Leo : The Lion King

[1st POV]

So here is the idea.

Buffaloes are very defensive animals. If the natural response to danger is fight or flight, buffaloes are the kind of animals that will choose to fight every single time.

They are not prey that you chase down and kill, they are prey you need to fight and kill. The act of hunting a buffalo was truly a life-or-death situation, it was a huge risk with a huge reward.

To make things worse, they are herd animals that evolved to protect each other and fight back against any predators together. This meant that they had the advantage not only in size but also in numbers.

But here is the curious thing. If you observe closely, you will notice that the reaction of the herd when a predator targets a calf is vastly different from when a predator targets an adult.

In the case of the calf, the herd will react almost immediately and you will surely have angry mother buffaloes on your tail in just a few seconds. But in the case of the adult buffalo, the herd may be slower to react and only the buffaloes who are close to the victim may fight back to protect them.

This was the way buffaloes evolved. Even though they protect each other, there is a priority in who to protect and who to fight for. Not any member of the herd was worth risking themselves for.

The calves were the first priority as they were the future of the species, followed by the subadults and then the pregnant or fertile females. On the other hand, the old and the ill were among the least priority.

This was also proven by the positioning of the herd. They let the calves, sub-adults and pregnant female members stay at the centre of the herd so that the others could shield them in a protective circle.

So although it might seem like a good strategy to target the calf or the weaker members of the herd, it was probably not the best idea when you really thought about it.

After all, what's the use of targeting them when in the end, you will still have hundreds of grown adults coming for your head.

Therefore, targeting the bachelors was the best bet if you don't want to be ganged up on. Of course, an injured buffalo or a member who was dying of old age would be preferable, but there was no such opportunity in the herd that I was hunting.

The adult male buffaloes, otherwise referred to as the bachelors, were the strongest members of the herd. They are also responsible for protecting the herd so you would often see them walking at the edge of the herd.

They are aggressive beyond belief, the kind of aggression that would make them charge at you if you looked at them wrong.

Like I said, they were strong, and that is exactly why they are the least priority to protect in the herd. Rarely would you see other buffaloes fight for the bachelor when they are targeted.

The saying rang true. If you are the protector, then you have no one to protect you.

The other bachelors will not help either because they are all in a competition. The herd has no king or alpha male like most pack animals do. Instead, they fight each other to establish a hierarchy, and the stronger male has a greater chance of breeding the females.

They were rivals, especially when there are females that are ready to conceive. So forget about helping each other, more likely than not, they would be more than happy to see one of them die from a predator.

It simply meant less competition. They biologically evolved not to care too much for males because even just one male could impregnate hundreds of females.

And this is where I saw the opportunity.

I would hunt the bachelors instead of any other members of the herd. I would rather try and take down one strong buffalo than face the anger of the herd by targeting valuable members.

Heck, one strong buffalo was still better than two weaker buffalo. So the target of my hunting was obvious.

...

*PHIFF!* *PHIFF!* *PHIFF!*

But as I watched one bachelor charging at me with full force and deadly intent, it became awfully clear to me that choosing the strong buffalo instead of targeting the weaker one was akin to choosing whether to burn or drown.

One choice just happens to be worse in my opinion. Both absolutely sucked.

*ROAR!*

I released a growl that evolved into a roar inside my chest. I could feel the ground shaking under my paws. The prey must have been nearing a ton in weight, around four times my size. He was heavy enough to shake the ground with each step he took towards me.

My instincts came to life, it burned and told me loud and clear that taking the bull head on was as close as it gets to certain death.

I stood no chance.

But ignoring all the primal instincts that have kept my species alive so far, I charged straight at death.

The bull increased his speed when he saw me running towards him. He lowered his head and pointed his curved horns forward.

I could tell from his body language that he was committed to his charge. My heartbeat slowed down when I saw that and the panic in my heart slowly died down, replaced by an eerie calm.

The buffalo was big and powerful, but it was also somewhat slow and predictable to my eyes.

Right when we were about to clash, I utilised my superior speed and reaction time to step aside. The buffalo bulldozed right past me, his horn briefly grinding against my shoulder.

"Haaaaaa!!!" I released a huge sigh of relief when the bull drove past me. He was too heavy and had too much momentum to simply stop like I did so he continued running forward.

