Chương 3: Book 1 - Chapter 3: There Are More Things In Heaven And Earth…

The still grass around him began rustling loudly in several different places. He was surrounded! Dominic attempted to take off, but in his panic, he forgot everything he'd learned about moving and ended up just stumbling over his own paws. A brown blur leapt at him, going for his throat. It missed – just – when Dominic jerked away instinctively at the last moment. Instead, sharp pain struck at his shoulder, ripping it open. More pain erupted on his haunches and belly. Three of them – at least!

The one before his eyes looked like a really ugly cross between a pig and a dog and stood half his height. But its teeth were sharp and the look in its eyes was murderous. His mind went blank in panic as this situation echoed what had so recently happened with the lion, only this time in an unfamiliar body that he didn't know how to operate. In the absence of thought, instinct took over.

Dominic snapped at the brown creature that lunged for his throat again, the motion feeling simultaneously unfamiliar and incredibly natural. It dodged his teeth easily enough, but had to abort its attack as a result. Movement in his peripheral vision caught Dominic's attention. Instinctively twisting as fast as he could, Dominic bit at the creature about to attack his hindquarters before his thoughts had caught up. Meanwhile, another of the beasts struck at his hindquarters on the other side.

There were actually four of them, he realised. And their tactics became obvious very quickly – one would attempt to draw his attention to what was in front of him while the others attacked the more vulnerable places in his hindquarters. They were trying to take him down piece by piece. Another pig-dog-thing snapped at one of his forepaws, but, his thoughts having finally caught up with the action, he ignored his instinct to lunge at it. Instead, he turned awkwardly towards the one about to bite his back leg again.

Snapping at the attacker, his teeth clicked together fruitlessly as he failed to corner the wily creature. In the meantime, the one he'd ignored before when it feinted took advantage of his lack of attention and landed a nasty bite on his front leg. He batted at it, but without his claws unsheathed, all he did was shove it to the side a bit. Growling in irritation – literally – he started trying to not just bite but also swipe at the little buggers, flexing his paws so his claws came out.

What good was being in the body of an apex predator of the savannah if he couldn't even deal with these little menaces? But the pig-dogs were agile and worked well together – when one had to retreat to avoid him, another took the opportunity to bite. Though his strikes were more powerful, Dominic barely landed a hit and struggled to move fast enough without losing his balance. His tail hurt. A lucky bite to his front paw sent blood trickling through his fur.

His back legs were on fire from all the wounds they'd carved out of him. Then one of the dog-things jumped at his throat and actually managed to grip onto the loose skin there. Dominic's panic hit new heights – he'd just died from a lion at his throat, and the visceral fear was still encoded in his body, regardless of his reincarnation. That same refusal to die unknown, unmourned took over once more.

At that moment, he felt something shiver through him, a sensation of pressing against a barrier, of rattling a lock that seemed only a good shove away from breaking. A moment later, his hesitation disappeared as instincts rose once more to take the place of knowledge. Survival taking precedence over everything else, the awkwardness and precariousness left his steps. In their wake, they left sinuous feline fluidity. As a dog-thing darted forwards, it found jaws snapping down on its back.

Dominic's leonine canines pierced straight through its weak skin and his bite pressure crushed its body. Hot blood filled Dominic's mouth. It should have made his stomach revolt, sent nausea through his system; it didn't. Instead, it made him feel hungry. Another warm shiver passed through him from nose to tail, and it felt like he pressed against that barrier once more.

This time, he instinctively pressed against it harder, using the same kind of determination that had won him the battle with the other in the void. He felt a bite to his paw and another to his flank, but the pain was secondary to his determination to break this barrier. Instinctually, he knew that this was what was keeping him down. Keeping him from achieving what he had the potential for. When it finally gave way, Dominic almost staggered, as if he had been leaning against a barrier in truth.

And then, rushing out from where it had once been, a wave of confidence and power, of predatory certainty, rushed to fill him, driving out the cold fear that had reigned previously. With renewed vigour, Dominic whirled on the other dog-things, his claws out and teeth bared, determined to pay them back for every wound he had suffered at their teeth. He batted one pig-dog to the side – it squealed as his claws ripped deeply into its side.

Then, as another bit at his heel, he twisted faster and more fluidly than it was expecting. He seized it in his jaws and hot blood once more filled his mouth as he bit down. Three more of the beasts hopped out of the bush replenishing their numbers. And they were angry. Even before he'd managed to drop their companion from his mouth, they attacked in a frenzy. But, the tide had turned.

The dog-things were quick and agile, but Dominic was much bigger, much more powerful, and, with his new fluidity and flexibility, he had just as much speed and agility. They stood no chance. When they hit him, they left small wounds that trickled blood into his coat; when he got one of them, he left them severely wounded or dead. And with every one that succumbed to his teeth or claws, that same excitement he'd felt when he'd first seen himself as a lion returned. Try to kill me?

How well's that working out for you, huh? Finally, the last pig-dog went still. They weren't all dead yet, but it wouldn't be long before the two he'd bitten almost in half succumbed to their wounds. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Still on high alert, he surveyed the dead or dying dog-things around him, and then looked around his environment, all senses working together to inform him of any further danger.

It was when his lips lifted and nose scrunched as he breathed in through his mouth to get a better 'taste' of the air that he realised what he was doing. He came fully back to himself as a faint chime seemed to ring through the air and another shiver rippled through his body, though this time it was greater than either time before. His teeth shifted in his mouth, and he felt a sensation as his claws almost wriggled in their settings. It felt very odd, but only lasted a moment.

