NOVEL NEXT Chapter 36: Wildfire
Touching the Beast Core with one paw, Dominic mentally sent a request to absorb Second Wind.
[You have selected ability: Second Wind. You have a 50% chance of absorbing this ability successfully. Would you like to continue or return to the list of possible abilities?]
Dominic licked at his lips nervously, the rasp of his tongue unexpectedly reaching all the way to his nose. He didn’t let the surprise sensation distract him, though. Continue, he thought at the System.
The Beast Core broke apart into dust and flowed towards Dominic, surrounding him like a cloud. Watching his front paws to see what was happening, he saw the glittery dust hover above his fur. As if attracted by a magnet, it moved towards his limbs, coating his fur and then being absorbed through it.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then pain shot through his limbs, making him growl uncomfortably. The pain intensified and Dominic started panting, his eyes falling half-closed as he did his best to work through it.
And then as soon as it reached the point that he was worried he wouldn’t be able to bear it any longer, it disappeared like it had never been there in the first place. Dominic waited anxiously for a moment, wondering if he should check his status or if he would be told the results of the attempt.
Just as he was about to open his status page anyway, a message flashed up.
[You have successfully absorbed Second Wind. Would you like to see the ability description?]
Sure, Dominic agreed, almost sighing with relief at luck having fallen on the right side for him this time. He was curious to see if it had changed at all from what he’d seen when he’d got information about the ability while it was still in the Beast Core.
[Second Wind (T1): When your HP and/or SP have reduced at least to 50% of their total, choose to activate this ability to refill your health points and/or stamina points. Note, this ability can be activated below 50% health/stamina, but only 50% health and/or stamina will be restored. This may change as the ability increases in level. This ability cannot be reactivated until both HP and SP have been restored to their maximums. Warning, increased health points will not heal your wounds. Warning, upon activating this ability you will start a timer. At the end of this timer, all health and stamina points gained through Second Wind will be removed from you. If this means that your health drops below 0, you will die. At level 1 you have a timer of 10 minutes; this may change as the ability increases in level.]
Most of it was still the same, but there was one addition to the description which made Dominic feel a bit dismayed. There was an unexpected restriction on how often the ability could be used: after triggering it once, he had to fully heal and fully replenish his stamina before he’d be able to use it again.
I suppose I should have expected it, he mused dolefully. It’s an ability of last resort, not one that I should be able to trigger several times in a fight. What it actually meant was that it was a once-per-level ability – unless he found a good supply of healing materials, that is. Or somehow got a healer on his team. Though, honestly, that seemed rather unlikely as matters stood – what kind of animal would end up developing powers which could heal others as well as itself?
Still, he reminded himself, I might not have got any ability at all. Gotta look on the bright side
. And, thinking about it, he did earn HP both from absorbing corpses and by healing by himself. If I focus on my health regen a bit, I might be able to use it more often, or without as much risk, he decided, starting to feel more cheerful again.
With that one out the way, it was time for the one which made him feel a lot more nervous. Putting his paw on the scroll next, he focussed on his intention to absorb Lightning Discharge.
[Do you wish to absorb Lightning Discharge?]
Yes, he answered as firmly as he could, even as butterflies the size of cats seemed to battle it out in his stomach.
Just like the Beast Core, the scroll crumbled into fine dust and flew towards him. Also like the dust before, it surrounded each of its limbs. However, unlike the dust of the Beast Core, it was not pulled in to coat his fur. Instead, it seemed to swirl around him, almost looking uncertain. If a cloud of dust could express such an emotion.
Wondering whether something had gone wrong, Dominic shifted uneasily from paw to paw. Then, as if it had made a decision, the dust all collected into a single ball of condensed particles, and then flew at his face.
It was too quick for the lion to do more than flinch back a little, but the ball didn’t actually hit him. Instead, it turned into seven streams, each of them forcing itself into one of his facial orifices. One entered his mouth; two into his nostrils; two into his ears; and, most uncomfortably, two into his eyes.
The entrance of the dust burned. His eyes were the worst, feeling like they’d just had fine sand shoved into them; he had to resist the urge to rub at them with his paws. His ears were more ticklish than anything, but it got worse when he suddenly realised he couldn’t hear anything. The temple sanctum was quiet now that the warthog was dead, but it was only when the sound of his own blood flow and breathing cut out that he realised just how much he could hear. Or at least, could hear before.
Just as he was starting to panic about his hearing, it got worse: his vision started fading out, blackness taking over as if someone had turned off all the lights. Blind and deaf, Dominic found himself clinging to the stone floor beneath his feet, actually extending his claws to rake them across the tiles. At least that proved that he was still alive, that he still existed.
