[1st POV]
The king of the jungle.
The king of the savannah.
The most dominant predator on the earth.
I held these titles with pride, but there were still creatures in this world that I didn't mess with. There were still a few animals where I drew the line. Mostly because these animals were never really a factor in my life, and I was not going to mess with them just to show how big my dick is.
The hippopotamus, the rhinoceros and the elephant.
The giants of the animal kingdom. They stood at the pinnacle of strength, unbothered and mostly secluded from all the other beasts on land.
No one hunts them; no one could. They take what they want, live how they want, eat what they want and destroy what they want.
At the same time, they weren't kings either. More like those overpowered characters that no one messes with in the story and treat them more like walking disasters than enemies.
If the lion is an apex predator, then these animals were the apex living forces.
Usually, when rhinos and hippos meet, it ends with neither wanting conflict. And even if it came down to that, rhinos would take the win and chase away the hippo.
But my children were not grown yet. They were only calves. Just big babies probably waiting for someone to save them, to shield them.
They should have had their mother to protect them, but since they didn't, the responsibility lay on my shoulders.
They were my calves now.
"Jumbo! Mambo!!" I called them when I could finally see them in my field of view.
They were standing in the shallow waters, both calves staying close together as if both seeking safety. There were many greens on top of the shallow water, so I could guess why they went there in the first place.
But what made my heart fall was the huge jaw of a hippo that was put in front of their faces. The jaw was wide enough to swallow their head whole and it had canines two feet long, nearly a metre.
The two baby rhinos turned towards me, their ears still too big for their heads flapped and perked towards me.
They cried.
Have you ever heard a baby rhino cry or whine for help? It was a high-pitched and vulnerable sound you would never expect from living tanks.
It was so small, so scared, like the whine of a puppy.
I roared as loud as I could as if to assure them from a distance. Then I straight-up sprinted towards them as fast as I could.
I stepped into the shallow water. The water splashed madly as I ran through it like an unstoppable machine. The babies were too young to know what to do in their situation. The hippo was clearly trying to chase them away or harm them, but they didn't even have the instinct to back away.
Maybe since they were going to grow into such beasts, they didn't have the instinct to flee like other animals did.
"Come to me!!" I said when I neared them.
The two baby rhinos turned and ran out from the shallow waters. The hippo, seeing their backs, took that as an opportunity to bite. The gigantic jaw clamped down hard, biting into one of the rhinos until it left a mark.
Fortunately, the jaw was not designed to hold, so Mambo was able to escape with a wound on his back.
They ran to me, quickly coming behind my back and trying to hide behind my presence even though they were already as big as me.
They continued to whine and cry. I think they even did it harder when they reached me. It was like a child complaining to their parents.
"It's okay, I'm here," I said, soothing them and clawing them. "I'm here."
Mambo sought comfort on my chest, his back bleeding hard.
But there was not even time to worry about that because something exploded in the water. When I turned back to look, a full-grown adult hippo had emerged from the water.
It was not done with just chasing the rhinos off. It was angry and wanted to finish what he had started.
One of the most aggressive animals on the planet, it wouldn't let us go easily after drawing blood. And with Mambo's injury, we couldn't run. Although big, this thing could run 30km an hour.
The hippo ran towards us. He was deceptively slow in his gait, but he covered ground fast.
At full height, the hippo was as tall as me and much larger. A bull hippo could cross 4,000 kilograms even in the wild. The one that ran towards us was big enough for me to consider that he might be in that category.
That was nearly ten times my mass.
But I could not even feel threatened when the cries of my children were behind me. As the hippo approached and opened wide its mouth, I snapped at it.
My claws raked out, carving a line on the snout of the hippo. Since it was a water animal like the crocodile, my instinct assumed that that would be a sensitive part too.
And it seemed I was right.
The hippo recoiled, moving back multiple steps to assess the situation.
My heart was beating fast. I could feel adrenaline pumping in my system and my mane puffing out to show the illusion that I was just as big as he.
My body entered fight mode, an extreme one at that. My biology seemed to understand exactly what was going on, as I felt like that time when I fought Scarface and his coalition.
The hippo opened his mouth. He opened slowly, as if unworried by my presence and that there was nothing in the world that could stop him.
I matched him, my jaw pathetically small but I bet it had taken more lives.
And as if planned, we roared together.
ROARR!!!!
While my roar was a burst of intensity, his was a long-winded bellow that began small and then rose until it numbed the eardrum.
I felt a chill run down my spine, every instinct that told me to fight was silenced as the instinct to run screamed.
..
Did you ever wonder how humans create the sound for large monsters? Maybe the roar of Godzilla or the T. rex.
They got it from him.
The hippo.
The vocalisation, the tone, the rise in sound.
They'd used a hippo's bellow all along.
My anger was wrestled by fear.
But when I felt the baby rhinos trying to hide their heads behind my back, I knew I couldn't back down.
