Become a Cheetah
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The two guinea fowl together weighed less than ten pounds. Luo Qiao made sure Luo Sen and Luo Rui ate their fill, while he himself remained hungry.
As the sun set, Luo Qiao stood on a termite mound, gazing into the distance. All he could see was the endless grassland and dry, withered grass. There was no prey, nothing.
Luo Sen and Luo Rui didn’t play and chase each other as they usually did. They tried to conserve every bit of energy they had. The best way to do that was to lie down quietly, leaning against Luo Qiao, and enjoy the tranquility of the evening.
“Dad, will you tell us a story today?”
Luo Rui loved to act spoiled with Luo Qiao. At six months old, the cub still had the innocence of a three-month-old. Luo Qiao often wondered if he was really a good father. He couldn’t shake off his human way of thinking, and at times, it led him to make fatal mistakes.
“Do you want to hear a story?”
“Yes.”
Luo Rui and Luo Sen gathered around Luo Qiao. Luo Qiao’s stomach was still empty, and he could feel his strength waning, his muscles weakening from constant depletion. But he couldn’t show even a hint of it.
Right now, he was everything to the two cubs. From the day he found them, they had become his anchor in this unfamiliar world.
The three cheetahs lay in the tall grass. The dry, yellow blades hid them from view, making it difficult for nocturnal predators to spot them. The night was deep, and Luo Qiao watched the two cubs as they fell asleep. He licked their ears and then drifted off himself.
Suddenly, Luo Qiao’s eyes snapped open, and his ears perked up. He listened carefully to the sounds carried by the wind. The lions’ roars were as usual, but the hyenas’ calls were unusual.
The two cubs were also awakened by the noise. Luo Sen and Luo Rui imitated Luo Qiao, listening intently to the sounds echoing across the grassland. They had never heard hyenas make such noises before. In their minds, these ugly creatures only let out spine-chilling screams.
“Dad, what’s going on?”
Luo Sen and Luo Rui huddled together for warmth. The temperature difference between day and night made them uncomfortable after being abruptly awakened.
“I’m not sure either.”
Luo Qiao was wide awake now. He knew the hyenas’ calls tonight were unusual, but he couldn’t figure out what it meant. Had the lion pride attacked them?
In fact, the largest hyena clan in Oros’s territory was experiencing an unusual coup tonight.
Nali, the female hyena, led a clan that originally had over eighty members. These hyenas were strong, greedy, and bloodthirsty. Before Oros became the lion pride’s leader, they had been able to rival the lions.
Occasionally, they even managed to steal prey from the lionesses by sheer numbers. But all that ended with Oros’s rise to power. The evolved male lion relentlessly hunted and drove out Nali’s clan. Nali’s mother, the former leader of the hyena clan, had died in a conflict between the hyenas and the lions.
Since Nali became the leader, the clan’s numbers had continued to dwindle, either from deaths or disappearances. With the arrival of the dry season and the scarcity of food, the hyenas’ situation had become even more dire.
The clan now had fewer than forty members. Despite Nali’s strength, she had a fatal flaw—she couldn’t bear cubs. She had tried many times, but each attempt ended in disappointment. This led to unrest within the clan. A leader who couldn’t produce offspring was a disaster for the entire group.
Another high-ranking female hyena, Nabi, began to challenge Nali repeatedly. She was as strong as Nali and had ambitions to take over the clan. Nali couldn’t simply hand over her position. If she were overthrown, her status within the clan would plummet, and even the youngest cubs would be able to bully her.
Nali tried to improve her situation, but Nabi wouldn’t give her the chance. Tonight, the entire hyena clan was thrown into chaos.
Nabi and her followers launched an attack on Nali. In the chaos, Nali was bitten on the back of her neck, and one of her ears was torn off by Nabi.
She was in a sorry state, screaming hoarsely. Her eerie cries carried far, and both the lion pride and Luo Qiao’s family heard the desperate wails of the hyena clan’s female leader.
Until the very end, Nali didn’t give in. She bit down hard on a hyena’s hind leg and, when the hyena yelped in pain, broke through Nabi’s encirclement.
Nali escaped, and Nabi successfully claimed the leader’s throne. But her ambitions didn’t end there.
Nali, dragging her injured body, wandered through the night grassland. Even though she was hurt and looked disheveled, she was still the second most formidable predator after the lions. No one dared to provoke her lightly.
Unbeknownst to Nali, a cheetah lay hidden in the grass ahead, ready to take her life.
Luo Qiao gripped the tough grass in his hands, holding his breath as he lay in the grass. He didn’t want to provoke the injured female hyena, but if she continued forward, she would undoubtedly discover the two cubs hiding in the grass. In the past, Luo Qiao’s first choice would have been to sneak away with the cubs. But tonight, he didn’t want to do that.
He was going to kill her!
The two cubs quietly hid in the grass, watching Luo Qiao’s every move. They saw him transform, then leap up with incredible speed as the hyena passed by. He landed behind her, gripping the tough grass tightly and using it to strangle the hyena’s neck! He then bit down hard on the wound near her ear.
Suddenly attacked, Nali instinctively tried to bite her assailant, only to find that the coward was hiding behind her, using the grass to strangle her neck, trying to choke her to death!
In her hyena form, Nali couldn’t handle this situation. She wasn’t an evolved species. She could only thrash her head desperately, using all her strength to try and throw off the attacker on her back. Several times, Luo Qiao was almost thrown off by Nali’s terrifying strength, but it was all in vain.
It wasn’t until long after Nali had stopped breathing that Luo Qiao finally let go. The female hyena lay sprawled on the ground, her neck twisted at a strange angle.
Luo Sen and Luo Rui had witnessed the entire killing. The creature that had killed their mother had just been killed by their dad!
Dad was amazing, he could kill a hyena!
Luo Qiao propped himself up on his hands, spitting out blood and bits of flesh from his mouth. He gasped for air. If he had been even slightly careless or hesitant during the fight, it would have been him lying dead on the ground.
It had been reckless, but it felt satisfying. The frustration and anger he had felt earlier seemed to have been swept away by this act of killing.
However, hyena flesh and blood were truly disgusting.
“Dad!”
Luo Sen and Luo Rui emerged from the grass. Luo Rui climbed onto Luo Qiao’s lap, happily nuzzling him.
“Dad is so strong!”
Luo Sen, on the other hand, walked over to Nali’s body and bit down hard on her neck. He tore at the dead hyena just like he would with a young antelope.
Luo Qiao didn’t stop Luo Sen and even encouraged Luo Rui to try it too. While the two cubs tore at Nali’s body, Luo Qiao stood up, wiping the blood from his lips. His tall, slender frame and dark hair glowed with a honeyed sheen under the moonlight.
His amber eyes eventually landed on a large, burly male lion in the distance. Surprisingly, Luo Qiao wasn’t shocked or fearful at Oros’s presence this time.
Oros watched Luo Qiao for a moment before turning and leaving.
He’d play with this evolved cheetah another time. He still had to patrol his territory. He was a busy lion, after all.
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