34 NEXT LESSON

The boy followed. Just as Panther said, their shared language was instinct. Both spoke it well. Same dialect and all. One of survival and hunger for more. 

It was that same hunger that had them sprinting through the jungle in chase of a very particular scent. A gamey scent. The natural sweaty musk made Rex's jaws itch as he ran. Behind him, the half-goblin boy flipped and rolled through the green, allowing Rex to remember he'd been in chains his whole life. 

"You've never run like this, have you?" Rex thought before slowing to run beside the boy. He grabbed his arm and pulled him upright. 

The boy hissed and jumped away. Rex followed with a snarl, grabbing the boys arm again. 

"Focus, dude." He flicked him as they ran. 

The boy shook off the blow and calmed, slowly beginning to join him more correctly in their sprint. 

Rex smiled and took off. 

The boy followed— stumbling only once before getting a better hang of his new physical gifts. 

They covered two miles straight through rivers and over steep hills until they found their target. 

A large quadrupedal hump-backed equine of sorts with slobbery flappy lips and gnarled bucked teeth. It's Sandy coat stood out in the jungle and it's hooves were too bulky to traverse the lush greenery growing up to its ankles. 

The half-goblin hissed quietly before turning his head in confusion as they hid in the trees atop the branches.

He looked over to Rex, keeping his eyes low out of both fear and respect. More fear though. 

"I don't know either. It almost looks like a….. camel….. but those aren't native to Fort Amazonia. Or any jungle." Rex said. Then the boy staring blankly at him. "Right. English isn't your strong suit. Hmmm…" 

Rex held up a hand, beckoning the boy to follow. 

His movements were quick, he jumped from the branches and slid down the mossy damp bark of the twisting shape of the tree before rolling to the ground and getting up in a run. 

The boy was right behind him. Rex pointed left and felt his ear twitch as the boy spun around to flank the grazing and unaware beast. 

Purple flames sparked into existence in the palm of Rex's hand. He threw it so the jungle fire ball exploded in the grass to the right of the camel. 

The beast jumped sluggishly in terror before turning left to run. 

It was then that the half-goblin jumped up in a feral pounce with his claws and fangs bared. 

He was a natural. 

He latched onto the camels neck and bit down hard. 

The coppery scent of blood hit the air and caused them both to shift. 

Rex closed in as the camel ran with his kin latched on tight. 

To bring the battle to a close, he activated his poisonous fangs and tackled the camel from the side, causing them all to crash to the ground. 

They rolled, snarling and snapping and tearing at the massive sand walking brute. It's knobby knees and sharp hooves cut and bruised Rex, heightening his predators frenzy and forcing him to act on more of his aggression until he was roaring fire and ripping open the camels stomach. 

[+50 EXP] 

They rolled to a stop with Rex and the half-goblin standing on top of the burn and maimed camel. Blood and fur covered them from head to toe. 

Along with it was sand. 

More and more as the winds blew and kicked up more sand to cling to them. 

The two looked around and found themselves in a desert. 

No jungle in sight. 

Not even a sign of a jungle. 

"What the…. hell?" Rex asked before gaining back more of his human mind, "Right. The real mission here. Fighting another god…." 

He hopped off the camel and let his bare feet sink into the sand. It was deceptively deep, causing him to hold up a hand to stop the half-goblin from joining him. It went up to his knees. In the distance, massive sand dunes and dry mountains surrounded them. Echoes and snarls boomed from caves cut into the mountains. 

A dark blue midnight sun gleamed from the night sky with a wild orange eye staring down at him. It gave him a sweltering chill. 

He looked back down at the hot sand and began digging. 

"It's gotta be here. We passed it— that's why we're here. It's the new…." Rex stopped as he looked up and found the sand bubbling behind him and his packmate. 

From the frothing debris, shape took form. First bone, then muscle, then fang and claw and fur and suddenly from the sand, he was flanked by six leonine creatures. 

He didn't want to say lions because they had black paws and snouts and glowing orange eyes like fire from the sun. 

