Ssarak Dyreackthanose --- Ssarak’s sword was already drawn, but upon seeing the veritable wave of ridge hounds before them, he readied his shield as well. As far as underground caves were concerned, the catacombs were fairly large, but they were still more restrictive than he would have liked. Being able to fly above the beasts would have given him more than enough of an advantage, but that was not the situation he was in. In preparation for this excursion into the Ravine, he had naturally taken the time to learn of its common denizens, and fortunately, ridge hounds were [i]anything[/i] but unusual. They were like pests, but much more deadly. In the time since his last mission, Ssarak’s abilities had expanded, and he intended to make use of them. The ridge hounds had no eyes with which to see, but their hearing easily compensated for that weakness. However, their hearing could be “blinded” in much the same way as eyesight. Towards the mass of hounds, he targeted an attack against the few in the front: an illusion of an extremely loud, piercing sound to briefly stun them. As they were leading the charge, any sudden delay was likely to sew some chaos among the crowd and potentially cause them to trip over one another. He then followed that attack with another, targeting some, but not all of the hounds. It would not be necessary to create the illusion for all of them, and would be more efficient with his blood. In their minds, he altered their perception of some of the other hounds around them so that they appeared to be something other than a ridge hound. These creatures were meant to be brutal and aggressive, but not greatly intelligent. They would attack anything they could view as prey. Many of those he targeted were nearer to the front, and a fight there would of course stall the group. Given their temperament, it could potentially draw in others behind them as well. Ssarak stood directly alongside Tyrael with his weapons still at the ready. If his illusions opened up the proper opportunities, he would possibly move forward to engage them.