With his new body, even those at an equivalent rank would be mesmerized when they met his gaze. Hoplites only reached tier 3 at maturity, which meant the vast majority of the army in front of them were completely helpless. With two whole ranks lower than him, not only were they mesmerized, he could control them. Hypnotically at least. If he tried to make them do something against their core values, like killing themselves or their loved ones, they would snap out of it, but they were otherwise his to order around as he chose. Without wasting any more time, he ordered them to lower their weapons and walk forward. After they took a dozen paces forward he had them turn around.

The most elite of the Hoplites as well as many of the Human Cultivators had already reached the fourth rank and they weren’t as easily controlled. Sage could implant suggestions in their minds, ones that they would unconsciously be driven to enact later on, but he couldn’t directly control them like the others. Even so, they were still mesmerized, standing there motionlessly as the others stepped forward. The mass of soldiers turned around and then they received his next order, to capture the soldiers standing there frozen, quickly scooping them up and hoisting them into the air. They turned and marched back towards the giant cobra, where they began to disappear. A giant queue was formed, with dozens of Hoplites disappearing into thin air as they approached the giant white cobra looking down upon them. The helpless soldiers sent directly into Sage’s Inner World where he’d prepared a nice new prison island for them to inhabit.

While this was going on with the mass of troops, the Strongfist Brothers had a grudge to settle with the five Tiankong children. The youngest brother still had a hole in his side that needed to be avenged. Unfortunately for them, they were in a five versus three situation. If that were the worst they had to deal with, they still had a measure of confidence in coming out on top. In fact, the three of them had already joined hands and huddled their backs together. Their auras interlocked and Qi began to flow through them, moving from one to the next as if they were all of one singular body. It cycled faster and faster, beginning to grow more powerful as it picked up speed. In unison, the three brothers let out a yell and their aura disappeared. It sunk into the ground and the earth began to rumble. The dirt and stone seemed to melt and shift, looking like a mass of clay as it rose into the air and wrapped around them. Rock scraped and clattered against rock and somehow it made a sound that mirrored the three brother’s yell. The ground rose upwards and the once flat land shifted and expanded, extending to two sides and gradually forming what could be described as limbs. The crude extensions of stone got more and more details as the small mountain split at the center and a tunnel formed through it. The tunnel getting larger and soon enough delineating a pair of legs.

Jiyao, Juzui, Baozhai, Tujiu, and Songji had stopped all of their bleeding wounds and braced their shattered bones. They stood shoulder to shoulder and looked up at where the three Strongfist Brothers had transformed into a mountainous man. The golem made of stone had a featureless face, with only a pair of large yellow gemstones in the place of eyes glaring down at them. They looked at each other and then laughed, a complex symbol appearing on each of their foreheads as they too released their Human Seals.

The boy band wannabe, Jiyao, ran a hand through his hair and then disappeared, replaced by a cute brown feathered bird. With a long narrow beak, somewhat long legs and a snowy white belly. A sandpiper standing at the same height as a man raised its beak up proudly. The most defining feature being its brilliant blue gemstone eyes, the hallmark of the Diamond Eyed Sandpiper.

Juzui, the small swordsman with the huge mouth and fiery red hair tossed his sword up into the air. The snow swirled around him as the gentleman’s tiny frame was gone and replaced by a red feathered toucan. It was exactly the same size as a mortal toucan, except it looked as if it’d been dipped in a vat of red dye, the signature appearance of the Miniature Red Toucan. When he finished transforming, he caught the sword with his beak, creating an awkward spectacle of a bird that was mostly beak carrying a sword larger than it was.

The indomitable girl with auburn hair cracked her knuckles, “I haven’t got a chance to fight yet, so you better not hog all the action, Jiyao!” Baozhai didn’t waste any time in releasing her seal as well and was replaced by a very leggy bird. Her body looked somewhat like a dove or pigeon with a longer and more elegant neck, a larger beak and legs that were three times longer than she was tall. A Jacanas, a Copper Skinned Jacanas to be exact and standing at nearly ten feet tall. Her feathers were mostly brown with white on her chest and neck and black stripes over her eyes. The species got its name from the coppery skin on its legs and feet, which were metallic and even harder than their namesake.

Tujiu, the bald headed spear wielder, didn’t enjoy any fanfare. His spear disappeared along with his large frame. His silvery holographic eyes stayed exactly where they were as the rest of him changed into the form of a truck sized vulture. His feathers looked like they were aflame, blending orange, red, and yellows in a shifting pattern. From the neck up, there were no feathers, instead just a coarse silver hair that somewhat matched his holo foil styled eyes. The Iridescent Flame Vulture, a gaudy looking, but oft-avoided creature that preferred to cook carrion before feasting upon it.

Lastly, was the shapely woman in black leather. The girl’s catsuit had been ripped to shreds in many places, but after she tore the pieces off it looked more like she’d switched to a leather halter top and leather pants with strategically placed slits. She didn’t seem impressed by the rock monster, but she also wasn’t thrilled, “The impenetrable defense type, is NOT my type.” With a huff, she also changed forms and in her place was a very ‘fluffy’ bird. She was a Violent Shadow Grouse, a bird that looked something like a pheasant but with a large downy chest and neck, and in her case completely jet black feathers that seemed to suck in the light around her. Not a shred of a different color could be seen, the bird looking almost like it could be the black silhouette of another, if said bird was eight feet tall.

King’s five, make that six, offspring were quick to enter the battle. Ruanfu was battling Wu Chang in the sky, continuing to send thunderous booms over them from above, while the others set upon the rock golem in a literal flock. The red toucan swung the sword that was twice as large as its body. A single swing causing the blade to arc in two complete revolutions in the air like a top. Amazingly, the strange movements weren’t without cause as the atmosphere grew darker and colder. He drew upon Ruanfu’s specialty, tapping into the cold to enhance the Winter stance of his seasonal based swordplay, the Mantle of Four Gentleman. The same style that Sage once considered learning from the Timeless Master’s Library. Spinning through the air, his sword struck against the body of the golem and knocked off a few large boulders.

The sandpiper with the fierce eyes, Jiyao, skipped about on the ground and then leapt into the air, darting past the giant rock monster and flicking its beak once on the way. Nothing seemed to happen until a moment later when a smooth line appeared on the golem's cheek, a yard deep and perfect slice through the stone as if cut by a saw. The shadowy grouse disappeared, walking behind the large rock that Juzui knocked off, one that didn’t seem large enough to hide her body. The fiery vulture swept its wings downwards, slowly pulling itself up into the sky. It moved somewhat slowly, circling around the rock monster as it climbed.

The last of them, Baozhai, walked her long legged body up towards the golem without a shred of fear. Her body seemed dainty and fragile in comparison to the long and large metallic legs and the thirty foot tall rock monster in front of her. Even so, she didn’t slow in the least, instead catching the first of the creature’s attacks. It lifted one pillar-like leg and tried to stomp upon her. The foot came down like a boulder falling from a cliff, but it was turned aside. The Copper Skinned Jacanas lifted one leg and wrapped its hugely splayed toes around the golem’s ankle. It kept its other leg planted and with a graceful maneuver pushed the leg aside, forcing the golem’s body to spin and lose its balance.

Always one to capitalize on weakness, Songji, the Violent Shadow Grouse leapt out from a shadow caused by a crevice between two rocks on its shoulder. She did a forward somersault in mid air and smashed her balled up talons, like a fist, against the monster’s back. With the loss of balance and the heavy strike, the rock monster began to topple over, falling on its face. A loud boom rang out, a cloud of dust getting thrown up from the massive impact.