ALL NOVEL Chapter 68: Dicey Prospect
Dominic was looking at the powerfully muscled bodies, the broad shoulders, and the side-sweeping horns that met in the middle to make a helmet of bone over the herbivore’s skull. Plant-eater this creature might be, but hunting it was a dicy prospect, even for lions. Add in the sheer numbers of them and the fact that, unlike most prey beasts, they would willingly group together to fend off lions, buffalo were not the ideal animal for the pride to hunt.
However, on the other hand – or paw – buffalo were also loaded in terms of meat. A single beast taken down would feed the pride to bursting point. Even if all the adults in the pride ate their fill, there would still be meat left over for the cubs. That’s if they chose a normal sized individual. If they chose one which was half-starved from age or illness, as would normally be the target, it would be less of a bounty.
On the other, other hand, as Dominic eyed the beasts in front of him, he had to determine that these buffalo had gained at least two or three levels since the System started. How, he didn’t know, since he had to gain Prey Points by killing other beasts and, while capable of that, he didn’t see the buffalo going out and actively attacking creatures to gain them. Maybe there’s a different system for herbivores? he wondered before dismissing the idea from his mind.
Dangerous or not, it seemed like this was the prey the lionesses had in mind to chase today. The pride was lying on a ridge together, eyes focussed and ears alert. Clearly they were sizing the herd up and deciding on which member of it to attempt to hunt.
The buffalo were themselves fully aware of the lions’ presence, and shifting uneasily, several members of the herd having their horns turned towards the lions at all times.
Dominic found it hard to read the details of the subtle cues in the body-language of the lionesses around, but Leo had no such issue. Fortunately, with them in the positions they were – Leo in the driving seat and Dominic as the observer – that meant that the translation came through to Dominic. Just as when they had a notification appear, it was Dominic’s understanding which filtered through to Leo – or didn’t if he wasn’t in the driving seat.
One of the lionesses pointed out a buffalo which had got a bit separated from the herd. Immediately Dominic saw what had interested her: it was limping. Hopefully that won’t reduce the number of Prey Points it offers, Dominic thought. Not that a herbivore was likely to be worth a lot, but hopefully the danger rating of this animal would bump it up a bit.
With interest, he watched the six adult lionesses start moving. They went down behind the ridge and then crept around it to keep themselves camouflaged. By the time they were in the grass and moving towards the buffalo, they had lowered themselves practically to the ground.
Dominic couldn’t help admiring their sinuous movements. The grass wasn’t that long here: about belly-high on Dominic, and there were only a few bushes and trees dotted around. As a result, the lionesses were practically crawling on their bellies, their flexible bodies allowing them to move even in that crouched position. Every so often, they’d crane their necks upwards to allow themselves to glimpse the position of their prey.
From their vantage point above, Dominic and the other lionesses could see them travel closer to the buffalo, but the herbivores themselves probably couldn’t. The twitching of their ears and tails sent messages to the lions still on the ridge, telling them to wait. They did so, prepared nonetheless to move at a moment’s notice.
Interestingly enough, Dominic saw the two groups of lionesses actually go in two different directions. One group went towards the limping buffalo they had spotted earlier; the other towards another buffalo which was a little away from the rest of the herd. The reason for why this happened to be the case wasn’t as clear as with the first. It wasn’t injured to Dominic’s eye, nor did it look to be half-dead. In fact, it was a little bigger than the other buffalo around; maybe it was a higher level and more confident?
Oddly enough, Leo seemed a bit surprised at the move too.
‘Is this not a normal tactic?’ Dominic asked him.
‘Not with buffalo,’ Leo responded. ‘They are too dangerous to approach with less than the full pride – not when the pride only has nine members who hunt properly.’ That was a good point. The six adult females were the ones who had split up, two going towards the healthy buffalo, four towards the limping one.
The lions left with Leo were the three juvenile females who were nonetheless almost full-grown. Briefly he wondered where the other cubs had gone – the ones the two mothers had been protecting from him. Perhaps they’d been hidden somewhere away from both the male lion and the buffalo. Considering what normally would have happened to them when a new male took over the pride, Dominic didn’t blame the mothers for doing what they could to protect their cubs.
Then the lionesses reached the buffalo and went still in the grass. Thanks to their stillness and the perfect match of their coats to the grass around, even Dominic who knew where they were could barely spot them. Their ears and tails flicked.
The lions on the ridge started moving, their reaction seamless. Two of the young lionesses split to join the four on the limping buffalo, the other joined Leo who immediately headed for the healthy one.
‘What’s happening?’ Dominic asked urgently because even the understanding that filtered through from Leo didn’t make it clear why they were doing this.
