‘Oh, they’re levelling up, are they?’ commented Dominic. He’d risen to full consciousness only a short time before, probably when Leo did too. Apparently it was possible to sleep in his mental space – and he felt a whole lot better for doing it.

He’d slid back into the ‘active’ space just in time to catch the lionesses blurring. Curious, he pulled up the Pride status sheet. 

 Pride status

Level 2 Pride (progress to next level 9/10)

Current information shared:

Health, Abilities

Current members:

Dominic/Leo (T2, L19) – leader. (Health: 521/600, Abilities: Quick Strike, Second Wind, Group Attack, Crushing Bite, Pounce, Powerful Swipe, Sharp Nip, Rapid Attack) 

Hathor (T1, L7) (Health: 420/420, Abilities: Pounce, Rending Bite)

Neith (T1, L7) (Health: 380/380, Abilities: Pounce, Keen Senses)

Jenkins (T1, L7) (Health: 450/450, Abilities: Pounce, Quick Strike)

Menhit (T1, L7) (Health: 380/380, Abilities: Pounce, Sure Feet)

Isis (T1, L6) : (Health: 340/340, Abilities: Pounce, Protective Mother)

Sekhmet (T1, L8)  : (Health: 380/380, Abilities: Pounce, Sharp Mind)

Anuke  (T1, L7) : (Health: 300/300, Abilities: Pounce, Rapid Attack)

Pride enhancements:

3% increase in Prey Points for all Pride members – level 2

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

All the lionesses had gained a level except for Anuke who seemed to have gained two, shooting from level 5 to level 7 all in one go. Isis had also started at level 5 but must have been further away than Anuke from it as she was still a level 6. Sekhmet remained the leader of the pride other than Dominic/Leo at level 8. 

We need to get more of the pride over the Evolved threshold, though, Dominic said to himself. He was aware of the danger the sonic wolves offered, though hoped that by bringing his own pack along, they’d be able to interrupt the creatures’ most dangerous moves. 

However, it would definitely help if the lionesses were at least Tier 2. They’d probably get a new Ability at level 10, if the three the warthog guardian had was anything to go by. 

Speaking of Abilities, what are these new ones, Dominic wondered. Both Isis and Anuke had crossed the Half-step threshold in that fight and had earned their second, more personalised Ability. 

Well, Anuke’s didn’t seem too personalised since it was one Dominic already had. Isis’ however…. Protective Mother, eh? Does it only apply to actual cubs, or can it apply to any creature she designates as protected under her maternal influence? 

Honestly, it wasn’t too surprising to see that she’d earned something like that: the reason she was trailing the others in terms of levels was because at each fight before he’d chosen to equalise the Prey Point gain, she’d consistently chosen to protect the weakest members of the pride. But it would definitely be better if whatever benefits she could get from the Ability were transferable to members other than just the cubs. 

I guess we’ll have to see. Speaking of, have we earned enough Prey Points to level up ourselves? he wondered, calling up that information. 

To his disappointment, they’d just missed earning enough points for their own progression. 

Progress to Evolution: 434/462 PP level up

Less than thirty points away, mourned Dominic. Not that he thought they should go back to try to hunt down a few hyenas just so he could level up – even he wasn’t that point-hungry. 

‘You’re awake are you?’ Leo finally answered him. It had been so long that Dominic had forgotten what he’d actually said to the lion.

‘No, I’m sleep-talking,’ Dominic said, playfully sarcastic. The lion growled both mentally and physically, but Dominic could tell it wasn’t a really irritated noise. 

‘So, what’s the plan?’ Leo asked expectantly. Dominic didn’t pretend to misunderstand. 

‘The same as usual: we need to grow in strength. We’re not ready to face the guardians of the Place of Power yet. Hunting down kesh in the forest might help us get there, though.’

‘I had a thought on that matter too,’ Leo offered. 

‘Oh?’

‘What if we find the territory of another male, drive him off, and add his females to ours.’

‘Is that something lions tend to do?’ Dominic couldn’t help but ask curiously. For once, though, Leo was uncertain about a question relating to lions.

‘It didn’t happen to my birth pride,’ he equivocated, ‘but I don’t see why we shouldn’t do it.’

‘Would the lionesses be willing to combine with other lionesses, though? I thought that all of these lionesses were basically related. Would they be OK with a group of complete strangers being integrated into the pride?’ Dominic pointed out. 

Leo sent a grunt which was his version of a shrug. 

‘Before, probably not. They’d have been too territorial. But now? We have no territory because we’ve been pushed off it by hyenas. That’s not something which probably ever happened before. They have also become more able to reason and change normal behaviour.’ Leo shoved a memory at Dominic. Watching it, he saw the confrontation with Isis while he was sleeping. ‘I think that as long as they are able to establish a hierarchy, it should be possible.’

