Chapter 41 -- A father's help

Back at the cave of the black rank three lion. The pack leader was enjoying a nap when a rank two lion suddenly ran into the cave. The rank three was annoyed because only it's second in command was allowed inside the cave, and the second in command was at the moment dealing with the human cubs.

"What is it ?" It asked in anger. The only reason it was not killing its subordinate was that every beast in the pack knew the rules, so this lion would not easily risk it's life for nothing.

"Grrrrrrrrrrr" The rank two growled with its head bowed as deep as possible. The pack leader seemed to understand the growls as it became angry. It had just learned that almost all it's pack was gone. Not even a single rank one lion was alive, only about 30 rank two lions survived and that was because of the second in command coming at the right time.

"Unforgivable!" the leader shouted and the the caves walls shook. The the rank two immediately ran away in the fear of being coleteral damage due to the leaders anger.

"I will raise that village to the ground myself!" it shouted as it jumped off the meter high pedestal it slept on, further threatening the integrity of the cave.

However before it could march out of its habitat in pure unbridled rage. It suddenly sensed a presence other than itself in the cave.

"How dare you !!" It screamed into the shadows where a man completely covered in black from head to toe emerged. The pack leader could not discern the intruder's rank, which was the only reason it was not blindly attacking. This figure was human, it was sure of that and humans are not stupid. No human would enter the cave of a rank three beast in the upper stage without a backup plan or something.

"I am only here to talk and you will listen" The human stated

"Why should i listen to you " asked the beast asked as it continued to try and gauge the strength of the human intruder.

The human however didn't answer the lion and resorted to giving out an order of its own.

"You will take the remainder of your pack and you will leave from here is that clear!" Ordered the human.

That was the last straw for the leader, no one could enter it's cave uninvited and give it orders, much less a human!. The leader didn't care about it's opponent's strength anymore, this human had to die!.

Suddenly 10 rocks the size of basketballs materialized on top of the lions head, which it didn't hesitate to hurl at the intruder at a speed which made them practically invisible.

The man just scoffed before raising one hand. A wall of fire suddenly appeared in front of him, this fire though was different as the flames where solid and unmoving.

The rocks hit the wall one by one and by the time the last rock connected, the wall was showing subtle signs of cracking. The lion didn't follow up it's move with another attack, instead it just stood in place observing its opponent. It's last attack was a way to gauge the intruder's power and the lion now had a general idea of what it was up against. It immediately knew that fighting this mysterious figure was not a good idea.

"Why would a being of your power be interested in the ants of that village" The lion questioned, as it calmed down. It could sense that the human in front of it also didn't want to fight.

"Let's just say the village is currently housing a person of interest "The man cryptically replied.

The lion narrowed its eyes as it stared at the human. The thought of attacking rose once more. However it was less than a decade away from evolving to rank four, an injury at this stage was not something it wanted to risk.

"My second in command is down there right now and i can't call him back" The pack leader revealed.

"It doesn't matter, if they can't defeat a peak rank two being then they don't deserve my protection. Just be out of this region in 20 minutes." The human said as it disappeared into the darkness once more. Leaving the lion with an unsightly expression on it's face.

Back to the forest near Rion. Lex stood up as he clutched his broken ribs. He stretched a little as if he was getting used to his own body before walking over to pick up his sword which had fallen during the flight.

The lion looked at Lex's pitiful state in amusement, it was impressed that the dragon could still stand after a hit like that. However when Lex finished dusting off his sword and looked up at the lion's eyes. The beast didn't recognize the dragon cub it was just conversing with a moment ago.

As it looked into Lex's eyes it saw maturity, it saw wisdom, it saw an experienced beast, not the hot tempered cub which was crying for the dead human. The beast was about to say something when Lex took off running in it's direction. It knew it was being attacked so it didn't hesitate to mimick Lex, taking off towards it's opponent. It didn't even wait to think why the dragon, which claimed to have given up was now attacking.

When the two opponents where five meters away from each other, the lion leapt up with it it's claws aimed at Lex's neck. Lex predicted this move as he slid under the lion with both hands tightly gripping his weapon. When the lion was about to pass above him, Lex thrust his sword straight into its soft under belly.

The lion whimpered in pain but did not hesitate to turn it's head as soon as it landed, it's mouth wide open with its 30 centimeter long teeth ready to rip apart Lex. Lex seemed to see this coming as well as he immediately thrust his sword straight into the beasts mouth.

CLANG**

The sound of Lex's sword striking metal was heard. The lion had closed it's teeth just in time to stop the dragon's weapon from impaling it's mouth. Lex didn't hesitate to bring his sword up above his head before bringing it down towards the lion's forehead with immense speed and power.

The lion saw this and immediately put all it's weight on it's front legs before pivoting it's whole body to dodge the attack and at the same time try to donkey kick Lex with its hind legs, which where now swinging towards Lex with extreme tenacity.

Lex raised his sword and parried the attack, however the power behind the strike made him fly a couple meters back. As soon as Lex recovered and stood up, an earth pillar rose from directly under him, breaking his right leg's shin bone and sending him 10 meters in the air.

While in the air, Lex opened his mouth and released a sea of black flames which engulfed the grounded lion, before slashing with his sword, which released a horizontal line of orange fire into the cloud of black flames. Lex then fell to the ground and landed awkwardly due to the broken leg.

The smoke in front of him then cleared to reveal the earth lion. It had a deep scar across its face which had destroyed it's right eye. The remaining eye of the lion stared at Lex with hatred, but it then decided to retreat as it's battle prowess had definitely fallen due to the missing eye.

Lex's expression seemed to change after the lion disappeared into the forest. "Thank you Father" he muttered as he limped to Adam's body in the distance