For a moment, Artemis was frozen. This behavior went against everything they knew about armored leopards as a species. Those beasts were solitary hunters, above all else, and three of them hunting together was never seen before. But there was no use trying to rationalize this situation; she only needed to survive.
Clearing her mind, Artemis coldly calculated her odds. Normally, she could easily deal with such a challenge if she was prepared, but destiny decided otherwise. For starters, her gigantic sword and her tower shield were left at home, so she had to fight barehanded. Another problem is that she had to protect Tomas, who was still struggling to stop his dream without much success. Despite inheriting Dalton’s cockroach perks, she couldn’t afford to have him blasted away from her shockwaves, so she had to be very careful about her power usage.
On the bright side, she was still wearing her armor, made of armored leopard leather and steel plates. At least it should handle a few scratches, she thought.
Unfortunately, considering all her problems, the worst was that it was still morning and she didn’t had enough time to charge her dream power properly, and had used a percentage of it to show off to Tomas. She was barely 4h awake by now, which means she was on a very low tank, and it would be a key factor in how she could manage her energy.
Putting herself between Tomas and the beasts, her head went into full warrior mode, and tens of different strategies were being formulated and dismissed, until she settled on a few paths she could take. Years of training, hunting, and fighting wars were once again put to the test, in a situation with all odds stacked on the opposite side.
In those few seconds that Artemis formulated her battle plan, the powerful armored beasts got closer. Way too close. Being separated by a distance of only twenty meters, they split in an attempt to surround her.
Despite the disparity in size and numbers, their bestial instincts told them that this wasn’t an easy fight. So they took their time, approaching, studying, and analyzing their prey. What they didn’t count on was the prey taking the initiative.
First strategy: intimidation. There was no need to fight all three of them to the death, if she could make one or two flee.
In a fraction of a second, her power ignited. The fading light took control of her eyes. Energy flowed through her body, enhancing the desired muscles, bones, and tissues.
Without signs, sounds, or any image feedback, she disappeared. The place she was standing was now a crater, tens of centimeters deep in a cone shape, opposing the direction of her movement. Pieces of the ground were ejected everywhere in the direction of the cone, traveling all the way to Tomas, who was still struggling with his dream. A few stones even hit him, but nothing serious.
When the beasts, taken by surprise, figured out what happened, it was too late. The armored leopard which was circling her in a clockwise direction had fallen, like a puppet with its strings cut. Right in front of him, Artemis was standing. Her arm could be found, elbow-deep, inside its eye socket.
Some creatures could have strong legs, others reinforced shells, and others a very tough hide, but the eyes would always be a weak spot. A cavity without protection that leads directly to the brain. With a burst of power, Artemis took the first one down, leaving only two left.
This was her first plan, a gamble. A gamble because she used a lot of her stored energy to overpower her first target in such a domineering way, hoping that her display of superiority would intimidate the others to flee. In case that didn’t work, at least that was one less threat to go after her son while she dealt with the other two.
Armored leopards were very intelligent for beasts, compared to the average. They could make plans, organize a hierarchy, learn in the middle of combat, and most importantly, they knew how to evaluate their odds. Scenes of an armored leopard running away from a strong group of combat dreamers weren’t unusual, and that was the biggest factor that made them settle far away from the mixers clan village.
Posing as an overpowered war god, Artemis waited. She could see in their eyes that the creatures were in doubt if it was worth it. They curiously struggled to decide their course of action, and if she attacked now, it could provoke a negative reaction and make them fight to defend themselves, and she didn’t want it.
After a few moments, the beasts made a decision and, unfortunately for Artemis, they decided to fight. Now, even lower on energy, she moved to plan B. The beasts had a height of eight meters and weighed a few tons, making them look like natural war tanks, ready to bulldoze through any kind of defense or resistance.
Artemis, having a bit less than a quarter of their height and a fraction of their weight, didn’t have the size needed to handle two of them at the same time, but she had more than enough strength.
Since she couldn’t deal with both at the same time, plan B was a way to deal with one at a time.
Again, her eyes ignited. Accessing a bit more from her shallow reserves of energy, she moved. Not a single cell was enhanced unnecessarily, all the parts suffering strain were strengthened, and all muscles that demanded supernatural effort were buffed accordingly. If her body were a machine, for sure it would be a top-notch product with millions of interactions of structural optimization.
Not a single speck of energy wasted. Fruit of a lot of hard work and lots of dreams tailored for achieving the highest level of performance possible.
And so, the dance began.
