ALL NOVEL Chapter 53: Brooding Watchfulness
Dominic braced himself, expecting for that download of information to hijack his mind again now that he’d thought the trigger word. A few moments later, he risked opening his eyes again from where he’d unintentionally closed them as he prepared himself.
‘It’s…not starting? Place of Power?’ he tested, wanting to make sure. ‘Dungeons? Dungeon controlling a Place of Power?’ Nothing.
‘Perhaps only a small amount of information was given to us,’ Leo suggested finally.
‘Maybe,’ Dominic agreed tentatively. ‘The dungeon master did disappear pretty quickly when I bit it.’ He considered the thought for a moment and then mentally shrugged. ‘At least we don’t have to keep talking about ‘pink elephants’ any more.’
‘I still don’t understand why they have to be ‘pink’,’ grumbled Leo. Dominic decided to studiously ignore the comment.
‘So, back to my question – you think that the clearly unusual growth over there might indicate a Place of Power?’
‘How am I supposed to know?’ asked Leo grumpily. Dominic didn’t know what had got the lion in a snit, but his co-passenger had become quieter and quieter as the hours of walking had gone on. By this point, it was already approaching midday and Dominic had been seriously considering lying down for a nap in the afternoon again when he’d happened upon this place.
‘Perhaps it’s our lack of luck so far in encountering the traces of any lionesses,’ Dominic considered privately. ‘No one likes blue balls.’ The three unsuccessful hunts he’d had hadn’t helped, either. Clearly gazelle were not going to be a possibility until either he was faster or had a group to help ambush them. However, regardless of his companion’s clear dissatisfaction, the fact remained that they had potentially found one of the places they were looking for.
While Dominic was feeling a bit fatigued over his sleepless night and the countless miles covered by his steady pace, he was too excited over the prospect of finding a Place of Power to rest right now. I’m not that tired; I can keep going for a few hours, yet. Fight, even.
When there was no complaint or objection from the peanut gallery, Dominic decided that it was as good as an agreement from his currently-dour companion. Heading down the slope of the rocky hill, he started passing through the alien flora, the smaller sized ones to start with.
It turned out that the broad-leafed shrubs weren’t exactly what he’d expected. Suddenly, he realised he could understand why they might survive in a harsh environment such as the savannah.
Their leaves weren’t soft or silky like the ones he was used to in Europe, but tough and waxy. A bit like holly leaves, an evergreen tree which was capable of withstanding snow without an issue. Like a holly, these leaves were also spiked, though not at the edges. Instead, there was a line of spines down the middle of them and Dominic winced at the thought of being the herbivore which tried to chew on them. On the other hand, he knew giraffes and elephants were both known for snacking on thorn acacias so the piddly spikes on these leaves probably wouldn’t even register.
The trees, on the other hand, were not dissimilar from what he was expecting – thin and long leaves sticking out from branches which themselves stuck out from other branches. They also didn’t look particularly appetising, but perhaps Dominic was biased. After all, he’d never seriously considered becoming a vegetarian due to his love of all things beef and dislike of most green things. Perhaps that was a good thing: he couldn’t imagine how much harder he’d have found all this if he’d been an inveterate vegan beforehand.
By the time he’d finished his ruminations, he was out of the smaller bushes and starting to climb the slope again through the flora which was constantly increasing in size. Soon the bushes, which had been easy to see over, had become obstacles to his vision. Dominic slowed down, focussing more on using his ears and sense of smell than his eyes.
Sound moved strangely in the area, the leaves all around him dampening and muting the normal noises of the savannah. It actually felt like the times Dominic had gone swimming and got water stuck in his ears; everything was muffled.
The same was true of his olfactory senses. His nose was overwhelmed by the oddly spicy scent of the bushes and the fresher smell of the trees. Beneath those were other scents, perhaps creatures which had passed through at one time or another.
There was a brooding watchfulness, like something was aware of his presence. Not like what he’d felt in the dungeon temple, especially towards the end. This was less of a directed presence, more of an all-encompassing and neutral observation. Dominic didn’t feel threatened, just…watched.
He was so engrossed in trying to work out the direction the brooding observation came from that he didn’t hear the approach until too late.
‘Watch out!’ Leo cried sharply in his mind, snapping Dominic’s attention back to reality. He turned a little towards the noise, only succeeding in presenting his flank to the creature instead of his tail.
Pain shot through him as something exploded out of the bushes and drove the wind from his lungs. Dominic was actually taken off his feet by the force of the blow and fell heavily to the ground, a small chunk of his health bar missing.
