Travelling through the savannah at the head of almost his entire Pride, Dominic couldn’t help but feel like a real lion king. He wasn’t leading only his Pride of over forty members, but also his allies. With them as part of their forces, they numbered more than a hundred, even without the majority of the albuhas.

  That was only a fraction of the matriarch’s forces, though – from what Howler and the other beast leaders had indicated, there were at least three other beast leaders for each of theirs, which indicated that they had about three times as many beasts as Dominic had on his side, not counting the new pack of albuhas in with their numbers.

  Ultimately, a full-frontal assault wasn’t what Dominic had originally intended, or would have preferred. Unfortunately, they no longer had the time to draw the matriarch or her forces out and whittle them down bit by bit. Still, they did have some advantages that the matriarch’s forces didn’t.

  Their mean Pride level, for example, matched the mean of the trodil group, which was apparently one of the stronger groups among the matriarch’s army. And in Dominic’s Pride’s place, the mean didn’t reflect the powerhouses of Nyx or Dominic themselves, since they had a group of lower-levelled members to counteract their actual levels. But in terms of raw strength, the actual effect that Nyx and Dominic could have on a battle was far more significant than the mean would indicate.

  And that wasn’t even counting the group of albuhas that Howler led since none of the fighters were technically part of the Pride at all. Of course, technically, there were no guarantees that Howler would choose to align himself with Dominic’s forces at all without the official connection in place, but the winged-coyote had given every indication that he would. Considering Howler had left the pregnant and nursing females and cubs in his care, Dominic thought it was almost certain that the canine leader wanted to remain with the Pride.

  But the real advantage that they had was in the equipment that Sylmar had come through with, arriving as the sun was about to slip below the horizon.

  Little of the equipment he’d asked for had been ready for them, but that wasn’t entirely unexpected – the leader of the crafters couldn’t pull something out of nothing, and he had been expecting the due date to be significantly further in the future than it ended up being. But he’d still managed to pull together a number of items to add to the equipment that his crafters had already managed to finish from the actual order.

  Every member of his Pride except him and Nyx now had at least some sort of armour that covered their backs and wrapped around their chests and bellies. Wings, tails, and leg-joints were left exposed but at least some of their most vulnerable areas were protected without impeding mobility.

  Given that there had been a range of pieces available – anything from carefully crafted works using boiled leather and additional plates to hastily thrown-together chunks of barely-cured hide, Dominic had decided to take an egalitarian approach to distributing it. Instead of giving the best equipment to the most powerful members, he did the reverse – shoring up the defences of the weakest with armour in hopes that they would survive the upcoming battle. After all, with their healing capabilities, surviving the onslaught meant there was a good chance that the Pride member would survive to fight another day.

  The amesheks, therefore, due to their already-naturally defensive fur that tended towards becoming keratinous plates if they invested level-up perks in their defences, had the lightest armour. The barely-worked hides would offer very little protection, but very little didn’t mean none. If they meant that a killing blow became an almost-killing blow which allowed one of the amesheks to be healed and continue to defend the Pride, he would consider it worth the time spent getting them fitted.

  Dominic had made sure that Sylmar didn’t consider the poor armour as repayment for their aid, though – he still wanted proper armour for everyone. Fortunately, the elf in question didn’t appear to have considered that a possibility. If anything, he seemed a little insulted that such badly-crafted armour might be considered as a representation of the efforts of his people.

  The next type of armour, adorning the higher-level lions, the two remaining albuhas of the original pack who would be fighting, and the higher-level kesh, was made of boiled leather, apparently set aside for use in better armour, but quickly sewn together to fit Dominic’s companions. The skills and magic of the crafters made something in minutes that would probably have taken a human hours to create. And with Sylmar bringing along over thirty elves with him to outfit the Pride members, they were all kitted out quickly. Fortunately so, since they hadn’t had much time to waste.

  Finally, there were the lowest level lions, kesh, and the vulnerable albuhas who wouldn’t be doing much fighting if all went well. These got the armour sets which were the finished products Sylmar had been asked to make for all of them – boiled leather with a softer hide underneath to stop it rubbing too uncomfortably on their fur, and plates of one material or another on top. Some had metal plates, but apparently those weren’t meant as permanent additions – something to do with magic which Sylmar hadn’t fully explained. The majority used worked bone or scales that the elves had collected from other beasts and bound into the armour with sinew cords which had somehow been strengthened to almost approach metal in strength and hardness. Those pieces of armour were ones Dominic would be proud to see adorning all of his Pride-members – later.

  As for other weapons, Sylmar had brought a few bone-spike-studded bands which were fastened at various points on his Pride-members’ legs and around the necks of those who were willing to let the elves do so – if any attacker tried to rip out their throats, they’d get a nasty surprise. And any pounces or swipes his companions delivered would be accompanied by the damage of spikes.

  None of those weapons were game-changers, but combined with their armour, should give them an edge. Sylmar had come up with one thing, though, that had made Dominic very happy. Feeling the weight on his tail, he couldn’t stop his jaw hanging open in a leonine grin.

  [Tail armour + Tail morningstar (non-standard, Beast, T2)]

  [This is an Uncommon-quality set of armour made for a Beast’s tail and repaired by a (non-System) master craftsman. Its original design traded in some protective qualities for its ability to be worn by a Beast. The work from a (non-System) master craftsman, however, now offers an armor capacity of +20-40 to all physical attacks (depending on the angle of the attack). The original morningstar-inspired tail club which offered the armour some offensive capacity was destroyed and remade. The work of a (non-System) master craftsman has increased its offensive capacity by +30. Tail armour now offers +51-65 to Tearing/Slicing damage and +69-80 to Crushing and Piercing damage. Due to the care of the (non-System) master craftsman, the Poor-quality growth enchantment which allows the armour to expand a little to fit the wearer has been maintained. The armour can expand by a maximum of 25% of its current size. ]

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  The changes were better than Dominic had expected even if the craftsman was apparently ‘non-System’. He guessed that that meant the elf in question had been a master long before the System had got involved. Much like it seemed that the elves had had magic for far longer than the System had been around. Though what that meant in terms of what he was able to create, Dominic didn’t know. Frankly, he didn’t really care either – the changes were sweet.

