[1st POV]
I spent nearly a week in the Mara River. The place was literally a predator's heaven. There was so much prey to hunt that I did not know which one to choose.
I killed five different prey in the span of a week. I knew it was a waste to kill that much, but I couldn't help myself when they were just right there. More often than not, injured from crossing the river, so they couldn't have been an easier victim.
I ate zebras and wildebeest. They tasted incredible after not eating them for four whole months. I nearly forgot the light taste and soft texture of their meat compared to a buffalo.
Although strangely enough, I rarely find predators other than myself in the Mara River. With how much food there was, you would think predators would come here every year, but no.
Predators like cheetahs and leopards did not like the chaos one bit as it turned out. The only carnivore I found near the river was a clan of hyenas.
Like the little opportunistic freaks they were, hyenas came to the river as well. They pick out the tired and weak animals or sometimes feed on the carcass of animals that washed ashore on the riverbank.
I'll admit that they did well to avoid me during the whole week. I could not get my hands on a single one of them. They ran on sight.
Anyway, after a week had passed, most animals had crossed the river and were heading to the central part of the Serengeti. The buffalo herd that now numbered in the thousands were among these animals.
So naturally, I followed them back to the central region as well. Other animals were good, but I was already addicted to buffalo meat. With the progress I made over the past three months, I also think that they were the best diet for my progress and growth.
Life continued.
But problems arose in the following weeks.
Hunting a buffalo while they were in small, scattered herds was much easier than when they were in a big herd. I had to find this out the hard way.
The first and foremost problem I encountered was that it was much harder to isolate one buffalo when they were in groups. This immediately put a stop to one of the most important parts of my strategy when it comes to buffalo hunting.
The second thing was the fact that the bachelors were not at odds with each other compared to when they lived in small herds. They had enough food and mating candidates without needing tough competition. If you remember, I failed my hunts mostly when two or more bachelors knew how to work together.
During the wet season and when the herd was large, they almost always worked together and it was impossible to know which bachelor was the best one to target.
Another reason was that the buffalo were stronger than before. They were properly hydrated and well fed. The weather was also not as dry, so they did not get tired as easily.
If I had tried to hunt these buffalo three months back, I would have failed very hard and probably would never taste buffalo meat until I got a pride of my own to help me. But luckily for me, the dry season had given me enough experience and time to grow.
I failed the first three or four times while trying to take on the giant herd of buffalo. I had to resort to hunting a wildebeest when I could not find an opportunity to take them down in the first week.
But like always, I adapted.
I threw away my previous strategy and made a new one that was more suited to hunting a buffalo during the wet season. It was quite a drastic change compared to the strategy I used before.
Previously, I hunted at noon when the sun was high in the sky and when the buffalo would tire quickly. But this time, I hunt in the middle of the night to early morning. It was during this period that the buffalo had the deepest sleep.
The plan was simple. I stalked the herd during the night and searched for an isolated member. The recent hunting required raw power, so it's been a while since I used it. But do not forget, I was a master of stealth and stalking.
It was the skill that Sarabi praised me the most for. My build, which was wide shoulders, big paws and a low centre of gravity, made me naturally silent and stealthy, contrary to my size.
The buffaloes had horrible vision which was even worse during the night. They relied on their ears in the dark. My incredible stealth, coupled with the fact that they live in a big herd where my accidental sounds could be taken for the sound of other buffalo, it was quite effortless to sneak around them.
After I had found a buffalo that slept the furthest from the herd, I made it my target. It could be male, female or sub-adult. The one most isolated was the target. Although it was more often than not always a bachelor.
And then it was just a matter of taking down that buffalo, which seemed like it would be harder than it sounds, but it was actually not. Killing an unprepared and sleeping buffalo was quite easy. It was easier than killing a tired buffalo.
Buffalos sleep on the ground. When they sleep, they tuck their legs under their belly or lie sideways. Both were extremely vulnerable positions, which I took advantage of.
I especially liked it when they would tuck their legs under their body. Becuase it was just a matter of biting into their open neck and wrestling them down with my weight. They could never get back up after that, my weight alone was enough to keep them on the ground.
The buffalo could not cry out for help because I was blocking their windpipe. The intense struggle and trashing caught the attention of some members, but it was not enough to warrant getting up and checking.
I made sure not to release any lion sounds as well to keep them unaware. They always struggled fiercely for a minute or two. But their leg was stuck under their own body, so they could not pin me to the ground or utilise their horns to harm me.
And I was already physically strong enough to take them on, so they had no chance. They usually die before five minutes pass. They die from suffocation.
So that was the strategy I used during the wet season when I went buffalo hunting. Just like I promised when I took down my first buffalo, I made them a stable source of my diet.
The change in season meant that resources were plentiful once more and there were many prey to hunt other than the giant widow makers. It also meant that life was not as hard so I could focus more on training again.
That was the mindset that I returned to the moment survival was nigh guaranteed.
But unlike the other times that I trained, I decided to pick a lot of fights with rogue males in the following months as part of my training routine. You might be wondering why that was and I got a very good reason for that. It was not just because I was bloodlusted that I went after other male lions.
So here's the thing. There were many rogue males in the Serenegti after the dry season came to an end. This was because most of these males came down to this territory during the harsh season.
They had challenged the Mbali brothers for the kingdom but all of them failed. But since lions rarely die in a battle for dominance, they remained in the Serengeti after being defeated.
And where do you think these rogue lions go after being defeated and chased away?
That's right, they went to the area in the Serengeti where the Siringet Pride did not live. They went to the opposite side of the region where the Mbali brothers rarely patrolled and visited.
But guess who lived there?
Me.
I had been avoiding the Mbali brothers since I arrived in the Serengeti. My kopje was located in this part of the territory. Although not official, it could be said that this part of the region was under me. It was my kingdom.
That meant it was up to me to deal with these defeated rogue males.
But you might still be asking why not chase them away or avoid them like I did the Mbali brothers. Why do I insist on picking a fight with them?
It began the moment I returned to my home and I saw two shameless lions sleeping on my kopje. I had mournfully left my home a few weeks ago but upon my return, my home did not even smell like mine anymore.
It was marked by other scents, two scents.
It was an odd recall of the past when two of the Mbali brothers came to my kopje and left their marks all over it. The same burning rage that I felt in that moment resurfaced.
But this time, I had my target and I had the power to tear them apart.
I genuinely crashed out after that.
An hour later, I had to sleep with two corpses.
My kill count increased to three lions but I was satisfied, far from it actually. In that moment, I decided to hunt down and kill all the rogues on my side of the region as a part of my training.
Before I even knew it, three months passed like that.
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[Image]
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Vote stones please.