Leo : The Lion King

[1st POV]

"You did it,"

Grim said as he flew down. He did not land beside me like he usually did and instead was at a good distance away from me.

This was because I was showing an unusual level of aggression and possessiveness while I feasted on the organs of the buffalo. A rumbling growl came from my throat and my body language warned everyone from approaching.

It was instinctual. It felt right to act that way.

I had earned this meal through blood and sweat. No creature in this world had a stake in this meal. It was for me to decide and it was for me to consume. It was bloody fucking mine.

After eating up the organs which were much bigger and juicier than what I was used to, I pulled back to get a breath of fresh air. The inside of the buffalo was hot and stuffy, so much so that the dry air felt refreshing when I pulled out.

I saw vultures circling in the sky. They had only been a few while I was hunting but now, nearly two dozen filled the sky and their number was only increasing.

"Was there ever any doubt?" I asked while gazing at the sky.

There were doubts at the beginning. I lacked belief in myself and didn't think for one moment that I would be able to bring down a full-grown buffalo by myself with ease.

But in the aftermath of the victory, all those doubts seem like a distant memory. A distant, stupid memory that you no longer even associate with yourself.

"Not anymore," Grim answered with a twitch of his exposed head.

I smiled. I sat there and took a moment to relax after the initial feast. A cool breeze blew on me. The sticky blood upon my body worked like a cooling mud and I savoured the sensation.

The hunt did not reward me with just a meal but also experience. I thought back upon the battle and started realising where I went wrong and what I should've done instead.

First of all, my plan of drawing away the buffalo and tiring it out before the start of the real hunt was genius. Endurance was one of the few attributes I had over the buffalo and I exploited it fully in this battle.

Unfortunately, the plan had its limits. At one point, the buffalo got tired of chasing me and he would just stand and watch me from a distance without moving a single muscle. It was at this stage that I had to confront the beast, whether I liked it or not.

Now here was where I went wrong. Instead of having a badass face-off with distance between us, I should've closed the gap between us even before the buffalo realised it.

The buffalo gained power and momentum when given time to charge at me. Instead of putting distance and risking my life with one dodge, I should've never allowed him to have distance or time.

I was not strong enough to face the buffalo when he was given time to charge. But if we were both close to each other, I could wrestle with him. Giving a bull time to gather momentum was a stupid move on my part.

One other thing I should've done was lead the buffalo to a place that I scouted beforehand. This will give me a great advantage. Perhaps it could be a sloping ground where it would be easier to push the bull off balance. Or a place with obstacles where I can shield myself or hide behind when the bull was charging straight at me.

There was also the weakness of the buffalo that I discovered. The legs and the front two in particular were a glaring weakness for the buffalo due to his immense weight. Along with the nose and the eye.

I thought I would have difficulty attacking the face but when you are at such close contact, the horn was not as scary as it looked. The idea here was to glue myself to the buffalo so that it would not have the range to utilise his horns.

Such thoughts continue to pass through my mind.

The next time I went buffalo hunting, I would do so with a little more ease and technique. The ease with which I could take down a buffalo would only increase with each hunt from then on, until eventually.

I will make the 'Black Death' a staple source of my diet.

...

...

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(Afternoon)

The sun was beginning its descent on the horizon. What used to be a golden ball of light in the sky was now a depressing orange.

The world was not too bright but it was still not dark either. It was that time of the day when the day and night were having a tug of war to claim dominion over the world.

The sensation I felt the most at that moment was the ache in my jaw. It was not an ache from an injury but from chewing tough meat for hours.

I had developed the habit of chewing my meat thoroughly over the years. This was mainly to aid my digestion since I eat much more than any lion should. It makes my digestion easier and faster, which in turn leads me to eat more food.

Another reason why I developed the habit was to train my jaw muscles. Lions were among one of those predators that had a surprisingly weak bite force when taking into account their size. Other big cats like leopards, tigers and jaguars all had a stronger bite force than a lion.