But they had that stocky mass of lions. "Maybe a relative species— or prehistoric felines. Like Imani said." Rex thought. 

The half-goblin hissed warily and scented the elemental feline constructs. 

Rex held up a hand and approached the cats, giving a short bow even as he stood in the sinking sand. 

The cats returned the gesture and stayed that way. 

In front of them, Rex dug through the sand. Around his hands, the sand began to fall, revealing a perfect barrier where water flowed. Much less than before but water all the same. 

"The next domain."

Suddenly the half-goblin was right next to him, looking at the dark beads of moisture run through the split sand.

DING!

[You have entered the Lion's Domain. Pay your respects.] 

He bowed and the world pulsed and let out a angered roar. 

Rex cringed.

The sands rose like an ocean in high tide. 

The leonine beasts stayed above the dry current, rubbing against eachother and purring loudly while others bit and licked one another. 

"What the hell— is it not a bow?" Rex said as the half-goblin swatted at the sand. 

[PAY. YOUR. RESPECTS.]

Rex slashed at the system prompt. 

"The fuck you think I'm doi—"

[10…..9]

"Oh hell…"

The sands rose. 

[8…..7…6…5]

The sands were up to the half-goblins neck and steaming as the eye in the midnight sun flared. 

"STOP!" Rex snarled at the sky. 

The half-goblin looked at Rex. 

Rex held his hand out as a last ditch effort at anything. 

The half-goblin took it just as his face was consumed by the hot sand.

The eye lost its fiery visage atop the blue sun and the sands returned to low tide. 

Rex and the half-goblin looked around wild-eyed and hand in hand. 

"Ok so every domain is different. Very different. Thanks for the heads up, Panther." Rex said before dropping to a knee to take a small scoop of the scarce water and drink it. 

He brought some up for the half-goblin as well. 

"Drink this. It's how we get stronger." Rex held his cupped hand to the boy. 

The boy sniffed the water once before licking it with a barbed tongue. 

Immediately his eyes went slitted. And orange. 

Rex looked at his own reflection in the water and found they were the same. Just like before, the water making up the barrier of the domain wasn't water anymore. It was blood. But he didn't see elements of war inside. 

He saw love. 

He saw families and cubs and kittens playing in large prides. He saw friends fighting side by side to protect their homes. The two werepanthers ears twitched as the sounds of purring and laughter echoed across the sands. He saw the polar opposite of the last domain. 

If the last domain was the domain of war and ferocity, then the current was one of love and protection. 

DING!

[New Authority Gained]

[Guardian's Authority]

[When taking a defensive stance over your kin, all stats gain a +4. At night, all stats gain a +8]

[When your kin take a defensive stance over weaker members of your kin or those you perceive as family, they are likely to grow in strength (+3 to physical stats), (+4 to other stat types)]

"That's strong... strong as hell. But I thought I was an assassin type fighter. I'll have to adjust my fight style to make use of this in the future. Or right now. Where are y…."

The half-goblin hissed and hid behind him. 

Rex looked up from his system screen and found a twenty foot tall figure standing in the sands ahead of them. 

She was a woman based on her nakedness. Despite it being clearly midnight, her dark mahogany skin shimmered with an over moisturized luster. Piercings hung from her nipples. Two massive blades were sheathed at a belt around her wide waist. Khopesh blades based on the wicked curve and golden glow. Thick white claws tipped her jeweled and tattooed fingers. Where she walked, the solar eye in the dark sun followed. 

It almost caused him to miss her face. She had the head of a lioness with thick braids trailing down her back and jewels etched into her fangs. 

She was imposing and ferocious and elegant and mysterious all at once. 

"Just give me the lesson…" Rex thought impatiently. 

The goddess chortled and raised a jeweled hand. 

The sands below her palm shifted and twisted into a sand hurricane. 

Rex brought up a hand to guard the wicked sand flakes from cutting his eyes. 

When it died down, he found himself watching as an innumerable amount of stationed were-Lion cat warriors ran from the epicenter of the hurricane and charged them. 

Rex and the half-goblin transformed and prepared for battle.