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

'Say, Selia, how are we supposed to get this armour on and off? We don't exactly have fingers like you do.' Because yes, the kesh might be able to do it, but he was hoping that the elves had some other plan in mind. The elf pulled back to look at him seriously, though she was smiling at the same time.

'Do not be concerned, Honoured Brother Dominic. Magic answers many questions. We must fit the armour fully, and then all will be revealed.' With that leading statement, she turned her attention back to fastening the neck protector into place.

Once they were both satisfied that the new pieces of armour fit into place perfectly and didn't pinch, rub, or impede his movement in any way, Selia brought out a band of copper-coloured metal with a crystal about the size of her thumbnail set into it. She eyed him carefully.

'This will need to be pierced into your flesh. On an elf, we would pierce your ear, but do you wish me to place it anywhere else?'

'What is it for?' Dominic wondered warily. Selia smiled, the expression lighting up her face.

'This, Honoured Brother, is the answer to the question you asked earlier. Our top mages and crafters have been studying the storage devices that our hunter brought back from the dungeon. And while we have not yet discovered how to replicate the storage devices themselves, we have made some useful discoveries,' she related proudly. 'When bound by blood to a being and by magic to a set of armour, this device will allow you to remove and replace your armour in less than a second, and will even store the armour between times.'

'That sounds awesome,' Dominic agreed, 'but I have one concern. Actually, maybe I should have raised it before now. In fights sometimes I…change size. And when I level up I grow a little, sometimes more than a little.' He didn't say it, but he considered how sometimes when he got a new Ability, that forced his body to adjust a bit as well. If the armour couldn't grow with him then it wasn't much use.

Fortunately, it seemed the elves had already considered that. Maybe they'd seen enough of his fighting style to notice.

'The leather is enchanted to grow with you to a maximum of about three times your size. It will maintain the same tension; no more, no less. The only issue is that the scales are not able to be enchanted in the same way,' Selia explained. 'That means that if you grow too big, the scales will no longer overlap or provide the protection they should. At that point, you'll need a crafter to fix the armour for you.'

Dominic bowed his head to Selia.

'You've thought of everything,' he acknowledged with appreciation – and awe that they had managed to get this ready for him in such a short amount of time.

Selia clapped her hands together, beaming.

'I'm so glad that you're happy with it. I helped Master crafter Sylmar himself to design and make this armour. Now, shall we bind the armour to you?'

'Please,' Dominic invited, interested to see someone else doing magic up close. Maybe he'd even learn something.

The elf closed her eyes and pressed her palms together with the copper-coloured ring between them. Her mouth started moving, but at first even Dominic's sharp hearing couldn't pick up any sounds of speech. Then, slowly, bit by bit, he began to hear words. Interestingly, unlike any other speech, it was not translated directly via Telepathy.

Instead, he got a…sense of what the elf was intending. Binding. Protection. Hiding.

The words continued getting louder, and Dominic realised that he was starting to recognise some of them. Not in the sense that he understood what they were saying, but he could recognise patterns enough to know that Selia was repeating a phrase again and again.

Dominic was aware of Leo watching as closely as he himself was as Selia slowly opened her hands, her fingers appearing like the petals of a flower as they uncurled to reveal a brightly glowing ring at its centre.

Selia opened her eyes, revealing their gleaming silvery sheen, and stepped forwards. Dominic stayed still as she pressed the glowing band to each separate piece of the armour, while continuing to whisper the same phrase over and over. He turned his head to watch and used Spatial Awareness to know what she was doing even when she was out of his direct view.

Circling around his tail, she skipped touching his tail armour – perhaps because that wasn't of a set with the rest of it. Finally finishing by touching the ring to his chest piece, Selia, her eyes still shining with that same silvery sheen, reached up towards his ear. She was moving slowly enough that Dominic wasn't alarmed; if anything, he ducked his head slightly so the shorter elf didn't have to go on her tip-toes to reach.

A short and sharp flash of pain marked the moment when Selia pierced his ear, setting the ring so that it was snug against his skull. It was only then that Dominic realised – rather belatedly – that he had been too distracted by the item itself to answer Selia's question about where to put it. An ear wasn't ideal since it could too easily be ripped away. But at least his mane should protect it since it was right at the junction where his ear met his skull. There was a chance, of course – a badly-aimed strike might rip at his ear and the ring with it – but he would do his best to avoid those kinds of blows for the sake of his own head, if nothing else.

