The dagger shattered

Wind swept up snow and scattered it over Lu Heng's burning temples, where it melted into icy water and trickled down his jaw.

He crossed his arms and locked the leopard's skull in place. His forearm muscles strained to their limit, soreness spreading along his muscles and bones to his shoulders. Every time he tightened his hold, his muscles trembled uncontrollably.

He had exerted too much force through his waist and abdomen during the shoulder throw, leaving a dull, pulling pain inside. The old injury in his chest, where the leopard's body had rammed him, ached heavily with every breath. The sweet, metallic taste lingering in his throat would not fade.

The leopard's claws had scraped through gaps in the armor at his waist, leaving several shallow wounds. Cold wind slipped into them, stinging his flesh numb. Thin traces of blood stuck to his clothes and froze stiff.

The Spotted Leopard beneath him had lost most of its strength.

The impact injury from slamming its back against the frozen earth, the chopping wound on its left hind leg, and the wound on the side of its face compounded one another. Every twist of its neck pulled at all its wounds, and blood kept running down its fur.

Scarlet blood soaked the snow beneath it, slowly congealing into dark red ice stains.

It had not given up.

Its slit pupils remained fixed on Lu Heng, its fangs slightly parted and its tongue pressed against its gums. Now and then, it jerked its head in short bursts of strength, struggling futilely to escape.

But its strength kept dwindling, and its four paws gradually kicked feebly against the frozen ground.

Lu Heng knew this was only a brief stalemate.

A wild beast could endure far more pain than a human. It sustained its ferocity on instinct, while he held his body locked through willpower.

A human body exhausted its stamina faster. It was only a matter of time before his arms gave out.

Once his arms loosened, the leopard could turn its head and open its jaws. Those fangs, mere inches away, could bite through his throat in an instant.

He had to end the standoff right here.

He quickly scanned his surroundings from the corner of his eye.

Several meters away, the Bronze Hunting Blade stood slanted in the snow, its blade stained with blood. It was too far away.

His legs were clamped around the leopard's neck, his arms locking its head, and his full weight pressed down on its body. His body was completely tied down. If he shifted even a fraction, his legs would loosen, and the leopard would immediately be able to roll over and counterattack.

He could not reach the hunting blade.

There were no knives hanging at his waist, no machete, no short iron blade.

The Iron Axe was equally impossible to use.

The Iron Axe had a thick, long handle and a heavy head. To draw it and chop, he would have to raise his shoulder and his entire right arm, stretching his upper body considerably.

But right now, both his arms were locked tight around the leopard's neck, his upper body leaning forward flush against its body. All his exertion was concentrated in his arms.

The moment he raised a hand to reach for the axe handle on his back, the force of his arm lock would collapse, and the restraint on its neck would instantly fail.

The Spotted Leopard would immediately break free, turn its head, and bite. That would be courting death.

In this close, body-to-body grapple, the long-handled Iron Axe was useless equipment, of no use at all.

There was no second iron implement available anywhere.

The only usable object left was the Everyday Bone Dagger inside his Tattoo Space.

Ever since he had obtained it, it had never been a weapon for killing enemies.

It was only a tool for small everyday tasks.

He normally used it to shave thin dead branches around the Shelter, peel frozen wild fruit, slice thawed wild vegetable roots and stems, and cut the thin vines binding dry grass. It only cut soft materials like plants, fruit, and vegetables.

Its edge had been ground smooth and thin, slicing soft things cleanly. But Lu Heng had tested it long ago: the bone body withstood pressure extremely poorly. Even stabbing a hard wooden branch would crack it. It simply could not withstand piercing animal hide or contending with a fierce beast's brute strength.

The Spotted Leopard's chest rose and fell faster beneath him, and the fading ferocity in its eyes gathered again.

It could sense Lu Heng's ragged breathing and trembling arm muscles, precisely catching the opening left by the human's exhausted stamina.

The muscles and tendons in its neck tensed as it gathered its last remaining strength, preparing to jerk its head, twist sideways, and roll over to break the neck lock completely.

Lu Heng went along with it.

He deliberately eased the tightening pressure of his arms, relaxing his forearms slightly and leaving a sliver of space in the neck lock, intentionally exposing a gap in his defense.

The Spotted Leopard immediately seized the opportunity.