This was because lions evolved to hunt bigger prey. Their jaw developed to tear and penetrate through muscles and grip them tightly. It was not really logical to have a bone-crushing bite in that case since big prey had thick muscles and skin, so you would not break their bone regardless.

It was also because they are one of the most successful predators and do not have to eat things such as bones. They can live by eating the organs and full meat instead.

Anyway, that was beside the point. Our evolution may decide that a lion did not need a powerful bite force but I was not going to be a pussy and let the smaller cats have the stronger bite force.

I trained and as it stands right now, I doubt any other big cats have a stronger bite force than me. I did not do it often but I could crush bones with a fight.

You really think I would sleep well knowing fucking hyenas had a stronger bite force than me? Nah uh.

There were other parts of me that ached beside my jaw. In fact, it would be easier to point out the parts of my body that did not hurt instead of listing those that hurt.

My head and inside did not hurt. That was about it.

The rest of my body was aching. It was not extreme but it was there. My muscles were trembling and some parts of my body ached with each of my heartbeat. It was the kind of pain that promised ruthless fatigue the next morning.

I might not have spilled blood but that didn't mean I came out of the hunt unscratched. I was sure there was nothing broken but my body was going to show the consequences of taking on a beast four times my size.

"Okay, that's enough," I said to myself because if I didn't, my greedy ass would eat until I pop like a balloon.

A 1000 kilogram prey was much more different than the 70 kilograms impala that I was used to eating. I have eaten to my utmost limit and the carcass looked untouched.

There were barely a few chunks missing in one side of the buffalo and that was about it.

I finally stopped feeding and propped myself up from my lying position. When I sat sat upright, I was able to see the animals that had completely surrounded me while I was eating.

I had been eating for a few hours now and during that time, the smell of the carcass had attracted much. There were wild dogs numbering in the hundreds and they stood a great distance away from me.

The dogs learned fast and knew to avoid me from our previous encounters. They were far enough to look small in the distance but still close enough to come and scavenge the carcass the moment I left.

The black vultures also filled the land. They stood patiently, standing much closer to me than the wild dogs dared to. I saw some fights break out over the place in their imaginary line.

There were dozens more flying overhead, waiting patiently to eat my fill. I also spotted other types of vultures among them.

A few jackals lay cautiously here and there along with a few warthogs who, interestingly enough, will eat meat if given the chance. There were other animals as well, which I could not make out but were among the others. Was one of them a baboon? I wasn't sure.

And finally hyenas. They did not appear in my field of vision but I could smell that they were not far away.

It was the dry season and food was scarce. A big kill like the buffalo was literally a summoning of any predators in the Serengeti region.

I took a moment to look all around me. I was oddly pleased that I was the only one with a full belly among all these predators and they did not dare approach me even though hunger was gnawing at them. They waited in line like good little subjects.

But just as I was thinking that, the sound of something small growling angrily entered my ears. I looked around to find the source but I couldn't find it.

So I stood up and walked around the carcass. It was then that I saw a honey badger violently tugging at the thick hide of the buffalo. His small jaw was trying its best to tear at the thick skin but he was failing cartoonishly.

In frustration, he made angry killing sounds that would've been quite scary had it not been for its rodent size.

I chuckled seeing that.

You could literally feel the black Air Force Energy coming from the small creature.

Anyway, I got down and picked up the honey badger between my jaws. My teeth crushed him at his midsection, completely immobilising him so that he could not fight back.

He screamed painful sounds and thrashed around violently but I ignored that and walked away.

I left the carcass in the dust and headed towards my home. Grim had already had his fill since he was the only one who could feed at the same time as me. Like a lower-ranking member of the pride.

He took to the sky and scouted the areas before I reached them. If there were any dangers, he would warn me immediately.

The eventful day came to an end with my victory.

In my return, I glanced at the well-hidden research vehicle among the bushes and hoped that they had got everything perfectly.

I hoped I looked good in their camera.

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[IMAGE]

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Author : Thank you so much for the reviews.

Triple chapter today. Although don't get too excited, the next chapter is only really kind of a filler.