Lufis POV

The sound of my heartbeat in my head pulsing forced me to take a deep breath.

“Lufis. Do. Not. Move. If we stay still it may not attack us.” Edward said through his ragged breath.

“I figured that one out quickly. Using , I might be able to escape it. Do you know how fast this thing can move?”

“Lucky for us, a shizishou cub is not very fast. I have no idea how fast you can run, but it can only run as fast as an average adult male who is not using any strengthening buffs.”

Edward paused, taking a deep breath.

“There is only one problem with this plan.” He swallowed, taking a ragged breath. “I can’t use . Look, I have a plan. I will distract its attention for a moment. I need you to then run and -”

He flinched as the shizishou cub took another step, growling deeply.

He slowly turned his head toward me, before taking a deep breath.

“Don’t worry about me, I still have a trick up my sleev-”

He flinched again taking a step back as the monster took another step forward, drool from its mouth landing on the misty ground.

Edward lifted his right hand slowly as his left hand reached into his pocket.

His right hand raised until it was at a ninety degrees angle. He held up three fingers.

Think Lufis!! What are you supposed to do!

I scanned my eyes on the surroundings. The small clearing was surrounded by bushes on one side, from where Edward and I had come from. The boulders were ruled out, they were behind the shizishou. Behind me was the cliff. I couldn’t see down into it, so jumping down there would be suicidal. That left the area to the right of me. It was a mix of boulders, moss and trees. The mist made it impossible to see how far it went, but it should lead to the waterfall.

Two fingers. The shizishou seemed to be getting bored of the statue game. It dropped to its hind, getting ready to pounce.

What is the best way out of this situation? We need to head to the top of the waterfall so we can hopefully, no, so that we can meet up with Elder Luidong.

One finger. Edward’s left hand clasped something in his pocket as the shizishou’s tail began to swing, its back muscles coiling for its pounce. The monster was having fun with the pregame warm up, but was quickly losing interest in the game.

I can’t leave Edward behind. That is not an option. Looks like there is only one way to do this.

Zero.

The instant the shizishou began to pounce, Edward flings something from his pocket to his left as hard as he can. I sprint forward, maximizing the strength of as much as I can. The shizishou twists in midair, changing course for the object, its attention drawn away momentarily from Edward.

“DID YOU HAVE TO CARRY ME LIKE THIS!” Edward screamed over the roar of the waterfall as I sprinted with him in my arms.

“SHUT UP! EVEN USING IT IS HARD TO CARRY YOU WHILE OUTRUNNING A MONSTER THAT WANTS TO PLAY TAG WITH US! THIS IS THE EASIEST WAY TO CARRY YOU!” I shouted over the roar of the waterfall.

Running, I sprinted through the mossy earth, jumping over boulders. Tree branches whipped my face, making it even harder to see with the foggy mist. I kept running, not knowing how far the shizishou was behind us.

I skidded to a halt as I reached the edge of a stone drop. The steep edges crumbled as I barely managed to not fall down the rock slope.

I looked around quickly, looking for the fastest way around the crumbling rock slope. This seemed like a little rock valley carved by the steady flow of water over time. One edge of the crater connected to the canyon down below, and a stream gurgled at the bottom of the crater before falling into the canyon.

“Lufis! Why did you stop? This would have been nice about three hours earlier when we were climbing up this mountain. Lufis. Lufis. Hey Lufis. LUFIS. LUFIS! THE MONSTER IS RIGHT BEHIND US JUST GO!! IT IS LITERALLY RIGHT BEHIND US!!! JUST FUCKING GO!!!”

I skidded down the edge of the rock edge, gritting my teeth as rock shards flew up, cutting my legs. Edward was screaming something incomprehensible as I concentrated on not dropping him or rolling to my death.

“By the way Edward,” I shouted, “What the hell did you throw to distract the shizishou?”

“Does it really matter?”

“Just tell me!!”

“Yeesh, fine. I threw a-”

Just as I reached the bottom, my left foot got caught on a rock and we fell. Edward was flung from my arms and landed in a splash in the creek. I, meanwhile, not so fortunate, landed hard on the rocky ground. Pain shot through my leg.

“FU-” I bit my lip, scrambling to access the damage.

“Come on, Lufis. Did you have to throw me in the creek?” Edward said, sputtering for air as he crawled out of the water. He quickly saw me.

“Holy Evangia! You okay, Lufis?” Edward asked quickly rushing towards me.

I stumbled to my feet. “I’m okay, I just scraped up my knee. I can keep going.”

The sound of a low growl made us both turn around. The Shizishou was perched at the top of the slope from where we had just slid down from. It took a step then recoiled as the ground crumbled at its paws, causing rocks to slide down the steep edge.

“Can you move? I don’t think it wants to come down here, but if we stay down here, it might. We need to keep moving.”

I took a few tentative steps before nodding. “Let’s go.”

I walked towards Edward, who started to slowly take steps back till he reached the edge of the creek.

“Lufis. Stop. I can walk. You shouldn’t be carrying me with your bloody knee. I am wet, so I would just get you wet. Don’t do this.” He said as I picked him up again.

The flow of brought some relief to the throbbing pain in my knee. Jumping, rather hobbling, over the creek, I started to climb up the edge of the rocky slope towards the waterfall.

“So, Edward. What did you throw?”

“A gaodian.”

“And why did you have an extra gaodian?” I asked.

“Well, you know how you woke up before I ate your gaodian? Elder brought two for each of us. I was planning on giving it to you later to see your reaction, but it looks like my prank might have saved our lives.”

I raised an eyebrow as I reached the top of the rocky slope. The waterfall was surprisingly close, only a hundred meters away, spraying white mist into the air with a loud roar.

“Lufis… this is not good. The shizishou decided to risk the rock slope and is coming after us with renewed vigor.”

I let go of him as we sprinted toward the waterfall.

“You know Lufis… This might not be a good idea.”

“What do you mean?” I shouted over the roar of the waterfall.

“We might be trapping ourselves with the river and waterfall on our back and the cliffs at our side.”

I hadn’t thought about that in the heat of the moment.

“Not much we can do about that now. We will have to improvise.”

Edward stopped, taking deep breaths as he looked around.

“Lets see, what can we work with.”

The sound of the roaring water made it hard to hear Edward… wait … that wasn’t the waterfall.

Edward cursed, pointing. The shizishou had stopped and was roaring loudly to the sky. It then bowed its head as several roars erupted from the trees around us.

The shizishou cub padded towards, growling. It was joined by three other cubs that came out of the undergrowth that was our most likely escape route. We were surrounded.

“Lufis, do you think you could jump the river using ?” Edward whispered shakily.

I shook my head. “Even if my knee was not bleeding I wouldn’t be able to jump that, especially if I would be carrying you.”

I glanced toward the waterfall, an idea sparkling to mind.

Edward noticed my look and started shaking his head.

“Lufis … We can’t survive a fall like that. And what if there are rocks at the bottom?”

“Unless you have a better ideal. The force of the water from the waterfall would have eroded any rocks at the immediate bottom. As long as we fall with the waterfall we should be fine. You did say it was over twelve feet deep earlier, right?”

The shizishou cubs growled and sprang towards us. Pushing my to my limits, I grabbed Edward.

“I really don’t like cliffhangers!!” Edward screamed as I jumped off the cliff holding him, falling with the roaring waterfall.