Reincarnated As A Lion In Another World-Chapter 57: To Kill With A Borrowed Claw

Kael lay on the ground next to the wall inside the cave, his back resting on the cold hard floor and his arm wrapped around N’bayé’s form.

N’bayé rested beside him with her head on Kael’s broad chest. Her fingers drew circles on his abs, going up and down like a sheep skipping hills.

"Thank you," N’bayé said telepathically, feeling quite exhausted.

"For what?" Kael asked with one of his eyebrows raised.

"For what you did to me. It made me feel… good." N’bayé had no sense of shyness as she uttered those words.

Kael chuckled, "Don’t worry, I also enjoyed it."

They rested like that for some time, they could both hear the movements coming from outside but they chose to ignore it for now.

"Now that you’re a tier 3, what are we going to do?" N’bayé’s face resumed its normal expression. The few hours of bliss still remained in her mind but it was time she thought about the future.

"What have you been doing for the past six months?" Kael asked taking a more serious approach.

N’bayé sat up to respond, "Regular hunting and resting. Some of our neighbors disturbed us but we couldn’t kill any of them. With just me as the only tier 3 at that time, killing any other creature of similar power level was very difficult.

Now that you’re awake, maybe we can stand a chance of clearing up the mountain."

Kael thought about it in silence. Now that he was a tier 3, a lot of his passive powers were more pronounced. The intellectual prowess of the magus lions and the spirit lions was already making itself known.

"We could do that, or we could take a more thorough approach," Kael said as his eyes flashed with a dangerous level of intelligence.

He sat up and rested his back on the wall. "I don’t plan on entertaining any possibilities of losing from now on. If we are to do things from now on, it must be detailed and to the point.

We must make plans before we take any action and we must have contingency plans just in case." Kael didn’t state this like he was making a request, more like he was giving out an order.

N’bayé didn’t see anything wrong with what she said, in fact, she resonated with it well. After all, she was the type to make a lot of plans before doing anything so Kael’s words seemed very okay to her.

"That’s good," She said, "Our chances of successfully defeating one of our neighbors with you around us are high, but it’s not absolutely certain.

If we want to increase our chances of success, we should make some other plans. What do you suggest?"

Kael brainstormed, his now enhanced memory retention ability allowing him to recall more foggy and insignificant pieces of his previous life.

He remembered one particular phrase he heard on time from a colleague at work. This particular colleague was prone to corporate politics and very manipulative, like most high achievers in the business world.

Because Kael didn’t seem to have any ambition or desire for upward mobility, he was never seen as a threat and therefore seen as a confidant.

The colleague always felt comfortable sharing some of his thoughts with Kael because he knew Kael would probably never use them against him, and he was right.

One of the things this colleague would always talk about was the strategy of killing with a borrowed sword.

It was simply the act of using someone else’s strength to achieve his goals. This strategy was used in so many ways, that Kael had watched it play out in front of his own eyes.

"We can kill with a borrowed claw, we don’t necessarily have to be the ones to dirty our hands with the act of killing these guys.

We are royalty, after all, others should be doing it for us."

As Kael spoke, his aura began building up and as he sat there, he gave off the vibe of a king without a kingdom.

"Hmm, that’s true. Our chances of winning will be higher if we involve someone else. Especially if we involve someone that is not already on the mountain." N’bayé said, quickly understanding the direction Kael wished to go in.

"What forces in the forest are suitable for this plan," Kael asked.

N’bayé thought for a moment before answering, "Well, among the many, I would suggest the wolves and the spiders.

The wolves because of their social structure and their combat abilities, are suitable for warrior roles. Their pack dynamic is somehow similar to our pride structure but also somehow different.

The spiders are not that social but they remain connected. Every spider with an awakened heart has a special web-like ability that allows them to create interconnected webways without actually touching each other.

It is said that all spiders can use these special webs to communicate over large distances and all webs are connected to the main web deep underground in their mega nest.

If we want the wolves, we could get their strong combat abilities. If we go for the spiders, we could take advantage of their intelligence gathering and their communication abilities."

As Kael listened to N’bayé, he began drawing up a rough scheme with wolves or spiders in them.

"We’ll work on both groups then." He said.

Hearing this, a complicated expression appeared on N’bayé’s face. "I forgot that you’ve not been a resident of the forest for a long time so you don’t know what’s happening.

Well, the spiders and the wolves are currently not on good terms. Actually, they are just a few decisions away from turning the whole forest into a battlefield."

Kael looked at her, curious, "How? What happened?"

"Well, many months ago, the spiders with awakened Hearts began attacking almost all creatures in the forest. Killing a lot of them in the process.

Many of us guessed that the reason for their sudden attack was a statement, telling the forest that they had a new powerhouse backing them.

There has been no way to confirm this as we don’t know how powerful the strongest spider is as they are not as open as the wolves. The strongest I have ever seen from them is a power level similar to a tier 3 lion.

The spiders may have attacked everybody but the wolves were the ones who took it extra personally.

The strongest packs in the forest are led by three tier 3 wolves similar to us in power level.

All three lead the small packs and have already formed wolf clans. Each of them have varying degrees of hostility towards the spiders though."

"Hmm, which of them is the least active?" Kael asked.

"That would be the Bibi clan, led by Bibi III (The third).

They are actually very hostile to the spiders, a kill-on-sight attitude if I must say, but compared to the other wolves, they are pretty peaceful.

They are also of average size, not being the biggest or the smallest.

It would be good if we met the Bibi clan first as Bibi II, Bibi III’s father had died here in this mountain. At least, that’s what I heard.

The Bibi clan at that time had wanted to take over the entire mountain with his clan but had been stopped by the neighbors.

" N’bayé said after some thoughts.

"Then we’ll go for the Bibi wolves first. This doesn’t mean we will be giving up on the spiders, sooner or later, everyone in this forest will have to bow to me, including the spiders." Kael decided.

*****

Outside the cave, seven lionesses lay around under the evening sky while one lioness pranced to and from at the entrance of the mountain.

Nalii looked worriedly at Katari who was walking from one edge to another with a troubled and confused expression on her face.

Katari’s eyes darted left and right and her thoughts were complex. She thought about Kael, she thought about herself, and she thought about N’bayé.

’...is it because she is… stronger than me?’ Katari wondered. If anyone looked at her eyes right now, they would notice it getting red, as if she was trying too hard to prevent herself from crying.

’No… I was with him first.’ Even her inner voice shook with trepidation, a testament to the uneasiness she felt.

’Yes…I was with him first, I…was…here first. He loves me even though I’m not strong enough.’ She tried to comfort herself as her heart broke down into pieces.

’No, I must do something, I must.’ As she thought in this direction, her eyes revealed a hint of craziness. This wasn’t the playful craziness that Ruda usually showed, this was much darker and violent.

But as soon as it came, it disappeared. Katari’s accidental introspection in her life caused her to rethink her actions. Following this was a wave of sadness that threatened to crush Katari and send her into a spiral of depression.

Just then, her ears twitched as she heard footsteps coming from the cave. With a speed that her body could barely handle, she turned to see two tall figures walking out of the cave.

One was a tall brown-skinned female humanoid. The other was also tall, but more masculine with light-tanned skin and a somewhat curly body.

As soon as Kael stepped out of the cave, his golden eyes locked on Katari’s reddened eyes.

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