The beasts advanced, trampling the terrain and giving the impression that a small earthquake was happening. Running at an unbelievable speed, the closest one jumped. The pair of strong rear legs gave the creatures unbelievable agility, despite their sizes. Their front pair of legs served mostly as main weapons, having the sharpest and biggest claws; they also helped with the beast’s movement in sprints and walks, but not in jumping. The dangerous front legs would always be set and prepared to tear down their prey during all the jumping movement, ready to react to anything in mid-air.
But what made them unique and different from most other mammals was their third pair of legs. This versatile middle pair of legs was a mix between the front and rear pairs. It helped in jumping, like the rear ones, but where they made the biggest difference was in offensive power.
Artemis made a sudden stop in her sprint, making the beast land a meter outside of its front legs' range. She faked to the left, provoking the beast to bite in that direction while she escaped to the right. The armored leopard's left front paw followed with a horizontal swipe, and the creature put all its weight behind the blow, certain that it would land.
Not missing the opportunity, Artemis quickly closed the distance, grappling the opponent's front leg and throwing the beast over her shoulder and straight to the ground. From the side of her eye, she saw the second leopard already making its own attack, but she couldn’t deal with it right now.
Artemis adjusted her position, with the beast mid-air, to make it land with its head first, hoping that the weight of the beast was enough to break its cervical spine. If she could kill another one, it would compensate for the damage she would receive from the second one.
The beast crashed in a very ugly position, putting a lot of strain on its neck and creating a crater of its own. But once again Artemis was unlucky, and the creature was still alive despite being stunned.
Right after the first leopard crashed to the ground, the attack from the second one came.
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She deflected the first powerful strike using the steel plate on her shoulder, proving that the armor was nothing short of amazing. Very few materials in the world could hold their ground against an armored leopard's front claws.
But the beast followed with a second strike, and this one landed. Ripping through the armored leopard skin protecting her biceps, the claws sank into her skin as if it was butter, but it stopped there. After the attack was done, only a shallow cut was present, giving the impression that no damage was done. But the reality was a bit different, and the energy required for Artemis to protect her muscles and arteries was nothing short of concerning.
This was a common strategy she always used against strong opponents to save energy, protecting only the essentials to keep fighting: bones, muscles, nerves, main blood vessels, brain, and other sensory organs. So, as a consequence, most times she gave up her skin, giving a uglier appearance than it really was.
With the first beast stunned, she didn’t waste time and moved to put plan B into practice. With the attack she took, her reserves were too low for her liking, so she had to be flawless in her next executions.
Sidestepping to the left and lowering her torso, she avoided both attacks the beast attempted: a bite and a swipe from its right front paw. Without missing the gap in the creature's stance, she rolled to position herself under its belly and also escaped the treacherous attack from its middle right paw that tried to catch her unaware.
Using her entire body as a coiled spring, she pushed off the ground with her hands and the beast with her legs, ejecting the heavy creature back in the direction of the tree line.
Now, it was time to finish the first one before the second came back.
The first armored leopard stood up, still a bit disoriented from Artemis' last attack. When a loud sound caught its attention. Way back from where they came, the other armored leopard had hit the ground, making a sound worthy of representing a truck’s frontal crash accident. But more important than the other leopard’s crash, it couldn’t find the defying little human that had messed it up so badly. The beast looked to the right and found nothing. It looked to the left and found nothing. When it looked up, it was too late.
Artemis came down from the sky like a wrecking ball, and with her two hands joined together as if holding an ax, she chopped down on its cervical spine that was already damaged.
She didn’t have much weight behind her strikes compared to the leopards, but she compensated with speed. In a flash, the creature’s neck folded in a way it wasn’t supposed to, displaying a grotesque scene that represented the end of another foe. It was a fast, clean strike at an enemy that hadn't regained his balance yet.
Of course the beast’s neck wasn’t cut off, given its tough hide and muscles, but its cervical spine was pulverized and it was enough to finish the creature.
Pushing the fresh carcass out of the way, Artemis stood up from the ground, searching for her last opponent. A burn hand, a few shallow cuts on one arm, the other drenched in armored leopard brain matter, and a shoulder steel plate with very ugly scratches depicted a bit of what the fearsome warrior had been through in the last few minutes.
The intense battle was coming to an end and she only needed to finish her last opponent. Her accumulated energy was in critical levels and going down fast, representing the level of the challenge she’d been through, but to finish the last one, it was enough. The only problem was that she couldn't afford to be hit again or anything that demanded too much energy from herself, or things could get ugly real fast.
