This is more of a punchline than an actual fight, but it shows just how much of a threat Ui can be when she’s cornered. Late in episode 11, after everyone else has exhausted themselves with far more intense battles, Ui and Eruza are the only ones who still have the strength to move. As Brute Rabbit, Ui doesn’t stand a chance against Eruza’s cheetah powers. After all, she’s spent most of her time in the Destroyale digging tunnels and hiding from anyone who could hurt her.

But when Eruza starts to chase after her, Ui trips and accidentally somersault kicks the cheetah girl in the face, successfully knocking her out. Although it’s rare in nature, even rabbits can sometimes prevail over their predators with this tactic. And since the two of them were the last fighters standing, Ui ends up as the winner of the Destroyale! Not bad for a bunny.

We don’t get to see much of Brute Porcupine, but she certainly makes an impact. In episode 2, she tricks our hapless protagonist Nomoto into staring at her boobs, and then immediately stabs him in the leg with a porcupine needle. This injury confines Nomoto to crutches for the remainder of the series, but in the moment it alerts Hitomi to the presence of another Brute she can beat the shit out of.

This fight shows off Hitomi’s toughness and resilience, as well as her main strategy of tanking the first attacks from her opponents so that she can learn how they work. Her honey badger hide (or ratel hide, if you want to sound less meme-y) protects her from the porcupine needles, so she’s free to slash the spiny flasher to bits as soon as she gets the chance.

Killing Bites is skilled at managing complicated fight choreography, as can be seen in episode 3’s race through the streets with Hitomi, Ui, and the Horned Lizard girl. Hitomi joins the battle at a later point, once Ui has been chased into a narrow alleyway by a terrifying therianthrope who can shoot blood from her eyes. Hitomi brazenly fights back, but keeps being struck with blood from somewhere she can’t see. What’s going on?

Just then, Ui uses her superior hearing to detect that there’s a second lizard person hiding in the bushes behind the first one, and Hitomi goes in for the kill. This is the first fight where Hitomi works together with anyone else, and it pays off so well for her that she agrees to join the Destroyale team with Ui and Okajima. As a taste of the fantastic battles yet to come in the tournament, this fight is an enticing first course.

Brute Tiger is a force to be reckoned with, and he won’t let anyone forget it. In a standoff between members of the four different teams of the Desroyale in episodes 5 and 6, he takes out the competition in seconds with just a few well-placed strikes. The jungle locale is familiar turf to him and only serves to enhance his explosive power and devastating claws.

Unfortunately, Tiger’s overwhelming victory is cut short when his collar beeps and forces him to retreat. An injured Crocodile latches onto him, stopping him in his tracks and starting the countdown until the collar blows up from lack of compliance and kills them both. That’s a pretty crafty tactic for a show where the sharpest fangs always win! Luckily Hippopotamus butts in and forces them away from each other before the timer reaches zero.

The first real show of power from best boi Brute Pangolin is quite the brutal sight to behold. In episode 7, his first act after joining the fray is to punch Crocodile straight through the head without even breaking a sweat. This is one of the first gory deaths of the series, and Pangolin rubs it in even further by pounding the corpse into mush so it would “make good fertilizer”.

Pangolin (aka Kido) is very protective of the environment, especially trees and specific kinds of flowers. In fact, when his own teammate Gorilla gets so blinded by rage that he tears down about a dozen trees, Pangolin unceremoniously rips him in half for his insolence. This. Man. Has. No. Chill.

This anime has some incredibly nasty villains filling out its roster. Not only are they immoral mercenaries who murder for funsies, but some of them are also serial rapists. Yikes! But since Hitomi herself is also a largely immoral mercenary who murders for funsies, they probably had to bring out the big guns to make her look sparkly clean by comparison.

Two of the most despicable villains are Brutes Cobra and Gecko, who use their reptilian powers to sexually prey on anyone weaker than they are. In episodes 5 and 6, Hitomi and Eruza put aside their differences to team up against these scaly monsters. It’s an intense battle, utilizing as much of the terrain as possible and showing off some impressive size differences between Hitomi and the fully transformed Cobra. But of course, the most satisfying part has to be when she slices his disgusting dick off right before he can touch her. That’ll teach him!

Hitomi and Taiga are the two most headstrong and determined characters in the entire show, so when they finally meet in mortal combat in episode 8, it’s one of the most intense battles Killing Bites has to offer. Even though Eruza and Civet are still standing, they choose to stay out of this clash because they know that the combination of ratel and tiger rage would be way too much for them to keep up with.

Tiger is the more experienced fighter, but Hitomi is able to keep up with him surprisingly well considering how much the players doubt her abilities. But Nomoto takes a stand and shows that he believes in her, and Hitomi uses that trust to finally prove to Tiger that her victory over Leo wasn't just a fluke. She’s the real deal, and he’s going to have to use every bit of his power if he wants to have even a hope of taking her down.

Speaking of Hitomi’s battle with Leo, let’s go back to the very first episode of Killing Bites and take a look at the fight that started it all. In a desolate junkyard, Hitomi faces off against one of the most powerful therianthropes in the country – the Brute Lion, Leo. At first it looks like Hitomi’s honey badger abilities won’t stand a chance against the mighty feline king, but her undying determination and fearsome drive is not to be underestimated.

She chomps off three of Leo’s claws (including the paw attached to each one) with her fangs and breaks his arm so badly that he can’t participate in the Destroyale. The harsh lights of the arena accentuate their vicious attacks and help set the stage for what the rest of Killing Bites has to offer. It doesn't matter who’s the strongest – the one with the sharpest fangs wins.

Okay, so this battle is pretty short, but it’s so hardcore that it deserves to be this high on the list. In episode 9, we finally get to see Kido’s animal form. He’s a pangolin, which is a kind of spiny anteater. That doesn’t sound very threatening, but the narration is quick to point out that the pangolin is the only animal that has scales so strong that no natural weapon can penetrate them. Combine that with a man who is 300lbs of solid muscle and you have nothing less than a killing machine.

When Tiger lunges at him and slashes out his eye, Pangolin promptly rips his opponent’s arm clean off. He then stabs Hippopotamus through the stomach when he tries to intervene, and then does the same thing to Tiger. All of this happens in the span of about five minutes, demonstrating how much of an unstoppable juggernaut Pangolin really is. Does Hitomi even stand a chance?

The climactic fight of Killing Bites is easily the most vicious and brutal bout that this anime has to offer. Luckily, it’s also the most interesting fight in terms of character development as well. We get some intriguing backstory on both Hitomi and Kido, showing us that both of them were hated and abandoned for most of their lives. Kido’s segment is especially good, since it’s short and just detailed enough to provoke an emotional reaction and explain his motivation.

Hitomi kicks Pangolin, in his rolled up ball form, into a bed of flowers that just happen to be the exact same kind that he associates with his absent mother. This trauma builds up so much rage in him that he slices Hitomi’s arm off and punctures her chest with his tail. Through sheer honey badger determination, she stands back up, throws her own chopped off arm at his eye, ducks into his blind spot, and stabs him right through the head with her other arm! If that’s not vicious, we don’t know what is.