Chapter 17: Axolotl>Lion

Meteor Festival plaza, far away from the centre and Cahaya.

Just before the power shut down.

Mamoru POV

'Why are the washrooms so far away…', I thought, annoyed at the engineer's lack of ingenuity, my tail waving back and forth behind me as I strolled out.

It wasn't the best month of my life, my son's antics with the Black Market even though it wasn't entirely his responsibility. The Naja will surely hear of that, and I'm worried. It's irrational I know but I can't help it. He will always be my and Surya's cute baby larva.

He always worried me when he was younger and came back from his hiking in the forest, sometimes he came back with missing fingers, one time he even came without his left arm. And I don't like seeing him like this. 

Just this week I felt my heart stop when one of my colleagues, an eccentric male gazelle, he was teacher in animal psychology, he dramatically said that my Cahaya was bitten a jaguar student on the back of his neck. 

To say, just after that my son dislocated the jaw of the insolent, now probably a dead cat, and carried him out of the school grounds. I'm proud of him.

*CLACK*, the power shut down interrupted me in my thoughts. It was complete darkness, well if I was a regular 'herbivore', I could still see but not as good as usual.

'That is strange… There wasn't even that much power used. Did a stude-", I heard footsteps behind. Something's off.

I instinctively crouched down and evaded the clawed paw aiming for my nape. I looked behind to see one, two, three, four lions?! All wearing suits and a ties.

"*Whistle*, damn he sure reacts fast… All the better.", I heard the lion with a pompadour and a claw mark on his right eyes say with a stupid and prideful smirk, his tongue poking out.

"Shishigumi…", I murmured with a scowl of anger, this is bad, very bad. Since when did they get ballsy and shameless enough to attack a school and off Cherryton calibre at that, their leader should have a bottom line unless they changed him.

'Their hold on the Black Market was shaken, they should have other things to do, than thi-oh nononono, fuck! They must have allied themselves with another of the Gumi.', I reckoned internally, taking the bright pink water gun out of the inside pocket of my vest. And at the same time, I felt my phone vibrate in my pants pocket. Fuck. It must be Cahaya.

"Are you serio-", the same lion with the pompadour, started to mock me but I didn't care about his little opinion and shot directly into his only good eye.

And he didn't even try to evade or block the shot. Stupid pride.

"Huh? Wha-AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!", he made a confused sound before screaming in utter agony, clawing at his left eye, trying to take his own rotting eyeball out. I knew Cahaya venom was potent but that certainly was impressive, his venom is even stronger than Surya.

"Free!? Fucking little shit of a herbivore!", said one of his friends, while running straight at me, his claw out, ready to shred me apart. I shot again, hitting the fur on his arm that protected his eyes, the fur still started to fall off. My heart was pumping adrenaline in my body and I was calm.

Lions are fast and strong, faster and stronger than me but they underestimate others, especially what they consider herbivores, a common trait seen in large land carnivores. And an exploitable weakness.

I crouched down again, he was way taller than me, so it was easy to surprise him like this. They usually run after their prey and he didn't expect me to stand my ground.

I promptly stabbed in his crotch area, with the 15 centimetres (5,9in) hidden blade in my right sleeve. The male lion with two black spots above his eyes froze, his eyes wide open in confusion, I profited from this by pulling my arm up with all of my adrenaline-pumped strength, his black three-piece suit shredded open, accompanied by his evisceration from his crotch to his navel.

Blood sprayed like a fountain on me, painting me red while the dumb kitty was trying to desperately shove his intestine back into their right place, his body. Since gravity did its work before he fell on his back, tainting the grey cemented ground with his blood.

*BANG*, I heard a gunshot, then white-hot pain as I felt the bullet tear through my skin, flesh, then my sixth cervical and proceed on its way out by perforating through the right side of my neck.

'No…no! That can't be! I should have been more careful! I'm sorry son… I failed…', I thought despair started to creep into my heart, I felt weak, my paralysed body on the ground, I couldn't feel anything past the bullet wound except the pain and my blood trickling from it.

I heard and saw the footsteps of someone coming, he kneeled down at my eyes level and I knew at this moment that I felt hope, I won't die at least for now.

He was a male lion, in the same suit as the other but he was wearing glasses. He spoke with wrath in his voice despite his calm demeanour, "You did a number on us, little salamander. I will make you meet Chief. I'm sure he will like the taste of exotic meat like yours… land parasites are rare after all.", he trailed off.

He didn't have the intended effect of scaring me, to his disappointment. I glared back into his eyes and said with schadenfreude in my voice even if I had difficulty talking in my current state, "You… will deeply… regret this…", I finished before I felt something brutally hit the back of my head then total blackness. 

_______________________

Middle of the plaza.

Third POV

Terror. Panic. Anxiety.

