In response to Dominic’s mental contact with her, Sekhmet sent a number of images to him, detailing exactly what had happened. As it turned out, three of the cubs had gone a bit too far from the rest of the pride and had been espied by a troop of baboons. The cubs had put up enough of a defence against the opportunistic primates that they had drawn the attention of the closest lioness. 

Sekhmet hadn’t been first on the scene – that had been Isis, the oldest lioness and the apparent matriarch of the pride. Her roaring defence had, inevitably, drawn the attention of the rest of the lionesses. 

They’d gone charging into the mess, swiftly killing the closest baboons to the beleaguered cubs and single lioness. The surviving baboons, now seeing that their opportunity for easy prey had disappeared, had tried to run. 

That’s where Sekhmet had come in. Exhorting her pride-sisters with her body language and snarls, then demonstrating by action what to do, she had led the charge. Dominic approved – the baboons had tried to seize an opportunity in the lion cubs, but had failed. In return, they would themselves become a way for the lions to grow.  

The baboons had run as first, but when it became clear that the lionesses were intent on doing more than just chasing them away, a number had stayed as a sort of rear-guard. Not a single one of the defending baboons had survived, though they’d managed to protect the rest of the troop for long enough that a good number had regained the safety of the tree tops.

One of the as-yet unnamed lionesses – the other one just coming out of her heat – had decided to leap into the trees after them and had even managed to catch a couple, letting them drop to the ground, half-dead, for her sisters to finish off. After that, though, the rest of the baboons had retreated high enough that she was too heavy to pursue them. 

Soon after that, they managed to evacuate through the treetops, avoiding ever touching the ground so the lionesses had to be satisfied with what they’d gained. Still, from the almost thirty-five baboons they’d actually managed to slay, they’d all gained at least one level, with the youngest lioness and the other unnamed lioness gaining two each.

I need to name them – I can’t keep going around calling them ‘unnamed lioness one’ and ‘unnamed lioness two’, Dominic thought to himself with exasperation. A moment of thought gave him two names he hoped he’d be able to live with. If they ever got to the point where names became important and they wanted to change them, obviously he’d accept that. As it was, Leo didn’t seem too bothered about his name.

‘No,’ the lion commented. ‘Names are a human thing. Lions don’t need anything so ridiculous. Imagine – you creatures become confused if two of you are named the same thing! Doesn’t that just demonstrate by itself how the leonine way of identifying through scent and sight is far superior to any name?’

‘And how are you supposed to smell someone through a piece of paper or a computer screen,’ Dominic pointed out. The lion grunted at him.

‘Lions don’t need to. That’s the point.’ Dominic gave up. Leo was right, and no amount of explaining that the two situations were therefore incomparable would work. 

Menhit should be a good name, he said to himself, eyeing the lioness with whom Leo had…become very familiar. It’s fortunate that the Ancient Egyptians had more than one lion goddess. Not too surprising considering that there had probably been plenty of the felines around in the environment. 

As for the other young lioness…. Based on her performance with the baboons, the way she had eagerly torn into the creatures menacing the cubs, Dominic decided to name her Anuke. A war goddess – minor, but it was a nice name, he felt. 

Naming done, Dominic started sending out the invitations, feeling the acceptance from the lionesses come rolling in. He even tried to invite the cubs, but got an error message. 

[Error: System cannot send invitation as target is below level 1]

Pity, Dominic commented to himself, having vaguely hoped to have been able to power-level the cubs to improve their defence rating. So there was a minimum level to new pride members. Was that just because no level 0s could join any sort of party, or was it something specific to prides? Or perhaps because of the levels of those already in the party?

Either way, he’d have to wait until they gained at least one level. The question now was when that would happen: when they gained enough Prey Points, or when they reached a certain age. 

The only reason he wondered whether it might be the latter was because he couldn’t see how making some of the changes he was offered on level-up might be possible for a small cub. Even Dominic himself wasn’t actually fully grown, which did make him wonder whether some of his changes would have issues when he reached his full size. And more importantly to Leo, his mane reached its full length. 

He dismissed the idea from his mind – they’d find out. He did make a mental note to see if he could bring half-dead prey for the cubs to kill. If it only took them reaching 100 Prey Points to level up, it would be better if they could do it sooner rather than later. Despite the potential issues levelling up a lot as a cub could cause, it did also significantly increase survivability. 

Pulling up his pride’s status screen, Dominic eyed it happily. 

Pride status

Level 2 Pride (progress to next level 7/10)

Current information shared:

Health, Abilities

Current members:

Dominic/Leo (T2, L19) – leader. (Health: 600/600, Abilities: Quick Strike, Second Wind, Group Attack, Crushing Bite, Pounce, Powerful Swipe, Sharp Nip, Rapid Attack) 

Hathor (T1, L6) (Health: 380/380, Abilities: Pounce, Rending Bite)

Neith (T1, L6) (Health: 380/380, Abilities: Pounce, Keen Senses)

Jenkins (T1, L6) (Health: 450/450, Abilities: Pounce, Quick Strike)

Menhit (T1, L6) (Health: 342/380, Abilities: Pounce, Sure Feet)

Isis (T1, L5) : (Health: 271/300, Abilities: Pounce)

Sekhmet (T1, L7)  : (Health: 357/380, Abilities: Pounce, Sharp Mind)

Anuke  (T1, L5) : (Health: 254/300, Abilities: Pounce)

Pride enhancements:

1% increase in Prey Points for all Pride members – level 1

Increased damage for Pride members fighting together by ((number of enemies/number of pride members in the fight)*level of enhancement)% – level 1

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

It was good to see everyone’s level, health pool and Abilities. Quite a diverse range of the latter, actually. None of the five who now had an Ability had actually repeated. I wonder what Sure Feet and Sharp Mind are, though. Some sort of passives to increase dexterity and intelligence or something? 

