Jump to safety

On the rocky quarry, Ryu ran towards the end of the cliff, and with each step, doubt grew in his mind; a primitive instinct yelling, in his head, at him to stop, but the alternative wasn't any better, turn around and face twenty or more rank 1 angry beast.

Ignoring that inner voice in his head, Ryu rushed even faster to the board. At the last and final step, he extended the stride to reach the absolute end of the quarry, to take advantage of each centimeter, then he bent his right knee and kicked the rock down using every little bit of strength he could summon.

The jump was so intense that Ryu practically flew up, gaining height and covering the distance of the gap as his heart, beating fast, prepared to take its own leap; out of Ryu's chest.

In the seconds of the ascent, there was hope and anticipation, but soon he reached the apex of the parabola, and these feelings changed to reluctance and anxiety. Until the movement finally hit the descending part, and according to his calculations, there was a high chance of failure, his face covered with despair, and he began to scream at the top of his lungs.

Ryu landed at the other side of the cliff with his waist hitting the wall hard, but before falling, he managed to grab a bulging rock, and in the end, he couldn't succeed the jump and nearly fell to his death.

Struggling, Ryu endured the pain and managed to climb the cliff despite the intense pain on his belly and legs; it was a close call that left him angry with himself because of his recklessness. On solid ground, he crawled a few meters getting away from the border; five breaths later, and the pain started to subdue, he raised, stretched his back, and sighed in relief, satisfied with a job well done.

For a moment, everything was fine, but then a shadow covered his body, making him turn around to see what could be producing that shadow, but what he saw was an amazing scene yet worrying.

A majestic yellow lizard flying over the cliff, on its skin, fine scales formed a beautiful pattern giving the beast an appearance of toughness, on the legs, a scarlet red stands out from the rest of the body, especially with the long black claw pointing out from each of the four fingers.

...

Meanwhile, Nura reached the village and successfully contacted the inhabitants, and all he had to do was mention Ryu's name to make the people trust him and start to follow his order.

"You should be Leoric, right? Ryu told me to search you and Clark for help." Nura said.

"You are right. I am Leoric. Pleased to meet you, lord Nura. Susan mentioned a horde of rank 1 beasts coming our way, is that true?" Leoric asked worriedly.

"Ryu is working to make the lizards change the route, but there is a chance that some of them will end up here." Nura answered.

"Okay, and what can I do to help?" Leoric asked.

"Clark will lead the men to close the fence, at least enough to hinder the lizards' entrance, and Susan is responsible for taking people to safety inside the houses, but you have a different task. I hope you can show me a position to fight against the lizards that reach; I need a place that allows me to fight one at a time and using only brute force." Nura said.

After thinking for some time, Leoric said he had the perfect place according to Nura's demand, so they went to wait for the lizards' arrival.

...

In the forest, two women follow a group of 9 horned lizards -5 at rank 1 and 4 at rank 0- about half an hour from the village.

"Aim for their legs. There is no need for us to kill them." Luise said.

"Even if you say so, I still can't cause any damage, at this rate, they are going to rampage over the city." Cahya answered, frustrated with her own weakness.

In these past three days, Cahya witnessed the power gap between herself and the others, and despite being one of the disciples from the new batch that made the biggest advancement at the sect, she was not a match for people like Ryu, Nura, and Luise.

"Them go ahead and cut some tree branches to black the way, at the bare minimum, it will slow them down, maybe we can even force them to change their route." Luise said.

As Cahya went forward, Luise paused at the top of a dead trunk with a large bow, the weapon was strange in her small hands, but her eyes display absolute focus and confidence. When a great lizard passed in an opening between two massive trees, Luise released the bow's string making an arrow advance forward with an astonishing speed.

The arrow landed on the great horned lizard's elbow, making it contort in pain, and a second later, the reptile resumed its running, but this time much slower as every step with the wounded leg caused the lizard to lose balance.

Luise squinted her eyes while looking at the scene, her breathing started to become heavy, use the bow skill was very taxing for her small body.

...

Back to the quarry, a group of horned lizards falls in the cliff trying to make the cross, others fall, failing to pause in time and slide to their death, but one lizard remained in the air long enough to make the jump.

Ryu saw the horned lizard leader in the air, almost landing on his head. The view from under the 500 Kg beast was at the same time majestic and scary.

In a panic, Ryu pulled a barrier talisman from his ring, but in his rush, he ended pulling not just one but several other talismans, pills, and other stuff. Many different objects appeared around him while he extended his hand in time to conjure the orange barrier.

As the lizard landed on the barrier, a loud sound of cracking spread far in the mountain landscape, Ryu fall rolling to one side while the lizard went to the other, the barrier saved his life, but it couldn't hold the impact of the big lizard landing and stay intact.

Immediately, he raised to face the mother, the great lizard had eyes of furry, when Ryu broke the egg, in her mouth, she lost reason and abandoned everything to kill Ryu.

With this, Ryu's plan failed another time, he wasn't expecting that a lizard would manage to make the jump, but it happened anyway. At this moment of tension, Ryu stared at the angry lizard, trying to calm down and preparing mentally for the fight. This will not be an easy fight, and to have any chance of living, he would have to fight with everything.