Chapter 154: Domination

The predator snarled a high-pitched screeching noise that seemed to echo off the trees around us. 

"I get the feeling that it's probably got our scent," I said, taking the time to push BB down into Syncro mode now that I had a little bit of space. 

I wouldn't be able to use the majority of my abilities, that much was obvious to me. There was too much risk in unleashing my manna when BB and I still had so little control over it. 

That meant no using my energy beams or my propulsion and antigrav, moves that had become second nature to me over the past week. 

But passive effects? Things like enhanced cognition from the speed I was moving? That would come in very handy indeed. 

"I would agree with that statement, Squadron Leader Jacob Lyre," Yr'Arl said, "At this point trying to escape would likely be futile. We must fight, and defeat the creature." 

I rolled my shoulders and cracked my neck, the creature's head twitched with each sound, the flaps that served as the transition point between neck and head fluttering slightly as it detected me. 

"I'll keep it off you, try to get your armour up," I said, and then burst forward toward the monster. 

I pushed off the ground so strongly that the patch of mud and rock that I was standing on was obliterated in an instant, reduced to atoms under the pressure of my leap. 

Even with my enhanced cognition, I had reached the creature in what felt like less than a second. 

I let a fist fly but, somehow, even though I was meant to be thinking at hundreds of times faster than baseline human the creature was moving at exactly the same speed as me. 

It shouldn't have been possible, but it was. Yr'Arl hadn't been kidding, somehow this predator was just as fast as I was. 

What the hell kind of planet had we landed on?

Before my strike could connect the creature had pounced out of the way, bouncing from one tree to another a few meters away from me. 

I wasn't going to let the creature off that easily. 

I sprung off the tree, the excess energy from my jump obliterated the wood entirely, knocking it through the air and away from Yr'Arl. Nevertheless, I was hot on the tail of the creature as it sprung toward another tree. 

It wasn't turning to fight, which was something I found interesting. Could it have been some sort of ambush predator? Now that we had ruined its ambush did it no longer want anything to do with us? 

Even if it didn't, leaving it alive was too risky. It had our scent now, and if we turned our backs on it there was no way to tell whether it would come slinking out of the shadows to try and kill us again. 

Besides, if we didn't manage to make our way over to the city we'd need meat to eat, and while the muscle wasn't necessarily the tastiest of foods it'd do in a pinch. 

I grabbed a thick branch as I jumped to another tree, the creature just out of reach, and hurled it out ahead of me. The branch clipped the shoulder of the creature and it went down hard, colliding with a tree instead of landing on it and going straight through the wood. Then it hit the ground and skid to a stop. 

I let myself drop down to the ground. 

I tried to be gentle and graceful with my drop, but I still managed to leave a crater in my wake. 

[NeW SkIlL uNLocKed - BeaSt DoMmInAtIon Lvl 1]

I blinked in surprise at the notification from the system. 

It was clearly badly damaged by the way that the message came out, but I hadn't been expecting any messages at all until I managed to get things under control. I mean, I hadn't seen anything other than various warnings so far. 

Beast Domination? 

It wasn't a passive ability, but the corruption to the system due to my power bleed had stopped it short of giving me an explanation regarding what the skill actually did for me. 

Was it just a way to fight beasts quicker, or was it something like beast control? 

I had to admit, it would be pretty cool to have a beast by my side that was just as fast as I was, and likely probably very strong too. 

I stalked forward and decided that, if the creature was still alive after I had knocked it down to the ground, I was going to try the skill out. 

What was the worst that could happen?

Okay, admittedly the last time I had thought something like that I had crashed us into a planet after burning through Hyperspace in a sloop that was only ever designed for short range transport. 

But after all of that, didn't I deserve some sort of positive outcome? 

I reached the beast, it was curled up and whimpering slightly through its beak. Injured, but still alive. 

It growled as I drew close, the flaps on the sides of its head raising up menacingly. Clearly it wasn't willing to give up on life, and I was more than willing to try and heal it if it was no longer hostile. 

I splayed my hands out in front of me and activated the [Beast Domination] skill. 

Static electricity danced between my fingertips before lancing out at the creature that was down on the ground. 

I felt the connection form almost immediately. 

I could feel what the creature was… not thinking, its mentality wasn't quite developed enough for thoughts like a human had, but intents and emotions. 

It was fearful and in pain, it didn't understand how a creature like me could have bested something like it, the king of the jungle. 

But as my manna worked its way through its systems, behaving for once, its wounds slowly healed and its mistrust slowly bled away. 

The beast was mine.