NOVEL NEXT Chapter 47: Down and Out for the Count
Dominic watched through Leo’s eyes with tension filling his mental presence. Leo leaped, taking a leaf out of Dominic’s own playbook. However, not in the direction that anyone might have been expecting. Instead of leaping towards the two subordinate albuhas and the downed leader beyond, he leaped away.
As he whirled around, Dominic saw that the two coyote-like creatures had taken a few steps towards them, probably instinctively attracted to a ‘fleeing’ enemy. However, Leo’s plan very quickly took shape even as several more notifications of downed enemies flashed across Dominic’s vision – even if Leo didn’t want to see them, it was useful for someone to keep track.
Besides, it confirmed that so far none of the smaller coyotes had been any higher than level 9 which was good to know. It did mean that his bigger opponents were probably Tier 2, but were unlikely to be far into it.
Invoking Momentous Charge, Leo started running back towards the small group, Roaring as he did so. Dominic felt his companion concentrate on emitting an aura of fear through the sound of his voice.
Actually, it wasn’t a bad idea, he decided. There was the chance that the coyotes would be able to see through the illusion but at their lower levels that seemed unlikely. Adding in the Roar was a good idea – even if they did have the possibility of seeing through the illusion, the chances of successfully doing so were reduced if they were half-terrified already.
The effects of Leo’s Roar were immediately obvious. All three albuhas recoiled, and the two subordinate ones actually took several steps backwards. They unintentionally helped their pride mates too – several of the lower level albuhas actually turned to flee and offering easy targets to the lions and amesheks.
A moment later, Leo’s targets were hit by however many pounds of charging lion they perceived. Completely unbraced for the attack, the two smaller albuhas went flying – and not with their wings.
They weren’t down and out for the count – not yet – but they had certainly been knocked almost entirely out of the ring. The impact had left the lead albuha open to attack. Even better, Leo’s built-up moment was sufficient to keep him moving forwards, though more slowly, despite running bodily into the two other albuhas.
Of course, Leo’s ‘more slowly’ was still damn fast, considering how much they had invested into their speed and the addition of Momentous Charge. He was on the albuha leader before the coyote-like creature could react.
Dominic felt the pleasure emanating from his companion at the delicious knowledge that this time it was his enemy under his claws and teeth – he had definitely not reacted well to being the ‘prey’ in their previous clash.
Now, grounded temporarily and without his supporting packmates, the leader was vulnerable. Leo took eager advantage of that and struck at him again. The coyote-like creature tried to fight back, but against the bigger, stronger, and higher-level lion, the battle was almost a foregone conclusion.
The albuha tried to use his howl once more, but with Leo’s new confidence, it rolled across him like water off a duck’s back. When he did manage to get his teeth into Leo, it took a chunk out of the lion’s health bar, obviously using some Ability, but Leo was too fast to be caught often. And a lot more was taken out of the albuha’s health bar than it managed to drag from Leo’s. The attempts to attack him made by the subordinates weren’t enough to drive him away or stop him attacking either.
By the time the albuha was down to ten percent, it turned and tried to wing away, to escape. Leo wasn’t having any of that. He prepared to pounce.
[You have caused one of your opponents to abandon the Challenge. 1/3 challengers of Three On One defeated. Kill or force a retreat from the others to win the challenge.]
‘Wait!’ yelled Dominic mentally at Leo just as he leapt.
The lion didn’t wait: he landed on the coyote-like creature’s back just as the leader pushed off from the ground. The lion bit down, and his teeth weren’t stopped by a gorget.
It was a bit of an ungainly crash landing, but Leo managed to spring free from the falling, paralysed carcass.
[You have killed Eastern Albuha (Evolved Beast level 13)]
[You have earned 15 PP]
‘Wait for what?’ Leo asked, satisfaction running through him.
‘Well it’s too late now,’ Dominic snapped at him. ‘You’ve gone and killed it even when it had already surrendered.’
‘I thought you wanted his wings!’ the lion argued, but was distracted as another winged coyote leapt at him. Of the two subordinates, one seemed to have gone mad; the other seemed to be frozen, staring at its downed leader.
The furious coyote suddenly swelled to a larger size. Its strikes became faster and more powerful, its actions without any sort of hesitation or fear. At first Dominic would have said that it was Rage like the trodils had had, but there was no anger in the creature and though its strikes were unhesitating, they weren’t reckless in the same way. So not Rage, but probably something not all that dissimilar.
It would have been more difficult except for the fact that Leo was a very large lion by this point, and even the coyote’s extra size didn’t quite bring it to Leo’s level. Plus, though the creature was faster when striking, its speed when dodging had reduced a little, meaning that it took injuries more easily.
To swing the balance even more definitely towards Leo, the third member of the Challenge still seemed to be frozen. Or perhaps it was indecisive.
In a one on one fight with a weaker opponent, it wasn’t surprising when Leo managed to use a clever feint to knock the false coyote over onto its side, its wing squashed underneath it and then ripped out its throat.
[You have killed Eastern Albuha (Evolved Beast level 11)]
[You have earned 14 PP]
[2/3 challengers of Three On One defeated. Kill or force a retreat from the last challenger to win the challenge.]