  Not only had the armour actually been physically expanded so it covered the top of his hindquarters, the metal flexing over his hips in a way that didn’t impact his mobility whatsoever, but the morningstar’s spikes had been lengthened and sharpened. It was heavier than it used to be – unsurprisingly considering that extra metal had obviously been added – but he was stronger than he was when he had first put it on so he didn’t mind it too much. Plus, the extra weight would definitely help when he used Tail Strike. In terms of its System capacity, it offered more defence than before and considerably more offensive damage.

  The only thing that concerned him a little was the size limit now explicitly stated in the description – he’d have to be aware of that if he used Momentous Charge. He’d done a few tests after he first put it on. It seemed that as long as he didn’t push Momentous Charge too far, it would be fine, but when he’d pushed the size increase he could get from his Ability too far, he’d felt it biting into his hindquarters. If he got significantly bigger when he Tiered up, or chose to put a level up perk into his size at some point, he might need a refit.

  For now, though, he used their travelling time to get used to its increased weight and the way it made his tail a little slower to react to his movements. In fact, it probably wasn’t a bad thing that they had a way to travel across the plains – he wasn’t the only one needing to get used to moving in new gear.

  By the time they were halfway there, Dominic realised that there was another downside to their new equipment – even if it wasn’t full plate armour, the weight was something that they weren't used to wearing, particularly not the weakest members of their group.

  The kesh were fine – they just hitched a ride on the amesheks who were barely weighed down by their own light armour or the ullas who permitted them to perch on their shoulders. The young lions who were Isis and Saffron’s offspring were a different matter, though. Only level five, Dominic had questioned bringing them along at all – in a recent major battle two of them had died and he was determined that no more would be lost unnecessarily.

  However, he didn’t see any good options. Leaving them with the elves was a risk as they were not much smarter than the average lion pre-System and none were able to communicate with those outside the Pride. Yet leaving them with supervision meant having even fewer fighters – and if he left Isis with them, they’d lose a healer – when they were already outnumbered. Arguably, the female albuhas who had stayed with the Pride for protection would be able to offer that, but Dominic didn’t fully trust them yet. Nor did he think the young lions would listen to them.

  So he compromised by making sure that they had the best armour and planned to have them stay at the edges of the battlefield, hopefully enough out of view to not be targets. It would give them a headstart in running away if the battle appeared to be turning in the wrong direction, but was hopefully close enough to join them for a few Prey Points at the end of the fight if they were winning. If they were lucky, being close to the battle and part of the Pride might even be enough for them to be considered part of the fight for the whole thing. And their armour should mean that they would come out of it intact. Of course, the downside of the best armour was that it was the heaviest and drained their stamina twice as fast as normal.

  ‘Come on, I’ll put you into my storage space where you can rest for a bit,’ he told the four of them briskly, padding over to where the juvenile lions lay panting on the savannah earth. Sierra looked up at him questioningly; Max, Cecilia, and Elsa were too exhausted to even do that. Max had actually closed his eyes and looked about to fall asleep. ‘It might not feel great, but it’ll give you a break,’ he promised them. Some previous testing had shown that though the storage space drew health after a short period of time, it did allow for some regeneration of stamina. And they could always use Healing Cloud to restore the lost health – Dominic would rather keep the carcasses in his Inventory for the battle itself.

  Sierra gazed at him for a long moment, then pushed herself tiredly to her feet and came over to rub her head against his. Sensing her agreement, Dominic put her into his storage space. The other three juveniles stared, their eyes wide at where she had been just a moment ago.

  ‘Come on,’ Dominic told them impatiently. ‘Time is marching on. Get in, or get up and be ready to run.’

  One by one, they approached him, even if Elsa looked like she was actually considering running rather than vanishing like her Pride-mates. Finally, however, all four were inside his storage space and they were able to take off again.

  Dominic’s storage space got a lot of work out that night, as members rotated in and out to rest for a bit. Few of them enjoyed the pause, but it helped them move faster which was the most important bit.

  The journey was both monotonous and tense since at any moment they could be discovered by one of the matriarch’s more nocturnal beasts. A brief break in the routine was when Teeth returned, fortunately contacting them ahead of time so they weren’t shocked out of their skin and they could coordinate.

  Although he’d got past the pterodactyls, when the matriarch had come by to receive Howler’s report, she’d sniffed him out. That he had been the only one detected validated Dominic’s decision to remove Howler and Jaws from the Pride temporarily. Clearly, their split loyalties had only escaped notice before because Dominic hadn’t declared himself on one side or the other.

  Fortunately, Teeth had managed to escape the attempts to rip out his throat by dint of leaping into the air and being quicker and more agile than his pursuers. He had had enough intelligence to lead them off in the wrong direction from Dominic’s approaching band and then had made a wide circle around to join the Pride once he’d lost all of those chasing him.

  Despite all the delays, they made decent time and so decided to take a brief rest beneath a small cluster of trees not far from where the matriarch had set up her camp, only a ridge dividing them. When dawn’s first light arrived, ensuring that even the members who didn’t have as good night-vision as the lions did were not disadvantaged, they would make their move – hopefully before the first of their enemies noticed them.

  here!