Getting deer the size of a pickup truck through a tunnel not much bigger than a fully-grown dragon was nowhere near the definition of natural. Heck, he was damn right impressed they even managed it as it was. Every single one of them was weighed down with multiple giant deer carcasses, granted some of them were missing body parts here and there, mostly heads, but they made damn sure to grab every piece they could use so that only really helped with maneuverability. And with so much weight they could not fly, so walking was the only method, and after a while, they started to regret hauling as much as they were.

They were all thrilled to make it back to the cave, and after getting through the tunnel, not a single one could not help but smile or chuckle at the looks all the others were starting to give them.

Marshal was not the first one through but was one of them. He wanted to make sure the largest of them could get through first. They had the largest of the giant deer draped onto their backs. They were even carrying large logs with their tail and mouths which had even more deer tied onto them (they'd been carrying them with their shoulder joints previously but getting through the tunnel like that was not going to happen). Immediately after the biggest dragons made it through, he followed right along wanting to get to the fox's leader, Claw, as quick as he could to organize how they were going to use all of the meat they were bring in.

Thankfully, Claw was standing near the entrance, watching them come in looking like he was either about to blow a fuse or have an aneurysm.

Seeing him there, Marshal went right up, he too had several of the deer on him, "You look like you might start crying. That happy to see us?"

Claw's head swung to look at him so fast it seemed like it was about to pop off. His eyes were wide, more with shock and surprise than anything, "You-You, you giant flying lizards! What possessed you to try and hunt down Dragon Deer?!"

Marshal raised an eyeridge, "Dragon Deer? Is that what you call them? Hm...name kind of fits given the size of them...and their ferocity."

Claw looked like he was resisting a facepaw, "You don't….of course, you don't." He takes a breath. "Dragon Deer are native to this forest. The smallest adult among them can kill any predator if they aren't careful. And you hunted them...how?"

Marshal gave a minor shrug, "Found a herd. Surrounded it, and attacked. Don't get me wrong, they put up a heck of a fight, but somehow we pulled through." Claw snorted as Marshal took a breath to continue. "But still, we hunted and got something at least."

"At least…"He leans to look at the group still coming in with the carcasses, "How many did you get?"

Marshal scratched his chin, "Well...there were about a hundred of them we think...and we did get them all. Thankfully that was the entire herd."

"You got lucky. A hundred is a small herd. Great Spirits. A hundred Dragon Deer. We won't be worrying about meat supplies for...at least a few weeks."

"Really? With this many dragons? And your fellows as well?"

Claw chuckled, "If it was anything other than Dragon Deer maybe. But...We'll let's see, One of the smaller ones is usually enough to supply a feast for us. For you guys...One of the normal ones would probably be able to feed all of you, IF you mixed in different fruits and veggies. And ironically, you would actually need less if you got them from Giant's Forest."

Marshal's eyeridge remained raised, "Alright..you've lost me. How does this being the Giant's Forest have anything to do with this?"

Claw smiled, "Everything. This forest, it's saturated with Magic. Every rock, plant and bug, it's full to the brim with it. You've seen the effect on the plants and their eaters. The magic infuses their very being, it strengthens them, and make them more than they were. Dragon Deer are the only real plant eaters here that anyone sees, there are a few others...you should see the Tree Leapers, many a hunter has mistaken them for an oversized branch! Anything that eats meat doesn't get the same result, the magic that makes the prey large is mostly filtered out by then, and those that eat plants as well (ourselves included) don't eat plants in the same way, so it's different. That doesn't mean the food isn't still rich in Magic.

"That Magic, that is what makes any meat hunted in this forest so rich. A little goes far. Outside of here, I'm sure you've eaten an entire deer to satisfy yourself. If you did that with these, you'd probably cause yourself a stomach ache. The same goes for the fruits and vegetables we can grow and gather."

Both of them were quiet for a bit, then Claw spoke up again, "The prey you got today will help. We won't have to hunt as much, but we will need to gather more supplementary items."

Marshal nodded in understanding, "We are the novice here, so I divert to you in our food situation. But maybe a few of us can help with the gather as well...even if it might just be as a weight holder."

Claw smiled, then laughed, "I like you. I'll see if we can't take you up on the offer, but for now...let's get you and yours fed and this bounty you brought back taken care of. Tomorrow is tomorrow; we will figure it out then."

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It was interesting, and at the same time annoying, watching apes run around fighting over food with the grublins that were supposed to be their allies. But every time they tried to take his food, he made sure they regretted it. He had not had the pleasure of getting to kill one of them yet; they always backed off before that could happen.

He found the grublins to be nothing more than creepy. While they did eat, the way and what they ate was all kinds of wrong. They liked to chair and poison their meat! Sadly, it only got worse the the bigger and nastier you got in the Dark Army. Moonlight was pretty sure he saw an ogre fighting a dreadwing for some giant bird thing that had been brought in, he was also convinced he saw the ogre eating both the dreadwing and the bird, raw and maybe still slightly alive?

Thankfully he tended to stay away from where those creatures ate. He liked to stay as close to the "command tent" as he could. It let him know when exciting events were underway. The only real downside was the company, mainly those creatures that kept hiding in the shadows, or out of sigh. Moonlight had gotten pretty good and seeing those who tried to hide in the shadow, but these things took it to a whole new level. He actually had to work on not dying near them; it tended to be a refreshing change of pace.

A sound from the command tent flapping up was the only warning he got for when his employer decided to allow Moonlight the privilege of his presence. Then again, a giant five-foot-tall, black with red marked wolf tends to be hard to miss, when he is not using magic anyways.

