Date: Monday Aug 13th 2017

  Looking into the eyes of the Lioness Helo felt a shiver run down his spine. Out of all the beasts he has fought before. Even the Alpha Wolf in the tutorial zone on hard, this lioness feels the most like him. Deadly massive strikes to start a fight. Attacking from concealment before retreating to attack again.

  Stepping low they both crouch before dashing at one another. Ducking a quick claw swipe, Helo stabs forward with his knife. Barely scraping skin, the lioness dodges the attack. Only to retaliate with a bite toward his arm. While this is going on the two lioness’s that came with the larger one rush forward to attack the busy Helo.

  The lioness on the left side gets intercepted by Hinata’s ‘Mana Shield’ and a slash of her katana. The lioness on the right side has to dodge back to avoid an arrow coming in from Cody. Afterward she is attacked by Gabi with wide sweeping blows of her axe.

  Focusing on his fight Helo jumps back from a claw swipe only to have to roll forward under a follow up lunge. As the large cat’s claws narrowly miss his face Helo quickly uses that moment to throw a blade at the cat’s side. Dodging the knife that was aimed at the joint in her shoulder the cat ends up with a hole in its ribs. The hole is leaking blood but not much else.

  Getting back into the fight Helo and the lioness are evenly matched in speed and fight very similarly. Off to the sides Alli and Cody are assisting the two front line fighters in battling other lions.

  Deflecting a claw to the side Helo groans in pain as one of them scratches down his bicep. In trade Helo sends out a front kick. The lion gets hit on the shoulder and rolls back. Taking the opening Helo lashes out to the left. Using ‘Double Step’ he gets to the lion that Hinata is holding off and rams his left blade into the lion’s ribs. With a yowl of pain, the lion jumps back and retreats into the trees.

  As Helo’s focus is misdirected the main lioness activates her ‘Camouflage’ ability. Dashing back into the tall grass she maneuvers around and jumps at Helo’s back. At the last moment Helo can sense the killing intent from the lion and rolls forward. She gets her claws on his calf as he jumps forward and cuts open his leg.

  With a limp Helo turns back around to face the large crouching cat. Groaning from the pain he raises his blades and smiles at the cat. “I might be wounded but I’m no longer alone.” He says through his teeth.

  Taking the cats jumping lunge to the chest Helo moves his head to the side and narrowly misses being bitten by the jaws of the beast. In trade Hinata gets a clean swipe on the back of the cat’s leg. Using ‘Second Strike’ a moment after her blade passes another blade appears and attacks the same spot. This opens up the wound, further ruining the muscle.

  Jumping back the cat dashes through her injury into the tall grass. On the other side the cat that is fighting Gabi and Cody retreats with small wounds. Looking around and not finding another attack coming, everyone heads over to Aiko to get their injuries checked and healed. Helo looks at the cat below his feet and seeing that nobody is watching drains some blood.

  With golden eyes Helo’s wounds healed and he walks over to the group. As Alli and Hinata finish checking the others they look over at him. Due to Hinata’s illusionary abilities and Alli’s long-range attacks, the both of them are uninjured.

  Gabi is full of small cuts, but only one major issues. Both girls look at Helo to check his wounds. They can see the cuts in his clothing and checking over his body with their hands they can see that he is uninjured.

  Looking up, both girls watch as Helo’s golden slitted eyes change red. Smiling at them with fangs Helo says “I’m fine. Those attacks are not something I can’t heal from.” Showing off his healed bicep.

  Both of them want to ask questions and have already assumed the answers, so they hold off with everyone else around.

  Stepping up to the group Helo says to them, “Let’s all head backward then rest. We have already cleared out the prairie dogs that way and right now even they could kill us.” Getting everyone moving he continues. “I’m not sure if they are still hunting us. But my guess is that they went to lick their wounds. Did anyone see which way they ran.”

  The silent Cody makes a grunt and points off behind them. Nodding at him he says to the group. “This means the lion’s den is probably either the exit or near it.” Looking at the compass on Alli’s wrist.

  The group heads back and rests under a tree. Half an hour later, after Aiko has had some time to rest. The group’s changes into un-cutup leathers that they had in their storage pouches. One of the enchantments on the bags are weak gravity enchantments. They lower the weight letting someone carry more.

