Chương 20: Lions

CH 20 - Lions By the time the group was ready to leave the farm, their caravan had turned from two cars into five. Their party increased from seven to seventeen, making them a much larger target for the mutated zoo animals supposedly in the area. After setting out, the group moved as fast as they could down overgrown roads, speeding towards the mountains in the distance.

"Nice work back there, by the way. You saved all these people," Grey said to Sarah with a smile. She looked up from her mental training with a strange face.

"I wish I could have done more. I couldn't do anything to fight that thing."

"Well, you did something none of us could have done. If you weren't there, the barn would have buried them all. Focus on your strengths." Grey said, unsure of where he got this advice from. Sarah blushed before closing her eyes, returning to her training. Grey moved back over to where he was expelling impurities in his Qi and kept cultivating. The stench he was releasing was less and less as he cultivated, but they still rode with the windows down because of him.

The caravan travelled all day, stopping only to refuel from the gas stockpiled in the firetruck. As they neared the mountain range, they found less evidence of humanity.

"Weird. Not only has Earth gotten bigger, but the natural landscape has also completely changed. Joe said.

"Never used to be mountains here, and the Minnesota prairie was mostly destroyed a long time ago," said Joe.

"Must be the result of a wish, or the system." Grey guessed.

"Might be for the better. Global Warming n' all that. Ya' know… except for all the crazy animals, I kind of like it now. It's pretty." Gerald chimed in. His eyes lingered out the window, watching the hills roll by. Grey gave him the copy of (Split Mind Technique) that Sarah had lent him. Grey had memorized it by now, and the old man was practicing it himself. Grey had made some decent progress with the technique. He could now split his mind in two during meditation, albeit for only short durations.

He played games with himself by hiding an object in a room within one mind, then making his other mind find it. It was fascinating how it worked, but it took too much concentration to use in combat for now. He would have to get the hang of it.

"Hey Gerald, I hear you served. I was Army infantry for a few years. Never deployed, though." Joe said from the driver's seat. Gerald didn't respond, and Joe continued, "After a while, I got bored, so I became a firefighter for the action. Maybe I should have been careful what I wished for because now I'm seeing too much action."

"Ya know, I re-" The fire truck came to a sudden stop, and everyone jumped from their seats. Outside the right window was a huge lioness running down an equally huge bison. The bison was fast for its size, but the lioness must have snuck up on it. The big cat was right on its tail. The ground shook as the massive hoofs of the bison ran away. The lioness, on the other hand, stepped quietly and intentionally, running right behind the beast with impressive speed.

Both the beasts were about twice as big as their pre-wish counterparts. Seeing the hunt from this close was intense; like watching the animal channel on TV, but all the animals were on steroids.

"I don't think our cars are faster than that…" Joe stammered.

"This must be the territory of lions. I told you that the southern zoo had animals that gained a lot of strength from their wishes. This is why we needed you guys to join up with us if we were going to venture this far south." Sarah sighed.

"Well... The lioness looks pretty strong. I still think we could take her down if we had to. What I worry about is that lions live together in prides. Four or five of them together would wipe out our entire troop." Grey offered.

"I say we keep pushing ahead. It probably won't bother us as long as we don't interfere with its hunt or stay in its territory." Joe said. Without much else of a choice, the convoy continued onward, pushing the limits of their vehicles to escape the lion pride's territory. Grey continued his training with the Split Mind Technique with minimal success. It was hard to concentrate on meditation when you're worrying about a pride of lions eating you.

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"Woah woah woah!" Joe exclaimed.

"We got trouble." The cars came to a halt to find a massive golden lion standing in their path. It chuffed at the convoy and stood tall, pushing its chest forward as if to tell them that they cannot pass. Ike's Jeep stopped, and Raccy poked his head out. He chattered to the beast for a bit before turning and announcing to the group.

"He says we can't go further. Mostly because he hates humans, I guess." Raccy said, raising his arms in a shrug.

"Sheesh. That's no good. I say we fight." One of the new people said.

"Tell him we gotta get through, we won't do anything but drive straight towards the mountains." Raccy started translating, but it didn't last long before the lion lunged towards the group. BANG Gerald fired his rifle straight into the face of the lion. Ike followed up with a barrage of magic bullets from his pistols. The lion roared and shook its mane as crumpled bullets fell from its fur. Only a thin streak of blood dripped from its chin. Joe and Grey leaped forward out of the truck to act as the vanguard.

