Dominic followed the traces of the intruder’s journey through the bush. It wasn’t hard to track him since he’d been clearly marking territory with claw marks, urine, and scat in certain places. The lion knew that the creature was male from its scent – there was a musk to it which Leo had immediately identified. Although it didn’t appear to be leonine, there was no debating the fact that it was a potential threat to the pride.
Lions had claimed dominance over the African savannah because of two factors: size and numbers. Individually, full-grown lions tended to outsize any opposing predator, particularly full-grown males. When those full-grown lions were also part of a group of other full-grown lions, there were few predators who would dare challenge them.
Even hyenas had to have a significant advantage in numbers to even think to attack them – consider how many hyenas had been lost compared to lions in the most recent battle. And that was with the hyenas at a slightly higher level than the lions in question. From the sheer size of whatever Dominic was following, he suspected that the same would not hold true for this creature.
Its claw marks were significantly above even the highest Dominic could reach, and he wasn’t a small lion. He had to guess that the creature was perhaps as much as half again his height in the shoulder.
It was quadrupedal from what Dominic could see of its footprints in the dust, and had pads not dissimilar from his own. There were the mark of claws, though, indicating that it wasn’t able to retract them. Not an ambush predator, perhaps, he mused. Why would it then try to keep its claws sharp?
He looked around the prints in a spot where there were several. Some showed the mark of claws, four of them. Others showed only the pads. So it can retract its claws on its forepaws, but not the ones on its backpaws, perhaps? That’s what the evidence seemed to indicate.
There were no tufts of hair that Dominic could see caught on branches, though the creature had forced its way through a few bushes rather than going around them. That, at least, gave Dominic an idea of its size and bulk. From what he could see, his estimates about it being about half again his height were accurate. It was also broader than him, and, from the looks of the branches it had snapped, significantly stronger than him.
‘What do you think?’ asked Dominic with some trepidation, adding together the evidence that he’d been collecting into something that he wasn’t at all sure he wanted to face. Killer bunnies were bad enough, but this looked like more trouble than it was worth, especially since he’d only get a few Prey Points out of it.
‘I think we should at least get a look at what we have been tracking,’ Leo told him decisively. ‘I’m glad to see you showing more caution, but this looks more and more like it could be a threat to our pride.’
‘Or maybe it’s just a herbivore with good defences,’ Dominic returned hopefully. ‘Maybe if we leave it in peace, we’ll be left in peace too.’ The derisive scoff that came in response made him sigh. ‘Yeah, I didn’t really think so either.’
He continued moving forwards, slowing his pace as he heard the sounds of ripping and slurping coming from ahead. Stalking through the long grass, he approached, unheard and unseen.
At least, that was what he thought. He paused as he got his first view of the creature. It was an odd amalgamation of creatures – definitely not an earth native. Its back legs appeared to be similar to a bear’s, its front legs more like a feline’s. It was scaled, but spotty scales segued into stripy patterns at about midpoint on it. It had what looked like bat wings, but they were small and stunted, surely not offering any real flight. As for its head, it looked more like an odd dragonish creature – a long neck and narrow reptilian muzzle.
All in all, it looked very strange, and not particularly natural. It looked more like what a child might have created if they had been offered a number of different body parts and had only the slightest idea of what constituted a real animal.
Still, if the corpse it was feeding from was any indication, it was still able to hunt perfectly well.
‘I sense you there, chimera.’ The sing-song voice which entered Dominic’s head was not Leo’s.
‘Did you hear-’
‘What was that?’ The two said at the same time, and then stopped as they realised the other had the same question. Dominic looked around wildly, wondering if he’d actually heard the voice with his ears rather than his mind.
‘Here, little chimera,’ the voice said again, its tone a strange mixture between lazy and excited. This time Dominic could tell for sure that it was in his mind. And when he looked around again, he saw that the creature he’d been following was now looking directly at him, its jaws dripping with blood.
‘You’re…him?’ Dominic asked ineloquently. He got the sense that the other was amused as the creature replied.
‘Yes. I am…him.’ Dominic blinked, then shook his head, his mane brushing his ears.
‘I…you…how?’ He was too speechless to form a better question.
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‘Much the same as you, I imagine,’ the creature told him, his tone almost sounding like a yawn. In the meantime, he tipped his head up to swallow the chunk of meat in his mouth. ‘I was feeding on my recently-vanquished prey when the world collapsed. Suddenly, I was forced to battle for superiority with the undeparted spirit of my prey. When the match came to an end, I was the victor and was able to choose the amalgamation of the body I wished to inhabit.’
