[3rd POV]
[Name : Hana Park
Role : Zoologist and Big Cat Specialist
Nationality : Korean-American (from Seattle}
Age: 34]
...
"And so it began. It was so abrupt that none of us were prepared for it. The scene was frightening on video but witnessing it in real life was outright terrifying. It was one of those moments where every fibre of your human instinct went, 'No way this is happening," she said over the video.
"We thought Leo was going to target a weaker member, an older member and maybe a juvenile. One strategy would be to make a chase and trick the buffalo into chaos while Leo picks off an easy target."
"No. It was not even close to what any of us were expecting."
The video played as the buffalo charged towards Leo, who was standing his ground. His posture and expression showed absolutely zero fear, even when the behemoth was on his way to wreak destruction.
"The bachelor was estimated to be nearing a ton. The distance between Leo and the buffalo was enough for the behemoth to reach half of its top speed. We calculated around 35,000 newtons upon impact, which is equivalent to a mini truck hitting you," Hana explained.
"For reference, if the average man weighing 60 kg were to be hit by this, it is instant death, and all the luck in the world wouldn't save him. The force would be enough to send you flying across halfway through a soccer field, the G force alone would rupture your organs," she said and then laughed at her own ridiculous calculations.
"It's truly baffling to think about how strong these animals are," she said, "But what's even more baffling is what Leo decided to do when faced with such raw power."
In the video, Leo finally decides to make a move when the buffalo passes the middle of the distance between them. He did not run in the face of a racing death.
Leo charged as well.
"It was in this moment that we realised Leo never planned to target the weaker buffalo or juvenile. His plan was to have a duel against the strongest buffalo and kill it in a fair fight," she said, "A plan so ridiculous that it never even crossed the human mind,"
"And you know what, sometimes nature rewards the bold,"
"Later on, we would realise this was the perfect plan,"
....
At this point, the documentary entered a very intense sequence of the hunt.
The battle between Leo and the buffalo unfolded like a clash between equal forces, unlike what everyone had predicted.
The footage continued from the moment both began their charge. On one side, nearly a ton of hardened muscle barreled forward, hooves pounding the ground, horns aimed to skewer. On the other Leo surged forward with no fear, only determination and focus.
The buffalo dipped its head, horns angled low to catch Leo in its path. But Leo twisted to the side, utilising the superior speed and reaction he had as a feline.
His shoulder was clipped by the horn but that was of no consequence. In the end, both passed each other. Leo stopped gracefully but the buffalo continued running since it could not stop due to the sheer momentum.
By the time the bull came to a stop, it was quite far away from the rest of the herd.
"Where the buffalo had raw power, Leo had control and intelligence," Hana commented as the footage continued.
Leo was the first to charge at the buffalo. It didn't matter who was stronger when one had courage. But Leo was not simply running towards the bull, he was running in an arc to make sure that he drove the buffalo further and further away from the rest of the herd.
The strategy was clear when viewed from above. The viewers quickly realised the insane strategy that the lion was pulling without even having to be told.
"Leo was functioning with the mindset that he could absolutely take the bull in a one-on-one. His main goal was to separate the bachelor from the herd to make sure that no help came," Hana commented.
"That would've been much harder had it been a female or a juvenile. But no one really cared that a grown bachelor was fighting a lion, so no one in the herd came to help," she said.
Leo and the buffalo began clashing multiple times across the savannah. But it never became a full-blown fight as Leo masterfully dodged and moved away from life-threatening attacks.
"Imagine Leo to be a matador. He is using the buffalo's weight and momentum against it." she said, "instead of brute force with brute force, Leo explored his speed advantage to gain an upper hand."
Leo was constantly moving to drive the buffalo away and yet he never once retreated. He stalked forward, keeping close to the buffalo's side, striking and leaping back, over and over.
When the buffalo got tired and tried running back to the herd, Leo would jump on the back of the bull to get it more enraged. Once or twice, he nearly got caught by the buffalo, and he was sent into the air a few times but he never lost the battle.
And as the chase progressed, Leo got better and better at dealing with the brute force of the buffalo. The bull spun and kicked, but Leo stayed near its blind zone, just behind the horn curve, just outside the arc of its rage.
It was an incredible sight. The perfect example of how the brain was as important as muscle in a fight.
Hana points out the way Leo rose from each blow, not staggered but steadied, as if each fall taught him something. New timing, new angle, new strategy.
