Chapter 23

Abyss hissed, baring his fangs and then they struck at Kiava once more. His fangs slammed close around mid-air, and Kiava rolled away, backing away from the great hulking beast. Abyss struck again. The great python was huge and just its bulk was a mighty weapon. Every attack he made had huge momentum behind it, ready to bruise and bludgeon, keeping Kiava off his feet and off balance. The great hulk of his tail slammed into the ground, kicking up dirt and even seeming to crack rock. He gave another hiss, thundering towards the young King. Kiava felt his heart in his mouth as he rolled away again. Then Kiava's claws flashed, but they did not penetrate very deep into his adversary's leathery hide. The snake's armour was not plated, but it was tough and very difficult to puncture for his juvenile teeth. Even though his venom was hardly as lethal as the mambas, Abyss' fangs were still able to pierce and hold prey whilst he wrapping coils of muscle to strangle and crush its next meal. Abyss didn't waste time with taunting words. He lunged again trying to bury Kiava beneath his great bulk trapping him into the ground. Someone shouted a warning, but he wasn't sure which. Kiava shouted in pain and the snake lurched, jerking its head to one side, dragging the young cub around, twisting his limb painfully and slamming him into the ground, before rushing forward with its great bulk. Kiava groaned, but lifted his claws and struck out at the snake eyes, his claws coming close to the exposed and unblinking eyes, causing the snake to flinch and release his other paw.

Kiava fell to the ground awkwardly and winced in pain.

He could also feel a cold rushing throughout his body. Abyss venom at work. Enough to slow him down at least.

Abyss smirked and then tried another tactic, pulling itself close together and lifting his great neck to great heights, out of range of the lion cub's claws. He glared down at the lion cub and feigned a strike forward, before jerking around his great mammoth of a tail, in a whip like motion. Kiava leapt high and cleared the tail swipe, much to the snake's surprise. Pressing his advantage, Kiava rushed forward and barrelled into the snake's side, knocking the hissing creature to the ground. Then, he leaned forward and bit down hard again, straining to puncture the snake's armour. His teeth had little effect, but his claws practically bounced off. Even so, his weak efforts made the snake wince in pain and hiss again. The great snake glided backward and then slivered across around Kiava, cutting him from his allies and from escape. Kiava couldn't back away a second a time. Kiava panted hard. This had not been the plan. He hadn't meant to take on Abyss by himself, but the serpent lord was focused on him.

"Kiava!" Zuri couldn't help but watch, even though it invited disaster for her. She called out to him seeing his peril, even though she was unable to come to his aid, occupied as she was another green mamba, the lesser cousin of the black ones. The green headed assassin struck towards her, and she flicked it away with her claws. She wasn't sure whether it was real strategy or simply the great python's rampant paranoia that had led to him to hold back his most dangerous fighters until the very last moment. It had cost him dearly early in the fighting, but now the selfish gambit seemed to have paid off as the army of murderous assassins fought with the exhausted remnants of Kiava's allies. They were all each kept occupied none daring to divert their attention from the foe they fought; not even Zuri: a single misstep would spell the end for them.

"Kiava hold on!" But Kiava was alone. And he was losing. Kiava tried to maneuverer away, but in the flat terrain, littered only with a few bones and rocks, the snake's form was almost fluid and seemed to be everywhere at once. Abyss seemed to need only to shift he weight by margins to be there waiting for him. Kiava tried to duck under another strike, then dodged the expected tail swipe but yelped in pain as the python feinted and instead he rushed forward with his entire bulk, a wall of muscle that struck Kiava in the front, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"Ugh!" Kiava's head was ringing and something slick was sliding down the side of his head where the blow had connected. His thoughts seemed sluggish and he moved away. Abyss moved without pause and Kiava scrambled to get out of the way. With a cold horror, Kiava felt something cold and heavy close around his foot as he pulled away a moment too late. Abyss hissed in triumph as Kiava's rear leg caught in one of his coils and then be began to squeeze. Kiava felt a burst of pain and gasped.

"Gotcha…" Abyss hissed and chuckled as he dragged the prince towards him and more and more loops began to coil around the injured limb. Then, one made its way around the young prince's chest.

