[3rd POV]
(Documentary Episode 7)
[Name : Dr. T. Soma Tonson
Role : Lead Researcher]
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"With two new weak and hungry lionesses joining the pride, the need for food rose sharply. Leo's pride had small meals during their two-week journey, but nothing comparable to their insane diet back in the Serengeti," Dr Tonson said.
"There were virtually no other prey except small rodents or the giant giraffe in their area. The pride could not hunt for themselves. And hence, it was on Leo's shoulder as the king to provide for his pride."
The documentary showed the pride lying down under thin shade. The sun was unrelenting and hot enough to shimmer the air on camera. Sara and Zuri were fast asleep from exhaustion. Their breathing was weak and sometimes uneven. Their ribs moved like the hinges of old wooden doors, visisble through skin. Looking at them, Leo seemed to gain a new resolve for his next course of action.
"The second hunt for a giraffe began," Dr Tonson narrated.
Leo stood up. His body cast a huge shadow over the sleeping lionesses. His shoulders rolled once, loosening stiff muscles. Then he began moving away from the pride with steady steps. Like always, the vultures followed him in the sky and began gathering like a dark cloud over him. The drone followed these vultures, and it led them right to where the prey was.
A bull giraffe.
This one was even bigger than the previous one he fought. The camera zoomed out to capture the scale difference. The giraffe looked like a living tower, swaying gently as it stripped branches bare with its tongue. Dust clung to its hide but the animal was still majestic and imposing.
The giraffe was about 2 kilometres away from Leo. The drone returned and began following the lion as he made a beeline towards the prey.
No tracking, no searching, he was guided by his subjects in the sky.
"It is one thing to attempt such a hunt," Dr Tonson said. "It is another to attempt it twice. It takes true desperation or true madness. For Leo, it may have been both."
When Leo finally reached the vicnity of his prey, he coruched low and began stalkimng. This was unlike his first hunt where he just head towards the giraffe.
He approached from the downwind side. His body was low and tense. The camera focused on his tail stump that twitched again and again like an anxious heartbeat. It was a stark reminder to the viwer that the majestic lion was a cribble.
A beast nature itself couldn't hold down.
His paws pressed softly into the dust. His head mirrored the movement of the giraffe's long neck, following every sway so that he could alwasy be by its blind spot.
"Unlike his first attempt, Leo was now a student who had taken a full lecture in giraffe combat. He had learned the angles. He had studied the timing. He had memorised the recoil of the neck and the weight of the stomp. It is no exaggeration to say he approached this second attempt like a soldier who had learned every weakness of his enemy," the doctor said.
"Afterall, failure was the best teacher,"
The camera cut to Leo's face. His eyes were sharp and focused, almost like a robot immernse in its programming.
He paused. Then waited and waited and waited.
Until he broke into a sudden sprint.
The giraffe noticed him almost instantly. The long neck was like having a constant watchtower. Just like nature had built Leo to kill, it built the giraffe to survive. The bull snorted and took a step back, its hooves digging into the dusty ground, carving small depressions.
Then the first stomp came down.
The earth shook and dust exploded upward. Leo dodged with a speed that the drone struggled to track. His forelegs bent and his shoulders dipped low. The stomp crushed nothing but dry soil.
The second stomp followed.
Leo twisted his torso. His paws left the ground for a brief moment as he slipped past the falling hoof. A sound like a hammer on stone burst out. Even through the recorded footage, the impact made many viewers flinch.
"In a fight against a giraffe, one mistake is death. And Leo avoided two consecutive strikes by only a hair," Dr Tonson said.
Leo lunged forward.
For the first time in the entire documentary, viewers saw him go under the giraffe willingly. It was insane, it was suicidal. But it was necessary.
"Under the giraffe is the most dangerous place to be," Dr Tonson said. "But also the only place where a lion can start dealing real damage."
The giraffe tried to hop away. Its long legs lifted and landed in chaotic rhythm. Each landing threatened to cave in Leo's skull. But Leo stuck to its underside, forcing himself into the blind spot where the giraffe could not swing its neck and could not stomp accurately.
The drone lost sight of Leo for a moment due to the wave of dust.
When the camera regained clarity, Leo was latched onto the giraffe's abdomen. His claws dug into the thick skin while his jaws went straight for the most vulnerable spot on the underbelly.
He bit down.
The giraffe bellowed. It was a deep and haunting scream. Viewers realised they've never heard a giraffe scream before. The animal jerked violently to shake the lion off. Its entire weight was lifted on its forelegs and then slammed down.
Leo held on.
"For a lion, this was not just strength," Dr Tonson said softly. "This was an obsession hunger. and duty. Sole strength could never forge such a stubborn soul."
The giraffe continued to struggle for minutes. Until eventually, its head twisted at the correct time, at the correct place. Its neck whipped downward in a violent arc. The skull shattered into Leo's shoulder.
Leo was flung off.
Imagine a 400-kilogram beast flung off like that. How much force would that require?
The camera jerked as the drone operator cursed off-screen. Ramriz probably thought Leo just died right then and there.
Leo crashed onto the ground, rolling several meters. Dust swallowed him. His body twitched, then went still for a moment.
The audience held their breath.
"The most basic and primal instinct after taking such a hit was to stay down or flee. It was the kind of impact that cracks ribs and collapses lungs. Leo might tough, but he was not that tough. So what happened next is simply just pure resillience,"
Leo stood up.