Until eventually...
Both parties were far enough from the herd that even the aerial footage showed no sign of other buffalo.
And that was when the footage went silent. There was no longer any comment, no explanation from the narrator, nor any music or replay of actions.
It was just raw footage with a filtered sound that made the viewers able to hear the rough breath of the buffalo and the calm beat of hooves on the ground.
Leo stopped moving then and he met the buffalo on equal ground. There was no longer any strategy or plan. It was just horns against teeth, claws against weight, instinct against power.
Nature's killing machine stood against nature's living tank.
They charged at each other again and then collided. The buffalo thrust forward like an unstoppable force and yet Leo latched onto he head of the buffalo like a persistent parasite. He bit and clawed. Sometimes at the eyes, sometimes at the neck, the muscle and even the muzzle.
The struggle was raw. Two animals fighting for life. It felt like each huff from the buffalo was a storm, each growl felt like a roar. Whatever primal instinct the humans had after centuries of comfort was activated and sent goosebumps.
The buffalo pinned Leo down and razed the ground with his body. But the lion was stronger, stronger than any right he had to be. On the other hand, the bull was getting tired and exhausted.
The silence in the footage was deafening, a void that made the scene more powerful than any narration could. Viewers leaned forward in their seats, held breath trapped in lungs, as the lion and buffalo fought in a space removed from the world.
The two were in contact with no space between them. There was nothing left now but the struggle, the tug of war of life. It was the final act.
From overhead, the drone footage showed the sheer vastness of the savannah surrounding them. Not a single other animal was within the frame. Dust rose in curtains around them, casting a haze across the orange ground as they struggled.
Leo had latched onto the buffalo's face. His claws dug deep into the bull's shoulder to hold his position, while his jaws clamped hard just below the beast's eyes.
The buffalo jerked violently, trying to throw Leo off, but with its strength waning from the extended battle, the lion stayed locked in. His body weight and trained muscles were working in tandem to bring the beast down. Every twitch of the buffalo's movement, every attempt to shake him off, was another moment of exhaustion compounded.
Then came the shift. Leo realigned his bite, working his way down to the buffalo's nose until he clamped the nostrils shut in an attempt to suffocate the prey.
The buffalo let out a sound that didn't sound like anything due to the lack of air. More like a deep vibration. Its body bucked in a series of escalating panic responses. It stomped forward, shook its head and sometimes pulled back.
Some of those erratic actions worked. He crushed Leo's back leg with his hooves, made a cut with his horse, but Leo held on and absorbed every blow. He only increases the pressure.
At last, the buffalo summoned his death strength. The body no longer cared about breaking down, tearing muscle fibres or tendons. It shot a surge of adrenaline for the final struggle.
It managed to pull away from Leo but at the cost of a disfigured face that looked so gory that it made even the adults uncomfortable. Leo's claws and fangs scarred flesh very, very badly.
The buffalo screamed. Blood trailed into the dirt like a fountain.
Leo staggered back for a moment while the buffalo stumbled in pain. He seemed to know exactly what to do next,
He surged forward with surgical precision and attacked the leg of the buffalo. He clamped his jaws around the front leg of the buffalo. The angle, just above the hoof, was unprotected. Viewers could hear the crack. A clean snap of bone and ligament.
The bull immediately faltered, unable to support its weight.
But as the bull began to collapse, it caught Leo with a desperate upward hook of its horn, lifting the lion briefly off the ground and tossing him like a rag doll. The impact wasn't deep, Leo's loose belly skin absorbed most of the damage but the throw was brutal.
However, there was no follow-up.
Instead, the final dagger came.
Leo dove into the unprotected belly of the buffalo while it collapsed on its side. The footage turned into a surreal flurry of muscle and motion. His claws tore through the exposed hide, and his fangs opened wounds that gushed like open valves. Blood fountained into the air, and the lion even pulled out the intestines.
There was no music. Just the sounds of dying breaths, of tearing, of the buffalo's final bellows echoing and the slurping sound of insides becoming outsides.
The most brutal part was that Leo did not stop to rest or celebrate.
He began eating right afterwards.
Everyone was speechless. Leo only stopped after he had eaten the organs. When he looked out again, his head was completely drenched in blood. His mane was slicked back and that highlighted his expression of triumph.
"And so we witnessed....a lone lion taking down a fully grown male buffalo by himself. It was the first recorded in history and might as well be the first that ever happened."
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