Pouring all of his intention into the loud sound, he did his best to make a declaration of amnesty for those who stepped aside and did not fight. At the same time, he projected his deadliness, trying to capture the feeling of fear when trying to take down a deadly beast several levels above them, and promising only death for those who continued to fight.

  Behind him, he sensed his Pride members straightening up, heartened by the morale boost of his sound. Before him, his enemies faltered, their forwards motion slowed or even stopped for a few of them as they gazed at the lion standing tall before his invading force. The pressure of those behind them who were less impacted by his Roar caused a few of those at the front to be bowled over or even trampled.

  The pause was long enough for Dominic’s rear-guard to join the battle – he was still close enough to them to notice it at the edges of his Spatial Awareness. The appearance of even more enemies was obviously disheartening to their opponents – they couldn’t see past the ridge as much as Dominic hadn’t been able to before cresting it. For all they knew, there were just as many beasts littering the slopes behind the Pride as there were within the basin, if not more.

  Dominic didn’t know how he could read this dismayed thought in the beasts before him; perhaps it was that same strange communication based on body language which he had experienced with the beasts who were now his allies. But for a moment, as his roar faded away into a pregnant silence, he wondered whether they might actually manage to pull off an almost bloodless battle.

  And frankly, even if that meant fewer Prey Points gained, that was his preference, especially if he could convert some of his current enemies into allies – now with dungeon overflows on the horizon, they would be swimming in Prey Points before long. What they really needed was more bodies to defend their ever-growing forest territory.

  But unfortunately, it appeared that he and the matriarch weren’t on the same page.

  After having paused for a moment, she started whooping with even more fervour at her army. Dominic didn’t need Telepathy to be able to understand that she was ordering them to fight – and threatening to wipe them out to the last beast if any dared to stand aside. Her hyenas stood at her sides and her back, their teeth gleaming in the light of the early morning sun.

  The beast wave before Dominic started moving forwards again, even if reluctantly. It was clear what was happening – the matriarch was a known, and feared element. Dominic was not. And in a contest between one that they knew could and would kill them, and one that they only thought might kill them, the first won.

  But before the wave could crash into them once more, Dominic projected his thoughts across the battlefield. Not sure if he was using Telepathy or that form of body language communication which he’d used with the beast leaders, Dominic spoke to both the matriarch and any other beast capable of receiving his words.

  ‘I challenge you for control of the beast faction!’

  The beasts approaching them slowed to a stop once more, silence once more falling over the battleground.

  The matriarch was silent for a long moment, her eyes glittering as she stared at Dominic’s form.

  ‘You are barely even a beast!’ she replied, her projected thoughts scornful. ‘A pet of the two-legs, sent to do the work they are too weak to do. Why should I lower myself to fight with the two-legs’ prey beast?’

  Dominic felt a surge of outrage stem from Leo, matched by his own anger that the matriarch was trying to weasel out of a battle which might end things more cleanly than otherwise. When they responded, Dominic couldn’t have said whose words they were that were projected across the battlefield, their consciousnesses blending in a way that they never had before.

  ‘I am no pet, you wretched excuse for vermin! I am a king of my own sovereign territory. I ally with the elves only for the gain of my Pride. If you are truly the queen of beasts you seem to believe yourself to be, you will face my challenge honorably!’

  [You, a Beast Lord candidate, have Challenged another Beast Lord candidate for territory and dominance. Winner takes all, including any bonds of fealty. Kill or force your opponent to submit to your power to win. You are the designated Champion of a rival faction in a greater Settlement Challenge. Your success or failure therefore denotes success or failure in the Settlement Challenge. Your opponent, as leader of the other faction, may NOT refuse this Challenge and failure to fight is considered an automatic forfeit. As you are not your faction leader, you have a final opportunity to withdraw your Challenge.

  Press Challenge / Withdraw Challenge]

  ‘So that’s how it feels like to be on the other side of an unavoidable Challenge,’ Dominic couldn’t help remarking to Leo, oddly relieved that their temporary mind-meld had vanished when they had stopped their proclamation.

  ‘She won’t be slipping out of this one,’ Leo agreed gleefully.

  ‘Interesting that we have the opportunity to withdraw the Challenge, though,’ Dominic noted. Evidently him not being the faction leader gave him a little more leeway.

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  ‘You won’t, though,’ Leo stated, though Dominic could tell that he was searching for reassurance.

  In answer, Dominic instructed the System to press forward with his Challenge. The snarling of the matriarch could be heard despite the distance, so quiet was the battlefield at that moment.

  ‘Fine. You wish to fight? We will fight. And so will our clans!’ She started pushing her way through her army, the beasts moving aside to let her and her honour-guard of hyenas through.

