[1st POV]
Fighting 5 powerful enemies was vastly different from fighting 400 pests. The latter is much more exhausting and satisfying.
I retreated to rest at the centre of the circular formation that the pride had made. I took a moment to catch my breath, panting and wiping away all the blood that covered my body.
The fresh blood of the hyenas was warm, and with their slick texture covering my whole body, it was messing with my body heat. It was making me tired faster than usual. That was an example of one of the many factors I did not consider while fighting them like this.
Although I liked to pretend, I was not all knowledgeable.
I should've known this. I had known this ever since I fought Roku, and my stuffed belly was the only reason it ended in a draw. It was not just the strength of the enemy but the whole situation that was at play when you fight in nature.
I guess life had reminded me of this lesson. I underestimated, not the hyenas, but the intensity that came with war.
The hyenas continued circling us. They were getting bolder with each passing second. The only reason why they hesitated was because none of them wanted to be the first to poke the lionesses.
They prowled with their heads dipped low, eyes glinting to search for any opening. Their open jaws were leaking drool that mixed with the blood on the ground. What a horrible sight they were to look at.
All this time, we had been the ones fighting and instigating the conflict, but now it was their turn, and they were finding their tempo. The moment they found their momentum would spell doom for us.
I saw one hyena attack Zuri. She stood out as a weak spot because she was smaller and thinner than the rest. The hyena lunged forward, but she managed to step back in time. There was the sound of jaws shutting with bone-crushing pressure, a hint at what would've happened if she had been even a second too late.
Zuri countered fast, swinging her paw at the hyena before biting at the head and pushing him down. But the other hyenas used that chance to attack her. Using their fallen comrade as a stepping stone, two hyenas rushed at Zuri while she was occupied.
I moved fast. Getting behind her, I met the two hyenas with a swing of my own. My paw did not hit cleanly, my claws barely raking them. But the thunderous force behind my swing was still enough to knock them out. You could hear the sound of my swing, like a baseball bat cutting through the air. I had swung harder than even I intended.
One hyena was sent tumbling across the dirt. He rolled three times before he stopped and lay unconscious in front of the other hyenas. That would work to demotivate them for a little longer.
The other hyena on the other hand went limp immediately. His body stiffened and he was out cold.
"Be careful," I told Zuri before pulling back.
The hyenas tried the same tactic on different lions. They were trying to find a gap or at least create an opening in our formation. But when those attempts were too infrequent, the hyenas began pushing their own forward, forcing them to become sacrificial meat to get closer to the lionesses.
None had honour. There was no mercy for the scavengers.
On the other hand, the pride worked as a team. They worked together better than I could ever believe. Their coordination and the fact that they had each other's backs always kept them alive.
But among them, Zael perhaps was the most remarkable. Even now, he roared and still insisted on shooting out in short bursts to kill the hyenas. He was ferocious and that was why the hyenas in his vicinity were the furthest.
"Don't stay stationary, move," I said when I saw how the horde closed up on some parts of the formation while staying away from the rest.
"Give Zael a chance to fend them off," I said, and the pride followed my command.
They began rotating the formation. In this manner, Zael, the only lion other than me, was able to cover the weaker lionesses like Zuri and Sarabi.
But even that did not last long.
Eventually, the horde broke through.
"Tala no!!!" Nala screamed as a hyena found its mark on her neck.
The moment one hyena caught the neck of Tala, five more sprang out with sharp teeth. She collapsed, instinctively protecting her vitals while the hyenas began mauling her.
The lionesses behind her, even Nala, could no longer care about the formation as they ran to help her. The formation had a gap, and the horde began filling it like water rushing to cracks.
But at that point, the pride had held on for nearly two minutes. That was enough for me to regain my intensity. I was ready for the final burst of power.
"Retreat!! Go back to the path!!" I said and that was followed by a roar so loud it momentarily froze every creature on the battlefield. It was the primal instinct in response to such a loud sound.
And then I shot out. This time, I no longer pushed forward but back. I ran in the direction of the escape path from which we came.
When I finally reached the horde, I did not bite or claw like I did. My aim was no longer to kill them.
*BOOM!!*
I dipped my head and then knocked the two hyenas standing in my way. They were thrown into the air as I ragdolled them in a way a buffalo would ragdoll me.
"FOLLOW ME!!" I commanded once more as I proceeded to carve a road amid the horde of hyenas.
I paved the path with the bodies of the hyenas. The pride was quick to follow me. They knew exactly what to do as they ran in a line on both sides. They took the chance to finish off every hyena that I ragdolled.
I refused to slow down my momentum just for kills and slammed into the hyenas. I would swing my paw when they were standing in a cluster, trying to stop me. But no matter what they did, they found themselves on the dirt, and they were finished off by my pride that followed me.
The hyenas became more ferocious and reckless when they realised I was not killing any of them and only slamming them down or pushing them away. One hyena went as far as leaping towards me and biting down on the side of my head, his mouth crushing thick locks of my mane.
I growled and with a twist of my head, I bit the hyena by the spine. I did not let him go as I thrashed him around while still paving a path through the horde. When I felt that the hyena had died, I spat him out and snatched another unfortunate hyena.
Lions were already much larger than hyenas. The average lion was around 4 times bigger than the average hyena. So compared to me, they were akin to deadly puppies and I treated them as such. They were completely and utterly outmatched, their endless number was their only advantage.
I hurried my pace when I noticed the horde moving along with us and thickening their numbers in the back. At that speed, the pride did not even have time to finish off the hyenas as I began bulldozing through at an incredible pace.
Hyena bodies flew everywhere. I dipped my head and flung away any that dared to stand in the way. They were not cats and therefore not nimble, they crashed into the others, sometimes seriously injured and sometimes not.
