Chapter 35: Numbers Are Strength (Patreon)

Curious about the attack the amesheks had used on them several times, he looked at the first. 

[Sonic Attack (T1): Use soundwaves to disrupt the internal systems of the target. The higher the level of the Ability, the more damage can be done. This is a Sound-classed Ability: compatible other sound attacks can enhance the effect of this; incompatible sound attacks can impact or even neutralise this attack. Warning: at lower levels, the user of this Ability cannot move or risk a backlash.]

‘That sounds pretty expected,’ Dominic commented to Leo. He felt the lion’s agreement. 

‘Though the last point explains why they were able to have so much effect when all using it together.’

‘True,’ Dominic agreed. ‘I wonder if there are any other ‘classes’ of Abilities which have an inherent additional or multiplicative effect when used by multiple creatures.’

‘Perhaps. The last line explains why the creatures seemed stuck in position,’ Leo remarked. He had a point there – it was good for Dominic to have the answer to a question which had bugged him for a while. 

‘It doesn’t actually mention anything about needing specific body parts for the Ability,’ he mentioned thoughtfully. ‘And we’ve seen Abilities combine before…. I wonder if I could combine it with our Roar?’ 

‘Possibly, but we don’t want to risk our Roar becoming actively damaging to our females,’ cautioned Leo. 

‘Good point.’ After all, at the moment, his Roar had the possibility of offering a buff: if adding a sonic attack element to it meant that he would be unable to use it in a battle with his lionesses, he’d be nerfing something that currently worked. ‘Something to consider later.’

Moving to the next, he asked for information about it.

[Vibrating Body (T1): Causes the user’s body to vibrate at a higher or lower frequency than normal. This Ability may have effects on foreign objects within the user’s body, or on its surroundings. Warning: while the vibration will not affect the user negatively, the effects of the vibration may.]

The description seemed rather unhelpful to Dominic, but after having thought a little about it, he supposed it made sense. When he had sunk his teeth into the wolf the first time they had encountered each other, the vibration the ameshek created meant that his teeth got stuck in the wound, and one even vibrated out of his gum. However, potentially, that vibration would have caused his teeth to damage the wolven creature more than his bite would normally have. 

He was intrigued by the fact that it was possible to vibrate at a higher or a lower frequency. Did that mean that if he was caught in another creature’s vibration, that he could control it? Or perhaps that he could get free of something if he was caught? Trying to hold something which was vibrating could be difficult, and even painful. Maybe he could even clean himself – he’d heard of cleaners which used vibration to work. But what would happen if he vibrated slower? 

Leo seemed just as baffled as Dominic himself, and less interested, especially when it appeared that the defensive potential might be less than he thought. Then again, with his regeneration, perhaps it would be worth letting a creature bite him to rid it of its best weapon, just as he had lost a tooth to the ameshek once.

The third Ability was, as expected, the most interesting of the lot. 

[Group Enhancement (T2): Numbers are strength. This Ability can either increase the effectiveness of a single Ability shared by all members of the group, or share a single Ability with a single other member. The duration of either effect depends on the difference between the user’s Ability level of the target Ability, and the Ability level of Group Enhancement. If the creature the Ability is shared with increases the level of the Ability while the effect is active, there is a chance that they may keep the Ability permanently.]

It was clear why this Ability was Tier 2. Its first effect was good, offering an enhancement to something that the group shared such as Pounce could definitely be useful, depending on how much it was increased by. The second effect was better: if he could share, say, Majestic Roar with one of the lionesses, they could double the chance of getting the Inspired buff, which in turn would increase their power as a group. 

Not only that, but if he was reading it right, they might even be able to keep the Ability after, if they managed to use it enough to level it in whatever space of time they were given. 

He had the option of giving another member of the Pride one of his Abilities, but he had to spend 5 Pride points to do it, and the Ability had to be at level 5 to guarantee that he wouldn’t lose it himself. This seemed to be a ‘free’ way to do that. 

Though, of course, he had to get the Ability first. And considering that it was the third option on the list, and only a 10% chance of getting it besides, there was no guarantee that he would succeed in actually acquiring the Ability. 

‘Are you OK with me absorbing it?’ Dominic checked with Leo. 

