Dominic skimmed through his Pride status. When his eyes alighted upon the entry of ‘Sekhmet’, his heart finally slowed from its frantic pace.
She’s alive, he said to himself in huge relief.
‘Then who has died?’ Leo asked anxiously. ‘She is not our only female.’
That was a good point. Dominic searched through the list in a rather haphazard way, focussed on who he knew was in danger. Fang and Lionel were both there, and it just showed how relieved Leo was that Sekhmet was alive that he didn’t even comment on that. Jenkins was the next he checked – there was always the risk that the albuhas would turn on her. She was also fine.
After that, he looked through the lionesses he’d left back in the forest and Menhit being away having her cubs. They appeared to all be there. So were Nyx and the amesheks, obviously including Sirius and Procyon.
Then, before his very eyes, an entry vanished even as another notification about a Pride death flashed up.
‘It’s the albuhas,’ Dominic realised. He counted the number of unnamed albuhas present. ‘There were eleven of them when we brought them into the Pride, and now there are only eight.’ Despite himself, he felt slightly relieved at the realisation – none of those he’d got to know and like had died. Then another thought came that brought a chill back to his heart – if the albuhas were dying, that meant Jenkins was in danger!
‘Or the canines have turned on her,’ Leo suggested grimly. Dominic didn’t like to admit that he might be right, but it was true that it was a possibility. And he hated the fact that Jenkins might be fighting for her life while he was stuck in here.
Gritting his teeth, he closed the screen.
‘Then we need to get out of here as quickly as possible so we can find out exactly what’s gone on,’ Dominic replied to his companion. Then, as quietly as he could in his own mind, shielding his thoughts even from Leo, he reached out to the only one who might possibly be able to help. Selessa, he started. If you are able to help Jenkins survive whatever trouble she’s got herself into, I’ll…I’ll dedicate some kills to you or increase the tithe of the Place of Power or something else to make it up to you.
Then, taking a deep breath, Dominic turned to the task at hand. They still had a lot to do and even more reason to get it done quickly.
*****
The next underwater chamber went surprisingly smoothly. They repeated the same general tactic of the last one with them luring out the crocodiles and then hitting the reptiles with Sonic Attack. With four of the large creatures it was a bit chancy at times, but they used the ford to dance back and forth, reducing the advantage that the crocodiles had in open water.
As it turned out, the crocodiles stayed in the underwater chambers unless they were chasing prey, meaning that even though the water level was steadily rising up towards Dominic’s shoulders, the crocodiles from the last chamber hadn’t emerged. Though he wasn’t sure how long that would last – the heat was coming from below and the crocodiles seemed just as uncomfortable with it as the pride members were. In the second from last room they had already been out of their side alcoves by the time Dominic dropped the bait, and now they were almost reaching the top of the chamber’s walls.
Fortunately, Dominic was at the bottom of the second-from-last chamber, staring at the last symbol they needed to find. He quickly triggered it then gratefully pushed himself upwards – down here, the heat was like a hot bath that would have turned his skin lobster-red as a human. As a lion, it was even more unbearable.
‘Finally,’ he exulted to his companion as he swam.
Breaking the surface was a little more difficult than it should have been – one paw broke through and then abruptly was submerged again. When he managed to get his head above water, greedily taking in a breath, he got an answer for why swimming had felt stranger this time and for why the surface had looked different as he swam towards it.
‘I suppose it’s logical,’ he said to Leo in dismay as he pulled himself onto the ford. ‘The fire symbol made it get warmer, the drop icon added water, and the wave icon has created, well, waves.’
‘Flea-bitten dungeon,’ agreed Leo. ‘Just as well we didn’t activate any other levers. That one with the lightning bolt would have probably been a bad idea.’
‘Agreed,’ seconded Dominic fervently, doing his best to keep his head above water. Were the waves getting stronger?
The sound of grinding stone caught his attention and he looked over to see that, with all three symbols now lit up, the door was starting to open slowly. Instead of opening inwards or outwards, it was lowering into the floor. The increased water level had covered most of the land which used to be dry, and was almost at the foot of the door itself.
‘Come on everyone,’ Dominic said in the Pride chat as he pulled himself back onto the underwater ford. ‘Let’s get out of here.’
The amesheks didn’t need telling twice. They started wading as quickly as they could along the length of the ford. By this point, the amesheks had been struggling to keep their heads above water without swimming even before the waves – now they had to swim all the time. Unfortunately, their potions had worn off so they couldn’t breathe water any more.
Dominic was better off – the water had been at his shoulder before, but he was big enough that by lifting his head high into the air, he could keep it above water even with the waves. It was slow-going but having some ground under their feet still made it faster than swimming. They let the waves carry them forwards a little bit and then did their best to brace against the stone beneath their paws when the water dipped again.
