"This can't go on like this!" Finn narrowed his eyes, realizing there might be something wrong with his battle plan. He wasn't a barbarian and didn't have the power to beat a fierce beast with his bare hands. Thieves are different from warriors. After a few tries, Finn clearly knew that without a weapon, even if he hit the demon leopard's weak spot, it'd be hard to deal it a fatal blow. After a few rounds, the demon leopard only lost a few dozen health points, but Finn himself lost over two hundred because of the leopard's attacks. As a thief with all - out agility, he didn't have much health. According to the data on the assist device, Finn's total health was less than a thousand, and the two attacks from the demon leopard made him lose almost a quarter of his health. Even if the leopard didn't hit a vital part, with a thief's constitution, Finn couldn't take many more attacks from it.
"This guy's power is no joke. It's gonna be tough to take it down, and it's clearly stupid to race it for speed..." After being attacked by the demon leopard twice, Finn really felt how dumb it was to compete with it in speed. If it were any other mutant beast leader, he might still have an edge in speed. But this silver - maned demon leopard in front of him, known for its speed, was clearly faster than Finn. The power the leopard showed during the attacks also made Finn realize that even if he could catch the leopard as a thief, the leopard might easily escape before he could use the Body Doubling skill.
"If this keeps up, even if I have lots of health - restoring potions, it won't be enough. I have to figure out a way to control the demon leopard so it can't get away easily. Then I'll have time to defeat it with the Body Doubling skill!"
"Take a gamble!" Finn's mind raced, and soon, he gritted his teeth and made a decision. He took out a small bottle from his storage space. It had a gray liquid in it.
This liquid is called Demon Leopard Rage Hormone. It's a potion that alchemists refined from the adrenal hormones of the Ghost Mist Ridge demon leopards.
For humans and other mutant creatures, the Demon Leopard Rage Hormone has no effect even if they ingest it. But the Ghost Mist Ridge demon leopards will go wild right away when they smell it.
The Demon Leopard Rage Hormone is a common potion among hunters who keep Ghost Mist Ridge demon leopards as guard animals. They use it to make the guard animals go berserk and boost their attack power. But for Finn, using this hormone is super dangerous. Finn isn't a hunter, and the leopard isn't his guard animal. Once the leopard goes berserk, Finn will be in even more danger. But Finn figures that in this situation, he has to use this hormone to finish the task.
For Finn, what's most deadly about the demon leopard isn't its amazing speed or sharp claws, but its cool head. The demon leopard is a careful and clever mutant. It knows its strengths, so when it attacks a target, if it misses once, it retreats immediately. Even though this silver - maned demon leopard is much higher - level than Finn, it still sticks to its own attack pattern carefully. As long as it can't land a fatal blow on Finn, it'll use its speed advantage to run away quickly. This makes Finn, who's at a speed disadvantage, feel helpless. So he came up with a plan to mess with the leopard's thinking using the rage hormone.
When he fought the leopard again, Finn didn't hesitate to pull out the cork and pour the whole bottle of demon leopard rage hormone on his left arm. The leopard, which had been calmly facing off against Finn, had its eyes turn blood - red the moment it smelled the hormone.
The leopard bared its fangs and let out a low growl like there was something hard stuck in its throat. When Finn checked the leopard's stats with the assist device, he found that the leopard's attack, defense, and health cap had all gone up a lot. But what got Finn excited was that the enraged leopard, affected by the hormone, kept looking back and forth between Finn's throat and his left arm smeared with the hormone.
Finn held his arm in front of his chest and slowly backed away. Even though the assist device didn't show if the berserk leopard's speed had changed, Finn guessed that since its attack and defense had improved, its speed must have gone up a lot too. Before the leopard went berserk, Finn already had a tough time dodging its attacks. After it went berserk, he had to put some distance between them to have a chance to avoid a deadly hit.
Normally, the leopard would never attack a target outside its effective attack range. But with the rage hormone's stimulation, the leopard now had no sense of judgment. All it wanted was to tear this annoying prey to pieces as soon as possible. So, when the hormone's stimulation passed the leopard's tolerance limit, this big guy, over three meters long, lunged at Finn from seven or eight meters away!
