‘Procyon?’ he asked urgently, using his wings to make him surge forwards to the ford. He dropped the crocodile carcass without a thought in his fear that something might have happened to the other ameshek while he was involved in saving Sirius.
Pushing himself mostly out of the water, he gained enough of a view on the situation to see what was going on. And as soon as he saw it, he again surged forwards, using Quick Strike to hasten his movement.
Back in the water on the other side of the ford, he took a hurried yet deep breath and then dived down, repeating what he’d found worked best to propel him through the liquid surrounding him.
As soon as he drew abreast of the entangled pair, he materialised another warthog carcass, sending it towards Procyon.
‘Absorb the carcass!’ he urged the ameshek. That was easier said than done: the assailant was another crocodile and had instigated the same death roll that the previous one they’d fought had.
Procyon had obviously been more aware than Sirius, though – perhaps Dominic’s warning had alerted him. Instead of having been grabbed by his hindquarter, the crocodile had got him by his right foreleg – which had enabled the ameshek to bite back.
It was a battle between who could wreak the most damage in the shortest space of time – the crocodile with its crushing bite pressure and the torque of its roll, or the vibrating ameshek with his teeth almost penetrating the crocodile’s skull.
The problem was that, like with Sirius, Procyon had obviously run out of breath. The asphyxiation sign was clear above his health bar which was rapidly emptying. Getting him to absorb some carcasses was absolutely essential.
Fortunately, even if his teeth and foreleg were otherwise occupied, Procyon’s other limbs were available, and his hind paws were able to knock into the floating carcass. It disappeared quickly into golden dust, so Dominic sent out two more, ready for the ameshek to absorb them too. One of them missed and drifted past him to the bottom, but the other was quickly absorbed.
Satisfied that Procyon wasn’t about to die within the next few seconds, Dominic darted forwards with another use of Quick Strike, and set his teeth and claws into the crocodile’s flesh. This time, he’d been able to angle himself better and he managed to go straight for the massive reptile’s underside, digging into its less-armoured belly. The currents of the water had made him drift a little so he was facing the crocodile’s tail rather than its head.
Pouring in venom and acid as quickly as he could, he also worked with his hind claws to cause as much damage as possible to the crocodile’s softer areas. His hind legs weren’t powered as much by Powerful Strike as his front legs, but they still seemed to gain some benefit from the Ability.
Even better, he was able to gamble for the chance of gaining the bleed effect – and on his fourth gamble, he saw it take effect. A red droplet faded into view next to the green droplet which had appeared when he had started pumping in his venom.
Emboldened, he kept going, committing as much stamina as he dared to his hind legs. In between flurries of attacks, he released carcasses into the water, Consuming a few himself, but sending most to Procyon.
It felt like it took a long time, but it was probably quicker than with Sirius. Nevertheless, when the notification flashed up in front of his eyes, Dominic was thoroughly relieved and spent.
[You have killed Nile Crocodile (Evolved Beast level 11)]
[You have earned 16 PP]
Using his wings to propel himself and the carcass to breach the surface, Dominic was concerned when Procyon just lay limply in the crocodile’s jaws, the ameshek’s head finally above water.
‘Procyon?’ he asked in the Pride chat, fearing the worst.
‘I am tired,’ the ameshek replied sounding weak, but alive. Dominic felt his heart return to its proper place. He really didn’t want to return to Nyx without one of her pack. With that thought he immediately looked for Sirius, who pounced on his friend, dragging him out of the water and onto the ford. The rough treatment made some of Procyon’s wounds worse as his foreleg was forcibly dragged out of the crocodile’s mouth and the wounds renewed their bleeding.
Procyon coughed, some water emerging from his mouth. The lion looked him over with increasing alarm at his condition, especially the increased bleeding.
‘Do you need a healing potion?’ Dominic asked him in concern.
‘Why do you want to give him a healing potion?’ Leo demanded privately. ‘We only have one! See – he looks fine.’
‘He doesn’t!’ Dominic argued back. ‘Look at his health bar – it’s practically down to the barest sliver.’
‘It’s no lower than ten percent,’ scoffed Leo. ‘We’ve been lower than that many times.’
