His claws buried themselves in unyielding flesh a split second before his teeth dug into the rhino’s thick skin. A trickle of blood entered his mouth, nowhere near the gush that he was expecting.
Two notifications flashed up and he took a moment to glance at them.
[You have dealt 90 damage to Black African Rhino ((21+2+5 Slicing damage, 13+1+5 Tearing damage, 8+0+5 Piercing damage))*1.5]
[You have dealt 145 damage to Black African Rhino ((25+2+10 Crushing damage, 31+5 Tearing damage, 19+5 Piercing damage)*1.5)]
Only 235 damage in total? That’s it?
Before too much time could pass, Dominic activated Rapid Attack. He felt a small wave of energy go through his limbs, refreshing them and speeding them up. Although he sensed that he could actually choose to attack in any way he chose, he decided to dig in here.
Dialling Crushing Bite and Powerful Swipe both up to 20%, he bit harder with his teeth. He yanked at where his claws were buried, trying to open the wounds even more.
[You have dealt 70 damage to Black African Rhino (23+4+5 Slicing damage, 14+2+5 Tearing damage, 10+2+5 Piercing damage)]
[You have dealt 106 damage to Black African Rhino (31+6+10 Crushing damage, 28+5 Tearing damage, 21+5 Piercing damage)]
No bonus from Pounce? Damn.
That was a shame – he’d hoped quickly attacking with Rapid Attack would enable him to continue the bonus. Apparently not.
With another twelve points of stamina, he activated Rapid Attack again. Once more, the wave of energy refreshed him and enabled him to once more put his all into the attack. He left both Crushing Bite and Powerful strike at 20%. It was draining his stamina quickly, but not nearly as badly as if he dialled it up higher than that.
Again, he kept his teeth buried in the rhino’s back, but this time he released his claws to rip and tear at the rhino’s skin.
[You have dealt 60 damage to Black African Rhino (19+3+5 Slicing damage, 12+2+5 Tearing damage, 8+1+5 Piercing damage)]
[You have dealt 113 damage to Black African Rhino (35+7+10 Crushing damage, 28+5 Tearing damage, 23+5 Piercing damage)]
Hmm, a bit better damage from my teeth, but less from my claws…
Deciding not to activate Rapid Attack again – the doubling costs made it prohibitive when he was also using stamina for his other enhancement Abilities – he pulled his head away and took stock of the situation.
Thanks to his use of Rapid Attack, the whole fight so far had taken less than three seconds. The rhinos had barely had time to react. The one he was perched upon was bellowing in rage and pain. The other had wheeled around, trying to find the source of the threat; apparently it hadn’t quite worked out that Dominic was on top of its companion.
Wondering how much damage his attacks had done, the lion looked at the health bar currently floating above the rhino’s head.
What kind of health pool do these things have? he asked himself in dismay as he saw the damage he’d done. Or rather, the lack of it. There were two factors impacting this, from what Dominic could see.
First of all, the rhino’s skin was already proving its worth – the same kind of blow which had dealt almost 500 points of damage to the barasinghas had only dealt 145 points to this rhino. Secondly, the creature’s health pool had to be massive. Not surprising, he supposed – the creature itself was big and the same size wound which would cripple him wouldn’t be much more than a paper-cut for a rhino.
It was still a bit demotivating to see that three attacks totalling almost 600 points in damage – even after encountering the rhino’s armoured skin – still made up only a third or so of the rhino’s health pool.
Dominic looked down at the injuries he’d made. His bite mark was quite deep now, the wound weeping blood heavily. Compared to the size of the rhino itself, though, it looked tiny. As for his claw marks, he could see some gashes which had dug in quite deeply, but they weren’t even bleeding much. The other gashes which he’d tried to rip with his last attack had barely even pierced the skin and weren’t bleeding at all.
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Actually, maybe he should be glad he’d done that much damage – the actual impact he’d had on the rhino’s body was relatively small.
By this point, the rhinos seemed to have worked out where he was. Well, the other rhino had – he was pretty sure the rhino he was attacking had known where he was from the start.
Fortunately for him, there was no way either of them could get to him up here. Not that they didn’t try. Dominic watched rather gleefully as the second rhino did some of his job for him – in its attempts to gore him with its sharp horn, it actually did some damage to the rhino he was perched on, knocking the rhino’s health bar down by a chunk. Also a point in Dominic’s favour, this herbivore didn’t seem to have the same regeneration ability which the lion had taken from the chimera – once it had lost the health, it stayed gone.
