Reincarnated As A Lion In Another World

Stella had already left the borders of the settlement, fleeing far.

Unfortunately, she wasn't a lightning rabbit or a War rabbit, her speech when compared to a lioness like N'bayé was simply insignificant.

If it was something like a fox who had the same power level as her, she might have successfully escaped. After all, her body was suited to running away from those types of creatures.

But a lioness was just on another level. Not to mention N'bayé was practically running or flying through the air.

Stella didn't know of the levitation rune, so this was another disadvantage for her.

Perhaps, as a rabbit, there were some advantages she had over a lion or lioness.

Unfortunately, whatever advantage that was, it wasn't a combat-based advantage.

N'bayé gradually closed the distance between them until she caught up with the large rabbit.

N'bayé swiped her paw down, her claws bared and the runes on her shoulder pumping her with strength and stamina.

*SHICK!*

Her claws pierced into Stella's hind rump, bypassing the fur. The claws were hooked into Stella's flesh, allowing N'bayé a firm grip on the rabbit.

Of course, Stella felt the claw entering her body and reacted swiftly. Her powerful bunny legs swung back like they had been shot from a cannon.

This instinctive kick was deadly and was sure to cause some serious damage if it landed.

Maybe Stella momentarily forgot the kind of entity she was running from in her flight or fight mode.

Although her two legs kicked back with tremendous force, supported by enhancement runes, none of them did any damage.

They both hit N'bayé's blue barrier which she had erected with most of her remaining energy after making a quick calculation.

The blue magic barrier was hit with the full force of a panicked rabbit's legs, it shattered within that instant.

Although the magic barrier was destroyed, most of the force had been absorbed. The kicks that landed on N'bayé's chest became negligible.

'Coincidentally', one of the legs was kicked right into N'bayé's open maw.

Stella screeched, feeling those long canine teeth sinking through her skin, and bones and coming out through the other side.

N'bayé in her lioness form had significant size, she stood a few inches less than three meters. One could only guess how long her canines were.

Stella naturally stopped running, finding one of her legs clamped in N'bayé's mouth. Though, since they had come to a sudden stop, the inertia nearly pulled out one of N'bayé's fangs.

The chase was over.

Magic energy flowed out from N'bayé to the sand, forming a binding magic circle around the rabbit.

Stella trashed, fighting back by activating as many runes on her body as possible and releasing her magic energy in excess.

Once again, a situation was presented where their powers would have canceled out against each other and one would come out on top.

But this was one of the reasons N'bayé had magic orbs.

A few seconds later, in the heat of the struggle, hundreds of metal orbs with glowing runes etched on them sped over from a distance.

Each of them holding a Mana reserve rune, amplification rune, binding rune, electricity rune, levitation rune, and an observation rune.

The orbs surrounded the two, immediately releasing their reserves and activating the binding runes.

The rune circle below Stella glowed brighter, surpassing Stella's attempt to interfere in its formation.

Red strings flowed out of the ground and out of the metal orbs, wrapping around the struggling Stella.

Seeing that the binding strings had bound Stella, N'bayé let go of her foot.

From the start of the chase to the catch, it wasn't up to three minutes. They had left a long furrow in the sand in their wake.

N'bayé's body shifted and twisted, transforming into her humanoid form again.

She stood under the blanket of the night, feeling the cool sea breeze on her skin as well as the movement from the child within her womb.

'How would he react if he knew that I almost endangered the child?' N'bayé casually thought as she walked over to Stella's head.

Stella lay bound to the sandy ground, her head was at a point where the sea water constantly washed up her face, drenching her head.

'I doubt he would care that much, just worried that something so useful was almost lost,' N'bayé thought, she crouched in front of Stella's head, allowing her feet to sink into the wet sand and get washed by the flowing salt water.

Most would find N'bayé's thoughts about the child in her womb…disturbing.

"I want to kill you," N'bayé started, she looked down into the eyes of the large rabbit with numerous magic orbs floating behind her.

