NOVEL NEXT Chapter 57: I Can’t Wait To Get Out
After Dominic got over his shock at Fang’s verbosity, they got back to trying to find the keys. Dominic still wasn’t sure why the young lion was so fluent upon just now reaching Tier 2 when Sekhmet had been talking for a lot longer, but still wasn’t using fluent sentences. Unless it was that Sekhmet could but just didn’t choose to. She certainly had a high enough level.
It would make sense. Fang was a lot more ebullient as a personality than the eminently practical Sekhmet or his much quieter brother. Lionel on the other hand had barely said a word. Not, Dominic thought, because he couldn’t, but because he didn’t want to.
Finding a likely spot, they didn’t even bother trying to avoid the fight: as soon as they saw the monitors and snakes grouped together, they attacked.
They’d managed to avoid anyone getting bitten when grabbing the third disc, but the massively disproportionate number of snakes in the fourth fight more than made up for that – Procyon, Sekhmet, and Fang were all bitten, and Dominic was bitten twice. Lionel was overworked and Fang almost died, but Dominic was most frantic when Sekhmet was the one bitten. He, single-pawed, accounted for at least half of the deaths in that fight in his fury and pain.
Fortunately, they got through it. It just showed how much the dungeon had increased in difficulty: the entry-level fights were involving creatures at the same level that the final boss had been last time. Not that these were anything near as difficult to fight – Dominic suspected that there had been a bit of dungeon-trickery affecting the warthog.
Trickery definitely seemed to be the dungeon’s go-to method. Their last fight had been completely pointless except for the gain in Prey Points. Apparently not all groups protected a key disc – they had attacked a clump of ten monitors and seven snakes and then spent ages combing through the area looking for the golden disc which had been nowhere to be found.
Fortunately, they’d got the fifth disc not too long after that and the fight wasn’t even too hard – barely more monitors and snakes than the decoy group and a couple of slons. Perhaps the relative ease of the last two fights had caused Fang to lower his guard as he called into question their previous decision.
‘Let’s separate – we’ll cover more ground that way,’ he suggested. ‘This is going to take ages if we move as a group.’
‘No,’ Dominic said immediately. ‘Maybe the last two fights weren’t too hard, but don’t you remember the other fights where we almost lost someone? Or even more than one member of the pride? It might take longer, but I’d rather our haste doesn’t cost us any members of the party.’
The young lion looked like he might be feeling a little rebellious so Dominic fixed him with a look, trying to ignore Leo urging him in the background to teach the little upstart his place.
‘Unless you’re volunteering to go ahead and scout?’ he asked mildly. The young lion hesitated, then his eyes flicked over the rest of the group, pausing on Sekhmet for just a touch longer than the rest of them – something that Leo both noticed and growled at almost inaudibly.
‘Fine, I will,’ Fang replied with what seemed very much like false bravado. He hesitated, then determinedly moved off, stepping carefully and looking in all directions.
‘You not let him get in trouble, yes?’ Sekhmet asked Dominic, the message having the feel of a private one through her telepathic Ability rather than through the Pride chat.
‘Not any trouble he can’t get out of, no,’ Dominic answered her in a similar manner, his eyes focussing on the young lion. He had a feeling that Fang was likely to miss something important in his focus on looking for a key – he was barely looking at the ground at all, his footfalls carefully placed more to avoid causing noise than anything else. A mistake, Dominic suspected: the dungeon had been kind enough not to combine the traps and fights when battling for the golden discs, but that didn’t mean it had neglected to use them in other areas.
Perhaps Fang had forgotten the injury Sirius had sustained between their fourth and fifth fight. The ameshek had accidentally tripped a log-swing without them realising until too late. The log had crushed him against a tree, breaking several of his ribs and making him cough up blood. His health had dropped worrisomely fast, but fortunately a combination of Lionel and Consuming carcasses healed him before it could become serious.
All seemed to go well for a short while, the pride following the young male as he advanced through the jungle. Then the lion jumped into a tree. Apparently disappointed, he leapt back down…and the ground disappeared beneath his feet.
An agonised screech filled the air, a sound that Dominic had never heard and never really wanted to hear again. Hurrying forwards while still keeping an eye in case there was nothing else that would hit him, he approached the pit as fast as he dared.
Apparently it wasn’t fast enough as a sandy-coloured blur leapt past him. Lionel ran for his brother, wordless fear and panic projected into the Pride chat.
‘Careful!’ Dominic yelled at him. ‘Or you’ll be next!’
Fortunately, they both made it to the edge of the pit without incident. Lionel dropped carefully into the pit and was already filling the base of it with golden dust by the time Dominic reached the lip, the others not far behind. Their healer had obviously chosen his landing well as he was uninjured. The same couldn’t be said of his brother.
Fang was…in a bad condition. His health bar was almost empty and Lionel was failing to keep up with the ongoing damage. Fang was just too injured. The bottom of the pit had different length spikes pointing up from it and they had pierced him badly in many places. Bloody spear points emerged from his flank, his neck, and one leg. Those weren’t the only ones, but they were the ones which had managed to find a route through.
