[3rd POV]
The Prideland was a kingdom only 1/4 the size of the Serengeti. But that much land was still humongous, having its own ecosystem almost completely separate from the outside world.
The hyenas scattered throughout every corner of the kingdom, which was why it took three days to gather every hyena in the land. Hyenas could not roar, so to gather their forces, they had to send out messengers who had to visit every region of the kingdom.
And when every hyena gathered in one place, there were more of them than anyone would expect. The number of full-grown hyenas alone surpassed 400.
Their gathering alone covered a football field's worth of land. That was how gigantic their number was. This was a never-before-seen event; a non-herd animal gathering in such numbers seemed almost apocalyptical to the researchers who observed them.
After the gathering was done and all hyenas had been summoned in one place, they began their attack without having to be told anything. Even Scar did not lead the army, their sheer number bred chaos that was uncontrollable to any entity on the earth.
Together, they were a natural disaster rather than an animal. An untamed force that would devour anything, driven only by hunger and instinct.
They moved in waves, their horde looking like a black tsunami from afar. They knew exactly where to go without being told. They headed towards the main escape path of the Prideland, the same path that the lions took in their rescue mission.
The horde moved as one. Clusters of hyenas surged in heaving packs, filling gaps and sliding on the wasteland like dark water. The smell was horrendous, a decay and raw stench that could break a working nose with one sniff.
They travelled for miles, but since their gathering point had been close to the escape path, they were able to reach there in just half an hour.
They could see the lions making a stand at the entrance of the path. How utterly stupid, they thought to themselves. Their mouths watered at the thought of having lion's meat tonight. The lions were basically handing themselves on a silver platter.
In such a number, the hyenas did not fear anything in the world.
..
That was until fear was put back into their heart.
Leo came forward, the hyenas saw his chest expand, and then a drum of sound was released. The chain of deep roars that came was like a chain of lightning; it set their ears ringing and their bellies quivering.
Closer now, the details finally struck them. His size that was two lion's combined. His mane was not wild hair like Scar's. It was the same colour of black, but he wore it like a crown. His eyes did not quiver in the might of their quantity but they intensified, looking like a furnace, yet they felt a chill run down their spine.
And then he launched towards them.
What the actual fuck? was the collective thought of everyone as they saw Leo charging at them by himself.
They thought they were scary, they thought they were unstoppable, so why was this lion running towards them like a kid on Christmas? They saw no fear in him, only odd excitement that somehow terrified them more than anything should.
The centre of the frontline collapsed immediately, not wanting to meet the crazy on legs. They still thought they would win, but no one wanted to pay the price of victory. No one wanted to fight him.
But it was all too late. Leo ran faster than anyone could believe. It was not so much a run, more like gravity undone. He moved not with force but like force. He was running on a plain like he was running down a hill.
Then the lion leapt into the air, and three unfortunate hyenas looked up, their world cast by a dark shadow, before everything went dark permanently. They didn't even realise they died as 400 kilograms of mass crushed everything they were made of.
That was the first impact of the battle. The hyenas who were unharmed were still close enough to finally realise the sheer scale of what faced them. Was this even a lion? No, to them this was a monster clothed in a lion's skin.
Leo did not stop upon impact; instead, he continued ploughing through the hyenas without losing momentum. The hyenas were much smaller than him, not even reaching his chest when standing straight. Leo folded them like he would grass.
Their number. Their sheer number. But does it matter how many flies annoy you?
Their mouths opened agape in sheer horror, most tried to turn and run back but the horde behind pushed them forward at the jaw of terror. Most didn't even want to look at what killed them.
"Fight!! Fight back!!" some hyenas roared, the braver souls. But they were only putting a target on their back.
Leo knew how important morale was in a battle so he made it a priority to kill them first. He wouldn't allow their fire to light up the others. The horde should continue to believe that they were in for a slaughter.