Its back arched sharply, and its waist twisted sideways with all its strength. Every ounce of power in its muscles and bones converged in its waist and back as it focused entirely on throwing off the human pinning it down.

The instant the beast twisted with all its strength to counterattack, all its power concentrated in its waist and back. The flesh along the side of its chest and abdomen stretched taut, the fascia beneath its skin strained to the limit. The soft flesh of its flank was completely undefended, and once that exertion began, it could not stop midway to dodge.

This was his only fleeting chance to strike.

Lu Heng sank his awareness inward and touched the Tattoo Space.

His palm cooled, and the bone dagger settled securely into his hand.

Years of holding the handle to shave branches had polished it smooth and worn away its corners. Dried scraps of wild vegetables and dried fruit juice clung to the blade. The dagger was otherwise clean; it had never touched beast blood.

Its bone body was thin, visibly unable to withstand heavy pressure.

The five fingers of Lu Heng's right hand clenched around the bone handle. Its ridges dug into the broken skin of his palm, and the bone's piercing chill seeped into his flesh.

He lowered his wrist, precisely aligning the narrow blade with the soft spot on the leopard's flank where the hide was thinnest and the organs lay beneath.

He did not raise his arm to gather strength or make any large movement.

Using the momentum of the leopard's twist as its abdominal flesh bulged outward, Lu Heng exhausted the last strength in his right arm and drove the bone dagger straight down.

The thin blade first sliced through a layer of damp, cold, thick leopard fur.

It pierced the surface flesh.

It sank four-tenths of an inch into the flesh before the dense animal sinews and fascia beneath the skin pressed hard against the bone blade, abruptly increasing the resistance.

Fine, whitish cracks instantly spread from the base of the bone dagger's blade.

The leopard beneath him went wild with pain. Its twisting grew abruptly more violent, its body rolling frantically from side to side as it thrashed and struggled.

A brute force driving downward and a tremendous force wrenching sideways pulled against each other, both acting entirely on the fragile bone dagger.

Crack.

The crisp sound of breaking bone rose above the wind and falling snow in the woods.

The entire Everyday Bone Dagger, used for slicing fruit and shaving branches, snapped cleanly at the base of the blade.

Most of the dagger's body flew off under the force, tracing a shallow arc before landing deep in the snow, where falling snow immediately buried it.

Only an inch of narrow, sharp bone at the tip remained. It had already pierced the fascia and was lodged firmly in the muscle of the leopard's abdomen, utterly motionless.

The instant the bone dagger broke, Lu Heng pressed his fingertips hard against the back of the broken blade, his palm never retreating a fraction.

Following the wrenching force of the leopard's rolling, he drove his fingertips inward and gave a vicious sideways twist.

The dull sound of tearing flesh reached his ears clearly.

Scalding beast blood instantly gushed out, splashing over the back of Lu Heng's hand and his forearm. It melted the flecks of snow clinging to his skin, and a heavy, bloody stench rushed into his face.

The inch-long fragment of bone blade was short and sharp. It sliced straight through the abdominal lining and cut the organs inside.

A severe, unmistakably fatal injury to its internal organs.

The Spotted Leopard's entire body suddenly went rigid.

Its arched back instantly sagged, and all the force in its limbs collapsed.

The savage, vicious growl in its throat abruptly turned into a hoarse, feeble whine.

The ferocity in its eyes rapidly faded, its slit pupils lost focus completely, and its attempts to jerk its head and counterattack stopped entirely.

It slumped weakly back into the snow, panting in great gulps. With every inhalation, its abdominal wound caved inward, agonizing pain spread throughout its body, and blood kept welling out through the gap around the broken blade, staining a broad patch of snow red.

Its limbs had lost all strength. It could no longer lift its body, much less counterattack.

Lu Heng still kept both arms locked tight around the leopard, not daring to relax in the slightest.

He lowered his eyes to his right palm.

Only a rough section of broken bone handle remained. Its fractured surface was white, covered in tiny bone fragments and warm beast blood.

The bone dagger that had accompanied him through countless everyday tasks, cutting only plants, fruit, and vegetables, was completely broken.

Only an inch of broken blade remained in the leopard's abdomen, securing his survival in this deadly impasse.

The wind and snow continued. Falling snow slowly covered the blood on the ground, and all that remained in the woods was the leopard's feeble panting and Lu Heng's heavy, steady breathing.