ALL NOVEL Chapter 47: Malicious Glint
The hyrilla clearly understood the challenge in his vocalisation and planted its curled paws on the ground, roaring back at him.
Once more, Dominic felt a bone-chilling sense of fear go through him. At this close distance it even served to make him freeze for a fraction of a second too long.
Powerful, clenched fists rose in the air and then slammed back to pound the ground. The force of the blow sent an unexpected shockwave towards Dominic. He found himself knocked back and off-balance, incapable of dodging the next strike.
The hyrilla’s clenched fist swung at him and Dominic’s disoriented mind was just slightly too slow to react. The blow landed with the force of a bulldozer. In just that moment, a noticeable chunk of his health bar was wiped away.
It’s got one hell of a right-hook - just that must have taken at least 50 HP, Dominic found himself thinking as he leapt out of range. The hint of panic coloured his thoughts and he gave serious thought to running away. Yes, he had the health potion, but that was for emergencies.
Suddenly, his confidence in taking this creature on seemed misplaced, as he continued dodging the hyrilla’s swings, his ribs hurting from the one hit it had landed. I should have run away when Leo suggested it, he found himself thinking as he backed up bit by bit.
Then his back foot hit something and he realised he’d been cornered against the very outcropping of rocks he’d planned to use against whatever scavengers appeared. For a moment, panic was all that he could consider: he was trapped!
The hyrilla seemed to realise the same thing, its lips curling back over its teeth. Was Dominic imagining the malicious glint which seemed to have taken up residence in those black eyes? Or the sudden slow movements as the creature seemed to relish him being trapped? It was that which brought Dominic back to himself.
I survived the trodil mini-bosses; I survived the warthog guardian. This nasty combination of creatures isn’t going to take me down. Replacing panic with anger didn’t do a huge amount to clear his head, but it did give him a new sense of determination.
Rocks at his back? An opportunity, not a trap.
Turning and then crouching, Dominic jumped in a fluid motion, easily clearing the ten feet or so to get to the top of the pile. Then, before the hyrilla realised what had happened, Dominic launched himself at the creature’s head.
Grabbing at the head with his front paws, he allowed the momentum of his swing to take his back feet around and behind the muscular mountain. Digging his claws deep into the creature’s neck and raking at its back with his back feet, he bared his own teeth and lunged.
Aiming for the spine, he gnawed and chewed at the hardened flesh before him. The blood that spilled into his mouth was delicious, but the skin was much tougher than he’d been expecting and he wasn’t making the inroads he wanted. He was still having some impact, though.
The hyrilla bellowed its rage and pain, scrabbling at him with its own clawed limbs, though it clearly wasn’t completely bipedal as it couldn’t fully balance on its back legs without the support of at least one front paw on the ground.
Dominic mostly ignored the scrabbling of the clawed paw at him: his own skin was tougher than it used to be and his health pool was larger; the injuries were relatively negligible. What he couldn’t ignore, however, was the massive creature toppling backwards, obviously intending on crushing him.
Pushing off his claw-hold, he managed to get clear of the falling mountain of flesh and muscle, but landed badly. In the moment it took him to regain his feet, another blow had slammed into his hindquarters, knocking him sprawling.
Getting up as quickly as he could, Dominic was horrified to realise that he was unable to put his full weight on his left hind-paw. Pain spiked through from the muscle which had taken the full force of the blow; panic spiked through him at the thought that he might have a broken leg or dislocated hip.
‘No running away now,’ he told Leo grimly. ‘Not unless I take that health potion.’
‘Maybe we should,’ Leo replied, a hint of fear in his voice. Dominic hesitated, then looked at the hyrilla. It was awkwardly trying to turn over, its broad shoulders rendering that a difficult task.
It would be a good moment to take the potion; he had probably a few seconds before the creature managed to lever itself upwards. It would also be a good moment to attack.
A quick check of his status screen, barely more than a glance, revealed several important factors. That was fortunate: both key to the strategy which was vaguely piecing itself together in his mind.
Regretting for a moment that he didn’t have Overdrive or Rage yet, he nevertheless activated one of the abilities he’d gained from the dungeon.
First, he invoked Lightning Discharge, pouring his mana into his teeth. Then, leaping forwards, he bit straight at the hyrilla’s throat. It tried to fend him off with its own jaws, but he feinted to the right and then swooped to the left to snatch at its unprotected neck.
His teeth dug straight in and he was gratified to see a large chunk drop from the hyrilla’s health bar. It wasn’t down to half yet, and he already was, but that was OK. He still had time.
Trying to make the wound as messy and damaging as he could, Dominic yanked at the bite, chewing and tearing. Of course, the hyrilla wasn’t going to take such an attack without complaint.
His arms, so long, were apparently not particularly flexible, and the gorilla-hyena hybrid actually struggled to reach Dominic with the claws. That didn’t stop it giving the lion a mockery of a hug, using its prodigious strength to crush the smaller form to its chest.
