[1st POV]
Lots of eyes, lots of teeth, lots of claws and lots of blood.
The event that happened next was perhaps the biggest gamble of my life, but it was the only way I could win in the way that meant most.
Did you remember when I said I had no plan going forward because it was useless against someone smart like Scarface?
That was a lie and a truth. The plan was not having a plan.
Lions surrounded me. Beings at this point in my life, which were so insignificant, surrounded me. I could kill each and every one of them with ease alone. But together, they possessed a power that overwhelmed me.
Left, right, front, back, up and down. They were everywhere.
My mind and my body existed on a different plane. My body fought on instinct, my eyes going wild and being completely unfocused. There was too much to see, too much to notice that my brain could not process it all so it was better to not see at all.
What was the point of aiming when every swing hits an enemy?
Although I tried to pretend otherwise and although I tried to exist in a superior plane, I was still an animal. There was only so much planning I could do in a battle between animals. So many different variables. Animals were not human. It was easy enough to predict an intellectual mind but impossible to predict stupidity and wild nature.
The battlefield was filled with the growls, roars, and bellows of so many lions that it silenced everything else. For a moment, the world sounded like it was falling apart.
My body had gone fully into animal mode. I was not in control of it anymore. Control was a waste of time in a rapid roll of violence. Instead, what fought was past experience. The body I forged so hard worked in the way that it was forged.
My instinctive attacks on every exposed vital were not intentional but practiced. The way my body balled up and protected itself was survival instinct, not careful observation. The twitch of my muscles was a learned motion, not directed.
Everything I was, everything I had become and everything I am fought in the battle.
It was the ultimate test to see if what I've done so far was worth the might I possessed.
8 lions was the limit that could attack me from every direction. They filled up the entire space around me so that no matter where I looked, no matter how I responded, attacks landed on me. Sharp jaws snapped shut against my body, tearing into my muscles before ripping and then anchoring themselves into my hide.
Their tearing jerk of the neck, coupled with my own wild actions, caused the loose hide to snap. They were opening up my body like a hasty child opening the wrappers of his present.
Blood pooled, but they weren't just mine either. My body worked to the very limit. Limits put on my body that were meant to conserve energy and perhaps save my own tendons and bones from snapping from my own strength came off.
I was in my strongest state, pushed to a life-or-death situation.
My mind on the other hand, was counting each passing second. It basked in every bit of pain that screamed throughout my body. I didn't let adrenaline dilute any feelings and fully embraced the pain.
Pain had a reason to exist. It was a tell on which part of my body was attacked and which part was damaged. I used that information to keep myself alive. Protecting my vitals or preventing further injuries from important parts.
But the rest of my body that wasn't needed for my survival, I let them take.
As the fighting went on, it wasn't only just a long chain of violence. It was slowly developing a rhythm.
The lions dispersed as the circle of lions were either tired or too injured to continue. This gave me a moment of time to breathe. I sat down, my spine standing straight. My jaws were leaking out blood and they hung open as I took in greedy breaths.
The circle of lions changed. There were 8 lions around me. They formed two lines. The lions who were injured or tired moved to the back and new lions from the backlines replaced them. Lions that were not harmed remained in their place.
I watched it all with a small semblance of clarity.
Then they came at me again.
I clashed jaws and teeth with three lions that were aiming for my head. Their fangs were long but mine were longer. We twisted our necks, roughly pulling when our fangs hooked into each other. Gums bled and teeth fell off, never mine, though.
Then I felt a powerful strike to my shoulder. The claws of the lion dug in, then pulled away with a line. But as my loose hide folded under his pulling force, it eventually stopped the cut and made his claws stick.
I snapped my head around, my jaw grabbed the arm and bit down hard. The sound of snapping bones could be heard. Jaws that had a regular diet of buffalo were used to breaking bigger bones.
The lion cried out, his own teeth snapping and taking a mouthful of my mane.
I released my bite but never pulled his claws off. His limp arm remained stuck on my body as I turned around violently, dragging him and keeping him as a shield on my body.
I turned to my next enemy, two jaws immediately clamped down on the side of my face, pulling the skin of my face in such a way that it made my face look monstrous with my scowl.
Among all parts of my body, my head, covered in mane, was the least vulnerable. They didn't have enough strength to penetrate my skull. They could bite on it if they wanted. Instead, what I was focused on was the lion that bit my thighs on my hindlegs. That could compromise my movement.
In such a brutal fight, I was glad for my non-existent tail because they didn't have anything to grab on other than my legs. I turned my body sideways and twisted my torso. I slammed my open jaw on the head of the lion biting at my hindlegs.
Once, twice, three times and he stopped. His head had holes that penetrated the skin and cracked the skull. He was staggering back, it was a good time to end him but I had no time. Another lion bit on the open side of my face, ripping my ears off and trapping my head so that I couldn't deal a finishing blow.
I felt an attack on my spine, I responded to that attack immediately. I propped myself up with only one hand and reached for the lion with my other. My long limbs managed to coil around his body and grab his inner belly.
I tore at it, and then pulled him away when I felt my claws stuck on his body.
But right then another lion slammed into me. I couldn't remain standing with one arm so I fell. But I never crashed to the ground, I crashed into another lion.
