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Chapter 271
🕑 Added 2024-12-03 04:04:31 +0000 UTC[Skill evolved. Status updated.]
With a wide grin, I helped shepherd the swarm’s growing herds onward. One herd each of axebeaks, a deerlike thing called an Indlovan Oryx according to the [System], and something else it called hyenas. Only the axebeaks numbered more than 100, to allow [True Dominance] progress. Then, to my pleasure, two truly massive herds of oxfiends, and now, the sheer quantity of our subjugated creatures numbered at least as many as we keelish.
Sybil and Foire together could hear the indlovu coming and we had worked together the few times they’d come close, but at this point, I was fairly certain that we wouldn’t be able to cover our tracks sufficiently to hide from them again. Nearly 2000 beasts and keelish under my command, and we did not move quietly or without leaving any sign of our passage. The indlovu we’d killed in their initial assault had fed the entirety of the swarm for that day, and I hadn’t allowed anyone to hunt or kill one of our livestock for over a day. We’d encountered the axebeaks the next day, and with only some menacing from the wolfstags combined with my [Skills] and Joral’s, they submitted. Maybe us having some of their own people under our command helped with that, but I couldn’t say for sure.
The oryx and hyenas, however, resisted domestication. I’d needed to kill several of the hyenas before they began to yip and strangely cackle their subservience. When a female that seemed to be in charge walked in front of me with her rear presented to me, I understood what she was communicating, and rather disgusted by it. Even so, she showed her willingness to submit, and I had Arwa try to take the hyenas under her wing. I couldn’t bring myself to care about if they would serve as a short or long-term food. The oryx didn’t fight back, though their long, sharp horns seemed like they could pierce through a keelish’s scales. I’d willingly killed one of them as the fled, but even so, they didn’t care. They instead were doggedly persistent in their attempted escape, sprinting in bounding leaps ever onward and away from us. Twice, their leader had seized a perceived weakness and leapt over a shorter keelish.
Eventually, I caught the end of one of his horns and wrested him to the ground. He’d bleated and cried out in a mix of terror and pain, but with so many of my [Skills] working in tandem to break his will, he quickly submitted to the combination of me and the influence of the rest of my swarm. Then, the oxfiends had gone down the same way as the first, with me slaughtering their champion or leader and forcing the rest to bow down to me.
As I forced another leader of at least 100 individuals to submit to me through death, the flashing [System] notification drew a more pleased smile from the rictus of a slaughterer’s beaming I’d already sported.
[Skill: True Dominance has evolved into Skill: Absolute Dominance]
[Skill: True Dominance; a passive Skill granted to those who have demonstrated and begun to perfect the ability to force others to obey and submit to the Skill’s holder. Those who have gained this Skill are beginning to understand the path of the tyrant, and this Skill assists them in that path. This Skill grants an improved aura that incites loyalty, obedience, and fear in others. This aura begins to force even those with the strongest will to submit their will to the holder, and allows the holder to more easily dominate those who stand before them, even without violence. This Skill can evolve. Skill evolution requirements: assert and establish dominance over five leaders of groups of at least 100 individuals.]
[Skill: Absolute Dominance; a passive Skill demanded by those who force others to submit or die. This Skill’s holders are established tyrants and kings, undisputed hegemons who will not brook discontent or disobedience from their ranks. This Skill grants an aura that demands loyalty and obedience while striking terror in the unfaithful. This aura weakens the dissident and the enemy alike, and will allow the holder to strike down resistance in the heart long before it materializes into any willingness to rebel. Violence is only one of the vehicles through which the holder demands submission, and the Skill’s holder demands much. Those who dare not to submit, if their wills are strong enough, will immediately seek to fight for their freedom and lives. This Skill can evolve. Skill evolution requirements: Establish dominance over a country’s long-established ruler. This ruler cannot currently be experiencing significant political upheaval.]
Though I’d already known what my path was, again, the [System] reminded me of my journey thus far, and where it was projected to go, if the Administrator was to be believed. And I couldn’t see myself changing from that. I would try to be a benevolent tyrant and a well-intentioned monarch, but I knew already that I would only consult with my elites. Never would I give them full power. The demand for control within me forced me to recognize that I would allow discussion, but never true usurpation of my position.
With my new [Skill] begging to be used, I spent time around each of the groups within the swarm. Each of the longtime livestock bowed in my presence, unwilling to meet my eye or my ire. The newest keelish, from the nameless swarm, fawned and begged before me. The keelish from Farahlia’s swarm avoided me, but once it was apparent I approached them, they groveled low and answered questions immediately. Even some of my elites, those who had known me for as long as I’d lived, instinctively bowed their heads and listened for my command.
My presence and position reinforced, I once again restricted my aura. A subconscious sigh went out among every creature within my swarm, and Sybil approached me.
“You grow ever stronger, Alpha.” Sybil strode in step next to me, though she’d been apparently unaffected by my previous strutting.
“True enough.” I hedged, a cocksure smirk breaking my nonchalance.
“I am proud to call you my leader.” Sybil bowed her head. “You continue to prove my decision made so long ago to have been correct.”
“You didn’t really make that decision, Syb.” Shemira interrupted. “I kicked you out, and you happened to go to this monster, and with your support, he’s become what he is now.”
“... I suppose that is factual.” Sybil allowed. “Even so, I am glad to be your support.”
“And that you are.” I answered, bumping my hip into her own as I nipped at her neck. She subtly pulled her head back, allowing my fangs to scratch at the soft skin at the juncture of neck and shoulder. I nuzzled in deeper for a moment but soon pulled away. “I forgot to ask before–were you able to find one?”
Sybil perked up even more, her steps bouncing almost as much as if she were skipping. “Yes! It will be perfect if the opportunity presents itself! If we are correct in thinking that Chieftain Allatsu will approach us himself, then I believe it will serve to trip him from his original path.”
“I believe that time is here now.” Foire sprinted up as he nearly shouted. “They’re here, and there’s one that is larger than any other we’ve seen among them.”
I let the wide grin stretched across my face shift to an even more predatory one as I prepared my first words to tear Allatsu from his position.