"Kiava!" Someone cried out to him. It might have been Zuri, or it might have been one of the hyenas, he couldn't tell. He tried to force it away with his paw, but only succeeded in pinning his own limb to his side. The great serpent shifted and then lifted.

With a grunt Kiava's feet left the ground. It was a strain on the serpent too it seemed because Kiava was not a light creature, but he gave a hiss of triumph. Kiava was helpless, on display.

"How dissssappointing." He hissed. "After you destroyed Amun, I really was so hoping for more of a challenge. Instead, I find you out of tricks. You may have made a good snake, Kiava, with your plots and schemes. But you are no King." Abyss gloated. Kiava struggled, swinging his one free limb towards snake, but the serpent only retaliated by tightening its vice like grip. He hissed and turned and suddenly Kiava's vision flipped and the young cub was dangling upside down and ice like pain shot through him as the snake bit him in the exposed back. He flinched and writhed but the snake merely laughed. It was a cold and alien laugh, entirely void of genuine warmth or compassion or even humour. "To think," It said " that there are those who look down our kind as if our cunning and our guile aren't something to be lauded. Are you feeling high and mighty now?" He bit again and Kiava grunted in pain. Cold, leaching cold leaked through him. "Are you feeling superior now?" More pain. Kiava couldn't hold back a scream. It was ripped from him. "The Shai'tan are right! The Strongest should Rule! So, tell me! Who's the one scraping on the floor? Now who is the one crawling on their bellies before their betters? How does it feel to squirm?" The python asked him, laughing. He was toying with him. The snake wanted to watch him writhe in pain, rather than simply crush the life out of him in a few moments. Kiava could barely breathe and his vision began to blur.

He berated himself. He had let himself get caught up in his own story. As if he was anything like the hero kings of old. He wasn't like Kion, or Simba, or Vitani or Dad. He knew that. He was just all that was left. Scar had said so. Had tried to tell him. He let out a rattling cough. He wondered what Scar would say. Probably yell at him to run for his life and ask what the hell he thought he was doing.

"It hurts." Kiava managed to spit. "But I'm used to that by now." He managed to gasp. Abyss paused momentarily at his words. Rocks and bones littered the sky – no the ground – above his head as he danged, choking, hanging. He tried to roar and to swipe at the snake, but he didn't have the breath, he could barely manage a soft growl. Abyss laughed.

"Pathetic. Truly pathetic. You've been outsmarted. You've been outfought. And your sacrifice has bought you… nothing." The snake's grip tightened more and Kiava screamed as his arm was twisted. The pain was incredible and Kiava knew with dreadful certainty that any moment now the bone would shatter and break. He shouted, his other arm falling limply above his head. He gasped for breath, adrenaline doing nothing to stall his pain. Blood trickling down his side. For a moment his eyes screwed shut and nothing else existed.

"When I kill you, Slayer of Amun, I shall be exalted above all others! The Emperor may even name me Shai'tan myself! Who was it that said that a Shai'tan had to be a tiger?" The snake hissed quietly, his eyes wide and manic. He could see it all clearly now, as Prince Kiava squired in his coils. His power would grow. Even the River Lords would respect him! Kiava shouted in agony and now a few of his allies had realised his peril and turned their actions to his aid. But their distraction was their doom, those few hyenas who tried to help Kiava were cut down and only left his other allies further imperilled. Asante looked exhausted; Zuri was already fighting three mambas at once. Kiava, despite being surrounded by allies, was well and truly on his own.

"However did you manage to defeat Amun?" Abyss hissed, sounding relaxed, and leaned in close to the King, his fangs displayed and his face almost pressed against the lion cub's terrified form. Kiava grunted, but when his eyes opened they were focused and cold.

"I was better." He grunted. His clawed paw brushed against the ground; his claws closed around something. It swung through the air and the chunk of bone crushed against the snake's face. Abyss screamed. A wedge of femur was embedded in face, and blood of leaking from it. Abyss screamed, lurched, and pulled away. Kiava dropped to the ground, and landed on his feet. He paused only for a moment as his vision swam and gasped in fresh air. Then he leaped straight towards the great snake, red in his vision. Abyss couldn't see anything, smelling only blood and hearing only violence. He writhed for a moment and then Kiava landed atop him. The breath was knocked from him and the titanic basilisk of a snake fell to the ground. The snake writhed, his eyes widening. His leechlike body possessing no limbs with which to strike at Kiava, nor any other appendages with which to defend himself.

