NOVEL NEXT Chapter 70: Battle-lines
What met his eyes was something that might have been an unwelcome sight – at another time. Fresh off his conversation with Leo and with the potential backup of the lionesses, the large group of hyenas looked more like walking bags of Prey Points than a threat.
There were about sixteen hyenas, maybe as many as twenty – they were milling around and sloping in and out of the bushes nearby making an accurate count difficult. The lionesses were already starting to snarl at the interlopers, even as they continued to tear at the carcasses, the mothers being particularly agitated. Not that Dominic could blame them: even pre-System hyenas were dangerous to cubs, let alone these juiced-up ones.
‘Never fear, Dominic is here,’ the former-human joked mentally.
‘Try not to make a fool of us this time,’ Leo responded sardonically. ‘The females will be watching.’ Dominic sent his co-passenger an eye-roll.
‘Oh ye of little faith.’
‘But much experience,’ retorted the lion.
‘Ouch! You know how to wound a guy,’ complained Dominic light-heartedly. Then he focussed on the task ahead and if his back-seat driver said anything more, he missed it.
There were three hyenas who Dominic reckoned must have been at least half-step evolved – they were definitely big enough for it. Unless they had put all their enhancements into growth and none towards intelligence, that was. Dominic suspected that wasn't the case though – their eyes gleamed with too much cunning for that.
In fact, Dominic watched almost admiringly as the three leaders appeared to direct the other hyenas. No, one leader, two sub-commanders, Dominic realised as he watched the interactions. One of them, the biggest, clearly gave instructions to the other two who then each split to take charge of a group of hyenas. Half of the hyenas headed for each carcass, the leader hanging back to watch from a distance.
Dominic prepared for the hyenas coming to their kill. Two of the other lionesses joined him, their snarls echoing the deeper rumble that came from his own throat. The sub-commander in charge of this group directed its subordinates forward with a whoop and grunt.
The battle-lines were drawn, the group of hyenas rushing towards them, teeth bared. Dominic wasn't willing to let them take the initiative and leapt at the closest.
Using Quick Strike, he covered the distance more quickly than the hyena was expecting, bulling straight into it. Since its head was lowered, he wasn't able to rip its throat out in the first move.
His greater size and weight did the job, though, knocking the hyena over and offering Dominic an opportunity to bite at its spine. Which, of course, he did, adding in the damage of Crushing Bite just to be sure of his kill.
[You have killed Spotted Hyena (Basic Beast level 5)]
[You have earned 52 PP]
If the rank and file are level 5, the leaders are definitely half-step evolved, Dominic decided. More thought than that was impossible, though, as the hyenas around Dominic were already reacting to his attack.
Three piled in on him, one going for his neck, the others for his flanks. The one attacking his neck had a surprise in the form of his gorget, the Piercing nature of its attack blunted. The majority of it was Crushing damage, though, and Dominic didn't need to have a damage notification flash up to tell him that most of that had got through: he could feel it and see it in his health bar.
He reared up, pushing strongly with his front legs to gain enough momentum to lift the muscular killing machine off the ground. Even then, he only just succeeded.
Fortunately, ‘just’ was sufficient. The hyena, pulled off its feet, was helpless to control the way it dangled. It let go immediately only for about 450 pounds of lion to hit it from above.
Strong as it might be, the other animal's legs were unable to take the strain and buckled. Leaning down, Dominic once more delivered a crushing bite to its spine.
Pain was lancing through him from the attacks of the two to his flanks, their teeth ripping at his flesh. He wasted no time in getting out of the situation, leaping forwards several paces and then whirling around to face his attackers, teeth bared.
[You have killed Spotted Hyena (Basic Beast level 5)]
[You have earned 52 PP]
Clearly the one he'd just bitten had succumbed to its grievous wound. In the fraction of time before the two hyenas rushed him, Dominic glanced around. Both lionesses were under attack, two hyenas on one; three on the other.
‘None are on the carcass,’ Leo said, his tone concerned.
‘Why is that an issue?’ Dominic asked with only part of his attention. The rest was spent in defending himself from the snapping jaws of the two hyenas.
‘It's unexpected,’ Leo replied. ‘Normally scavengers will snatch bits while they can: even if they are driven off in the end they will still have benefitted a bit. Their methods have changed and I fear what that means.’
Dominic snarled and swiped at the hyena to the left, his claws narrowly missing its eye. The hyena to the right took advantage of his ‘distraction’ and lunged forwards.
