While Leon was walking towards the beast, he contemplated if he should use his bow and see how good his aim was on a live target, but after a while, he decided against it.
'I'll fight a close-ranged battle for now, after gaining more experience, I'll use my bow.' He said to himself.
They would encounter more beasts, so he wasn't in a hurry. He felt a little lucky since the first beast he was going to fight against was still an early stage Rank One beast, which was equivalent to a Warrior in the Early stages of the Body Tempering Realm.
Leon was already in the Mid stages, being a Fifth layered Body Tempering realm Warrior, so even if he makes a few mistakes, the consequences wouldn't be too detrimental since his strength is higher than that of the beast.
He slowly made his way toward the beast, making sure to hide his presence not to alert it. The reason for this was because once the beast senses his presence, it would instinctively want to attack, but the moment it realizes the difference in strength and that there are other people around, it would flee instantly.
Although Rank One beasts aren't the smartest, they still knew when to fight, and when to make a getaway.
Moving from tree to tree, Leon slowly shortened the distance between himself and the beast. He couldn't just recklessly charge out from a far distance since it will give the beast enough time to escape. He waited until he got within twenty meters of the beast, before dashing out at his fastest speed.
Given the current distance, it would be almost impossible for the beast to escape without fighting him.
The beast was just like a wolf, with the difference of having antlers. Standing at just over a meter and a half tall with a length of over two meters, it was a beast not to be taken lightly.
The antlers of the beast were identical to that of a stag in Dean's previous world, and it had a width of half a meter.
When it sensed someone coming toward it, it growled while standing in front of the dead beast in front of it, as if saying it was its own. It was only after it noticed Leon's strength did it want to escape. But, it was already too late, and Leon had closed the gap between the two. As a predator, the beast knew it must never turn its back to an opponent stronger than it, or that would be its end.
It immediately stretched out one of its front paws to attack the human who was charging in its direction, although it was weaker, it didn't mean it would cower in fear. It was a beast, so naturally, it would never allow fear to consume it, even if it would die, it would die fighting!
Seeing the claw coming towards him at a fast pace, Leon halted abruptly and retreated to escape from the strike range of the beast.
A choice he would soon regret.
"Hmm, that's a wrong move, he shouldn't have retreated backward. He has given the beast more freedom to attack him." Dean commented like a seasoned veteran while watching the battle that just started.
Julius looked at Dean with a strange light flashing through his eyes. He too knew what Dean said was correct, but he didn't expect someone as scared as Dean was to be this knowledgeable about battles. The way he looked at him took a turn without him knowing. Now, he didn't see him as the scared person he portrayed some moments ago.
And just like what Dean said, the moment Leon retreated, he fell into a passive state and was forced to retreat over and over again. Predatory beasts were mainly designed for attacking, that is when they are at their best, so the moment you give it that chance, it would hurt you badly. The only reason Leon was still in this fight was because of the large difference in strength.
Although he was stronger, it didn't mean the beast wouldn't be able to hurt him if any of its strikes were to connect, so Leon was currently scrambling to escape from the barrage of attacks the beast was unleashing.
'This is bad, I need to find an opportunity to attack.' Leon thought while rolling awkwardly on the ground trying to escape the lunge of the beast.
The moment Leon retreated, he realized he made a wrong decision which the beast was currently capitalizing on. He had been dodging for over a minute now, and the beast surprisingly didn't even stop after its first attack. It had been attacking nonstop since then, not giving Leon the chance to attack.
Growl...
The beast landed on the ground and immediately turned to attack Leon who was trying to stand up. It opened its mouth revealing a set of sharp canines.
Leon was still in a kneeling position, so he quickly brought out his bow from his storage ring and used it to block the attack of the beast. The beast bit onto the bow while its body came collapsing on top of Leon's.
Leon held the bow tightly even when his back had made contact with the ground and the beast was on top of him.
The moment his back touched the ground, he used the momentum and used both feet to kick the belly of the beast while also moving the bow backward trying to flip the beast on its back.
Given his strength, he could naturally flip the beast over, especially after also using the momentum of falling backward.
Bang!
The beast slammed to the ground after being flipped by Leon who was already on his feet.
'Wow! The wood used in making this bow is amazing!' He thought before keeping the bow back.
He knew the bow was good, but he didn't think it would be this good. Even after the beast bit it, not only that, but gnawing on it, a scratch didn't even appear on it.
