Mandla stood at the foot of the mound, looking up at its sun-baked peak.

Before the day is done, we’re taking this. After you, it’s the hyenas.

With the Legends’ help, Mandla, Kaveh and Nicola had drafted a battle plan designed to cut straight into the heart of the burrow and end the battle as quickly as possible. Kaveh had his ear to the mound right now, listening to see if the signal had come yet. Karl was thrusting his [Atgeir] at Nicola, who was dodging and parrying with her [Rondel]. Ever since the hyena attack, these two had spent the little free time they had sparring like this. Mandla understood. It had been a baptism of fire but they’d emerged reborn. As warriors.

He was in the middle of his own metamorphosis, planning and scheming. Looking down at his [Ixwa], he remembered that first promise in the cabin. The weapon seemingly recognised his intent and shivered in response. Together, they’d climb all the way to the top.

Kaveh suddenly leapt to his feet.

“Get ready, we move in two minutes.”

That meant the first squad had entered and been discovered. Even now, they could hear the pitter-patter of small feet underneath them as the meerkats mobilised.

The sparring pair lowered their weapons, doing some dynamic stretches to cool down.

We’re almost superhuman.

Watching them, Mandla had realised that none of them had gotten any sleep. They’d been in constant motion and under constant stress since this whole thing began, but they were all still functioning at 100%. None of them had even yawned.

“One minute.”

The second squad should be entering from another opening. Smaller than the first, it was more to give the illusion they had many more soldiers than they really did, and get the meerkats to waste whatever reserves they were keeping.

“Thirty seconds.”

All to create an opening for a surgical strike.

“Let’s go!”

The four Ascendants jumped down into the burrow, on the complete opposite side of where the first two squads had entered, and took off running.

Yup, still smells like animal fur and dried shit.

The tunnels all had a slight cant downwards, towards the heart. One of the Legends had seen a documentary about meerkat burrows and according to her, while there could be multiple rooms and a network of tunnels, the lowest level was where the young were kept, and where the eldest meerkats slept. If there was a Queen meerkat, that’s where she would be.

The sounds of battle echoed through the walls, human shouts and animal chitters mingling to create a discordant symphony. Mandla ignored it, focused on the task. As they delved deeper, tunnels got wider, the adjoining rooms more expansive and more… intricate?

There were designs etched into the walls. Simple stick figures, but designs nonetheless. It uncomfortably reminded him of the cave drawings at Lascaux. These were somehow even cruder, but they spoke of something deeper than just base animal instinct.

They use tools. They make art.

Mandla didn’t want to continue that line of thought. The implications were… Fuck.

Is this happening all over the world?

As Mandla pondered, the squad came across their first patrol. A group of five meerkats, toting sharpened wooden spears, rounded a corner right in front of them.

Immediately, Mandla’s [Assegai] and Nicola’s [Bodkin Point] blasted through two of them, while another two opened their mouths to sound an alarm and one scampered away. Karl leapt forward, using [Rönd]’s knockback effect to bash the two into the far wall, before [Sahm] hit one and he speared the other. Nicola fired a [Broadhead] that flew greedily after the meerkat that had escaped. None of them would be raising the alarm just yet.

The group continued onwards, now aware they were on a timer. Soon their presence would be discovered and that couldn’t happen before they’d reached the main chamber.

How deep is this place?

They were slowly realising that the tunnel complex was much larger than they’d initially thought, but that only made them more determined. They couldn’t afford to fail here, staying out in the open grassland was suicide.

Dispatching a few more patrols, the group reached what seemed to be the lowest level. The ground was no longer tilted and they could see the tunnel open up into a chamber ahead of them.

This has to be it.

Slowing their run to a cautious walk, the Ascendants entered a tight square formation, with Mandla and Karl in front with their shields up, and Nicola and Kaveh in the back with their bows nocked, ready to draw.