He slowed down for a while before he came to a stop. But by that point, he had covered a very long distance, reaching even further than where I stood before.

I turned to look at the rest of the herd and quickly noted their lack of reaction. No one was trying to help or continue the assault by attacking me too. I grinned at that, my prediction was true.

They wouldn't gang up on me if I targeted the male.

I shifted my attention back to the bull and roared at him before I ran in a curved line towards him. It was an attempt to flank him and also drive him further away from the rest of the herd.

*WuuuuuuuhhhhhRhaaaaaaa!*

The bull bellowed before he stamped his way towards me. The sound he made was starkly different from the mooing of a cow. It sounded deeper and if I was being completely honest, it sounded like something dinosaurs would make.

Buffaloes were big and strong but they were also quite slow when compared to other animals. It was one of the only attributes in which I had the advantage so I was planning to abuse my speed at all costs during this hunt.

I faked charging at the bull to taunt him and make him run towards me, but in reality, I was always keeping him at a distance. The first plan of this hunt was to drive the buffalo far away from the herd.

I knew it was unlikely that he would get help from the rest of the herd, but I did not want to take any chances.

The bull chased me for a while before he realised that it was no use running after me. The animals in this world were not smart but they were not absolutely clueless either. He knew that I was leading him astray from the herd, and he gave up on chasing me after stomping angrily on the ground.

He turned around to run back to the rest of the herd in the distance.

"No you don't," I said and this time, I ran straight to the bull.

The buffalo continued to have his back to me until I was only a few metres away from him. He tried turning to face me but by that point, it was too late.

I crashed into the side of his body while he was in the middle of turning. Although I was not as big as a buffalo, a predator weighing 250 kilograms crashing on you at full power was still a force to be reckoned with.

The buffalo stumbled to the side, barely catching himself from falling to the ground. If not for his low centre of gravity, he would be sprawling on the ground.

My weapons came out in full. Teeth and claws dug into the body of the buffalo. There was penetration, there were cuts, but not nearly enough damage considering I was putting everything I had behind my attacks.

Biting him was like biting a stone. He did not have loose skin or a thick mane to protect himself from my jaw. Instead, he had this incredibly thick hide that I could barely penetrate and under the hide were muscles that felt like steel wires wrapped around a bone.

I released a growl while trying to wrestle with the behemoth. I thought I could make him fall and push him on the ground while he was off balance.

But no.

The buffalo won the wrestling match the moment he decided to move. I only knew this before, but now I feel it. He was four fucking times heavier than me.

He made Baraka seem like a house cat.

I hung on to his body while the bull spun around in an attempt to hook his curved horns under my belly. He bent his neck to the limit, and eventually, he got the connection that he was looking for.

I felt his curved horns digging into my skin and before I could even try to get out, he shoved his head upwards. My whole body was lifted off the ground with a violentl twitch of his head.

I quickly reacted and moved away from the horns while I was lifted in the air. The bull tried to throw me up once more, but my body was no longer there.

The moment my paws touched the ground, I moved away from the buffalo. He immediately followed my tail and he charged from behind me.

Luckily, a lion was faster than a buffalo, so I was able to keep the distance between us. When I felt he was losing his aggression and slowed down, I did the same.

I kept myself a few metres away from him. He was too far to attack me, but just close enough that he would continue trying.

When he was about to turn around and leave, I would launch a brief attack to ignite his anger once more.

My aim was to lead him even further away from the pride while also chipping away at his limited stamina. If there was one thing a buffalo lacked other than speed, it was endurance.

The game of cat and mouse continued for a while. It only came to an end when the rest of the herd was not even visible on the horizon. Not only were we moving away but the herd was also leaving him behind.

After I felt that I had driven the bull far enough from the herd, I turned around to face him. This time, my intention was no longer to play cat and mouse.

"The first part of the plan is done," I said to myself. Grim heard it as he flew down beside me.

"What's the second part of the plan?" he asked.

"Honestly, I didn't plan that far ahead," I replied.

The buffalo stood around seven metres away from me. He was carefully observing me in his place. One look at his face was enough to know that I had pissed him off. He stomped his hoof on the ground before scraping a line and kicking up dust.

Now I stood facing him. The air between us flickered due to the heat of the sun and I slowly crouched down in a hunting position.

*PHIFF* *PHIFF!*

A gust of wind left the enlarging nostrils of the bull.

