The water was getting warmer; that was certain by now. Already like warm bathwater, Dominic was starting to wonder if he’d find out first-hand what it felt like to be the frog who didn’t hop out of his pot fast enough.
Despite the two crocodiles almost killing his amesheks, neither of the levers appeared to be the ones they needed – the images above them didn’t even look similar. Irritating, but inevitable given eight chambers and three levers to find.
‘Right everyone,’ he said in the Pride chat. ‘Let’s move on quickly. We’ve identified the dangerous enemy that the poem was warning about, but it’s possible that there are other dangers below the water too. Splitting up is clearly a bad idea so we’ll only do one chamber at a time. But we can’t take too long either.’ Dominic hesitated before continuing. ‘I’d like you both to go in first, as I’m more able to quickly descend to help than either of you. But it’s probably going to be dangerous. Maybe even more dangerous than before if there are more or different enemies to face.’
‘I am willing,’ answered Procyon seriously.
‘As am I,’ added Sirius in the same vein. They were both clearly ready to put their lives on the line for him and jump into what they were almost certain would be crocodile-infested waters with only a lion as backup.
‘Take these,’ Dominic said next, pulling out the two two water-breathing potions. It almost hurt to give them up – a part of him screamed that they might need them later. But the fact was that the faster they could deal with this room, the better, and the water-breathing potions would help keep two of his fighters alive. And no, that part wasn’t Leo, though his growl of discontent certainly expressed how he felt.
‘Why are you giving the potions to them, brother?’ Leo demanded. ‘We should take them instead!’
Dominic growled back at him mentally. ‘They’re taking the initial risks; they need the potions.’
‘But-’
‘No. We’ve got the best regenerative capacity of the party. We’ll be fine. They might not be. Now, the longer we argue about this, the more time we’re wasting; the more likely we are to become boiled lion and ameshek stew. Let’s discuss it later unless you have a really good reason for why they shouldn’t get the potions?’
The lion growled angrily in the back of Dominic’s mind, but he didn’t reply immediately. Dominic took it as a begrudging agreement and waded through the water to give the amesheks their potions. As he was passing the first bottle to Procyon, Leo piped up. Fortunately for the mental health of both of them, it was a suggestion rather than a criticism.
‘Wait. Don’t give them the potions yet. We should bait them.’
‘Bait them? The amesheks?’ Dominic repeated, confused.
‘No, the crocodiles. Drop something in to encourage them to show themselves. Then we will have a better idea of how many there are in each chamber.’
‘That’s…actually a pretty good idea,’ Dominic answered slowly. ‘But with what?’ Leo sent across annoyance at what he saw as Dominic’s slowness.
‘We have a number of carcasses still in our storage space. Use a few of those.’
Dominic considered the idea, then decided that he liked it. While they didn’t have a lot of time, this could end up saving them some since they'd know how many enemies they had to deal with before plunging in. They’d probably have to use either the warthog or sloan carcasses since the bodies would need to be large enough to attract the crocodile’s attention. But that was fine – there had been enough enemies so far that even after healing their wounds, he still had plenty left over in his storage space.
‘It’s a good idea. Maybe I could make it better,’ he thought to his companion. ‘I don’t know whether my venom would have the same effects if it’s ingested rather than injected, but I bet my acid would give the crocodile that eats it a nasty stomach ache.’
‘Do it,’ ordered Leo gleefully. If Dominic could see him now, he would probably be looking like a lion playing with a helpless mouse for fun.
He quickly told the amesheks what they were doing. Sirius just seemed relieved that he wasn’t the bait anymore. To speed things up, Dominic decided to test all of the chambers at once.
Pulling a carcass out of his storage space, Dominic sank his teeth into its belly again and again. Each time he pumped in either venom or acid, making a stomach-aching ‘treat’ for the crocodiles to enjoy.
When the first bait was ready, he deputised Sirius to toss it into the first chamber and keep a sharp eye out for crocodiles which might come to snap at it. He repeated the process with three more carcasses, at the end feeling rather wrung out. He wondered whether snakes milked of their venom felt the same way.
Tossing the last one into the back right water chamber himself, he watched as four crocodiles arrowed towards it to fight over the choice flesh which had just dropped in. He was grimly satisfied, and Leo even gleeful, when he saw the fastest gulp the carcass straight down. With any luck, that would help with taking down one of them.
Four crocodiles, Dominic moaned unhappily to himself. They needed to even the odds a little.
Four killing machines in their natural habitat when there were only three of them to fight. The other chamber closest to the staircase was the same with four crocodiles as well; the two areas between those chambers and the ones they’d already explored only held two crocodiles each.
Though ‘only’ didn’t seem the right description when talking about creatures which had barely changed since the dinosaur era simply because they were so well-adapted. This was when he wished Lightning Discharge wasn’t so nerfed – if he could just electrify the whole area, that would be the job well done. Still, there were other options too.