‘Of course,’ the lion said immediately. ‘I think we should be cautious about accepting it fully, but there is no harm in getting the Abilities to the point where we can choose to accept them or not.’

‘Alright, here goes,’ the former human said, absorbing the Core. Then, curious to see what had changed, he flicked open his status screen. 

Acquired Abilities:

Rage (67% to level 1)

Easy Landing (45% to level 1)

Rending Bite (34% to level 1)

Fleet Foot (32% to level 1)

Bloodied Stalwart (40% to level 1)

Enhanced Fertility (30% to level 1)

Bleed (96% to level 1)

Dominant Chirp (6% to level 1)

Pack Attack (72% to level 1)

Rock Skin (10% to level 1)

Spike Attack (24% to level 1)

Keen Senses (35% to level 1)

Enhanced Scales (20% to level 1)

Loose Skin (5% to level)

Poisonous Spikes (13% to level 1)

Hop (1% to level 1)

Sonic Attack (35% to level 1)

Vibrating Body (35% to level 1)

Wow, thirty-five percent all at once? Dominic marvelled. It was unsurprising that he’d got Vibrating Body instead of Group Enhancement, even if he’d mentally been pushing for it. But 35% towards the next level in one Core was pretty amazing. Even more so considering that he’d got it in two Abilities. Why the ameshek were different from the other Tier 2s he had killed, he didn’t know. Either way, it was good for him. 

Moving onto the next Core, he was surprised when the options presented were identical. And then the next. And then the one after that. In fact, of the eight ameshek which had been killed in the fight, every single one of them had identical options. 

By the end, he’d managed to reach 100% towards Sonic Attack and Vibrating Body, and was even 70% towards Group Enhancement. Apparently his focus on Group Enhancement when absorbing it had made the odds more of 25% than 10% which he was happy with. It was a little frustrating that he only needed one more Core to give him all three Abilities, but he’d instead only got Vibrating Body, which was unable to go above 100% before he’d actually acquired it. 

He still wasn’t sure whether he’d go for either of them, but he had some time until he could level up:  

Progress to Evolution: 232/615 PP

In the meantime, he checked his Pride screen, curious about how the lionesses had changed. 

Pride status

Level 4 Pride (progress to next level 34/35)

Current information shared:

Health, Abilities

Current members:

Tier 2, Level 22 x1 (Leader – Dominic: Quick Strike, Second Wind, Group Attack, Crushing Bite, Pounce, Powerful Swipe, Sharp Nip, Rapid Attack, Acidic Bite, Sure Feet, Enhanced Stamina, Momentous Charge, Majestic Roar)

Tier 2, Level 12 x2 (Sekhmet: Pounce, Sharp Mind, Telepathy) (Anuke: Pouce, Rapid Attack, Quick Strike)

Tier 2, Level 11 x3 (Menhit: Pounce, Sure Feet, Wind Breath) (Hathor: Pounce, Rending Bite, Stealth) (Jenkins: Pounce, Quick Strike, Enhanced Speed)

Tier 2, Level 10 x2 (Isis: Pounce, Protective Mother), (Neith: Pounce, Keen Senses) 

Tier 1 Level 8 x6 (Leona: Pounce, Stunning Roar), (Zarini: Pounce, Ambush), (Cleo: Pounce, Keen Senses), (Simbi: Pounce, Quick Strike), (Lyla: Pounce, Sure Feet), (Kalista: Pounce, Rapid Attack)

Tier 1 Level 7 x5  (Niamh: Pounce, Quick Strike), (Saffron: Pounce, Sharp Mind), (Luna: Pounce, Keen Senses), (Fang: Pounce, Sharp Mind), (Kiera: Pounce, Rapid Attack)

Tier 1 Level 6 x6 (Serena: Pounce, Quick Strike), (Nova: Pounce, Pride Attack), (Amber: Pounce, Ambush), (Aurora: Pounce, Rending Bite), (Leah: Pounce, Piercing Bite), (Lionel: Pounce, Healing Cloud)

Tier 1 Level 4 x1 (Prince: Pounce)

Pride enhancements:

21% increase in Prey Points for all Pride members – level 6

Increased damage for Pride members fighting together by ((number of enemies/number of pride members in the fight)*level of enhancement)% – level 4