Leo used his size advantage to the limit. He was not only biting or clawing them but also crushing them. He stood on his hind legs occasionally like a bear and then crushed two or three hyenas under his weight.
One swing of his paw made four hyenas cry. A hyena got the right idea and attacked him at his legs. Leo growled before he bit down at the spine. He shoved the hyena on the ground, pinning him and tightening his hold.
When his canines dug into muscle and then bone, the hyena struggled fiercely and screamed out in pain.
Leo then snatched him up and flung him away. The body of the hyena flew like a rag, a testament of Leo's strength.
The spectacle was nothing short of a nightmare for the hyenas. Leo did not fight them, he was dismantling them with the brutal efficiency of a predator. The hyenas in his vicinity died in an arc. One moment, there was the rough chorus of the horde, and then there was a hush of raw bodies collapsing.
Death was silence, and silence was loud amid all the chaos.
"You dare corrupt my home, vile creatures!!" Leo roared out. The hyenas scattered in an instant, taking the chance to escape after a minute of unrelenting slaughter.
Leo caught his breath as well. His own words seemed to enrage him even more.
"You will repay everything you took with blood," he said and then he moved again.
His body was muscular and tight, so much so that the hyenas could barely get a hold of him with their jaws. It was akin to biting a rock. The most they could do was latch on his loose hide, tearing and cutting his skin.
When Leo fought again, he no longer fought like a berserker. The initial battle was done both because of his uncontrolled rage and also to scare and lower the morale of the horde.
But now, he fought with an economy of violence that was almost surgical. Using the term biting or clawing would give the impression of it being a fight but that was wrong. The hyenas that met him did not exactly die; it was more like they had their existence unmade by a force that had no patience for half measures.
It was unlike anything you'd ever seen. The hyenas were killed in the most unpredictable ways possible, be it having their neck stepped on and broken to being flung halfway across the battlefield with raw strength.
But as the battle raged on, the hyenas showed why they were savage in their own right.
"Attack from the back!!" one hyena screamed out before having his jaw blown off by the violent swing of a paw.
But the order caught on.
"Go from behind!!"
"Attack him from behind!!"
The horde began swallowing Leo. The hyenas that were trembling with fear suddenly found courage at the prospect of attacking from behind. After all, even cowards could attack from behind.
They circled Leo and began pushing him to the centre of the horde. Two hyenas jumped up and latched on Leo's back, their jaws tightly held the hide and they shook their heads violently in order to tear.
Leo roared out loudly before standing on his hindlegs and falling on his back, effectively crushing the hyenas. He quickly got up before the hyenas attacked his vulnerable underbelly.
But Leo did not attack afterwards; instead, he was defending and fighting back any hyena that got close. It was a much-needed turn of tide that the hyenas desperately prayed for.
But as their focus turned solely on Leo, they forgot about the rest of his pride.
The hyenas were too caught up in their frenzy of surrounding Leo to even notice the pride coming at them like a second storm. The surprise element made the attack even more effective than it should.
Zael was the first to leap, imitating the king he respected and admired so much. He moved like lightning, his body sailing through the air before he landed on a hyena that had turned its back to join the assault on Leo.
His claws dug deep into its back, his jaw locked at the back neck of the hyena. Zael twisted his head with practiced force and with the snap of a bone, the hyena ceased to be. He was awfully similar in his efficient killing.
Attacking right behind him were Nala and Zuri. The queen of the pride showed no hesitation either. Her hunger from days of suffering under Scar's rule had turned into an edge, and now it was sharpened into a blade that would bring death to the hyenas.
She darted low and rammed her shoulder into a hyena's ribs. The creature yelped as the air left its lungs, only for Zuri to clamp down on its face and drag it to the ground. She tore until there was no more sound.
Nala had always been a great fighter since birth, it was her gift. She slammed her head on a hyena, pushing the enemy on the ground. The hyena laid on its back and that was when she attacked without hesitation. She tore at the open belly like second nature.