‘Alright everyone, here’s the plan,’ Dominic said to the two amesheks after he’d had a moment to think about it. He explained what he thought would be the best approach to the two-crocodile chambers, Leo listening in and commenting when he felt it appropriate. Once they were all clear on the plan. Dominic took the potions out again and helped the two amesheks to take them.
He’d decided to use a riff on what they’d already tried to get a count of how many enemies were in each chamber. Pulling out a warthog’s body, Dominic did his best to fill it with acid. He kept his venom for later – it had started replenishing itself but, like his acid stocks, was still pretty low.
Dropping it in the water, he watched as two long, dark shapes arrowed towards it. The crocodiles had probably learned from last time: that movement meant tasty prey dropping towards them. However, Dominic was pleased to see that one of the crocodiles was a little slower and was missing a chunk of its health bar. His attempt to boobytrap the carcasses seemed to have been a success.
‘Now!’ he cried, taking a deep breath and diving into the water. He used both Airborne and his wings to travel through the water as fast as he could. Unfortunately, while he might have got faster with the practice he’d had, he was still no match for a master of the water like a crocodile.
The crocodile he was heading towards easily saw him coming and immediately twisted around to face him. With its jaws gaping, it arrowed his way, closing the gap far quicker than the lion could even hope to achieve. With the element of surprise decidedly lost, Dominic immediately decided to use a promising new Ability: Hypnotise.
Mentally activating it, he realised he knew what to do even though he’d never used it before. Slowing himself by extending his wings, he met the crocodile’s cold predatory eyes and started making small movements one way then the other.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
It actually built faster than he thought it would. Perhaps the reptilian brain of the crocodile left it particularly susceptible or the small movements caused by the water were helping him to enrapture it.
Regardless of the reason, the result was that the crocodile had stopped its forward motion only a short distance away from Dominic. Its mouth was gaping open, but the muscles seemed slack and its eyes were glazed. The lights were on but nobody was home. Perfect.
Gently pushing himself forward with his wings, Dominic used his paws to keep up the hypnotising movements as he approached the crocodile.
Then, only a very short distance away from it, he abruptly clapped his wings together behind his back, shooting himself forwards. Digging his teeth and front claws into the crocodile’s belly, he started pedalling with his back feet, doing his best to disembowel the creature.
The crocodile took a moment to react, perhaps suffering from disorientation from the hypnosis suddenly breaking, but then it jerked and started writhing in the water.
It couldn’t reach him with its jaws so it tried to whip its body around fast enough to throw him off instead. Dominic just held on doggedly, eventually shifting to clinging on with both back and front paws, his wings tucked in as close to his body as possible. His teeth continued pumping as much venom and acid into the crocodile as he could.
‘I think it is this lever,’ Procyon told them, his mental voice tense. ‘It looks like the second shape on the exit.’
‘Excellent,’ Dominic mentally grinned. ‘Pull it and then get to the surface.’
The ameshek acknowledged his instruction. Dominic vaguely registered a muffled rumbling sound – the rocks falling again, he guessed.
‘Health is getting low,’ Sirius got out shortly after, his communication pained.
‘Get out of there too,’ Dominic ordered him. ‘We can more easily attack it from the surface.’
[You have killed Nile Crocodile (Evolved Beast level 11)]
[You have earned 16 PP]
Dominic registered the notification with relief – he was feeling a little sick by this point and his head was spinning. Dominic pulled the crocodile carcass into his storage space, clearing the area near himself. Paws freed, he flicked his wings to propel himself clumsily through the water, doing his best to swim in a straight line despite his dizziness.
He chased the other crocodile who was in turn chasing Sirius to the surface. As soon as the ameshek managed to climb onto the ford to improve his manoeuvrability, he turned around and stuck his head back in the water, letting out a Sonic Attack.
Dominic immediately saw the impact on the crocodile’s health bar, already almost empty from the laced bait and Sirius’ own attacks.
Near the surface himself, Dominic opened his mouth to join in the attack. Water rushed in and bubbles soon trickled out as he began roaring. The red trickled even more quickly out of the crocodile’s bar and Sirius had to dodge as it snapped at him. When Procyon also joined in the attack, however, the crocodile was done for.
[A member of your Pride has killed Nile Crocodile (Evolved Beast level 11)]
[You have earned 16 PP]
Dominic cared little, though, only in that it allowed him to push towards the surface. Breaking the barrier, he sucked in a desperate gasp of his own. His health had taken an impact from the oxygen deprivation – the crocodiles, however, hadn’t managed to leave even a scratch on him.
Quickly pulling out carcasses for Sirius to heal up, the sound of pouring water made him realise that there was a new feature in the room – one that made his stomach sink.
‘Damn it. As if the slowly increasing temperature wasn’t enough of a time pressure.’
Not only had there been another rockfall near the door, but two waterfalls had opened up on either side of the staircase coming down. While in some way they were pleasant water features, Dominic highly doubted that that was what they were there for. Just like the increasing water temperature was probably not there to make them feel more comfortable.
Dominic sighed. Well, in the end, it meant little difference – they needed to get out of here as soon as possible. Hopefully it wouldn’t cause more difficulties in their fights, though. Perhaps they should have waited until they’d identified all three levers first.