Eventually, we reached the entrance.
I ran past the entrance while the rest of my pride immediately went down the gorge. I waited until everyone got in, and even after that I still waited.
The hyenas swarmed me again. At this stage of the battle, they had finally become reckless. More than likely, seeing us running away had activated their predatory instinct. After all, running was a sign of weakness and their victory.
They fought like beasts, assured of winning.
They came at me. So many came at me all at once that they piled up on top of each other. One hyena, while standing on top of two piled-up hyenas, lunged at me and managed to bite the mane in my neck. I roared and swiped down my paw in a crushing force, tearing its scalp and cracking its skull.
But right then, another bite on my mane from the back. Before I could respond, three more were clinging to my back and weighing me down. I lost my balance and fell, and hyenas piled against me once more.
Jaws were snapping wildly. Some managed to bite me, others missed, while others bit each other. There was no care in the world anymore, their numbers devoured me whole, their chaos consumed me.
I didn't feel pain in that moment, but I wished I did. When I was attacked from all sides, it would be good for me to know the extent of the damage I received. But I didn't feel anything except rage and sluggishness.
My blood mixed with the blood of the hyenas I dismantled. My whole body was drenched in red, my large mane had been watered down and made slick on my body. I no longer had the characteristics of a lion. I was only a red monstrosity focused on killing all the creatures before me.
A swing of my paw no longer took down even one hyena. I was swarmed, and I had no room to create the necessary momentum. I tried my jaw but I could barely see anything to aim. Wherever I bit down, I found flesh. But whether those were vitals or not was unknown.
I crouched down low. It was the only way I could protect myself. But that was only an invitation for more to pile up on me.
But then, in that moment, I decided to throw away my sound mind. I let instincts take the wheel of my body.
Long ago, I found that a mix between instinct and sound mind was the best in combat. But my situation could not even be called combat anymore; it was utter chaotic violence.
I decided to meet violence with violence. Primal with primal. A smart and calculating mind had no room in that moment of intense war. Sometimes, fire was the best way to fight fire.
And so, I flipped around. No longer minding to expose my vulnerable parts, I twisted with great force. And with it, the hyenas on top of me fell like a hill collapsing. They crashed on each other and, unlike what my mind would've believed, none had time to attack me in my vitals.
When my four limbs found solid footing again, I exploded up with a tearing roar. Gone was intelligence, gone was nobility, I was nothing but a beast pushed to the corner. And I began fighting as such.
I was not a beast with a human mind, but only a beast. An animal designed to be superior to all. My mind was just a boon, my existence itself was already great.
But although I no longer held thought, you would be surprised with how I fought. That was a result of superior instinct. It was not a primal instinct, but one that I had forged through countless battles, training and combat.
That was the driver of my body. Not given power but earned. I went full-on berserk mode once more. It was similar to how I fought in the beginning but this was more raw, more violent, more brutal towards both the hyenas and me.
I clamped my jaw down on anything. I caught one hyena by the leg. Usually, I would let that go and aim for more vital parts of another hyena, always being more efficient. Or I would've pulled the hyena towards me and delivered a fatal blow to its head.
But in my current state, I did none of them. I simply bit the hyena by the leg and began thrashing it around like I was doing laundry. I thrashed around wildly, using its body to hit the surrounding hyenas.
I did no real damage, but just seeing their own being used like a ragdoll had a psychological effect on them. I swung the hyena around until his legs came off, and he was flung far away.
I spat the leg out and immediately lunged at another hyena.
This time, I found a neck. My trained jaw crushed the neck at record pressure. The hyena died so quickly it was ridiculous. But again, I did not stop. I continued biting until my jaw cut through everything, and his head was separated cleanly from his body.
I spat the chunk of neck at the face of another hyena, and while he closed his eyes, my paw came down at him like an asteroid. His hind legs came up while his head was planted on the ground, completely smashed.
My body went haywire. I could no longer feel pain or exhaustion. At this rate, I would probably collapse and die before I stopped fighting. But that was the state the horde had pushed me into. They had no choice but to receive me in full.
I continued my rampage. I was a calamity in constant motion. The hyenas could barely even find time to attack as I was always moving and killing their fellow hyenas. It was like their bones were made of dry twigs and their flesh was soft mud.
In my bloodied rage, I noticed the hyenas following my pride into the path. That was part of the plan, to make sure some hyenas followed before I stopped them from entering. The ones that managed to get in could then be finished off by the pride, further decreasing their number.
But although it was too early, I found myself running towards the entrance. I took a great leap once more, one hyena actually clinging onto me through all that as we both flew in the air.
And then I crashed right into the hyenas that were trying to follow my pride. Their bodies were crushed like tomatoes. Their bones became like broken teeth.
*ROAR!!!*
I roared, loud and angry. The sheer vibration seemed to shake their nerves. I was not thinking straight anymore, but it was instinctual to protect and defend my pride.
I made sure every hyena that came to me never returned the same. Since I was not attacking the vitals and aiming for efficient killing, more hyenas became injured and damaged than dead.
The silence of death was gone with my mauling. Instead, the battlefield was beginning to be filled with the cry of agony of the hyenas. Some hyenas had their snouts bit off, some had their hind legs paralysed as I bit the spine, some had half their chest and lungs missing, some were running away and dragging their own intestines.
Heads occasionally rolled down as well. When I caught a hyena by the neck, I bit until it was completely off. Blood sprayed everywhere, even in my mouth. But I simply gulped that down to quench my parched throat.
With a mouth full of their blood, I roared.
I became their living horror.
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[EPIC IMAGE]
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