As the dark-skinned man circled around and struck at the lion, his shard of stone dug into the lion's hip. His attempt to ensnare it was ill-fated, as it bucked wildly to throw the clean-shaven man from its back, and its movements were too strong and forceful for him to contain. Even so, he managed to inflict a trifling wound upon the beast; it was not much, but he had struck back against the darkness and drawn its blood.

The clean-shaven man fared poorer. Upon vaulting on the lion's back, he was immediately shaken from it. Its luxuriously soft fur provided no purchase for him to grasp, and he was sent sprawling onto the hard, stone ground. Recognizing him as vulnerable, the lion seized him by the upper arm in his jaws, and trotted away from the others, into the darkness. It recognized that these morsels were intelligent, and potentially a threat. It needed to isolate them, and pick them off one at a time.

However, the lion had unknowingly circled back to where the bearded man awaited it. He struck from behind, seeking to gouge the lion where it was most vulnerable. He slashed at the lion's hefty gonads, and with a stroke of luck, struck true and severed them completely. The lion dropped the clean-shaven man from its jaws, and howled in pain and fury. It had not merely been wounded by this very personal attack; it had also been infuriated.

The faster than the bearded man could react, the lion swung around, lashing out with its claws. It struck the man cleanly in the face, the blow swift and brutal. Overpowered by its strength, he fell to the floor, a steady stream of blood flowing down his neck and chest. The world was slightly darker for the bearded man, now, as the lion had destroyed his right eye with its vengeful strike.

In the darkness away from the dance of blood and pain stood a woman who had gone unnoticed by the three men. She had waited patiently and bided her time, holding her stone shard loosely and carefully. She paced around, trying to find where the lion lurked without revealing herself to be subjected to its fury. As it cried out from having its testes destroyed, she focused on the direction of its howl, and hurled her stone shard with all of her might. The very essence of her will to survive was in that stone, and it flew to at the lion with great lethality.

Unfortunately, the lion twisted away at the last moment, having heard her feet padding against the stone faces. The flying stone grazed the beast about the head, shearing off a great wad of its shimmering mane. Still infuriated by the attack from earlier, it paid no mind to the stone's flight and painless result. With two of its foes knocked to the ground and the other two hidden in the dark, it sniffed the air, seeking to track them down and finish its hunt.