VS Lion, Part 7

"Moose… san…!"

The lying Kaban called out her name, and to that Moose nodded her head in response before turning to face Lion. She tightly gripped her weapon in both hands and took a step forwards, causing her horns —or more accurately, her hair resembling horns— to slightly sway.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!"

The horns and claws were in a bladelock. Unfettered by the sudden intruder, Lion kept insistently trying to thrust her claws into Kaban, even as her arm is getting pushed away from gradually getting overpowered.

"OOOORYAAAH!"

Together with the ferocious cry was a flash. The weapon drew an arc, leaving behind a red trace like the light that it shines during a Wild Release.

"Geh…!?"

Moose, with her superhuman strength, sent Lion flying off into the distance with dreadful force, smashing through branches and thicket.

"Amazing…"

Serval subconsciously spoke in admiration at the power so potent that it made her worry about Lion's well-being. Moose took a deep breath before turning to Kaban.

"Kaban, can you stand?"

The serious expression and the carried weapon made the atmosphere around Moose completely different from her foolhardy battle style back in the Plains area. It felt as if she could easily be dubbed as "the king of the forest". Getting lost in observing such a majestic figure, Kaban gave out a delayed response.

"...Y-Yes! Ah, no… not yet… it seems…"

Witnessing Kaban speak with a weaker voice, Moose's expression darkened a little. Though, she immediately put on a smile radiating with confidence.

"I see, then don't overexert yourself. I'll go help out Serval. Hold on for a moment."

Having turned on her heel, Moose made her way towards Serval in huge strides, taking a look at the mountain of piled up trees.

"You must be in pain, Serval… I'll get you out of there."

Moose wedged her weapon into a gap between the fallen trees and forcefully lifted one. In spite of the strength it would take, the entangled branches had been taken out, and the gap between the tree trunks pinning Serval's lower body had widened. Serval had been able to slide out of the small gap.

"T-Thank you, Moose! You saved me!"

Although she really wanted to show her full gratitude, Serval began rushing right after saying her thanks. She headed towards where Kaban was.

"Kaban-chan! Are you alright?"

Serval knelt down by Kaban's side and stopped her hands with which she was about to stand her up. She figured that forcefully moving her would be painful for Kaban. Not knowing what to do, all that Serval could do was to observe Kaban, despite her worries.

"Serval-chan… I'm so glad… You didn't get injured…"

While having rainwater mix with sweat on her forehead, Kaban smiled at Serval. She placed her hands on the ground once again and straightened her arms to stand. A numbing pain ran through her body and her elbows gave in. Subconsciously reaching out her hands, Serval supported Kaban's body.

"T-Thanks… Serval-chan."

"Yeah… If you're feeling pain, just say it…"

Supporting herself on Serval's soft and gentle hands which moved as if they were handling something fragile, Kaban shakily stood up.

"...Yeah. Thank you very much to you too, Moose-san. If not for you, then we…"

Seeing the state that Kaban had been in as she extended her gratitude, Moose's expression soured.

"That Lion… Just what was that fool thinking…?"

Although you could feel the anger in her tone of voice, her expression was overrun with sorrow. Kaban raised her face smeared with mud and lightly shook her head.

"Lion-san's not at fault here… There's a reason for her behavior…"

"Reason…?"

Seemingly bothered by Kaban's words, Moose leaned forward, or more rather, cast her eyes down and turned towards where Lion had been blown away to.

"Why don't you save it for later? We've got Lion to worry about. I doubt that she'd be knocked out by such a trivial attack."

"She's composed no matter what…" Muttered Serval to herself as if saying 'no way'.

"For now, let's say that Lion is being 'nomadic'. She's wholly determined on targeting you two. She'll get back here with a vendetta, no doubts about it."

"Nomadic…?" Kaban tilted her head at a word that she'd never heard of before.

"Yeah… I've heard it from Lion before. Apparently that's what she was referred as while she had no companions. And now that she's a nomad, she goes out to hunt for prey whenever she's hungry, and…"

Moose tightly gripped her weapon.

"She suddenly abandoned her allies, making her a nomad. I chased after her after her change, but lost sight of her after entering the forest. While I was walking around looking for her, suddenly, Boss called out to me. I was completely taken by surprise."

Must've been Lucky-san. Kaban was overcome with emotions. After all, it did perform her request just like she asked.

"Huh? How did Boss speak to you even though he wasn't together with Kaban?"

"Right. That's because I've asked Lucky-san to do so. To go and find help from someone."

"Is that so? He said something along the lines of 'you've gotta go help Kaban and Serval out', and mentioned that you were fighting Lion. I came running towards where he told me to, but… That was really close… I'd say that you were reckless…"

As Moose was continuing to speak, the sounds of rustling grass and broken branches from being firmly stepped on could be heard, making the hearts of Kaban and Serval skip a beat as they felt relief. Then, a low roar resounded from the darkness.

"Worry yourselves not. Leave this to me. I've sparred with Lion many times before! You two take cover!"

