I thought about it, but had no time to reach a conclusion, because the lizard was already right in front of me.
"Roar!"
With an explosive roar, the mutant lizard swung its enormous claw, carried forward by the momentum of its charge.
Instead of dodging this attack as I usually did, I lashed out with my tail!
"Come on, you little punk! Whoever chickens out is a loser!"
"Roar!"
My tail whipped straight at it, slamming viciously into the mutant lizard's claw.
"Boom!"
An explosive crash rang out. An enormous force surged through my tail, wrenching my body backward. The sheer power nearly
snapped my waist. To keep myself
from losing my balance, I crouched down and plunged my left hand into the ground. The five sharp exoskeletal finger sheaths scraped across the earth with a series
of rattling
sounds, carving five long furrows into the ground.
The tremendous impact left my tail a little numb, but the monster clearly hadn't gotten off lightly either. Of its four fingers,
one had been completely snapped,
hanging limply between the others, while the nail on its thumb had shattered outright. Blood bubbled out through the cracks
in the nail.
"Heh heh heh..."
Looking at that enormous lizard, for the first time... the very first time, I had used my own body's strength to keep pace with their
evolution.
The instant the sensation of that collision reached my brain, a wave of pleasure washed through my entire body!
"Hahahahaha! That felt good!"
I sprang to my feet and looked at the mutant lizard. There was a trace of shock in its eyes now, but far more anger.
It looked at its fingers, then let out
an explosive roar at me.
"Roar!"
"Come on, you little bitch!"
"Awooo—roar!"
**"Whoever chickens out is a loser!