Reincarnated as a Land Shark???

Chapter 21: To Those Who Risk

The ahuizotl charge frantically towards my tree, the one in the reeds giving a taunting hiss, and I notice something very important.

The distance between me and it... It's out of range of my current level of gliding!

Even if I charge at it now, all I'll do is exhaust my water supply and wind up at the thin mercy of the puppets. As if to remind me of that fact, my water level gives another ominous tick down. 24 water left. If I glide and miss, that'll mean my life is forfeit.

Is there any way I can use to shorten the distance?

No, and if I land and sprint to catch the Ahuizotl, sprinting will exhaust my remaining water points before I can reach either it or the river.

...Up until now, I've made a grave error in my way of thinking about fighting. With my status in mind, it made it easy to think that so long as I have HP, I can continue to attack. That may have been the case underwater, but on land I have a time limit and my skills have penalties against it. Once I run out of time, Hp remaining or not, I'm done for.

What do I do? If I glide the other way, I may be able to make it into the water. If I swim downriver with all my might, I have a chance of outrunning them. At the same time, there's also the chance of them being faster than I am, and with my current water if I'm wrong about that distance, I'll land on the ground, hurt myself, and then not make it the rest of the way to the water in time before whatever penalty running out of water incurs hits me. If I'm like any other amphibian, then it'll affect my ability to breathe. I may have lungs, but those alone aren't what helps amphibians to breathe. When an amphibian dries out, they can't get enough oxygen in or carbon dioxide out and they die. That may just translate to me taking hp damage here. It's not that simple, though. I'll feel the effects of suffocating, of being choked. At that point dipping a claw in water won't help me. I'll die, and they won't even have to lay a claw on me. On the other hand, it might just kill me outright, not even giving me the chance to struggle my way back into the river. I'm a fish out of water.

My water bar ticks down again, and the ahuizotl seems to sneer at me.

It's faster than me. If I chase it, it can outrun me and dry me out before I catch it. If I go for the water it'll chase me. Depending on how vindictive it is it might even hunt me down, wear down my fighting ability until I can't fight back anymore and then swoop in for the kill like a komodo dragon and its poison.

The ahuizotl at the bottom of the tree clamber up insistently.

No, what am I doing? I've come this far. Sitting here and panicking is just wasting time and water that I can't afford to lose! That just means that this fight is all or nothing!

I wind up, and the Ahuizotl rests, preening. It's seen the results of my past glides and knows how low my chances of actually reaching it are.

I'll teach you a lesson you little vermin!

I lunge into the air with all I have, activating my Glide skill only after I've reached my peak distance.

REACH IT! A hiss of effort leaves my jaws, the first noise I've made since coming to this world. It's more a pathetic wheeze than anything else, but it's the best of a roar I can manage with this body.

The skill Glide has reached lv 2.

Dryness Resistance has reached lv 6.

THERE IS A GOD!!!

The ahuizotl realizes its mistake when I fail to fall, but by then it's far too late for it to escape. The effects of glide cancel out the instant I make it above the Ahuizotls scrambling form.