But Jelo couldn’t focus on that victory for more than an instant, because the leopard was already lunging at him from his other side. The spotted predator ca in low and fast, its jaws open wide enough to close around his entire torso, aiming to crush his ribcage and spine in a single bite.
Jelo briefly thought about taking the hit head-on, activating Scaled Guard and testing whether his defensive ability could withstand that kind of crushing force. But the thought was dismissed almost as quickly as it ford. He decided against such suicidal action imdiately. His Scaled Guard was powerful, yes, but it had limits, and he’d already learned during the previous fight that repeated impacts could overwhelm it. Better to avoid damage entirely than rely on defenses that might fail at a critical mont.
He ducked at the last possible second, dropping low as the leopard passed overhead. His shoulder grazed against a piece of broken stone jutting from the ground, the rough surface scraping painfully even through his clothing, but it was a small price to pay for avoiding those massive jaws.
From his crouched position, Jelo fired another Dragon Claw projection, this ti aid upward. The energy construct raked across the leopard’s flank as it passed over him, tearing through its spotted fur and the flesh beneath. The leopard thrashed in midair from the pain, its graceful pounce turning into an uncontrolled tumble. It landed badly, jerking backward as it tried to regain its footing while blood began flowing from the fresh wounds along its side.
The tiger had recovered already, shaking off the pain from Jelo’s initial attack with the resilience that mutated Dabba seed to possess. It attacked again imdiately, not giving Jelo any ti to capitalize on injuring the leopard. The tiger ca in with its claws extended, both massive paws swiping in a coordinated pattern designed to catch him regardless of which direction he dodged.
Jelo reacted instantly. He spun, pivoting smoothly around the tiger’s attack with footwork that took advantage of his enhanced speed and agility. The claws passed so close he could feel the displacent of air, close enough that a normal human would never have avoided them, but Jelo moved with precision born of desperate experience. As he completed his spin, bringing himself alongside the tiger’s body, he threw a powerful punch directly to the creature’s ribs.
His fist connected with trendous force, enhanced by his increased strength stat and driven by perfect technique. The impact resonated through the tiger’s massive fra, and Jelo felt sothing give way beneath his knuckles—bone cracking or cartilage breaking, he couldn’t tell which. The tiger made a sound halfway between a roar and a whimper, the kind of noise that indicated real damage had been done.
The tiger staggered from the blow, its legs briefly giving out as pain flooded its nervous system. It barely kept its balance, one paw slipping on loose debris as it fought to stay upright. For a mont it seed like the creature might actually fall, might collapse from the combination of injuries it had already sustained.
But it caught itself at the last second, planting its paws more firmly and shaking its massive head as if trying to clear it. Blood dripped from the wounds Jelo’s Dragon Claw had opened, staining its striking black and white fur with spreading crimson patches. The tiger’s breathing was labored now, each breath clearly painful after the devastating punch to its ribs.
Jelo was genuinely surprised with his own strength and actually paused for a mont to admire it, watching the massive tiger struggle to maintain its footing after his single punch. He’d known intellectually that his stats had increased, that he was stronger than before, but seeing the concrete evidence—watching a creature that outweighed him by hundreds of pounds stagger from his bare-handed strike—was sothing else entirely. The power flowing through his enhanced body was intoxicating, almost overwhelming in its intensity.
But that mont of distraction, that brief pause to appreciate his newfound capabilities, nearly cost him everything.
The leopard launched an ambush leap from behind, using Jelo’s divided attention to mount a surprise attack. The creature had been circling while Jelo focused on the tiger, waiting for exactly this kind of opening. It ca in fast and silent, its massive body flying through the air with claws extended and jaws open wide.
But Jelo sensed it coming at the last possible instant. His enhanced awareness picked up the subtle displacent of air, the faint sound of muscle tensing, sothing primal in his instincts screaming danger. He reacted without conscious thought, his body moving before his mind fully processed the threat.
Jelo ducked low, dropping into a crouch and then rolling forward under the leopard’s trajectory. The massive predator sailed over him, its claws missing his back by re inches. He could feel the wind of its passage, could sll the blood and radiation-tainted musk coming off its fur.
The leopard’s montum carried it forward uncontrollably, unable to adjust its path mid-leap. It stumbled directly into the tiger, which was still recovering from Jelo’s punch and hadn’t seen its companion coming. The two massive Dabba collided with a heavy impact, their bodies tangling together in a confused ss of limbs and tails. Both creatures snarled in frustration and pain as they struggled to separate and regain their footing.
Jelo didn’t waste the opening. While they were still entangled and vulnerable, he sent two Dragon Claw projections in rapid succession at the tiger. Both fire constructs struck true, tearing into the already injured creature’s side and opening massive wounds that went deep into muscle and possibly beyond. Blood poured from the injuries in alarming quantities, far more than the creature could sustain.
The tiger made a choking sound and dropped heavily to the ground, its legs finally giving out completely. The large wound on its side was catastrophic, the kind of injury that no amount of mutated resilience could overco. Its breathing beca shallow and rapid, its eyes already beginning to glaze over.
"Gotcha," Jelo said quietly, a grim satisfaction in his voice.
But the fight wasn’t over yet. The leopard had extracted itself from the tangle with its dying companion and was already moving again, driven by pain and rage and survival instinct. It lunged at Jelo once more, this ti leading with a whipping strike from its powerful tail—a mutation that had made the appendage into a weapon, thick with muscle and tipped with what looked like hardened bone spurs.
Jelo feinted left, making his body shift in that direction as if committing to the movent. The leopard adjusted its tail strike to compensate, aiming for where Jelo appeared to be going. But at the last instant, Jelo reversed direction, and the tail missed him by re inches, the bone spurs passing so close he could hear them cutting through the air.
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