Chimera Rising: Beast King Ascension [How a human-turned-lion went from Zero to Absolute Ruler]

'I'm coming,' Dominic told Tuft and immediately took off towards the dungeon entrance – literally, since flying would be quicker. He was surprised to hear wingbeats other than his own and turned his head to see Jenkins flying behind him, labouring to keep up.

'You're coming?'

'Yes. Nyx too.' Jenkins replied shortly, sounding like she was focussing too much on her flying to speak easily. 'Want to see Sekhmet.'

Dominic felt abruptly abashed – of course it wouldn't only be him who was worried about those in the dungeon. Jenkins might be coming for Sekhmet, but Nyx would surely be more worried about Procyon and Sirius. Presumably at least one of the amesheks had emerged with Sekhmet based on Tuft's use of 'they'. Actually, that suddenly made Dominic worry again – what if it were the two amesheks who had come out without Sekhmet.

His wings immediately started moving more frantically, creating distance between him and Jenkins. With frustration, he again slowed down a little, growling to himself. He didn't want to leave Jenkins alone, but at the same time he wanted to be sure that Sekhmet was OK.

'Go,' Jenkins told him with strain evident even in her mental voice. Her wingbeats faltered slightly as she focussed on him. 'If I get tired, I will drop to the forest floor. You are faster than I am – go.'

Dominic hesitated for a moment more, and then turned his head back to focus on the air ahead of him.

'Alright,' he told Jenkins decisively. 'Call if you need help for whatever reason. Otherwise, I'll see you there.'

Beating his wings harder, Dominic pushed himself to his utmost, even engaging the extra speed from Soaring Glide, not caring that his stamina started draining faster.

The impact of his increased speed was obvious when he quickly left Jenkins behind, but the sight of an albuha patrol flying over the forest canopy a distance away reassured him that the airspace was probably safe enough. Unless one of the dungeons had dragons for some reason. Or at least some other flying predators….

He made a mental note to figure out options in case they got a deluge of attackers from the air. Hopefully that wouldn't happen – both the dungeon he'd entered and this more recent one had entrances on the ground which didn't really suit flying creatures. And from what he'd understood, dungeons tended to be populated by types of creatures which entered them – to attract flying creatures, it would probably be best for the entrances to be higher in the air.

But it was always possible – the first dungeon had started in a cave and bats liked caves. Not to mention all the other crazy creatures which had been included with the mix-and-match planet reconstruction, though he'd only seen 'normal' sized birds so far. Though, after a few levels or dungeon enhancements, even small birds might become an annoyance. It would be better to have a plan and not need it than need it and not have it.

Those thoughts were quickly knocked out of his head as he reached the airspace above where the dungeon had been and quickly dived down through the canopy. He tucked in his wings since they would just get caught on the branches and half dropped, half slid down a tree to land with a thump on the forest floor. Easy Landing made it so that he barely received any damage from the heavy impact, and his fast Regeneration quickly took care of what health he had lost.

Dominic didn't care. All he could see was that Sekhmet was there – and she was injured. He didn't even notice how everyone was staring at him with startlement after he'd crashed loudly through the canopy. He did notice how all four of them had moved into more defensive postures, mostly because Sekhmet had too. But as soon as she saw it was him, she relaxed.

Rushing forwards, he immediately used Healing Cloud, quickly going through the golden bar of extra health that he'd built up with all his 'over-eating'. He rubbed up against Sekhmet – even if he didn't actually have to be in physical contact with her now he'd levelled Healing Cloud up a little, he was eager to do so, relieved beyond measure that she'd come back safely. He was so grateful that his request hadn't led to losing her.

It was only after he was sure that she was fully healed that he turned his attention to the other two hulking figures. Procyon and Sirius were both looking rather battered too, so Dominic quickly moved over so they could benefit from his Healing Cloud as well. Even when it started eating into his own health, Dominic kept going. It was a bit unpleasant, like he was drawing blood out through a syringe in pin pricks all over his body, but with his regeneration helping him he wasn't worried about it. He even decided to engage Enhanced Regeneration for the first time – a perfect time for a test of it and the quicker he levelled it up, the better.

As he was healing the two amesheks, he realised something: they were both bigger than he remembered. Pulling up their information in the Pride status, he realised why.

(Procyon: Sonic Attack, Vibrating Body, Group Enhancement) level 25 -> 26

(Sirius: Sonic Attack, Vibrating Body, Group Enhancement) level 24 -> 25

Both of them had gone up a level. Feeling curious, he checked on Sekhmet in the Pride status but saw that she hadn't changed. Dominic supposed that that was expected – it had only been a few hours in the dungeon for her.

'What happened?' Dominic blurted out, unable to keep his questions back a moment longer. Before anyone could answer he pulled back and glared at the two amesheks, a snarl rumbling in his chest. 'And why the hell did you go into the dungeon?! I told you to find the entrance, but you were supposed to protect the rest of the Pride until I got back! Not go dungeon diving!'

Both amesheks looked away, their body language guilty. Dominic huffed angrily, then moved closer again, rubbing himself against Procyon's hard armour plating and Sirius' fur almost violently. They were still injured. 'You could have been killed!' he berated them. 'You could have got Sekhmet killed.'

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'I'm sorry leader,' Procyon answered, his mental rumble sounding ashamed. 'It was my fault.' Dominic paused at that, twisting his head to look down at the ameshek in question. That was unexpected. Procyon was usually the more reasonable and calm one.

