BadCasual Your strategy is probably faster, although more luck reliant. Dodge versus defense tanks.
Was able to do it multiple times in a row without cheat tackle very easily with Solobi, it's freshly caught and then lvled to 12, so didn't need to overgrind and still very consistent.
Farm some gold from mushrooms, buy 8x evasion, 1x accuracy and 5+ defense boosters from the vending machine.
Setup all 8x evasion and keep boosting defense till it's maxed (Leo's first two mon can lower your defense, so you need more than 4).
Optionally boost accuracy to make the 90% DoT skill 100%.
Solobi can survive 1 hit and land a DoT on Leo'slvl 37 mon
Then just spam the healing item if you get hit until you win