[3rd POV]
(3 months later)
The wet season had transformed the Serengeti into a vast emerald ocean. Rivers flowed again, winding like silver serpents across the land. Thunderclouds hung low and heavy in the sky, and the air was thick with the scent of mud, grass, and life. The predators thrived. So did the prey.
In such a land, three rogue lions stayed under the wide shelter of a tree. They had just finished hunting a wildebeest and were now enjoying their meal.
The three lions were not related by blood, so their coalition was one of the rare ones in the wild. They all came to the Serengeti as lone rogues, but after seeing the Mbali brothers, they united as one to take down the current kings.
Although things didn't go as planned for them. They were defeated by the prime kings, rather effortlessly in fact. Their defeat was so clear and hard that they never challenged the Mbali brothers again, even after four months.
These days, they stay away from the region of the Siringet Pride. They were young and inexperienced so they took their time to grow and get stronger before they would challenge the Mbali brothers once more.
"This was a very successful hunt. You both did a great job this time," Kosa, the oldest and biggest one among the three, said. He was the unspoken leader of the coalition.
That is why he had a seat right before the open belly of the wildebeest and had the privilege of feasting on the organs while the other two lions ate the shoulders and back respectively.
"I can't believe this part of the region is uninhabited by any pride. The Siringet Pride has too much territory that they are just wasting good land," Sefu said while tearing a chunk of meat from the shoulder of the carcass.
"I agree. I guess the kings are only strong, they clearly lack the brain to maintain their territory," Kosa relied, blood dripping from his jaw.
The three lions continued feasting like that for a while, sharing small talk while they filled their belly. This type of activity was slowly strengthening their brotherhood, even though they may not be related by blood.
"But don't you think it's also quite strange," Tambo, the last and youngest of the three, voiced out his thoughts.
"What do you mean?" Sefu asked.
"The three kings know we are here. They should also know the danger we pose to them considering we are a coalition of three just like them. We are not just any other challengers," Tambo said.
"But they never even come to this side of the region. I don't expect them to come and fight us, but patrolling the area or marking it should be something they should do, right? After all it's still their kingdom," he added.
Kosa paused his eating for a while as he thought over what the youngest said. Sefu on the other hand did not care and simply laughed.
"So? What do you think is stopping them from doing their duties?" Sefu asked with a grin, clearly amused.
"I don't know. But it seems something is clearly stopping them from coming to this part of the region, even though it's their own kingdom," Tambo said, his voice a little ominous.
"Well..." Kosa swallowed a liver, "We are not the only rogues that is staying here. So they probably did not want to antagonise all of us at once,"
In the end, they all find that reasonable. They exchanged nods and continued with their meal. But as the time passed, the storm cloud that was blocking the midday sun slowly passed.
The sun finally shone down on them, and it was at this moment that they noticed the shadows.
"Hmm?" Kosa tilted his head before looking up.
"That's odd," Sefu commented as he looked up as well.
Vultures.
Around thirty vultures were flying overhead. The three lions did not notice it before when the sun was shielded but after the cloud passed, the shadows cast by the vultures were quite annoying and distracting.
They released screeches, as if responding to their gaze. It was quite odd how they made sounds so suddenly. Like they were laughing at them from the sky.
Like there was a joke that they didn't know and it was funny as hell.
"They never gathered in such numbers before, or this quickly," Kosa said, a little concern in his tone.
But in the end, what were vultures to a lion? There was nothing to worry about.
Yet their calm and peace were short-lived. It was like the vultures were just a bad omen before the real disaster struck.
ROAR
A roar came out of nowhere. The sheer volume of the roar was enough to make all three lions flinch back dramatically. Their fur and mane puffed out as they felt goosebumps wash through their body.
ROAR
The roar was the product of sheer power. It felt like the mountains were screaming and thunder was crying. The roar was so loud that the echoes felt like a different roar of their own.
You could not even tell which direction the sound was coming from because it shook the whole world. And the silence that followed such volume was deafening,
Perhaps because every creature that heard the roar froze similarly to the three lions, and that made the world still for a moment.
Fortunately, there were only two roars and then it stopped.
"....."
"....."
"....."
Among the three lions, none of them spoke. They just eyed each other with a wary look and varying emotions. The only thing they shared at that moment was the hint of fear and anger.
