Rise of the Lions (5)

The trio of King Erwik II, Sir Samek, Grand Master of the Royal Order, and Prince Trynid sprang into action, Erwik launched a strike towards the alpha's heavily injured left shoulder, and Samek who was wielding a bronze bastard sword aimed a slash towards the ribs of the beast, and Trynid with his dual obsidian axes pounced towards the lions back in a bid to take out its spine.

The reason why Trynid still has the title of a prince is due to being allowed to carry the title, this honor was granted to him by Erwik himself.

During the past war with Limyick City 10 years ago, another coastal city founded by one of the 10 tribes of Lyrick, Trynid had led a detachment of 2,000 swordsmen who would discreetly lay in wait for the attacking host of 12,000 Limyick invaders and Trynid was tasked with leading a pincer attack.

King Erwik II had personally led the remaining 8,000 warriors, 2,000 swordsmen, 7,000 spearmen, 1,000 archers, and 500 2nd-3rd tier mages, out into the field to meet the invaders head-on.

The enemy general who led the Limyick troops, was Ronik, the crown prince and first son of King Torik IV.

By his side were his second and third brothers, Prince Trent, and Prince Lorik, and back at the palace kept safe as a spare was Prince Tyren, the fourth and final prince.

Once the two sides had met in the field of battle, King Erwik II ordered his superior mage unit to start cast all sorts of long-range spells on the advancing enemy lines.

The 500-strong mage unit alone took out a good 2,000-2,700 of the invading warriors.

Once the dust settled from the bombardment, the mageless army of Limyick chose an all-out clash instead of staying back and having their forces picked off.

The Likon forces chose to meet the charging army in the field of battle, following behind King Erwik II was an 8,000-strong, battle-hardened army, and being led by the three princes themselves was the opposing 10,000-strong army of Limyick City.

As the two sides met and a brutal melee broke out, Trynid led his detachment and masterfully executed a surprise attack on the rear of the Limyick forces.

Since the men that he had brought with him wielded swords instead of spears, they were able to quickly rush into enemy lines and start slashing away one by one, the long spears that the entire enemy army wielded were highly useful in a face-to-face confrontation, but due to the nature of the pincer attack, it wasn't until a good 3,000 of their troops lay either dead or seriously injured, that the Limyick warriors were able to maneuver themselves and face the swordsmen led by Trynid, who himself had slain a good couple of hundred warriors.

Once the enemy had repositioned, Trynid had immediately called for a retreat, during the ensuing retreat by the Likon warriors, the Limyick spearmen were able to take out a good 300-500 of the swordsmen.

Although they had repelled the sneak attack, they were soon faced with a massive problem, half of their forces were turned backward and with the long spears and pikes in hand, it would take a few minutes to completely get back into formation, so grasping this chance, King Erwik II, accompanied by his Royal Knights and the 2,000 swordsmen who had yet to see combat, charged in as bronze tipped Likon arrows rained down onto the invading host.

The king, along with all other aura knights who led the charge, utilized their aura and laid waste to the front lines of the Limyick forces, to add insult to injury, Trynid had gathered his remaining 1,600 swordsmen and led a charge that crashed into the side of the formation against the warriors who were left open due to their spears pointing forward.

Realizing that their spears were now useless in close combat, the second Prince ordered the remaining warriors to drop their spears and pikes and to take up their side arms which were bronze short swords, around the same length as a gladius used by the Romans.

Throughout the battle, Trynid had shown incredible prowess with his weapon and aura and had single-handedly slain not only hundreds of enemies, but he had personally taken the head of the second prince, Erwik had taken the head of the first prince, and the third prince was blasted apart by the magic barrage in the beginning.

Due to these achievements in that battle and the war as a whole, King Erwik II bestowed upon Trynid the honorary title of Prince, this title would die with him, but it was still a great honor.

Additionally, Eriwk had granted Trynid and his household a decent plot of land atop the fertile plateau, he granted them around 40 acres of land that would be passed through Trynid's descendants.

...

With the three battle-hardened knights coming at it, the alpha cave lion panicled, it didn't know who to attack first so it took a gamble and went at Trynid who had aimed for its back.

Before the lion was able to dash away, Erwik had landed a decently deep stab into the already heavily injured alpha's left shoulder, almost completely taking out its left leg in total.

Although Erwik's attack landed, the other two missed, and the lion now even more injured, could only hobble about as it tried to get into a ready position.

Seeing the once mighty beast now a disheveled injured mess, Erwik almost felt bad for it, for a split second Erwik felt like he had felt the lion's pain, but before he could make sense of it, it quickly vanished.

"My king, we should finish the beast before more come to its aid."

"Ah yes, thank you, Samek, can you do the honors for me, I need a minute to recover," said Erwik, snapping out of his trance, and now feeling the toll that his body had gone through.

With a clean slice through with his bronze bastard sword, Samek, utilizing the rest of his aura, finally defeated the beast.

"Phew, is it finally over, I really want to go back to my home now, I'm sure my wife can't wait to see me," said Trynid with a lewd giggle

Despite his perverted remark, Trynid had broken one of the biggest rules of the universe, never, and I mean never, ask if it is over.

ROOAAR!

Right as Trynid had finished his sentence, a couple of dozen roars rang out within the forest around the hunting party.

"H-holy s-shit." trembled one of the knights

"We're dead." said another who had just pissed himself

"Shit, we need to get the king out of here!" yelled Samek to the remaining 6 Royal Knights

"Why did I have to open my mouth." facepalmed Trynid

The group's fears were not unfounded, all around them was an encirclement of around thirty cave lions.

