Leo : The Lion King

[3rd POV]

[Name: Dr. T. Soma Tonson

Role: Lead researcher and ethologist.

Nationality: Indian (from Nagaland, Northeast India)

Age: 62]

"Let me start by saying it is extremely uncommon for a dominant king to pick a fight. The only time a lion king would fight is if his pride and territory were on the line. He would rarely attack a rogue lion unprovoked. After all, the king had everything to lose, and he could not take a risk," Dr Tonson said.

"It's why they marked their territory using scent, roared and patrolled daily. They want to ward off challengers without it boiling down to a fight every single time," Dr Tonson said.

The clips showed lions doing the mentioned activities. The three kings patrolled and roared towards the sky to announce their presence and dominance in their kingdom. They marked trees and bushes using their excrements and urine.

"But the three brothers were in a coalition and their pride was unlike other prides that were ruled by only one king. This very much causes changes in their behaviour, which was one of the reasons why they were worth studying in the first place," Dr Tonson said while making hand gestures. You could see that he was talking about something he was truly passionate about.

"The brothers were more violent towards rogue males, adopting the strategy of chasing them out or sometimes killing them instead of letting the threat grow. They have the privilege to do so because they were such powerhouses together. Most of the time, there was virtually no risk or effort in the three prime lions killing one young male," Dr Tonson said.

"So Leo could be said to have lucked out when only one of the three brothers found him in his home. Hmm, should I put it that way when it was unlucky he was found in the first place? Maybe it is better to put it like this, the situation was not the worst that could've happened," he said with a chuckle.

The footage cuts to the one with a greenish tone to show that it was taken with a night vision camera. Leo and Roku were having a standoff and the tension could be felt through the video.

It was not something that needed to be said, the subtle body language displayed by both animals was enough to explain the current situation. The older lion was making a semi-circle around the younger lion who stood still and unmoving.

"You could see here that the king is displaying a generous amount of patience towards Leo. The way he walked around him is kind of a warning to ask him to back away or submit before it escalates into a fight," Dr Tonson explained over the footage.

"Although I said the three brothers were very aggressive towards rogue males, this time Miles is alone and without his brothers. You can see from his body language that he is not showing extreme aggression at the start. But as time went on and Leo showed no submissive behaviour, the king became angry," he said.

"Although there is no hard proof for this, I believe the reason why the king became impatient so quickly and attacked first is likely because he views Leo as weak. Leo's body is deceiving; he is the size of a fully grown lion, and the two lions look about the same size. But Leo is thought to be around two years old here, not a full-grown adult. So the mix of his juvenile scent and his lack of tail likely made him appear weak to the king," he said over the video.

"So the king, Miles, here is probably thinking something along the lines of, 'Who the fuck does this young punck think he is? Let me slap some sense into him,'" Dr Tonson said, doing an impression of the lion

"I truly believe we all were on the same boat here, researchers and the lion king alike. We never thought Leo would go as far as he did,"

After that, the explanation was over. The sound of the actual footage became louder and the documentary was completely silenced to show the whole fight without any voice over or comment.

What followed next was pure action that seemed to come straight out of a movie. The fight between Leo and Roku was cleaned and perfectly edited to be packed with action and no pause.

But even with that, the fight was around ten minutes long. During this time, there was no comment or any other disturbance from the researchers.

The viewers were given the chance to behold the fight in its truest essence. It was raw and intense like nature intended.

Only after the whole footage was played did the documentary continue and experts started analysing the small details that the viewers might have missed while watching the fight.

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[Name: Dr. Marcus E. Veldt

Role: Comparative Anatomist, Big Cat Specialist

Institution: University of Pretoria – Department of Wildlife Physiology

Nationality: South African

Age: 47]

Marcus appeared in his lab once more with a stupid grin on his face. You could tell with one look that the doctor was excited to share his knowledge and explain just how incredible and awesome the fight they just witnessed was.

"Okay, at this point we have all heard a lot about how unique of a beast Leo actually is. It might already be annoying to some of you to hear the same thing over and over again. Yes, we know how his body adapted to his lack of tail, yes, we know how he adapted his hunting strategy to suit his style of movement, blah blah blah everything everything it-it's all great," Marcus said while walking slowly towards the camera while the footage zoomed out so that he never actually came close.

