Out of all three boys, Louis had the fastest reaction out of all of them, he was also normally faster than they were, and with that lizard flying towards him, he had reacted as best as he could, his entire body moving on autopilot as he shifted to the side, and his rapier shot out, stabbing into the eye of the meter and the half long monster. The thin sword went a little too deep, piercing the Brian of the lizard like demon and ending it's life in an instant. It's body crashed down onto the ledge they were standing on, and they rolled over it's edge before calling to the ground, smashing against the mountain was as it went down to an even more gory end.
But it wasn't alone, no matter how fast Louis was, he couldn't do two things at the same time, or focus on two really swift enemies. The second lizard had jumped right after the first one, and with Louis being the first to react, it gave Alex and by extension the still injured Yun Fao a chance to prepare for the second lizard.
Alex had spent most of his time studying, so he was s little bit more knowledgeable about Qi demons than Louis and Yun Fao, it was why he knew that Qi demons of a lizard species always had really tough scales or hides covering their bodies, while they may be fast, 80% of the time, their biology focused on making their defense that much higher than any other part of their body, which means he had to aim for the soft parts. Louis was lucky enough that he was able to stab through the lizard's eyes, any other part of it's body, and they were screwed. Alex and Yun Fao had to repeat that miracle, or just avoid it all together.
(Iron Viper Strike)
Fore Alex there was no time to draw any of his weapons, all he could do was ready and draw on the most powerful and focused attack he could. Utilizing (TaiChi) the young man seemed to flow with the wind as he bent his body backwards showing great flexibility and finesse, before throwing his fist right under the throat of the lizard. His fist seemed to have taken on a grey his as the wind seemed to gather around it, forming the illusory form of a snake.
*Thud!* *Crunch!*
Alex felt his fingers burning, his knuckles had little abrasions on them, but the lizard was in an even worse shape than he was. While 80% of Lizard like Qi demons might be able to rely on superior defense, 95% of them had very weak and fragile underbellies, a well placed hit or stab would rip it open and have their guts spilling over you. Of course this deduction wasn't the same for every other reptile Qi demon breed, just particular to fore limbed cold blooded lizards.
The lizard's momentum was brought to a sudden halt as Alex's throat crushing punch sent it half a meter into the air, before bringing it's bulky body crashing down onto the ledge they were standing on. It fell right in their middle, with Yun Fao close to the mountain wall, and Alex and Louis close to the edge of the ledge. Which placed them in even more sister as the lizard started thrashing in pain, it's tail which was just as long as it's body and just as armored also began to trash about threatening to fling both boys off the ledge and down the mountain.
Using an underhand strike, Yun Fao send the serrated edge of his broken saber to the edge of the lizard tail, almost severing it in half. However that was just enough for both Alex and Louis to Jump over it, and just in time to as the edge they were standing on cracked and then broke off, falling to the ground with a massive crash. However, when it rains, it pours; as wither lizard had gotten a whiff of the scent of blood and had come hunting, this time though the prey wasn't the three boys, but rather the still trashing and soon to be dead lizard. But the one thing they noticed about this new lizard was that it was bigger than the other two, much more bigger.
"Come on!" Yun Fao shouted at the other two as he jumped up, his feet finding purchase on the mountain wall, before taking a few steps up and grabbing the other ledge above them and a little ways to the side. Alex and Louis followed, however it was a little bit difficult for Louis to keep up with such a maneuver, so he had to rely on his Qi, however doing so drew the attention of the four meter long lizard having a feast down below.
Alex quickly pulled up Louis who was hanging on the edge and watched as Yun Fao decisively threw his broken sabre at the edge of the ledge they just jumped from, the sabre glowing a dull black as it was augmented by a martial skill. *BOOM* the impact was quite explosive, and that was all the pressure the ledge needed before giving way and falling to the ground, dragging the massive lizard and it's prey smashing down to the uneven grey base of the mountain they were on. Though in all honesty Alex doubted the fall would kill the lizard, it looked big enough to take a much more heavier hit than what all three boys could muster individually.
"We have to get out of the open, we're too exposed out here and could be attacked again, come on." Yun Fao called out to both of them as he turned and went into through the open cell door behind him. Alex and Louis followed him, with Alex taking his time to study the cell door that seemed to have been rusted by age.
"Well that's interesting." Alex muttered to himself as he stared at the rust on the gate that seemed suspiciously and very intricately spread across then iron bars.
"What's interesting?" Louis asked.
"There are arrays on the cell door, a couple of basic ones superimposed and combine to made intermediate ones, and then intermediate arrays combine to make advanced arrays, and then those ones combined to make master arrays. There's not less than 3,000 individual wards in this gate, and I can't recognize a quarter of them, however I think I can reduce what the cell door is for.
Rather than keep a prisoner locked in, it was built to keep something out. And with how meticulous such work this is, not to mention the Caliber of people who were imprisoned here, I would say there's something even more dangerous than those scales Gryphons." Alex said as he slowly closed the gate with a click.
"What could that possibly be" Yun Fao asked with a grunt.
*ROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!"
"I think we're about to find out." Louis said to him.