'You're the one who went in first?' He asked. Procyon twitched his antennae in a way Dominic knew was agreement. 'Why?' he asked, baffled. Procyon lowered his head and hesitated.

'I felt…a pull. An attraction. I was not prepared for it, so I stepped forwards and fell through the hole.'

'I could not let him go in alone, so I followed after,' Sirius added.

'You should have left me – I would have been fine,' Procyon told Sirius angrily, baring his teeth. Dominic got the sense that it was an argument they'd had before.

'And I told you, you wouldn't have left me! Anyway, it all worked out, right?' Sirius told him, then looked around at Dominic. 'Right?'

Dominic immediately realised Sekhmet hadn't told them anything. 'If you count the fact that we had an invasion of killer rabbits, kesh, and flying predators on what should have been your watch, sure,' He told them more than a little angrily. Perhaps it was a little unfair – having the two amesheks there probably wouldn't have turned the tide. Then again, with their Sonic Attacks, maybe it could have. Sirius and Procyon were obviously startled.

'An invasion?' they both asked, Sirius with bafflement, Procyon with guilt.

About to explain more, Dominic's attention was drawn to a crashing sound rapidly coming closer.

While momentarily alarmed, it didn't take long before he recognised the source of it. The overjoyed thrumming noise coming from Procyon and Sirius that made his chest vibrate in reaction indicated that they, too, knew who was coming.

Dominic reabsorbed what he could of the Healing Cloud dust – the two amesheks were healed enough for now and he suspected he wouldn't get the chance to continue before their natural regeneration had dealt with the rest of it, which was fine by him.

Nyx burst through the trees and Dominic retreated to stand next to Sekhmet, who rubbed against him as they watched the amesheks reunite. The vibrations that could be felt in the air and the ground as they greeted each other were almost uncomfortable for the two lions. Though the amesheks weren't using any sort of attack, it was a bit like the throbbing that could be felt when there was a heavy bass to dance music – at the moment the throbbing was dialed up to max.

'So, what happened when you got inside?' Dominic asked Sekhmet quietly as she leaned against his shoulder. Her head only just reached midway up now.

'Many insects. Big versions of those.' She indicated the line of black ants which was still marching into the dungeon entrance. They were big in comparison to the tiny ones Dominic was used to in England, but not anything that would pose a problem to a creature bigger than a mouse – if even that. If the ones in the dungeon were bigger, though…Dominic remembered the spider boss in the last dungeon and the minions it had spawned.

'How big?' he asked, not sure he wanted to know. Sekhmet indicated with her paw. Dominic was right – he didn't want to know. 'They were all that big?' he asked, aghast – ants the size of small cats when they could already carry fifty times their own body weight and had mandibles which ate through wood easily enough….

'Most were. But at the end there was a group of larger ones surrounding an even larger one.' She indicated first a creature that was approximately the size of a sheltie, and then another which was more like a retriever in height. Dominic shuddered again. Since ants were far longer than they were tall, the images Sekhmet's nonchalant indications evoked were horrifying. 'The bigger ones were harder to fight – they were hard to bite through and didn't take much damage. And their bites and claws were sharp where the others were more crushing. The biggest did little to defend itself, though.'

'Did you kill them all?' Dominic asked curiously. 'And how many rooms were there?'

'Not all,' Sekhmet admitted. 'And only one room, but many tunnels. The canines could not find the exit. They'd killed all of the insects several times but no exit appeared for them. By going in, I showed them where the exit was. It was hidden in shadows – hard to find. While I waited for Sirius and Procyon to come, I killed some of the smaller insects that came too close. They were fighting the big insects at the time but since they did not need to kill them to exit and I told them that we needed to leave, they stopped fighting and retreated to where I was.'

'A good decision,' Dominic praised, though honestly didn't know whether he would have been able to make the same one. He'd have probably wanted to clear the nest again just to get as many Prey Points as possible. He wondered how long Sekhmet had been in there for – it didn't sound like Sekhmet's involvement should have taken much time, yet it had been a few hours for Dominic. He'd wondered before whether the passage of time in dungeons was different from the normal world – this seemed to be more evidence in favour of that conclusion.

Still, at least they were out now. He'd need to get more information about the dungeon from Procyon and Sirius when Nyx was done with them – the greeting had taken on a distinctly scolding tone and both amesheks were looking very shamefaced. They might not be using the Pride chat, but Dominic was pretty certain he knew what Nyx was saying.

Some more crashing in the canopy above drew all of their attention up, but Nyx quickly returned to her chastisement as they noticed that it was only Jenkins – she'd finally caught up.

Dominic didn't want to give up his position pressed against Sekhmet's side, but he begrudgingly allowed Jenkins some space to greet her sister. Seeing the younger lioness' clear relief made him feel a bit guilty about being so reluctant and he made some more space for her. While the two lionesses were reuniting – even if it had only been a few hours – he thought about what Sekhmet had told him.

'Why does it have to be an insect dungeon? And ants at that?' Dominic bemoaned to Leo. It wasn't that he was afraid of them exactly, it was just that insects were already tough when they were small. Assuming that they maintained that relative toughness even as they got bigger, the dungeon might easily be more difficult than the other dungeon the first time he'd gone in, even if they were the same level. Could they use this for training their low level members or would that be tantamount to sending them on a suicide mission?

He sighed. Perhaps Procyon and Sirius could shed some light on how difficult the ants had been to fight.