Only just managing to keep his feet underneath himself, he still succeeded in catching a glimpse of his assailant. When he did, a gleeful feeling went through him. Excellent.
Though it might be odd to be happy at being attacked, when being attacked by one of the creatures on his ‘to kill’ list, a little happiness had to be expected. And from the attack which had just happened, Dominic was certain that this warthog had Charge.
It was also significantly bigger than the others he’d encountered – except for the Guardian – which made Dominic even happier: it was just another indication that he might have found the nearest Place of Power. Plus, it probably also meant more Prey Points which was always good. Well, almost always good, anyway: Prey Points did seem to indicate threat level, after all.
When the warthog charged again, Dominic was ready, leaping out the way. He played it safe for a short time. He wanted to work out two things: if there was a rhythm to the warthog’s attacks; and if there were any other individuals coming to join the party. I hope there are, he couldn’t help but think with the mental equivalent of rubbing his hands. Aggressive warthogs? Had his birthday come early?
But first he had to kill this one. He wasn’t too worried about that, though. In fact, perhaps this was an opportunity to put into practice something they’d been thinking about.
The moment of focus it took was enough to put him off his rhythm, and he had to scramble a bit to avoid getting hit by the charge. Still, since it always seemed to be in straight lines, as long as he could react in time it wasn’t too difficult to avoid the rush.
This warthog was very clearly less powerful than the one he’d fought in the dungeon, but it was also just as clearly on its way to achieving a similar strength.
Deciding to go on the offensive this time, instead of fully avoiding the charging warthog, Dominic simply moved enough to avoid being hit, but remained within range of being able to strike. Swiping with his claws, he opened up several gashes along the warthog’s side.
[You have dealt 37 damage (Tearing+Slicing+Piercing+Strike)]
Not bad, Dominic noted, though it would have been nice to have the individual damage types noted. For the moment, though, he was too busy with the fight to focus on trying to get the System to do what he wanted.
The warthog, of course, wasn’t taking his strike lying down. With the same bad temper that the warthog in the dungeon had shown, this one did its best to gore Dominic as it whirled around to face him. Unsuccessful with that, it tried next to Charge at a point-blank range.
Unable to dodge, Dominic took the warthog’s hard head directly to his chest. Oof, Dominic complained as the air was driven out of him once more. On the one hand it was nice not to be getting torn apart as normally happened in fights; on the other, getting beaten with a blunt object wasn’t so fun either.
If his fur’s Crushing damage resistance wasn’t actually the highest of its resistances, he’d probably be in even more pain. As it was, though, Dominic still didn’t feel much at threat from this warthog.
Deciding to test another of his new additions, Dominic used a swipe to separate them, pushing himself around so that he could access another part of the warthog. Using Quick Strike, he lunged forwards towards its now-bared neck, biting down on the thick skin.
For a moment there was some resistance: this warthog clearly had been going the route of its predecessor with its toughened skin. However, evidently it wasn’t anything that would offer more than a brief resistance to Dominic’s sharp teeth.
Especially not ones enhanced with Crushing Bite.
[You have dealt 71+14+10 Crushing damage + 78+5 Piercing damage]
It was a testament to the warthog’s health pool that the two attacks Dominic had landed hadn’t killed it outright. Based on the points damage and what he could see of the Beast’s red bar, he estimated that it had a health pool of approximately 300 - 350 health points. Certainly there was still about a little more than a third of its bar left despite around 200 points of damage.
Unfortunately, the remaining points weren’t going to save this warthog, not even if it had Second Wind. Dominic was still bigger and stronger than the creature, and he used that to his advantage. Shaking his head, he tore the flesh around the gaping wounds his teeth had made.
[You have dealt 45 Tearing damage]
[You have dealt 51 Tearing damage]
[You have killed Warthog (Half-Step Evolved Beast level 6)]
[You have earned 22 PP]
The shaking, along with its own desperate attempts to get free, had been too much for the warthog, game as it had been. The bloodloss which came from having a major artery damaged probably didn’t help.
It showed how used to the whole situation Dominic had become. He didn’t pay much mind to the warthog’s death except for the excitement he felt over the fact that the warthog was actually Half-Step Evolved. Maybe that’s why it attacked me? All the others ran away as warthogs would have before the System came in.
That wasn’t why he was excited, though. I wonder whether the second ability this warthog has is Overdrive? But if it is, why wouldn’t it have used it? Or maybe it did but it still wasn’t strong enough to resist me?
Mentally turning his damage notifications back off – he didn’t know if the next fight was going to be one during which he could risk being distracted – Dominic stared at the Core left behind.
Information.