When the shifting faded, he felt at his teeth with his tongue, letting out a huff of surprise at what he found – he could swear they were sharper. Lifting a paw and turning it over, he extended his claws. They looked sharper too. And longer. Maybe. A message flashed up in front of his eyes. [Predation: Unlocked Basic Stage 1 achieved Your weapons are your birthright. Sharpen them.] Predation unlocked… is that what that barrier was about? he wondered curiously.

I guess this confirms that my claws and teeth are sharper – and kind of explains why. A leonine grin lifted his lips from said teeth. As he thought about it further, excitement pulsed through him at the implications of what had just happened. Both the messages he'd seen before being labelled an Anomaly had indicated that beings could grow stronger through killing.

He'd feared that all opportunities had been ripped away from him, but that he'd suddenly unlocked 'Predation' and gained a noticeable boost to his teeth and claws was a good indication that they hadn't. Or that 'Anomalous protocol' was indeed a new path to the top. The message disappeared and the bodies of the beasts were revealed, prompting another, more rueful thought. I went a bit wild there, didn't I? He wondered if he should be concerned at how easily he had lost his logical mind.

There had been no strategy, just animalistic viciousness as he leaned into the leonine instincts in his body. It had saved his life – this time. But there was no guarantee that would always be the case. Human intelligence combined with his leonine body was surely a powerful combination – if he allowed instinct to override strategy, he'd be failing to take full advantage of his new existence. At least he was now sure what the issue had been before when he'd tried to move. I was overthinking it.

This body already knows how to move, how to fight. I just have to stop trying to move like a human. As he surveyed the bloody battlefield, Dominic felt abruptly conflicted. While he had been in the battle, there had been no question of what he needed to do to defend himself. The pig-dogs had been attacking him; he responded with force. Had even felt excitement and satisfaction at being able to defend himself – for once being the one with the advantage.

But now, he found his human mind revolting at the detritus of the battle. At the blood soaking into the previously sandy-coloured earth. At the white of bone poking out of wounds, the weak movements, the whimpers, the entrails gleaming wetly in the light. The stink of blood and other – worse – bodily fluids that clogged up his nostrils, his sense of smell significantly better now than it had been before. Yet... Dominic found he didn't care as much as he thought he should.

And for all his mental sickness, that was all it was – mental. Physically, the smell of blood didn't turn his stomach the way he would have expected it to. I'm a lion now, he told himself in justification. And as a lion, it was undeniable what his body was craving. His human scruples were all that was holding him back from availing himself of the bounty before him. I'm a lion now, he reminded himself firmly. Lions eat raw meat. Lions like raw meat, still warm from the hunt.

Despite his pep talk, he found himself closing his eyes as he bit down into one of the pig-dogs that had already fallen completely still – he didn't even try to convince himself to bite one of those that was still moving. The moment the blood hit his tongue, all reticence melted away as he almost moaned in delight. It wasn't like the blood was very different from what he'd expected it to be – his reaction, however, was. In battle, it had tasted like victory. Now, it just tasted delicious.

Before he knew it, he was ripping at the carcass, gorging himself on the meat he craved. By the time he came back to full awareness of what he was doing, he'd made his way through almost three of the carcasses. He'd had a moment's uncertainty at the organs, but when he bit into something that might have been a kidney and found it even more delectable than the muscle meat, he hadn't been able to resist searching for others.

To his surprise, the moment he decided he'd eaten enough, the remaining carcasses around him suddenly shimmered and disappeared. What? At the same time, his stomach stopped being quite so full. It wasn't suddenly empty, but the sensation went from 'I couldn't eat another bite' to 'I'm not hungry, but I could eat.' Adding to the strangeness, the nagging pain of his injuries lessened and then vanished over a few seconds. Growling in surprise, Dominic checked out his body.

True enough, his injuries were gone, leaving only blood stains in his fur to indicate that they had ever existed. Even the deepest, a bite that had gone through to the bone on his upper left back leg and had made him limp painfully, had vanished. Yet, despite the absurdity of turning into a lion, and carcasses vanishing before his eyes, he was all the more convinced that this could only be real. The undeniable pain of his injuries, hunger in his stomach, and delicious taste of meat were forceful arguments for it.

The inexplicable aspects were surely explained by this new 'System' – as was his new existence. There are more things in heaven and earth… he murmured to himself, marveling at it. Still, he wondered at exactly what had happened between being choked to death by a lion and waking up as one. Reincarnation of some sort? But if it was reincarnation, was he even in the same time as before? He certainly didn't seem to be in the same place. Looking around, Dominic searched for something, anything that was familiar to him.

Not a single camp building, car, or road. For one awful moment, it all seemed too large. Too empty. The message did say that things had been reconstituted, he pointed out to himself, pushing away the fear that threatened to infect his thoughts again. Maybe not everything was reconstituted exactly the same? Maybe that's why I ended up in a lion's body. But that made him consider something else worrying and his body pressed itself to the savannah earth in an instinctive expression of his unease.

Because if everything had been reconstituted and scattered… where was his father? Not willing to allow his fear to take hold of him, he focused on the only landmark in sight – a low rise in the distance. Staying in one place wouldn't help him in any way, and that was as good a direction to go in as any other – it even offered a vantage point to see further. And if he told himself his father might be on the other side of it… well, that was better than thinking he might be nowhere nearby at all.

Decided, he pushed himself to his feet. He'd find his father and then dad would know what to do next; he always did. Dominic set off through the savannah grass with far more confidence than he'd had before the fight. His teeth were sharper. His claws were sharper. And this time, his ears and eyes stayed alert. Those pig-dogs wouldn't get the drop on him again; he'd be the one hunting them.