"I could kill you now, but, you have use.

From now on, your life no longer belongs to you, it belongs to the new Lion Regime."

Stella remained silent, she had stopped struggling when she heard N'bayé's words, she could live.

"You fear death, that is normal, and that is good. But have you experienced fates worse than death?" N'bayé smiled, remembering the creative torture methods she had invented for those slackers in the kingdom.

How effective they were, she always showed glee at the thought of her work.

Stella thought but she couldn't think of anything worse than death, could N'bayé just be bluffing?

N'bayé then reached out and held Stella's left ear. Her hand wrapped around the long ear gently, using her claws to caress the thin layer of fur.

"But if I'm going to let you live, for you to be useful, a multi-layered insurance is needed."

N'bayé then squeezed hard, bringing her hand back and pulling the ear along with it.

Stella's eyes widened, "Wait! What are you…"

Her words were cut short as N'bayé viciously ripped the ear off her head.

The way the ear was ripped off, some skin, and a good portion of the top of her head was ripped off with it. It was brutal and bloody.

Stella's vision dulled as she was thrust into a nightmarish world of pain.

She screamed, pitifully. Blood spewed from the fresh gap in her head, N'bayé could even see a small part of her skull.

The humanoid magus lioness kept an indifferent expression, ignoring the blood that spilled on her chest.

She silently watched as Stella shook and quivered harder than before with tears wetting her furry cheeks.

The saltwater of the sea was washed up at this time by a strong wave, rushing past N'bayé's feet and softly crashing into Stella's face.

The water rushed up Stella's head, past her eyes, and sipped into the open wound on her head, where her left ear used to be.

A powerful telepathic wave surged out of Stella's mind, a reaction to the agony she was experiencing.

N'bayé watched all this, keeping an eye on the binding strings holding Stella down.

"Do you hate me?" N'bayé asked.

Stella opened her eyes wide, rage simmering within them. She didn't talk, but the answer was clear.

"Of course you do, I just turned you into a one-eared rabbit.

But I know what I'm doing. You won't become another Isaiah, not when I know how to deal with you,"

Saying this, N'bayé brought Stella's bloody ear, one she had ripped off, to her face.

Controlling her magic powers, a very complex rune diagram began to be constructed on the ear. Green, blue, and red colors comprised the runes as well as circles, triangles, and quadrilaterals.

Stella watched with hatred and helplessness. There were no bone huts or magic makeshift turrets here, she was powerless.

After N'bayé finished etching the magic diagram on the ear, an identical diagram appeared on Stella's right ear.

Stella felt the foreign magic diagram, wondering what it was for.

"Don't bother trying to put your magic energy into it, it won't work. You would only understand what it does at most.

Your life is no longer yours, remember.

This rune diagram does a lot of things. I recently picked up its theory and decided to use it on you.

With this rune on you, if you try to betray me, I'll blow you to bloody pieces. Run away? I'll find you, THEN I'll blow you up to bloody pieces.

Feel free to test your luck,"

N'bayé's words would not have been scary if not that she was telling the truth. Stella didn't understand the rune diagram as it was intentionally made to be complex and hard to understand.

But she could tell the general outcome of what would happen if that rune was activated. She would indeed be blown to bloody pieces.

N'bayé had learned this concept from the exploding runes Xu Ying's rat slaves had on them. Kael and Priya had left ten of those rats alive and mind-controlled and N'bayé had thoroughly studied them.

Within a few hours, she had come up with ways to make the exploding runes more complex and flexible, leading to the diagram she had just drawn.

Stella now had one ear alone, with her other ear resting firmly in N'bayé's grasp. Both ears had a deadly rune diagram etched on them.

"See," N'bayé said while smiling as another wave of water rushed past her legs and up Stella's head, the latter closed her eyes with dread.l, preparing herself for the pain that was to come again.

"You would soon come to realize that the lion regime is the right way, even if it's not the peaceful way.

Let's just hope King Kael finds you as useful as I do, if not…"