They filed in, looking around in wonder as the chamber revealed itself to be a staggering expanse the size of a football pitch, with a relatively low ceiling, about the height of a normal room. The floor was teeming with meerkat pups. There must have been hundreds of them, knee-high though they were. They almost completely obscured the bare earth of the chamber floor with their tan, furred bodies. The sea of squeaking young were not the main attraction however, as four hulking meerkats about five and a half feet tall stood guard at the far end, clad in simple wooden armour bound with ropes of grass. The usually slender beasts were endowed with bulging muscles and wicked claws at the end of their paws. And what they guarded…

Was a queen the size of a car. She didn’t look mobile, as her large belly was inflated to the point she couldn’t stand. Her fur was grey and her eyes clouded with white. She was in labour, popping out ten more pups in front of their eyes.

Identified: Mini-Elite – Meerkat Dominatrix

Mini-Elite?

“You guys get that notification?”

The other three grunted their confirmation. What was a mini-Elite? That implied the existence of Elites. Either way, it was a question for after the fight.

When they’d entered, the meerkat guards had started growling and producing those coughing barks, but as the Dominatrix’s milky eyes turned towards the four Ascendants, they fell silent.

She has to be blind, right? No way those eyes work.

Blind or not, the matriarch raised a furred paw and pointed directly at them. Her eyes flashed a burning red. The sea of pups, in unison, gave an enraged squeak as their eyes flashed red as well, and with a frantic surge, they rushed towards the four.

A skill!

Kaveh hastily whispered.

“Mandla, Nicola, can you hit her from here?”

“No, the ceiling’s too low. My [Assegai] isn’t a laser.”

“Same with my [Bodkin Point] but I don’t need to be as close as Baywatch over here to shoot straight. A [Broadhead] would get her, but they’d see it coming and could block it.”

“Point out the spot.”

Nicola eyed the encroaching swarm and pointed towards an outcrop of rock growing out of the chamber floor. Smack dab in the middle of the meerkat tide.

Kaveh sighed, then nodded.

“Okay, we’ll make a break for it, cutting our way through. Don’t get bogged down. Don’t get swarmed. We’ll anchor at that rock and defend it until Nicola gets a clean shot, then we get the fuck out. Clear?”

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The Ascendants nodded their assent. Gathering behind Karl, they steeled themselves. The wave was almost upon them. It had to be now. With a deep breath, the Viking pushed off the ground and sprinted.

As the wave crested, Karl smashed into it, activating [Rönd]’s ability and blowing a hole through the mass of meerkat pups, sending them flying backwards. Taking his cue, Mandla and the others raced after him.

Shield in front, Karl ploughed through the field of tan fur as Mandla and Kaveh had their blades drawn, stabbing indiscriminately, preventing the pups from forming up behind the living battering ram.

Nicola, already thinking ahead, was peppering the rock with [Bodkin Point], clearing off the pups that had climbed atop it.

Karl activated his knockback again, once more blowing apart any cohesion the swarm in front of him had as he ran with unstoppable inertia. They simply weren’t big enough to slow him down.

That didn’t mean they were harmless however, as the dozens of claw scratches and tiny bites began to add up. Mandla especially was vulnerable as his back was completely unprotected. They mitigated this somewhat by literally outpacing the meerkats, but with so many it was impossible to stay untouched.

With a clang, Karl physically ran into the rock, stopping dead before turning and dropping his shield, letting it dematerialise as he summoned [Forseti], the huge axe, and cleared a swath of pups with a single sweep of the deadly weapon.

Nicola leapt atop the rock and immediately started taking shots at the Meerkat Dominatrix. Mandla had never noticed before, but her back bulged unnaturally with muscle before each shot, only slightly visible through the thick gambeson.

“Guys, the guards are coming.”

As she said, three of the guards around the queen were now racing towards them, eyes flashing with the telltale red of the Dominatrix’s influence.

She shot at them several times, but they had fast enough reactions to swipe the arrows out of the air. Kaveh told her to ignore them and focus on the queen.

The three boys surrounded the rock in a triangular formation, resisting attack from all sides.

