But one day his pack caught the eye of one of these great predators. The king of the jungle, the lion. The lion's great mane and menacing sets of fangs and claws naturally instilled terror in the heart of its prey.

Bobber tried to get his kin to safety, they ran and rolled through the woods as the King gave chase, his great paws slamming plowing through the ground, sending earthquakes in the hearts of the younglings. Bobber and his pack ran far, they ran fast but alas, not all of them could escape the jaws of the king. For he could not be denied his prize. 

Bobber and his pack grieved, and the children cried as one of their siblings was taken from them. 

As they ran, leaving their kin behind, the Lion roared from behind them, "You cannot run away from me, little fox, for I am your King! Cower in your holes, little ones, until I come again; your flesh has pleased me greatly."

Bobber cried that day because he had failed. It was not his fault, but he was supposed to protect his children, wasn't he? The King's threat rang in his head as he ran. 

Bobber was small and weak in comparison to the lion, but he vowed to take revenge. A preposterous notion, but the Fox was cunning and patient. He came up with a plan, the Lion was indeed the King of the jungle, but he was not the most powerful of its dwellers. 

So the Fox went to his friends, the monkeys. He asked them for a favour for him, and in exchange, they would see the King die. For the Lion had taken young monkeys too as his prey in the past. The plan amused the tree jumpers, so they agreed. 

Soon the monkeys and the fox began to visit the other great predators of the jungle, the wolves who hunted in packs, the great black bears who tore mighty beasts apart if threatened, and the great giant walkers, the leader of the Elephants. 

And he told them all that the Lion is going around killing everyone's children when they're separated from their packs, he told them that the Lion had become blood-thirsty. Greatly angered they all decided to kill the King. But of course, none of them were aware of the Foxes machinations. 

First came the elephant leader; their battle was a calamity, but in the end, the Lion came out victorious, covered in scars and bruises. The King walked away from the mighty elephant's corpse. 

The bear and the Wolves came next, the next two battles did not fare so well for the King. Of course, the Kings had won, but he had lost a limb, which was gnawed off by the berserk bear, and one of the king's eyes was clawed off by the cunning wolves. The King could barely limp as he tried to walk away from the battlefield in his majestic way. Unfortunately, his legs gave way, and he sprawled on the soil, covered and blinded by his own blood and pain. 

The King was dying and he knew it. He felt despair, fear and frustration, and he felt injustice above all. But then he heard laughter. The king turned his head to find a figure; for a moment, he thought more wolves were here. But no, that was the fox. The leader of the pack whom the Kings had threatened. The King had even taken one of its younglings as his prize. 

"Oh great king, look how far you've fallen. You who once took my children and stood proudly, can't even stand in front of someone as lowly as me." the fox jeered. 

The King looked around and saw the monkeys laughing at him from atop their trees, laughing and mocking him... "So, was it you who planned this all with the bears, wolves and the elephants? You dare.." the King wanted to bellow out his rage but he didn't even have the strength to talk anymore. 

"You are the great and mighty Lion. You kill and take whatever and whoever you want. And no one can challenge you. So I just convinced the others that they have no other choice but to kill you, if they want to survive. I knew I couldn't beat you, King. But I don't need to, I just needed others to beat you for me. I had thought they would finish you, but you are even more powerful than I expected. But no worries, you are already dying. So the pleasure to finish you falls to me."

The monkeys laughed at the proud king. And the Fox closed its little jaws around the great lion's waning life. 

•••

Avin lounged on a high tree branch, waiting. He closed the book, which was a collection of short stories from Vlad's little library, and yawned. Maybe library was a very generous word for it. The man had just a couple of dozen books on various fields.  

Avin turned his head, looking up at the setting sun through the shroud of branches. It would be dark soon, and his appointment was sure taking it's sweet time. 

"Is there no better way to do this…" he asked himself for the hundredth time. He had little time to ponder such troubles he was having when suddenly he heard the sound of thumping and a smile crept onto his face. He north west from where the sound came. 

"God is always late to save his children, but the devils are supposed to be on time aren't they." He chuckled.

In the distance, he saw seven figures trodding their way at full speed. 

They came riding on Grolls.. If rhinos ever had an unholy union with beetles, they sure as hell would create creatures like these. With six heavy legs, three on each side and thick bodies, covered in black and red patterns and smooth chitin natural armour. They had four horns- the longest spike rising from their forehead, another smaller horn rising from their snout, and one from either side of their head just behind their eyes like a bull. 