‘We have Second Wind! And Enhanced Regeneration!’ Dominic sent back hotly. ‘Procyon has none of those.’
Leo’s reply was lost as Procyon responded – probably for the best. ‘I shall be fine if I can Consume a bit more golden dust,’ he said in the Pride chat, still obviously weak. ‘I am not heavily injured, just almost out of both health and stamina.’
‘Alright, good,’ Dominic replied, somewhat relieved that the ameshek hadn’t accepted the offer. Leo was right – they did only have one healing potion, so they should really try to keep it for a particularly bad situation. Dominic had probably had a bit of a knee-jerk reaction because of just how bad Procyon looked – half-drowned, blood soaking his fur, his foreleg more than a little mangled….
Pulling out some more carcasses, Dominic laid them where the amesheks could access them and then retreated a little to pull the carcass of the second crocodile fully onto the raised ford.
The body of the first crocodile also being on the ford was a bit of a surprise. He distinctly remembered dropping it. He went to ask Sirius whether he’d been the one to pull it up, but stopped himself when he saw the telltale blurring around the canine’s figure. Sirius had been able to level up? Good.
Curious, Dominic went to check his own progress.
Progress to Evolution: 460/901 PP
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
As expected, he hadn’t earned enough to level up, but he was more than halfway there. It was more than he’d anticipated – the two crocodiles had given him 16 Prey Points each, but he’d earned more than 32 Prey Points since he’d last checked his progress after the warthogs. Even as he looked at it, he saw the Points tick up to 467 Prey Points.
‘It seems like Sekhmet and the others are doing their own killing,’ he remarked to Leo.
‘Are you sure they’re still alive?’ Leo asked, sounding like he was trying not to appear worried, but not succeeding at it. Dominic pulled up the Pride status – it was probably a good idea to wait for Procyon to be in better health before they did any more exploration anyway. They had time to spend checking on the others.
‘Yes, they’re fine,’ he reassured the lion, spotting Sekhmet’s, Fang’s, and Lionel’s names in the list. ‘In fact, as you can see, they’re doing pretty well.’
‘They even seem to have each earned another level,’ commented Leo, relief clear in his voice. If Dominic was honest, he was also relieved to have the clear evidence that the rest of his current pride group was doing fine, especially as they were separated in a dangerous dungeon.
‘Yes,’ he answered Leo, looking at the numbers more clearly. ‘If I remember correctly what they were when we got separated, anyway. Sekhmet has gone up to level twenty, Fang is now level eighteen, and Lionel is close behind him at level seventeen. Sirius and Procyon are now neck and neck at level twenty-two.’ Which, thinking about it, was the same level Dominic and Leo had been when they entered the dungeon. It just proved the efficacy of dungeon grinding.
Looking briefly through the rest of the Pride information, he didn’t notice a huge amount of difference. All of the leonine Pride members who had stayed behind in the Place of Power had gone up at least one level; some had gone up by more. The influence of the Place of Power Prey Points? Or had they been hunting? Probably both. Jenkins and the albuhas had gained a level or two each too.
Dominic closed the screen and looked at Procyon. The ameshek appeared a lot better – his health bar was up to three quarters, and he had pushed himself to his feet. Dominic pulled out a few more carcasses for him – he was almost out. When he went down to check out the levers, he should try to find the ones that missed Procyon in the fight and sank to the bottom of the chamber.
Walking over to the crocodile carcass, Dominic Consumed it. His own health was almost full, but his stamina was still pretty low. Jumping from one difficult fight to the next had seen it almost bottom out and, though Enhanced Stamina was good, it wasn’t as good as Enhanced Regeneration. The crocodile fully replenished his health and gave him more than half his stamina back. It also left a glinting Core.
[You have obtained a Beast Core: Nile Crocodile level 11
Ability option 1: Crushing Bite (50% chance))
Ability option 2: Quick Snap (30% chance)
Ability option 3: Extended Breath (20% chance)]
‘That’s much as I would have guessed from a crocodile,’ Dominic remarked to his leonine companion. ‘Though I’m a little surprised there’s nothing linked to that death roll move they both used.’
