Akrab did not charge. One claw guarded the cracked side of its face while the other remained extended, ready to intercept anything Kael brought within reach. Its tails shifted above its back, and green blood continued running beneath the eye that struggled to open.
Kael watched those movements while frost crept across his left gauntlet and fire flickered over his right. The creature had spent most of the fight pursuing something it expected to kill. Now it was protecting a wound, watching his hands, and reconsidering whether closing the distance was worth the pain.
He could work with that hesitation. Every moment Akrab spent guarding itself gave him more time to choose an attack. It might keep its claws closer, commit less readily, or interrupt a charge to protect the damaged shell. Any of those changes would give him something beyond another desperate dodge.
