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

With Healing Cloud available, carcasses in Dominic's storage space, and higher than pre-System regeneration rates affecting them, neither Dominic nor Nyx felt the need to hold back much as they tested the armour. Dominic didn't want to tear his new armour to shreds in its first practice fight, no, but at the same time, if the armour was unable to cope with even that, it wouldn't be much use in a true fight, and therefore unreliable.

To his pleasure, the armour proved to be far more durable than he had thought leather and scales should be. They didn't test Nyx's Sonic Attack on him, but he suspected the armour wouldn't affect sonic damage hugely, or even not at all. It was probably a good idea to try to consider a counter against it in case they one day came across someone else wielding Sonic Attack or something similar. For the run-of-the-mill claw and bite attacks, though, the armour was excellent. Dominic did activate attacks like Crushing Bite and Powerful Swipe once each to test how Nyx' armour coped with them. One Crushing Bite was to her spine which Dominic swiftly regretted trying – the bone spikes pierced his mouth painfully until he stopped trying. The Powerful Swipe to her chest proved to be more successful – though his claws caused her flesh no damage, the impact of his paw itself was barely cushioned and Nyx reported feeling bruised underneath.

The armour didn't have a System description of its own – Dominic had tried to get one. He wasn't sure why it didn't when his tail amour did. Perhaps it was because the tail amour had started off as a dungeon reward while the rest of the armour hadn't. Still, after their experimentation he was able to identify that the armour offered significant protection against piercing and tearing attacks, but limited protection against blunt force impacts which hadn't been too much of a problem with most enemies they'd fought. So far, it was only when Dominic had taken a piece of the armour into his mouth and bit it hard that he'd managed to pierce it at all, and that only with his sharp canines.

Overall, he was pleased – even if they had ways of healing themselves, not taking the damage in the first place was always preferable. The only downside was that the armour itself did reduce his speed and flexibility a bit. It wasn't noticeable most of the time and he had been able to leap around Nyx with no issues, but if he ever faced an opponent as quick and agile as himself, the armour would put him at a disadvantage in those respects. On the other hand, even in such a situation its protection might make wearing it worth it. Or he could just store it away and fight without.

A glance to the side showed Sylmar standing there watching them. He didn't look impatient, but Dominic felt uncomfortable with making him wait much longer. Especially now that it seemed the rest of the already-made armour had been fitted and almost all the other crafters had already departed – to go and continue making the rest of the sets, he had to guess.

'Nyx, I want to test one more thing,' Dominic announced, stepping away from the female ameshek. They had been checking each other's armour for damage – their rough fighting had caused some which was slightly concerning but not necessarily unexpected. Dominic would need to speak to Sylmar about that.

'Of course,' Nyx agreed. 'What do you need me to do?'

'You don't need to do anything – I'm going to charge at you to test an Ability of mine. You can dodge out of the way, though I'm not intending on actually hitting you.'

'Very well.'

On hearing her agreement, Dominic ran a few paces away – enough to get a good amount of size and momentum going. Turning, he focussed on Nyx and manually deactivated Immunity for her so that his Ability would work – he wasn't sure whether it would with Immunity active. About to start running, he remembered his tail armour and pulled that into his gorget – he wanted to test his new armour, not his tail armour. Finally ready, he activated Momentous Charge and started running towards Nyx.

As his paws pounded the earth, he was aware of the feeling of…stretching. The armour around him tightened and then loosened with every step, the speed of his run such that it had only just loosened before it tightened again when he grew more with the next step. But it didn't seem like it was reaching any limits even as he approached Nyx.

He deactivated Momentous Charge just as the massive ameshek leapt out of the way; Dominic skidded through the space where she had been a moment before. He was glad of it – just because they had the ability to heal didn't mean that they wanted to feel pain for no good reason – they already knew that blunt force was barely reduced by the armour.

As he came to a stop, Dominic became aware of the reverse of what he'd just experienced. Instead of tightening and then loosening, his armour was loosening and then tightening once more, just in faster increments than before as he returned to his natural size far faster than he had grown.

