Dominic was surrounded by hyenas, Leo keeping an eye on their positions through Spatial Awareness and highlighting the most dangerous ones for him. His Poison Cloud, though now dissipating, had done a good job at cutting down the health bars of multiple targets even if it hadn’t managed to kill any outright, most hyenas backing as far away from the cloud as they could. Fortunately, the restricted area of the Challenge space meant that a good portion of it was covered in poison.

  The greenish-yellow mist also continued to help with obscuring the line of vision of the hyena matriarch who was whooping and grunting to encourage and direct her troops. Dominic himself wasn’t significantly affected though – Spatial Awareness wasn’t disrupted by fog.

  He couldn’t identify exactly where the matriarch herself was, though – she was concealing herself from him somehow. But at least with the challenge in place, he knew that she would forfeit if she ran away like she had previously. This time, he had her pinned and for that, he was willing to ignore the unfair use of her spamming Ability. Assuming he could get through them enough to attack her directly, that was.

  ‘There are still too many vermin and they’re preparing to rush us,’ Leo warned him.

  ‘I’m aware,’ Dominic snapped at him, focussing on a bunch standing together not far from the edge of the Challenge space.

  Taking in a deep breath, he Roared, this time focussing on doing his best to make his targets fearful or angry, and to stun them if possible.

  About twenty of what had to be more than forty hyenas froze in place, maybe ten ran at him, and the rest either ran away from him or cowered to the ground. Dominic then switched to Fearful Voice, sending even those hyenas driven to anger running away with their tails between their legs.

  Unhindered, Dominic rushed forwards and did his best to take full advantage of the opening, striking at those unable to defend themselves with powerful blows, crushing bites, and strikes of his tail. Ten of the closest hyenas fell before the stun wore off. And they still couldn’t work out where the matriarch had gone.

  ‘The matriarch slipped away again!’ Leo snarled angrily.

  ‘We’ll get her one way or another,’ Dominic assured him even as he lined up his next move.

  Seeing that there was a whole group of hyenas clustered at the far edge of the Challenge space, apparently unable to leave now that they had entered, Dominic roared again – without any supernatural effects this time – and ran towards them while engaging Momentous Charge.

  He slammed into those hyenas like a bowling ball into skittles, crushing several outright even as the others were sent flying. Though, he had slightly miscalculated – the invisible wall that he ran into explained why they had been clustered there in the first place.

  [You are currently in a Challenge: For The Noble Beast’s Honour. Do you wish to forfeit the Challenge and exit the designated Challenge area?]

  ‘No!’ Dominic exclaimed hastily, though a moment later felt grateful that the System had even checked – he’d rather take a cracked skull and bruised face over accidentally losing the battle – and the war – because he unintentionally ran out of the designated area.

  In the meantime, the pain in his hindquarters and from his left wing told him that several of the hyenas had taken advantage of his momentary daze from knocking himself into what felt like a solid wall at far too high speeds with only a few hyenas as cushioning.

  Engaging Tail Strike, Dominic yowled in pain as the hyena’s teeth were torn forcibly out of his flesh as his body contorted itself to twist him around. Several of the hyenas yelped just as loudly as his tail slammed into them, though at the beginning of its journey it was far less powerful than by the end.

  Two hyenas even managed to stay attached, the Crushing Bites they had on his wings and leg strong enough to keep them in place even as they were flung outwards by centrifugal force.

  Dominic practically howled in pain as the force of his own movement just worsened the wounds, his wing wrenched in a direction it shouldn’t go, his leg almost as bad. A notable chunk of his health fell away from the bar, rapidly approaching its halfway mark. Filling his mouth with acid, he twisted along his own body’s length and spat at the hyena clinging onto his wing.

  Showing a speed beyond what most were capable of, it leapt back from what it obviously thought was his bite attack, but got caught by the ball of acid that flew at its head. Yelping, it snapped madly as the acid started sizzling audibly in the moist areas of its eyes, nose, and mouth.

  Dominic didn’t spare it another thought as he did his best to tuck his wing onto his back, fearing from the way that it drooped that one or more bones had been broken. Snarling loudly, he swiped almost casually at two hyenas which snapped at him hesitantly. They didn’t need much convincing to back off – as soon as he spat another ball towards them, they ran away giggling madly.

  Pain still spiking through him, Dominic next targeted the one doing its best to chew through his leg.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  That one was harder because of the angles, but Dominic was flexible enough that by twisting and lifting his intact wing, he was able to spit a ball of acid at the other hyena too. Having seen what his attacks did to its comrade, the hyena hastily let go and backed away as quickly as it could. It yelped when it wasn’t quite fast enough to avoid the ball completely and the acid made a line across its muzzle. Fortunately for the hyena, the damage was minor even though the flesh started bubbling where the acid had touched.

