Emmanuel_Capricorn
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TLK : Chapter 103
🕑 Added 2025-08-13 20:16:27 +0000 UTC[1st POV]
Rage.
It's been a while since I felt genuine rage. The kind of anger that makes you want to tear everything in your sight. The kind that makes you hate even yourself.
I could've done more. I could've done better as their king.
Goddamn it!!
Long story short, the cubs went to the watering hole. There were nine of them, six of which were under one year old, and three of them were early juveniles.
They were not helpless cubs anymore, but they were still too young to think for themselves. You could say it was during this time that they needed the most attention because not only was the world out to hurt them, but they were prone to hurt themselves by getting into trouble.
Simba got our father killed when he was around their age.
They went to the watering hole to drink. But when they got there, they did not just drink but decided to dive into the water for a swim.
And who could blame them? It was rather hot even early in the morning. Not only that, they have their king to look up to and copy. A king who told them about how he would train by swimming in the lake to get strong, and whom they had seen swimming and cleaning himself in the water.
I tell them the glorious tale and show them an example without informing them of just how dangerous the water was.
Especially during the dry season.
The crocodiles were active, thier instincts screaming at them to hunt, kill and eat anything that came close to the water.
And when they saw nine young lions swimming and playing in the water, they decided those were prey. After all, a bunch of cubs swimming was not the same as a 370-kilogram lion swimming.
The crocodiles did not avoid them like they had avoided me. Instead, they attacked when they got the opportunity.
The cubs said they saw one of them die at the jaw of a crocodile. The other one was struggling fiercely but was being dragged into the deeper waters before they ran.
They came to me, frightened and scared. It reminded me greatly of that time when Nala and Simba went to the elephant graveyard, and Mufasa set out to save them.
But unlike my father, I did not set out to save the cubs but to avenge them.
It only took me a few minutes to reach the watering hole. By then, I was fully consumed by my rage, so without giving a second thought, I jumped into the water.
There were other animals nearby, ranging from prey animals, a clan of baboons and even a young rhino. But I paid no mind to them; my focus was solely on the murky water and the giant lizards that hid beneath them.
*SPLASH!!*
Amid the mud and the scents of various animals, the smell of fresh blood penetrated my nose, causing me to roar out loud.
"You dare kill my cubs?" I said and dived again and again, hoping to find the crocodiles responsible for their deaths.
Instead of attacking me, the crocodiles dived deeper into the water and dispersed in caution. An animal doing something so bold must either be very stupid or confident in its strength. They dared not attack immediately.
"Come out!!" I bellowed while walking towards the deeper waters. It was the dry season, so the water sources were beginning to dry up. The lake was not as deep as before, especially around 10 metres near the shore.
I slowed down when the depth of the lake started to swallow me. I had to stand on my hind legs to keep my head above the water surface, at which point it was getting harder for me to make violent moves.
I roared and looked back towards the shore. The rest of the pride finally caught up to me, but they stood at the edge of the lake instead of coming with me. They had varying looks in their eyes, but most of the adults mirrored my rage.
I stared at them for a while, my heartbeat slowly calming down from the chill of the water.
But then..
*SPLASH!!!*
The water exploded. It was more ferocious than all the splashes I created combined. And amid the water came a jaw that was so big and wide it could swallow a zebra's head whole.
The water got into my eyes, and the sheer speed at which it rocked out was too fast to react. The jaw clamped shut around my moving arm before I could do anything.
!!!!!!
I reacted only after the jaw shut at 3500 psi around my arm. It was more than triple that of a hyena's bite, more than enough to crush bones.
The lions on the shore gasped when they saw the large head of the crocodile. The world seemed still, and there was silence.
"....."
I looked at the crocodile latching onto my arm, and I didn't make a single sound.
"There you are," I said.
A jaw that could generate the bite force of 3500 psi sounded scary. It was true that it could crush bone as well. But what the crocodile bite on was not only a bone, it was a whole arm with muscles, tendons and hide all designed to endure more lethal jaws.
Yes, more lethal than a crocodile's jaw. The only thing they had going for them was the raw power they had. Other than that, they had shit teeth that were barely pointy, not enough to penetrate flesh and even if they did, not long enough to cause fatal damage. Their huge jaw provided a big surface area, so there was less tearing and stabbing than with a smaller jaw.
Even a lion's jaw was more lethal than a crocodile's. Their bite merely felt like something insane, powerful, crushing my arm rather than a bite.
You could see it in their hunts that their bite was not as lethal as they appear to be. They had to do death rolls to tear their prey or drag them into the water to drown them. They swallow their prey whole without chewing. They had jaws that were designed to hold prey and never let go. It was not meant to kill or to be lethal.
They kill no animals with the snapping of their jaw alone, unlike lions, who actually kill with their teeth.
My loose skin, designed to endure bites, easily shrugged off whatever teeth it had. The crushing force of his jaw was repelled by the flexing of my arm muscles.
I wasn't the one in trouble. Not by a long shot.
It was him.
The crocodile panicked when I showed no reaction. He splashed violently in the water. His tail whipped with enough force to cause explosions, and he began his death roll.
I growled and braced for his attempt. In a violent tug, he was able to spin once but only once.
And then he stopped. My muscles tensed and pulled together to resist the strength of the Nile crocodile. But even with all my preparation, the force generated was almost enough to dislocate my shoulder. An overrated bite, maybe, but they were still powerful beasts.