"That's a wise choice of action. Not to brag or anything but, I taught him that move." Dean said, looking at Julius beside him while putting both hands behind him like a true master.
Julius nodded as a response, not saying a word. He knew Leon and Dean were always sparring together, and he had also heard about Dean's monstrous talent in swordsmanship, so he didn't really know if he was telling the truth or not.
After keeping the bow, Leon went straight for the beast while it was trying to stand up. Now, the situation was reversed and he was the one who was attacking freely.
Bam!
His fist connected with the slender body of the beast, pushing it back.
The beast whined in pain after receiving the hit. When it saw Leon was still charging at it, it quickly threw out its paw, trying to slash him with it or at least for him back so it could get a chance to counterattack.
Leon, who was charging over to the beast, didn't retreat like the first time, instead, he brought out his bow once again to block its attack while throwing his right fist at the beast.
He was able to easily punch its shoulder, weakening it in the process. The beast's front left leg gave way after the hit and it fell on its side.
Leon didn't waste any time and instantly attacked it, but he was forced to retreat once again when the beast nearly bit him on his hand.
The beast quickly stood up, rushing towards Leon with the aim of trying to wound him before escaping.
As the battle progressed, Leon made fewer errors in his judgment when attacking and was able to gain more lengthy spells where he would mostly dominate the beast in the battle.
After receiving several hits from Leon, the beast abruptly changed its attack pattern and stopped using its paws and mouth; instead, it changed to its antlers.
The tip of each antler was very sharp, and Leon didn't dare to test how strong his physical defense was with it, so he was once more placed in a passive state in the battle against the beast.
Leon was having a hard time counter-attacking because of how wide the antlers were, they protected the beast so well that the only way to get to the beast was either through them or if he quickly got behind the beast. He had tried the latter but failed, and attempting the former was dangerous.
He soon came up with a dangerous plan, grabbing hold of the beast's antlers. If he does not get the timing right, then he risks getting injured by the beast.
The beast sensing that it had finally gotten the upper hand charged at Leon, trying to get him to retreat so it could escape.
With its head bent, and its antlers facing its target, it lunged at Leon.
When the beast got close to Leon, he tried to hold onto the antlers, but as soon as the beast noticed this, it shook its head vigorously, almost piercing Leon with its sharp points.
'Shit!' Leon cursed and quickly let go of it before any of the sharp points on the antlers touched him.
After failing the first time, he tried again, and failed, almost getting hurt in the process. On his third attempt, he was lightly scratched by one of the points, luckily, he reacted quickly so the injury wasn't deep.
It was only on the fourth attempt did he manage to get a good hold of it.
'Now!' Leon urged himself internally.
He tightened his grip on the left antler, pulling the beast with it to the side. When the side of the beast's head was close to him, he raised his leg and stomped on the head, trying to break the left antler as well as hurt the struggling beast.
Snap!
The sound of something hard breaking resonated out.
On Leon's left hand was one of the antlers of the beasts, it snapped off after he stomped on it three times. Due to the force he was using, as soon as the antler broke, the beast was pushed over three meters back from the heavy stomp, while he also staggered since he had lost the leverage he got from the beast.
'Now I have a weapon.' He thought as he threw the antler up and caught it.
The spot where the antler was located on the head of the beast started bleeding profusely with the beast whining in pain.
Leon charged at it with the antler in hand, he planned to kill the beast now that the opportunity had presented itself.
The whining beast tried to use its other antler to fend off Leon, but since it was already injured, it wasn't much of an issue for Leon anymore.
Leon dodged to the left side since that was the part without anything that could hurt him. After dodging to the left, he hurriedly grabbed hold of the other antler, before stabbing the one in his hand into the stomach of the beast. After stabbing it, he broke off the second antler as well, using it to pierce the skull of the beast.
Awooo...
The beast's low painful cry rang out in the forest before it went silent, forever, its body dropped to the ground with a 'thud'.
'*Sigh* It's a shame that beasts don't develop cores until they get to Rank Two.' Leon sighed while looking at the beast which had lost both its antlers.
He turned around, leaving the corpse of the beast.
'I should start training with a close-range weapon.' He thought while analyzing the battle as he headed back to the others.
If he had a weapon, the battle wouldn't have taken so long. He didn't like the idea of using a sword, but seeing how things were, he would either need a sword, or something smaller.
He had always preferred ranged fighters for an unknown reason, this is the reason he picked a bow in the first place.