  Finally ready they head out again. They all are annoyed to hear the chattering of prairie dogs as they walk. Those rodents have been taking shots at them the entire floor. The only reason they have not been overwhelmed by a hail of stone is because the rodents live in packs of eight through twelve.

  Staying ahead of the group this time Helo sneaks up on any of the creatures coming from the front and the group makes good time. Staying in hiding the ground hogs are attracted to all the noise that the main party makes. With Helo using his stealth skills the ground hogs can’t feel his movement through the ground well and he gets the drop on them.

  Following this path the group makes their way through the floor. Every once in a while, a bird will try to make a dive at one of the party’s members but they are easy enough to defend against.

  Coming to the end of the floor the group keeps bypassing the territories of more powerful enemies. They are trying to make it to the 20th floor before leaving for the day. All the injuries are slowing them down and it has already been about five hours. The group left at nine and wants to be home before midnight.

  Finally seeing the exit, the party sees the torches surrounded by a den of lions. Near the mountain wall that holds the exit is a tall rock with a cave in it. The lions live in that cave and are lounging around the rock in the warmth of the fake sunlight.

  “Well, that is going a be a problem.” Aiko says from the side. “So, what are we going to do?”

  “Well.” Hinata says, “We can run past. This floor isn’t a boss floor. It doesn’t require to defeat the boss to carry on, or we can fight the lions.”

  “I say we fight them.” Alli says. “We should get their pelts, fangs and claws.” Alli is thinking about the money and clothes she can get.

  “I agree.” Helo says, his reasoning is different. He wants another chance to fight the lioness that ran away. Looking over the group he can see about 9 lions lounging outside. A mix of seven females and two males. On the inside he can only assume there are more. “Okay you all will stay back, stay low and hidden. Come up with a plan. Ill sneak in and see how many enemies are inside the den.”

  Getting agreement Helo sets off to the side. On the left side of the rock formation is a small grouping of trees. From the placement Helo assumes there is a watering hole near the lion den. Shrouding himself with his energy Helo’s presence vanishes from around him. Everyone watching him leave is a little surprised to see a swirl of shadows then his presence vanishing. He is still visible to the naked eye but finding him is difficult and it takes more effort to even notice him.

  Circling around Helo stays low as he sneaks by the lions. As he is slowly stalking through the tall grass Helo hears the sound of prairie dogs starting to coordinate. Damn, they must have a way to sense when someone passes over them. As the prairie dogs starts barking the lions around the area get up from lounging and start slowly slinking over. The lions aren’t in a rush but if the prairie dogs start moving it either means they can eat the dogs or other prey.

  Moving further away Helo makes his way toward a tree and pulls some food from his storage. Tossing the food into the branches he hopes to make the birds stay in place while he hides in the tree. If they fly away to early it will draw attention.

  Slowly climbing the tree, the birds in its branches start getting rowdy. Tossing out more food he climbs until he can be hidden on a branch and stays steady. As the lions exit the area around their den Helo watches as the conceal themselves in the grass. It isn’t like his presence concealment or invisibility. But their orange-brown colored fur mixes well with tall grass. Their magic then works to cover their coats and conceal them further with a ‘Camouflage’ skill. It is their own physical skills that make them able to move so well in the grass.

  Watching the lions crouch low and make their way into the tall grass he is impressed by their abilities. They hunt like a pack and move well. They are even able to pounce on a few of the prairie dogs. All of the lions left the area after a few minutes expect for one. This lion walked over to the tree to and started looking around. As the lion started getting ready to climb the tree Helo pulled out a blade. The lion started climbing the tree with its front paws wrapped around the truck. It got higher and higher until it was level with Helo.

  Once it was level with him, Helo who had his blade drawn used his aura to its full potential to stab his blade into the head of the lion. As his shadow wrapped blade slid under the lion’s neck killing it, the beast started falling from the tree.

  Worried about the noise Helo reached out and grabbed onto the lion. Thinking quickly, he thought about sending the lion away. To his surprise the lion disappeared. Looking into his necklace he found it inside. “Well, I never thought that would work.” He says while dropping down and back into the grass.

  Continuing on his way Helo makes it into trees on the side of the den. On the other side is the exit to the floor. Walking through the trees Helo is unsurprised to find a small watering hole. What he is surprised about it’s the small exit in the back of the den that he sees a lion coming out of.