The only good things Dominic could see was that most of the spears which had found their way through Fang’s body were flesh wounds – the one protruding through his flank was the worst. The other good thing was that clearly neither his heart nor his brain had been hit. With the new healing of the System, the young lion still had a chance. And he supposed that it was good the young lion had obviously invested a bit into his health in recent level ups as otherwise he’d already be dead.
‘Keep the healing going, Lionel,’ Dominic instructed the healer, his mind going into overdrive as he considered and discarded ideas. The first thing was to overcome the ongoing rate of damage. Lionel wasn’t able to heal fast enough; he needed help. Hopefully Fang was aware enough, though Dominic didn’t envy him the pain he must be in. ‘Fang, Consume these.’
He dropped in some carcasses, carefully to make sure they fell where Fang could touch them without moving, but trying to avoid actually dropping them on the impaled lion. Fortunately, Fang did seem to be at least cognisant enough to do that as the carcasses started dissolving into golden dust. With that boost, Fang’s health started picking up a little, but if he stayed impaled, he’d be done for nonetheless.
‘Procyon, Sirius, Sekhmet, bite my wings on either side. Try to avoid causing too much damage, but keep me from falling,’ he ordered, flaring both wings outwards. The other three didn’t question him and immediately obeyed.
Dominic headed straight towards the pit.
‘You’re not doing what it looks like you’re doing, are you?’ demanded Leo, clearly alarmed.
‘Leo, not the time,’ Dominic ground back at him, the pain from his wings increasing significantly as he stepped carefully over the edge of the pit and the bones held between his pride members’ jaws started taking his full weight.
‘Leave the wretched male! He’s clearly too stupid to breed! It is nature’s way.’
‘Maybe before, but not now,’ Dominic told Leo, waving his tail to indicate to his pride members to lower him a little more. ‘Now, if you’re not going to help, shut up.’
The lion growled loudly, but withdrew with the distinct feeling of being in a huff. Dominic literally shoved him to the back of his mind. Setting his teething into the scruff at Fang’s neck, he waved his tail in the opposite direction to indicate that he wanted to be lifted.
Slowly, bit by bit, they moved. Fang’s health mimicked a yo-yo, dropping from the damage caused by moving up the spears and the increased bleeding, then rising again with Lionel and the carcasses’ healing.
When they finally got Fang out, Lionel leapt out without a problem, going straight back to healing.
It took a while, but getting Fang out of the pit had been the turning point and he slowly moved back to full health.
When he was well enough to speak, he had the grace to admit his foolishness in going off on his own.
‘We work better all together,’ he confessed. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Just let it be a lesson,’ Dominic told him tiredly. His own injuries were long-healed by his Regeneration, but it certainly hadn’t been a fun experience. ‘Let’s learn from this – someone on the ground needs to always test the area below before anyone jumps out of a tree OK?’
After that nasty episode, they all took extra care when moving around in the jungle. It was a good lesson to learn too – Sekhmet missed being crushed by a falling log by a whisker when she noticed that she’d accidentally triggered something, and Dominic only just avoided falling into another pit that he accidentally triggered with one of his back paws by digging in his claws and using his wings to stop himself from sliding backwards.
Dominic didn’t think that he was alone in being eager to get out of this death-trap of a forest. When he’d suggested that Leo might want to take over for a bit, the vehement response from the lion had been enough to not bother asking him again. Apparently Leo was willing to yell at him for not realising that there was a pit behind him, but not willing to risk that he might cause them to fall into one.
‘I can’t wait to get out of this jungle,’ Fang moaned in the Pride chat as they found what they hoped was the final fight in this area.
‘Get last disc, then we can,’ snapped Sekhmet at the young male, a little testy. She’d been in a bad mood ever since she’d almost been crushed – Dominic didn’t blame her.
‘I fear that we will not be of much use in this one,’ noted Procyon hesitantly.
‘It’s OK,’ Dominic reassured him. ‘I know your paws aren’t very good for climbing. Just keep an eye on what’s going on down here. If we can shove any of the slons out of the trees, kill them as quickly as you can.’
Not having any monitors on the ground, it had taken them a while to identify this as a possible location of the final disc. In the end, it was only Sirius’ antennae sensing an unusual number of vibrations above their heads that gave them a clue. They’d looked up, only to find a whole colony of slons peering down at them with beady weasel-like eyes. They hadn’t started attacking – yet. But that was likely to change.
‘Alright, everyone knows what to do?’ Dominic checked briskly. His pride got back to him with various affirmations. ‘Let’s go, then.’
With that, the four lions leapt into the canopy. Sure Feet definitely made a difference here. Lionel was the least steady of the four felines, though Sekhmet wasn’t completely comfortable either.
Although those two had both leapt to clear branches, Dominic and Fang had taken more full-frontal approaches, leaping straight at the biggest clumps of slons. The sloth-like creatures scattered, but not quickly enough.
Three fell to the ground, just to be pounced on by the amesheks. Two more were killed instantly by Dominic – even if he didn’t get the full bonus of Pounce since his attack was very much anticipated, he did get the 55% by aiming for their throats and bellies. Multiplying the damage he caused with Powerful Swipe and Crushing Bite meant that he very quickly drained the health bars of the two slons he first targeted.