Blocked off from two of his senses – no, three: he suddenly realised that he couldn’t smell the torches any more, or the mustiness of the long-undisturbed room – he found that Leo’s presence seemed much closer.
Or perhaps it was more that without the distraction of his senses, he was more able to recognise where Dominic ended and Leo began. Not that it helped – Leo was just as worried as Dominic. More so, perhaps.
Dominic got the intense sense of a pacing lion in a cage which was slowly getting smaller and smaller around him. It’s OK, he found himself saying to his counterpart. It’s going to get better. He didn’t know who he was attempting to fool, though – Leo, or himself. Because, frankly, it might not get any better – the scroll had made it clear that serious consequences awaited those who had a bad reaction to the forcible awakening of their magic.
Though it didn’t seem that the process was done, so the situation might actually improve. Or it might get worse. Actually, if the pain was anything to go by, that was indeed the case.
After his nose, eyes, and ears had been burnt, the pain moved upwards, attacking something that could only be his brain. The worst headache Dominic had ever felt started throbbing. It was beyond the migraines he’d occasionally suffered from. Beyond even when he’d fallen down a short flight of stairs and given himself a cracked skull. This felt like his brain was on fire.
Without the pain he was suffering in his brain abating in the slightest, a tendril of fire ran down his spinal cord and into the rest of his body. Like it was a wildfire which had gone out of control, the burning spread all over, though burned particularly hotly in the centre of his chest, just a little behind his front legs.
Gritting his teeth, Dominic tasted blood, proving that at least that sense hadn’t been removed from him. His tongue felt numb in the wake of the fire, though – he was probably biting it without realising.
Second Wind! He triggered the ability without a second thought. He was already below 50% in health points so it should work. At worst, he would have triggered it without need and he’d have to heal fully to be able to use it again – not an issue with a level up waiting for him. At best, he’d have given himself more of a chance to survive, if he was losing health points through this whole process. Losing his sight, and thereby an ability to see the exact state of his health was a complication he hadn’t considered when making his plans.
Must make sure to level up soon, though, he reminded himself grimly. He had no desire to accidentally die when the timer on this ability ran out. Both to make sure that didn’t happen, and to try to preserve some of his sanity, he started counting in his mind.
How long until the fire still consuming him finally burnt itself out, though? He’d fear that it was a permanent consequence, such as the scroll had warned about, except for the fact that it was already reducing in heat.
Dominic was reminded of a cream he’d used after pulling a muscle while playing football: Deep Heat. The cream had burned, the heat ramping up over several minutes. Once it had reached a peak, however, it had stayed there for a little time before starting to reduce slowly. That’s what this was like.
The fire had run through his whole body, burning intensely, the heat increasing until he would have been screaming if he’d had his human voice box. As it was, he had no idea what sound he was making, barely able to feel his throat vibrating at all and with no ability to actually hear it. Fortunately, the heat was abating. Slowly. Three minutes gone already.
It had turned into a matter of endurance, of trying to keep hold of his sanity, stuck in the dark and quiet with pain sparking along his nerves. And, to an extent, trying to help Leo hold onto his own sanity too - the lion’s mind was taking this even worse than Dominic’s. At least Dominic knew why it was happening and had hope that it would improve; the lion’s mind just seemed to focus on the terror of the present.
If they’d been literally a human and a lion stuck in a cage, Dominic reckoned he would have been torn to shreds long ago; as it was, the barriers between their minds served them well. Still, Dominic couldn’t just ignore his co-passenger, and did his best to send calm emotions and words towards the lion. If nothing else, it helped him to concentrate on something more than his own worries and sensations - or lack of them.
It seemed to take forever, but in fact was only heading towards four minutes by his count. Bit by bit, the fire withdrew from his extremities first, retreating to his spine. The fire in his brain, surprisingly, also started retreating, disappearing down his neck. Moving up and down his spine, the heat balled together between his shoulder-blades and then shot downwards. Finishing within that area in his chest which had burned hottest, it died completely.
He waited, but fear filled his chest as he realised that his senses weren’t coming back along with the fire’s absence. There was only one thing he could think of to do. Needed to do, in fact, as he hit four and a half minutes since triggering Second Wind.
Level up, he thought. Although he couldn’t see the message that came up, he got the sense that the System was asking him to confirm if he wished to level up. Quickly affirming his choice, Dominic expected another message to come up to ask him about what to enhance. Instead, he instead felt the rush of Energy that normally happened after choosing his enhancements.
But that wasn’t all he felt. With a mental crash, he felt the barriers between his own mind and that of Leo’s collapse. The cage he’d imagined earlier had disappeared, and the lion was coming for his blood.