Chapter 27: Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down (Patreon)

Dominic stared at the ameshek. It looked…tough. He’d been pleasantly surprised with how easy the other ameshek had been to kill – for him. After all, his original encounter had seen him coming off worse from a fight with their weakest member. But this one looked like trouble. 

What choice did he have, though? He darted a look around the area. The other ameshek had formed up at their leader’s side and were looking at the lions with angry gazes. There were seven of the smaller ones, two more than they had estimated. Their wounds were healing before Dominic’s eyes, even though they weren’t absorbing any carcasses. Within far too short a time, they would be at full health again. 

At the same time, Dominic’s lionesses were also healing by absorbing the carcasses, and the blurring he caught out of the corner of his eye indicated that some were taking advantage of the pause to level up. However, the fight had proved that their much lower levels were a big problem if the bonuses of Pounce were taken off the table. Not to mention that their health pools were probably much smaller than the wolves – the remaining level 7s anyway. And with seven wolves and seven lionesses, they wouldn’t be able to leverage numbers either. 

For a moment, Dominic just cursed at the situation. At the wolves for somehow outstripping the lionesses in levels despite all the hunting they’d been doing. At the leader for being there. At himself for pulling them into the fight at all. I should have spent more time levelling them up, he moaned to himself, though knew that, at the time, maintaining the element of surprise had been the reason he hadn’t. With the kesh as mercenary as they were, he’d feared that they might choose to warn the wolves. 

‘Pull yourself together,’ Leo snapped at him, as ever his anchor to reality. ‘Are we accepting it or are we going to run for it? If the lionesses jump into our storage space we can probably outstrip the ameshek.’

‘I’m not so sure about that,’ Dominic refuted. ‘We tried that before and barely got out with our lives and that was when the wolves were a lot lower level. And even if we could get out, then what? Just run away with our tails between our legs? If they choose to attack the rest of the pride, we’ll just be offering them Prey Points on four legs. And I’m not sure that the storage space idea would work anyway, not with big boy over there. It takes time to get them all in one by one and he’ll be on us in seconds.’

‘So you’re going to be suicidal?’ Leo growled angrily. ‘Throw all of our lives away in one fell swoop? If we die, what do you think will happen to the females?’ That was a good point. Dominic looked up at the large ameshek.

‘If I agree to your challenge, it’ll be between only me and you, OK. If I lose, you let my lionesses go.’ He tried to sound firm and confident, but feared that his nerves came through nonetheless. The ameshek took a moment to consider his demand .

‘If you agree to the same about my sheks too, then very well. Win or lose, the conditions affect only us two.’

‘Agreed,’ Dominic said, his throat feeling tight. He was glad that he didn’t need to use it to speak. He felt the choice of accepting the challenge become more urgent – clearly he couldn’t leave it dangling much longer. But first… ‘If I die, you all go back to the pride. Take them away from here. Go conquer new territory. Get stronger and stay together.’ He swallowed; if he could cry he bet his eyes would be misty at that moment. Just as well he couldn’t – tears wouldn’t help him in the slightest. ‘I’ve been so proud to get to know all of you.’

Their responses ranged from grim acceptance, to angry denial. But it warmed him that all of them expressed pride and gratitude for his presence. Not one admonished him for bringing them into this situation in the first place, though he felt like they really should. 

Turning to the large ameshek, he accepted the challenge, seeing his stamina bar refill and his health bar top itself off. Immediately after that, he activated Momentous Charge. 

The ground between him and the leader was eaten up in a matter of moments. The ameshek almost seemed to be moving in slow motion as Dominic’s processing kicked up a notch with his adrenaline. He saw it starting to move, preparing to dodge. That wouldn’t do. 

While he couldn’t change the angle of his charge, he could increase its speed. Triggering Quick Strike with its higher speed, Dominic shot forwards like he’d been fired from a gun. The ameshek had no way to avoid the charge in time.

Apparently it couldn’t see through the illusion either: Dominic slammed into the wolven creature with such force that its sleek outer layer cracked and it was sent stumbling back several steps. 

Dominic himself wasn’t completely unharmed either, though – he hadn’t realised that his momentum could work both ways and his health bar had taken a hit. He stepped back, feeling slightly dazed, shaking his head to try to clear it. 

Movement in front of him made him instinctively dodge sideways and the attack bit deeply into his shoulder instead of his face or throat. He growled angrily, and then in pain as the ameshek started vibrating and tugging at it as if to treat him like a dog’s chew toy. He was too big for the beast to actually lift him, but it was painful and damaging nonetheless. 

