Leo snarled at the group of predators before them. The pride had unintentionally interrupted a hunt of what looked like a group of coyotes. At least, if his brother’s memories were anything to go by. Though, he didn’t think the creatures Dominic had seen on a ‘documentary’ had had the wings that these beasts did.
The pride members were hungry and tired. They had been running through the night and most of the day, only stopping to sleep during the hottest time of the day. They’d refreshed themselves at a waterhole they’d scented, but his brother had neglected to replenish their storage space with carcasses. Instead, he’d become frustrated with that useless weak male and started giving him rides to allow him to regain his stamina without slowing them all down.
After a bit of experimentation, though, they had proved that the slowed time in the storage space affected regeneration of stamina too, so Dominic had decided to give up on that idea and just move at the pace of the young male. Leo still didn’t understand why his brother didn’t just move at a faster pace – if the male fell behind, good riddance. But Dominic refused to hear Leo’s perfectly logical argument, and continued making allowances for the male.
Since they were no longer using some of the storage space for the useless male, and they needed to give him some time to regain some stamina, when they’d seen a flock of apparently flightless birds, it had seemed like a good opportunity to replenish their larder. Unfortunately, these other predators had apparently seen the opportunity, too.
That had led them to the current confrontation. The winged coyotes outnumbered Leo’s pride by three to one, and they were about the same size as Prince – a level 4 lion. The leader was even bigger, more the size of one of the amesheks, and so was his wingspan – obvious by his threatening position.
The leader was very obviously male: as the snarls and threat of violence ticked up a notch, he started buffeting the pride with air from his wings, the force making him rear up. Leo found himself even more irritated – how dare this canine be more clearly male than Leo himself?
‘We need to Challenge him,’ his brother’s voice interjected urgently.
‘Why?’ asked Leo defensively. ‘Our balls are plenty big enough for our needs – this male is just showing off!’
‘What?’ the former-human sounded completely baffled. ‘No, his wings. I want them.’
That…did appeal, Leo had to admit. But….
‘Will we even be able to use them?’
‘I don’t know. But they look more promising than the ones we found on the chimera,’ Dominic argued.
‘If we focus on the leader, we leave the rest of our Pride vulnerable. You know that no interference is allowed during a Challenge,’ Leo reminded his brother.
‘Then we’d better make quick work of this coyote-thing,’ insisted Dominic. Leo had to wonder why a monkey relative was so fixated on the idea of flight. Surely he wasn’t worried about falling out of trees, not in Leo’s body now? But he decided that the risk of giving into his brother’s desires shouldn’t be too much. They had some powerful fighters in the pride – as long as they didn’t take too long for the Challenge, it should be fine.
‘As you wish,’ he agreed, sending out the Challenge to the opposing leader.
A moment later, he had a response, though it wasn’t exactly as he’d expected. Though he was starting to be able to understand some of what was in the notification in front of his eyes, Dominic still quickly read it to him to ensure he understood it all. And gave his own comments at the same time.
‘Challenge has been rejected – annoying. New Challenge has been issued in return: Three on One – that could be interesting. Note: due to the increased difficulty, the rewards of this Challenge will be commensurately increased for the disadvantaged party in the event of success – vaguely worrying, but promising too. Note, too, that no outside intervention is permitted during the Challenge. For reasons of fairness, all participants will be returned to full health and stamina at the start of the Challenge – that’s standard. And then the usual question about whether to accept or decline.’
‘Should we accept?’ Leo checked with his brother. ‘I think we should be able to take on a few canines, don’t you?’
‘Don’t get cocky,’ Dominic warned. ‘But yes, I agree. It will ease a little of the pressure on the rest of the pride too.’
That was true. Without saying anything more, Leo accepted the Challenge, not wanting to waste any more time. After all, they still had some more ground to cover to get to the dungeon, and he was eager to get back to the rest of his pride as quickly as he could.
The creatures immediately reacted by raising their heads and howling. The mournful sound didn’t have any of the vibrating qualities that the amesheks’ vocalisation had, but Leo found himself frozen despite that.
Doubts ran through his mind: questions about whether he could win this; whether he’d just damned himself, and with him, his pride. The creatures abruptly appeared stronger than they had before, their teeth sharper, their bodies more muscular. The leader seemed suddenly more powerful, more threatening. Leo’s thoughts scattered, he couldn’t think what to do.
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‘Roar, Leo,’ urged Dominic. ‘Roar now!’
Leo wondered for a moment whether it was even worth trying: his roar wouldn’t be anywhere near strong enough to cut through the howl echoing uncomfortably in his ears. Then, abruptly, like a wave of warmth going through his icy form, he felt a rush of courage, of determination, of confidence. It came from his brother, he realised a moment later.
The rush temporarily pushed away the cobwebs snagging his thoughts and showed them for what they were: deceit. With rage at being entrapped without even realising it, with his embarrassment of it having to be Dominic who snapped him out of it feeding his fury, Leo Roared.
Immediately, the howl cut out. He saw the enemies in front of him falter, several taking a step back, though the leader wasn’t one of those. Interestingly, his roar didn’t only affect those who were part of the Challenge.
