The elves, predictably, were far more interested in hurrying ahead and hopefully helping their people than taking their time, conserving their strength, and probably arriving after the attack was over. They started sprinting ahead as a group, accompanied by as many of the Pride as could match their pace and keep it. Technically, most of the Pride members could out-pace them but there was no strategic advantage in arriving at the battle with half of them exhausted.

  Dominic decided to lead the runners – the albuhas were faster and more agile in the air and could fulfil the scouting role better than he could in many ways. They had already gone ahead of the land-bound Pride members and gave regular updates of the situation as Dominic’s group closed the gap.

  ‘Two-legs holding against beasts but struggling.’

  ‘Beasts going around two-legs.’

  ‘Lots of plants growing. Most beasts trapped – face two-legs or retreat. Some beasts still going around.’

  ‘Two-legs spreading out – need to stop beasts who escaped plants. Two-legs spread thin,’

  ‘Beasts getting through two-legs – not enough to block them.’

  ‘We need to get there – they need our help!’

  The last was panted out by Ruthror, his eyes wild. Dominic had been passing on the updates from the albuhas, but now he was wondering if he should have just kept quiet – sometimes ignorance really was bliss.

  Now, they were close enough to see the details of the back ranks of the beasts, though the situation at the front with the elves was still hidden to them. As before, he noticed that there were quite a few hyenas present, most of them hanging around at the back and hooting as if to encourage the rest forwards.

  There were also trodils, resorels, kesh, and wild dogs all pressing forwards as if eager to sink their teeth – or beaks – into elven flesh. He was pretty sure he even saw a group of large scrin somewhere in the middle of the mass. It wasn’t surprising at all that the elves were struggling with the onslaught.

  They couldn’t just leap into this – Dominic had had enough experience with fighting the creatures he recognised to know that they needed a plan.

  ‘Everyone, the most important thing is to stick together! Once you’re surrounded, form a circle and protect each other’s backs. If you get seriously injured, drop back into the center. Nyx, I’m going to share Healing Cloud with you – don’t hesitate to absorb carcasses to power it. Isis, you too, and use Protective Mother on the most vulnerable. Otherwise, kesh, stick in the centre of the ring – throw stones at beasts outside the circle. Try to target enemies attacking other Pride members, but don’t risk hitting a Pridemate. Amesheks and lions, work together in pairs as we discussed. Amesheks stun, lions attack. If the strategy doesn’t work, though, don’t hesitate to try something different. Everyone, use quick attacks – in and out. Make sure you always know where the rest of the Pride is and don’t get trapped or isolated from the group. Albuhas, harry them from the air with your Fearful Howl and physical attacks, where possible. If you need a break, land in the middle of the Pride. We don’t want to lose anyone – stick together and work as a team everyone. Any questions?’

  They were less than two minutes away from slamming into the back ranks of the mass of beasts.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ Sekhmet asked.

  ‘I’m going to check out the front lines and help relieve the pressure if I can. If I can’t or they refuse to accept my help, I’ll return and help here at the back,’ Dominic told her.

  ‘Be careful,’ she warned, several others joining in with a similar caution, including Jenkins and Nyx.

  ‘I will,’ Dominic promised, then contacted the elves to quickly explain the gist of the Pride’s plan.

  A minute or so until they’d strike the beasts at the back of the group.

  He saw some of their targets becoming aware of their approach. Not many, fortunately, but that would change quickly, especially as he heard the hyenas at the rear begin whooping. Hopefully few enough would be alerted that the lions’ Pounce Abilities would still take effect.

  ‘Perhaps the female has a point,’ Leo commented quietly, projecting more anxiety than Dominic had ever sensed from him before. ‘We should fight together as a Pride. We will make each other stronger.’

  ‘That’s exactly what we’re going to do. We’re more mobile, flexible, and do more damage in a single hit than anyone else in the Pride, save perhaps Nyx. We will do more good moving around the battlefield than if we stay close to the Pride. The System should recognise that we’re still working together even if we’re not in close proximity – we’re attacking the same group with the same aims.’

  ‘But if members of our Pride start being overwhelmed….’

  ‘Then we will come back and protect them,’ Dominic assured him. The lion’s presence retreated a little – not entirely content but willing to concede for a time.