"Go now, Papa has to fight," I said, quickly turning and shoving the baby rhinos to the side.
They whined but listened to my words, moving away from me.
And right then was when the hippo charged.
My eyes saw tunnel vision. The world turned black and the only thing I saw was the huge maw that could swallow me whole.
Growing bigger and bigger.
Until it snapped at me and I pulled back.
Slow, my panicked mind evaluated.
It was dangerous but also slow.
I lunged out, quickly evading the charge, running past him from the side. My claws came out, gripping dirt before I raked at the side of the hippo while blurring past him.
My proud claws scratched.
Not a single drop of blood.
The hippo turned fast. I had achieved my goal of getting his attention. Now the baby rhinos stood behind him, while I was face to face with his threatening maw.
The hippo snorted, water and spit blasting from his nostrils as he pivoted to face me fully. Up close, the size difference stopped being abstract. His head alone was a battering ram of bone and muscle. His skin was just so thick and looked slippery, a blubber of fat. It wasn't like a buffalo hide or a rhino hide.
This was something else.
Not prey, my descendants seemed to whisper. Not even the largest of my ancestors, not even the sabertooth, would be stupid enough to fight the thing in front of me.
It was a disaster with legs.
He took a step forward and the ground felt it. I felt it. The air seemed to feel it as well as it compressed under his sheer mass.
He opened his mouth again, even wider this time.
His jaws spread until they were nearly straight. I saw a cavern of pink flesh and saliva and bone. I could see the back of his throat, clearly visible because of how wide it was opening.
But I couldn't see down his throat. That was a darkness framed by tusks that looked like scythes.
So that's where lives end.
Fuck. Me.
My jaw had never felt so small or so unthreatening as I opened to bare my fangs. Even before the fight, there was mental war in my mind.
In the end.
The king won over the scared animal.
Don't panic, I told myself.
Don't be scared, I told myself.
The world slowly regained its colour and soon, my tunnel vision broke and I saw more than just a maw that could decide my death.
I quickly looked around, scanning the environment. Instincts that were not primal. Instincts that were mine and forged by me alone fired inside me.
After all.
This would not be the first time I slay a giant.
Stubby legs, heavy frame, low centre of gravity. My greatest weapon was not on me but in the world. I was not just a beast, but the king. This world is mine, this land is mine. And I should use it.
"It's not too late to run back into the water," I growled out deeply, the final thread that stopped the battle.
"You make me laugh," the hippo replied, vibrating.
That was when he lunged.
It was not a full charge, more like testing the water. The first verse before the chorus of battle.
His head shot forward, jaws snapping shut inches from my face, the air exploded from the snapping force. The sound wasn't a bite. It sounded more violent than even crocodiles. It sounded more like an impact, like two mountains colliding.
The jaw was wide vertically and horizontally. I did not know what else to do, but after the jaw was shut, I knew most danger was over.
I thought back on crocodiles, the ones with a similar crushing bite force. I could hold down their jaw easily because their opening force was nowhere near their closing force.
So I lunged forward and grabbed the hippo by the snout. I needed to use both arms just to hold the jaw shut.
I flexed hard, my shoulder muscles popping out as I tried to stop the hippo from opening again. If I could neutralize this greatest threat, I could have enough time to work out a way to kill it.
But that was a big mistake.
The jaw of a hippo was so different from a crocodile. Their jaw was built on raw muscle. The opening force was just as powerful as their crushing force.
"AHHHHHH!!!!" I screamed. It felt like my arms were being torn off from my shoulders.
Thinking fast, I let the opening jaw push me up so that I could climb on top of the buffalo. My claws came out, searching for purchase but they slipped. They couldn't penetrate the thick hide at all.
Now I was riding the hippo backwards.
I tried my luck with my teeth but still nothing.
The hippo began to move, angry. I slid down its length. The hippo was nearly 20 fucking feet in length alone. He was so fucking long it was ridiculous.
I made my way down to his behind. There, my claws came down, going between its back legs.
Nope.
No balls.
Again, I was very uninformed about this animal because I never thought I would have to fight it.
I jumped off from the hippo's back and he did a slow turn to face me. His eyes had narrowed, his ears no longer flapping but pulling back like an angry beast. I could see steam coming off his nostrils as his gaze locked on me.
I lowered my centre of gravity, taking the position like I was hunting prey. That was not just a stance but also a way for me to change my mindset.
Prey.
You are prey.
You just don't know it yet.
The hippo charged once more, this time no longer opening his mouth. He seemed to be trying to crush me with his sheer mass and weight alone. He did not need to bite me to kill me.
I did not let my sight be tunnel vision. I saw his charge but I also saw the surrounding, searching for things to exploit, searching for ways to victory.
The vultures gathered in the sky.
The whirring of drones could be heard.
And so.
The chorus began.
..
..
[IMAGE]
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