Well, it appears my opponent is about to make his move." Horter said, focusing all his attention on the grass hydra far below him, wondering what exactly his opponent's move would be. As you to this point, the Horter had been deciding the temp of the fight, but perhaps his opponent has grown tired of that and was trying to change that somehow.

How the grass hydra would do that, Horter wasn't sure, but he wasn't going to allow himself to be surprised, especially while trying to perform a complex maneuver. So he held off on his final blow strategy, waiting until he knew what exactly the grass hydra and those inside of it were up to before he knew that he would not give the order to those under his command to execute the final blow maneuver.

While Horter watched them from above, the elders of the craftsman of all nine grass pixie clans were changeling their power into their grass hydra. Using all the experience and power the elders had, they used their ability, GRASS SHAPE, to its absolute limit by pushing the growth of the grass hydra to far greater heights than intended. As the foe of their grass serpent army was far above them and hence would have been out of their reach. So the elders were now correcting that.

As the growth of the grass hydra caused the hydra's nine heads to grow into the sky, reaching ever upward in a never-ending growth towards a destination they could not see. Though the grass hydra's nine heads could not see what they were reaching for within the skies they were now in, the elders controlling them did, and so under their control the grass hydra reached for what was hidden.

Horter was watching all of this shock coming and going quickly through him as he reacted quickly to the threat in the skies. "While I didn't expect you to grow your grass hydra until it could reach out and touch me. So quite the move on your part, though I believe you're going to do more than touch me." Horter said to the grass hydra that was currently reaching up for him as he had the cloaked butterfly ship gain more altitude.

The elders, though, were not to be dissuaded and had the heads separate so that instead of pursuing the cloaked butterfly ship as a single mob, they instead broke off into nine heads, each pursuing the ship in a different direction. The grass hydra's plant nature allowed it to separate and bend its heads far more than what a regular hydra could no doubt do.

This was made quickly apparent to Horter, who found himself having to maneuver the superweapon he was on rather fast, trying to maintain a high altitude with the grass hydra's heads in hot pursuit, trying to box him into a trap by coming at the cloaked butterfly ship from multiple directions. It was proving rather difficult for Horter to keep the cloaked butterfly ship in the sky.

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As it was a ship more suited towards espionage than the current situation, which was a strange kind of air-to-air battle forcing the cloaked butterfly ship into rather complicated maneuvers it was having trouble with. Though Horter managed to keep the cloaked butterfly ship airborne, it was more due to his skills as a strategist than his flying skills. As he was able to predict how the grass hydra's heads were maneuvering to get him and his ship.

So with that foresight, Horter managed to get around the grass hydras as he predicted where they would be a few seconds before they tried to strike at the cloaked butterfly ship. After this battle of hits and misses had gone on in the sky for a while, Horter spoke. "While I think this game in the sky has been wonderful, my dear opponent, your counter has been a wonderful distraction." Horter said with certainty.

Which Horter was correct, as he had become so focused on keeping the cloaked butterfly ship, which was the superweapon of the undead butterflies, from being hit by the grass hydra that he had left the undead butterflies to their own command. Which was a rather bad thing, as the undead butterflies were capable of commanding small groups but not coordinating between each other to fight a larger battle.

So this meant that the battle on the ground had turned rather badly for the enraged insect horde, as their earlier proving attacks were no longer happening, and instead mass suicide charges were happening because the undead butterflies didn't know what else to do. "Well, it appears I have to end this game between us now, as you can see the melee on the ground has gotten rather interesting." Horter said with a smug arrogance towards the nine-headed Hydra, no roaring in anger at having been missing something from them for far too long.

So needing to put an end to the grass hydra and this winning the battle in the sky and on the ground, Horter began to act on his earlier suspicions. He began using his control over the cloaked butterfly ship to try and use the greater power he believed it held inside. He had this suspicion due to the fact he had witnessed the miserable rage catapult showing much greater power than it was originally believed to have.

So Horter had a suspicion that all the superweapons of the kingdom of Smog had more power to them than was originally known. He was proven right as the undead nature of the cloaked butterfly ship responded to his call and began using its power of hypnosis that was far greater than any of its kin on the grass hydra that was pursuing them.

Horter than watched with relish as the nine grass hydra heads under the empowered hypnosis of the cloaked butterfly ship turned on each other. The elders controlling the hydra healed the injuries the heads were causing each other but couldn't gain control back over the grass hydra heads. Horter, seeing the control he now had over the grass hydra, which was the most powerful creature of the grass serpent, had a great idea.

Horter acting quickly has the cloaking of the greater lower wing turned off and instead turned to the same hypnosis of the upper greater wings. He then turned the hypnosis power of the cloaked butterfly ship to the rest of the snake army. He then watched as the entire grass serpent army stopped moving along with the enraged insect swarms.

"Well, it looks like I have quite the present." Horter said they had now trapped the craftsman in their own creations. Horter then gave the order, and the now enslaved grass sergeants moved in formation under his command to be displayed before his liege, Maxwell. "Well, this makes us three for three. Does this not make our kingdom great? Horter said to himself upon his ship as he brought back his defeated enemies to be delivered as trophies to his king.