"No!" He hissed in a garbled shriek. Kiava lifted the piece of bone a second time and swiped down, hard, smashing it once more into the serpent's head. The snake howled in pain and tried to writhe away, but Kiava straddled the python, pinning it to the ground with his clawed feet.

"I defeated Amun, just like I defeated you! By fighting!" He struck again. "By doing what I had to do to save my friends!" He struck a third time. Abyss twitched, and gave a garbled grunt. "Because they put their trust in me, as King!" He said, and slammed the bone through snake's skull. Then he slid off the twitching corpse with a breathless gasp.

Zuri let out a cry of relief.

"Yes!" She shouted in triumph. The mamba in front of her froze – a costly mistake – because she was able to slice its head clean off and run to Kiava's side. Somewhere, one of the other hyenas let out a giggled howl which spread, and some of the snakes turned away and fled in abject terror at what they had seen. The affect the bloody scene had on the other snakes was instantaneous. Kiava gave a groan, but managed to haul himself to his feet and look around him. It was such an unexpected and violent end that even the snakes reacted and the hyenas capitalised on their momentary loss of focus and resolve. Those nearby fled, the rest reacted just as badly. None attempted to surrender. It was no in the way. Across the battlefield, terrified at the death of their leader, snakes were being routed and the last of mambas destroyed. Zuri decapitated one, then sliced another to ribbons before crunching the last in her teeth. Asante send arcs of light towards one that left it howling in pain and then silent. Bhagari sent one flying through the air and Bruce dropped a boulder the size of his head on top of another mamba with a sickening squelch. The fighting began to die down. Around them, snakes fled in panic, many fleeing in different directions, scattered, and lost without direction. Ookai and Timon speared a final mamba with a joined strike, the smallish meerkat's eyes wide with fury and even Ookai looking fiercer than usual, with blood dripping from his wounds, turning his golden fur a molten bronze. On the eastern horizon, the sun was beginning to set, but among the hyenas, though exhausted, there was the electric beginning of celebration.

"Yes!" Someone cried out. It was one of the hyenas,? It might even have been Banzai! "Rut you, you slivering freaks! Come back when you've got legs!" It wasn't the most elegant of victory cries, but Kiava approved of the sentiment. There were cheers. Howls of jubilation. That was it. The last of the Imperials within the Shadowlands. It could be done. They could be driven from a land they had invaded. The thought blazed in his head like sunlight. They'd won! He felt Zuri by his side, and relief flooded through him. She alright. They were both alright, somehow. Impossibly so, but it was true.

It didn't take long for the cries of victory to spread as more and more of the serpents fled, slinking away as fast as their bellies could take them.

"Long live the King." A voice said next to him. It was Shenzi. She was looking at him with a critical eye. "Do you know the last time I said that? It didn't go so well then." She said, with a grunt. She looked out across the plains, at her mate and daughter. Asante looked exhausted but Bhagari was at her side, helping her stand so she didn't look weak in front of the other Shadowpups. Shenzi smiled, proudly, showing her teeth. She looked ferocious, especially with snake book covering her jaws. "You arrived in the nick of time." She said.

"It was Hissis." Kiava explained. "He warned us." He looked around. He couldn't see the ruby snake at all. He seemed to have made himself scarce. Shenzi didn't look worried.

"He's probably making sure he doesn't get caught up in the confusion by an overzealous hyena." She noted.

"He should get the credit."

"He's an assassin. Credit is the last thing he wants, believe me. He'd settle for your appreciation." Shenzi warned him, chuckling.

"You have to tell me how you met." Kiava grumbled, Shenzi simply chuckled and shook her head.

"How me first met isn't the interesting part. It's how we found each other again after so many years that would really shock you." Shenzi said, smirking as Zuri leaned into the young Prince. Both looked exhausted, but they had done well.