  Yelping and pawing at its own muzzle only succeeded in rubbing the caustic substance onto its paws. The hyena kept backing away, clearly desiring to be out of the fight.

  Dominic glared at the other hyenas around, snarling angrily at them, practically challenging them to attack him. There were far fewer of them remaining – less than half. And the bodies of their companions littered the ground around them. The matriarch was, as usual, on the opposite side of the space from him, doing her best to keep out of his way. Though to what end, he didn’t know – surely it would make more sense for her to attack him with the full force of her hyenas for the best chance of winning?

  ‘Don’t get distracted!’ Leo growled at him. ‘We have other enemies we need to kill first.’

  One of the hyenas took a step towards him. Snarling, Dominic struck, using Quick Strike combined with Sharp Bite Attack to cover the ground faster than the hyena could react. Swiping at its head, he forced it to reveal its throat and then ripped it out. The hyena dropped to the floor, still alive, but not for long.

  Dominic continued baring his teeth at his enemies even as he stood above the one bleeding out onto the earth, choking on its own blood as it frantically reached out for something that might help it survive.

  Putting all the carcasses that he was touching into his storage space, Dominic took from it even that possibility – if it even realised that it could heal itself that way.

  The rest of the hyenas backed away, at first one by one and slowly, and then as a whole group when they lost their nerve. They ran for their lives, giggling madly. Dominic absently noted that whatever hold the matriarch had on her hyenas, apparently it didn’t include being able to send them into suicidal attacks.

  The matriarch was the only hyena now not fearfully pressed against the somehow-solid barrier that kept their space protected from any outside interference – or stopped those inside from interfering with the outside battle.

  Which, Dominic saw, was on a turning point as a whole pride of lions, including a big male who had Leo already growling jealously, had apparently decided to fight by their Pride’s side after Sekhmet had declared and seemingly won a Challenge – Dominic hadn’t even known she could do that. Even better, he noticed several other groups of beasts apparently having second thoughts about pressing the attack, the pressure on the front lines lessened significantly as creatures in the back started to mill around rather than pushing forwards.

  ‘She’s moving!’ Leo snapped, pulling Dominic’s head back into the game as the matriarch advanced for the first time in the fight so far. ‘Look who’s finally decided to join the fight,’ he added snidely.

  ‘Are you sure you want to continue?’ Dominic asked the matriarch directly, doing his best to keep his own animosity at bay. ‘I’ve taken out most of your hyenas and the rest don’t seem to be keen on continuing either. Give up now and I’ll let you live.’

  ‘Don’t let her live!’ Leo exclaimed with evident dismay. ‘Haven’t you learned yet that if you let her live, she’ll just cause more problems later?’

  ‘As long as you swear not to attack me or mine ever again,’ Dominic clarified to the matriarch.

  ‘Oh, sure, that will stop her from being a potential danger in the future,’ Leo said sarcastically. In this case, though, Dominic felt that Leo’s concerns weren’t valid. Not as part of a Challenge where forfeit left one’s life in one’s opponent’s hands. He was somehow pretty sure that any promise the matriarch swore to as part of her forfeiture would be kept – even if the System itself had to act as guarantor.

  But such was not destined to be the case.

  ‘Why would I give up when I have you exactly where I want you to be?’ the matriarch asked with a sense of amusement in her mental voice.

  Dominic had only enough time to feel a sense of apprehension when the matriarch struck.

  Moving far faster than she had any right to, it was only his last-second dodge that meant she sank her teeth into Dominic’s shoulder instead of the join between his shoulder and neck.

  He roared in pain, instinctively pulling away from the bite until he regained control of himself. Pulling away would only worsen the bite. Instead, he struck at the hyena’s flank with his clawed paw.

  The matriarch responded by retreating with that same unexpected speed…but not without taking a chunk of Dominic’s flesh with her, demonstrating even more unexpected strength as her teeth ripped through his powerful muscles and tendons.

  Dominic felt more fear than he’d felt for a long time as his right forepaw collapsed underneath him and he struggled to control his head with a chunk of his neck muscles damaged.

  How was she so fast and strong? How?!

  It was all he could do to avoid her teeth as she lunged for him again. His flinch back sent him rolling onto his left side and was the only thing that got him out in time. Her jaws closed on his bone-spike collar instead of his throat. The pain of the spikes embedding themselves into her mouth made the hyena matriarch flinch back, snarling.

  But his momentary relief was only temporary – with calculating eyes, the matriarch lunged forwards again. Expecting an explosion of pain, Dominic instead felt a tug at his neck as the matriarch grabbed the collar more carefully – and ripped it apart. His throat was now open to her attack.

  Getting to his feet again was out of the question. Not only was he in a bad position to do so, but the matriarch was too fast for him to succeed. Not to mention that his life blood was practically pouring out of his body, his health draining away with it, faster than his regeneration could restore. He needed more healing.

  And with that, he had an idea.

  here!