Son of a Hunter

17

The Creature leaped into view just thirty feet from Leon's position. Leon was startled at the sight of it. He had seen lions before at the zoo he had been once on a vacation, but this thing was bigger than even those huge males he saw. The claws looked like they could rend pure steel, and the mouth was the size of his whole head times three. This thing made the Minotaur look like Bessie the cow.

It let out a low growl and then snarled when it caught his scent. Leon was crouched behind a tree, and he notched an arrow to firing position. He glanced out to see the creature was still sniffing out his position, though it clearly had smelled him due to the large amount of snarling it was doing. Leon studied it for a moment, trying to figure out the best place to put his shot.

His father had once taught him that the best place to put the bullet was just a little below the shoulder blade. That way, it penetrated several major organs and would mean an immediate, merciful kill. Leon guessed that this might be the same way with mythological, overgrown kittens. And he knew that this bow could be just as deadly as his rifle.

Leon slowly raised himself to a standing position, and carefully brought his bow to aim on the now closer Nemean Lion. The creature was slightly turned away from him, sniffing the air and still snarling. Leon took a deep breathe and released his arrow. The shot was perfect.

But the impact was not. The arrow hit exactly where he wanted it to, but all that happened was the arrow hitting it with a metallic chink, and then bounce off, not even fazing the creature. But it did get it's attention, which was exactly what Leon did not want.

"What the-!"

He did not have much time to swear, for the lion had reared up on it's haunches and launched itself at his tree. Leon managed to run out of the way just in time, and the lion missed him by a mere foot. He managed to see it rake it's claws against the tree, and huge tears were ripped int it, making the tree groan under the pressure, since a lot of it's lower portion was just swiped away. But it just barely managed to stay up. Not that Leon had time to register this, as he was whirling around to face the creature.

The lion had been able to twist itself around and be facing him directly as it landed. Leon was just able to fire an arrow right into it's face, and again, though he hit it right between the eyes, it still bounced right off. And then the Lion leaped again, and this time, he had no time to dodge. He had just enough time to bring his bow up and fall with the lion's weight o top of him, with it's limbs, thankfully, surrounding him. Leon was on the ground, with a thousand pounds of cat on top of him.

When he brought his bow up to defend his face, the lion's jaws had clamped down upon it. And so here he was, beneath the creature, with his bow locked within it's mouth to keep it away from his throat, and the lion struggling to get that hated piece of enchanted wood out of it's mouth. And it must have been enchanted, since the lion should have easily snapped it in half with jaws those powerful.

Leon grunted with the weight of the creature's mouth pushing down on him. Options were running pretty low right now. And when options run low, so does your chance of living through your current situation. Leon racked his brain with anything he could think of. His friends were forbidden to help him, though he would probably be dead by the time they arrived. He could probably try to kick the lion off, but that would be virtually impossible. Then an idea came to him. It was a very painful idea, physically at least. He kept one hand on the bow, allowing the lion to slowly win their little pushing match. And then he got one of his knives out.

He positioned it just right, and then he let go of the bow...

Leon could not help but scream as he felt the Lion's teeth dig into his arm. His hand and knife had disappeared into the mouth of the lion, and it whimpered once in pain. It gave some meager struggles, and then went limp. But it also rested half of it's weight on him, which made it very difficult for Leon to push it off of him, especially with a torn and bleeding arm. But Leon gritted his teeth and let out only a loud grunt of pain when he pushed it off. He cradled his wounded limb next to his chest, and he reached down to remove the knife still sticking out of the lion's mouth. He sheathed it and then reacquired his bow, sliding it along his shoulders, on his back. He took one last look at the corpse of the "vastly overgrown pussy cat" he just slew. And to his shock and amazement, it disintegrated in a shower of gold dust, leaving only a long lion skin cloak. Leon picked it up but had no time to admire it, as he was starting to grow faint from the injury to his arm.