‘Maybe it wasn’t an Ability,’ suggested Leo. ‘It’s not like we needed Powerful Swipe before we could attack with our front paws.’
‘True,’ Dominic agreed. Abilities could give access to new actions – their acid and venom examples of that, as was Lionel’s Healing Cloud – but most of the time it seemed to be more enhancements of existing ones. Perhaps Death Roll was something given to crocodiles later, or perhaps only some crocodiles had it. Certainly having Crushing Bite being their primary Ability made sense too.
Out of the three of them, they would all be good but none of them jumped out at him as a must-have. Crushing Bite would give him more progress towards his own existing Ability, which was useful. Quick Snap he guessed would have some synergy with Quick Strike, perhaps enhancing that once he gained enough progress to acquire it. Extended Breath was probably the most immediately useful, but with a level 11 crocodile, he’d probably need several Cores to get it, by which point they might already be done with this room. How many underwater rooms was he likely to come across anyway?
‘I’d get Crushing Bite – it’s the most immediately useful,’ Leo opined. ‘The better our bite can get, the quicker we can kill our enemies and the less likely we or our allies are to die.’
‘It’s a good point,’ Dominic allowed. ‘But we can progress in that one just by using it. I’m reluctant to throw away the chance to get a new Ability here. Let’s look at the second Core before we decide, shall we?’ Moving before Leo could argue – not that he appeared likely to do so – Dominic Consumed the other crocodile, topping up his stamina. He then checked the Abilities in the other crocodile’s Core.
[You have obtained a Beast Core: Nile Crocodile level 11
Ability option 1: Crushing Bite (50% chance))
Ability option 2: Extended Breath (30% chance)
Ability option 3: Death Roll (20% chance)]
‘So here we have Extended Breath again, though with a higher chance, and the expected Ability for the Death Roll. I’d say that we don’t want the latter – I don’t see it being of much use in our normal fights,’ suggested Dominic.
‘I agree. But I still think that Crushing Bite is the best option. If you wish to gain another Ability, Quick Snap is probably a good one to aim for – the bleed enhancement we gained to Powerful Swipe by acquiring a complementary Ability certainly helped us in that last fight,’ pointed out Leo.
‘That’s true, but I’ve been thinking about Extended Breath. Even if we don’t gain it soon enough for it to make a difference here, what’s the chances that we’ll come across a different situation where breath control is important?’
‘I hope you’re not planning on taking up swimming,’ warned Leo. ‘I still don’t like the sensation in my fur.’
‘Not swimming, but what about that poison cloud around the monitor lizard upstairs? What about if we face enemies who can make the air around us dangerous? Being able to hold our breath for an extended amount of time – as this Ability seems to be about – would be useful.’
The lion was silent for a moment
‘Perhaps,’ was all he would say afterwards. Dominic interrupted the ensuing silence.
‘Anyway, we don’t have enough Cores to get either of the Abilities, so why don’t we wait until we have more? It seems likely that we won’t gain either Ability soon enough to make a difference, so making the decision later isn’t a big deal. And it looks like both Procyon and Sirius are ready to continue.’
‘Yes. Let us finish this wretched dungeon room and get properly dry and warm again,’ Leo agreed, this time with all his heart. ‘Nasty, cold, wet stuff.’
Dominic checked that the two amesheks were ready, then collected the Cores and the unConsumed carcasses.
‘Alright, this time I’ll go in by myself,’ he said to them. ‘Both of you keep watch, and if you see anything, warn me and come in to help.’ He figured it was better for him to go in – he had Enhanced Regeneration and would be able to last longer when attacked than either of them. Plus, he had Spatial Awareness which helped him know what was going on all around him, even if only things that happened extremely close by.
‘I don’t know what you’re complaining about, Leo,’ he said to his companion when he jumped back into the water. ‘It feels warmer to me now than the first time – I think it just takes a bit of getting used to.’
‘I don’t want to get used to it – I just want to get out of here!’ replied the lion grumpily.
‘Well, let’s find out if this lever is one of the ones to help us with that,’ replied Dominic, already starting to swim down to investigate it. ‘Keep an eye out for more crocodiles, would you?’