‘To be fair,’ Leo said off-handedly, ‘We didn’t know what effects the levers would cause.’
‘No, though the chances of them causing some problems was pretty likely,’ Dominic argued. ‘And it wouldn’t have harmed us at all to wait until we’d checked all eight underwater chambers.’
‘Unless there are traps we avoided because we did trigger the effects,’ Leo argued.
Dominic sent a surprised feeling towards him.
‘Leo, are you…trying to make me feel better?’
‘No!’ the lion answered immediately, his tone defensive. ‘I would just rather you don’t waste time on marinating yourself in self-pity and guilt. Get going!’
‘Marinating, huh,’ Dominic couldn’t resist teasing him. ‘Been paying attention to my memories of BBQs, have you?’ his leonine companion didn’t respond, but just sent a feeling of impatience at Dominic. Still, he had a point.
Focussing on the next chamber, they did much the same strategy as before, first dropping in a prepared bit of bait. This time, though, when the crocodiles shot for it, they didn’t jump straight in, sacrificing an attempt at surprise for actual effectiveness. Instead, all three of them took deep breaths. Sticking their heads into the water, the two amesheks gave as much to Sonic Attack as they could, and Dominic joined them with his version of the same Ability, part of Majestic Sonic Roar.
Immediately, he saw the crocodiles’ health bars starting to trickle down. They both already had a small chunk taken out from each of his boobytraps – again, it was the healthy crocodile which had grabbed the bait the second time – and the Sonic Attacks were reducing the crocodiles’ health further.
It wasn’t enough to kill them, of course, but that was only the start.
When Dominic felt fatigue starting to creep up on him, he released the roar and pulled his head out of the water – he didn’t want to be as exhausted as he was the first time he properly used Sonic Attack. Still under the influence of the potion, the amesheks could breathe even with their heads under water, but they alternated filling their lungs again to make sure at least one of them was keeping the attack going at all times.
Though slowed, the crocodiles were annoyingly able to resist the bulk of the paralysing effect of the amesheks’ attack. Fortunately, the health impact seemed to be the same.
Dominic prepared to attack but was momentarily distracted as a message appeared in front of his eyes.
[A member of your Pride has died]
Sekhmet!
Dominic’s thoughts immediately flew to the Pride member he was most concerned about as ice flashed through him. But this was no time to be distracted – the crocodiles were upon them and he had to dodge a strike from one of them; the other was heading towards Procyon.
With fiery anger burning away the iciness of fear, Dominic propelled himself towards the crocodile which was re-orientating itself for a second snap at him. As soon as its head broke through the surface of the water, its jaws wide, Dominic struck.
The Tail Strike practically exploded the crocodile’s head into a mess of blood and bone chips, the metal ball on the end of Dominic’s tail armour ploughing right through a good portion of it.
The crocodile’s health dropped significantly but, to Dominic’s disbelief and horror, it wasn’t quite dead. One eye obliterated and half of the top of its skull gone, its brain showing through the mutilated gore of its skull and skin, it proved its tenacity as one of nature’s tanks because it just kept going. The mace had even been deflected upwards.
Procyon, Sirius, swap! Dominic ordered the amesheks, deciding to leave the final blow to them. Instead, he ran towards the one they were fighting. Dominic’s paws were slowed by the water on the ford, but he was actually able to charge so he wasn’t going to complain. Much.
In the couple of seconds before he hit, Dominic activated Momentous Charge. It wouldn’t be as impactful as usual – he was down to a quarter speed with the water brushing his belly and still clogging his fur and wings – but every little helped.
Bulling straight into the crocodile, he managed to hit it on its shoulder, avoiding its open jaws. The crocodile unknowingly helped him: while he was charging, the crocodile prepared to lunge. Its own muscular momentum increased the impact of the collision. Dominic wasn’t sure who was more stunned – the crocodile or himself.
The crocodile seemed to recover more quickly, but it had landed with half of its large body on the ford and was struggling to pull its weight backwards. Dominic took full advantage of its vulnerable sides and put his teeth and claws to work. With all four paws on land, Powerful Strike actually managed to live up to its name. One of the strikes even laid on the bleeding effect, the damage over time making the crocodile’s health drop even faster.
Not fast enough. Dominic roared in pain as teeth ripped through his side, the crocodile’s twisting movement fast enough that even he had been unable to dodge. He ripped himself free from its jaws, then snarled at it and lunged forwards to bite at the wounds he’d been making with his claws. He also pumped in as much venom and acid as he could. Just die already! Dominic growled mentally at the creature – he needed to check his Pride status.
Even as he thought that, another message flashed before his eyes.
[A member of your Pride has died]
Worry added even more strength to his jaws and the crocodile was unable to get in another hit before it expired.
Dominic quickly glanced over at the amesheks, relieved to see their own opponent going limp. Though pain was still zinging through his nerves, Dominic didn’t even pause to absorb a carcass, instead immediately pulling up his Pride status to check on Sekhmet and her party.
Please don’t be dead!