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

The first killer rabbits didn't know what hit them. On his command, a rain of rocks started pouring out of the sky and striking the ground with loud thuds, uncaring as to whether they pulverised a veten on their way down or not.

The unexpected attack sent the rabbits into a panic. Dominic saw them attempting to flee, but since they didn't have a homogenous idea of where to run to, more often than not, they ended up colliding with another one of their kind sooner or later. From time to time, those collisions were deadly as the fear-driven beasts struck at each other with their razor-sharp teeth.

Even before he'd finished emptying out his stored rocks, Dominic decided that it was time to start the next phase of the attack.

'Stop the rocks,' he ordered. A moment later, the hail stopped, the last rocks falling to the ground with loud thuds. 'Pride, go.'

On his command, the black and yellow flashes in the trees resolved themselves into the forms of the amesheks and lions. Taking full advantage of the disarray of their enemies, the predators started cutting a bloody swathe through the killer rabbits.

Working together, the amesheks worked from the back, using their Sonic Attack in bursts to freeze the vetens just in front of the lions. Then, while they were frozen, the lions bit and swiped their way through the easy prey. It wasn't a battle; it was a slaughter.

Even when the rabbit-like creatures realised that the rocks had stopped falling from the sky and rallied to fend off their new attackers, their attempts made little difference. Not at first, at least, but Dominic saw how the tide might change – the amesheks could only freeze the rabbits in one direction, or could freeze them in all directions but fewer of them. Numbers still had a power of their own and the vetens seemed to have grown theirs in the last few days – he certainly didn't remember there being anywhere near the numbers with the matriarch as he saw here. Had they only sent a small portion of their force to join the matriarch? Or had they been literally breeding like bunnies and multiplied their numbers several times in just the last few days. Except if they'd had the power to do that, they would all be knee-deep in these vetens already.

Dominic shook his head sharply – this was no time to get distracted. If any survived the cull, he'd be able to ask them. But he had a battle to run first.

Deciding that it was time for him to intervene. Dominic angled his wings to take him down towards the ground.

'Keep taking out the rest of the pterodactyls. Don't be too risky, though. If you finish before the battle is done down here, start picking off the rabbits from the air,' he ordered the albuhas, quickly receiving their acknowledgements. Bodies continued to fall from the sky as Dominic swooped downwards, his mane and tail whipping through the air.

Just before he reached the ground, he activated his armour earring and retrieved his tail mace from his Inventory. The added weight made him drop heavily to the ground, but that wasn't a problem – he caused himself no damage but instead managed to squash a few of the rabbits underfoot as he landed.

Immediately, he chained three Tail Strikes together, whipping around and turning the rabbits around him into flying fragments. A slight pressure on his belly armour and Spatial Awareness' warning made him jump back a moment later, revealing three vetens which had managed to avoid harm by dint of sheltering under his belly. Dominic was abruptly intensely grateful for the leather armour that now covered it – especially the bit that Leo had been complaining about. He knew all too well how dangerous those teeth were.

A Powerful Swipe put paid to the three which had survived his initial strikes.

Dominic hadn't wanted to risk catching any of his Pride in his Tail Strikes so he had landed a bit further ahead of them than he could have. Now, though, Sekhmet and the other male broke through the thin line of vetens which had separated them. The two moved to protect Dominic's flanks even as the rest of the Pride followed them into the space Dominic had cleared, cleaning up the rest of the vetens nearby. They had to pick their way through the stones littering the clearing, but fortunately lions were pretty good at that sort of thing.

The killer rabbits were amassing again, apparently not deciding to run for it despite their numbers being significantly reduced. A movement above him caught his eye and he jerked his head up to see Jenkins coming in to land behind Pride's lines – perhaps her wings were tired.

Dominic eyed the tree at the centre. Just entering the clearing with an army apparently wasn't enough to change anything about the challenge to his ownership over the Place of Power. Something was telling him that he needed to actually reach the stone itself.

And even though they'd already killed a huge number of vetens, it looked like the majority of those which were left were attempting to block the Pride's access to the roots of the massive tree – and the obsidian stone which was nestled there.

Perhaps they were attempting to stall him. Perhaps they knew that if they kept him away for just long enough, they would win by default. But they hadn't taken a few important factors into account.

'I'll clear some space,' Dominic announced to his Pride, then leaped up into the air again. Using his wings to glide forwards, he activated his Poison Cloud just before he hit the ground again, glad that he hadn't chosen to use it in the air battle.

Though Dominic felt the pressure of teeth on his armour and the presence of the teeming horde in the bubble of Spatial Awareness, he chose to breathe as slowly as he could to extend the duration of Poison Cloud – it always lasted for three breaths, in his experience, no matter how long or short they were. Teeth bit into his unarmoured parts but he endured the pain for the sake of delivering as much poison as he could – giving the ones that bit him an unhindered dose into their lungs.

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His own lungs were burning for air as he slowly released the final one of his three breaths, but the effects of his Poison Cloud were obvious – Spatial Awareness informed him that the rabbits surrounding him were dropping like flies as their health gave out. As quick and vicious as the vetens were, they seemed to have pretty small health pools.

His breaths done, his Poison Cloud started dissipating. Again free to breathe as he wanted, Dominic struck at the rabbits which were still on their feet.

