[1st POV]
The hippo charged at me, this time no longer opening his mouth. He was trying to flatten me, crush me and turn me into red paste with sheer mass alone.
The scary part was that he could.
He didn't need his powerful jaw to kill me when he was nearly ten times heavier than me. The difference between us was like a man fighting a one-year-old baby.
The man could very well kill the baby by accident alone.
The only advantage I had was speed.
Even now, as I waited for him to reach me, it felt like forever to my heightened senses. He might as well just wait for me to die of old age.
When he finally reached me, he threw his head up like a rhino with horns. He flipped dirt into the air in his arc. I moved to the side, running quickly past him while I tried to land a hit on his eye area.
My claws missed.
The hippo roared in anger, trying to catch my end using a bite, but I was already behind him by then.
The ground shook as his bulk thundered to a stop. And then he turned.
His turn radius was awful.
That was a great disadvantage but not really a weakness when I couldn't exploit his slow movement. His thick hide armored him too well; my only hope was the underbelly.
He had too much weight, too much inertia. He skidded slightly as he tried to pivot, his hooves tearing up wet soil. His body lagged behind his head like a train derailing.
Instead of attacking, I used the time to find more weaknesses to exploit. If you consider yourself a student of war, you must study the enemy.
When he faced me again, I could see steam coming off his body. His eyes looked narrow and he was completely enraged at my attempt to gouge his eyes. He was not only big. Size meant age in the animal kingdom, and this hippo was aged enough to be smart.
I don't think I will get another chance so easily.
But the steam coming off his body hinted at something crucial. I was not trapped by how dangerous he looked with all the steam. My mind went elsewhere.
A hippo wasn't built to fight like this on land.
It was a water animal. Most of his biological design was made with water in mind. That meant his body depended heavily on water to keep itself cool.
And with his sheer size, I reckoned he'd be the easiest beast to tire among all my prey.
I grinned.
He didn't like that.
So he charged again, this time he was much slower and his head bobbed left to right as if ready to react if I tried to sidestep him again.
Good, that wouldn't matter.
Because I'm not going to run this time.
I'm gonna run.
Well, not exactly run, since he could just turn his attention back to the injured calf to kill them. But I was going to move back and try to tire him out while leading him to a different landscape.
I moved back and threw a jab when he reached me. I aimed for the eyes once more, but even after all my training, my precision was lost to anxiety and danger from his jaw.
I continued to move back, sometimes turning around completely to create more distance. But I never went far enough for him to give up. I stayed close enough to always give him hope that he might catch me if he continued to push forward.
His jaw opened once more, his teeth curving like a white arc. He swung his head like so, completely hiding his eyes so I couldn't even land a hit.
A chain of growls left my throat, and he too released a deep vibration of a bellow.
When he stopped his advance and was about to turn to something else, I tried my luck by jabbing quickly at his open mouth. My claw entered his mouth, raking at the pinkish soft gum.
I pulled out a tear while quickly pulling back my arm. His jaw snapped shut, nearly catching my paw. If he had anticipated that, I would've had no arm for sure.
He continued his advance even more aggressively. Soon enough we were out of the vicinity of the lake and the hippo kicked up a cloud of sand in his charge.
I really did everything I could, throwing sand in his mouth in the hopes that he might choke on it. It was a silly attempt, but it was all I had to keep his attention and anger drawn to me.
When I found a rather large rock, I threw it at his mouth and he clamped down so violently that the rock exploded, sending splinters that hit my face.
Yeah, definitely didn't want to be bitten by death. He could probably bite me in half.
But as we continued more onto the dry sand, a cloud of dust began rising between us. I could still see somewhat. I was a predator made to thrive in the dry savannah.
But he was made to live near water or in water.
My vision won.
When he snapped his mouth shut for another bite, I clawed at his snout. I used all my strength and the weight of my upper body to pull his head down a little. His neck muscle was strong enough to move his bulbous head, but it couldn't fully resist my action.
That left the eye exposed and also gave me ample time to land a clean hit.
A swipe of my other claw and blood poured from his right eye. He buckled under the pain and shock, but in a way that pushed him forward.
He pushed forward, his snout crashing into my abdomen and then he threw his head up. My whole body went with it.