Students were clustering together with those feelings in their hearts, some crying, despairing, using their phone flashlight, calling the police and more, this was the case for carnivores and herbivores. Large carnivores and herbivores at the fronts, forming a protective circle for the smaller animals, one of the things they were teaching and were expected to do in cases like that.

Teacher, we're doing headcounts and to their horror, two dozen animals were already missing. They weren't prepared for something like this to happen, nobody here was.

Juno and some of the other students like Bill but she mostly stood out by helping others, taking care of the wounded due to panic, trying to calm others and many other things that did go wrong such as potential fire starting.

She wasn't fine herself, she kept searching for Cahaya but when she heard he was one of the missing students she felt heartbroken, but she continued, hoping he will be fine, he must be fine.

Close to them was the one, the female grey wolf was looking for, he was slowly slithering past them, blood trailing behind him until they finally saw him. And they were elated and at the same time shocked by what they saw, it was like they were in front of a god of war.

His body was covered in wounds and his blood and that of others, his shirt shredded and dangling, showing his more than impressive musculature and his dorsal fin normally hidden.

His gills fully extended and vibrating in purest of rage, he had lost three branches on his right side, cleanly cut, but visibly re-growing. 

A katana was deeply embedded in his chest where his heart should be and was but it didn't stop him, he has one more and the other will grow back. 

Only Juno saw the twitching and headless corpse of a female cheetah wearing a kimono. She connected the dot with the swallowing motion of Cahaya's throat and the katana in his torso, she deduced that he ate the cheetah head while she stabbed him, 'Deserved.', she viciously thought and she felt relieved now that she saw that he was here and rather 'fine'.

She realised with research that amphibians if he was even one but she didn't care about this, were in fact not herbivores at all. Just considered as such by some obscure reason she didn't know.

Cahaya's face was expressionless, blood dripping from his mouth and nostrils, his eyes were glowing, literally glowing, it was an intense lavender colour. They were filled with a multitude of emotions, wrath being at the forefront followed by distress then irritation.

The Madaragumi we're going after him like moths to a flame, in all aspects. It was the one they wanted, not that they didn't kill or kidnap other students or teachers, meat was meat after all. The same could be said for the Shishigumi. 

A male jaguar started to attack and pounce at the hybrid blade ready to cut the lavender-eyed teenager.

He made a 'Huh?', of incomprehension as he was bisected from neck to belly instead by Cahaya who pulled out the katana from his chest, and use it without any technique whatsoever but sadly for the jaguar no amount of talent, technique or experience work against someone who outclassed you too an absurd degree in every physical and mental aspect.

Everyone close by witnessed the direction of the feline and heard just after the heavy plop of the two pieces on the ground, students and teachers loudly cheered for what just occurred, most believe he was saving them, he was their hero. 

The heavy scent of blood and gore were entirely dismissed in the heat of the action, in fact, they only added to mark Cahaya as a hero in their mind as strange as it sounds, a lone herbivore bloodying his hand to save his teacher and fellow students with his life on the line.

It was the opposite with the Madaragumi present; they were too frenzied and full of bloodlust to realise the madness they were in.

They kept coming, some injuring Cahaya, but the hybrid didn't care, most dying.

The hybrid used the katana and different blades like they were baseball bats, it broke them but he simply took one from one of his kills or used his trusty swiss knife this one was used surgically to kill, quick cut or poke to artery, eyes, ears or nerve. 

He also slapped one with his serpentine body making the goon become a bloody stain on a wall. 

This infuriated the felines, even more, he showed how disrespected their' 'way of the blade', they were right, he couldn't care less about the philosophy of morons who stopped him from advancing where his Dad was.

Finally, only one of fifteen was left, and he came back to his senses. He grabbed the first student next to him to take a hostage.

And it was Juno, he put his blade against her neck threatening to slit her throat open, already drawing blood and said smugly, "Now you will let me g-OOOOOOHHH!!!", sadly for him, she had bought a taser, a powerful one at that, on one of Cahaya's advice. And she wasn't shy in using it.

She quickly removed herself from the Madaragumi member's grasp and felt something hard and bloody press against her back. She looked up to see Cahaya's punch going through the feline skull, with a crunch, making it explode like a watermelon, killing him instantly in the process.

Juno shuddered as she heard the hybrid growling-hissing voice, with hidden worry, next to her ears, "Usssse thissss on your neck." 

He was gone just after with the sound of him slithering fast away and her with a small blue container full of the balm that he modified after his first test on her.

She felt her heart pound in her chest, not from the near-death experience, nor the gore and blood on her clothes. No, she noticed that he was distressed and needed to go somewhere, urgently but he still took the time to save her and she noticed the worry in his voice, his deep hissing voice and his broad chest against her back.

He care for her, and she have a chance with him, their time together was not simply him passing time humouring her and her hopes were not silly unattainable dreams.