NOVEL NEXT Chapter 75: The Future
[Congratulations! You have killed one of your opponents. Kill or force the last remaining Challenger to surrender to win the Challenge: Duel for the Place of Power.]
Dominic was briefly taken aback by the quick actions of the veten, but not really surprised – he'd already suspected that the alliance between the two would only last as long as it was convenient. Still, one down; one to go.
Crouching on the branch, he faced the killer rabbit and opened his mouth, his idea earlier about Nyx inspiring his tactic. Roaring, he focussed on freezing the rabbit and attacking its health pool at the same time. The rabbit seemed to realise that something was wrong and attempted to dodge his attack. Unfortunately for it, his Roar affected the whole area, not just where he was facing. It froze up mid jump and crashed to the ground. Once a single second had elapsed, Dominic saw its health bar starting to drain.
Increment by increment, its health drained away as his Roar continued. At the same time, Dominic's stamina drained too, faster and faster. He made a quick judgement and cut off his Roar when his stamina was in its last quarter – he didn't want to exhaust himself to kill the killer rabbit with his Roar. At least it wasn't looking very healthy with its health pool already reaching the last quarter too.
First activating Second Wind to give himself a bit more stamina to play with, Dominic then leaped down from the tree, using his wings to help direct him to land straight on top of the veten.
It seemed to be groggy from the sonic attack which had rattled through its bones as its reaction was noticeably slowed. It tried to move out of the way of Dominic's claws but failed utterly. Dominic's weight landed right on top of it, crushing it to the ground. Still, it moved, shifting underneath him.
He leaned down and bit its head off.
And then, as a sudden pain went through his tongue, he spat the head out again, eyeing it distrustfully as its jaw continued opening and closing for a few more moments before finally going limp.
[Congratulations! You have won the Challenge: Duel for the Place of Power. You have regained full control and influence over the Place of Power. Your followers are once more receiving the Prey Points assigned to recognised (affiliated) denizens. Would you like to see your rewards?]
Dominic didn't pay any attention to the message in front of him for a moment, too concerned with something more important.
'Leo, do you think we're going to have to worry about people putting their heads back on? Or headless bodies continuing to fight? Or evil heads in jars which are still able to lead armies?' He was being completely serious. Once, he might have said that such things were the domain of comic books and horror movies, but since he was living in a world where magic and levelling up now existed, it seemed like a reasonable question. Especially since both kesh and killer rabbit had managed to stay alive longer than reasonably could have been expected. Then a thought struck him – maybe these weren't actually the first like that they'd encountered. After all, the crocodile in the dungeon had continued fighting with a smashed-in head.
'With a big enough health pool and regeneration, someone being able to survive having their head bitten off seems possible,' Leo mused. 'But I don't see how headless bodies would be able to continue fighting. Not with any sort of intelligence anyway. How would they even be able to see? And evil heads in jars leading armies just sounds ridiculous. Next you'll be expecting to see someone flying fist-first through the air or dressed up as a massive air-rat.'
'Batman and Superman were both really cool, OK?' Dominic retorted defensively. 'And considering we can now fly, it seems likely others will learn how to do so too.'
'We have wings,' Leo pointed out.
'And we also have magic,' Dominic retorted. 'Anyway, the point is that it's clear our opponents aren't being killed as quickly as they were before. We'll have to be careful about that. Increasingly, we are likely not to be the only ones with tricks up our sleeves.' High health pools, extra speed, Abilities that gave someone a second chance, Dominic suspected that they were likely to run into such things more and more. The more levels someone had, the further they would be away from a baseline existence. And the more they used their Abilities, the more powerful those would get even if they didn't have Dominic's advantage of being able to take Abilities from Cores.
Finally reading through the notification, he was glad to see that the Challenge was won. He wondered why one of the pterodactyls hadn't been present in the Challenge, but perhaps the kesh and the veten leaders had been more dominant in their little alliance. Or perhaps the leader was meant to join the two others but had already been killed by the albuhas before it could.
As usual, he'd like to look at his rewards right now, but had too many other immediate concerns to do so. Dismissing the notification, he looked around the clearing. While he'd been fighting in the Challenge, his Pride had mopped up the last of the enemies and then appeared to have taken some time to heal up. Several had probably levelled up too – Dominic hadn't yet checked his own Prey Point gain, but given the numbers they'd killed, it probably had increased by a decent chunk.
Next, Dominic reached out to Hathor and Loud-Hoot through the Pride chat – hopefully they were within range.
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'We are well,' Hathor replied readily through a couple of intermediaries – once the fighting had finished Sekhmet apparently had sent a couple of lions out to be scouts and communication-enablers. 'There have been no attacks. The two-legs have been quiet and stayed hidden.' Dominic sighed in relief – that had been one thing he'd been worried about.