Only waiting until the Pride caught up with him again – he'd learned his lesson about getting caught too far away from them – Dominic continued working his way forwards.

Thanks to his Poison Cloud, the numbers had significantly thinned – he'd intentionally chosen an area which had been thick with rabbits, some almost standing on top of each other. Dominic fought side by side with Sekhmet, Nyx, Jenkins, and the other male to cut their way through the mass. He and Nyx would use their vocal attacks while Sekhmet, Jenkins, and the male took advantage of the rabbits' frozen forms. The rest of the amesheks helped the others in the Pride on either side of their group. This time Dominic wasn't planning on accepting any surrenders.

These beasts had had their chance to join him, or to flee and make their own lives somewhere else. Instead, they had attacked Dominic's people, and were trying to take what was his. No mercy. Not for these killer-rabbits. Not for the pterodactyls. And not for the kesh who had probably been the instigators of all this.

They were almost at the centre when the battle in the air came to an end. Dominic was only aware of that when he heard howls of triumph echo through the air. Looking up, he saw that the air was clear of pterodactyls. The albuhas were also reduced in numbers – Dominic could only hope that their rescue team had managed to stop those from being actual casualties.

'Only two,' Leo informed him, evidently feeling the direction of his thoughts. 'I've been watching the chat and the notifications. They fell outside of the range of the rescue canines and landed badly.'

'Alright, thanks,' Dominic responded, attacking the vetens in front of him with renewed vigour.

The albuhas in the air followed his previous instructions to pick off the surviving rabbits and swooped down on those trying to flee from the clearing. Several of the amesheks moved to help them, freezing the vetens in place so they couldn't run away from the diving winged-coyotes.

Meanwhile, Nyx and Dominic continued their strategy since it seemed to be working well. While he was frozen in a Roar, Dominic took advantage to ask how the rest of the battles were going – this one should be finishing soon enough as it was.

'How is everyone else doing?'

'As far as I can tell, well enough. The other leaders have been sweeping the forest and have had few casualties – we seem to have taken the invaders largely by surprise, though that advantage is waning as the message gets out. The kesh from the Pride are in battle with the kesh that are still attacking their dens – some sort of siege, I think. They seem hopeful about their chances of success, especially with the help of the canines which stayed behind with them even as the rest of their group continued sweeping the forest.' Dominic was glad to hear that they were well. It made sense – even if there weren't many kesh in the Pride, they had increased their levels significantly, and now came accompanied by allies and experience.

'Good,' Dominic said finally, padding forwards as Sekhmet and the other male cleared the space in front of him and then renewing his Roar. His stamina was taking a bit of a hit so he discreetly absorbed a few of the bodies under foot. He doubted that anyone would notice the golden dust curling around his paws. Besides, with the number of healers who were also putting out the golden dust, the chances were that even if someone did notice it, they wouldn't put two and two together.

These beasts had left before the funerals, so they shouldn't know what Consuming bodies could do. Dominic was again reminded how it was an advantage which would probably be lost sooner rather than later. It was only a matter of time before the knowledge of what could be done with the dead spread. But if they cleared this forest the way they intended, it wouldn't be these beasts which spread the secret.

Finally, they broke through the final defending vetens. Unimpeded now, they were able to round the massive roots which arched above the ground and see the obsidian stone which was cradled by the tree. Next to it stood a kesh and a veten. Both watched the oncoming Pride with a mixture of fear and defiance in their eyes. The kesh was bigger than most Dominic had seen; so was the killer-rabbit which had bright intelligence sparkling in its eyes, accompanied by a vaguely maniacal glint.

For a moment Dominic felt a flash of pity for the vetens and kesh which had come with them – these two were very obviously the leaders and yet the veten in particular seemed to have no concern for its dying brethren. Neither of them made any move to attack the Pride in defence of their allies. Instead, as if they were stuck there, they stayed next to the black stone, within arm's length but being careful not to touch it. Dominic wondered whether they had some instinct which told them not to make contact with it, or if others had already paid the price for doing so.

As the Pride tried to press forwards, Dominic realised why the leaders were so still – they found that only he could cross a certain point. Even the few killer-rabbits which remained seemed unable to move beyond it, and died swiftly as they were trapped between the Pride and what must have been a System-enforced barrier. Perhaps the kesh and veten realised that they stood no chance against the Pride as a whole and had chosen to take their chances against him alone, staying behind the barrier out of self-preservation.

'You must enter?' Sekhmet asked him, sounding anxious.

'He must,' Nyx replied to her firmly. 'It is through his own strength that he took it from me. It is with his own strength that he must defend it.'

Dominic knew she was right without needing to have it spelled out for him with a System notification. Nonetheless, one had appeared anyway. Though he was currently blocking notifications from flashing up into his vision and distracting him at the wrong moment, Leo was keeping an eye on them and had nudged him mentally to tell him to allow this one to display itself.

[An occupying force has offered you a Challenge: Duel for the Place of Power. This challenge is to death or submission. Submission will give the victor the power to decide the loser's fate. The duel will continue until one Challenger is victorious.
Note, no outside intervention is permitted during the challenge. All Abilities are fully permitted. Note also that for reasons of fairness, all participants will be returned to full health and stamina at the start of the challenge.

Accept or Decline?
Note, if you choose to decline, you will lose all current claim to the contested Place of Power and will be unable to lay a new claim to it for 30 days. ]