Leo : The Lion King

Chapter 229 229: My bad!!!

Author : Hello, I forgot to post this chapter. This chapter should be posted right after the chater 225 titled, 'The cat that walk with giants'

This chapter is right before chapter 226 titled 'Aftermath'

So it's a chapter between those two.

Sorry for my blunder.

....

[1st POV]

(The Massai Mara)

A pride of lions.

17 strong a few months ago, and now 23 and still growing.

It was a lion pride without a king.

But not because of the lack of male lions. Quite the opposite, actually.

It was a pride of lion kings.

A coalition of ridiculous proportions that was out of this world. This didn't feel like real life anymore; this was simply just made up fantasy bullshit.

23 male lions in their prime couldn't work together.

An army like that couldn't be sustained without a leader. Heads of arrogance could not be united like that.

But facts said otherwise.

Hate.

The thing that united all creatures.

Especially when that hate was shared by everyone else against one entity. Nature had never experienced dominance like Leo had. A lion that could rule over a territory big enough to sustain hundreds of lions.

So, of course, nature would rebel. Of course, the ecosystem would correct this mistake.

In the circle of life, in the natural food chain of the ecosystem, Leo was an obvious outlier.

Coupled that with human-like intelligence, these lion kings decided to unite. They embraced their own enemy and competition for the sake of removing their greatest enemy and greatest competition.

From a scientific standpoint, this was adaptation.

It was the species of the Panthera Leo trying to eliminate its greatest threat.

Nature had seen similar cases before. Especially in the ocean where the intelligence was high. Smaller predators working together to eliminate the apex predators that were too dominant.

But the world had never seen such a personal or direct case.

...

But as the army grew, problems arose. The coalition began to collapse under its own weight.

"What do you mean we wait? How much longer do we have to wait?!" King Sumu roared in challenge.

"We must wait at least until the next dry season," Scarface replied, his tone calmer but also much firmer.

"There are 23 of us now, Scarface. That's 23 lions ready to tear anything in their path. The king, Leo does not stand a chance," Sumu retorted.

"You are underestimating him far too much. Leo is stronger than us all, wiser than us all," Scarface said, "It is not just he that we have to worry about. When my brothers and I faced him, he had an army of hyenas along with him. His authority does not end with just his pride. Even the vultures in the sky are all his. The moment you step into his kingdom, you will realise how underwhelming our forces are."

"And what's a bunch of trash eaters going to do to us? If I had half of our number under command, I could collapse Leo's reign in one single sweep," Sumu said.

As the two lion kings faced each other, they both had a number of lions behind their backs. They were lions who shared thier ideas and opinions.

Behind Scarface were 12 lions, and Sumu had 9 lions behind him.

"You are far too arrogant," Scarface said.

"And you are a coward wearing the skin of a king," Sumu said.

Scarface bit down a growl, trying to hold back his aggression. If a fight were to break out between them, their supporters would follow, and it would just be a war against each other.

That would be doing Leo a favour and he couldn't have that.

"Look behind you," Scarface said, "You and those that share your ideas are young. Some are so green they never even met him, merely joining this coalition for future opportunities,"

"And you yourself have only seen Leo in the first year of his reign. If you think him a monster at that time, you should see first what he has become," Scraface said his warning.

But the stubborn king wouldn't listen.

"Perhaps he had grown," he said, "But in no world will he be strong enough to take on ten lions, much less twenty-three,"

Scarface paused.

Then he bared his teeth in full.

"What do you mean, ten lions?"

"We have decided," Sumu replied, "We are going to head over to the Serenegti. As rain began pouring here in the Massai Mara, the dry season will begin in the Serengeti. It's the season of war for us lions."

"You can't do that. You will ruin everything," Scarface said.

"And what will you have us do? Wait for another year? Are you going to keep us subdueed until male eventually begins mating with the male?" he asked, "The other half of the Massai Mara is plentiful of females. This part of the land which we occupied is currently filled with female groups with no king."

"And you expect us to play around for another year?" he said, "The moment we are waiting for is now."

It was inevitable.

You couldn't gather an army of lions and not use them immedaitely. Claws and teeth will eventually clash if you put them together for that long.

"Who's with me?" Sumu said, looking behind him and the lions replied with a roar. All nine of them.

"If you want," Sumu said, turning back to Scarface, "You and your pathetic groups can wait. We will take back what should be ours and split the Serenegti among ourselves after we killed the sole ruler,"

Scraface was silent.

"Suit yourself then," he said in the end.

"Cowards, all of you," Sumu said, looking at Scraface and the lions behind him, "A king content with no throne is no true king,"

Sumu began leading the two groups apart. He did not want to start a fight and lose his forces before going to the Serenegti.

The giant pride of lions split into two.

One that would remain and another that would launch an attack now.

Scarface watched as King Sumu lead nearly half of the entire army away from him. Months of hardwork was gone just like that. The benfits of his work reaped by another lion.

