Now, Meta had no idea that the lion actually had the mind of a person, but based on it's behaviour it seemed more intelligent than a lion should be. Normally when being attacked by a lion, you were supposed to look big and shout at it, but Meta had a feeling that this wouldn't work. Instead he chose to fight back. Normally fighting a lion would be impossible, but Meta wasn't an ordinary human.
The Lion went for his legs, so Meta jumped back to avoid the claws, then charged forward and tried to ram him with his shoulder, turning to steel so that he would outweigh the lion. He didn't want to injure the lion too badly, maybe just discourage him enough to make him run away.