‘You chose such a weird combination of parts?’ Dominic asked dubiously, his mind working busily over the fact that, though it did sound like what had happened with him and Leo, there had been no battle for superiority.
‘There was, but it came later,’ Leo told him quietly.
‘I did,’ the creature continued proudly, apparently either not having heard Leo or having chosen to ignore him. ‘Claws to run and claws to attack. A body which was heavier than my previous, but still agile. Of course, I kept my mouth and flexible neck.’ The creature twisted its head this way and that, showing off just how flexible its neck really was. It looked over its shoulder and flicked its wings. ‘These I picked up later. I’ve always wanted to fly, but they don’t seem to be much use as they are right now,’ he continued with a sense of disappointment in his ‘voice’.
‘Huh, interesting,’ Dominic said to the creature non-committedly before focussing on speaking with Leo. ‘Yeah, but I couldn’t choose the body parts after I won it.’
‘Except you didn’t exactly win it,’ Leo pointed out in the quiet tone again. ‘I chose to accept your superiority for as long as I felt you were moving in the right direction better than I could.’
‘True,’ Dominic admitted. Perhaps they would have had a ‘winner’ and ‘loser’ but they’d been interrupted by the dungeon master. Though why had it only happened when he’d reached level 10? Unless it was to do with their relative capacities – perhaps their intelligence levels had been so different that the System hadn’t felt it worth the fight? Or not until they were more equal, anyway.
Heck, maybe it was also because their respective bodies were so incomparable when it came to combat ability. After all, Dominic had been able to take the body of a lion during their combat, but only because he’d been living as a lion for the days preceding the battle. Still musing over what could have been the cause of the differences, he asked a burning question of the creature who didn’t seem to have picked up that he and Leo were having a private conversation and was instead yammering away.
‘...and they are able to see the world from so high up, and I think that would be pretty cool. Don’t you think?’
‘Sure,’ Dominic agreed. He was getting the impression that though the creature was fairly intimidating, it wasn’t actually that bright. Or maybe ‘childlike’ could be a better comparison. ‘Like you being able to speak into my mind. How does that work, anyway?’ He kind of felt like he was tricking a child into giving up his sweets. Should I feel bad about that? He wondered. Nah, he decided a moment later.
‘Oh, that’s easy. I just speak. But you’re the first one to speak back. I thought that you might, though, since I sense that we’re the same kind of creature.’
‘Huh,’ Dominic replied thoughtfully. Was it that simple? Or was it that the other creature was naturally telepathic or something but had never known it. Well, good to know that it was possible. ‘So, since you can speak, did you realise you’re in my territory?’ Dominic asked at Leo’s prompting.
‘Oh, that. Yes, I saw your signs, but didn’t realise you were a chimera too.’
‘So…does that mean you’ll leave now?’ Dominic asked, wondering if it could be that easy.
‘No, that means we have to fight.’ The lion felt like face-palming. Of course he’d been overly-optimistic. Well, if he felt bad about feeling like he was tricking the creature out of information, he’d feel even worse about killing him. If I can, he thought trepidatiously, looking at the bulk of the creature in front of him.
‘Do we really have to fight?’ asked Dominic. ‘Can’t we just come to some…friendly arrangement?’
‘Nope,’ the other creature replied cheerfully. Inappropriately so, Dominic thought with a grumble. ‘We need to know who’s the most powerful. If you win, you get to decide if you kill me or not. If you kill me, you can absorb your favourite bits of my bodies, and if you don’t, you can ask me to do whatever you want. If I win, then I get to do the same to you.’
‘Sounds great,’ Dominic replied sarcastically, more concerned about what would happen if he lost than if he won – although he was confident in his own abilities, this creature countered several of his advantages; it would be seen whether he countered the others.
‘Isn’t it?’ the creature chirped, seeming to miss the sarcastic tone completely. ‘That’s how I got my wings – although it wasn’t another chimera, I challenged it to a fight and took its wings from it when it lost.’ Once more he looked at them with an expression Dominic could only identify as discontented. ‘Maybe that’s why they don’t work with my body: it wasn’t another chimera.’ Then he looked at Dominic with a disturbingly intent expression. ‘It’s a pity you don’t have wings.’
‘Hey, I haven’t agreed to fight yet,’ Dominic told him hurriedly. The creature looked at him with surprise both in his face and mental voice.
‘Haven’t you felt it? We don’t have a choice.’ As if the System had been waiting for just that moment, a notification flashed up in front of Dominic’s face.
[You have been challenged by another chimera for territory and dominance. Winner takes all. Kill or force your opponent to submit to your power to win. Failure to fight is considered an automatic forfeit.]
‘Oh, hell!’ Dominic spat.