Unfortunate encounter? (Announcement)

This is what you call an unfortunate encounter, I always thought that my luck wasn't something either good or bad but this puts my luck down to new levels of low. A snow leopard, but not just any, a mutated snow leopard. These creatures were already dangerous to unsuspecting humans without mutating but with it it could rival the most prominent A-rank hunters. There were even stories about a S-rank hunter having it's demize to a particularly strong snow leopard, what is even more surprising that the leopards weren't the strongest from the feline family.

The honour of being the most dangerous feline goes to the jaguar, a definite S-ranked threat when mutated. Before mutating these feline creatures had a bite of about 137 BFQ opposed to the 94 of the leopard. This alone should prove its superiority, but if you want more proof, the speed difference between these two creatures is about 6,11 meters per second in favor of the jaguar.

Even with my abilities as a monster I might have to really try to defeat such a creature. The Global Hunter Association or the GHA didn't rank these creatures as deadly for nothing! When a quest came in to kill or capture a snow leopard it was usually reserved for 5 A-ranks and that is still the recommended minimum for experienced A-rank hunters. 'I might have to actually use my magical abilities for this.'

The mutated snow leopard, before it even landed on the ground, tried to attack Osiris, this was possible due to the limited space that was made by Osiris from cleaning out the snow. Plus you shouldn't forget the home field advantage it held over Osiris, there is a reason why there is snow in its name…

The speed of the leopard was expected but Osiris was still unprepared and surprised as he had never faced such a creature before. He did try to stay away from A-ranked creatures when he was still a human, but now when he is in such a situation all he can do is adapt! Even though it's speed outmatched Osiris' it didn't come close to Osiris' strength and durability! You could say this leopard was a glass canon, if you were to use game terminology.

Before Osiris was able to react the leopard had jumped on top of him causing him to lose his footing due to the speed behind the tackle. The leopard firmly bit Osiris' shoulder but was unable to pierce his skin by much, it still drew blood but it's by normal human standard razor sharp teeth were stopped. The razor sharp claws that are normally enough to trap any of its prey only caused limited amounts of damage.

As if the leopard was feeling something wrong it quickly jumped back from it's target that was laying down on the ground. The leopard was confused, he had never felt such a feeling before as all the creatures in this area were all below his level, he was the king of this territory. But now it felt as if his place as the king was being challenged by the creature that lied before him, it was confused as to why a creature lying on its back could be anything but dinner.

Osiris was quick to get back up to his feet reading himself for the leopard's next attack, attacking monsters faster than you was not wise as you would only tire yourself out faster. But what Osiris did not expect was for the creature to dive back into the safe covers of the thick snow, losing Osiris' gaze in the process, but that didn't eliminate the smell it had and the soft sound of snow being crushed under something heavy. Osiris was capable enough to track a smell from kilometers away even if the smell was diluted and hear sounds from hundreds of meters away as clear as hearing them next to him.

By using all his senses except for eyesight Osiris kept track of the leopard's position, not at all discouraged by it's hiding. Hiding may seem cowardly but as the animals gained more intelligence and self awareness they knew that even the most cowardly tactics should be used to ensure survival.

Currently the leopard was pacing around Osiris in circles, careful not to be seen by the strange creature completely unaware that if it wasn't for the snow to be in its way it would've already been caught.

This time, when the leopard attacked, Osiris was ready. He was able to successfully deflect the razor sharp claws and teeth and by doing so giving himself the opening he needed to land a blow to the creature all the while not moving his feet standing sturdy on the ground like a castle. The blow landed successfully causing the leopard pain it had never felt before though this did not stop the creature, it only served to enrage it making the creature far more inline with its animalistic instincts. These instincts are very different from Osiris' instincts, Osiris' instincts are far sharper than that of a creature that isn't sapient.

These short attacks from both sides caused both creatures to draw blood, the sharp claws belonging to Osiris dripping the leopards hot blood on the smelting snow and the leopards teeth and claws visibly reddend from foreign blood, though the blood of Osiris was many times hotter than that of the leopard though this didn't matter.

They were at a stalemate, Osiris didn't know what to do as this battle would clearly last more than he liked, he knew so much from just these two clashes with the leopard. The leopard was only looking for food to survive, it knew that whatever this creature that drew its blood would taste heavenly if it had to go off how the blood tasted but it was not sure if it could enjoy the taste after they were done…

(Temporary end of "Sudden Monster")