  Counting the lions at the back of the den Helo can see another three. Slowly crossing through the trees Helo sees the lounging cats that are near the water. He follows the tree line until he gets to the den. Then focusing on his senses, he checks if there is anything coming in or out of the den. After a moment he can’t hear anything. Slowly making his way inside he finds himself in a short and winding tunnel that leads up into the rock formation.

  Finding a light coming up he begins to inch his way forward. Peeking his head around Helo can see the light is coming from the opening of the den. There is a small cavern that rests back into the hole out front. Sitting inside the den are three more lions. There is the larger lioness that he fought earlier. Then there is the normal sized one that Gabi fought and finally a large male lion. It is about six inches larger than the already large female. The lion has a massive mane and scars all over its body.

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  Seeing what he needed to Helo turns around and makes his way back. Getting back into the forest Helo picks up speed and gets back to the tall grass. Following their trail Helo finds the group and pops up out of the grass.

  “OH SHIT!” Aiko says as she is sitting by Hinata. “Damn, you scared me, Helo.”

  Looking at her Helo stops and tilts his head, before looking at Hinata. “There are another three behind the den near a pond. Then there are three more in the den. The two we fought and a male lion that is bigger than the rest.”

  Hinata nods and tells the plan to Helo. “We plan to lure out and ambush a few of the lions. We saw how four of them came out of their area to attack the prairie dogs that started making noise. So, we were going to mess with a group on the other side near the torches of the exit. Then finishing off the others as we head into the den.”

  Nodding his head Helo listens as she outlines a plan to fight the groups. “If you all already have a plan, you can handle the lions outside alone. I should head around back and then make my way inside the den. While you approach from the front I can go in the back. I didn’t ‘Identify’ the largest one. Some beasts can sense a scan.” Helo says while holding his hand near his head. “It will take more than one of us to fight.”

  Getting agreement Helo starts sneaking back around to the watering hole while the others start going toward the exit. The others start walking until they hear the noise of prairie dogs barking. Stopping there they all get low and wait.

  The lions coming over like they did the last time and the party starts attacking. With a quick ‘Heavy Blow’ and magic from ‘Runic Conjuration’ they injure two of the four that come over. After a taunt from Kenneth and the fight is on.

  On the other side of the den Helo is just getting out of the forest when he hears a roar from an injured lion. The lions near the pool start getting up and moving around. Once they all face away from Helo and toward the noise he gets moving. Running up with his presence concealed Helo strikes at the back of one of the lion’s heads. Making a clean slash along its spine and killing it. He then ‘Double Steps’ into the second of the three. Before it can jump away from his descending blade Helo kills it as well.

  As the third lion jump at him, Helo rolls back to dodge its lunge, taking a slash along his chest. Rolling to his feet he gets his blade up in time to intercepts a claw strike coming toward him. As his blade make contact with the lion’s paw Helo uses ‘Disabling Strike’. The lion shifts its body to put weight on its paw and strike again, only to fall as it’s paw lags behind its movement. As the lion stumbles Helo steps forward and using ‘Penetrative Strike’ stabs his blade into its ribs.

  Now these lions are big and Helo’s blade weren’t meant for stabbing. So, a stab to a large beast’s ribs might not be enough to end it quickly. But, thanks to his use of ‘Penetrative Strike’ Helo’s blade digs a few inches deeper, killing the lion. Taking a bit of blood Helo rubs his chest as his eyes glow. His chest quickly knits itself together and Helo conceals himself again. Making his way into the cave Helo can see the lions in the den looking out over the plain.

  Helo doesn’t move though or scan the large lion. Not wanting to fight all three at the same time Helo watches as the male lion lets out a ground shaking roar before leaping down off the formation.

  The smaller lioness starts jumping down the rock formation after her mate. Just as the two make it out of sight the injured, but quickly healing lioness is about to head down as well. Before she can move down, she jumps to the side. Clattering to the ground near her feet is a blade. It skips off the floor sparking on the ground. Then flies out of the face of the tunnel. Off in the distance it can be seen to disappear.

  Running forward Helo throws his second blade before the lioness hits the ground. With a thud the blade lands on her left side drawing blood and reopening her old wound. Moving closer Helo draws both his blades and gets ready to fight.

