A week passed by smoothly without any troubles, the deer family focussed on their limit training and in their free time Korah and Shadow went to gain more experience in the forest.
When dealing with their opponents they both were able to develop their own style of fighting.
Shadow made use of her antlers and strong legs to deal fatal and heavy blows to her enemies, heavily injuring them or even instantly killing them.
Korah however made use of his light and fast body to attack the enemies muscles and joints, the enemies movements will be affected by his ice spirit energy leading them to have more openings to exploit.
After a week of fighting several beasts were subdued and began to follow Shadows every order.
After securing a small secluded area near the bottom of the mountain, she set up this spot for the beasts to stay and train.
Although some were weak, she started to gift them with suitable beast cores and train them daily.
Although not all of the beasts had great strength they could still be nurtured if they were loyal to her, if they were loyal she would receive more benefits.
Although her forces could not compare to others right now, they still had a lot of time to grow in size and power.
A lot of these beasts had been sole survivors of their clans, lone wanderers or groups without homes so after submitting in order to continue living they were given a new home, cultivation resources and a chance to grow stronger not only individually but as a group.
After their life experiences within the hostile forest area they saw hope, those who they would never think to fight beside all fighting together under the same goal.
Their leader was looking towards a goal far beyond what they could see and that only served to ignite their enthusiasm towards this new life of theirs.
As the beasts grew excited Shadow stood before them and let out a light cough. "Welcome everyone, since our numbers have grown and will continue to do so in the future I ask that everyone be patient and greet any new beasts warmly. Within this influence there will be the same treatment for all no matter where you came from or what kind of beast you are. What I care about is that you are loyal, can work together and achieve results. If you cannot get along with the others and go deciding things for yourselves I don't need you. Those who make great achievements will be awarded for doing so."
As the 12 beasts heard that they looked at each other and buried the words into their hearts. "Yes master!"
"Those who do well will be rewarded, those who disobey will be punished. Nobody is to receive special treatment unless they deserve it and abuse of their ranks to do as they please will be met with their rights and rank stripped from them. From now on you are part of the Ever-Reach Clan, you will all hold the name Ever-Reach as your family name from now on and carry it as your pride." Shadow nodded her head as she had a dominant role when standing before her followers.
"Master we will not let you down!" The small group of beasts nodded their heads repeatedly as they grew more excited, meanwhile one beast showed a look of interest.
"As this clans influence grows I will begin to set up different roles and so on for to assign everyone to a suitable group. Some may work in teams, others may have the role of pack leaders, scouts, information gatherers, assassins and so on. Certain roles have more risk while others focus on team unity and a beasts individual traits to suit their situation." She continued to speak proudly. "Do not try to expand too quickly, what is important right now is to become familiar with those around you, so have there been ant problems in the forest?"
The two jackals came forward and reported. "There have been no movements within the other clans that could be a threat to us, there was one troubling thing that had happened recently. A youngster of the tiger clan got into a fight with someone from a stronger clan in the area and injured them, enraged by this the clan demanded compensation but negotiations didn't go well."
"I see, go on." Shadow showed some interest towards this information.
Shadow began to ponder to herself. 'These tigers may indeed prove to be useful if I can gain their support. If I wish to build a formidable army in the future the tigers would definitely fit into that role.'
"That clan has grown restless after the failed negotiations, they had started applying more pressure to the tiger clan and not allowing them to leave their territory. It will not be long until a fight breaks out between them but the old ancestor of the tiger clan is on his death bed so they are at a disadvantage." The jackals finished up telling Shadow their collected information.
"Very well, this will be our first task. Move towards the tiger clan and follow my every order! We will help the tiger clan survive this and use this opportunity to gain their support." Shadow declared in a powerful tone of voice which made the other beasts grow excited.
After training during the time they had submitted to Shadow, they felt their strength and their bodies had become much more powerful, now they had the opportunity to test how much they had improved!
"Let's head out!" Shadow ordered as she nodded to the jackals to lead the way there.
"Yes master!" The jackals hurried to lead the way and the other beasts followed behind.