The rhino which Dominic was riding on didn’t much like its companion's attempts to help and it turned to jab at the second rhino with its own horn. Neither of these seem to have put much into intelligence, Dominic thought brightly as the two rhinos actually faced-off for a few moments.
The second rhino skittered back after a couple of small clashes, little damage having been done, to Dominic’s disappointment. The bigger rhino snorted and shook its head, then seemed to realise that it still had a lion on its back.
It started trying to do a bit of a buckeroo, probably hoping the lion would lose its balance. Unfortunately for it, Dominic didn’t intend to do that. Instead, he had an idea of how to use the rhino’s movements against it.
Diving back down towards the wound he’d created earlier, he bit down again, hoping that the momentum would enable him to dig even deeper than before. To help him, he reactivated Crushing Bite, committing 35 stamina points for a second to bring its level up to 30%.
Once he was buried in the rhino’s flesh, its blood finally filling his mouth properly, he heard the rhino bellow again, its movements increasing in speed and force.
You do that, Dominic thought at it in satisfaction, even as another notification flashed up in front of him.
[You have dealt 113 damage to Black African Rhino (42+12+10 Crushing damage, 37+5 Tearing damage, 23+5 Piercing damage)]
To his delight, it seemed like the rhino’s movements were doing exactly what he wanted them to do – increasing his tearing damage as the momentum pulled his body away from the herbivore’s body.
In fact, even without renewing his bite or using Crushing Bite itself, notifications kept flashing up in front of his eyes, one for every second. All he had to do was keep his jaws closed tightly and keep his own body from being flung around too much like a ragdoll by burying his claws in its flesh.
[You have dealt 121 damage to Black African Rhino (40+10 Crushing damage, 41+5 Tearing damage, 20+5 Piercing damage)]
[You have dealt 123 damage to Black African Rhino (37+10 Crushing damage, 46+5 Tearing damage, 20+5 Piercing damage)]
[You have dealt 118 damage to Black African Rhino (35+10 Crushing damage, 45+5 Tearing damage, 18+5 Piercing damage)]
Of course, it was impossible to keep that going for too long. The longer Dominic held on, even without using any enhancement, the more stamina he used. When the rhino came to a stop, its sides heaving with exertion, Dominic released his bite with relief.
His jaw was tired, his body feeling battered from when he’d failed to control his own movement enough and bashed into the side of the rhino. Incidentally, he’d learned which one would come off worse in a conkers contest – the lion would most certainly crack before the rhino.
He’d knocked the herbivore down to almost a third of its remaining health, but he still didn’t feel like he’d done that much damage to it. Worse, it was changing tactics.
Obviously realising that its attempt to mimic a bucking bull was having no effect, the rhino was now lowering itself to its knees.
‘Move!’ Leo’s voice suddenly shouted at him.
‘Move where?’ Dominic asked him.
‘Anywhere! Just not on the rhino – it’s going to roll.’ Dominic didn’t ask any more questions – he leaped off the back of the rhino to land on the grass to one side. Just in time – the rhino lay on its side, doing its best to rock onto its back. Of course, with the high ridge of its spine rising along its back, there was no chance of it actually making it over, but it made a good attempt.
Seeing a potential opportunity, Dominic engaged Quick Strike and leapt for its throat.
Not normally an easy target due to the proximity of its horn and hooves, not to mention how low it usually was to the ground, Dominic couldn’t resist going for it now it was bared so vulnerably to him.
Dropping a chunk of stamina points into Crushing Bite, he did his best to get through the thick skin which protected it even here.
[You have dealt 127 damage to Black African Rhino (32+15+10 Crushing damage, 36+5 Tearing damage, 24+5 Piercing damage)]
Blood trickled into his mouth, heartening him as much as the message had. Rearing back, he growled as he ripped at the flesh in his mouth, doing his best to tear it away.
The rhino he was attacking squealed and started rolling back, but it was awkward and ungainly, its bulk working against it. Dominic kept holding on.
[You have dealt 118 damage to Black African Rhino (22+11+10 Crushing damage, 47+5 Tearing damage, 18+5 Piercing damage)]
Crushing Bite was rapidly consuming his stamina, dialled up to 50% as it was, so he deactivated it. He was running rather low on that resource – a pity that Regeneration didn’t seem to work on stamina as well as health.
The rhino had almost regained its feet, but it was still so slow about it that Dominic reckoned he should be able to get in a bit more damage. Already the blood was starting to pump more strongly into his mouth.
Then he realised that he’d made a miscalculation: there wasn’t only one rhino – there were two.
He was abruptly reminded of that fact when a horn flashed through the air to impale him.