  [You accepted the faction Challenge: For The Noble Beast’s Honour. As Beast Lord candidates aiming to determine who will rise above the other, your battle will take place in the context of your followers’ conflict. If the followers of either party are wiped out or lose faith and retreat in disarray before the battle of Beast Lord candidates is concluded, that party will be deemed to have lost the Challenge. Due to both Beast Lord candidates being high in the hierarchy of conflicting factions engaged in a System Settlement Challenge, this is the battle which will win or lose the war.

  Note, despite the battle taking place within the greater battlefield, no outside intervention is permitted during the Challenge. All Abilities are fully permitted. Note also that for reasons of fairness, all participants’ personal resource pools will be returned to full at the start of the challenge.

  [Challenge begins in,]

  [3]

  ‘Nyx, Sekhmet, take control of the battlefield!’

  [2]

  ‘Keep everyone together as much as possible!’

  [1]

  ‘Use Pride defence if you must. We can win this! Stay strong!’

  [Fight]

  The moment the instruction flashed up before his eyes, Dominic leaped towards the matriarch who had stopped still and waited for him. His wings helped him to soar across the space between them, even as the wave of beasts crashed into the lines of his Pride.

  In the split-second that he spent soaring through the air, he noticed how even with the pressure of beasts attacking the front lines forcing everyone to pack increasingly tightly, they still left a perfect circle of space around the matriarch with a diameter of perhaps five of his body lengths.

  And then he was landing, his teeth and claws sinking deeply into spotted brown and yellow fur.

  The body crumpled beneath him and the notification he allowed to flash up before his eyes appeared. As he read it, his burgeoning triumph was replaced by confusion.

  [You have killed Spotted Hyena (Evolved Beast level 16)]

  [You have earned 4 PP]

  Why haven’t I won the Challenge? Dominic asked himself.

  A moment later, Spatial Awareness alerted him to the approach of several hyenas and dodging their attempts to bite him took up all his attention, leaving him none to think about the situation itself.

  With a Tail Strike, he bought himself some breathing room, one of his attackers killed outright when the spiked metal ball at the end of his tail exploded through its head, the others hurt – several of them critically.

  Even as he ripped out the throats of those three injured hyenas suddenly so vulnerable to him, his eyes darted wildly around to add their observations to the feedback his Spatial Awareness was already giving him.

  He was surrounded by hyenas, more coming through into the space cleared in the centre of the battlefield with every moment that passed.

  ‘This is bullshit!’ Dominic cried to Leo as he caught the maliciously-glinting eyes of the matriarch, on almost the opposite side of the circle from where he was, once more hiding behind her followers, as well as she could when she was bigger than them, and far away from his claws and teeth. He took a moment to spit an acid ball at her, but she dodged away and the acid splashed harmlessly to the ground. ‘How the hell is the System allowing this?’

  Perhaps he accidentally projected his question to the hyena matriarch; perhaps she merely realised what he would want to ask given the situation. Even as her hyenas closed in and Dominic was once more using teeth, claws, wings, and tail to keep his attackers at bay, she taunted him with the explanation.

  ‘I am my clan’s Matriarch – with the rights and responsibilities which come with that. I am my clan and my clan is me – any Challenge levied at me is open to them too. So unfortunate that your bonds with your own clan are not nearly as strong as mine.’ She sounded way too gleeful about it.

  ‘How dare she say that the bonds I have with my Pride are not strong!’ Leo exclaimed, outraged. ‘They’re easily stronger than those which bind a bunch of scavenging vermin!’

  ‘Shut up, Leo. It’s not that at all,’ Dominic told him bitterly even as he worked to fend off his attackers while he came to terms with the new information. ‘The Challenge said that all Abilities were permitted, this is probably why it was specifically mentioned. You remember what happened last time? How the hyenas appeared to come out of nowhere? I bet she has some sort of Ability to get her followers to fight on her behalf which, somehow, the System is allowing in this Challenge.’

  It was so unfair! No doubt the matriarch expected Dominic to be buried under the bodies she threw at him, her own position secure. Why she hadn’t used the same tactics in her other fights, Dominic didn’t know. Maybe she hadn’t felt she needed to or it was to hide it until she really needed it. In that case, it was a compliment that she was bringing out the big guns. A compliment that he would shove back down her throat – or somewhere even more painful!

  Because now? He was angry.

  ‘You want to bring your followers into our fight?’ he roared back at the matriarch, another Tail Strike gaining him a little bit of breathing room. ‘Fine! Then you can watch them die!’

  He spared a moment’s thought to warn Sekhmet to get any non-Pride allies out of the potential danger zone downwind, then crouched and focussed on feeding all of his venom into a cloud that filled the air with a dense yellowish-green mist.

  He’d see how well the hyenas could fight when they were bleeding from every orifice. And this was just the start.

  here!