I guess this was it.

I either kill this behemoth or die fucking trying. This second life of mine was an extra, and I refuse to live it without pride and greatness.

My brain worked to put together all the strategies that I'd thought of before the start of the hunt. It was completely different to think during that time and now. In this intense situation, it was hard to even remember my plans.

The most obvious weakness of the buffalo was the eye. But the problem was that the eyes were attached to the head, which was the most dangerous part of the buffalo. The huge horns right above the eyes was a truly demotivating sight.

Not just the horns but the eyes were probably protected by natural reflexes as well. Buffaloes clashed their heads to fight after all, if they didn't have an insane reflex to protect their eye, then they would become blind very often.

The other weakness that I could think of was the underbelly, the inner thighs and the throat. But how the heck was I going to damage those when the beast in front of me was designed to be a living tank?

And of course, the balls were a solid target as well, but I would probably get kicked straight to heaven if I ever got behind the buffalo.

I did not get a chance to think for long as my prey finally burst into action. He exploded out, muscles rippling with raw strength and power. You could hardly imagine stopping him when you watch him charge.

In the end, there was no way of winning this fight unharmed. I had to get comfortable with the idea that I was going to pay a price for what I was trying to achieve.

It was my first time hunting a buffalo and I had no one to teach me how to do this correctly. So I had to figure it out myself and accept the fact that I was going to get hurt doing so.

I erupted into a sprint when I saw the buffalo reach the halfway point. I also had raw explosive power when I moved, albeit I did not have the weight to generate force as much as he did.

When we were about to collide, I leapt into the air. A guttural roar left my throat, and my fangs and claws were bared.

We collided. It was not even a question of who won the collision. I felt the air knocked out of my lungs, and my chest felt absolutely numb.

But my strategy of tiring the buffalo and driving him away from the herd worked wonders, as the clash was not as painful as I thought it would be.

My paws were off the ground when the bull crashed his head into my chest. So instead of taking the full brunt of the force, my body yielded and rode along with the force. This made the impact much more bearable but in return I was being thrust forward and the buffalo continued charging.

The claws on my right paw dug into his shoulder so that I could hang onto his body. In the meantime, my left paw found a target on his face.

My claws drew four red lines down his face and onto his eyes.

The buffalo released a bellowing scream before he went into berserk mode. His neck twisted and his head burst forth.

I felt myself being rag-dolled while I hung on to his body. The buffalo raised its head once more, nearly throwing me off before he slammed me on the ground.

My back made an impact on the ground and before I could groan, I felt immense weight on my chest. I roared in pain as the bull started crushing me between his head and the ground.

My back grinded against the rough earth and a huge pressure was on my chest. The buffalo continued razing the ground with my body for a few metres before he came to a stop.

His breathing was loud and heavy, like the cooling of an overheated engine. His head continued pinning me to the ground but half of his face was bloody with four lines cutting diagonally. One of his eyes was gouged out and hung loosely by the optic nerve.

We stayed in that position for a few seconds. I was occupied with taking in the current state of my body, and I was quite shocked at the state I was in.

I felt...surprisingly okay.

In the earlier stages of my life, I was always tested to the limit, so I knew just how strong and powerful I was. I knew exactly where I stood. My fight with Scar, along with the hyenas and then my battle with Roku are examples of events that showed me my current limits.

But all those things were six months ago. I haven't had the chance to test my limit since then and the only real challenge so far was my short fight with the Mbali brothers.

It was a good way to know how much progress I had made during the passing months, but that brief confrontation did not show nearly enough.

I think my mind had not caught up to just how strong my body became.

All those trainings I did, and all the food I forced myself to eat. They bore results which I did not truly appreciate till now.

Because you know what? I just found out I could really take a fucking beating.

"Got you," I said with a savage grin.

The buffalo tried to pull away, but I grabbed him with my claws. I did not allow him to escape from my grasp and hugged him tightly.

I open my mouth as wide as I can and bite down on the face of the buffalo.

Adrenaline flooded my body and I could feel the powerful beat of my heart. I had never felt so strong before. My body flexed the result of all my hard work so far and my mind stopped doubting my body.

It was at this moment that I was certain.

I was going to have a good meal tonight.

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[Must see IMAGE]

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Auhor : 3000+ words. Does that deserve a stone or what?

Thank you.