  Right before that happens on the ground below the party has the bodies of six lions behind them. They quickly eliminated the first four. Two were injured and the other two were taunted and tanked. Then they are split up and killed them in two groups of Cody - Aiko and Hinata - Alli.

  As they are quickly killing the two lions, the second pair that was injured in the initial attack moves forward and engages. As the sounds of the fight reaches the den the lions all perk up. The group of four that are at the base of the den charge off after the others. Alli starts launching attacks, a barrage of fire balls, lighting strikes and ice lances shoot off toward the group of lions. The others are finishing off the other two and move to support Alli.

  They engage the four that are coming with the same tactics. Hinata and Alli quickly finish off one together as Gabi, Cody and the others hold off the three. Fighting their way through the lions everyone stops when they hear a roar. Looking up both groups stop and see a massive male lion bounding down from the den.

  “Hurry up! Finish them off!” Hinata yells as she watches the massive lion pound it’s way closer.

  Back up top Helo is dodging back from a swipe from what he dubs ‘The Lion Matriarch’. His main skills are still on cooldown but ‘Crippling Strike’ only has a ten second cooldown. With the need to actually be a real strike the lioness starts blocking with her claws or dodging.

  Dodging back from a blow she launches forward at Helo. Not having the time to dodge Helo takes the strike to his chest and feels as the lioness uses her hindlegs in a very cat like manor to scratch up his legs. Dropping his left blade Helo stops her fangs from latching on his neck by grabbing her jaw. Feeling his own loss of blood Helo bites forward with his own fangs and drains blood from her neck. Struggling underneath her Helo can feel as the power starts to flow in his veins. Using his right hand, which still has his knife in it, Helo stabs forward. His physical abilities rise and he has enough strength to shove himself free. Swiping out with his left-hand Helo gets himself enough room for his badly cut up legs to heal.

  Struggling back to his feet Helo looks up at the cat and gives a fang filled grin. Both are injured and limping. But Helo is healing quickly. Jumping forward on his barely healed legs Helo hits the cat in the side.

  It is profusely bleeding over the floor of the den and is dodging away from Helo’s strikes. As this small game of cat and mouse continues, Helo’s legs are slowly getting more healed. Eventually his legs are fully healed and using ‘Double Step’ he gets in close to the lion. As she is about to react, he uses the second step to move with her. Quickly slashing her throat Helo watches as she dies.

  As the lion dies Helo feels a slight sense of loss. If this were out in the wild, he probably wouldn’t have killed her. She was a reflection of himself. If his human nature was over powered by his more bestial instincts, Helo thinks that this might have been what he would become. Bowing his head in a sign of respect, Helo closes his eyes and morns the passing of a powerful predator.

  After that Helo sinks to his knees, with large gulps he drains the lioness of some of her blood. Then he places her in his storage ring. Feeling powerful and healed Helo knows that this isn’t going to last. He has pushed his regeneration pretty far and is going to need some rest.

  Getting back to his feet Helo starts heading to the front exit of the den. Looking down he is about fifty feet up and sees the fight that is going on. The male lion is in the middle of attacking Kenneth while everyone else is fighting off the three others that are left. Helo from his position can see that Kenneth is overwhelmed by the massive lion and is having trouble.

  Everyone else is dealing with their fights swiftly, but Hinata who is fighting the lioness that was with the male is having some issues. Alli who is supporting her is tipping the fight in her favor.

  Looking down Helo jumps down the cliff edge and leaps from rock to rock. Making it down to the bottom, Helo wraps himself in his aura and silently makes his way to the male lion. Rushing forward Helo veers off in the end. Turning right Helo goes to Help Hinata. Erupting into the fight with a dual handed downward strike Helo impales the head of the lion on his knife. “Help Kenneth, Ill free up the others.”

  Moving quickly Helo sweeps around the fight killing the other two lions that are fighting the others. The one fighting Gabi was seriously injured. But the other was still well. Moving quickly Helo kills them and they all turn to fight the male lion.

  As the male lion backs off from Kenneth it turns its head to see everyone else dead. With a roar of fury, the lion jumps back into the fight far more aggressive than before. Finally, now that Helo doesn’t have to worry about being found he uses ‘Identify’.