You could see the rage written on his face.

But if you continued to stare, you would notice Scarface's expression slolwy fading away into neutral. His lips came down, narrowed eyes relaxed and for a moment, he did not look so angry.

Baraka walked foward after the other group had passed.

"Is it true?" Baraka came beside Scarface, "Are we going to wait for another year?"

Scarface scoffed, "Of course not. Splitting and attacking at different intervals would be the height of stupidity. I worked too hard to gather them all,"

"Then what is the plan?"

"We let their group attack first. Let them do what they can to him and then our group would follow and deliver the finishing blow. And in the case that they somehow defeat Leo," Scarface dropped his tone, "We kill them,"

"Wait a minute, we are going to attack too? Then why didn't we just go along with them? Wouldn't our chances be better if all of us attacked at once?" Baraka asked, seriously confused now.

Scraface shook his head, "There cannot be 23 kings in one army. I knew that would be too much to ask for from the start."

"If we had attacked together, although we may be more, the disability among the army would eventually be our weakness," Scarface said.

"Besides, what about after the war? Can we really share the spoils among more than twently lions?" Scarface said, "No we cannot,"

"Wait a minute," Baraka blinked, "Did you plan for all this from the start? Did you anticipate this would happen?"

"I did,"

"Then why did we gather that much force? Why did you have us wandering days on end around the Massai Mara in search of more recruits? Why did we spare our challengers?" Baraka asked.

"If you listen to me carefully Baraka, I said I was raising an army against Leo. Not an army for myself," Scraface said, "All of our work will still benift us in the end,"

"That was just the final stage to our plan. Weeding out all the bad crops among the goods. What remained now are lions that are loyal to us," Scarface said nad looked around at the remaining lions.

They spread out and stood on the land. Standing, and waiting orders.

It was not spoken, it was not declared. But all of them knew the unspoken king of this pride were Scarface and Baraka.

"So it was also a test," Baraka said.

"Indeed," Scraface replied.

"The fourteen of us, charging immedaitely after the first group failed. That would be more than enough to finish off the monster,"

After saying that, Scarface walked away.

Unbeknown to Leo who just had a fierce battle with a hippo.

The worst of the dry season was yet to come.

After nearly a year of preparation, Scarface was ready to exact revenege.

..

..

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[3rd POV]

(Pridelands)

After nearly a month of journey.

The lost prince had returned to his home.

Simba climbed up to the plateau, ready for whatever was waiting for him on the other side. But what he was not ready for was the odd fact that nothing was waiting for him.

A wasteland.

A barren region.

That was what the Pridelands had become during his absence.

Recognition stirred inside his mind as he took in the shape of the land, but nothing was familiar anymore. There was barely any life in the Pridelands. The only thing he saw was the sprouting green that covered parts of the land, which hinted that it was slowly going through a rebirth.

Simba was left speechless. He wandered around the Pridelands for the whole day, searching for clues, searching for his family.

He roared into the sky but got no reply.

Eventually, he came upon Pride Rock, where he was born and where he grew up.

Again, that place was empty too.

Not knowing what to do, Simba climbed to the peak of the rocky hill. He stood at the top where he remembered his father once used to stand.

And then he gazed at the empty land.

"What happened here?" he asked himself, absolutely confused.

Simba was prepared to challenge Scar to take back his father's kingdom. He was prepared to fight even an army of hyenas as the crowned prince.

But those preparations were just void.

"What do you want me to do, Father?" Simba could only ask in a weak voice, his shoulders slumping and his head lowered.

Perhaps Scar and his pride had moved to another region. Perhaps all of them had perished, seeing as the land had turned into a wasteland.

He did not know what happened.

And just then, when he needed it the most, a voice came from behind him.

"Simba."

Simba turned fast, quickly locating the one who had managed to sneak up on him.

"...Rafiki?" Simba said, eyes wide. He thought the old mandrill would have been long dead by now.

"It really is you, Simba," the old mandrill said as he walked up to the prince. His hands came up, touching Simba's massive head and his darkening mane.

Simba had grown into a splendid lion. A beast that stood above all.

"What happened here, Rafiki?" Simba asked. "What happened while I was gone?"

"I'm afraid the young prince is too late," Rafiki said, slowly retracting his curious hand and moving away from Simba.

"What do you mean? Tell me," Simba pressed.

"There was a war, Simba. Your brother, Leo," Rafiki began. "After two years of his banishment from the Pridelands, he returned with his pride and waged a war against Scar and his legion of hyenas."

"It was the bloodiest war the Pridelands had ever seen. And Leo came out on top," Rafiki said.

Simba exhaled a deep breath, processing the information in his mind.

"What about the pride?" Simba asked after a long moment of silence.

"In a battle of kings, the winner takes it all," Rafiki said.

That was when Simba realized the truth.

The lost prince came home.

But home was no more.

"I'm sorry, Simba," Rafiki apologized with a bow. "The land could not wait long enough for the promise."

..

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