Zuri turned to see Kiava, still standing, though favouring one side, and clearly injured. He gave a small smile. Around them, the hyenas were clearing up, those few who tried to stand and fight were soon cut down where they stood and those that ran were chased from the field. Kiava exhaled and though his form was littered with wounds and injured and he was fairly certain Abyss had cracked a rib, he was still alive.

Shenzi and Banzai began to relax. Asante had severed the head from the final mamba the last of their enemies around them, with a vicious snap of her teeth. An eerie calm had begun to settle around the battlefield. Ookai and Timon were perched on Bruce's shoulder and the great gorilla seemed to sag as he sat down, many dots of red resent on his silvery grey fur where fangs had pierced, though mercifully alive. He winced and rubbed some of his wounds, and Ookai patted his shoulder.

Bhagari meanwhile continued to help Asante as she struggled to walk away. She turned to him, an expression of profound relief on her face.

"Bhagari… Thank you…" She managed to whisper.

"Well done, Pack-Leader Bhagari." Banzai told him, looking around relief. Bhagari bowed to the leaders, gruffly. Hyenas weren't one for ceremony, but they did show respect and deference. At least if they knew what was good for them they did, anyway, and Bhagari had always seemed an unusually smart specimen of hyena.

"It was an honour and a pleasure, matriarch." He said, glancing at Asante. The matriarch's daughter blushed. Zuri gave a sigh of relief, looking around and seeing that her closest allies had all survived the battle.

"You hyenas… are really something." She managed to gasp between deep breaths. Asante gave her a smile.

"Oh, we're something alright. But don't sell yourself short. I saw you back there. I have never seen any creature take on three mambas at once, let alone seen a lion cub ever bash out the brains of a python with nothing but a chunk of marrowless bone. Whoever said that lions were lazy and stupid was a spirit's damned liar." She said betraying a begrudging respect to both lion and lioness. Zuri gave a smile.

"I'd say. The Shai'tan won't know what hit them." Bhagari said, giving a cruel grin that made Kiava shudder. He looked almost gleeful at the thought. He reminded himself that the hyenas weren't lions. They looked entirely ready to celebrate ever surrounded by the viscera and gore.

"What a shame." Zuri said, with a perfectly straight face. The hyenas erupted into laughter, Asante the most. Zuri grinned and then, turned to Kiava, who was walking a short distance away, shaking his head and fur free of the blood. Abyss' death had been… messy. He kicked over a serpent corpse next to him. He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. He wondered if his ancestors had felt like this. Now the adrenaline was leaving him, the blood and carnage around him was disgusting and the scent of it was overpowering his nose. He sniffed. None of it smelt like prey animals. It was fairly disgusting. What a waste. He threw a mamba's limp body apart from them and it landed in a pile with the rest. They would have to do something about this level of carrion. Only some snakes were good to eat, unless you possessed certain immunities. Vultures might take some of the mildly venomous ones but Kiava wasn't keen on attracting a species that supported the Imperium in large numbers. Although, getting some vultures on their side was an attractive prospect. Zuri looked at him, questioningly, seeing the gears of thought whirring in his head, aware that he was planning something. He turned to both Zuri and Bhagari, who were speaking to the hyena's two leaders. Shenzi looked younger than he'd seen her in a long time.

"Bhagari? Do you think- Agh, ARRRAH!" he shouted in agony. Ice. Ice ran through his arm.

"Kiava!" Zuri gasped, as Kiava buckled in pain, a new sensation burning through his arm – not unlike Abyss' venom. But where the python's unusual venom had been cold, this was a searing, burning, torturous pain that blistered its way through his arm. Kiava dropped the serpent he held in his claws, falling to his knees as a crippling sensation began to take a hold of him. Beneath his claws, the mamba he had griped moved, it's still deathlike state a last ruse, in an attempt to escape death. Snakes were nothing if not cunning. He should have expected it. Should have seen it coming. His world twisted and his vision swam.

The mamba struck again, sending more bolts of pain through Kiava's arm and the young cub, already weakened form his fight with Abyss have a low moan.

"Kiava!" Zuri shouted. Asante gasped in shock and Bhagari tore his gaze from Asante, with whom he had been conversing and leapt to the king's aid.

