Survival of the Fittest

There is a particular point in the anatomy of Homo Sapiens, once crossed, that guarantees death. This point lies in the human body's limit of how much strength, weight, and pressure it can handle before being destroyed.

Compared to other living beings like Canis Lupus (wolves), Orcinus Orca (orca/killer whales), Panthera Leo (lion) or even Harpia Harpyja (harpy eagle), who rule their respective foodchains as the apex predators, we are no match for their speed, power or even size.

However, there's a reason why Homo Sapiens are everywhere. There's a reason why Homo Sapiens is considered the world's apex predator. 

And that is... intelligence. Homo Sapiens as a species are weak. They lack claws, sharp beaks or any natural weapon. They lack protective features like a hard shell, poison, horns or camouflage. 

A species like that would never be able to capture prey or defend against predators and threats let alone survive in this world. But yet, Homo Sapiens thrives all around the world, with a population of forty billion at its peak, an amount that brought massive changes to the world, whether by consuming more produce and water or their carbon footprint, leading to global warming. 

However, if that species were intelligent enough, just maybe, they could survive against natural disasters, disease, predators and threats. 

And that is how Homo Sapiens—us, humans, can thrive in the world. 

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Following the battle between Habilis and Erectus, Kyriaki followed the remaining group of Erecti* (plural form) for several kilometres. But eventually, Kyriaki decided to head back to his home base for now. 

He realised that if he were to be discovered by the group then, there's no way he could take on thirteen of them at once. Even if he has superior intelligence, there's no way he could block and react to thirteen weapons at once. Additionally, the fact stood that Homo Erectus is much stronger than Homo Sapiens physically. 

"I guess I will have to come back another time." he mumbled. 

Kyriaki wasn't planning to let this opportunity pass by, however, with his current equipment of merely a short sword, it is clear that he lacks equipment and most importantly, a plan. 

He sighed, and before walking back to the base, Kyriaki stared at the distant horizon where the group was barely in view. Giving it one good final look, he turned his head in the opposite direction and started to walk. 

He was still in a grassland, with greenish-yellow tall grass and a mild temperature. Mostly flat and empty stretches of land were all he could see and it reminded Kyriaki where he was again. Despite the seemingly empty and calm terrain he was in, Kyriaki knew that he must always be on guard. If he was in the Sahara Desert, where fossil records are limited, there's no guarantee that he would recognise or be able to identify the species of animals and life that roamed the lands in the past. 

Given the distance, Kyriaki took around an hour to return to his base. He checked the sun's position in the sky to roughly estimate the time. 

The sun is closing into the horizon. I guess there's not much time left for today. 

Climbing up the stone hill where he made base, he suddenly noticed something in the corner of his eye. Deciding to go and check it out, he carefully made his way to the place where he saw something. 

It was huge. It was mighty. It was a lion. No, it wasn't the modern-day lion; Panthera Leo, but rather something similar to it. But still, the yellow tint of the beast's skin and the large, muscular muscles along with the razor-sharp claws looked like they could kill Kyriaki in seconds. 

A lion?! How could that be? And what it is chewing on-

"!!!" consumed by a sudden outburst of rage, Kyriaki pulled out his short sword and leapt onto the back of the beast. "How... how dare you!" he yelled to the beast. 

Why did he do that? Well, what the beast was chewing on... it was the orb that was the fruits of his and his friend's research over the decades. 

To finish the research, he quite literally asked his friends to work on this for the remainder of their lives and they agreed. They worked tirelessly every single day, for decades in a row, giving up their entire lives for this research to succeed because not only did they believe in the benefits that their fruits would bring to the world, but most importantly, they trusted him. They trusted Kyriaki Haris with their lives. 

When he saw this, a beast chewing on the orb that his friends gave their lives for like it was some kind of toy or food to the beast, Kyriaki could not retain his rage. 

Due to the height difference between the beast, who was lying down and Kyriaki, who was observing the beast from the stone hill, he was able to bury his short sword all the down into the beast's back. Blood spewed out from the wound that he made and Kyriaki continued to stab the beast's back multiple times. 