Brandishing her weapon again, Moose glared towards from where the sound was made from. As Kaban went to get cover with Serval as she was asked to do so, she suddenly raised her head and ran over to Moose.

"Oww…"

"D-Don't overdo yourself, Kaban-chan."

Kaban gave a small smile towards the confused Serval, and after giving herself a more serious expression, she faced Moose.

"—Moose-san, I have a certain request…"

…

[…]

Meanwhile, Boss, who had been fulfilling Kaban's request to the best of its abilities, kept a watchful eye towards the direction in which Moose had run off to at breakneck speed.

'Huh!? What is this…? Boss, did you just speak to me?'

'Kaban and Serval are… fighting with Lion…?'

'Leave it to me! I'll help those two out! Wait for me, Kaban, Serval… Lion!'

Having been left behind, it had replayed Moose's vigorous battle charge from its memory bank. That energetic and reliable smile. If it's her, then she'll definitely be of great help to those two. However, it couldn't rest. After all, they're going up against the king of animals.

[Transmitting… Transmitting…]

As such, Boss executed another plan. Its eyes shone a rainbow color and made a buzzing-like sound. Figuring that it wouldn't be too far, Boss tried communicating with a Lucky Beast in charge of watching over the vicinity of the Library. If it succeeds, then it should be able to request help from the others at the Library.

…

"Mmh…"

While straining her ears at the Library, Fennec put her hand by her mouth and groaned lightly. Common Raccoon, who had been keeping an eye on her, called out to her out of worry.

"W-What is it noda, Fennec?"

"Well… Every now and again I feel as if I'm hearing something strange or a voice~"

Everyone looked towards Fennec. Noticing it, Fennec cast her eyes down and shook her head.

"But because of the rain the sounds get masked and I can't hear them clearly~ And because of how they get diluted, I can't tell from where they're coming from either~"

"T-Then could it be that something actually did happen to the three of them?"

Common Raccoon felt uneasy. At that moment…

[Transmitting… Transmitting…]

The Lucky Beast with ruffled ears, which had been taken in by Common Raccoon, that had been loitering around idly inside the Library suddenly spoke while glowing.

"GYAAAAAAAAH NANODAAAAAA!"

"Doing that again, are you!? Settle down, please!"

While plugging her ears from Common Raccoon's shriek, Professor gazed at the Lucky Beast. Fixing its gaze with its rainbow-colored eyes at nothing, the Lucky beast continued to speak.

[Received a directive and a message from a fellow beast accompanying the Park Guide. —Location confirmed. Having arrived at the Japari Library, the message will be replayed right now.]

"Is that… a Lucky Beast conversing with Professor? Just what is…?"

The Lucky Beast silently paused for a moment before the curious Professor before speaking once again.

[Aid Request. Aid Request. A temporary Park Guide, together with a Friend named "Serval Cat", is currently engaged in combat with a Friend named "Lion". A Friend named "Moose" had been reported to rush towards the scene. Additional help is requested. The location is eastward from the Japari Library at a distance of—]

Although many words spoken by the Lucky Beast went over Common Raccoon's head, she definitely didn't miss the words "Serval Cat", "Lion", and "engaged in combat". Having her face turn pale, the heaviness of the situation made Common Raccoon forget her usual routine and stay silent.

[—save Kaban and co.]

Having finished transmitting the entirety of the sincere request, the Lucky Beast became silent once again. Fennec, who had been standing next to the petrified Common Raccoon while trying to feign composure, lightly bit her lip. Suddenly, she felt a tingling sensation on her cheek, and gasped when she looked up at the Lucky Beast.

The shadow from the dying candle's light on Professor's face made it hard to read her expression. African Wild Dog and Gray Wolf's eyes were glowing as if they were fired up. Even with their blank expression, the overflowing Sandstar created the atmosphere that they couldn't contain their wrath.

"Calm down, you two."

African Wild Dog bared her fangs and started roaring at Professor as the latter calmly spoke without even a twitch.

"I'm supposed to stay calm hearing this!?"

"Cool your head, will you!? It's Lion we're going up against! That's terrible for us! And there'd be others too!"

Professor glared at African Wild Dog with her large silver watchful eyes. African Wild Dog grinded her bared fangs and stayed silent.

"If you make a rash judgement because you couldn't keep your cool, you'd most likely get annihilated. First, we need to consider our plan of action."

Turning her neck around, Professor took a look at each Friend present.

"—And it has to be as soon as possible."

Hello, this is PoGu. This chapter took the crown of being the longest chapter yet. The previous record was held by the Margay sidechapter. Last upload if the month. Considering that from next week onwards my summer break ends and university starts again, you can expect for the pace in uploads to drop a little.

Anyway, since FF doesn't like any kind of link anywhere, I'll instead leave directions on how to find the original work.

First method is to search for "「けもの」の本能" and find the link that leads you to a Japanese site called "kakuyomu".

Alternatively, you can go to the kakuyomu site and add "/works/1177354054882921926" to the domain.