The lizard and I were staring at each other, waiting for the other two make the first move. It was looking at me completely still, somehow it turned into a staring contest and it was unnaturally good at it. My rat pride wouldn't accept defeat so we just kept starting.
Its starved bloodshot eyes looking directly into mine. It could not longer hold back and started running towards me, thanked goodness it ended, it was starting to get ridiculous.
I planned of biting its head off once it got closer but something I didn't expect happened. When it was half a meter away from me it stopped it approach and opened its mouth. Form the mouth came its tongue at a blindly fast speed, too fast for me to dodge. The tongue latched onto my shoulder before I could react.
It was super sticky, I tried to pull it away and that was the biggest mistake I have made yet. My paws were stucked on the tongue, if I pulled my arms too hard it felt like my claws would be ripped off. They were sharp and because they were sharp they were really thin.
I realised I was stucked in deep shit right now. It started reeling in its tongue, its fangs were visible from here, they were as sharp as mine and it probably couldn't bite as hard as me but that made it all the more terrifying. It meant that it was going to be a slow and painful death.
The stickyness of the tongue was unnatural, it felt like it had become one with my skin. My arms were useless, I can't jump out of this one and if I bite the tongue I was afraid of the possibility of never being capable of opening my mouth again, the tongue was just too sticky.
It stopped pulling me and started hitting me with its tail. The tails were long and it hit me like a whip, the force of it knocked down with one strike. It didn't stop the tail whipping after I was down, it hit me several times. If one of those hit me on the head once or twice it would be more than enough to knock me out. And getting hit on the body wasn't that nice either.
I angled my body towards it and [Jump]. Like the first time I had use my other skill [Bite] I could fell my mana flowing inside my body, this time I flowed down to my legs and I jumped with incredible power. It wasn't a vertical jump but a horizontal one. The lizard was not expecting that, the [Jump] made me tackle the lizard with great force. It's not enough to hurt either of us but that was not what I was going for.
I really hated the face that I would have to use my skill so early like this but I know there wasn't any other choice here. I might have defeated the cat but that doesn't mean I am now suddenly much stronger, if a small rat could kill a big cat there was nothing saying that a lizard couldn't kill a rat.
The [Jump] closed our distance, it didn't have the time pull its tongue into its mouth and I wasn't gonna let it slip. We were touching our bodies in a rather awkward way, I forced its mouth shut with my tail, forcing it to bite its tongue. Its jaws weren't really design for strength, especially in opening the mouth, so my tail was more than enough to overpower it.
Two adult finger worth of tongue was outside its mouth, my tail made sure not a milimeter of it would go back in its mouth. As hard and as difficult as it was I managed to wrapped its tongue on the mouth. I bit on the shoulder to make sure it would use its claws, I basically had him in a submission hold.
There was something that I'm not considering right now. I heard the foosh soud of its tail cutting the air and everything went black.
It hit my head, I don't know how long I was knocked out but I'm glad I woke up alive. My fangs were still clamped shut on the shoulder, looks like I wasn't out long after all. Just as those thoughts came to me I realised the lizard was dead.
I let go my bite, not really sure if it was really dead or just playing dead. Just to check I bit down again on its eyes, and there was no movement. I release the tail constricting it's mouth and I haven't realise it when I woke up but the stick tongue was dried out and a dried tongue looses its stickyness. I was confused by what had happened here, only then did I realise the sun was setting. I fought the lizard arround noon so that was a few hours ago.
When it knocked me out, my muscles must have tensed up and was locked in place. The lizard was biting its own tongue, already tired tired before we fought didn't have the strength to get me off and we were in that deadlock for several hours and the lizard finally succumbed. Still I was knocked out for several hours and that could mean brain damage.
I break my arms free from its tongue. The sticky part of the tongue dried out and it plastered my arms to the tongue like some kind of dried mud, it wasn't hard to break free from that.
I decided to end my journey for today and climb up a tree with the lizard corpse. I followed along the road, met a lizard almost die again and now I probably have brain damage. I started eating the lizard from the tail up, it was longer than me but in terms of volume the part you could eat was just as big as me. Eating something that big wasn't as difficult as it looked, it still takes time but I'll be able to finish up but sunrise.
The journey was going to be long and I was thankful for the opportunity to grow stronger before it really begin.