Kaveh was a maestro of the dagger on his front. His passive, [Janna], worked in conjunction with his [Khanjar]’s ability, to produce a brutally efficient fighting style where each stroke of his blade fell like a scythe among wheat. Not a single move was wasted as he used his footwork to sidestep, dodge and keep from getting swarmed, even making sure the meerkat corpses lay in the most inconvenient position possible for their brethren behind them.

Karl, using what had to be a weapon skill, was unleashing his devastating axe sweeps, twirling the implement like it weighed nothing. Like mowing blood-filled grass, Karl would slice through a wide swath of the clawing young, the line would retreat, he’d turn to another section, the line would advance, he’d turn back and shear it again.

For his part, Mandla was finally feeling the thrill of battle. His [Ixwa] was doing most of the work as usual, hungrily churning up the crush in front of him, revelling in the carnage, but he was an active participant this time. Trying to follow Kaveh’s movements, Mandla weaved around, blocking what he couldn’t dodge and dodging what he couldn’t block. His [Isihlangu] was critical, as when the meerkats in front of him were pressed into the shield’s field of effect, they slowed down too, making them easy targets for the shield’s bottom stake, their swarm tactics less effective.

He hadn’t felt it before but due to the sheer numbers they were facing, it became more and more noticeable. He was taking something from the meerkats. An infinitesimally small something, but the constant feed of whatever it was into his body? His soul? Wherever it was going, he could feel himself moving to some sort of threshold. Like he was a balloon slowly inflating, he could feel that there was a certain point he’d pop. He didn’t know whether that was a good thing or not.

He glanced up at Nicola. She was still trying to shoot past the lone guard in front of the Dominatrix, who was defending her with his full strength. She’d let off [Bodkin Point] after [Bodkin Point], but the diligent meerkat giant would claw them out of the air, and she couldn’t fire rapidly enough to overwhelm it.

“Incoming!”

She shouted just a few instants before the meerkat hulk crashed into Mandla’s shield, pushing him up against the rock, its hot, stinking breath in his face.

The beast was frenzied, swinging wildly with its razor sharp claws as it squealed at him. At five foot six, the meerkat was only slightly shorter than Mandla himself, but much bulkier, and it put its size to good use. He didn’t know what it was, maybe just being bigger and stronger, but it was less affected by the slowing field than its shorter brethren.

Mandla found himself having to parry the claws with his spear, something he’d never done before. As the meerkat slashed and teared at the shield, screeching furiously, constantly putting pressure on him, Mandla felt his [Ixwa] start thirsting just a bit more. Like the pups had just been an appetizer, but more substantial food awaited. Still, combined assault from the meerkat hulk and the pups, who he’d resorted to kicking away, meant they were conceding all the space they’d cleared around the rock. Slowly, they were losing ground.

“Nicola, I’m ready when you are!”

“Shut the fuck up, Mandla!”

But it seemed his goading had inspired her, as she turned the opposite direction, still staring directly at the queen, and fired off two [Broadheads] at their entrance point. The arrows flew towards the tunnel before turning and shooting back over the group to home in on their real target. The queen. With the time she’d bought by having her arrows swing around, she nocked a [Bodkin Point], drew, and fixed a grin on her face, waiting for the guard to swipe at her [Broadheads]. He could only block one attack.

The guard meerkat, realising the dilemma, gave an alarmed squeal, that it looked like the queen heard. She gave a tired chitter, that the guard growled in anger at. She barked sharply, making the guard meerkat whine. Eventually, it lowered its head.

The queen sat up straight from her position on the ground facing the arrows head-on. With a final growl, she activated a final skill.

Her fur lit up, shining with golden light. She illuminated the whole chamber, making the battle pause as everyone turned to stare. Just before the arrows hit, the golden light was abruptly ripped out of her body, turning into four radiant streams of light, that flew in a serpentine fashion into the four guards. The [Broadheads] sank into the Dominatrix’s now withered, frail body. Nicola screamed in frustration.