Loud-Hoot didn't reply, however, and neither did any of the other leaders who were with him. They must be out of range without any scouts nearby. That was annoying. Dominic made a mental note to increase the range of the Pride chat – being able to stay in contact with his forces was too useful to neglect. Not only was the forest getting bigger all the time, but with the upcoming dungeon overflow, quicker warnings from scouts would be essential. The further the Pride chat could stretch, the better.
'Can someone fly over and see how the others are getting on?' Dominic asked all and sundry. Howler was looking tired but he volunteered nonetheless. Jenkins looked like she wanted to, but when she positioned her wings to propel her into the air, she made a noise of complaint – Dominic guessed that they hurt. He moved over to help her with his Healing Cloud, and in the meantime, two other albuhas joined Howler in the air and the three flapped away in the direction of the kesh's nests.
Jenkins made a sigh of relief as Dominic's golden cloud healed the strain in her wings.
'You should have absorbed a carcass,' he reprimanded her.
'I didn't realise how much they hurt until now,' she replied sulkily, though she soon broke her apparent annoyance to give him an affectionate head rub. Once she was healed, Dominic went through the rest of the Pride checking on everyone and giving off a cloud of healing dust to help anyone who might need it. Nyx and Sekhmet were first, of course, and they both rubbed heads against him too even though they were both fully healed of whatever injuries they'd got. The other male was surprisingly affectionate too, looking satisfied as he lay in the middle of a blood-soaked field.
Fortunately, they'd only lost those two albuhas, and those were more unfortunate accidents than anything else. The lions and amesheks on the ground had been able to cover for each other when one Pride member started getting overwhelmed – Immunity had paid for itself multiple times over by now. He was also pleased with how the rescue team he'd organised had ensured that almost all the albuhas who had got injured were guided to safety so they could heal.
At the same time as checking on his Pride members, Dominic verified with the leaders of the groups sweeping the forest that all was well there. The harash leader informed him that there had been a few skirmishes and that they weren't certain they'd got all of the killer rabbits, but that if there were any remaining they were being quiet about it. They were just doing a final sweep and the harash wanted to know what they should do afterwards.
Dominic hesitated. 'Come to the centre,' he told the leaders after a moment of consideration. It would reveal the Place of Power to his allies, but they were almost certain to discover it at some point. It would be better if they found out because he chose to reveal it to them rather than because of rumours or chance later. Hopefully they wouldn't all start wanting to Challenge him for it if they realised just what it was.
'If they do, we will make an example of the first ones so the others will not wish to do the same,' Leo told him imperiously.
'I suppose,' Dominic agreed, hoping that it wouldn't come to that but still worried that it would.
'Pack leader,' Howler's voice broke into his thoughts. 'I have made contact with Loud-Hoot.'
'And?' Dominic prompted, previous thoughts forgotten.
'They have repelled the attackers. With the help of the not-pack members, they have driven away or killed the not-pack kesh. The other kesh have emerged. They are on their way to the centre.'
Dominic was pleased. It sounded like the battle had gone well, then. Frankly, he was tired, and wanted to finally be able to rest and properly catch up with the Pride members he'd left behind. He also wanted to check on Procyon and Sirius – maybe he could get some information about them by visiting where they had disappeared. He had the rewards from the Challenge to go through too, and, even more importantly for him, he had two level ups to undergo. And, of course, there were the elves who would need to be dealt with soon.
But when he lay down on a patch of earth that wasn't covered in blood, Jenkins, Sekhmet, and Nyx all came to join him and he found that he was too comfortable to do anything. And Leo didn't seem to be in a hurry either – the lion basked in the presence of his females as much as Dominic enjoyed the company of his closest companions.
He laid his head on his paws and felt a tongue start to lick at his fur. He tilted his head slightly and saw the wall of black that it belonged to. Nyx grooming him was a little confusing – she'd never done so before. Maybe she just didn't like seeing the blood matting his fur. It felt nice, so he didn't object.
In fact, it felt so nice that he twisted gently and started returning the favour. Nyx rumbled in contentment and Dominic felt even more pleasure run through him at making her happy.
There was so much to do, but Dominic was coming to realise that there always would be. He needed to take moments like this sometimes, for his own good and that of the Pride.
The world had suddenly got bigger for them all. No longer were they just a collection of lions. Nyx and her amesheks, Howler and his albuhas, Loud-Hoot and his kesh…. They had only been the start. Now Dominic was in charge of an alliance of more than two hundred beasts and responsible, temporarily or not, for a city of elves.
At the same time, the threats had got bigger too – the dungeons were coming to get them – either immediately or when they discovered the existence of the Place of Power – and even as Dominic and his Pride got stronger, so did everyone else. Making a mistake, or a miscalculation, or a misjudgement would be punished like never before.
But he didn't have to do it all by himself and, as Jenkins and Sekhmet both joined in the mutual grooming session to Leo's increasing pleasure, Dominic was glad of that. He had his Pride who he could trust completely, his allies and the elves who he could trust to a certain extent, and his Place of Power which would give them strength and a home to fight for.
Knowing all of that, he could only face the future head on – good and bad.