‘Should,’ Dominic repeated doubtfully. 

‘Yes. Anyway even if the females cannot work together, we may still get a territory out of it. Then we have no need to challenge the wolves at this point.’ Dominic couldn’t help but feel an undercurrent of fear about the wolves drift over from Leo. 

He wasn’t surprised: honestly, Dominic himself was nervous about facing them again. But he really did feel like it was something they should do. However, did Leo have a point here? 

Certainly having more lionesses to fight would be a good thing. They might have won the battle with the hyenas if they had had more claws and teeth at their disposal. Dominic wasn’t too surprised that Leo was suggesting this either: more lionesses meant more potential mating partners. He hadn’t given that as one of his reasons, but Dominic didn’t doubt that it was a factor for him. 

‘I still think it’s important for us to capture the Place of Power sooner rather than later,’ Dominic said to Leo seriously. ‘I don’t know exactly why, but something is telling me that it’s important. But at the same time…I agree that as we are right now, we would struggle to succeed against them. We’d most likely even lose members too.’

‘So we’ll go searching for other females?’ Leo asked hopefully. 

‘That or prey which brings the lionesses to a high enough level to stand a good chance against the sonic wolves,’ Dominic agreed, though added his own caveat. 

He could tell that the lion wasn’t completely satisfied – Dominic hadn’t fully committed to finding more females, after all. But it was a compromise they were both fine with. 

Though speaking of firepower, Dominic grimaced mentally as he realised that he should probably do something he’d originally thought was a bad idea: absorb the bodies and Cores of the skeets. 

Acid Spit wasn’t something he’d been too interested in, but the battle he’d just had with the hyenas had proven that sometimes having something extra could be the difference between winning and retreating with his tail between his legs. 

That’s not to say that he was sure they would have won if he’d been able to spit acid, but it would certainly have given them an edge. He might even have been able to corner the female hyena if he’d had some sort of ranged attack. Though most of his opponents were also stuck to melee, that didn’t mean that all of them were. And that wasn’t even taking into account when they eventually made contact with humans. 

So yes, having some sort of ranged attack would be useful And honestly, so far all of the Abilities he’d earned had fitted fine with his body. Even Powerful Kick had transformed into Powerful Swipe just for him because it didn’t suit his body. He’d just have to again choose the option which changed his body the least. 

He sent his thoughts over to Leo who immediately offered to swap over bodies. Evidently, he wasn’t keen on getting his claws dirty with the skeets. Not that Dominic blamed him, though he did find it a little illogical when they were sharing the same body. 

Pulling the skeet carcasses out of his storage space, he rapidly Consumed them, then absorbed their Cores too. At intervals, he stopped to check his status screen, not wanting to go over 100% accidentally: he already had Sure Feet sitting there waiting for a level up. 

As it was, he only just had enough skeet carcasses and Cores to get to 100% on Acid Spit. Now he just needed to get enough Prey Points to actually acquire both new Abilities. Hopefully Acid Spit would prove to be the ranged option he was looking for. 

Standing, Dominic was momentarily at a loss for how to get the lionesses moving. Fortunately, he had Leo there to advise him. 

‘They will follow Isis. You just need to convince her to move.” 

‘Alright,’ Dominic replied, taking a couple of steps towards the lioness. Then he faltered again. ‘Wait, where are we going, anyway? You know where the Place of Power is, so could help me direct them to get there, but neither of us know where there are other lions. Unless you’ve discovered something you haven’t told me yet?’

Leo gave him a sense of a nonchalant shrug. 

‘Perhaps Isis will know. She’s lived in this area a lot longer than we have.’

‘Except this area isn’t the same as it was a few weeks ago,’ pointed out Dominic a little sceptically. Then he shrugged mentally. Ah well, it was worth a try. 

Communicating what he was looking for with Isis took a little bit more effort as she kept being confused with the lionesses of their pride. Eventually, though, by populating a thought with all the lionesses of their pride and then showing a number of other lionesses, he managed to get his intentions across. Even better, it seemed like she actually had an idea of where to go.

Honestly, he didn’t think it would have worked except for the fact that she’d crossed the threshold between level 5 and level 6. Dominic was definitely convinced that each half-step and full-step marked some significant improvement in the creature’s intelligence. Maybe all creatures. Though that was a little concerning as a thought, considering some of the animals which roamed – or flew around – the area. 

Fortunately, Isis seemed to interpret his suggestion as one where they intended to drive the other pride off their territory and take it for their own pride, meaning that Dominic didn’t have to try to explain cooperation. He’d cross that bridge when they came to it. 

Sure enough, once Isis was on-board and moving away, the rest of the pride started to shift too. One by one, the lionesses pushed themselves to their feet again and, more or less happily, trotted along behind the lead lioness. 

Time to go find themselves (another) pride.