To add insult to injury, a bigger and broader male lion walked forward in front of the line of lions.

This new addition to the fearsome siege line of cave lions was quite frankly huge, this lion who seemed to be the alpha going off of the attitude of the other lions towards him, was another kind of beast compared to the alpha that Erwik and co had just killed.

This new alpha was a deep crimson red and had battle scars and marks all over, the most prominent being a long slash going diagonal across its face, and another scar which could only be a claw mark across its right eye.

The already intimidating lion looked even scarier due to the addition of a bright red eye that seemed to replace the old one that got slashed through.

As the new alpha swaggered up to the front, it started eyeing the party from head to toe, each time it seemed to disregard every single knight, that is, except for when it reached King Erwik II.

"Hmm, quite an interesting human, aren't you?" growled the lion in a low raspy voice

Not only was this lion 185cm tall, a whole 10cm shorter than Erwik who stood at a grand 195cm, but it had a bulky body, with heavy muscles and sharp claws that could end a life in an instant.

Even if the lion hadn't spoken, the party would have still been intimidated, but thanks to the lion knowing human speech, the now frightened party were all shaking in their boots.

One of the biggest characteristics of 3rd tier beasts, besides being able to utilize mana outside of their body, is their ability to communicate like humans.

All 3rd tier beasts are able to project their thoughts towards other beings and it comes out to humans like the creature is talking to them, coupled with their heightened intelligence that rivals humans, 3rd tier beasts are a startling existence.

"Tha-th-that's a crimson lion!" yelled out a knight who was scared shitless

A Crimson Lion, a fearsome beast who evolves from a cave lion who has a particular taste for the blood of other creatures, mainly, humans.

One of the main criteria for a cave lion to evolve into a crimson lion is the need to have bathed and or consumed 100 gallons of blood from their victims, and if most if not all of that blood comes from humans or any other sentient race, then they become even stronger after the evolution.

Considering that would entail around 100 humans having to be killed and eaten by this lion, it was safe to say that he might be the main culprit for the deaths of most of the explorers.

"Well human, are you going to say something or should I eat your friends first?"

"U-uh, what do you want to talk about?" asked a shaken Erwik

"For starters, why are you in my forest, and why are you killing my brethren?"

"I-I-I, I am here to investigate the d-deaths of my people," replied Erwik with a studder

"Ah, I see, those tasty fools were yours huh, haha, don't worry, they are in a better place now." laughed the lion with a roar

"I-I see."

"Now, why do I feel some weird connection with you, and why should I not kill you right now." rumbled the lion while glaring at Erwik with a death stare

"..."

"Ha, cat got your tongue human?"

All of a sudden, a loud, dominating roar rang out throughout the whole forest, one that demanded absolute submission, this roar was, even more, defeating and suffocating than the one by the crimson lion.

"N-no way, there's no fucking way!" yelled Trynid

"What, what is it Prince Trynid?" asked Samek

"That roar, it came from at least a 4th-tier beast," said Trynid visibly shaken

Once the group heard that a deathly silence permeated throughout the group.

Not only were the humans scared out of their wits, even the cave lion pride numbering 30+ along with their leader the 3rd-tier Crimson Lion was scared.

It would seem these lions knew who that roar belonged to, and they were frightened by it.

"You got lucky this time human." roared the lion as he and his pride retreated back into the forest

...

After half an hour of collecting themselves, the surviving members of the hunting party were ready to get the hell out of there, that is until, a rustling came from the leaves behind them, and that's when he walked out.

A majestic white and golden lion, this lion stood at a towering height of 2 meters tall, it had muscles that were extremely compact for its density and were streamlined to kill, the lion had white furs like an albino, and these pricing electric blue eyes that could see past one's soul. But along with that, it had golden trimmings, at the end of its tail, the tip of its nose, and the most magnificent of it all.

The lion had a beautiful golden mane that seemed to glow in the sun and radiated pure majesty.

Behind this behemoth of a lion, walked out 10 females and 2 more males who were smaller than what could be inferred to be the alpha, but nonetheless, they were still as majestic as the alpha.

That's when he felt it, there was some sort of thread that connected King Erwik II's soul with the domineering and majestic 4th-tier lion in front of him.

Without warning, the Alpha lion started walking toward the group.

The whole hunting party was all praying to the various gods that their people worshiped, along with some who had resigned themselves to their fate, during this impromptu prayer session, Erwik started slowly walking towards the lion in an almost trance-like state.

As he walked forward, Erwik was unable to hear the shouts coming from Samek, Trynid, and the rest of the Royal Knights who were trying to call out to him.

King Erwik II's head was completely calm and quiet, all he could think of was walking towards the lion and placing his hand on the great lion's snout.

As they walked toward each other, both Erwik and the lion seemed to synchronize in their speed as they continued to stride toward one another.

Once the two finally met in the center of the two groups, Erwik raised one hand and gently place it on the snout of the lion who slightly lowered his head to meet Erwik's hand.

That's when it happened, a blinding white light hit both Erwik and the lion and it enveloped them for a minute exactly before it retreated back into the heavens.

Standing right there in the same position as before the light hit, there could be seen a man with snow-white hair, and a pair of sharp electric blue eyes, all across his body there were runes, spanning from one arm to another, and all across the torso.

Right across form Erwik, who still hand his hand on his snout, was a white and gold lion who's fur shined under the sun, all across his body were the same runes that were plastered on Erwik's body.

The duo of man and beast stood there in silence for another couple of minutes before the lion was the first one to break the silence...

(Picture of the lion —->)