Chapter 81: Close (Patreon)

Before actually jumping back in, Dominic decided that he could do with a pick-me-up – one that offered a bit of extra stamina. One of the veten bodies he’d dumped in his storage not long before would do just fine. He’d wanted to keep them for experimentation, but survival trumped that.

Pulling them both out quickly, he Consumed them a moment later. He’d already absorbed the Cores, so there was no need to take his eyes off the other chimera for even a single moment.

In the corner of his vision, both his health and stamina increased by a decent chunk. It wasn’t a lot, but it was better than nothing. And he still had his joker up his sleeve, but he’d rather not use that unless he absolutely needed to.

The attempt to Pounce hadn’t worked, though he’d ended up getting a decent grip last time. But where should he strike? How could he get to a vulnerable spot with the least amount of risk to himself? His eyes flickered across the chimera’s form. Then the chimera moved its head abruptly and they met eyes.

Dominic tried to break the eye contact, look elsewhere, but failed. Then he tried to shift sideways, but it was like his body was frozen as thoroughly as it had been with the sonic wolves. With dawning fear, he realised that his eyes were snared by the orange and yellow orbs of the chimera, orbs which were fluctuating in the most distracting way.

Then the chimera blinked and the spell was broken. Dominic quickly looked away, realising with a frisson of horror how close the other creature was all of a sudden. In the short space of time he had been enthralled, the chimera had significantly narrowed the distance between them.

Leaping away, Dominic felt his heart beating frantically as images cascaded through his mind of him being stuck in place while his body was torn apart by sharp claws. He’d have to make sure not to meet the other chimera’s eyes. Though, that did make trying to find a good spot to attack a bit difficult.

Maybe I need to take another approach, he thought to himself. Much like with the warthog Guardian in the dungeon, it seemed like getting in a killing strike in a single attempt was unlikely to actually happen. So maybe he’d have to bleed the other chimera.

From what he’d seen, the creature was fast, but probably not as fast as the lion. Not to mention it was much bigger, so there was more bulk to move: the reason he’d offered to Leo for not increasing his own bulk too much was to not impact his agility. Hopefully this fight would prove that he was right. If not…well, Leo wouldn’t be able to say ‘I told you so’ if they were both dead.

But he would have to be a little careful: although the two veten corpses had replenished a little of his stamina, he was still below half.

Testing the other chimera’s reflexes, he made a feinting run towards the creature’s front-quarters, then dodged sideways as it came to bite at him. He then darted in to swipe at the back of its right front leg, drawing blood but not leaving a particularly large injury.

When the creature tried to bite him, snaking its head around, Dominic darted under its belly. It required crouching a little, but he was quite able to move quickly even when not fully upright.

The chimera actually followed him with its sinuous neck, so he took advantage to leap onto its back, using its stunted wings to give himself a good foothold.

This time, he dug his claws in straight away, then bit hard at the creature’s back. The scales over its spine turned out to be much thicker than the ones elsewhere on its back, so Dominic instead concentrated on just causing as much harm as he could.

Temporarily pushing both Crushing Bite and Powerful Swipe to +20% damage, he chewed through a good 40 SP in a second. Then, releasing both Abilities, he quickly pushed himself off the creature’s back, avoiding the bite coming his way from the neck which had untangled itself.

His claws and teeth wet with the creature’s blood, Dominic licked his lips and eyed the creature’s health bar. That attack had taken about half his remaining stamina, if the initial movements were added to the cost of the actual attack, but it had been worth it.

Though the injuries weren’t to a hugely vulnerable part of the chimera, they were bleeding heavily. Plus, they were on a part of the creature’s back that it couldn’t help but use, stopping them from clotting easily and impeding its movement.

Looking at its health bar, the almost-half had been cut down by a large chunk. Another attack or two like that could see it run out of health points, even if he didn’t hit anywhere particularly important. But it seemed like the creature was now going to actually take this seriously.

With a speed that belied its bulky body, it charged towards Dominic. Perhaps it was using some Ability or other because it covered the ground surprisingly fast. The lion was barely able to react before the creature was on him, pinning him with its front paws and biting at him with its mouth.