  Alpha Plain Lion

  Tier 1 Level 24 Uncommon Variant

  This uncommon variant of a lion is the alpha of its pack. Conquering the territory around it this lion has evolved to be uncommon tier. This lion forsakes mana abilities to increase its body’s strength.

  Holy Shit that thing is strong. Helo thinks while preparing for the fight. Looking around he can see that everyone is ready. Luna already has already cast her buff and debuff while everyone else is preparing to attack.

  Starting off the fight Kenneth uses his taunt. As he does the large head of the lion swings around to face him. As it steps forward a barrage of ten arrows strike it’s left side. A moment later a massive wind blades cuts into its other side. Right before the attacks can land the fur on the lion’s body seems to get rigid.

  With a ‘PING’ the arrows bounce of the lions hardened fur. They end up doing very little damage. By that time, it had already stepped closer to Kenneth. To keep its attention, he swings his mace toward its face. The lion was distracted by the strikes on its body so the mace connects with the lion’s front tooth.

  With a loud crack the tooth snaps and the lion roars in pain. Jumping forward the lion jumps onto Kenneth’s shield and tries to reach with its jaws over the obstacle. Running forward Hinata cuts the lions hind left leg, at the same time Gabi is attacking the other side.

  As these attacks happen the lion is taking very little damage. Every strike seems to be blocked by the lion’s fur. “Our attacks are barely doing a thing!” Alli calls out. “Either we are going to run out of energy first or it will.” At that moment the lion changes from attacking Kenneth to attacking Alli who spoke up.

  Barely getting out of the way she avoids getting eaten because Hinata steps up to help. This continues with them being able to land very little meaningful strikes. The lion’s physical body and defenses are too high for them to be able to land a solid attack. Even Luna’s ‘Protect’ defensive barriers are getting destroyed in one blow from the lion’s claws.

  As the lion switches targets Helo’s ‘Double Step’ has come off its cooldown. Taking his chance, he lunges forward and is able to get his shadow enhanced blade to barely pierce the enemy’s defenses. Slightly crippling a leg, the lions speed is reduced.

  After Alli’s call Luna starts charging her debuff. Casting her debuff Luna focuses on making her magic effect the lions defenses. In that moment she hears a ‘Bing’ then the next strike, that happens to be from Gabi, makes it through. Her ‘Disarming Noise’ skill that slightly lowers all the abilities of an enemy just evolved to focus on weakening an enemy’s defense. With a focus on weakening any ridged defenses, like steel, hardened stone or fur. Using ‘Softening Noise’ she weakens the lion enough for them to injure it.

  Watching the fight the lion is losing a lot of blood but Helo doesn’t think that they are being as affective as they think they are. At this point the lion has tried to attack all of them and succeeded in injuring a few people. With a constant use of Kenneths taunt skill they are staying alive. The issue they are having is that Kenneth’s taunt is losing effectiveness, meaning that they are slowly getting less impactful strike in.

  Dodging back Gabi narrowly dodges the strike. The lion is too powerful for her to accept those blows and she has already gained boosts from the previous enemies. While the lion lunges at Gabi, everyone else attacks from all angles.

  Wounding the lion over and over they keep injuring it and bleeding the lion. It is slowly getting weaker as the fight goes on. With one final use of taunt the lion swings its head toward Kenneth. As the lion looks over Helo uses his skills that have come off cooldown again.

  Jumping forward Helo uses ‘Double Step’ and ‘Penetrative Strike’ to drive his blade into the side of the lion’s neck. As the lions blood falls it slowly starts to topple over.

  Looking around Helo can see that everyone is tired and worn out. With a quick word everyone decides to head up into the dens to rest. As everyone is moving out Helo says that he is going to stay. He offered to retrieve the core.

  When everyone was gone Helo just placed the lion into his necklace. He pondered for a while on why he didn’t feel the same way about this lion. In the end Helo realized that it had to do with the fight.

  With the lioness she was a fight that he respected and she got away. For the male lion they just circled it and attacked. It also showed him the strength in numbers. With the use of skills and abilities, anyone could meet the end of their life.

  With the body stored Helo heads back to the group. Making his way up into the den Helo sees a chest resting on a rock outcropping. Calling out to the group everyone comes down to see the chest.