My underbody was exposed just for a moment and the lions immediately took the opportunity. They lunged forward like a cannon and crashed into my chest. I felt my ribs bending, barely able to resist their brutal force.
They pushed me towards the ground. Instead of focusing on the attack on my chest, I adjusted my position so that my weight could lay upon three lions and never become trapped on the ground. Only then did I deal with the attackers.
My paws came forward, but not with strength but precision. I felt the shape of the lion's head carefully and when I found the eyes, I let my claws dig in.
Immediately, the lion tried to pull back, but I didn't let him go. He tugged his head back with all his strength and I used that strength to right myself up in a sitting position again.
And after I was upright once more, the brutal fight continued.
A few minutes later, the lions dispersed once more, giving me time to breathe. The injured lions were replaced by others that had recovered from the last attack.
A huge cloud of dust had occupied the battlefield, making it very difficult to see. When they were trying to rearrange their formation, I didn't let them and burst forward. I attacked what I thought to be the weakest link and bulldozed through them.
But immediately, though, I felt attacks on my back. Two lions were on top of my body, their jaws sinking into my body. Most of my hide was in pieces so their teeth dug right into exposed red flesh. The pain was frankly unimaginable.
But still, I ran through the lions, finally breaking the circle.
Yet I didn't manage to go far. But I did manage to drag myself to another location. A few metres away. The new place where I sat was filled with rocks the size of my head.
With two lions on top of me, I clashed jaws with another lion. He bit down at my underjaw and I bit at his upper jaw. I was very much stronger than him so I tried to force him upwards, trying to tear at him. He was trying to jerk his head down, trying to dislocate my lower jaw.
We struggled for a few seconds before I finally released my strength. I changed the direction and instead helped with the downward force. I guided his head towards the rock and smashed it on the ground. I could feel his lower teeth pierce through my lower mouth but the result of the smash was his broken jaw.
I did not really mind the lions that were on my body because, believe it or not, it was counterproductive for them. Their weight sapped out my stamina but their own body covered my bloody wounds, giving less target for the other lions to attack.
A few minutes of skirmishes later, they dispersed again.
And this time, they moved back a little further away than usual. If these lions shared the HP of a boss in a video game, they were now dealing with less than half HP now. And that scared them.
Courage, confidence in strength, their determination, and their ideals.
I had put them to the test. Their pride against mine. And now, they faltered.
"I knew you all were shit," I said, breathing hard. Blood caressed my entire body. My hide was literally in pieces. I had less skin than exposed flesh.
"Come on!!! Why are you stopping!!!" I roared, barely able to speak since I needed all my mouth to take in air.
"Come on!! I thought this coalition meant something!!" I said, "Scarface!! Scarface!! Which one is you!!!"
Although the physical fight was not over and I was losing in that regard, the battle on another lane was finished and the result could be seen.
I had triumphed over 17 hearts. I had the bigger heart.
"You've come all this way now, here I am," I said, my voice barely coherent now.
They had crossed hundreds, maybe a thousand miles. But now, they could not cross the few feet between us.
The vultures in the sky made croaking sounds. They had been silent observers all this time but now their presence was known.
The sky was more black than blue due to their sheer number. No one had seen when such a huge number had gathered. The lions looked up, seemingly realising now that they challenged something so much bigger than they could imagine.
They pretend they knew. Yes, pretend.
"You are pretenders, not kings,"
I laughed when I felt the ground quaking.
The lions shifted their eyes from the sky to one direction. Their eyes widened and their whole formation dispersed.
Two rhinos came charging in.
They were giants that stood more than twice my size. By no means were they fully mature but they were old enough to be considered young males. They would be young teenagers in terms of rhino age.
But maybe the lions couldn't even tell that. They ran, those who were slow due to broken limbs were thrown into the air when the rhinos speared them up with a violent jerk. Then the rhinos ran over them, their feet stomping and their weight easily crushing whatever they stepped on.
The rhinos charged until they reached me.
Then they both stood by my side protectively.
Their heads shook, steam coming out from their noses due to sheer rage and internal body heat. They scratched the earth with their growing horns and their hooves, like bulls marking territory.
Scarface, you knew about the vultures and the hyenas. But you didn't know about them, did you?
With two giants on either side of me, the thought of coming after me didn't even reach the minds of the lions.
The lions looked around once more. That was when they noticed that they had been encircled completely. Roughly 200 hyenas were in all directions. Among the bodies of hyenas were five other lions that covered all directions.
Normally, this would be impossible. But they had been too focused on the battle that they didn't pay attention to what happened outside it.
If they had noticed sooner, surely Scarface would call for a retreat and even if all didn't escape, many of them would. After all, you couldn't catch all 16 cats that were running away.
But due to them being too distracted, they didn't even notice until it was too late and escape was impossible.
Impossible.
The roars of lions were gone.
Now the laughter of hyenas, the croaking of vultures, the huff of rhinos filled the entire vicinity. All the different animals made sounds of hostility.
Too focused were they fighting a monster, they didn't realise they fought a king.
"There you are," I said when I saw the familiar face of a lion.
Scarface.
He turned to look at me.
The expression I saw on his face was one I wished to see.
Fight's over.
Let's move on to erasing the past and my mistakes, so that I could build a new era.
My subjects charged.
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