He took a long breath and then paused to stare at the camera.

"But what if I tell you that the greatest advantage that he had gained due to his uniqueness was not in hunting," he said, and the grin on his face widened to borderline creepy.

"It is not in running, jumping, strength, size or anything that you can think of either. Although his unique build benefits all these attributes, they are not the ones that have gained the most," he said.

"In actuality, Leo has the greatest advantage when it comes to fighting."

The scene changed to show a CGI display of Leo and other lions to compare him to. The virtual figures rotated to show a 360-degree perspective, while many texts point at specific parts of the body.

They highlighted Leo's bigger posterior chain, his multifidus, deltoids and different parts of his body that were slightly different compared to the average lion. The difference could be in size, flexibility, toughness, etc.

"Let us think of some of the greatest fighters that ever lived in the history of this world. People who are a cut above the rest, superior warriors, someone who is like Superman when compared to the average man," Marcus said over the CGI images and videos.

"When it comes to striking, let us take a look at the legendary Iron Mike Tyson. No one, and I mean no one, came even close to this man when he was in his prime. Many would argue that Mike Tyson in his absolute prime could take any boxing figure history has ever produced," Marcus said, "But why is that? And why am I bringing up this human fighter when we are talking about a lion here? After all, lions and humans have very different physiology."

"I am bringing this up because although a human and a lion could not have been more different in body, what makes them superior when it comes to violence and fighting is virtually the same. Explosive kinetic chain coordination, maximisation of force output in minimal motion, reaction speed, anatomical control etc," he said before pausing and thinking for a bit.

"Which is basically my nerdy way of saying explosiveness, technique, fight IQ, unique build, etc," he rephrased his own words.

"Let's start with being explosive. People often mistake being explosive to being fast or strong when in actuality, it's a bit of both. The talent to be strong and fast in a short amount of time can be said to be explosive. For example, Usain Bolt is fast but that will not be any use when fighting in the ring. Mike Tyson on the other hand was explosive, it's very similar to being quick but he also had power behind his speed," Marcus said, showing a brief fight of Mike Tyson exploding into power and knocking down his opponents.

"In a similar way, Leo is explosive. This has helped him immensely while hunting because he can go from zero to full speed in a very short time. It is perfect for his ambush style of hunting, it doesn't matter if his prey can run twice as fast if he caught them before they could reach their top speed. But even more so than when he hunts, this explosiveness has helped him when it comes to fighting," Marcus said and the CGI highlighted parts of Leo's body that helped with his explosiveness.

The scene cuts back to the footage of the fight between Roku and Leo. This time the greenish video was slowed down to show the first clash of the fight.

Roku was the first one to attack. He circled around Leo before he suddenly burst into action. He ran straight towards Leo, gathering speed and momentum while doing so.

On the other hand, Leo was slower to react since he did not attack first. Roku had already reached the halfway point when he began his charge. But even with that significant time and distance loss, he was able to match all the heat that Roku was bringing with him.

They clashed with roar and thunder.

The result was rather surprising. Leo was not only able to match Roku who had all the advantage in this first collision, but he was able to overpower the reigning king.

The slow motion footage zoomed on Roku's face which dropped hilariously when he was pushed back. It went from an angry face that showed full teeth to a frown that seems to say, 'What the fuck is this?'

The king was baffled and rightfully.

"The lion king Miles. He weighs around 200 kilograms when this fight happened. And so after taking into account his mass, the distance and speed we calculated the force he generated to easily exceed 9000 newtons. But Leo was able to tank this much force and push it back while having about only a quarter of the distance and half the time," Marcus said, awe audible in his voice.

"For reference, 9000 newtons of force is enough to kill a human no matter how you receive it. From the front, the back, the side or the head. It is also around three times more powerful than a tackle of NFL players. How the fuck was Leo able to generate that much force in such a short distance and short amount of time?" he asked himself, and the viewers.

For a second, his pupils dilated and he turned to look behind the camera. "I can curse right?"

The crew seemed to give him a thumbs up so Marcus focused back on the camera, "Okay, where was I? Oh yes, how can Leo generate such force? Well, we have to take a look at how both lions start their charge,"

The footage rewound and this time, it focused on Roku's footwork as he exploded into action. Another CGI video was played that followed his exact action.