To its misfortune, that was exactly what Dominic wanted and he snaked his head around to snatch at its throat. The hyena reacted quickly, but not quickly enough to avoid him grabbing a mouthful of flesh. It was mostly skin, but when the hyena automatically pulled away, it tore a larger chunk free.
Not forgetting about the hyena on his left, Dominic mentally grumbled about the missed opportunity but kept his momentum going. Shoulder-checking the hyena to his left, he knocked it off-balance.
He wasn't at the right angle to get at its throat so he bit at its hip instead: laming it would be almost as good.
Not out for the count, the other hyena attacked his own hindquarters, its teeth digging in deeply, making him grumble in pain.
Once more leaping to get out of the mess, Dominic decided to change it up a bit – he wasn’t fighting alone this time, why act like he was?
Running towards the closest lioness, he barged straight into one of her two attackers. Not expecting it at all, the hyena was bowled over and quickly dispatched, blood jetting out of its slit throat.
[You have killed Spotted Hyena (Basic Beast level 5)]
[You have earned 52 PP]
The other hyena whirled around to face Dominic, but in the process turned its back on an infuriated lioness. It was the last mistake it would make: the lioness leapt on its back and delivered a spine-crushing bite to the base of its skull.
[A member of your party has killed Spotted Hyena (Basic Beast level 5)]
[You have earned 12 PP]
Interesting, thought Dominic, but resolved to think about it later, when he wasn’t about to be attacked by the two hyenas which had followed him into this fight.
Turning on the hyena with a bleeding face, Dominic was aware of the lioness leaping beside him, attacking the second hyena. One on one, neither of the hyenas had much hope. Although the lioness and the hyena were probably the same level, the lioness perhaps a little lower, she’d been holding her own against two of them; against one it was no contest.
[You have killed Spotted Hyena (Basic Beast level 5)]
[You have earned 46 PP]
[A member of your party has killed Spotted Hyena (Basic Beast level 5)]
[You have earned 8 PP]
That was also interesting, but Dominic was too busy running towards the other lioness to consider it. She was holding them off, but was struggling a bit, her coat matted with blood, and limping with one paw.
With backup from her pride-sister, not to mention Leo, they made quick work of the three hyenas which had been tearing at the lioness. In a few seconds, two lay dead on the floor and one was running away, giggling and bleeding. It met up with the sub-commander which in turn retreated to the side of the leader. There, the two unsuccessful attackers paused, turning to defend against an attack which wasn’t coming.
Seeing as their remaining attackers seemed to have retreated, Dominic and the two lionesses turned their attention elsewhere. Looking towards the other carcass, the three lions saw something which enraged them. One of the lionesses was down – one of the mothers. Her half-grown cubs lay savaged behind her, piles of bloody fur.
There were two hyenas lying around her, dead or close enough: she hadn’t gone down without a fight. The five hyenas remaining were attacking the other mother, snapping at the cubs huddling beneath her while she snapped and snarled at them.
Her pride-sisters, including the younger lioness which had hunted the buffalo with Leo, were all trying to defend her, but the hyenas all just did their best to avoid the other lionesses’s attacks while focussing on the vulnerable cubs and their increasingly-desperate mother.
Roaring loudly, Dominic came running to the rescue, activating Quick Strike to make sure that his target couldn’t escape his attack, and then Crushing Bite to guarantee that it would be felt.
The hyena whined breathlessly Dominic landed on it, crushing the air of its last breath out of its lungs with his weight.
[You have killed Spotted Hyena (Basic Beast level 5)]
[You have earned 40 PP]
The mother lion snarled at him tiredly, perhaps thinking that he was planning on taking advantage of the situation to kill off her cubs. Instead, he turned so his back was to her, facing her attackers with bared teeth.
A whooping sound came from the leading hyena and the ones around them broke off the attack, retreating towards it and then streaming beyond. Dominic locked eyes with the biggest hyena for a moment, both their teeth bared at each other. He had the sense that it was promising a rematch even as it turned and slunk after its clan.
Dominic kept watching until it was out of sight, disappearing into a bush. Then he turned to look at the mess which the encounter had made of his pride.
In addition to the mother who had been killed protecting her cubs, one of the young lionesses was also lying dead, her throat crushed. From the nine members who had killed the two buffalo earlier, only seven had survived, and the number of cubs had been cut down from eleven to six.
‘My pride,’ Leo mourned quietly in Dominic’s mind. The former-human was feeling very mixed emotions about the sudden change of events.
He’d got more Prey Points, maybe even enough to get to the next level. But in the process…for the first time, more damage had been done than could be fixed with a level up.