  Not wanting to get distracted by notifications, Dominic intentionally willed them to only tell him about deaths among his own group and any challenges that might be levied against him. Those would probably come through no matter what he wanted, anyway.

  ‘Our friends may not realise that you are here to help,’ Berion warned. ‘We will do our best to skirt the main body of beasts and communicate with those at the front. Don’t be too fast to get there,’ he suggested.

  Thirty seconds to go.

  ‘Fine,’ Dominic said shortly, then he activated Momentous Charge.

  Every footfall made him grow in size and this time, with so much distance to build up, he found himself actually hitting a limit that he hadn’t realised existed. It became harder and harder to push against the air in front of him and to continue growing his momentum further.

  Fortunately, that happened only a short distance away from the enemy beasts. Gathering his full enhanced power, he leaped the final feet to land on his targets. Only, with his greater size and weight, he practically turned them into a paste, dead in an instant. The first beasts barely slowed him down, and he took advantage of the lingering size and strength given by Momentous Charge to gather his back feet beneath him and leap forwards again.

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  It took at least four beasts before he was slowed to the point where his strike didn’t instantly kill his target and knock back those around as well. By that point, his size and weight were almost back to normal, though he still had some lingering momentum propelling him forwards.

  Planting his front paws into the earth below his pulverised opponents, he used the rest of the remaining momentum from his charge to add extra power to his Tail Strike. The force of the Ability drove his back end around, twisting him 180 degrees. His by now metal-clad tail ripped through the beasts before him like they weren’t even there. Blood exploded into the air from the impact, the smaller creatures almost vanishing as a result of the force of the blow.

  Momentous Charge might have given him the power and weight to bulldoze through four beasts; Tail Strike pulverised at least seven.

  Dominic couldn’t sit on his laurels, though – the rest of his Pride weren’t far behind. Leaping high into the air, he cleared the way just in time for the first ranks of his Pride to plough into the beasts. Spreading his wings, he watched their progress. Nyx was leading the charge, her large frame and armoured body allowing her to drive a wedge deep into the mass of beasts.

  Behind her in a natural v-shape, the rest of the Pride followed. In the first second of the battle, at least twice again the number Dominic had killed were overcome. When Nyx’ forward momentum ground to a halt, the rest of the Pride pushed forwards to surround and support her, the amesheks naturally gravitating closest to her, the rest of the Pride arranging themselves next to them. Dominic heard Isis, Simbi, Sekhmet, and Jenkins all calling out orders. The first three were arranging the Pride; Jenkins was directing her albuhas above.

  Dominic felt pride swell inside him – they were well able to take care of themselves. That freed him up to be more mobile on the battlefield.

  With a flap of his wings, Dominic pushed himself through the air, soaring high enough that he shouldn’t have to worry about being attacked from below. Abruptly, his body dodged to the side, his instincts responding to the threat he felt with Spatial Awareness even before he noticed it. And then he dropped down as another two flew at him. His eyes caught up with what his senses had already detected – three arrows had just flown at him. There was only one source for that – the elves.

  Dominic eyed the group of humanoids in case another missile was about to be sent his way, but it looked like all the elves were currently fully occupied. Perhaps they had risked a shot at him because he looked to be the biggest airborne threat. Clearly, Berion had a point about not rushing to the front too quickly.

  It seemed like the elves’ lapse in concentration had cost them, though, if the way the beasts had surged forwards was any indication. The bow-wielding elves were now fully focussed on the battle immediately in front of them.

  Dominic kept a wary eye on the elves just in case that situation changed and he became a target once again. In the meantime, though, he got a firsthand view of the battlefield.

  There were easily a hundred beasts present, possibly a lot more. It was hard to get a proper count considering the massively different sizes and shapes of them all and the way they were moving around. The back ranks of the battle were now fully aware of the new players, but the middle section and front sections weren’t, still pressing forwards in eagerness to taste elven flesh. Dominic now had a better idea of what the albuhas had been trying to communicate earlier.

  The elves were very limited in numbers, it seemed with only around twenty-five fighters against the whole of the beast force. To lessen the advantage of numbers on the beasts’ side, the elves had grown thorny hedges to try to channel the attackers to a choke-point. The problem was that some of the beasts had gone around the funnelling hedges and were attacking the elves from the sides. To defend against that, elves had been pulled from the main choke-point and diverted there.