When the oddly itchy sensation stopped, Dominic shook himself so his fur all lay properly again and took a moment to investigate his armour, checking for any sign of strain. He was pleased when it didn't seem like that was the case, though he did notice a few scales were now misaligned. Licking at them carefully so as not to hurt his tongue, he was able to put them back into position so they again lay flat and sleek over the leather. It truly was like another skin.

He knew he needed to speak to Sylmar, but first he trotted back over to Nyx and rubbed his head against hers. The leather that cut across her face was an odd addition, but it disappeared as Nyx stored her armour away. Dominic didn't think that he was being self-centred to think that she did it so they could rub heads properly.

'Thanks for your help,' he told her seriously, meaning more than just the recent experiments.

'Of course,' Nyx answered as if it barely needed to be said. 'We are pack, are we not?'

'That we are,' Dominic agreed happily. He was definitely glad that he'd chosen to give her life rather than death that short time ago.

It would have been nice to stay like that, but unfortunately, he had elves waiting on him for some sort of conversation. And from Sylmar's nerves when they had spoken about it, he wasn't going to like the subject – that he was pretty sure about.

'I have to go,' he sighed to Nyx, pulling away reluctantly.

'Would you like me to come with you?' she offered. Dominic hesitated for a moment. He hadn't considered that possibility.

'You know what? Yes, come with me. By the way, you were offered the chance to take control over the elves, weren't you?'

Nyx huffed at that.

'I felt the power within me offer me the opportunity to expand my pack to include the bipeds, yes. But I did not want to mate with them so I did not want them in my pack.'

That was an interesting thought – was that linked to why Nyx had claimed Dominic as 'pack' before? He wasn't sure what to do with that thought so pushed it aside for now. Ultimately, his feelings didn't change the fact that it made sense for Nyx to join him to speak to the elves.

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'Let's go and speak to Sylmar, then, and find out what the elves want.'

They both headed over. The elf in question straightened up as they approached, both hope and nerves warring in his scent even if his face revealed little of either.

'Have you finished testing the armour?'

'We have,' Dominic confirmed. 'It seems to be powerful protection indeed,' he praised. Sylmar practically preened at the validation.

'We imbued it with our strongest protection enchantments – it is as durable as steel, but without steel's inflexibility. And you need not worry about the damage you have caused,' he reassured them, perhaps knowing what Dominic was thinking. 'Armour made from parts of living creatures can be imbued with an enchantment of regrowth – it will not replace parts of itself, but if those parts are damaged, it will repair them over time. It is that same enchantment which we were able to adjust to allow the leather of your armour to grow with you to a certain extent, though we could not apply it to the scales, unfortunately.'

That was actually a pretty awesome enchantment, and explained why the majority of the armour and weapons were made out of bone and hide. Though, Dominic could see the glint of metal in various places – Nyx's tail being one of them – but if the same self-repair enchantment couldn't be applied to them, it made sense to instead make as much out of hide and bone as possible.

'You've really thought of everything,' Dominic marvelled. Despite the difficulty they'd faced with the matriarch, he felt that the elves had more than fulfilled their end of the bargain. He hadn't even considered self-repair or growth enchantments when he'd set out the price for their help.

'We did our best. Honoured Brother, would you be willing to accompany me to speak with the other elders now?'

'Yes. Nyx is coming too,' Dominic told him, not leaving it as a question. Sylmar looked up at the massive ameshek with a hint of nervousness, but he didn't argue.

'Very well, Honoured Brother,' he accepted, turning to lead the way back to where the other four elders were sitting together and watching the beasts contemplatively.

'Honoured Brother, thank you for joining us,' Alwen said with a small dip of her head as Dominic sat down, half-lying on his side so as not to tower over the sitting Elders. 'And Honoured Sister, it is good to see you again,' the elder continued, looking at Nyx. Dominic realised abruptly that communication would be a bit more cumbersome with Nyx than with Sekhmet. The ameshek leader, after all, could not understand the elves directly. Dominic resigned himself to playing go-between and translated Alwen's words to his vassal.