"Here's my chance!" Seeing the leopard charging at him like crazy, Finn's eyes lit up. He quickly used his right arm to protect his throat and swung his left arm, smeared with the demon leopard rage hormone, at the charging leopard.
This time, the leopard still aimed for Finn's throat, but the interference made the attack fail. Normally, the leopard would quickly jump away if it missed. But the rage hormone on Finn's left arm was too tempting for the leopard. So after its claws failed to do any fatal damage, the berserk leopard, lured by the hormone, turned its head and bit Finn's forearm!
"Good job, little one!" Even though the demon leopard bit him hard on the arm, Finn didn't complain. Instead, he let out an excited shout. Just as the biting leopard was looking at Finn with a strange look, trying to figure out if this wounded prey had gone stupid from the beating, it suddenly noticed that the prey's arm it had bitten had become more than twice as thick. The leopard's mouth opened as wide as it could, and by the time it tried to close it, its barbed, viper - like teeth were hooked onto Finn's arm and wouldn't come out.
Body Doubling!
Finn used this skill, which instantly made his body more than twice as thick. That's Body Doubling. It's this skill that made Finn, a hot - blooded young man who loved violence, choose to be a thief in the end.
Body Doubling, strictly speaking, doesn't belong to this world. It's a really special skill on the assist device that came with Finn when he crossed over to this strange world. The first - level effect of this skill is to convert all of the user's agility bonuses into strength and constitution bonuses at a ratio of 1:1.5 and 1:1.
That means Finn, who's at level ten, will have his 150 agility points converted into 225 strength points and 150 constitution points. Plus the 30 strength and 30 constitution points he already has, his strength will reach an amazing 255 points, and his constitution will be 180 points!
This kind of strength and constitution is way better than that of an ordinary superhuman!
Attacking the silver - maned demon leopard's weak spot with this kind of strength, even if the leopard's berserk and its body strength has increased a bit, it's still gonna die!
But after using the first - level Body Doubling, the user's original agility is gone. That means once Finn uses Body Doubling, he'll be really slow. Without being able to control the demon leopard effectively and losing his speed, it's as good as suicide for Finn. So he had no choice but to use his own body as bait to lure the leopard. Then, after the leopard took the bait, he used the Body Doubling skill.
The silver - maned demon leopard isn't a snake. It can't open its mouth 180 degrees like the ring - tailed mutant snake. So it couldn't break free from the giant arm, which was thicker than its thigh.
The silver - maned demon leopard was so frustrated that it let out a distorted whine. It waved its front paws to attack Finn's face. But at this time, Finn, affected by the Body Doubling ability, had become a giant almost four meters tall. His arm was nearly two meters long. So even when the silver - maned demon leopard tried its hardest, it could only reach Finn's armpit. When it tried to use its hind legs to attack Finn, Finn swung his arm back, and the leopard's head smashed hard into a pine tree.
"Crack!" The thick tree trunk snapped. Even if the silver - maned demon leopard's head was tough and not smashed to pieces, the impact still made the leopard spit blood from its mouth and nostrils. Finn found another thicker pine tree, swung his arm, and bashed the leopard's head against the trunk twice. The leopard let out a miserable scream and passed out.
"Little one, if there's an afterlife, remember not to have barbed teeth and grow a stronger neck!" Finn gave the poor silver - maned demon leopard a final warning. Then, whether the leopard heard it or not, he just used his right hand to twist the leopard's long, slender neck into a twisted mess.
"You have killed the Ghost Mist Ridge silver - maned demon leopard and gained 13,500 soul power!"
Hearing that mechanical - sounding alert, Finn's tense nerves didn't relax. This was the deepest part of the Ghost Mist Ridge, full of danger. He could run into other fierce mutant creatures at any time. So Finn quickly got back to his normal size, stuffed the whole leopard that was hanging on his arm into the storage space, took care of his wounds as fast as he could, and then disappeared into the freezing wind and snow.
It was still windy and cold on the way out, but Finn was in a great mood. With the leopard taken care of, he couldn't wait to fly back to the city.