The others around the two male lions struck at them a moment later, their long claws enhanced by an Ability that managed to make large gouges in Dominic’s flesh. Being in the middle of the canopy meant that the attacks could come from all directions – claws struck at him from above and below just as much as they did from the branch on either side of them.
‘We’re going to need to enhance our defence somehow next level up,’ Dominic complained to Leo and a particularly sharp claw raked across his shoulder and glanced over his gorget. ‘Because: ow!’
‘Fight now, talk later,’ Leo snapped back at him. ‘Watch your back.’
Dominic whirled around, barely keeping his footing, a slon going sailing through the space where his backside had been a moment before. It made a mournful whine as it fell to the ground – a sound that was quickly cut off as Sirius ripped its throat out.
Snarling, Dominic struck out at the slons in front of him, doing his best to bat them off the branch they were all standing on. That was easier said than done – their long claws weren’t only good for getting through his meagre defences, but kept them hanging onto the branches – usually upside down – long after he’d whacked them off.
‘How are you doing?’ he sent to Sekhmet and Lionel urgently.
‘Busy,’ grunted the lioness; the lion simply sent grim agreement. An image of a branch covered with boomslangs was the next in the chat. A quick glance their way before refocussing on the slons around him showed that Lionel’s new Poison Cure Ability was coming in useful: one moment Sekhmet would be poisoned by a bite from the venomous boomslangs; the next, Lionel would glow gold and the damage-over-time effect of the poison would be removed.
He didn’t actually heal her; apparently he wanted to conserve his power. Dominic had been interested to find out that, while his first Ability was powered with the health from carcasses he’d Consumed first, his own health second and had only recently allowed him to heal himself as well as others, this new Ability was purely mana-powered. It was a little embarrassing that Lionel’s mana pool even when he’d been a level 10 had been more than four times Dominic’s. Now, at level 15, with several level-ups evidently dedicated to it, his pool was obviously significantly bigger. Either way, he didn’t seem to be struggling.
Not yet, anyway, and Dominic had a good idea of how to improve the situation for everyone. Leaping in the opposite direction from the other three lions, Dominic extended his wings as far as he could in the space he had and glided over the tops of the slons’ heads, barely managing not to get his newest limbs snarled in the vines hanging from the branches above.
He dared to make the move only since he knew these creatures couldn’t jump. That didn’t stop them from attempting to rip out his intestines by raising their claws as high as they would go. Fortunately, Dominic was higher.
Turning, he faced the oncoming scurrying slons – both above and below the branch on which he stood. Opening his jaws, he Roared at them, focussing on the sonic attack.
The slons and snakes didn’t freeze in place – there were too many of them for his Roar to have much impact individually. However, they did slow down, which was Dominic’s main objective. He kept an eye on his stamina – falling fast – as his allies quickly moved to attack the slowed enemies.
They often weren’t able to kill with a single hit – the slons tended to be a bit too tough for that, though crushing a snake’s head tended to see it die immediately. They could, however, knock the creatures to the ground below for the amesheks to finish off.
By the time Dominic was down to a quarter of his stamina, a good two thirds of the enemies were dealt with one way or another. Dropping his Roar, Dominic leapt forwards at the creatures just in front of him, teeth bared.
Within another minute, the battle was over. They were all bleeding, but, as they Consumed the caracasses – and Procyon, Fang, and Lionel all levelled up again – their health bars quickly replenished.
Dominic gathered the Cores and then stuck the rest of the bodies into his storage space once everyone was back to full health. He absorbed a couple of carcasses himself, just to top off his health and increase his stamina: in the middle of a dungeon was no time to be stingy.
‘Lionel, would you like to do the honours this time?’ Dominic asked, sending the younger lion a picture of the golden disc he’d half-glimpsed while in the branches above. The male seemed to consider it a moment, then sent him a sense of nonchalant agreement. If he had chosen to speak, Dominic imagined he probably would have said something like, ‘fine, I might as well.’
The healer lion leapt gracefully back into the trees. Regaining the branches on which they’d been fighting, he leapt further up still, heading for the glinting prize hanging high above. Fortunately, it seemed like all the defenders had descended to the fight since nothing attacked Lionel.
A moment later, Dominic knew he’d tempted fate – he saw Lionel jerk and grunt in pain, then snap at the air, shaking his head in a surprisingly canine manner before letting go. A body fell to the ground, bloodied and mangled. It was a monitor lizard – a rather large one too. Even with the attack and drop, it was still alive.
Before Dominic could kill it, Fang leapt forwards and tore into it, perhaps taking offence at it attacking his brother.
A glow of gold above was evidence of Lionel healing himself, and then shortly after he returned to the ground, the final golden disc held firmly between his teeth. Spitting it out, he nudged it towards the largest male. Dominic quickly slipped it into his storage space with a friendly head rub that made Leo grumble quietly in the back of his mind. He once more considered how glad he was that he had a better means of carrying the keys this time. A storage space was so much easier than his mouth.
‘Alright,’ Dominic said. ‘Let’s get out of this jungle and go back to the temple.’ Not a single pride member protested.