The whispered chant died away and Selia stepped backwards. She looked drawn and tired. Clearly that magic wasn't easy to do. She looked expectantly at him. Dominic looked expectantly back at her.

'Well?' she prompted a moment later, sounding slightly impatient.

'Well what?'

'Don't you want to try it out?' she asked with a hint of incredulity.

'Of course I do,' he answered defensively. 'But how?'

'Concentrate on the ring and send the armour into it,' she explained as if it should be evident. 'You should be able to do it piece by piece or all at once.'

Dominic immediately tried out her instructions. It was easy enough to concentrate on the ring – although the throbbing of its initial insertion had disappeared as his regeneration had healed the wound, he could still feel the metal within his flesh. It hadn't yet adapted to his body temperature for one thing.

As it turned out, sending his armour into the ring was as easy as sending something into his storage space – he just had to will it and it happened. He immediately tested the limits of the ring. As Selia had said, it appeared that he could choose exactly which pieces of armour he wished to put away, and which he wished to retrieve. Fortunately, if he wanted to store away or retrieve his entire set of armour, he didn't have to think of every individual piece, only to focus on the whole thing disappearing or reappearing. Even if he was lying down, it would appear, but he quickly discovered that it was better to be standing up – lying down made two of the armour pieces pinch something rather delicate when it reappeared on him.

It was good to know that the elves had a realistic plan for how non-humanoids could deal with armour, even if Dominic himself would probably have been able to use his storage space. But for the rest of his Pride, the ability to store amour away in a small ring and then put it on without needing hands or help would be invaluable and so much faster than training some kesh to become their squires.

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'This is amazing,' he said enthusiastically to Selia after he had tried everything he could think of, even testing moving while putting the armour on or taking it off – that worked perfectly too. 'Is this something you were able to do before the System, or is it something new?'

Selia was watching with a pleased smile on her face – clearly she was happy that he liked her handiwork. Still, she answered his question readily.

'This specific use is something we have discovered since the System, by investigating the storage devices which our hunters found in the dungeon. But enchanting our tools, weapons, and amour is something we have long been capable of.'

'Is it something you can teach?' he asked curiously. If some of his Pride could learn how to do something like this…. Certainly, it didn't seem that doing magic was barred to them due to being beasts. Though maybe the lack of hands would be an issue. From Selia's expression, though, it seemed he'd asked something she hadn't considered possible.

'Our magic is certainly teachable, but…' Dominic understood exactly what she meant with that unspoken hesitancy.

'Perhaps it is something we can try in the future.' A new voice broke into their conversation and they both turned to see Elder Sylmar approaching. Selia immediately laid a flat palm on her chest and smiled towards the elder.

'Elder Sylmar – did you see how well the enchantment worked?'

'I did,' he confirmed. 'I also see how tired you look. Was it more difficult this time than the previous?'

'A little,' she admitted. 'I think because of the size of the pieces involved. But I am already regaining my mana.'

'That is good,' Sylmar told her. 'Some of our crafters need your guidance – they are not as practiced as you are.'

'Yes, Elder,' Selia answered quickly, then placed her hand on her chest again, dipping her head first to the elder, and then to Dominic himself. 'Please excuse me.' With that, she hurried off.

Dominic and Sylmar watched her go.

'One of our most talented journeymen,' Sylmar commented to Dominic. 'I have high hopes for where she might go.'

'This armour feels good,' Dominic replied politely. 'I was surprised at how quickly you were able to make the amour, even if it was only for some of us. Speaking of, any chance of you guys safely being able to finish the rest in less than those three days? He was rather in a hurry to get back home.

'We are doing our best,' Sylmar answered. 'As Alwen said, we've put everything else on hold and focussed on this task alone. My crafters have barely slept since you left due to our commitment to preparing this for you before your victorious return. As for the rest, I expect them to be done by first light tomorrow. We will have to abuse some stimulant potions to do so, but I assure you that they will be of satisfactory quality; if they are not, we will not present them to you,' he assured Dominic firmly.

It was true that Sylmar looked tired, his features drawn in a way that Dominic didn't remember them being the last time they had spoken. He had to admit to feeling a bit guilty about causing problems for the elves, but was swiftly set straight by his leonine companion.