I did not underestimate them even when enraged. My hind legs still touch the land, so I was able to resist the insane torque with my whole body and weight. If I had been in the deeper waters, perhaps I would have found myself in real trouble.
An odd stillness followed the crocodile as its body slowly emerged on the surface of the water. It came up with its belly facing upwards; it was in the middle of an awkward roll.
When he emerged from the water, I noticed that he was quite large. Around 17 feet from what I can see. But it was still the beginning of the dry season, so he was at his leanest, not storing fat just yet.
He would've been quite the monster by the end of the season.
I released a savage grin when I saw the vulnerable open belly. I reached the crocodile with my other arm and dug my claw into the soft hide. And then with no effort, my claw raked four massive lines on the belly.
The crocodile screamed underwater. It immediately released its hold on me to try and escape. I reacted quickly and tried to hold him. But I held him only for a few seconds before his tail whipped at me and he swam away.
But as he escaped, he dragged his insides. He did not make it far before his body came up to the surface again, thrashing around violently before it died, and the corpse sank into the bottom of the lake.
I roared, my heart beating loud enough that it made my whole body tremble. I moved slightly back into the shallower waters, noting that the last crocodile was more powerful than expected.
Only a few seconds passed, and I saw multiple movements in the water. It seemed that all the blood had pushed the remaining crocodiles into hunting mode. They erupted from the murky waters like lightning from dark clouds.
There were many of them. Dozens of them. But none were quite as big as the first one.
I was moving backwards to the shallow water and they only had the frontal assault so the space was limited. Although there were many, only three could attack me at once.
Many jaws came at me, most snapping shut in a loud clank without catching anything. But three jaws did latch on to me. One on my arm, one at my torso and the other at my mane and part of my ear.
I roared furiously.
My claws came out, sharp and curved. Fighting in the water means that I could get attacked from all angles so the knives on my paw quickly found the underbelly of the crocodiles and raked them.
My jaw opened wide and my giant head covered in mane crashed on the head of the crocodile that latched onto my torso. I tried biting at the eyes and penetrating the skull but their flat head, along with armoured hide and thick skull, made it almost impossible to penetrate the skull.
In the meantime, the water exploded and there were violent bubbles everywhere. The crocodiles tried pulling me into the deeper depths of the water but a lion as heavy as me, who knew how to resist a pull, was hard to ragdoll even for the three lizards.
In the meantime, I made a quick change of plans. I flexed my arms and curled the crocodile biting down on my arm towards me.
One major weakness that a crocodile had, other than their underbelly, was the tip of their snout, their nose to be exact. It was a sensitive part of a crocodile, sensitive enough to sense vibrations of their prey and locate them in total darkness.
So guess what happened when I bit off the tip of the snout?
"KHAAAAANNGG!!!!" The crocodile released an ugly, guttural scream before turning around and running away as fast as he could.
I've noticed this weakness way before in my adventures. I always thought that it was akin to them having their balls in their nose but from the scream and the reaction, it seemed to be even worse for them.
It was an important body part for the crocodile; it was likely that it would die in a few days just becuase of that damage.
While it ran back, the croc pushed away many incoming lizards. That bought me some time to deal with the others.
Knowing exactly where to target, the incoming wave didn't look as threatening as they did before.
I stopped when the water was shallow enough that I didn't sink when standing on four. It was then that I truly began fighting them back.
They came in clustered waves. They were no longer just a dozen, but nearly hundreds. It seemed all the crocodiles in the lake had been caught in a frenzy and were unleashing everything they had upon me.
I fought them all, no longer moving backwards. I was keenly aware of which direction they came from so even though it looked clustered and chaotic, I had control of the battle.
Those who took a bite at me, I chased them off by biting at their snout. I also raked at the underbelly or the side belly of the crocodiles to tear at them.
My claws were unbelievably effective against their soft, leathery scale; they were easier to open up than a pregnant zebra.
One larger crocodile, I missed cutting its underbelly and instead clawed it at the bottom of its lower jaw. It was unexpectedly soft like the rest so my paw went right through and came out of its mouth.
At this point, I looked towards the shore and gave a command to my pride.
"Come, kill them all!!"
And it was only with my command that they moved, which I greatly appreciated. I have told them to never rush and to try to help me until I tell them to. They were obedient to my orders.
All seventeen or so adults came with open claws and teeth. They ran through the shallow waters, splashing violently in the wake of their march.
"Slice them up from their underbelly, target their nose and eyes!!" I bellowed, and the pride followed my command.
The crocodiles, who were moving in waves, returned to the lake. The lions roared fiercely as they chased after the lizards, catching some of them by the tail and dragging them back on shore.
"Don't go too far into the lake!!" I warned them while slashing through the crocodiles.
By the end of the conflict, the murky water was red and many lizard corpses littered the shore. In the passing days, more crocodiles surfaced dead, unable to live through the injuries caused by the battle.
The Nile Crocodiles barely killed other animals during the dry season. Instead, they got full from cannibalising the corpses of their kin.
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Author : This chapter required a bit of research. The crocs were way more overpowered than I initially expected. I had to give Leo many more advantages to make the killings realistic, like him being in shallow waters, the crocodiles being lean since it's the start of the dry season etc.
It's also the first time the pride fight as an army under Leo. So that's cool.
Anyway thanks, exam is over in friday. GG
Comments
kinggundam21
when does the next chapter come out
CliffsGreat'sSeed
Next ch
Quin Bland
Good luck on exams, can't wait to see the human reaction to the war of vengeance. What will they call? The battle of red water? Lol
[Kuro]
Good luck
