S_Winter
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Chapter 90: The Other Side of the Ribbing
🕑 Added 2024-02-13 19:00:06 +0000 UTCThey set off into the savannah, Dominic leading, Sekhmet following. Dominic had decided to show the lioness how he normally attracted prey, and so was searching for a decent-sized herbivore.
It took a while to find some tracks, but that was OK. They were past the heat of the day and the closer to dusk they got, the more likely their prey would be active – both the bait and what he hoped to attract.
In the end, they actually found a lonesome wildebeest. It was clearly old and half-starved, its ribs protruding and its head hanging low.
Getting old in the wild isn’t a particularly fun prospect, Dominic thought to himself with a hint of trepidation. No comfortable retirement homes; no enjoying the fruits of a life of labour by being able to relax in one’s sunset years. No, for wild animals, it was a process of decline, and eventually death by starvation as the creature became unable to eat. Unless they got killed by a predator before that, of course.
Maybe it’s a mercy to target this one, the former-human considered, then found himself shocked at his own musings. It wasn’t something he’d have thought before this whole mess; clearly all the time he’d spent living wild with a lion in his head had changed him.
‘It is a mercy,’ Leo chimed in, his own mental voice contemplative. ‘Though I wouldn’t have chosen to target it for that before either. I would have targeted it because it is easy prey.’
Dominic reflected that just as much as he himself had changed as a result of their forcible combination, so had Leo.
Though, ultimately, the result was the same. Mercy kill or kill because it was easy, this wildebeest would die.
Not as conversant in the lion body signals as Leo, Dominic instead sent an image through his telepathy to the lioness padding beside him. He showed her a picture of them attacking the wildebeest together.
She replied with an indifferent acceptance. Clearly, she wasn’t being driven by hunger, but she wasn’t against hunting either.
The wildebeest was aware of them. Whether its senses had already been impacted by age or not, they hadn’t been particularly stealthy when approaching. It wasn’t trying to run, perhaps it knew that it couldn’t. Instead, it was facing them, its horns lowered and ready to sell its life dearly.
Not that that would make much difference in the end.
The lioness sent a message to Dominic with a twitch of her black-barred ears and tail tuft. Unfortunately, without Leo to translate, Dominic didn’t understand what she meant.
‘She is going to attack from the side,’ Leo offered without the former-human needing to ask.
‘Thanks,’ Dominic replied gratefully. Clearly this was going to be like against the buffalo – he would be the distraction until the lioness attracted its attention by attacking it. Then, when the wildebeest’s focus shifted to the lioness, Dominic would come in for the kill.
To that end, he snarled at the wildebeest, moving closer and pacing a little, just out of the reach of those horns. His actions gained exactly the result he wanted: the wildebeest kept its eyes and attention on the very obvious threat. However, it did seem aware that there was another unseen threat lurking – it shifted nervously, its head twisting a little back and forth.
Dominic just snarled again at it. He didn’t roar because he was concerned that he might accidentally spook it into running. He didn’t feel like engaging in a chase when it had been so obligingly still up to this point.
There was a blur of gold as Sekhmet finally made her move. Leaping out of the grass, she went straight for its throat, not messing around.
The wary wildebeest flinched just enough that her attack missed, and she fell to the ground. It turned, perhaps intending on goring her with its horns.
A mistake. For the herbivore.
Dominic took advantage of its distraction and its new position side-on to him to also leap for the throat. Before jumping, he activated Quick Strike and Group Attack. The 1% bonus might not make much difference, but every little helped.
His attack was more successful than Sekhmet’s, the wildebeest less aware of its surroundings with its focus on the lioness before it. The beast bellowed briefly as Dominic’s teeth sank in deeply, then its cry was cut off with its air as he activated Crushing Bite.
[You have killed Blue Wildebeest (Basic Beast level 4)]
[You have earned 14 PP]
Barely worth the effort, Dominic muttered to himself in disgust. Though, ultimately, the wildebeest wasn’t his target, just the means to an end. Besides, it was an old beast and barely a challenge to kill. It was unsurprising that the number of Prey Points would be low.
While the lioness tucked into the belly of the wildebeest, feasting on the tasty organs, Dominic went to its head. Digging in with his teeth and claws, he managed to open a path into its brain – and Core.
‘That was a lot easier than with the rhino,’ Dominic commented to his co-pilot.
‘It’s a lot smaller and less protected,’ Leo pointed out. ‘Of course it’s going to be easier.’
‘I know that,’ Dominic responded with a little irritation. ‘I was just saying…nevermind.’ It wasn’t worth the effort of explaining.
Instead, he just pulled the Core out and asked for information about it.
[You have obtained a Beast Core: Blue Wildebeest Level 4
Ability: Enduring Stamina]
‘Well that sounds interesting, don’t you think?’ Dominic asked Leo.
‘Perhaps,’ allowed the lion.