From the roar, you could tell that the lion was not patrolling and neither was it announcing its presence in hopes of chasing them away. It felt like the roar was declaring something.
The silence stretched for a long time until it was broken by the screeches of the vultures in the sky. They seemed to get even noisier after the roar.
"What was that?" Tambo asked.
"It sounds like a declaration," Kosa said thoughtfully before he showed his teeth with a growl, "He is hunting us,"
All three of them perked their ears and stood up fully from the carcass. They were looking in all directions in search of the lion responsible for the roar.
And then they saw movement from their right.
"There!!" Kosa was the one who spotted the movement.
All three lions lunged forward to face the new lion. They did not see him yet but they could see the movement among the tall grass.
The movement stopped for a second before it increased. Then they saw him moving towards them at a moderate speed. The lion still hid his body from their view but he was crawling through the grass rapidly.
"Get ready!" Kosa warned and every lion crouched down, ready to pounce at a moment's notice.
But when the movement in the tall grass finally reached them, they realised that it was not a lion.
The head of a vulture popped up among the tall grass. The vulture looked at them with these clear, unnerving eyes. The lions could not even put down their guards due to the eerie gaze.
And then the vulture smiled with a barely open beak.
"Behind you," it said.
!!!!!!
All three lions felt their inner alarms going off. Their instincts screamed at the giant presence that was right behind them, yet had somehow remained ignored. They turned around immediately and then they saw him.
A behemoth of a lion.
He was standing sideways with his head turned towards them. Becuase of this, they could see his body in all its beastly glory.
It was enough to strike fear into the lions.
"That is..." Sefu said but lost words halfway.
"...bigger than Baraka," Tambo completed the sentence for him.
It was a wonder how such a giant beast could sneak up on them, even though they were distracted by the vulture.
"He is dangerous," Kosa said and his body trembled for a moment, "Very, very dangerous,"
They tried sizing up the new lion but the closer they looked, the more they gave in to fear. The sheer muscle mass on the lion, the unbelievable length and width, the size of his paws and his mane that looked like black flames covering his head and neck.
He looked monstrous even to the eyes of the lions.
The distance between them was too close to run. They would need to fight in order to survive. That line of thought went through every single one of them.
And so...
"Let's go," Kosa said and began walking towards the new lion.
Tambo and Sefu followed right behind him. They were a bit afraid in the beginning, yes. But that was easily destroyed by pride and ego.
The lion was big and strong, but there were three of them and only one of him. Perhaps that was what they used to gather up their courage while charging at the superior beast.
The three lions walked, jogged and then ran towards the lion. They all released guttural roars and violent growls as they made their way towards the intruder.
The lion, no.
Leo, on the other hand, only grinned and remained unmoving until the last second. When the clash happened, it could only be described as utterly despairing.
For the three lions, it felt like fighting against a mountain-shaped lion or a buffalo in lion skin. They were utterly helpless when it came to any field of strength and power.
They all attacked at the same time. No one was holding back, and they attacked Leo with everything they had.
The fight between four different lions was brutal and violent. They trashed around on the ground, their chains of growl and the sound of their violence filled the air.
But as the fight went on, the three began to slow down and their attacks became weaker and sluggish. On the other hand, Leo exploded harder and fought more violently.
He had been saving up his energy to finish them when they got tired.
In that moment, the three lions finally realised the gap between them was merely an illusion. In truth, the gap was even wider than they imagined.
*ROAR!!*
Sefu roared and then lunged straight towards Leo. He was a blur of muscle and claws that hit Leo with a brutal assault. But Sefu felt like he hit a boulder when they clashed.
Sefu tried to bite at his head but Leo ducked under the attack and he clamped down at the neck of Sefu instead. The rogue lion cried out in pain an agony.
Right then, Tambo sprinted from the side like a flash of lightning. He flanked Leo and lunged towards the open ribs.
But before Tambo could land his attack, Leo lifted Sefu from the ground. He used raw power to lift the other lion, and then he slammed him down at the lunging Tambo.
Leo was using a fully grown lion as a weapon. Ragdolling them seemed like no issue to him.
