The monster let out a massive howling roar.

“Get back,” Sakura shouted to the kid.

The kid was severely wounded, thought Sakura. He needed medical attention pronto. She needed to finish the battle as quickly as possible.

There was one major problem though: this monster was higher ranked than silver. Gold, possibly? Maybe even ruby rank? If the latter, that meant this creature and Sakura were evenly ranked. It might even be more powerful than her. She had screwed up big time by underestimating this creature.

The howl created a ripple of swirling energy, picking up dirt and pebbles. Sakura held up her arms to keep the dirt from getting in her eyes.

The minotaur kept screaming. The swirl of energy got more and more intense, until the ground was trembling. Trees were swaying.

CRACK!

A group of trees fell and piled onto Sakura, pinning her down to the ground.

I need to get out of this bind, thought Sakura.

She readied her slice move to break through the tree trunks piling on top of her.

But before she could, the minotaur rushed her and with its clawed hands shoved the fallen tree trunks right against her body.

Her future was looking bleak.

Death by crushed trees or death by suffocation. As her airflow started to cut off, she joked cynically to herself: take your pick, Sakura. Take your pick.

5

Max caught his breath behind a nearby tree. He focused on inhaling and exhaling.

Remain calm, he thought as his mind drifted and his visions swayed from the blood loss. The fight will be over soon and I’ll be given medical attention then.

He peeked his head out to check on the battle between the impressive climber lady and the deadly minotaur.

“Oh crap,” he gasped.

The minotaur had bested the climber lady. She was pinned to the ground underneath a pile of tree trunks.

Any normal human would have been crushed and killed by that many trunks falling on them. The fact that she was even still alive was impressive.

The climber lady squirmed and cried out, but her gasps were feeble and weak due to the minotaur pushing the trunks against her lungs.

The minotaur snarled as it held the trunks over the woman, deadly focused on ending her life.

“...Hrlg...”

The woman was in bad shape. Max had to do something to help her.

But what?

What could he do?

“HEY OVER HERE!!”

He yelled at the minotaur, hoping to get its attention. But it was so focused on killing the woman, it ignored him.

Crap.

What else could he do, but distract the creature?

He was weak, he realized.

Voices echoed in his head. Painful quotations he didn’t want to hear.

Psycho-Cripple.

Weakling.

Useless.

Max wiped tears from his eyes.

He started dragging himself across the mud once more.

Stretch, pull, stretch, pull.

The climber lady squirmed and groaned beneath the fallen tree trunks.