Dominic had been wondering how the other chimera had been winning its battles if it only just stood there and bit out every now and again. Now he realised that it had just been playing with him, or trying to work out his attack style. It had been tanking his attacks, trusting in its own health regeneration to see it through. Perhaps rightfully so.

Dominic’s health dropped like a stone, the rapid bites causing blood to flow heavily from multiple points under his fur. If he hadn’t already been covered in blood, he would certainly be so now.

He tried to mount a defence, biting at the chimera’s jaws, but as soon as he accidentally made eye contact, he was frozen once more.

No! he shouted in his own mind, Leo’s helplessly enraged roar sounding mentally at the same time. I refuse! He felt his brother’s similar refusal to be overcome combined with his own. Just like with the dungeon master, they had a single enemy which they both wished with all their strength to defeat. With sheer force of will, he wrenched his gaze away from the other chimera’s. The creature was taken by surprise and it stilled for a single, vital moment.

The lion lunged forwards to bite at the creature’s throat, pouring stamina into his Crushing Bite.

Waking up from its surprise – or backlash of its Ability, perhaps – the other chimera started moving, struggling. It tried to wrench away from his grip, but he just bit harder, bringing his paws around to grip at its neck in the mockery of an embrace.

His back legs were still pinned by the other chimera’s own limbs, and his health was pouring out of his health bar – almost as fast as his stamina was emptying.

Weakness crept over him as his stamina emptied to the merest sliver. No! he shouted again mentally. I will not lose now! Activating Second Wind, he saw his health and stamina shoot up, though he knew it was only temporary.

Now on a timer, he pushed Crushing Bite to the max and just bit down harder. He used the leverage of his paws around its neck to wrench his head from side to side, worsening the wound. From his position he couldn’t see what the chimera’s health bar was doing, but he was himself pinned so there was no chance of leaping away and reattempting a different attack. All he could do was cause as much damage to the flesh he was gnawing at as he could.

Of course, the chimera wasn’t taking the attack passively. Striking viciously at him with its front paws, it raked massive wounds in his body. With his front paws wrapped around the creature’s neck, Dominic was stretched out, his belly vulnerable.

Groaning, he felt a pain which he’d hoped never to feel again: the sensation of being disemboweled. Will my health potion deal with this much damage? he asked despairingly of himself. With having levelled up so recently, he doubted that even this chimera would be enough to level up again. So his only hope of survival now was the health potion.

The chimera became more and more frantic. Its previously disciplined attacks with its feet turned into desperate wrenching away from Dominic’s bite. It had done well to avoid doing that until this point: the wounds under Dominic’s teeth ripped open, pouring more blood over Dominic himself. As if he needed more of a blood-bath.

Dominic himself grunted in pain as the stretch tore more of his own flesh, the slices the chimera’s paws had opened in his softer belly ripping under the strain. Am I about to be pulled in half? he wondered morbidly.

Just as he became sure that that horrible possibility was about to become reality, the chimera suddenly collapsed. The head fell on him painfully, his legs still pinned even as the body became deadweight rather than a living weapon.

A message flashed up before Dominic’s eyes, but he ignored it in favour of summoning his health potion from his storage space. As he’d intended, it appeared directly in his mouth. Though it still had the cork still in, he’d already done this once before and was soon able to wriggle the cork out enough with a combination of teeth and tongue that the swampy flavour of the healing potion appeared within his mouth.

His health bar quickly increased, some of the pain in his belly reduced. When the health potion was all gone, though, there were still significant injuries on him, and his health had only been restored by 150 HP. At that moment, it was sitting at 154 HP, proving just how close to death they had come.

It’s not enough! Dominic thought with dismay. With his health pool now at 600 HP when at maximum, Second Wind would be taking 300 HP from him when the timer ran out. He’d forgotten that the health potion had a fixed number of health points that it restored where Second Wind was based on a percentage of his health. When he’d first got the health potion, his maximum health had been half of what it was now, so the potion would have restored what he needed for Second Wind. Now, though, it was rather lacking.

Hopefully the corpse of the chimera would make up the difference. With his attention no longer on preventing his imminent demise, Dominic looked at the message which had flashed up in front of him.

[You have killed [Chimera]. Consume the body to access enhancements.]

*****

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Chapter 82: Enhancement Points