[Enduring Stamina (T0): Reduces the rate at which your stamina decreases with activity and reduces the stamina required for certain actions. This Ability can be active for a short time, after which stamina will decrease faster for an equivalent time in a recuperation period. These times may be affected as Ability increases in level. The length of time Ability is active may be increased and the length of time of the recuperation period afterwards may be decreased by using Health Points.]
Dominic wanted it. He wanted it badly. Although there were no specifics, as there often weren’t before he’d earned the Ability, this could solve or at least help his stamina situation. He didn’t know how it would apply to his enhancements like Crushing Bite, but if it could reduce those costs, his attacking capacity would multiply.
But the real beauty that he saw in this Ability was how it clearly was able to trade health for reduced stamina costs.
While that might not be a good idea for most creatures, Dominic now had a little advantage: Regeneration. He’d probably have to enhance it a bit, but if he could be regenerating just as much health as Enduring Stamina used? He could have it going throughout the fight, and not have to suffer much of the recuperation period afterwards, either.
Of course, without knowing specifics of how much health would have to be sacrificed, he couldn’t know whether his idea was truly feasible. Even if he wasn’t able to get the benefits of it for practically no cost, the base Ability could be useful. Certainly, his endurance seemed to be a problem in most fights these days – he just had too many stamina-hungry Abilities.
Licking up the Core, Dominic turned to Sekhmet and sent her an image of them hiding in the bush nearby.
The lioness sent confusion in response. Dominic understood – Sekhmet probably thought that, since they’d already made a good kill, they didn’t need to hunt any longer. But she had not yet been introduced to the idea of power-levelling.
He sent the image of them hiding in the bush again, adding a hint of urgency to it. The lioness looked between him and the kill, then returned to eating. Ignoring him.
A feeling of indignation shot through Dominic, and he reacted before he realised that the source was actually from his co-pilot.
Dominic snarled at her, showing his teeth, stalking towards the lioness. She scrambled to her feet, then snarled back at him angrily. The lion kept moving forwards, radiating menace. The lioness backed up step by step until Dominic was standing between her and the disembowelled carcass.
Then, he sent her an image of hiding in the bushes and waiting for more enemies to come. That was followed up by an image of Sekhmet killing lots of enemies and growing bigger.
The lioness’s lips slowly lowered, her snarl losing its angry edge. She stayed eyeing him for a moment, then turned and padded into the bush. Going still, Dominic was only able to spot her because he knew where to look.
After quickly giving his claws and muzzle a wash, Dominic moved to join her. She was rigid and her tail was flicking – even the former-human could identify that that meant she was not best-pleased with him. Hopefully she’d change her tune when she killed enough creatures to level up again.
They waited.
Flies gathered on the body, the scent of blood filling the air. Dominic doubted that it would be too long before something came to investigate.
It turned out that he was right.
A chirping sound only a couple of body lengths away from the waiting lions made Dominic tense in anticipation.
Not long after, a couple of creatures came into view. The lion found his heart beating a little faster when they emerged sufficiently from the grass that he was able to identify them: resorels.
It had been a while since he’d seen the odd almost-avian creatures. The last time had just been before his encounter with the scrin – the gorilla-hyena hybrid. I wouldn’t mind a rematch with that one either, he thought for a moment, then eyed his companion. Actually, maybe better not.
The resorels here were bigger than he remembered, probably a higher level. Good – that meant they should be worth more Prey Points. They didn’t seem to use any different tactics from the last time, still carefully approaching the wildebeest carcass and using their tails to jack-knife away at the last moment.
They also seemed to still be rather bad-tempered, attacking each other whenever two resorels attempted to share the same space at the same time.
Dominic sent Sekhmet a sense of ‘wait’.
She responded with exasperation. The closest equivalent Dominic could think of was ‘I do know how to hunt’. He couldn’t help a sense of amusement rising inside himself. Funnily enough, he found himself looking forward to the lionesses gaining more sapience. It would be nice to be able to have a conversation with someone other than Leo.
‘What, am I not good enough?’ Leo asked huffily in mock-outrage.
‘I’d suggest sticking to the lionesses – trying to mate with your own reflection probably won’t work well,’ Dominic shot back at him.
Leo responded with a confused feeling so Dominic sent him the memory of reading about the myth of Narcissus. He who loved himself so much that he wasted away in front of his own reflection and became a flower.
‘Humans think of the strangest things,’ Leo said, clearly baffled. Dominic considered objecting but then mentally shrugged. It was true. ‘Don’t you have a hunt to get to, anyway?’ the lion pointed out.
‘You just don’t want to admit that you got burnt there,’ teased Dominic, enjoying being on the other side of the ribbing for once.
The lion just responded with the mental equivalent of a hard paw poke, wordlessly telling him again to focus.
Looking back at the wildebeest carcass, Dominic saw that, indeed, it was time.
*****
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Comments
Samuel_Almonihah
Yeah, stamina is definitely their current weakness.
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