At the same time, Leo noticed the members of his own Pride take heart and return to his side from where they had begun retreating. The three youngest males had the furthest to move – they’d almost started running away completely. Actually, the weakest looked like he was still considering running away. Leo sent an angrily growled message in the chat and the young male changed direction.
As his Roar trailed off from lack of breath, the amesheks took up the moaning sound. Perhaps their pride had been piqued, because they certainly seemed to be putting a lot of effort into their eerie calls.
The attack was far weaker with only two of them joining together, but they probably out-levelled the majority of the winged-coyotes by a significant margin. As a result, as the attack hit all the creatures around them, a small group became fixed in place.
The lions wasted no time in seizing the advantage, leaping forward to attack the frozen targets.
Two notifications flashed up. Leo could tell at a glance that they were death notifications, but nothing more.
‘Eastern albuhas apparently. Level 9s,’ Dominic told him hurriedly, but was unable to say any more as all hell broke loose.
The albuhas which were part of the Challenge were unaffected by the ameshek, and apparently infuriated by the lions’ attack: the two smaller ones leapt for Leo’s throat.
Leo jumped to the side, but a wingbeat from one of them adjusted its angle unexpectedly and its teeth bit into Leo's shoulder, ripping a painful wound into it.
Leo roared again, though this time it was more in pain than anger. The strike took a chunk of health from his bar even as the second albuha leapt quickly at him again.
Using Powerful Swipe, he met its attack with his own, slamming his large-dinner plate-sized paw into the side of the oncoming albuha’s head. The force sent the canine stumbling to the side, momentarily dazed. Using Quick Strike, Leo tried to take advantage of the stunned creature, but the first albuha snapped at the side of his throat and Leo had to dodge its teeth at the last second.
Once more using Quick Strike, Leo leapt past the first albuha, then, with Rapid Attack allowing him to strike again quickly, he whirled around and leapt for its spine. Unfortunately, it dodged at the last moment and Leo missed. He managed to land on its wing and trap it for a moment, though. Setting his teeth into its shoulder, he pumped in acid with his tongue and dialled up Crushing Bite for a second. Then he let go and jumped back.
Just in time: the second albuha had got over its daze and had lunged for his flank, moving faster than he’d expected. Once more, their wings presented an advantage: it had used them to propel itself forward. However, Leo was fast himself, and the canine’s teeth clicked together just in front of his nose.
Abruptly, Leo felt something land heavily on his back, just as pain shot through his flanks and he felt constriction around his throat as his gorget drew tight. It took his mind a moment to catch up with what had happened.
‘He came from the sky,’ Dominic told him frantically. ‘We’ve got to get him off before he can get at our spine!’
Stupidly, Leo had lost sight of the albuha leader and was paying for it now: the large creature was currently on his back, his claws digging into Leo’s flanks, his teeth set in the back of his neck.
The only reason the fight wasn’t over then and there was the gorget. Instead of biting at his spine, the canine’s fangs were digging into the hardened leather of his neck armour. Leo had never been more grateful that his brother had insisted that they wear the thing, even if it did look like a collar.
However, even if the sharp teeth weren’t actually piercing his skin at that very moment, they were digging into the back of his neck with uncomfortable bruising force and tightening the gorget until it threatened to choke him. Besides, the albuha could decide to change strategies at any time. And that was discounting the sharp claws raking at his flanks and the two subordinates harrying him too with sharp bites at his flanks and legs from one and a thin howl from the other that pierced his ears and sent even more shivers down his endangered spine.
But Leo didn’t know what to do: he’d never been so vulnerable before, never had another’s teeth so close to his spine.
‘Snap out of it, Leo,’ Dominic yelled in his mind, ‘or we’re going to die. And Roar again damn you!’
The admonishment from his brother was enough to jerk him out of the moment of primal panic. He Roared to ward off the two encroaching albuhas for a moment. The sound cut through the howl which, thin and weak as it was, still had managed to send dread twining through his thoughts. When the subordinate albuhas backed off, he twisted to snap at the leader perched on his back.
Unlike the herbivores he’d attacked in the same way as the albuha was attempting to do to him, his flexibility was enough to allow him to snatch at the back leg of the creature on his back. It tried to pull away, but Leo was too fast to evade.
Sinking his teeth into the leg, he bit firmly, then shook both his head and himself. The albuha leader flapped his wings to try to stay stable, and his other paws grabbed at Leo’s back frantically. It wasn’t enough.
The canine lost his grip and slipped. Leo took immediate advantage, rolling himself into something like a somersault and landing heavily on his back – right on top of the canine.
Twisting to get himself off the creature, he turned to attack his foe again. The albuha wasn’t looking so healthy now: although his health bar was still pretty full, one of his hind legs was rather mangled and his wings were clearly ruffled, perhaps even slightly damaged from the impact.
Unfortunately, the subordinate albuhas were rather frantic to stop Leo from pressing his advantage. They interspersed themselves between him and the briefly downed leader. They didn’t even try to attack him; just stopped him from getting through and danced away from any attacks on them. Leo snarled in frustration. Then he had an idea.