The hyenas lunged; Dominic ran for his life.
Perhaps it was a bit cowardly of him, but he was determined not to throw away this second chance the way he had his first. As his paws pounded the earth below them, he heard the whoops and growls of hyenas on the hunt. They were after him.
His eyes scanned the dark landscape around him. The moonlight was more than enough for his night-vision to cope and he ran surely over the rocky terrain. There were only four of them. If he could find a location where their numbers would mean little…
As he glanced back, he realised to his dismay that four had multiplied into eight, the calls of the hyenas having summoned more of their brethren. Worse, they were gaining on him.
Hell! Dominic spat again. Four was possibly manageable; eight was not. Not unless…
There. His vision zeroed into a deep darkness below an overhanging rock. It was about twice as high as he was tall, and about the same as his height in width. With its almost 'o' shape, it looked like an open mouth. His imagination ran wild, seeing it close after he entered, consuming him.
Don't be stupid, Dominic told himself sternly. You've enough to deal with without ridiculous fantasies distracting you.
Not second-guessing himself, he ran towards the dark spot, sliding into it just as a hyena ripped at his tail.
Immediately, Dominic knew that he was facing a different enemy from before, if only a glancing bite to his tail caused that much damage. Fear clawed at his belly: he wasn't even starting with full health points.
The dark spot appeared to be more than just a cave: it was more like a tunnel. Dominic backed up enough into it to mean that even the smaller hyenas were forced to approach one at a time.
Either this is going to save me or I've made a big mistake, Dominic decided as he felt the limiting nature of the tunnel. A hyena approached him.
It snapped at him. He avoided its bite and lunged forwards to pin it. Before he could bite, another lunged at his face.
Retreating with a growl, Dominic raked his claws down the first hyena's face and over its eyes.
The injured hyena whimpered, then yelped as the second hyena trod on it to lunge forwards. Dominic tried to dodge but was hampered by the close confines of the tunnel.
He roared as the hyena's teeth sunk into his left foreleg.
Rage giving him speed, he lunged forwards himself. Like him, the hyena was not quite fast enough to dodge, its attempt prevented instead by the hyena getting to its feet behind it.
His teeth sunk into the back of its neck, his powerful bite crunching into the bone. He couldn't bite through the neck completely, but he shook his head until he heard a snap.
The hyena went limp and he dropped it as two more hyenas lunged for him.
This time, it seemed they didn't care about the close confines and he was hard-pressed to avoid two sets of snapping teeth. He growled and swiped with his outstretched claws.
One hyena backed away; the other ducked to protect its eyes and then counter-attacked.
Dominic roared again in pain as its jaws latched onto his previously intact foreleg and bit down.
He tried to repeat the same attack as before, but this hyena was too wily. It ducked out the way, meaning his teeth merely scratched across its hard skull rather than biting into its vulnerable neck.
Pain radiating from both forelegs, Dominic hesitated, unsure what to do. And then it got worse.
Damn! They hyenas, sensing the weakening of their prey, started getting more excited. Another two forced their way into the entrance of the tunnel. Dominic instinctively backed up a couple of steps, the hyenas following.
His mind raced. Suddenly trapping himself in this dark tunnel seemed the worst thing he could have done.
Feeling desperate, he lunged for the hyenas, his sudden move taking them by surprise.
Jaws clamping down, he got in a good bite on one hyena, not killing it but sending it backing up, whimpering.
His move didn't leave him unscathed, though: the other hyena took advantage to bite at his neck. Only a last moment shift meant that instead of his throat, it got his shoulder.
That turned out to be its last mistake, though. Dominic whirled on it as soon as the other hyena retreated and his larger size and weight quickly overwhelmed his opponent.
Even as the already-injured hyena came back for another attack, Dominic just hunkered down and made sure of his kill, enduring the shallow slashes the hyena managed to deal to his skull.
When the hyena below him went limp, he lunged at the one attacking his skull. It skittered back with a nervous giggle. He lunged again, making up the steps that he'd taken back.
Both the hyena he'd injured and the remaining five of its friends flinched back, whoops and giggles ringing out.
If I can't actually hope to kill all of them, Dominic thought to himself, I'm damn well going to make them think that I can. It was a bluff, but what else could he do? He was already down to almost half-health and it was tricking away by the minute through his bleeding wounds.