I was flung into the air like a ragdoll, high enough to escape the cloud of smoke. The sheer surprise made me unable to land elegantly like a cat would. Instead, I crashed on solid ground, my growl turning into a groan.
Before I could get up, I saw a dark titanic figure emerge from the smoke. An angry bull hippo, charging right at me. The smoke seemed to wrap around his body, making it look like he punched through air itself.
"Come on!!" I roared, grabbing his upper and lower jaw with both my paws.
His maw snapped shut again and again in a collision of crushing force. But I kept myself away from between them. He continued to push forward, my back carving lines in the ground. My claws came out, latching onto his soft flesh so that I didn't lose hold.
If I let his mouth go, I was crushed meat.
He continued to use me as an object to plow the ground. His mouth kept colliding, but seeing that he couldn't bite me, he opted to open his jaw widely and then tried to spear me with his long tusks.
It worked as the smaller upper tusk stabbed into my upper chest and the inside of my shoulder. Blood came out, I roared in agony and panic. I couldn't do much but always push myself away from the real danger, which was the bite.
I curled my body, flexibility coming in clutch. I used my hind legs to grab hold of his lower jaw so I could free one of my front paws. My back continued to be grazed on the ground, the sand slowly turning red as my hide peeled from friction.
When I had my other paw free, I began raking at his inner mouth. My claws were able to cause serious damage to the gums. I reached deeper, tearing at his teeth, the inside of his cheek, the roof of his jaw. Anything I could grab, I ripped.
Blood dripped onto my chest. My blood mixing with his.
Then he finally snapped his mouth shut. The tusk that was impaled in my chest ripped through, plucking out a chunk of flesh and perhaps my collarbone.
But that was far from my concern.
Because his titanic jaw clamped down on my arm.
I flexed my muscles, curling my arm to resist the crushing force but it didn't matter. I felt my bone being crushed. My hind legs continued to anchor on his lower jaw.
So as he bit down, I tried my best to resist the pressure of his clamp.
After he got a good bite, he lifted my whole body and began shaking me in the air. He made me seem like I didn't weigh half a ton, more like half a kilogram.
I gritted my teeth and clamped down on his nose. That only made him rampage more and he became heavier.
I felt my bone snap. The flare of pain made my eyes go completely red before they whitened in rage.
My hind legs slipped, my claws tearing out of his lips and raking down a line. My teeth also pulled out a chunk of flesh and fat.
The hippo screamed in pain. I used that moment to quickly pull my arm free and crawl away from him.
I got up and ran, limping. The bone in my arm was cracked and undoubtedly broken.
The hippo, after tasting blood, chased after me. I did not even have to fight for his attention or anger. I was still faster than he was, but seeing me limp had driven his aggression to its peak.
He'd catch me eventually.
But not before we reached a slope and uneven ground. It was the same location I had been aiming for all this time.
I nursed my broken arm by curling it near my chest and then I turned suddenly. I stood on my hind legs and jumped over his charging body.
His top frame still managed to catch me midair, causing me to spin and flip before crashing again onto the ground, unable to land properly with only three limbs.
I picked myself up quickly, my mind raging and my body revived by a burst of strength. While he came to a slow stop and did an even slower turn, I crashed into the side of his body.
My shoulder slam, enough to topple a pickup truck, was not enough to make him fall.
But the hippo stumbled.
And stumbled.
His hooves missing their firm plant on the uneven ground. A small stumble of steps turned into a rapid attempt to catch himself. I lunged again, aiming even lower. Adrenaline forced my broken arm into action.
I gripped at his underbelly with both paws and then flipped him like rolling a giant log. The hippo released a loud bellow when it realized it had lost balance.
And for a hippo, a loss of balance was a loss of hope.
The hippo fell, exposing his fat underbelly.
He opened his jaw wide and lifted it to the side, trying to attack, but it was no use. His stubby legs were too small to kick like a horse or even a buffalo as they flailed helplessly.
I applied weight to the side of his body, making it impossible for him to turn. His head tried to reach for me, shaking wildly and beating the ground with loud thuds.
A hippo would struggle to right itself alone. With my constant pressure, he couldn't do shit.
A meat in a pot.
"My turn,"
I began carving my rage on his underbelly.
..
..
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------