[3rd POV]
(Documentary Episode : 5)
The footage continued.
The water trembled again. After the first crocodile exploded, the water never became calm again.
From beneath the murky water, more shapes began to emerge. The shrunken lake was starting to behave like it was alive, like it was breathing, like it was exhaling death.
"When blood spills in the water, the chemical cue is immediate. Crocodiles can sense it from hundreds of meters away through the water's vibration. What happened next is what we call a feeding frenzy," Dr. Voss said.
The crocodile which Leo had raked across the belly, swung its tail and tried to swim away. But as it swam, it dragged its own insides in the water and it could not swim far before the water pulled it out again and he floated dead on the surface.
But that wasn't even the main thing that caught the audience's attention.
The footage slowed down.
They could see the black outlines below the surface, a long, deathly jaw that pretended to be a log. There were dozens of them.
And then they struck. The worst part was that they did so together. One jaw was terrifying, dozens were horror.
The lake exploded.
A wave of scales, teeth, and tails tore through the shallow water. They swam straight towards Leo like a wave of a tsunami. It was the battle of two kings of elements. It was rage versus hunger.
"We have no clue how many they were. They looked like the whole lake," Dr. Voss said over that horrifying footage.
There was no clear view of what was happening. Only flashes of movement. Splashes of red. The water heaved like a boiling cauldron. The camera zoomed, but it was almost impossible to make sense of what was going on.
So to help the viewers understand what was going on, the footage would pause and the screen would change into a CGI animation of what was taking place, getting rid of all the splashes of water, all the blood, and only focus on the animals.
"Three of them had latched on," Dr. Voss continued, "one on his arm, one on his torso, another on his mane and part of his head. Each one of them is pulling in opposite directions. They were trying to drag him down, but each was going about their own way. They ended up almost tearing him apart instead."
"This is why we called it a frenzy. There is no teamwork, no coordination."
The video continued again and with the help of those details, the audience could somehow begin to make sense of what was going on. When the footage continued again, Leo's roar greeted them and pierced through the other sounds of chaos.
It was quite the guttural roar. It was rough, rumbling and it almost sounded like a gargle, like Leo was half-drooling when he roared.
He honestly sounded like he was in pain.
"But even when he was in such a situation, his reactions were frighteningly calculated," Dr. Voss said, his tone a bit shaky now.
The footage zoomed in on Leo's action.
"See here," he said, "Leo doesn't pull against the bite, that would make the wounds worse. Instead, he moves with the force. He lowers his centre of gravity, stabilising himself using the ground beneath. One of the things that we noticed here is that even though it looked like Leo was blinded by rage, he never really ventured that far from shore. Ground was still beneath his paws, he was not helpless at all."
"Most prey animals fight the pull but he directed it and somehow, neutralised the raw strength of reptiles bigger than he."
The footage resumed.
Leo's claws flared under the water, long and curved, striking beneath the belly of one of the crocodiles. The reptile twitched violently, releasing its grip.
Then he turned on the one clinging to his torso. His jaw opened, sinking into its head near the eyes, biting down with a crunch that sent blood into the water.
His actions were hidden under the murky water so what most of the audience saw was blood red exploding beneath the crocodiles now and then.
"The eyes and nose are their most vulnerable parts," Dr. Voss explained. "Once those are damaged, they lose orientation, and panic sets in. Leo's bite, speculated to be around 2000 psi by this point, might be lesser than the crocodiles but he knew just how to use them."
The sound that followed was horrific. The crocodile had primitive vocal cords but those were worked to the limit. Their scream underwater sounded like a prehistoric cry.
The footage showed Leo pushing through the water, his massive frame now surrounded by more movement. Crocodiles circled and lunged at him with reckless abandon. But their form of attack was much too simple.
Crocodiles drown their prey, so they don't know how to aim at the vitals. Leo began feeding them his muscled forearm, bearing the brunt of their attack and then attacking from under to tear their vulnerable parts.
A simple and effective form of hunting prey became simple and almost useless when faced with a smarter enemy.
The water splashed again. More crocodiles joined from the deeper end. There were too many to count.
But Leo was no longer alone.
The camera turned to the shoreline. A line of lions had gathered, their golden bodies tense, ears flat, tails lashing. They were so ready to jump into the water with their king.
Because guess what, they were just as angry. The loss of the cubs was felt by all, not just the king. Think of their mothers.
Leo turned his head for only a moment and roared again, the command was clear.
"Come!" the viewers swore his roar sounded like that.
"That's when the pride finally moved in," Dr. Voss said.
Seventeen adult lions charged together into the shallows. The water exploded under their weight as they joined their king.
"It was a rare sight. Crocodiles are apex predators in water, lions on land. These two species do not wage war. But that day, they did."
The camera panned wide.
The battle looked like a nightmare.
Crocodiles twisting and lunging, lions slashing and roaring, the lake turning dark with blood and mud.
Leo stood at the centre of it all. Every time a crocodile lunged, he intercepted. He grabbed one by the snout and slammed it sideways. Another came for his flank so he turned and bit its neck after flipping the reptile over. His claws dragged across bellies, raking open flesh.
"You can see it here... Leo is choosing his targets. The ones that come close enough to attack him or his pride, he meets head-on. The others he ignores. He's prioritising threats. He lets his pride do the heavy hitting and he is covering for every one of their weaknesses."
"The pride mirrored his previous movement. They learned from his violence."
Footage showed lionesses flipping smaller crocodiles onto their backs. Some dragged them to the shore, where others joined in to finish the job. The sound of roaring and hissing filled the air.
The camera shook violently at times because the researchers on-site had trouble keeping their distance.
"The scene became so chaotic that the team had to back off at one point," Dr. Voss said. "The water had turned into liquid blood. Even the air smelled of death."
Another aerial view was shown from the drone.
The entire watering hole was red. Dozens of dark shapes floated, some still moving weakly, others still. The lions stood over them, panting heavily, their fur soaked in blood and mud.
"We do not know how many crocodiles were killed during the fifteen minutes which the fight lasted. Most were wounded and sank into the deeper waters, never to be seen again."
The footage changed to the aftermath of the battle briefly. This footage showed many dead crocodiles and maimed bodies that washed up the shore the next morning.
"And some bodies were washed ashore. The apex predators of the water became food to scavengers," Dr. Voss said, showing how the vultures and other scavengers ate the corpses of the crocodile.
The footage changed again, this time showing Leo standing in the shallow waters, chest deep red, his mane dripping blood. His body heaved with every breath and yet he stood there, relieved and his rampage quenched.
"When the war ended, the lake was silent. Not because it was calm, but probably because most in it was dead."
"In nature, revenge is a human word. But if there was ever an animal that understood it... it was him."
The final drone shot rose higher and higher, showing the vast Serengeti with the lake of blood at its heart, a dark red wound beneath the golden land.
"The waters yielded to the king of land that day."
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