There was an uncertain standoff for a long few minutes. The hyenas made a few testing lunges at him, but he stood his ground and just struck at them when they got close.
They retreated a little from the cave, perhaps trying to lure him out. He didn't fall for the ruse, staying in the tunnel where at least his sides were protected. He hadn't stood a chance against them in the open before; now injured, he was even more disadvantaged.
The remaining hyenas didn't seem too keen to risk joining their friends on the floor below his feet, milling around just outside of his range.
Then the situation suddenly changed. A pain shot through Dominic's back leg.
He roared and turned – apparently the hyena he'd choked had just been unconscious rather than dead. It was groggy and an easy target – a quick bite and snap made it a corpse for sure this time.
However, turning his back had been the cue for the other hyenas to attack again.
More attacks fell on his back legs, excruciating pain shooting through him.
His health was falling fast. He twisted around, becoming a desperate whirlwind of teeth and claws striking out at his attackers.
The hyenas backed off again, none of them unscathed, one fallen at his feet. Dominic was breathing heavily, sensing that his stamina was in as bad a state as his health.
Using his rage, he snarled at the hyenas, knowing that the image he presented here was his only chance of surviving this.
Dipping his head down, he grabbed the fallen and whimpering hyena, snapped his jaws around its throat and lifted it in the air, shaking it to and fro. A loud snap occurred and he let it fall, snarling once more at the five remaining.
They giggled and milled about, uncertainty creeping in. Sensing their indecision, Dominic fake-lunged. They skittered back with more giggles.
Dominic's health trickled away minute by minute, mimicking the blood trickling through his fur. As it hit 20 HP, he had an idea. Keeping his eyes on the hyenas, he leant down and touched his nose to the one at his feet.
Yes. The hyenas whooped and giggled in confusion as their companion's body disintegrated into dust and flew towards the lion. Dominic felt like grinning as he sensed his health tick up a bit.
The hyenas seemed to sense that something had happened too, as their uncertainty grew. Dominic risked lunging for real, biting at the side of the closest hyena before quickly retreating back to the cave.
It was an attack which caused practically no damage, but as a scare tactic, it seemed to work. The hyenas backed off a bit and the standoff continued.
Dominic stood firmly in the entrance to the tunnel, his ears pinned against his skull and his lips drawn back to reveal his teeth as he snarled menacingly. His health still ticked away, but Dominic was less worried – there were still two bodies for him to absorb. Plus, he still had a level-up waiting for him.
However, in this game, the first to move was the first to lose, so he stayed there, pretending all was fine. Finally, as his health dropped once more below 20 HP, the hyenas decided that there was easier prey to be found and went running off into the night.
Dominic waited a few moments just to make sure they were gone, then quickly twisted around to access the other two corpses. Absorbing them brought his health back up to almost 100 HP and his wounds closed enough to stop bleeding. They still hurt.
Lapping up the Beast Cores, he gained access to a predictable new skill.
Ability: Crushing Bite> Not wanting to risk something else approaching him while he was still so vulnerable, he decided to quickly level up since that had completely healed him last time. Opening his status screen, he would have raised his eyebrows if he'd still had them. Status of Dominic Martin Cole / Leo Species: Lion (body) / human (mind), Two-Souled Level: Basic Beast Level 1 (Path of Evolution) Progress to Evolution: 286/105 PP level up Hunger level: 5% Thirst level: 5% Quests: A Noble Endeavour; Regain what is Lost Acquired Abilities: Quick Strike level 1 (29%) Powerful Kick level 1 (44%) Crushing Bite level 1 (30%) Defensive abilities: - Fur level 2 (2-4 Slicing damage reduction, 1-2 Piercing damage reduction, 3-4 Crushing damage reduction) Offensive abilities: - Claws level 1 (5-10 Slicing damage, 4-7 Tearing damage, 1-2 Piercing damage) - Bite level 1 (32-50 Crushing damage, 27-50 Tearing damage, 25-35 Piercing damage) General abilities: - Muscular Body level 2 (max sprint speed 20mps; max sprint duration 12s) (9/60 SP) - Carnivore Constitution level 1 (98/300 HP) How did that happen? Dominic wondered as he saw the total of PP he'd earned. Last he'd seen, he was sitting at 178/105 after killing seventeen kangaroos. He'd check his damage log after this; for now, he needed to deal with his lacking resource pools. Now, what to enhance this time…?