Ryu swept his glaive forward with all his might.
The change was too sudden. The beast had been certain that Ryu's inner organs would have shattered after forcibly stopping a full powered strike midway. But, not only did that not happen, Ryu's speed suddenly shot upward again, causing him to appear behind the far more important and powerful hind leg.
While injuring a front leg would have hindered the Fire Tiger to some extent, the loss would have only been around five or ten percent. But, the loss of a hind leg would cause a drastic fall upward of maybe even thirty percent!