The beast did not take this attack made by Kyriaki lightly. It immediately stood up and roared before starting to jump up and down like a bull trying to knock someone—Kyriaki off of its back. 

"Agh! Why you..!" 

Since he had attacked the beast in a fit of rage and without any sort of plan, his chances of winning stood quite low. He was up against an unknown beast that looked similar to modern-day lions or those in the Panthera genus so it would make sense if the beast had a similar level of strength. 

And even when compared to the species in the Panthera genus, Homo Sapiens stood no chance against them when fighting barehanded or with a small weapon. While humans have the upper hand in mobility and intelligence, everything thing else—mainly strength and speed, a lion has the upper hand in that, so it would be like fighting a boss in the starting gear in a game. 

Geh... I'm about to lose my balance here... tsk. I was blinded by rage. Didn't I learn anything from my life? 

A moment afterwards, Kyriaki's grip on the beast's skin went through and immediately, he was launched off the beast's back. Landing on the ground with a thud, he saw the beast approach him with bloodlust while he was still paralysed on the ground. 

"Damn. I might die here." he grumbled.

The beast then charged at him at full speed, leaping up to pounce on Kyriaki. As it was closing in, Kyriaki sighed. 

"This is the end for this me I guess—or not!!" 

Kyriaki swiftly got onto his feet firmly holding his short sword his in hands and jamming it into the beast's neck. He felt the flesh being torn apart before hitting something hard. With the pain that it caused, the beast started to move unpredictably, thus Kyriaki had to retrieve his sword from the beast's flesh and retreat. 

It was too shallow to kill it off! Damn it!

Retreating to a safe enough distance, Kyriaki watched the beast try to numb the pain while being in a defensive stance. He also took this time to look around at his surroundings in more detail so he would have a terrain advantage if possible. 

The rocky hills to the north, nothing but plains to the east and south, while the lake is to the west. There's nothing I could use to benefit me currently. The lake is too far and it would be troublesome if my water supply gets stained by the blood and such. Fine. I'll face it head-on. 

Kyriaki reevaluated his thoughts and tried to piece together a plan to kill the beast for good. But time had run out. The beast, realising it had no way to numb the pain decided to eliminate the threat that caused the wounds and the pain in the first place—namely Kyriaki. 

"Tsk! I just needed some more time!" he shouted out. 

He started to run away. As he ran, he could hear the heavy and fast footsteps of the beast catching up to him. Kyriaki carefully examined the ground, waiting for the beast's shadow to appear. 

Since it was nearly sunset, it meant that the placement in the sky the sun currently in was perfect for creating stretched shadows and he planned to take advantage of it. As soon as a speck of shadow apart from his entered his field of vision, Kyriaki would quickly do a sharp 180 turn and using the beast's kinetic energy, it would hopefully wound or even slice off the beast's head completely as it made contact with his short sword. 

And as the beast's shadow peaked into view, Kyriaki did what he had planned. Kyriaki had waited until the beast had almost caught up to him before pulling off the sharp 180 turn that was required to face the beast. As the turn was pulled off in less than a second, the beast had no time to react. 

Kyriaki was already prepared, with the short sword in position before he even had turned and so, he watched carefully as the beast ran into his sword. 

I've got him!

He cheered as he saw the sword start to slice through the beast's skin and go deeper into its neck. However, at that last moment, Kyriaki dropped his guard and the beast, who probably saw the current situation as an opportunity to land a final attack before going down was able to land a clean scratch on Kyriaki's torso. 

"What?!" he shouted in surprise. Out of the five claw marks, only three of them were deep enough to cause any bleeding on his torso while the other two were able to rip through Kyriaki's shirt. 

By now, the momentum of the beast was long gone and the sword was only a mere few centimetres deep, a far cry from what was required to kill a beast similar to a lion. The sword was lodged into the beast's neck as well, so not only did Kyriaki fail to kill the beast with that attack, but he also lost his weapon, along with gaining a wound. 

And then, the world turned dark. Kyriaki looked up to see the beast high in the air about to pounce on him with a trail of blood following it due to its wounds. 

"Oh give me a break..." he muttered.