Riding them were men dressed in thick chitin armour.

"Seven Grolls, huh? Must be my lucky day." 

Avin watched in anticipation as the riders trod on the path he had expected them to. It was wide and somewhat even to let riders move smoothly who were looking for a quick passage. And just as they passed the mark, Avin tensed.

The ground beneath the first four Grolls that were in the lead sank in, and they stumbled into a rather shallow pit; it wasn't big enough to trap them, but was enough to bring their momentum to an abrupt and shocking halt, sending their riders soaring above their mounts, thrown from their saddles. The three behind them came to a halt, cursing. Avin jumped down from the branch just a couple of footsteps away from the four who had fallen. 

The one to fall the farthest scrambled and screamed, "It's a trap! A–" his words came to a halt as he tried to get up but found a crossbow cocked right in front of his mouth.

"..Trap", Avin said with a smile and pulled the trigger, finishing the Ulov with a bolt down his mouth and out through his neck. 

The second Ulov tried to pull his axe but halted as another bolt found his forehead. The third one, by that time, had managed to pull his axe and charged screaming, "He's out of shots!" 

The Ulov thrust at him, thinking Avin would duck back. He was shocked, however, when Avin moved into the range of the spear and then placed a third crossbow, a very small one, to the poor Ulov's neck. 

"Now, I'm out of shots," Avin replied as he pulled the trigger. 

"Fight with a bared blade coward!" The fourth one came in with a thick sabre. Avin sidestepped the first slash and then pulled his sword.

It wasn't a Krimzon curved Saber but a double-edged longsword; it was not as thick as the standard longsword, barely three fingers put together on its flatside, and met at the tip much like a locke-wood longsword.

Avin parried the first thrust at his face, then opened the Ulov's chest with an upward slash. They had chitin available instead of steel, the Ulov never used them as plated armour, just as a helmet. Avin had always found them odd for that. For all that they proclaimed to be a warrior tribe, they lacked the knowledge and cunning to actually win wars. 

"Why use a hammer to punch a nail when you can just use a crossbow?" Avin said in a remorseful tone at the fallen man clutching at his chest.

"W-what?" the dying man asked dumbly. His eyes were wide with incredulity. 

" I-I don't know, it just sounded very impressive in my head. Doesn't make much sense when you say it out loud. I didn't even use a hammer, so embarrassing."

The last of the fallen riders slammed into the ground as Avin sliced his head clean off.

The other three riders were circling in on Avin from left, right, and front. The exchange he just had, had barely lasted half a dozen heartbeats. 

"He's that crafty foreigner!" The one in the front said. 

Avin cocked his eyebrows, "You know me?" 

"Kill him!" The front rider charged at him, his spear poised to run Avin through the chest. Dirt kicking up from under the Grolls' hoofs. 

Instead of running, Avin plunged his hands down in the ground and pulled a shield hiding under the fallen leaves and charged at the Ulov. 

After half a dozen steps, he was just inches away from the Groll. Avin dashed sideways, and angled his shield and let the spear-head skid past it and swung his blade at the man's throat. 

The head flew in the air, spinning, spraying red. The other two came at Avin in a mad charge, he was pinned from left and right, and there was a dense pack of trees behind him, he strained his hand back and twisted his whole upper body, channelling his body's weight from his arms to the shield and threw it at the rider on the left.

The shield slammed into the Ulov's face, snapping his head back and sending the rider's body falling back and off from his mount. 

The second one was closing in meanwhile, Avin stepped back, and then dashed at the last Groll. He came just a finger's breadth close to being run through by the front horn of the Groll– and ducked to the left, letting the beast and the rider pass by. The Groll, unfortunately, couldn't stop itself in time and collided with the tree. 

They crashed and he heard something cracking as the rider upon it was flung over and into the tree trunk. He fell groaning, Avin ran up to him– the rider tried to get up to his feet, but he was too dazed to make sense of anything as Avin's thin blade separated Ulov's head from his body.

Avin slumped to the ground huffing and puffing, his lungs sucking for air like a demon starved for blood. Avin reached down and pulled a bottle of water and gulped it down. 

Well, that could've gotten much worse, I'm... Improving..