"Keep back!" He roared. The mamba didn't manage a third strike into the lion cub. Bhagari collided into Kiava's side, sending Kiava to the ground. Bhagari barked and raised a paw and the serpent struck, biting into the hyena's arm, as around them, other fighters cried out in alarm and shock, seeing the new danger. Bhagari's body jerked and he gave a cry of pain. Lightning pain shot through him and he jerked his limb. The black mamba dangling by its fangs for a moment before being flung through the air. Bhagari's caught it in his mouth and crunched once and the wounded snake shrieked. It twisted in his mouth and jerked, striking at Bhagari in the throat. The hyena grunted and released the mamba, falling to the ground. He shuddered.

"No! Bhagari!" Asante shouted in fear. Her eyes burst forth in radiant white light. She thought there was nothing left, but when she saw them fall to the ground, she could feel vast new pools of power within her. Fuelled by her terror, silver wisps of energy whirled around her as the storm unleashed itself inside her. She howled in shock and fear and the blast of light created an audible bang as it burst away from her. White lightning, flickering and twisting like some many headed snakes of her own, surged towards it and the crippled and injured serpent could only give an expression of shock as the crackling energies slammed into its being. The worm was thrown high into the air, spinning, screaming and lightning raked his form. In less than a second, his physical being was fractured, lines of light flickering around him, before shining brightly and just like that, the serpent fell apart, disintegrating into thin air, turning into ashes and dust which billowed around them.

The allies rushed to Bhagari and the King. Bhagari was on his side, breathing heavily and Kiava was gasping for breath, sunk on his knees.

"Bhagari!"

"Ash and – Rut." He swore.

"Bhagari! Did it… Tyrants." Shenzi howled in anger and rage.

"Kiava! Kiava, Spirits, tell me you're okay!" Zuri shouted. Around them, the hyenas began to press close. Banzai turned to them.

"Quick! Make sure everyone one of these stinking worms is dead! Rip their heads off if you have too! None of them leave here alive!" And the majority of the hyenas left to carry out that order with relish. Ookai and Bruce looked concerned and Timon was clutching his head in frustration.

Asante made her way to Bhagari, though she was swaying on her feet from the effort.

Ed, the last of the hyena trio looked at the King in concern, then looked to Bhagari and began to whoop franticly. Shenzi growled.

"Shut up Ed!" She said, having no patience for his antics now.

"Bhagari…" Asante gasped; her face ashen. Bhagari coughed. "You stupid fool! You idiotic, worthless mangy…" Her voice began to break and Bhagari stirred.

"I know… Sorry…" He muttered, then his eyes closed, though he twitched and writhed, losing consciousness. Kiava, for his part, struggled against the deliberating pain. He'd taken twice the dose, and was shaking. Zuri rushed to his side and he held out a paw, catching himself on her back and steadying himself.

"Kiava!" Zuri gasped, looking at the wounds. They were deep, each punctured with identically spaced, toxins already flowing throughout his young body. Kiava groaned.

Mamba venom.

"Asante! Please, Asante you're a Shaman. Heal him! Quickly!" She urged him.

"...I... I don't know how! I've never used my powers like that before!" Asante gasped.

Banzai growled in anger. They'd won. They'd won the battle! This wasn't fair.

"Zuri…" He managed to gasp and Zuri was there, her eyes wide with fear. "Zuri… please… I am scared…" He gasped. The pain was too much. He gasped once more, his breath catching in his throat and then he too succumbed to unconsciousness, falling from his knees to the ground.

Banzai looked fearful, then his face hardened.

"Quickly. Get them away from the battlefield. Get them back to the dens. We'll do what we can for them." He barked the order. Asante didn't move, her face collapsed in shock. Even Shenzi looked uncertain. "Now!" Banzai barked and they moved. Bruce carried Kiava in his colossal hands. The hyenas half carried, half dragged their fallen solider between them, both of them slipping in and out of consciousness, their lucid moment marked by moans and groans of pain. Around them, the ground was marked with new savagery, as they hyenas went through the dead, ensuring that every corpse was not about to kill again. By nightfall the air reeked of death. It brought little solace though, to the ones who shuddered as venom wracked them from the inside. Burning them from within.