The heat at the surface quickly reached the same temperatures as those deep below. Dominic was starting to feel a bit like a boiled lobster by this point – he’d even earned a new symbol on his health bar – a stereotypical red thermometer.
The impact on his health wasn’t enough to overcome his Enhanced Regeneration rate by itself, but he did have to choose between keeping his health full or keeping Enhanced Stamina in its permanently active state. Considering how much effort he had to put into moving through the water, he chose the latter. The amesheks were even worse off than he was, but apart from sending them a couple of carcasses every so often, there wasn’t much he could do to help.
Then it got worse.
The first Dominic knew of it was when one of the amesheks let out a painful howl that echoed oddly in Dominic’s ears. Whipping around – at a fraction of his normal speed given all the water in the way and the wave which washed into him – Dominic saw the flash of a crocodile’s mouth where Sirius had been a moment ago.
His heart rising into his mouth, he took a deep breath and ducked his head under the water. Sirius had indeed been grabbed by a crocodile and was a moment away from being pulled off the platform and into deep water.
‘Grab Sirius!’ Dominic yelled at Procyon. Without waiting for the ameshek to act, Dominic immediately Roared under the water, focussing on attracting the attention of the crocodiles around and stunning the one holding Sirius.
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All the crocodiles paused for a moment, and then they started powering towards Dominic. All of them, including the one which had been holding onto Sirius. Seeing the crocodile spitting out the ameshek like he tasted bad was the only good thing about the situation as Dominic now realised he had four killing machines gunning for his flesh in an environment which significantly favoured them.
‘And now, genius?’ growled Leo frantically. ‘What’s your plan?’
There was only one answer when he was so heavily hampered by the water.
‘Run!’ Dominic shouted in the Pride chat.
He surged forwards towards the door using a stamina-hungry combination of Abilities to increase his speed as much as possible. As his wings pushed the water backwards, he used Quick Strike and Sharp Nip to add a percentage increase to his raw speed – additive, unfortunately. Normally Sharp Nip should only work when he was actually trying to bite an opponent, but it turned out that trying to bite the door worked well enough to allow the Ability to activate even if the door wasn’t anywhere near within range to succeed.
Rapid Attack refreshed his movement speed and allowed him to make two movements in quick succession – he didn’t push it any further than that because he needed the stamina for the other Abilities.
Rapidly flicking Airborne between a weight reduction and a weight increase helped a little too: he reduced his weight and thereby the amount of force required to get him moving, and then he increased it to give him the momentum to keep going longer. It was too much for him to handle with needing to control the other Abilities as well – he handed that over to Leo. The lion did so without a single complaint, aware that their life was on the line here – the crocodiles might be less than half his level, but he was in their territory.
With the help of all these Abilities, he was moving faster through the water than he’d ever achieved before.
It wasn’t enough.
He was halfway through the room when he felt prickles of pain as feathers were torn out of his wing. He was only a little further when he felt teeth bite at his heels as he leaped forwards in the water.
Stopping abruptly, Dominic used Tail Strike to quickly twist himself around then sucked in a deep breath and put his head into the uncomfortably hot water. Letting all the air out in a single Roar, he focussed this time on creating fear. As much fear as he could.
The crocodiles responded exactly as he was hoping, scattering to the four winds. Even one which had been about to snap froze mid-attack and then twisted to swim away. As he pulled his head out of the water, he saw Sirius and Procyon, doggedly following him. They hadn’t made nearly as much progress and both of their health bars showed evidence of attack, Sirius’ more than Procyon’s.
‘If you see crocodiles trying to attack you,’ Dominic said in the Pride chat while resuming his frantic pace forwards, ‘tell me immediately.’
The amesheks didn’t respond verbally, a sense of tiredness coming from them. Dominic understood it: he was tired too. Each time he pushed himself through the water, it was just slightly slower. His stamina bar was one thing, but it didn’t reflect the bone-deep exhaustion that happened after battling for his life in fight after fight.
But if they gave up now, it would all go to waste so he sent them a wordless sense of encouragement, making his own way forwards.
‘They’re coming! Two of them,’ Procyon told Dominic grimly as he had made it almost three quarters of the way through the room. ‘How are you going to help us – you’re too far ahead!’ The waves which had been flowing against them had suddenly changed direction, now moving in the direction they wanted to go in. It was fortunately more helpful than unhelpful and Dominic was almost onto the area which used to be dry. The door was halfway open and he could already taste safety. But of course the crocodiles needed to interfere.