Roku used his hind legs to push himself forward and then he landed on his front legs and he used those again to pull himself forward while his hind legs were in mid air. In that sense, he was running in a rhythm of two limbs at a time.

"Now look at Leo,"

This time it showed the slow motion of Leo running towards Roku. But unlike the king, Leo used all his limbs to push and pull himself forward simultaneously. The CGI video clarified this distinction even more.

"That right there is what I said earlier, maximum force generated with minimal motion. In fighting terms, the explosiveness of a fighter. If Leo had been wiser and experienced like Roku was, the king would've lost right then and there. It's fortunate that he met a juvenile version of Leo, in both mind and body," Marcus said in a low tone.

The doctor continued analyzing the fight and breaking them down in detail. His expertise on wildlife physiology shone as he was able to make the science behind the fight both engaging and intriguing for the viewers.

He showed the claws of both lions, explaining how they were made to tear flesh and latch on their prey. And how the lions developed loose skin to protect themselves from such claws.

He gave metrics to each attack in the fight. How hard Leo was hitting with his paws, how hard he was tugging when he was pulling and how much force he was biting with.

He also gave examples on how much more powerful the lions were compared to humans. The weakest swing of their paws was around twice a boxer's power punch. They were pushing each other with almost four times more force than Sumo Wrestlers.

It was the kind of comparison and exaggeration that was just enough to entertain the viewers and keep them amazed. Oftentimes, it was hard to comprehend just how much more powerful these creatures were compared to humans.

"One other thing I want to mention is the advantage Leo had over any other lion that ever lived and fought. Again, it has to do with his unique build and style of movement," Marcus said, his eyebrows rising a bit more than usual whenever he was explaining something that really interested him. More so than those repetitive comparisons and math.

"Let us compare it again to Mike Tyson as this has something to do with fighting in general. A unique build is extremely advantageous to a fighter when facing an opponent. Mike Tyson was very short for a heavyweight, now on paper this seems like a disadvantage but in actuality, it was the greatest blessing he could ever get. You see, most fighters trained their whole life to punch straight or to punch up. They spent countless hours practicing to punch that way and the muscle memory was ingrained in their body. But when they faced Mike Tyson, they had to punch down something they were not used to," Marcus said.

"In that scenario, it doesn't matter if you practice a hundred years on a punching bag. You never learned how to punch down. Tyson was also very much aware of this, which is why he would crouch down to make his head even lower than it already was. In this manner, he was able to negate the experience of his older opponents and become the youngest heavyweight champion in the world. To make this even worse for the others, the peekaboo style which Tyson mastered was a fairly new style of boxing invented by his coach. This made Tyson not only unique in build but also in style," Marcus said and made a small pause after that.

"And now circling back to Leo, it was the exact situation for him as well. His unique build and style were unlike anything the older king had seen before. There was no way to prepare for it, train for it, unless you are fighting him. This gives him an edge in his fight against Miles as we see in the footage. The king tried to fight Leo like other lions and failed almost every single time. His experience was becoming a weakness rather than a strength in the fight," Marcus finished, making his point across to the viewers.

The audience was understanding more and more just why Leo was so strong and special. It was not just because he was lucky or was the main character; all these small things were stacking up to push him way above his peers.

There was a reason behind his strength. It was not magic.

Marcus continued explaining the fights and the viewers were looking at everything in a new perspective. It was one thing to listen and another to listen and understand what was being said.

But that understanding soon came to a halt as one shocking thing happened in the footage.

A bodyslam, as if they were watching a wrestling match rather than a lion fight.

....

"Right..." Marcus was all smiles as he witnessed the scene for the nth time. It would never cease to amaze him even if he watched a thousand times.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there is no use playing ignorant or sceptical. What you just witnessed was a sense of leverage, fight IQ and technique in the mind of a wild beast. Something like that is not possible otherwise," Marcus said slowly while replaying the bodyslam in slow motion.

"Fighting is not just about the body but also the mind. We have heard quite a lot about Leo and his body and build, now let us take a peek into his mind,"

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[IMAGE]

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Author : 600 stones and get double chapter.