The boss's "friend" in the back was a bit stranger. A canine, like the boss, but instead he would stand on his hind legs only while holding a staff. A staff his eyes refused to quantify with any form color or appears. The darn thing frustrated Moonlight to no end, for whatever kind of magic was used on the thing, the staff refused to give up any other details of what it looked like other than it being "a staff with a gemstone on the top." Sometimes it looked blue, occasionally red, other times yellow and other times still silver or a combination of all four or no color at all, It was maddening even to try to understand!

Moonlight forced his eyes to avoid the maddening staff, especially as its owner seemed to smile the more Moonlight's head hurt from trying to understand it, and instead concentrated on the four-legged wolf. "So Boss? Got something for me."

The wolf's smile could make a daemon swoon for all the furry he managed to put in. The voice that came out was controlled in pitched not to let out the anger within, "The Job you were hired for dragon."

Moonlight smiled, "Oh, but Shadowfang, you never gave me a Target."

The wolf's, Shadowfang's, smile went from furry to just this side of evil, "Well then, how about I give you one with the order to find and guide my forces to him."

Moonlight gave a light sigh, he did have an appearance to keep up after all even in front of creatures radiating power like the one in front of him, "I guess that could work. So, Who or what is the target?"

Shadowfang's smile was squarely in the evil category; Moonlight almost pitted whoever he was about to hunt down...almost.

AN: I want to start this one off by doing something I wouldn't usually do, A reviewer response. Usually, I'd respond directly to these kinds of things, but the review brought up a couple of critical points that I felt deserved to be addressed openly.

Pigchopsbacon: I actually kind of want to thank you for your review. It got me thinking about things that, to be honest, hadn't even crossed my mind. I'm also confident it doesn't pass most other authors minds either. But, don't worry I did have some reasons for why I did something.

1. The Deer. As explained, they became giant-sized because of the magic of the forest, specifically from the plants they ate and thus getting infused with the magic. They are also the only real plant eaters we will "see." We might see some small rodents surviving off not quite as living plant material, they are bigger as well (small chihuahua size for most rats) but they won't really play any big part in the story, and any other creatures (like the Tree Leapers mentioned in this chapter) will be much the same way. As for the predators, they don't get the same type of magic from eating the meat of their prey, that magic has already been processed. If the deer left the giant forest, they would return to normal sized deer within the span of a few years if not generations if all they did was nibble on the edge.

2. Other large flying predators...most of them are in service to the dark army. As we are working with a video game which did NOT show animal life much at all, that means all I have to work on are either real-world creatures or other fantasize style things. (I almost need to go find myself a D&D monster book, they got some good ones) I will try but don't expect too much.

3. On that note, this third one, the world JUST went through a several decade-long war and got split apart; the environment is NOT stable right now. Entire portions of the world would be desolate and animals are avoiding it for a time. It will take much longer than the short amount of time it has been for the world to be stable and natural order return completely. After most disasters, you get several stages of revival. The world skipped a few of those stages in some areas but in others not so much. There is also, as said in the previous chapter, a freakin army nearby, predatory creatures scattered long ago. Don't worry; I will do my best to bring in other sorts of animals.

4. In terms of Air Combat, you are correct, generally. Momentum is king in close air combat. When hunting, however, it's the shock value of dropping from above and catching your prey by surprise. Very few of the larger creatures naturally look up to look for predators, that is what I've been using (dragons aren't THAT common in this part of the world). Don't use the last chapter as an example of what I plan to do with Air Combat (heck don't even use the last example of air combat I did a few chapters back as a show of what I plan for Air Combat), trust me; I have a lot more plans for that.

5. I know this was the middle of your review, but it was the last item I wanted to touch, "Natural evolution made giant flying reptiles, therefore there must be an environment suited for them. Suit the environment to the dragon, not the other way around." Yea...I am not ashamed of saying I was guilty, sorry about that. This was the main thing I wanted to thank you for pointing out. I've always had some shallow idea of keeping to this in the back of my mind, but I generally ignored it. I will try my best now that I am aware of such an oversight but don't expect the world, please. I am video game playing, sfy-loving, military working guy. I am still working on a higher learning. I know a lot about a bunch of different things but nothing that helps with any speed in this area. So it may take me a bit to work of an idea of how giant flying lizards and the other bipedal creatures affect natural evolution, please stick with me.

I hope that helps smooth over a few things, if not please PM me, and we can talk about it. If somebody has ideas of what I could put in for "world expanding" and the like, regarding animals, creatures, maybe a set piece or two if you feel adventurous, please let me know.

If anyone else has criticism, please lay it on me. As I've shown, sometimes it can be of benefit, and it can help to direct a story if it brings up the right point. I have much enjoyed the reviews I have gotten so far, the support has been amazing. (they also help me to kick my motivation in gear to start typing {*hint hint*})

Now as to none reviewer related items…

You don't even want to know how many times I wanted to stop this chapter. Not in the term of not writing it, but cut it short. But I kept going it's too short, and I need to make this longer. Also...I realized I made a few mistakes. If you read Warriors of the Fallen, You'll notice a name dropped character...Yea I shouldn't have name-dropped him so soon...or even if I did, I would have least introduced him over here. My bad.

I will admit there are times when I get either extremely sidetracked or stuck on a single rail so severely I ignore all else. Hopefully, I'll catch myself, but there will be times it doesn't happen.

Now for some of the new characters:

Shadowfang belongs to sithman91 from DeviantArt

The second, staff-wielding and standing on two legs dog there in the background belongs to Kastilo Shepherd From Fanfiction

A reminder, Moonlight belongs to Adventure Ind (he apparently changed his name at some point, so it's probably a good idea to have this as well)

(by the way, don't worry, not ALL submitted OCs are going to be seen working for the bad guys it just looks that way right now.)

I am sorry for the massive delays in this, but know I have not given up. So until we meet again, happy reading.