He couldn’t try to pull away: that would worsen his wound even further. Twitching his tongue several times, he filled his mouth with acid. Then, once he had a big wad of it, he opened his mouth and did his best to spit and dribble it over the ameshek’s head. 

The wolven beast howled as its protective outer layer started to steam and hiss. Its howl was terribly painful for Dominic to hear, but it let go of his shoulder to try to scratch the acid off. 

Somehow, unlike its brethren, it was able to move while howling – they had seemed stuck in place. It must have been because of the higher level of the Ability: Dominic could barely move for the pain that was running through his body, locking up his joints, and threatening to deafen him. 

In defence, he roared loudly. Even his strongest roar seemed unable to completely overcome the ever pervasive howl, but it eliminated most of the pain preventing him from attacking. 

Striking with his paws, using Rapid Attack to refresh his actions and Powerful Swipe to add more damage, he continued roaring while giving the old one-two. He battered the ameshek, striking at its face, at its shoulders, at its antennae, only pausing to let his Rapid Attack refresh when its stamina cost got too high. He got acid on his paws, but the pain wasn’t anything like that of the howl. 

The ameshek gave as good as it got. Deciding that he was more of a threat than the acid still coating it, it continued howling, striking at him with its own front paws. 

Then, as if both of them had decided that keeping the auditory warfare going was pointless, the roar and howl stopped almost simultaneously. They looked at each other for a moment, then snarled and lunged for each other. 

Jaws met and locked – Dominic took savage glee in sending spitballs of acid straight into the ameshek’s mouth. It yelped and disengaged, looking both surprised and panicked. 

Dominic pressed the attack, lunging for its throat. It dodged back, so he kept going. The wolven creature might be half again his size, but that just meant he had a better angle to get at its windpipe. Their fight deteriorated into an ugly brawl of snapping teeth and swiping claws. Dominic’s claws were definitely better at dealing damage, but his smaller size meant that he had more difficulty getting close enough to the important areas with them. 

That didn’t mean he wasn’t having an effect, though – the ameshek’s protective outer layer was cracked and rent in multiple places, unable to stand up against the power of Dominic’s teeth and claws. Dominic himself dodged as many of the attacks as he could, but he was still covered in blood from those which had got through.

Their health bars were both getting low, and Dominic’s stamina was almost bottoming out, despite the effects of Enhanced Stamina. But the lion had an answer to that. Triggering Second Wind, he saw both soar higher.

The ameshek paused for a moment in surprise – could it see Dominic’s bars like Dominic could? Either way, the lion took full advantage of the momentary pause. 

Triggering Quick Strike again, he shot for the opening, grabbing the ameshek around its neck and biting at its throat. 

The outer layer was thicker here than in other places, but by dialling Crushing Bite up to its max for a brief second, Dominic found himself crunching through. More blood came to join what was already in his mouth and he pumped as much acid into the wound as he could. 

The ameshek went mad, trying to throw him off, shake him free. It set its claws into his belly and tried to pry him loose. Like what had happened with the chimera, Dominic saw his own health drop as the claws slashed up his belly, pain almost the only thing he could feel. 

But he held on tightly. There was one difference between this and the chimera – this time it was Dominic with Regeneration. Plus, he’d started with more health thanks to Second Wind. 

The ameshek slowed, its movements becoming sluggish as its health bar approached empty. It slumped down on the ground, making a half-hearted final attempt to squash Dominic into letting go. He didn’t, even if the weight of the ameshek was significant. 

‘I submit,’ the weak voice drifted into his mind, its owner almost spent. A notification flashed up in front of Dominic’s eyes. 

[Congratulations! You have forced your opponent to submit. You have won the challenge: Duel for the Place of Power. You can now decide your opponent’s fate. Choose death and access her bodily enhancements. Choose life and your opponent will be partially healed, owing her life to you, giving you a choice of how tightly to hold it. Make your decision: thumbs up or thumbs down? Time to choose: 10 seconds.]

Thoughts ran through Dominic’s tired mind like ants in an anthill. If he chose life, it sounded like he’d lose access to the normal enhancement screen. Yet, equally, if he chose life it sounded like he would still have power over the ameshek – they could be good allies to have. But what if they didn’t want to be? He might gamble on it and then lose everything. At least if he chose death, he knew exactly what would happen. 

With time running out, he made his choice.

*****

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Chapter 28: Doesn’t Come Back To Bite Us