The swarm of pups exploded in hysteria, clawing, scratching and stepping over one another in their rush to reach the corpse. Unfortunately, the older meerkats understood what had happened and now their eyes burned with a desire for revenge.

The streams of light tethered onto the guards’ heads, wrapped itself around their bodies, and sank into their fur in an instant.

A notification dinged in Mandla’s eye.

Identified: Mini-Elite [Temporary] – Meerkat Dominator

What the fuck?

The Dominators each swelled to huge proportions, growing to six and a half feet tall, with even bulkier bodies somehow. Their fur stretched sparsely over the blocky physique, and their claws became short swords on the end of their paws as their armour fell off, no longer able to contain the beasts. Golden energy crackled over their form. They growled, deeper and more menacingly than Mandla had ever heard before.

Nicola fired off a [Bodkin Point] at close range, in the face of the guard opposing Kaveh. It seems their reflexes had gotten even better, as even from near point blank, the meerkat could twitch its head fast enough to dodge. The attack broke the spell however, and the four guards renewed their assault with a vengeance.

As if waking from a drunken stupor, Mandla’s [Ixwa] thirsted. It burned with need for the energy that had entered the Dominator, nearly buzzing in his hand with its excitement.

Not sharing in this enthusiasm, Mandla yelped as the Dominator began thumping away at his shield with heavy, crushing blows. Blocking one, he nearly got lifted off his feet before realising it was a bad idea. The beast almost entirely ignored the shield’s slowing effect, the meagre deceleration it provided being the only thing keeping Mandla alive.

Gradually though, his [Ixwa] hungered more and more, as if it could taste the potential bounty. It evolved from simply parrying the heavy claw blows, to going on the attack.

The extra vigour gave the vicious weapon an edge as it bit and poked at the meerkat’s defences, seeking blood. Mandla began holding his own, no longer getting tossed around so easily. He still couldn’t see a way to beat this thing though, it was just too strong. He’d been pushed out of position, away from the rock and he didn’t see any way back.

He risked a glance back at Kaveh and saw his friend struggling as well, his efficient footwork and surgical precision barely letting him keep up with the meerkat’s raw strength and speed. He desperately parried the wicked claws with his dagger, making sure not to get pinned down, but also not gaining any openings. He couldn’t gain the distance needed to summon his [Sahm].

A lightbulb flicked in Mandla’s head.

“Yo Kaveh!”

“Kinda busy right now!”

“I know! On my mark, we switch!”

“What?!”

“Trust me, just be ready!”

The meerkat in front of Mandla landed another crushing blow on his shield.

Not yet.

He dodged a swipe, then parried a sneaky backhand.

Not yet.

He hopped over a low sweep, batted away a thrust, then feinted to the left.

Not yet.

The meerkat saw the clumsy feint, but fell for it completely, loading up a massive right swipe, aimed at taking his head off.

Almost…

The huge paw swept towards him, black claws glinting from the reflection of the beast’s own light. Leaning into it, Mandla ducked, just barely keeping his scalp.

“NOW!”

Dropping his shield and spear, and putting his faith in Kaveh, Mandla turned around, already gripping his [Assegai]. Nothing existed except for him and his target, the meerkat harassing Kaveh.

His arm extended behind, Mandla screamed in defiance as he launched the javelin right at the Dominator’s chest. The projectile whirred as it drilled through the air, catching the meerkat in the sternum and pinning it to the rock. The meerkat growled, coughing up blood and trying to pull at the javelin in its chest, but remaining stuck fast to the boulder behind it.

The energy his spear had been thirsting for, that ephemeral essence he’d claimed from the meerkat pups, now poured into him in a torrent. His internal balloon was filling, filling, swelling up until it brought him right to the peak, a precipice point. He could either hold himself back or let it, whatever it was, happen.

He exhaled.

Fuck it.

He heard a thud as the Dominator behind him dropped to the floor.

Ding!

You have successfully challenged a Mini-Elite! You now qualify for the 2nd Rung of the Bloodline Ascent. Entering Trial…