Sarabi, though older and weakened, fought with the steadiness of a queen who once ruled over all. She did not waste her strength in blind rage but fought with experience. A hyena rushed at her flank, thinking that she was weak. But Sarabi pivoted, side-stepped, and slammed her paw across its muzzle so hard that the hyena released puppy sounds.
Taking its dizziness as an advantage, Sarabi grabbed the hyena by the throat, her teeth crushing its windpipe. The hyena struggled but it had no claws like them so it brought nothing but satisfaction to her.
The battle began to look less like a single lion raging amid a horde but more like a full-on war. For every lion, there were twenty hyenas, but the coordination of the pride was something the scavengers could not match.
Soon enough, the pride managed to dig out their king from the horde and dragged him away from the centre of the sea of hyenas. Their arrival brought him the moment he needed. So with renewed strength, Leo lunged forward, his claws raking across the face of a hyena.
The face was violently ripped off, the force of the blow knocked him out cold.
Leo's roar thundered out once more, shaking the battlefield with his presence. The pride responded to his call, stopping their violent attack to regroup with the king.
"You all know what to do! Formation now!!" Leo called out and the pride knew exactly what to do.
During the three days, the pride had lots of time to plan out different scenarios. Although most of those plans did not see practical use, they still worked in the pride's favour. They had planned beforehand about what to do in case they ever met the hyenas on open ground.
The lions began creating a formation. They did not cluster in a small group but spread out in a line. No lion stood behind the other so that everyone could have the surface area to fight at their utmost capacity.
They stood shoulder to shoulder in a line. Leo was seated at the centre, with the weaker members of the pride standing beside him. The stronger lionesses on the other hand were positioned at both ends of the line.
"Don't let them circle you!!" Leo roared and the battle commenced again.
The lions moved back together in that line while attacking and fighting every incoming hyena. The horde swarmed them from the front but the formation held on as the lions backed away in response to their push.
When the hyenas tried to circle them and attack from behind, the line formation turned into a semi-circle.
The aim was to slow down the speed of the hyenas, putting them in the front and making them take a long time to circumnavigate behind the pride. This worked because the horde was huge and they covered a big area. It was not easy for them to mobilize swiftly.
Due to their formation, the hyenas could not abuse their numbers like they should. They had the upper hand and were constantly pushing back the lions but they were the ones getting damaged while the lions remained unharmed.
The lionesses were not strong like Leo to one-shot any hyena, but their attacks still did enough damage to cripple the hyenas or put them out of the battle for the moment.
Their formation was working well but in the end, it could only slow down the inevitable. Soon enough, the horde found its way to circle the pride, at which point the line formation had also turned into a full circle where the pride covered each other from every angle of attack.
But animals were not humans. They do not have the ability to sweat so much fluid to cool their body down. They had fur and in a tight battle like now, the lions quickly got exhausted. Around 10 minutes, that was all the lions could fight at full power before they needed to rest.
Lions were built for bursts of strength after all, not for prolonged battles.
For a moment, it seemed the lions were done for.
The hyenas began laughing as they successfully trapped the lions. The ones at the frontlines were the hyenas that had not seen any battle. The ones who got injured or had grown tired retreated back into the horde. The ones at the front were all fresh hyenas, ready for blood.
And in that seemingly dire moment, Leo spoke, "Fend them off for a minute."
Leo retreated into the centre of the circular formation. The lionesses quickly filled the gaps and gave their king a moment to catch his breath.
The lionesses bared their teeth and swiped at any hyenas that tried to come close. At this point, they were quickly being dragged to the centre of the horde with no way to escape.
There was a short standstill.
The vultures in the sky became relentless, they flew in chaotic freedom, already wanting to feast on all the corpses of the hyenas that littered the battlefield.
Among the carrion, three drones were also present, capturing every moment of the battle.
..
..
[IMAGE]
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Second extra chapter.