Leo next rounded on the final of the three albuhas, only to find it pressed to the ground, whimpering. Its wings were stretched open and vulnerable, its head on the ground, its eyes looking up at Leo pleadingly.
Dominic felt the lion hesitate.
‘Are you going to let it live?’ he asked as the moment drew out.
‘I should kill it, wretched canine,’ Leo grumbled.
‘But…?’
‘But you won’t want me to, will you?’ he asked, sounding rather long-suffering.
‘I think we should see where this will take us, yes,’ Dominic agreed. ‘As long as it surrenders, we should win the Challenge.’
‘Then you sort it out. I’m going to rest a bit.’
‘Alright,’ Dominic replied, sighing a little, though mostly for the appearance of it. He didn’t complain as they quickly swapped places, settling back into the physicality of their body. Reaching out with a telepathic connection, he found himself able to hear what was going on through the remaining albuha’s mind – a repeating litany of the equivalent of ‘don’t kill me’ and ‘please’. The creature was so desperate to have its intentions understood that it was practically projecting the thoughts out of its own mind even without telepathy helping it.
‘Surrender and maybe I won’t kill you,’ Dominic told it bluntly. He felt a moment of shock pass over the temporary connection from the coyote-like creature. Then a notification flashed up in front of him.
[3/3 challengers of Three On One defeated.]
[Congratulations! You have won the challenge: Three On One. Would you like to see your rewards?]
Although he was dying to say ‘yes’, he instead told it ‘later’ – they were still in the middle of a fight here. Though he did wonder absently why he didn’t get a message about choosing the albuha’s fate in the same way as he’d been asked about Nyx’s after their battle. Was it a different kind of Challenge? This was the only other time an enemy had surrendered in a Challenge, so it was difficult to know what was normal.
Chancing a glance around, Dominic saw that his pride and the albuhas were still fighting hard. It was difficult to tell how many of each there were, though the two amesheks were distinctive which filled him with relief. He didn’t want to have to go and tell Nyx that one or even both of her pack had been killed before they even reached the dungeon.
Filling his lungs with air, he Roared, concentrating on the desire for everyone to just stop.
And they did.
The higher levelled amesheks and even Sekhmet looked like it was more a choice than an obligation, but the rest looked as if his Roar had been a physical shockwave that hit them and demanded their attention. Though that did strike Dominic as a little odd – he thought his Abilities weren’t supposed to affect his own pride members and it usually caused lower-levelled creatures to flee. Then again, maybe it was less the Ability and more the roar itself, or perhaps the intention he’d put behind it.
The remaining albuhas turned to see him standing victorious, two of their number dead near him, the third pressing itself to the floor as if it wanted to be one with it.
Several turned to run, but didn’t make it more than a couple of steps before the members of Dominic’s pride who were quicker off the mark attacked them and brought them to the ground. The rest, some eight or nine of them, pressed themselves to the earth just as the one near Dominic was doing.
‘Don’t attack!’ Dominic told his pride sharply when it looked as though Jenkins and Fang were both about to take advantage. They checked themselves, pulling back with obedience, if not happiness. Actually… Where’s Prince? Dominic wondered, then dismissed the thought. If he’d died, neither he nor his companion would mourn the irritating juvenile much.
‘Are you all OK?’ he checked with his pride, keeping a sharp eye on the beasts pressed to the ground.
‘We are well enough,’ Sekhmet answered. ‘The young male has been keeping us in decent condition.’ The young male? Dominic could only guess she was talking about Lionel with Healing Cloud, since that was the only thing that would make sense.
Sure enough, though most of his pride didn’t relax and kept their eyes on the beings who until a moment ago had been going for their throats, Lionel was wandering around. Dominic found himself momentarily distracted by the other male’s actions. He was rubbing himself against each of the pride members, as if he was greeting them and sharing scents.
It made Leo bristle a little bit, and the lion might have said something if he couldn’t see the same thing that Dominic could: as Lionel rubbed himself along the other pride members’ bodies, their health bars started increasing.
Healing through hugs? Dominic asked himself incredulously. That seemed like something more out of the realm of the Care Bears or something, not the ruthless System which seemed determined to push them to fight each other to the death.
They’d have to explore that more later. For now, he was just glad to see that all of his pride were still alive. Or, at least, all but Prince – he’d have to check his status screen to figure out what had happened with that pride-member.
However, he had another dilemma to face now. Namely deciding what to do with the creatures who, to all intents and purposes, seemed to have surrendered.
‘So,’ he said to the albuha from the Challenge, who still hadn’t moved an inch. ‘In the absence of your leader, are you the one I should negotiate with?’
It seemed like a reasonable supposition: the leader was level 13; the other subordinate albuha had been level 11. Surely this one wasn’t all that dissimilar and so, surely, was one of the lieutenants or deputies of the leader.
‘I…Maybe?’ the albuha answered uncertainly. He, since his voice was definitely male, despite the fear in it, was quite well-spoken, especially for his level, presuming he was level 11 like the other subordinate.
‘Then tell me: why should my Pride and I let you live?’