Health dropped from Dominic’s bar as he felt his ribs grate together, his bones and joints cracking as they were put under strain. Apparently even the level 10 upgrade to everything he’d already enhanced was not enough to cope with this abuse.
However, health was also dropping from the hyrilla’s bar. They were in a death match, struggling to see which one of them would be alive when the other finally expired. And Dominic had a trump card which he hadn’t yet used; from his opponent’s level, he doubted the same was true.
As his own HP reached a quarter and continued dropping, as his breathing became difficult and his ribs felt like fire every time he expanded them to fill his lungs, he still kept tearing at the hyrilla’s throat. He’d even started ripping at the side of its muzzle with his claws, relying on the hyrilla’s own grip to keep him in place.
The bigger creature’s health dropped to a quarter just as Dominic’s own became the barest sliver.
Second Wind, Dominic invoked and his health and stamina bars both quickly increased. The pain was no less, the injuries still very much present. But that meant nothing to the sense of victory that grew in his heart as he finally surpassed the hyrilla in remaining health.
In a last-ditch effort when its health reached the last ten percent, the large predator started trying to push Dominic away instead of continuing its attempts to crush his attacker. Dominic let it. Sort of. He gripped a mass of flesh in his mouth and allowed the hyrilla to get the purchase it needed to push him off – flesh still in his mouth.
The worsened wound – by its own efforts, no less – was enough to sound the death-knell for this particular Beast. Dominic was unable to push himself to his feet, his ribs feeling like they had been pounded by a hammer.
Still, he watched avidly through the agony as the last bit of red slowly trickled out of the weakly-moving hyrilla’s health bar. When the message flashed up in front of him, he would have grinned if he could.
[You have killed Scrin (Half-step Evolved Beast level 7)]
[You have earned 73 PP]
His health a chunk down below half, Dominic felt the pressure of the consequences of using Second Wind, the timer of which was in the corner of his vision. When he focused on it, it remained in place obligingly so he could see it.
1:39
The short time that remained before it sucked out his remaining health and stamina should have dismayed him, but it didn’t, and not just because he knew he had a health potion in his inventory.
No, there was another reason.
Status of Dominic Martin Cole / Leo
Species: Lion (body) / human (mind), Two-Souled
Level: Evolved Beast Level 10 Tier 2 (Path of Evolution)
Progress to Evolution: 361/196 PP level up
Satiation level: 100%
Hydration level: 100%
Health Points: 231/500
Stamina Points: 68/170
Quests: A Noble Endeavour; Regain what is Lost
He was able to level up again. And this time, there was no question about which element he needed to enhance, despite all the options which tempted him. Though he did have to admit being tempted to choose something as well as the mane when he realised that he had two enhancements options available.
‘So, thicken or darken,’ Dominic asked Leo figuring that since he was the one who wanted a mane so much, he ought to be the one to make decisions about it. ‘And two of the same or one of each?’
‘Thicken and darken,’ Leo said immediately, before just as quickly correcting himself. ‘No, darken for both?’ Dominic raised a mental eyebrow at his backseat driver.
‘You’re sure? Darken for both?’ he checked, a bit of exasperation in his mental voice, the clock ticking down towards a minute putting him under a little bit of pressure. He didn’t realise the lion was going to dither about the decision.
‘Darken for both,’ Leo said finally, this time sounding more certain about it. ‘Our fur is already a bit longer with the other enhancements. Darkening the mane will make it more attractive immediately. I think.’
‘Reassuring,’ Dominic replied, slightly sarcastically. ‘Alright, no take-backsies now.’ Choosing the mane as the option to enhance, he then chose Darken as the specific aspect of it to improve twice.
Energy rushed through him and he felt it tingling particularly in his mane. Leo groaned softly in pleasure in his mind – how a mental presence could groan, he didn’t know. Then again, he’d successfully raised an eyebrow at the lion without even having eyebrows anymore, so maybe it shouldn’t be surprising. Either way, his companion seemed to be enjoying the rush as much as he was.
He returned to reality just as the timer for Second Wind hit 0. Hoping that levelling up would have reset the timer completely, Dominic was disappointed when it suddenly took half his health away. Fortunately, it didn’t return his wounds or the agony; it just took away a massive chunk of HP and SP, leaving him feeling momentarily weak.
I suppose it’s better to find that out now rather than when it really matters, he thought unhappily. Still, at least he had a solution to ameliorate the situation. Pushing himself to his feet, he relished his ease of movement and lack of pain, vowing to himself that he wouldn’t be so reckless again – he was fortunate he’d had a level up in his back pocket or he would have been forced to use his only health potion. And even that might not have healed him fully. Limping around with a dislocated hip or broken ribs would have put him at a significant disadvantage.
Not having moved beyond where the hyrilla’s – scrin’s – arms had pushed him, Dominic only needed to take a couple of steps before he could reach out with one paw and touch the foot of the dead Beast.
Consume, he told the System. The rush of health and stamina into him was very welcome, alleviating the sudden sense of weakness which had come with losing so much of each of them.