Equally shared Prey Points for all Pride members (within a single fight) – on

15% increased chance of Pride members gaining a higher tier Ability on their next Tier or Half-Tier – level 3

Intra-group communication system – on

Lion’s Share – 90% of the points of all kills made by pride members to the leader – off

The first thing he noticed was that the Pride progress counter was sitting at 34. Since that was the same number it had been sitting at before Mara’s death, he was a little confused. He found himself also wondering what would have happened if they’d increased to the next level before she died. Would they have kept the points and then not gained any more the next time the Pride increased a level? Or would he have lost the enhancement he’d bought with the new level’s points? He guessed it must be at least one of those situations – it would be far too easily exploited if he could earn points by kicking a lioness out of the pride and then inviting her back in again and again. Curiosity filling him, he turned to look at the rest of the changes. 

Not surprisingly, almost all the lionesses who had come with him had increased a level, the only exception being Sekhmet. She was no longer the highest levelled lioness: now Anuke had caught up with her in actual levels. Dominic suspected that it wouldn’t last long, though. Not unless Anuke went hunting and Sekhmet didn’t, that was.

‘They’re not the only ones to have gone up, though,’ Leo remarked, clearly looking with as much interest as him. 

‘That’s true,’ Dominic realised. ‘I wonder what’s happened back with the group.’

Looking through the names, he saw that two of the juvenile males – Fang and Lionel – had gone up a level, as had Kiera, Lyla, Kalista, Simbi, and Neith. Realising that Neith had gone up gave Dominic a clue as to what had happened – she must have taken a group out hunting. Dominic approved greatly. And that explained why Mara’s death hadn’t affected the Pride progress to the next level – Neith, now a Tier 2, was worth two Tier 1 members. 

‘Healing Cloud, that’s an interesting one, don’t you think? It must be the increased chance of gaining a higher tier Ability working there.’ With the previous load of points, he’d chosen to increase their Prey Points earning by two levels and the chances of getting a higher tier by one level. He’d considered picking the option to have more chance of being able to choose the Ability, but had decided against it in the end – it wasn’t much good being able to choose if the choices were all rubbish. That was something for later.

‘I would like to see it in action,’ Leo agreed. ‘What caused him to gain something like that, though?’

‘Good question. You realise that if he’s turned into a healer, we won’t want to kick him out when he’s turned into an adult,’ Dominic pointed out. 

Leo was silent for a moment before letting out a frustrated grumble-groan. He didn’t respond in words, but Dominic knew that that was only because he didn’t want to agree in words. 

With the new increases in level, Dominic decided to check out his Pride points, and the options he had available. Last time, there had been one point left over after his selections; hopefully now he would have enough to get some good choices. 

[Pride enhancements

(Points available: 6)

Increase the number of Prey Points gained by 7% (repeatable) (7)

Increase the damage done by the members of the Pride when working together ((number of enemies/number of pride members in the fight)*level of enhancement)% (repeatable) (5)

Increase the chance of Pride members gaining a higher tier Ability on their next Tier or Half-Tier by 5% (repeatable) (4)

Increase the chance of being able to determine the type of Ability a Pride member will gain on their next Tier or Half-Tier by 5% (repeatable) (5)

Intra-group communication system (repeatable to extend range) (3)

Lion’s Generosity – give one of your Pride one of your Abilities (note: Ability will be at level 1 regardless of your original ability. Additional note: for every level above 0 you have raised the Ability, you have a 20% chance of retaining the Ability and/or its level. (5)

Pride defence – create a shield over the Pride which is strengthened by the combined defences of all Pride members within a certain radius. If the shield is forcibly broken, defences will take some time to return (dependent on Enhancement level); if the shield is voluntarily released, defences will return immediately. Cooldown: 5 mins (repeatable to increase range, defences, and reduce defence return time or cooldown) (10)

Immunity – no direct negative effects will be sustained from Abilities used by a member of the Pride. (20)

Note: more options may be added later depending on your actions with the Pride.]

‘Immunity…that’s a new one,’ Dominic mused to Leo. ‘And exactly what we need, even if it’s rather expensive’ he added, eyeing the new line with interest.

*****

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