‘It’s OK,’ he quickly reassured Procyon. ‘I have a plan.’
Once again, Dominic twisted around and Roared underwater, focussing on attracting the crocodiles’ attention to him. Once they got too close for comfort, he again had to Roar to chase them off. Perhaps whatever made crocodiles more susceptible to Hypnosis also made them more easily influenced by his Roar.
He had to use the strategy another time and then Dominic managed to reach the slightly higher ground and each step became easier, even when the wave direction once more reversed. Procyon and Sirius were not so lucky, though – their smaller size and lack of Abilities to enhance their speed had them trailing far behind the lion and when the waves changed direction, they were pushed back more than a bit.
In fact, they were lucky to stay on the ford at all given that they could now only touch it when the water was at its lowest point of the wave sequence. It was only the fear that a crocodile could come from below and grab them that made them continue to try to stay on the ford.
‘Leave them!’ Leo growled at Dominic. ‘They are too weak. They’ll be our deaths if we wait for them. Look – the door is almost open enough for us to get over it. By the time we’re there, we’ll be able to leap through.’
‘No!’ Dominic snarled back at him. ‘They’ve put their lives on the line for our party. I’m not leaving them! And you should be ashamed of yourself for suggesting it!’
Instead, he once more put his head under the water and focussed on summoning the crocodiles to him. That they did and with a vengeance – Dominic wondered whether they were capable of feeling annoyance for being treated like yoyos as he frantically pushed himself to gain as much ground on them as possible, shaking the water off his fur and feathers as he slowly emerged from it.
He almost made it to the small patch of dry land which lay at the base of the door before the first crocodile arrived.
‘Watch out!’ Leo exclaimed, though the warning was unnecessary – Dominic had already detected the crocodile’s arrival through Spatial Awareness and leaped straight up to avoid its snap. Landing on its back, he bit down hard, his Crushing Bite allowing him to get through its skin and deeply into its flesh. Pumping in venom and acid, his forepaws ripped and tore at the crocodile’s sides, moving fast enough to blur.
The crocodile’s health bar plummeted, as did Dominic’s already-depleted stamina bar.
The next crocodile arrived and lunged at him, its jaws gaping open. Dominic twisted out of the way and then turned the tables on the reptile, slamming into it with Quick Strike before it had fully landed and flipping it over. Ripping at its belly with claws and venom-laced teeth, he savaged it. Its health bar told the story of his strikes.
The third and fourth crocodiles arrived together, one managing to get its jaws around one of his wings as he avoided the lunge of the other. Turning, he spat acid at the eyes of the crocodile biting his wing and sending pain splintering into him. The reptile closed its eyes and held on with an even stronger bite from the pain, starting to twist.
Dominic roared in pain as the tip of his wing was torn off, the crocodile falling into the deeper water with a mouthful of bloody feathers.
Fury making his vision go red, Dominic Charged at the other crocodile, slamming into it with all the force he could, then whipping around and digging deeply into its side with his metallic mace.
His stamina was almost out. The Pride leader didn’t hesitate and activated Second Wind. His stamina refilled immediately, his health untouched. Sucking in a deep breath, Dominic used the Sonic part of Majestic Sonic Roar.
Around him, the three crocodiles whose health bars were below half already found their health reducing further after the first three seconds. The crocodile which had bitten off the tip of his wing was only just crawling back towards him but didn’t escape unscathed either.
By the time Dominic ended the Sonic Attack, three of the crocodiles were down to a quarter of their health, one was down by a quarter, and he was more than half-dry. The last was, funnily enough, the most welcome development.
‘Great! That means I can do this!’ Jumping up into the air, Dominic used his still-injured wings to boost him up just a little further, taking the pain as a natural consequence. Then, using Airborne to increase his weight, he dropped like a stone towards the closest crocodile.
Landing on its back with all claws bared, he heard a quiet pop and felt the surface on which he stood give just a little more. A few more quick attacks later and a welcome notification flashed up in front of his face.
[You have killed Nile Crocodile (Evolved Beast level 12)]
[You have earned 17 PP]
It didn’t take too long for that message to appear two more times. Almost dry, Dominic felt like he could almost float away, he was so light, despite the way the increasing humidity the room was determined to get him wet again. He struck the remaining reptiles with enthusiasm, glad that they were now on his turf.
The arrival of the two water-logged amesheks just hastened the demise of the final crocodile as they added their sonic attacks to his physical ones. Dominic was alarmed to see just how low they both were on health, Sirius worse than Procyon for obvious reasons. He dropped a couple of carcasses next to them before belatedly realising that they could have just absorbed the crocodiles. The sound of grinding stone stopped: the door was fully open.