Great horned Lizard

As Ryu and the great horned lizard face each other with hostility, a bunch of stuff extracted from Ryu's ring lays on the floor not far from them, among these are the recently stolen egg that fell his hand when the barrier shattered and Ryu fall to the side.

Close to the egg, almost touching it, a stone round in shape, glowing in a myriad of colors, started to react with the egg's presence. On the stone surface, waves of light run across the stone, starting from the point more distant from the egg to the closest point, displaying a flow of energy happening inside.

At first, the white egg showed no reaction, but a few seconds later, it started to shake, a golden dot appeared on the withe egg surface. With time, the golden dot expanded slowly, covering the whole extent of the shell, turning it into a golden egg.

As the egg changed color, the stone fading, its beautiful and mysterious colors were gone leaving behind a regular gray rock no different from the many other in the mountain landscape.

Then the egg stopped shaking, but when it looked like the transformation was over, faint black stripes appeared on the egg, if one looks closer, those stripes were composed of densely packed inscriptions.

No one saw this transformation, as Ryu and the lizards were focused facing each other, preparing for their clash. If Ryu had seen the stone reacting with the egg, he would not let it happen, as the stone was one of the rewards he received from the system itself, the primal stone.

Despite not having any immediate plan to use the primal stone, and not even having a clear understanding of its uses, he knew the object was extremely valuable. So he planned to safeguard it for later use, for a time when he had an opportunity to use the stone with its full potential. Instead, the stone reacted with the egg of a beast whose full potential was the peak of rank 1.

Fortunately, Ryu didn't saw it happening, otherwise, it would have affected his mental state, distracting him from a fight against an angry beast trying to kill him.

Under the light of the sunset, two opponents face each other, waiting for a mistake to advance. Ryu tightened the grip on the hilt of his sword, preparing for the lizard's advancement.

In order to steal the egg and draw the mother attention, Ryu used the vanishing raindrop steps twice, so in his best estimates, he had three other uses of this technique, be it to escape from a dangerous situation or land a critical attack only time would reveal the best use of his trump card.

As the tension raised, the mother lizards couldn't hold her anger anymore, and she made the first move, launching her powerful tongue against Ryu. But he did not fall for this simple straight attack, he dodged aside, rotating his body, and used the opportunity to move away from the cliff board, he was determined to not fight with his back against the fall, no matter what.

However, the lizard had a similar plan, as soon as Ryu started to move, she leaped in the direction he was heading with her front arm raised to sent a claw attack. That was not the behavior expected from a beast acting on sheer instinct, but the one expected from an experienced hunter cornering his prey.

To protect himself, Ryu used the sword in a vertical position to parry the lizard's claw, summoning the strength of the mountain to harden his stance, making the blow land on the blade of the sword, pushing Ryu back. Thanks to the martial skill, Ryu was able to hold on to his feet, otherwise, he would have fallen back, exposing himself to another attack.

Trying to take advantage of the moment, the lizard lowered its head to send a thrusting attack using its two black curved horns. That was the strongest attack the horned lizard has, is from where its name is derived, to parry a thrusting sword is already very difficult since this type of attack relies on speed which makes timing critical to defend. But, parry a thurst from a beast with seven folds your bodyweight is suicide.

Acting accord to the martial skill, Ryu leaped back to open distance, but the lizard pressed forward, making him keep retreating, and it wasn't long until Ryu feel that he was reaching a board of the cliff. If he had not dropped all the talismans on his panicked act of retrieving them to protect from the falling lizard, it would be an amazing time to use one.

Since regret would not save his life, Ryu prepared to make a swift leg movement according to the martial skill to skip the horn and escape to the lizard side. When the horn came his way, Ryu grabbed it by the tip, pushing it to the side at the same time that he rotates his body to let the horn pass empty.

However, the horn still passed scratching his belly. As the horn went all the way, Ryu's leather armor had a rip exposing part of Ryu's skin. That armor made from the skin of a beginning rank 1 beast was not enough to hold against the power of the mother horned lizard, but it managed to save his life one last time.

The escape movement proceeded, not so swiftly as expected, but, it worked anyway, and Ryu found himself into a position of advantage, considering that the lizard couldn't attack or protect itself from the side. So, Ryu raised his sword above his head and prepared to bring it down, summoning the power of the wind to slice the lizard in half with a single slash.

At least this was what Ryu was expecting to happen, but as the sword started to go down, a move on his peripheral vision got his attention, and thanks to the enhanced vision Ryu was able to change the focus of his view to see it.

Comming his way was the lizard's tail, powerfully moving toward his back. In his inexperience, Ryu forgot about the lizard tail and acted recklessly at the lizard side.

Thus he had two options, accept the blow on his back, trading it with a slash on the lizard's back, or give up on his attack and go for an evading, but for that, he would have to use the vanishing raindrop steps.

As the tail came, Ryu vanished from his place, reappearing at the other side of the lizard a single moment later, close to its neck, and the tail passed empty, making the great lizard topple to the side.

In the end, Ryu decided to use the skill and dodge the blow. He was not the type of person to go all out from the very beginning, if a chance to evade and avoid damage exists, he would act in accordance with that principle, even if it means prolonging the fight.