Perhaps he’d come across a creature and be able to find out from its Core: he certainly wouldn’t be trying to get at Menhit or Sekhment’s Core to satisfy his curiosity! He was happy to see that the pride had advanced a level, though not so happy to see that he hadn’t actually earned any Enhancement Points from Menhit or Sekhmet. Apparently them crossing the half-Tier mark hadn’t counted – because they weren’t part of the pride at the time, he guessed. 

He also noticed something he hadn’t seen before: the ‘on’ next to his most recent enhancement choice. Does that mean I can toggle it on and off? Dominic wondered. That would actually be pretty cool – being able to turn it on when it best suited him to be helping the lionesses to level, and then turning it off when it would be better for individuals to be advancing. 

Actually, that option to direct the ‘lion’s share’ of the Prey Points to the leader is still in the list. I wonder if I could switch between them at need. That could actually be pretty powerful…. 

‘Agreed,’ Leo responded to his thoughts. ‘It would definitely help us to gain an even more magnificent mane and become the most powerful male in this area. The females would choose to join us in droves.’ Directing an eye roll at his companion, Dominic couldn’t help asking a follow-up question. 

‘Does it even work like that? Lionesses choosing to leave their prides to join the strongest male?’ Leo sent him a feeling of a nonchalant shrug. 

‘If I prove myself to be so much stronger than their males, then I don’t see why not. The females of our current pride might take a bit of convincing, but now we’re able to communicate more complex concepts with them, I would imagine they’d recognise the power of numbers.’

‘Interesting point,’ Dominic commented. They’d already seen how the System’s influence had changed multiple creatures’ previous behaviour. Why not change the lions into coming together in some mega-pride? 

Leo seemed to have gone into some sort of dreamland, probably one populated with many, many lionesses and cubs. Deciding not to bother him at that moment, Dominic instead went to investigate what kind of Cores the baboons might have had. 

Digging into the closest carcass, the lion hesitated as he closed his jaws around the primate’s skull. Did he want to risk the bone breaking his currently-weak teeth? Not really. Especially when he didn’t even know whether it was an Ability he’d want. 

Instead, he was about to pick up a stone and do the same thing here as he had with the lizards, when another thought suddenly occurred. I have a tail mace and there’s no acid involved here – can’t I try using that? 

Materialising his tail armour, he turned and tried to lift the mace above the baboon’s head and drop it. After several fruitless attempts, he had to give up. Plan A, he sighed to himself. The problem was simply that he didn’t have enough fine motor control over his tail, especially when trying to hit something that he couldn’t even see. 

Letting rocks fall worked, though it took several impacts for the skull to finally crack enough  for him to get his claws in and pull it apart. 

Pulling out the Core, he identified the Ability held within. 

[You have obtained a Beast Core: Chacma Baboon Level 5

Ability: Sure Feet]

I thought they were just ‘baboons’, was Dominic’s first thought. What are the chances? was his second as he actually registered the Ability there. I guess I don’t need to crack open Mehnit’s head to find out about this Ability, then, he commented jokingly.

[Sure Feet (T0): A passive improvement to your ability to find a secure foothold, this Ability functions best when moving slowly, but still adds a small bonus to your balance and traction when moving at speed. The bonus this Ability offers may increase as Ability increases in level and other effects may be discovered.]

Not bad, Dominic thought, pleased despite himself. It wasn’t a direct improvement to his combat power, but it would definitely have come in handy when he was fighting the kesh or those sonic wolves and was obliged to take to the treetops. 

‘More than that,’ Leo’s voice came.

‘Back are you?’ Dominic asked in amusement. The lion ignored his comment. 

‘This could directly improve our speed when hunting, increase our ability to change direction, and give us a better base from which to weather attacks. We need this Ability.’ He was completely serious, unusual for him. 

‘I hadn’t thought of all of that,’ Dominic replied, slightly surprised. 

‘I know. Which is why I had to think of it,’ the lion replied smugly. ‘Now get to work!’ His seriousness had clearly not lasted long. Dominic mentally stuck his tongue out at the back-seat driver. 

‘Fine, dad.’

‘If I was your father, you’d have died long before reaching maturity,’ Leo pointed out. 

‘True,’ Dominic said, his joke falling flat as it merely reminded him of what he’d lost. Feeling subdued, he started collecting the Cores. 

He’d just about collected enough to gain the Ability on his next level up when Hathor grunted a warning. Looking up, he saw exactly what had alerted her and his hackles went up. 

‘Why do the hyenas always have to come and ruin the party?’ he complained to Leo, a growl rising in his throat.