บท 160: The Chronicles of...

Broly stepped forward and met the lions gaze. "We want to stay the night." The lion squinted slightly as he scrutinized Broly.

"You can answer me?" Broly was a bit confused as he heard the question. Wasn't the lion speaking to him?

"We six can, yes." Broly motioned to the others as he spoke.

"Fascinating. You are the first that I spoke to for years." The lion jumped down the platform and landed directly in front of Broly. With his 4-meter-tall frame he was towering above the others, but they all still had the same thought. 'He is smaller up close.'

It wasn't that 4-meters of height was small and the lion's claws weren't intimidating, it was just that the aura made them think that he was even bigger and more powerful.

Any other beasts that they encountered in this forest were in the same size category, even the buildings seemed to be built for humanoids that were at least twice the size of the average Saiyan.

"I see. Are you the leaders of the group outside?" The lion asked as he pointed through the walls with his snout.

"Yes. We had a long day and we will stay here for the night." Broly didn't want to move in the night since most beasts seemed to be more active and stronger then. If that was the only problem then he might consider taking the group to go train them, but Broly and the other S-Fighters felt weaker. They didn't notice it at first, only after a beast had attacked them at night did Cana notice that she seemed to be even weaker.

The others had of course tested their powers and it was the same for them as well. They wouldn't be able to give as much support as they could during day time. So, Broly would rather fight it out now with the lions here than to go through the forest in hope to find something else.

The lion was quiet for a moment. "Alright. We will go hunting now anyway. Roaaarr!" The lion woke the other black lions up. They slowly woke up and immediately snapped to attention as they saw Broly's group standing in their territory, but before they could bounce at them, the golden lion roared at them, making the others freeze at the spot.

The lions didn't make any noise after that as they headed out of a hole in the wall of the dome structure. Broly and the others hadn't seen it as they had approached the building from the other side.

"I thought I had eaten the remaining ones of your kind thousands of years ago. Well, a few kids had escaped back then, but I couldn't bother with that skinny prey." The lion said facing Broly while the other lions backed out, not giving Broly and crew a glance anymore.

"My kind?" Broly asked. Did the lion mean the ancient civilization and mistook Broly's group with them?

"Well, they didn't had tails like you do but besides that they looked identical to you and were very tasty, though most had not much meat on them."

Now Broly was interested and since some escaped maybe they were still around.

"What happened to them, are there still more left?" Broly asked, seemingly unconcerned that the lion casually spoke about eating humanoid creatures or rather humans according to his description.

"There was a small area in the outskirts that they had occupied shortly but they tried to hunt down a deer. They seemed to rely on some kind of metal sticks which spewed out fire, but they suffered heavy damages by the deer. A corpse was washed deeper into the forests and through it, almost all became aware of this delicacy.

There was another group that stayed here longer before them. A woman with weird magic had led them but I hunted her down personally after she tried to control me. A few had escaped but I doubt that there are any left though. The others in Narn wouldn't let go of a tasty meal."

"I see. It doesn't seem like we are welcome on this land." Broly smiled bitterly as he heard that there had been quite a few humanoids that had wandered around here.

"Don't you want to have a bite of us?" Broly asked the golden lion that had already turned around and headed for the outside.

After being asked that the lion stopped and looked back at Broly.

"You are already deep in the forest and according to your scent, you already have been here for a few days. I smell the scent of blood of all kinds of creatures on the hands of the ones waiting outside.

You didn't cower after being approached by me and I can feel the aura of a king on you. Your being puts me under pressure, even though you don't try to intimidate me, it is just the way you are… I doubt I would win against you."

With this message he turned around again and started walking to the outside. "We may meet in the future once again. My name is Aslan. Remember, only the strong rule here on Narn and the deeper you go, the stronger your enemies will get." His words lingered around even after he had left for a while.

Broly rubbed his chin as he thought that the name was somewhat familiar, but he quickly put that thought into the back of his head.

"Go get the others and tell them to prepare some defenses. It seems like they won't have to fight anymore."

"Alright." The others nodded and moved out to give out tasks. They weren't concerned that the lions would sneak attack them, the opposite was true, these lions would make good experience for the elites and with this building as a defense, they were confident that the elites would be able to fight everything off even without their help.

A pride of lions with an intelligent leader at the front, a frightening idea for most and a very good variety to the dumb beasts that they usually encountered, but it was also the fact that their leader was intelligent that Broly thought that it was unlikely for them to try and attack them now.

Broly started inspecting the ruins of this observatory and the building attached to it. He saw some markings on the walls that were already mostly corroded. Besides that, there was nothing left that could indicate on the culture or the technology of the ancient civilization and after listening to Aslan, he doubted that the humanoids he had encountered belonged to that civilization.

How could they have been around only a few thousand years ago? These ruins felt like they were vastly older than mere thousands of years ago. Even if Broly used his whole strength when he is at his peak, he might not be able to damage the ruins significantly, but they still look like they fall apart at any moment.

It was incredible tough but hardly any heavier than regular stone.

Broly returned dissatisfied after he didn't find anything. He found himself an elevated position and got himself some sleep.

A few hours later when the nebula started brightening again, Broly woke up and looked over to the guards. Nothing seemed to have tried to attack them that night as Broly didn't saw a beast's corpse.

It might be the fact that they were currently residing in the lion's den.

Broly merely nodded to the guard and got up. It was time to leave and head deeper into the forest.

The others had already prepared to move out and Broly only needed to announce their departure and they were ready to go.

Like the days before they walked towards the direction from where Broly felt the connection coming from. They walked and after a few hours, they saw the lions again, eating away at a few bears' copses. Aslan wasn't among the other lions. The two groups only acknowledged the others existence and didn't provoke each other.

The Exousians threaded deeper into the forests and the beasts became more powerful. Broly even needed to adjust the difficulty of his training so they would survive.

After a few hours of walking, another Saiyan had broken through and turned into a Super Saiyan. With this addition Broly was able to send out another group to engage the beasts.

Fortunately, or unfortunately for the Exousians, the frequencies of the attacks became higher, making the training even more resourceful but also vastly more dangerous. Broly first thought that with the increasing strength of the beasts, they would see less, but not only did the beasts become stronger but higher in numbers as well.

After slaughtering their way through, they encountered a large group of white tigers.

Broly instantly recognized that the female leader seemed to be intelligent and may be capable of communicating like Aslan, but they didn't stick around for a chat and retreated after being discovered by Broly's group.

Broly didn't pursue them. Aslan also said that he hadn't spoken with someone for a long time, so the tiger might not even be capable of speech. It would be meaningless for them to chase after them.

They could only head deeper and after a few hours they encountered another ruin. This time it was a complex with three intact floors. They quickly occupied it and searched for any beasts. After killing a few giant spiders and snakes, Broly started teaching the new Super Saiyan the basics and his future training regime.