'We both thank you,' he answered a moment later, having received Nyx' reply. 'Just so you are aware, my companion is unable to understand your words. I will therefore translate them to her, and her words to you.'

The elves looked a mixture of chagrined and curious. Surely they weren't unaware that not all of the Pride members could understand them? On the other hand, Dominic and Sekhmet had been the ones they'd mostly interacted with – even in the meeting they'd had in the elves' tower, everything had gone through Alwen and Dominic as the designated leaders of each side. So…perhaps they hadn't realised. In which case, they were probably now asking themselves what made Dominic and Sekhmet special in that they could communicate with them.

'We understand,' Alwen answered, sending a quelling look at Lystar who looked on the verge of asking a question, her eyes glinting with curiosity. 'Honoured Brother…we thank you again for your help with the Challenge. Do you find the armour and weapons we have supplied to be adequate payment for your efforts? Under the understanding that there are still more sets of an equal quality to come, of course.'

Dominic had the distinct impression that she was stalling. But why, he wasn't sure. Before replying to Alwen, he reached out to Sekhmet, Jenkins, Isis, and Simbi just to ask them to be surreptitiously alert in case of trouble. He didn't see any reason for the elves to attack them, but that didn't mean it couldn't happen and he'd rather be prepared for anything, especially when the elves were being this suspicious. Sekhmet asked whether he wanted her to join them. He hesitated for a moment, but then decided that having Nyx there was already making it feel a little crowded. Sekhmet didn't seem too happy about the decision, though.

'The armour and weapons are beyond my expectations,' he admitted, forcibly returning his attention back to the conversation at hand rather than thinking about why Sekhmet wanted to be present for it. 'While I have lost more companions than I would have liked to,' since losing any was more than he wanted, 'I find the enchanted items your crafters have made for us sufficient recompense for our efforts. Upon delivery of the rest of the armour sets so that all of my present Pride members are outfitted just as some of us are now, I will consider our agreement complete.' He decided to say the last just in case that was what the elves were worried about. Maybe they were nervous not because of a trap but because they were concerned he might demand more rewards.

'Good, good,' Alwen answered, her slightly distracted response confusing Dominic. 'Honoured Brother, since you know something of the…dungeon overflow that we face next. Do you have any idea of what sort of beasts might emerge from them?'

With a sense of building dread, Dominic hesitated. Had they really found a dungeon they wanted him to run? He would be hesitant to do so – dealing with the matriarch had been faster than it might have been, but there was little time remaining before the end of his self-imposed three-day deadline. But maybe they just wanted information. 'I am no expert,' he warned. 'But what little I know indicates that it depends on the dungeon in question. The only dungeon I have experienced had beasts ranging from level one to level ten at G-rank while at F-rank it had beasts mostly between level ten and level twenty. Its boss was level forty, though.'

The elders exchanged glances at that.

'By 'boss', do you mean the final beast?'

'Yes. It was a large spider.' Dominic had forgotten that they might not be familiar with gaming terms.

'We did not know its level as no party has managed to defeat it. But back than it wasn't a spider,' Alwen admitted. Ilastir looked away in apparent shame.

'It was tough,' Dominic agreed sympathetically.

'Which makes this 'dungeon overflow' even more dangerous,' Melia sighed, her green skin paler than usual. 'If even our hunters couldn't defeat the final beast….'

'I don't think that the boss is likely to come out of the dungeon,' Dominic offered. 'Not at the start anyway. You're more likely to have beasts from level ten to twenty roaming around.' Then he hesitated. 'At least, until they start levelling up by killing beasts in the neighbourhood or beasts of other dungeons,' he added. Then he hesitated again. 'And it might be possible that a boss would emerge if the dungeon is left uncleared for too long,' he added reluctantly, the same instinct telling him that this was probably the case.

The elders exchanged another round of glances.

'It is worse than we thought,' Alwen said heavily. 'We have no other choice.'

It looked like Lystar and Ilastir both wanted to protest, but they didn't say a word. Alwen waited until they had given a small nod each before she turned back to Dominic.

'Honoured Brother, you have saved us from the beast wave. Will you save us again from the dungeon overflow?'