The dragon blew out a huge blast of fire from its mouth into a tall building, but thanks to them, when the fire dissipated, the building was completely intact with a slight silver sheen of the defense ward’s mana showing.

“Um, Max,” said Casey. “I think we got problems closer to home.”

A massive rock golem came lumbering towards them.

Max triggered bind.

The paralyzing string shot forward and locked the rock golem in place.

Casey manipulated the wind and shot it forward until the golem crumbled into dust.

Casey looked around frantically.

“What are we going to do, Max?” she asked. “There’s monsters in all directions, including, a freaking dragon in the sky. What’s our next move? Go back to the arena to help Sakura? Or help the other citizens?”

Max took a deep breath. Every second counted right now, but it would be far more wasteful to make decisions while panicking. Sakura’s assignment was to get the back-up generators on and then assist with other climbers.

So their next mission should really be to find another group of climbers and figure out what the higher-up climbers had dictated was the strategy.

They rushed forward into the city streets only for a new threat to emerge in front of them.

SMASH!

Landing just ahead of them was the climber president in full werewolf mode.

Blood dripped from the creature’s sharpened teeth.

It turned towards them, eyes full of bloodlust.

Before Max and Casey could even react, the next thing that happened was the A-rank climber president was charging straight at them with murderous intent.

97

Samuel cackled with laughter overtop the arena.

He was still standing on the back of his enslaved gargoyle, lording over the city.

“You can’t stop me, Sakura,” said Samuel. “I’m a higher rank than you are. It isn’t feasibly possible for you to defeat me.”

The patronizing bastard, Sakura thought, gritting her teeth.

She was B-rank and he was A-rank. There was no doubt about that; but that didn’t mean the outcome was inevitable. Yes, the odds were in his favor, but Sakura didn’t even have to win. All she had to do was prolong their fight, keep the man distracted until reinforcements showed up.

Sakura lifted up her hands and triggered slice.

A massive energy blade shot above her and towards the clouds.

The blade stabbed right into the center of the gargoyle in the sky.

The monster’s eyes bulged with pain and it coughed up blood right before dying.

It disintegrated into a monster core in the air.

Samuel fell to the arena floor, imbuing his feet with mana right as he landed to cushion the fall.

The powerful A-rank climber smirked at her.

Just because he was a higher rank than her didn’t mean his little floating gargoyle slave was.

“Get off your high horse, jerk,” Sakura declared. “And talk to me on the ground.”

* * *