‘I’m not entirely sure,’ Leo admitted. ‘Either one of the buffalos is a decoy and the pride will pile on the one which flags first, or the females think that we can take down two buffalo at once.’
‘Do you think we can?’ checked Dominic.
‘Perhaps. That is most likely why we have been split like this: more females on the weaker one; us on the stronger one. I suspect that the lionesses will distract the buffalo for us to use our greater strength and weight to take it down.’
WIth that, they went silent, focussing on the hunt ahead.
The buffalo they were heading towards turned to face Leo, its head lowered and horns ready to gore him. Leo paused a good few paces away, the lioness following him going to ground and starting to creep around the buffalo.
The herbivore tossed its head and pawed at the ground, dust rising beneath its hoof and blowing in the breeze.
Leo tensed, ready to leap aside if it decided to charge. On that note, I wonder if buffalo also have Cores with Charge in, Dominic thought quietly to himself, not wanting to distract Leo at this critical juncture.
Just as the buffalo seemed about to make a run at Leo, the three lionesses who had surrounded it, leapt for it. One aimed at its back leg, one aimed at its back, and the third bit at its hindquarters.
All were careful to stay clear of the horns which immediately swept at them, jumping away from the buffalo as it twisted around to attempt to gore them. In the process it turned on the spot, inadvertently presenting its back to the male lion.
This was Leo’s cue, and he broke into an all-out run, activating Quick Strike as he leapt forwards onto the buffalo’s back. His claws pierced the buffalo’s hide, offering a good hold for him to then bite at the animal’s spine. His teeth sank into the herbivore’s body, Crushing Bite activated to increase the damage.
Since he’d succeeded in pulling up his status screen earlier, Dominic wondered if he’d be able to pull up the log – and if his log would contain information about damage when he hadn’t actively asked the System to display it. He hoped that it wouldn’t suddenly pull the screen up in front of Leo too, but the lion hadn’t shown any indication of seeing the status screen earlier…. Worth a try – right now he was in a relatively safe position: the buffalo’s horns couldn’t reach him here.
[You have dealt 12+1 Slicing damage + 13+1 Tearing damage + 6 Piercing damage]
[You have dealt 75+15+10 Crushing damage + 65+3 Piercing damage]
Excellent, Dominic thought. Proof of concept given. And from the lack of complaint from Leo, it seemed like the screen hadn’t been pulled up for them both. Interesting…. And in terms of damage, it was a pretty awesome attack. For the cost of 27 Stamina Points, he’d dealt around 200 points in damage. It was over half the buffalo’s health bar.
Though, he did find it interesting to note that no mention was made of the defence which the buffalo had, and he was sure that it would have some. Its hide was tough enough to resist both his claws and teeth very slightly despite everything they’d been enhanced by.
So, when it talks about damage ‘dealt’, is that before or after the defences of the opponent? It was an interesting question which might have an impact at a later date – if he knew how much damage he needed to inflict to one-shot a creature, for example. However, at the moment, it was more useful to know how much damage he’d inflicted in relation to the health bar of his opponent. And right at this moment, it told him that he had inflicted a good blow, but that the buffalo wasn’t dead yet.
It was fortunate that Dominic hadn’t had to control the body – during his ruminations the buffalo had started bucking, and Leo had to dig his claws in even deeper to stop himself from being thrown off.
This was where greater weight wasn’t necessarily an advantage: while his ability to pin an opponent was increased, if the opponent had the strength necessary to resist his weight – which seemed to be the case – his weight could then be used against him.
When the buffalo executed a particularly agile sideways buck, Leo and Dominic found themselves sliding off the buffalo’s side. Leo kept his teeth and claws fixed, however, and the result of them tearing free under his weight left a significant wound in the buffalo’s side. Another chunk of their prey’s health bar disappeared.
Leo had to jump out of the way as the buffalo twisted its head to gore him in return for his attack. He wasn’t quite fast enough, the awkward landing meaning his jump wasn’t perfectly timed, but he escaped with only a small flesh-wound.
On the run from the abruptly charging buffalo, Leo was relieved when the lionesses with him distracted it by once more attacking its back quarters.
This time, one got her jaws around the buffalo’s right hind-leg, getting dragged along by it for a short time. Her uncomfortable journey was ended when her pride-mate grabbed the other hind-leg, bringing the buffalo to a halt. The young lioness snatched at the buffalo’s side, dancing away from the hooves.
Leo ran around the buffalo and then charged at it himself, timing his leap when the buffalo was striking at the young lioness on the other side. He slammed into the buffalo’s shoulder, his weight sending it crashing to the ground. Its nose slammed against the ground as its horn was caught underneath it.
Before it could recover, Leo took advantage of the opportunity and closed his jaws around its throat.
