After making some distance between himself and the turtle. Leo quickly appraised his left arm. It was bleeding and Leo couldn't feel it. Eyeing the turtle Leo used his Inventory and took out some medical herbs he bought for 50 Pecunias each and applied 3 of them on his wrist, biceps and shoulder.
The Magical Beast was eyeing Leo curiously, Magical Beasts mental age was equal to a 5 year old human, hence was interested in everything new. Even though these beasts were curious they were powerful fighters from their birth, hence never let their guard down.
After applying herbs to his arm, Leo felt instantaneous effects, he one again felt his hand, but it wasn't all good, because he felt a wave of pain wash over him. Gritting his teeth Leo clenched the dagger's handle with his right arm and dashed towards the beast, his eyes shining brighter than usual.
Beast feeling immediate danger, tucked its head inside the shell again, but didn't bother shielding its legs. It was only a newborn beast, having no real fight experience against a serious opponent it was destined to make mistakes. Leo capitalized on this opportunity and redirected his strike to cut deep into the turtle's leg.
Growling in pain, the beast suddenly threw itself to the side, towards Leo, trying to smash him with its shell, but Leo, who already knew that the beast had a shell sturdier than metal rolled out of its way.
Turning its head towards Leo, the beast roared in rage and sprinted towards Leo snapping its jaws in an intimidating manner. Leo, who was still engulfed in a sea of pain and rage, was not bothered by its intimidation and dashed to meet the turtle head on. The beast leapt towards Leo trying to crush him under its weight, but Leo suddenly threw himself to the side and ran towards a dead corpse of a rabbit. Upon landing the turtle immediately followed its attacker, not wanting him to escape.
Leo, who had a few seconds head start, quickly picked up the dagger from the rabbit corpse to his left hand and turned towards the fast approaching beast.
As the pain slowly Leo could think more clearly, he understood that he can't confront this beast head on. Leo knew that he couldn't penetrate the shell turtle had which left 6 body parts left to swing at: 4 legs, head and a tail. One of the turtle's legs was injured, but it seemed like the turtle was in a rage state and didn't care about the pain.
The wound was not big enough to bleed out, so Leo made a decision to slowly damage it until it bled out or successfully land a hit on its head. Following his plans he dashed towards the beast, but at the last second threw himself to the side and left a deep wound on the same leg he damaged earlier making even more gush out of the wound.
After a few minutes of such exchanges the turtle's movement turned hazy and slow, but the frenzy beast didn't care and continued attacking Leo without caring about its defense. Leo didn't escape unscratched, his chest was profusely bleeding and one of his wrists was bent in a weird manner.
When the beast was a few meters away from Leo, he circulated Mana inside his lungs he inhaled during the fight and enhanced his leg with it. His body was suddenly enveloped by a white glow and his eyes started glowing. The turtle felt fear, its opponent's eyes suddenly became those of a predator and carried an oppressive force which made it want to run. The beast was stunned for a second, but that's all it took for Leo to end the fight. Seeing that the beast stumbled, Leo quickly threw the dagger which pierced deep into the turtle's neck.
Stumbling towards the beast, Leo pulled the dagger out of its neck and collected its tooth before putting both of them inside his Inventory and taking the tooth from the rabbit. He slowly walked out of the fight range and stumbled upon a cave which he used as a temporary healing space. He quickly applied medical herbs not wanting to bleed out since he felt that he would faint, because of blood loss. Before he lost consciousness he felt his brother's medallion in his pocket was heating up.
****
A growling noise resounded in the cave awakening Leo from sleep. Opening his eyes he saw sharp rows of teeth quickly growing in size.
' I have no time to dodge '
Leo quickly thought and raised his arm up to protect his neck.
The beast's teeth tightly clenched around the arm threatening to rip it off. Tearing up from pain Leo took out a dagger from his inventory and stabbed it to the beast's side. The beast only growled and still kept on chewing Leo's arm. Leo used all force and pierced the beast belly, spilling all of its innards. The beast let out a cry before dying and falling towards Leo's side.
Breathing heavily Leo took out his first aid kit from Inventory and applied some bandage to his arm. He then crawled towards the beast and took its tooth. The beast looked like a mutated version of tiger with a smaller body, but bigger head and blue color fur. Leo felt his consciousness slipping, because of blood loss. He didn't have any more medical herbs, hence made a decision to run towards the Astrum base. After a few minutes of running he could see its shape, but his way was blocked by the same species of tiger he just fought in the cave.
" Fuck.... "
Leo cursed and took out his dagger from the Inventory.
He enveloped his hand in Mana before dashing towards the tiger. The beast easily dodged his strike and left a deep claw wound on his back.
It was mockingly circling Leo as if the cat was playing with a mouse. Leo tried to slowly retreat towards the base, but the tiger did not let him escape, it always attacked him and forced him back to the forest. Even if Leo wasn't injured he wouldn't be able to fight the beat. This beast before him was an Elite Rank beast, even 5 Magical Rank beasts wouldn't be able to defeat it.
Leo took a deep breath circulating Mana within his body at full force and prepared himself for another clash.
' Don't go for my arms, please '
He begged inside and started carefully approaching the beast.