The man stood up and pulled out a hilt with no sword. Suddenly a ray of blue mana emerged from the hilt, forming a blade of magical energy. He was channeling his own mana to create the blade.

This guy was two ranks above them, they were going to have to be a little smarter about how they fought their way past him.

Then Max remembered what skill he was last hit with.

He stretched out his arms and triggered bind.

A tiny barely visible thread shot out from one of his finger tips and wrapped itself around the D-rank buffer.

The man squirmed.

“Argh,” he cried. “What have you done to me, you punk?”

Casey took advantage of the man’s paralyzed state, creating a huge gust of wind and directing it at him.

Max undid the bind spell at the last minute as Casey’s wind blast smashed into him and sent the man slamming into a nearby brick wall.

“That should do the trick,” Casey declared.

The two moves combined had created a powerful combo. The bind spell meant that the climber couldn’t get a chance to dodge the wind gust. There was also the psychological torture of it too. Would he be sent flying or would he simply have to take the attack while paralyzed?

The D-rank climber groaned and lifted himself up off the ground. He was covered in dirt, but other than that, he didn’t seem to have a scratch on him.

“You gotta be kidding me,” groaned Casey.

Toto poked its head out from her pocket and shook his little gerbil fist in outrage.

The man cracked his knuckles and snickered, ready to pulverize them.

Max realized they were no match for this man with their current abilities. As a D-ranked climber, the man had stats double their own. His endurance and strength stats were enough to make it impossible for their moves to hurt him.

Max had gotten used to having upper-ranked offensive moves in his arsenal that at double the power could break through the sheer stat gap between ranks, but at the moment he didn’t have such an ability.

They were screwed.

The man rushed at them with his powered up mana sword.

Click!

The sound of a lighter flicking on and off, echoed through the alley.

Click! Flicker! Click!

Before the D-ranked Climber could reach them, a burst of flames filled the alley, shielding Max and Casey from the attack.

Then leaping right in front of them was none other than their climber academy instructor. He had a burning cigarette, hanging in his mouth and a fireball in one palm that he was ready to serve up to the D-rank climber.

“Looks like the final exam is a different kind of test this year,” he said. “I’ve been sent by Sakura to back you guys up. You hurry ahead, leave this guy to me.”