But Tambo did not stay down for long. He twisted his body with the flexibility of a cat and quickly escaped from Sefu's weight. But the moment he rose back up, Leo swung his paw at him.
Tambo felt a heavy hit on his head. He felt that he was knocked out for a split second. That was how brutally the paw landed.
But just when he thought the attack was over, Leo sank his claws into Tambo's skin. The powerful attack was never meant to strike, it was only meant to grab.
Tambo could not imagine what would happen if he were hit with a proper strike. His head might just explode upon touch.
Tambo felt a powerful tug and he couldn't do anything other than obey the powerful force. His head was pulled forward and he was met with a wide-open jaw.
Tambo opened his mouth to fight back, but the jaw that came for him was so much bigger and wider.
Leo then proceeded to bite at the muzzle. There was a cracking sound of bone snapping clean off. When Loe pulled back, he had the upper muzzle of Tambo on his jaw while the younger lion lost half his face.
Blood spilt out like a violent fountain. Tambo released a string of vibrations that did not even sound like a scream. His tongue and his lower teeth were all visible without the upper muzzle to cover them.
He did not even have a nose anymore, only an open lower jaw.
Tambo pulled back and ran. He ran as fast as he could but he could not run from his injuries. In the end, he collapsed like deadweight not too far away.
His muzzle was not the only injury. His body was marked with claw marks and bites from where he was bleeding a copious amount of blood. He could not survive for long.
He would die in minutes due to blood loss alone.
Leo turned his attention back to Sefu and he was kinder to this lion. Leo bit at the back of the skull and with a chilling crunch, the lion died on the spot.
It was hard to end the fight in the beginning but after the lions were tired? Leo found it to be almost too easy.
Kosa watched all of this happen from a distance. He too, was marked with many injuries. He had lost one of his eyes, and his nose was badly scarred as well.
On his right shoulder was a flabby skin that had turned inside out and hung loosely with its red flesh. It was torn apart by Leo's claw during the initial phase of the fight.
His body also had many other injuries but he did not yield until now. But after seeing Leo kill Sefu with ease, he finally let go of his ego and ran.
He looked back briefly after he ran and he saw that Leo was standing on top of Sefu's corpse and he was quite far away from him.
He faced forward and ran for his life. There was a bit of relief when he realised that Leo could not catch up.
But that was only positive thinking.
Kosa heard the sound of a beast running behind him. When he looked again, Leo seemed to have transported right behind him. He felt his heart beating so hard and fast that it hurt inside his chest.
"You should die with your brothers," Leo said and then clamped down on the tail.
He planted his paws on the ground and successfully stopped Kosa from running. He then tugged as hard as he could to bring the lion over to him.
Leo jumped on the back of Kosa and pinned him to the ground with his weight. He opened his jaw and clamped down on the open nape. The lion struggled fiercely and used his claws to try and tear him off his back.
Leo grunted and released his bite. But only to bite down on the paws that were clawing at his head.
Kosa released a painful roar as Leo bit off a portion of his paw. His claws and fingers were spat out right beside his head.
Leo then continued tearing into the nape. .
There was a reason why a lioness would bite at the nape when carrying a cub and why the cub would freeze when bitten there. The cervical spine was located in this area, and this nervous system controls the movement.
Leo tore off the tough and loose skin protecting the area before he crushed the spine with his jaw. Kosa did not even feel pain in that moment. He only felt his body freeze and then become completely paralysed.
His whole body felt numb. There was no longer any sensation.
Kosa almost felt relieved that the pain and struggle had stopped.
...
"So it's here huh," he heard Leo speak while standing on top of him, "Good to know."
After that, Leo simply walked over his paralysed body and took his leave immediately without even bothering to land a finishing blow.
Kosa, in his paralysed state, watched his leaving figure. It was at this moment that he realised why the Mbali brothers did not wander in this region to get them.
There was something much scarier than them roaming around here.
Kosa continued staring at Leo as his figure slowly disappeared in the distance.
Until a vulture landed in front of him and pecked at his eye and pulled out his eyeball, completely blinding him.
The vultures that were flying in the sky flew down like hungry beasts and feasted on the body of the lions.
Alive or not, they didn't care.
..
..
[IMAGE]
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Author : Extra long chapter deserves stone. This is the final timeskip.