Slowly, painfully, but he stood up.
He shook his mane, exhaled sharply, before a deep growl sang from his throat. This was not a predator that was going to give up, this was a beast that never stayed down.
Leo charged again.
The giraffe retaliated with a kick aimed backwards. A backward giraffe kick has enough power to break the spine of a lion instantly.
Leo ducked. The hoof passed right over his head and snapped a dead tree behind him in half. It was one of the trees that the giraffe was eating.
Leo slammed into the giraffe's front legs. His jaws clamped down on the inner thigh where the artery ran close to the surface. His weight dragged the massive animal sideways.
The giraffe stumbled.
One stumble became two.
Its front legs wobbled.
Its knee buckled.
Leo bit deeper, shaking his head with violent force like a put bull finding its mark. Blood sprayed across the ground. The giraffe roared and tried to regain balance, but the damage was too heavy.
Leo switched targets. He lunged even higher and aimed for the top of the leg and bit into the tendon.
His legs were dangling and the graiffe could not bear the weight since this side of the leg was injured. It collapsed like the tower it was.
The ground shook. Dust exploded outward like a shockwave.
Leo climbed the fallen beast. His jaws went to the throat, the neck just below the giraffe's head. He bit down with everything he had. The giraffe tried to rise one last time. Its legs twitched and kicked up dirt.
Leo simply growled into its windpipe.
He held on.
Ten seconds.
Twenty.
Thirty.
The giraffe's movements slowed.
Finally, the giant went still.
The camera zoomed out to capture the massive body. Leo remained at its neck for a long time. His middle body expanded as he breathed giant breaths. His whole face was also red.
"Leo... killed a giraffe," Dr Tonson said. "A lion. Alone. Killed a bull giraffe."
The tone in his voice was half awe and half disbelief.
Leo stepped back from the body after resting for a few minutes. His ears flicked and his eyes looked to the sky where vultrues were flying in giant wheels. There was no roar of victory this time. Only quiet.
Quiet relief.
Quiet exhaustion.
Quiet pride.
He bit into the torso and began removing the organs of the giraffe. He ate the organs quickly and efficiently, tearing through flesh and pulling out the intestines to lighten the carcass.
"At first, we thought he was eating. But later, we realised Leo was removing every piece of weight he could. He ate what he needed. He discarded what would slow him down. This was not feasting, more like a hunter maiming his kill. He was turning a two-ton animal into something he could drag for miles."
Leo also but down on the bony leg of the giraffe and discarded the limbs from he carcass. Some vultures flew down and fought for those useless parts of the meat.
"A fully grown bull giraffe can store a surprising amount of moisture in its tissues and digestive tract. The organs are dense and heavy. By eviscerating the animal and discarding the low-value parts first, Leo reduced the mass dramatically,"
"Why was that important? Well, because Leo was going to drag this kill back to his pride,"
The documentary showed the footage of Leo dragging the carcass. He bit at the lower neck of the giraffe and used his forequarters to lever the load forward. Rocks scraped against the hide and his paws left deep grooves in the soil.
"Seeing a lion dragging such a heavy mass for two kilometres was even more surprising than seeing a giraffe taken down by a lion. For the viwers, that might be odd but from a researchers prespective, this was simly supernatraul feats. It also gave us much prestive on how Leo's body worked," Dr Tonson.
The documentary changed scene and went back to CGI animations for a moment. This show of endurance and strength was a good time to talk about Leo's physiology once more.
"Muscle power is not just about weight," Dr Tonson explained. "It is about cross-sectional area. Force generated by a muscle scales with its cross-sectional area. Leo's muscles show hypertrophy beyond typical lion physiology. That means more fibres packed in the same volume. The result is a density of muscle capable of pulling loads that would break a normal lion. Even so, the energetic cost is enormous."
The CGI gave visuals to what the doctor was explaining.
"Metabolism becomes a problem. Digesting raw organs releases calories but not fast enough to refuel a body in the middle of a multi-kilometre drag. Leo must have had unusually efficient glycogen stores and a metabolic system that prioritised immediate mechanical output over long-term reserves. He burned through stored ATP and then through anaerobic pathways to keep his muscles producing force. That leads to lactic acid, fatigue and pain. Yet if you could keep pushing beyond the fatique, what Leo did is possible,"
The overlay showed an anatomical comparison of normal lions and Leo. The audience could see thicker tendons, denser muscle bellies and shortened lever arms at the shoulder that increase mechanical advantage.
"His unusal habit of training by dragging carcass also helped him get used to the pulling actionm," Dr Tonson said.
The documentary returned to show Leo dragging the carcass over the savanah. He dragged it across rocks, dusts, thron bushes and every obstacle.
He seemed possessed. It was baffling why he must do all this.
But later after the episode is over, many claimed that he was like batman, going through a small traning arc before heading to major battles like fighting superman.
"That giraffe weighed more than two thousand kilograms. Leo weighed four hundred. And yet he dragged it for over two kilometres. That was a remainer to us what a frak of nature he was,"
After two hours, Leo returned to his pride.
The lionesses stood and watched him. No one moved. Not a single one approached the carcass until Leo dropped it with a final grunt.
He panted hard.
The dust lifted around him like a smoky halo.
Sara and Zuri allowed their weak bodies to apprach the carcass whcih Leo nduged towards them before stepping back.
He let them eat first.
"A true king do not just rule. He protects, and he provides," he said.
"Leo was indeed a true king,"
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