The first thing she did after getting up was to look in the direction the second leopard crashed earlier after being ejected, but she only found the crash signs, not the beast. She knew the beast was coming for her so she assumed a battle stance because it was their usual behavior to defeat the strong foes and then prey on the weak.
But then, she remembered how those beasts had been acting. Those weren’t normal armored leopards from the beginning. They went against all their usual patterns of behavior. First, they hunted in groups and second, they chose not to flee, even in front of an overwhelming opponent.
Her mother's instincts screamed, and she instantly turned in Tomas' direction, only to see the giant colossus silently rushing towards her son with a speed that defied his heavy body. Her dream ignited, and against all sense of holding back, she exploded.
Her speed was much slower than what she achieved in the strike she used in her first kill, but luckily, it was enough.
When only one meter separated the powerful front limb of the leopard from Tomas, Artemis arrived. She stomped the creature’s front paw out of the way and landed a quick jab on its nose to disorient the creature, which seemed moderately effective.
Taking a step back, the beast stood up on its rear legs, like a bear, showing all its might.
Looking down at its enemy, the creature soon followed, pouncing down on Artemis with its four frontal limbs and its wide mouth full of teeth even sharper than its claws.
She could easily dodge, but she didn’t. Tomas, crying right behind her, was the reason she didn’t.
Bracing herself, she planted her feet on the ground and readied herself for the impact.
If needed, she would be the shield for her son.
The armored leopard showed no mercy and attacked with all it had. Its mouth was the first to reach her, and its most dangerous weapon, so she held it. In the gaps between her teeth, her right hand held its upper jaw and her left hand the lower one. But that was it. With both of her hands occupied, the beast closed in and stuck its claws into her torso with one pair of limbs while scratching her back with the other pair, leaving very ugly marks.
What was left of her energy storage that was already critical started depleting fast. Way too fast. The energy required to maintain that status quo was just too high, be it for protecting her vitals from the claws or holding its mouth open. She had to do something.
In the middle of all the adrenaline, she strengthened her resolve. She had to finish it now, or she wouldn’t be capable of doing it later. The lack of energy would make it impossible.
It was do or die.
And she wasn’t feeling like dying today, because her little Tomas would die along with her.
If needed, she would be the sword for her son.
Using every speck of energy left in her body, she gave it all in one single, fluid movement. With a warrior battle scream, Artemis opened its mouth to generate the biggest lever possible, and then she turned its head clockwise, while using all her remaining power to kick its rear legs with her left leg, making its body rotate anticlockwise.
With its body rotating in one way and its head in the other, the beast’s limbs went limp, and it fell down still with some of its claws deep in her torso. The snap sound its neck made marked the end of the fight. It was finally over.
With the energy she was generating by the second, Artemis tore the claws out of her body, with a short grunt and losing some blood during the removal. Lying still on the ground and breathing heavily, she smiled. Despite all the trouble and the tense moments, she loved it. The thrill of the battle. Focusing back on the damage she had taken, she started using all the energy generated by her dream to focus on her wounds.
With an air of relief, she looked back at her son.
“Your mom is such a badass, right? So, did you finally manage to cancel it?”
When he turned his face to her, she knew something was wrong. Sobbing and panicked, he answered, “I’m sorry, Mom… sob, sob… I can’t cancel it! No matter what I do it simply doesn’t go back… I need to get away from you, It's coming!!!” Tomas said, and started running.
He knew he needed to put as much distance as he could from her, but fate didn’t let him. One step, two steps, tears started appearing in his eyes, three steps… ten steps. But when he started moving in the middle of this rollercoaster of emotions, he lost his focus for a moment and his control over the dream failed.
Like a dam being breached, a single hole was enough to break it all down, and the moment he lost control, even for a moment, there was no going back. Just like when his father used his power, he saw the world turn white. The familiar heat he always felt when Dalton blasted him was there too, along with the pressure wave, but since his power was a dream, he wasn’t hurt even a little. But despite not suffering, he could feel it. His explosion was way too strong. Much more than anything Dalton had ever used on him.
In the moments it took for his eyes to adjust again (since he didn’t have a dream for that yet), Tomas suffered in fear and hope. “Mom, where are you!” he screamed, walking back in the direction he thought she was. But no answer came.
He screamed again, and no answers came.
And again.
And again.
A few seconds passed with Tomas completely blind and despairing.
By the time his eyes finally adjusted again, his fear went away, and so did his hope. Both were replaced with sadness, in a way he never felt before.
Because lying a couple of meters away was a charred body, completely black, and with zero signs of life. His mother was dead, and he had killed her.