Like many a mighty warrior before him, Nuka is looking for ever bigger conquests to suit his ever bigger brawn. But what bigger conquest is there, than conquering a whole kingdom? To see Nuka's final ascent, check out Big Stories here!

Art, as always, by  silver-stag

---

One of the many glaring faults in his upbringing, Nuka had decided, is that his mother had never talked about what laid beyond the Outlands— she was obsessed with retaking the Pridelands, when there was so much more to the world, and Nuka had explored much of it. He had taken on the wider world, and in return, the world had made him even stronger.

He had never felt so free— or more powerful. He wasn't even sure if that trinket wedged in his canyon-like pecs was doing anything anymore, as he felt the battles he had now faced were doing more to make him into the mightiest lion ever known. The strength pulsing in his veins, powering arms with biceps like boulders and triceps like stony slabs, filling out the mountain range along his shoulders, while his sprawling plateau of a back spread further and further out. He growled with every breath, the ground shook with every step, his legs as well billowed out into earth-shaking pillars. With nothing more than a spear, Nuka could fell the biggest animals in the Savannah, wrestling with the biggest of bull elephants, or cracking stone in his bare hands. He could split the ground with one well-placed stomp, tear up trees with one arm, and bring an entire stampeding herd of wildebeest to heel if he wanted. With a slight, bittersweet pang, Nuka realized that the more strength he pulled into his body, the less and less challenges to match him he could find.

Nuka was now a warrior without equal— the wild plains outside the Outlands and Pridelands had made him into its own champion, and he could stay here and perhaps found his own pride— his own kingdom. But as he felt the deep wells of strength flowing through his veins, he felt his eyes turning back east, towards Pride Rock and home. Maybe it was time to see what his family thought of him now…