Jim met with them, and they approached the charging lion. He and Grey activated their auras simultaneously as Sarah launched a mental attack. Hopefully, this would give them an opening. Joe swung his sword down, but it ricocheted; the lion's pelt was too tough. Jim tried punching the lion, but the it swatted him away. Its fur is incredibly hard, Grey thought. As Joe tumbled to the side, Grey came forward with a stab towards the throat. Just like the snake I fought in the park. This lion has to have a weakness.

The relentless attacks from the group gave Grey a chance to stab the lion, but just as his bone blade was about to meet flesh, he felt a searing pain. The bones in his other arm instantly crushed into paste with a squelch. A lioness had appeared from the grass and ripped his arm off at the shoulder in an ambush. FUCKK. THAT HURTS SO BAD HOLY SHI- The lion leaped towards him to finish him off, interrupting his thoughts. It didn't seem to care that Grey had just lost a limb; it wanted to eat him.

An incredible stream of blood sprayed from the wound where his arm once was. Grey tried to calm himself and focus on the fight. If things got any worse, they all could die here. He slowed his breathing and remembered his training with the Split Mind Technique. He separated his mind, one part focusing on the immediate danger lunging towards him, the other half focused on ways to turn the battle around. The left side of his brain quickly sidestepped, slashing the lion's arm with the bone blade.

He parried another swipe as he retreated. The right side of his brain slowly stopped the bleeding from his massive wound. He looked over at the lioness and saw her throw his detached arm onto the floor, licking her lips with his blood. She must like the taste of the mana in my blood. Ew. But this gave him an idea. Grey had never tried shapeshifting a part of his body that wasn't attached to him. He'd summoned bone weapons and thrown them before, but he never shapeshifted a detached part of himself.

He kind of assumed that it wouldn't work, but there wasn't any hurt in trying. As he continuously defended the large lion's strikes, his other mind focused on feeling the sense inside him that controlled shapeshifting. He focused on his severed arm, trying to shapeshift it in any way, just to see if it was possible. He tried changing his skin, growing a horn, but nothing was working. He tried extending a bone from his wrist and miraculously saw it appear. It must be that I have the Bone Manipulation (E) ability.

He then remembered he also had Blood Manipulation (E) and tried to move his blood. The blood pooling around the wound shifted back into his arm. Then, he had an idea. Blood gushed from Grey's wound as the battlefield moved without him. He had begun working on closing it off, stemming the bleeding, but he could only do so much in the heat of battle. He had launched plenty of attacks with bone before, but had nearly forgotten about his (blood manipulation) ability.

Seeing the lioness lap up his mana-filled blood angered him. A good chunk of his mana was in that arm. Grey focused on the blood the lioness had eaten and activated his ability, transforming his own blood into the deadliest organic poison he could imagine. The lioness was busy battling Joe and Jim. Grey returned his attention to the huge Lion chomping at his face. Through dodging lion attacks and stemming his severed arm wound, he noticed the lioness was fighting slower and slower.

It took a few minutes, but she finally collapsed. Jim jumped at the opportunity, punching the beast and exploding its skull. The male lion roared towards the sky, enraged that its mate had been slain. It charged at Jim, finally giving Grey room to breathe. Grey sprinted to his severed arm and quickly reattached it, then cut his hand and smeared blood all over his blade, transforming it into poison. While the lion blindly attacked Jim, Grey approached from behind.

Launching into the air with (Boost) at 150%, he came down on top of the Lion, stabbing it as deep as he could. The blood he smeared on his blade should be effective, but to make sure it was lethal, he transformed the bone sword itself into poison. The sword slowly melted into a black, gooey poison, spilling out of the fresh wound Grey had driven into the back of the lion. After only a few moments, the lion collapsed, ending another battle that was one mistake away from death. [You have slain (Golden Lioness lvl. 13]: +18 exp [You have slain (Golden Lion): lvl. 16]: +22 exp [New ability External shapeshifting (E)] [External Shapeshifting (E) fits the requirements to upgrade Shapeshifting (F)] [Shapeshifting (F) has evolved into Shapeshifting(E)]: New possibilities unlocked. [New ability: Poison Blood (E)]: Reduced energy cost to shapeshift mana-infused blood into poison. [Quest: Alpha Dominator]: Progress (4/5) Grey couldn't read the notifications before passing out.