  But now, the weight of numbers pushing through the choke-point were driving the elves back bit by bit – and if they lost that section, they would easily be surrounded by the numbers present. But they couldn’t ignore the beasts harrying their flanks either.

  Dominic didn’t know why they hadn’t grown more hedges to narrow the choke-point even further or trap the beasts entirely, but they hadn’t. They were lucky that the beasts didn’t seem to have recognised that the easiest way to win would be to pull back and simply go around the hedges.

  Berion’s group were following the outside of the hedge to the right – they were going to support that section which should help take some of the pressure off the defending elves and redistribute the fighters back to the choke point. Dominic wanted to do the same on the left, but he’d need to wait until he wouldn’t be immediately attacked as an enemy beast himself. Looking back at the Pride, he saw that they were doing fine. Making up his mind, he decided to do his best to alleviate the pressure of numbers on the main chokepoint.

  The beasts appeared all to be ground-bound – the lack of aerial surveillance and the focus on their prey meant that when Dominic dropped to the ground in the centre of the densely-packed beasts, he was completely unexpected.

  His teeth and claws bared, Dominic used his weight to crush the beast he landed on – from its lack of fight beneath his paws it was either dead or wished it was. Whirling around, he struck at the creatures within range. Throwing in a Tail Strike every few blows meant that he cleared the area immediately around him rapidly.

  Stopping his attacks for a moment, Dominic concentrated. He did earn a couple of scrapes as a bold beast he didn’t recognise saw his lack of movement as vulnerability – which it was. It was unfortunate that this Ability took a few seconds to get going.

  By the time the greenish smoke was wreathing his body, he was bleeding from several places, but fortunately nothing had dared to commit to a proper attack. Pumping out poison, Dominic emptied his venom stocks, breathing as slowly as he could.

  He heard the sound of creatures whining, yelping, and screeching in pain as the venom ravaged their bodies, but he hardened his heart. They were his enemies, any of his attacks caused them pain – that was just the result of a battle. And if he didn’t fight, then it would be him and his Pride who would be in pain and dying instead. Or the elves.

  And then, three breaths later, his cloud stopped thickening around him and began slowly dissipating.

  The effects on the beasts within a body length of him weren’t as significant as they had been on the toads, but most of the creatures who had spent any time in his Poison Cloud were hurt, their blood haemorrhaging out of their eyes, noses, and mouths. And due to the way the beasts at the back were pressing forwards, those caught close to him hadn’t been able to escape.

  Dominic reaped a bloody harvest as he capitalised on the effects of his poison. Swipe by swipe, Bite by bite, he made his way through the beasts around him.

  Those who hadn’t been affected were still very wary of him, their eyes wide and staring, flinching back from him when he came close to them. A hyena snapped at him, but it seemed half-hearted and got repaid with a bloody swipe that ripped open its nose, then a follow-up Crushing Bite of his own that crunched its spine to shards.

  [A member of your Pride has died]

  The message made Dominic snarl in a mixture of anger and fear.

  ‘Who died?’ he demanded in the Pride chat.

  ‘One of Isis’s cubs,’ Sekhmet answered tersely. ‘We’re surrounded. Couldn’t get to her in time. Another one next.’

  Before she had time to finish the thought, another notification flashed up.

  [A member of your Pride has died]

  ‘I said stay together!’ Dominic growled into the Pride chat. Guilt and fear spiked into the chat from others which indicated that they were on their own too. His rumbling growl increased with his mounting anger even as Leo snarled mentally in accompaniment. The creatures around him flinched.

  There were just too many of them – already the space around Dominic was shrinking again despite the fear of those around simply due to the crush beyond them.

  ‘Roar,’ Leo told him. ‘Warn them of what will happen if they continue to fight.’

  It wasn’t a bad idea. They wanted to gain Prey Points, but losing Pride members was counterproductive as well as infuriating for both Dominic and Leo. If they could scare a few away, and perhaps give their trapped Pride members a moment of leeway to get back to the protective Pride lines….

  Dominic opened his mouth and Roared.

  here!