Three bullies once again

Ryu waited patiently while Cahya collected the prize, she came descending the mountain with a grin on her face. The young woman approached with a handful of feathers in her hand, she placed herself in front of Ryu extending one hand with a share of the gains, she had profited largely from his help so she was not feeling okay to have all the reward for herself.

However, he rejected the offer since he got the reward he was aiming for, Cahya would probably get more exp than he would from this quest's day, but he was fine with that. He used a lot of time to think about sect master Enlil's piece of advice and concluded that his rushing to level up fast had taken all the joy of cultivating, thus he decided to do things at a pace which he can feel better with himself and enjoy his progression.

At first, Cahya tried to protest, but she gave up eventually and both went back to the sect walking slowly in a relaxed mood, she inquired him about the leather armor that saved him from the wolf claws and was impressed when he said it was from a beast he defeated himself, they were covering the path back without even noticing.

They were leaving the mountain range entering the forest that leads to the sect when the sound of people talking draw their attention, Ryu grabbed Cahya pulling her to the side to hide behind a tree, a habit he got from Leoric. Every sound or movement Leoric felt, his reaction was to hide and peek, judge the situation, evaluate the threat, and just then he took action, be it fight, hide or run.

With this in mind, Ryu dragged Cahya behind a tree, he moved quickly and silently to get a position where he could look to see who was there in order to judge the danger, even knowing they were humans and probably cultivators from the sect, Ryu would still act cautious, Leoric had taught him to not trust people recklessly.

Positioning in a way to not get caught he saw three men sitting against a tree, drinking alcohol and talking loudly, he knew these three men, they were the group that attacked Nura and robbed him on their first day at the sect. He decided to avoid the group, make a detour and reach the sect without dealing with this problematic trio, it would cost him time, something he has in abundance.

However, Ryu was not counting on Cahya's inexperience, she approached Ryu from his back, extended her head, and said softly.

"What is it? Why are you sneaking like this?" she said doing her best to keep her voice down, but her inexperience gave her away. Cahya heard human voices and let her guard down, she was completely oblivious about the evil of humans.

As soon as Cahya finished asking, silence took over, the three men raised looking in Ryu's direction. He thought to run with Cahya, but this would not work, these guys are much stronger and would catch them in no time, so he said to Cahya to keep behind and say nothing.

In response, the three criminals raised and came after Ryu, the small one on the lead gave a mischievous smile the moment he saw Ryu, a pungent odor of alcohol took over the place when he got near.

"Look guys, it is our little friend from the sect, the one that brought us a vault that time, do you remember him?" the small one approached placing his hand on Ryu's shoulders.

"And he brought his girlfriend to the forest, you were having fun here, don't ya?" a larger man said from behind the group of three.

"This is not fair, you are having fun with a woman while we were drinking alone, come here babe have fun with us." The small one right beside Ryu said while grabbing Cahya by the wrist and pulling her from behind Ryu.

"Enough, I will give you money so you can drink to your hearts content, let us go." Ryu said extracting a bag of spirit stones from his ring, it was enough money to drink for months.

"Dooooo youuuuu think weeee aare beggars hasking for money." the third of the men said slapping Ryu's hand making the bag fall on the floor, from his slurred way of speaking it was obvious that this man was the more intoxicated from the group.

"NOO, stop, release me." Cahya yelled fighting with the small man while he was hugging her and pulling her robes,

In an instinct move, Ryu stepped in their direction but he immediately felt a large palm in his chest pushing him back, the big one appeared to hold him down, the difference in strength was massive, Ryu felt his body going backward and he could provide no resistance at all.

"Stop there buddy, if you wish I can give you a beating." the big man spoke to Ryu with a spiteful smile on his face.

Instead of confronting, Ryu lowered his hands offering no resistance, meanwhile, the small man was trying to subdue Cahya by force, and the young woman was yelling to release her. In Cahya's struggle, she released one hand and throw it into the small man's face slapping his cheek with a loud and shrill sound that echoed far.

With an angry face, the small man massaged his face, he looked at Cahya and slapped her with all his strength sending her to the ground, then he turned to the big man beside Ryu.

"You grab that bitch arms, I will teach her a lesson." the small man said angrily.

Promptly, the big man kneeled on the floor grabbing Cahya's hands while the small man knelled tearing her robes, they left the drunk man to kept watch over Ryu, but this man was much more interested to watch the action than actually keep vigilance.

Suppressing his anger, Ryu was left standing with his head lowered, which the three men mistook by cowardice on his part, But the reality was that Ryu was thinking in a plan to act, he was about to face three stronger opponents at once, jump ahead with chest wide open would bring nothing, he needs to act with intelligence and make every move count.

Since he was much weaker than all the three he was bound to lose in a fair fight, but the three had their guards low and they have forgotten about his presence thinking he would never be able to act. He assessed the danger to act: one of the men was dead drunk, from all the three he was the weakest; the bigger one was the stronger, he offers a great danger in a fight; the third one was the leader, he was the leader of the group and the one responsible to make the decision.

For the next action Ryu had just one chance, he opened the system's tab and place all the 10 remaining stats points he had available in agility. His build had become a complete mess, his stats were totally unbalanced with the agility stats going to 40 points, but it was the only option Ryu saw, he will go for one strike, success or failure will be decided in a single movement.

Under Cahya's cries, Ryu's body bent forward to enter action.