'Why be guilty?' Leo asked him with a huff. 'We made a deal. We have fulfilled our side of it; they are doing their best to fulfil theirs. We don't have the time to wait around for them – and they know it.'

'At least it shows that they're honourable enough to do their best to come up with their side of the bargain even in much less time than originally planned,' Dominic noted. 'They could have just said that they don't have the time to complete the armour and require us to come back later.'

Leo agreed wordlessly, though Dominic sensed a slight reluctance to it. Whether it was because he didn't like giving credit to any non-lion or for some other reason, Dominic wasn't quite sure.

'Well, you've done a good job,' Dominic praised Sylmar. 'And these storage devices are a great idea.'

The elder perked up at the praise.

'It has been something of a breakthrough,' Sylmar admitted. 'And one which has long-term implications even if we haven't yet been able to mimic the exact enchantment on the System storage spaces to allow for any non-bound item to be placed within. It does limit the use of the devices somewhat.'

Dominic was a little disappointed at that – he'd been hoping that the elves might be a source of more storage spaces for them. But perhaps that would still come in the future – it seemed like the elves were interested in creating those themselves.

'This is a good start,' he told the elder instead. 'And for us, it is perfect.'

'Indeed, such is as I thought,' Sylmar agreed. 'It was a heated topic of conversation among the crafters before we decided on this solution – how to enable beasts with no hands to wear armour which would need to be removed and replaced at times.' There was a short period of silence, but Dominic sensed that the elder hadn't finished speaking. 'Honoured Brother, if you are finished testing your new armour, the elders would be grateful to speak with you.'

Dominic eyed the elf suspiciously. He was far too nervous.

'A trap?' Leo asked him, coming to full attention and emanating suspicion.

'Unlikely,' Dominic disagreed. 'Or why give us weapons and armour first? It would be better to do that sort of thing immediately upon our return.'

'Then what?'

'I don't know,' Dominic admitted. 'Maybe they've found a dungeon for us?'

'Then we must make sure that we are as prepared as possible. We have not yet tested the resizing component of this armour,' Leo reminded him.

'True,' Dominic agreed. It would be a good excuse to delay this conversation which would enable more of his Pride to be finished with their armour and weapon fittings.

'I want to test this armour out in a mock-battle first,' Dominic told Sylmar firmly. The elf didn't argue.

'Of course,' he agreed, on the surface unconcerned, but with that undercurrent of nervousness to his scent that put Dominic on edge.

Dominic looked around. The move he most wanted to try with the armour was Momentous Charge – he needed to know whether it truly would grow with him. But Momentous Charge required a target and there weren't any helpful trees around he could safely use. Then he saw that Nyx had finished her own fitting and decided that this was a two birds, one stone situation – he probably wasn't the only one who wanted to test their new toys in a fight.

'Nyx,' he started, trotting over to her. She looked up at his approach, and Dominic didn't think he was misreading her body language to think that she was glad to see him. 'You're looking good,' he remarked in slight surprise.

It was true – the armour which she had been fitted with was different from his own, and somehow seemed to enhance the sleekness of her lines rather than concealing them. She had been fitted with a sort of helmet, leather protecting the back of her head and the base of her antennae. It wrapped around her throat though left her eyes and jaws completely unimpeded. Dominic could only guess that he hadn't been given something similar because of his mane.

The armour covered her chest and belly like his own set, but unlike his, it didn't cover her full flanks – perhaps the crafters had decided that she had enough natural armour there. She did have a strip running down her spine which connected into the belly armour at various points with straps. Interestingly, the spine armour was covered in sharp pieces of bone – anyone leaping onto her back would get a nasty surprise.

Her furry tail was unchanged at first glance, but when Dominic looked more closely, he saw sharp bits of metal interwoven into it – again, anyone thinking that her tail was harmless would be taught the error of their ways if they targeted it.

'Thank you,' Nyx replied, sounding pleased. 'You look magnificent too,' she complimented and Dominic couldn't help preening a little, his tail tip curling up despite the tail armour surrounding it.

'Want to test out the limits of the amour?' he invited.

'With pleasure,' Nyx agreed, her appreciation being replaced with an eager gleam in her eyes.