by Jakob Tanner
There was something fishy about all of this, Sakura thought. A minotaur—most likely a copper or silver-ranked monster—had broken through their defensive line and had almost made it to the wall of the tower-zone? Something wasn’t adding up here.
She shook her head. She would piece the reasons behind this debacle later. She needed to focus on the fight.
The minotaur was back on its feet now, glaring at her.
She pounded her fists together, hyping herself up. “Alright, tough guy, your little jaunt through our city is over.”
Based on the fact that she was able to send the monster flying with a single punch, Sakura figured she was higher ranked than this monster or, at the very least, it just had a very low endurance stat. Either way, there was no way the defense climbers would have allowed for any monster higher ranked than silver to make it this far.
RARGH!!
The minotaur charged at her.
The kid behind her screamed.
Oh crap, thought Sakura. The dumb teenager behind me. Now I understand the rules of this fight. This kid is my handicap.
“Get out of the way, kid!” she yelled over her shoulder.
Sakura had to rethink her strategy on the fly. She stretched out her hand and triggered her slice skill.
A bright golden shard of energy stretched out before her.
The minotaur kept charging towards her, roaring with all of its might.
One hit should do it, thought Sakura.
She stretched out her arm and, as if she was manipulating the bright shard of energy in front of her, the shard stretched out further as well.
The shard of energy grew in length at such speed and velocity it had become a deadly projectile like a throwing spear.
The bright shard of energy dug into the minotaur’s chest.
The minotaur screamed in pain.
Sakura waited for the creature to fall to the ground, but it didn’t. Any moment now there should be a big gaping hole of blood and flesh in the minotaur’s stomach.
The glowing energy shard of her slice move dissipated in the air, revealing a large bloodied wound on the minotaur, but no hole through the flesh from one end to the other.
Impossible!
Her slice ability had broken through the monster’s hide and wounded it a little, but nowhere near as much as she was expecting. The ability should have easily torn through the monster’s flesh.
Unless...
A red aura surrounded the minotaur’s body as it glared at Sakura once more.
ROAR!!!!
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.
The voices in Max’s head got louder. Mr. Grimes. Seth. Everyone who didn’t believe in him. Who thought he was too weak to do anything, too pitiful to even acknowledge his existence.
He kept dragging himself across the ground and his bloody immobile legs behind him.
He was halfway across the ground towards the minotaur.
The woman kept squirming. She didn’t have much longer to live.
Psycho-cripple.
Weakling.
Useless.
The words became a mantra in his head, a marching drum, propelling Max forward.
He wouldn’t let those who didn’t care for him bring him down anymore. If he died here, fine. He didn’t care anymore. But he wasn’t going to sit there and bleed to death while someone who actually tried to help him died for her actions.
A powerful rage swirled in his body, energizing him. His heart beat rapidly as he dragged himself forward.
The adrenaline pulsed through his veins. He suddenly felt unshackled. His mind clear. His determination fierce.
He got to the foot of the minotaur.
The woman was barely making any noise now.
It was now or never.
If yelling at this monster wouldn’t distract it from its murderous intent, maybe something physical might do the trick.
Max lifted up his right arm. He clenched his fingers into a fist.
One punch. That was all he had. Hopefully, it would be enough to distract the monster for even a moment. Enough time for the woman to catch her breath. Maybe even free herself.
He held his fist up and suddenly a yellow glow surrounded his arm and hand similar to when the minotaur had attacked him.
What’s this?
He didn’t dwell on it. There was no time.
He slammed his glowing fist into the minotaur’s leg.
“ARGGGHHH!!”
The minotaur shot across the park. The creature flew with such force in the air, it smashed through trees, breaking down the trunks.
With the lower half of his body limp and still bleeding out on the ground, Max stared at his fist. The yellow energy still burning off it.
The minotaur was stunned across the park.
I...
Max couldn’t believe it.
I...did...that?
6
<
br /> Sakura sucked in air as soon as the minotaur was no longer pinning her down beneath the tree trunks.
She held the pile of logs up, giving her more room to breath. She needed a second to catch her breath and regain the strength to slice through this pile of trees holding her down.
She then looked at the stunned monster across the park.
Did that kid really just send that ruby-ranked monster across the park in a single punch?
Who the heck was this kid? Did he have some kind of bruiser ability?
She took the kid in. Shaggy red hair. Blue eyes.
He looks like...
No... she thought. That climber didn’t have any family as far as she knew.
The minotaur rushed forward towards the boy.
Both of its arms glowed yellow as it readied another powerful punch attack.
Does this kid even know what he’s doing?
The kid raised his own yellow glowing fist and collided it with the minotaur’s.
SMASH!
The minotaur didn’t hurl across the park like last time, but it did get pushed back. Its clawed feet left a trail in the dirt.
So the dumb kid was somehow more powerful than the minotaur? How was that even possible?
The minotaur swung with its other hand and the boy met it again.
SMASH!
The minotaur was pushed back, but not as far this time.
The kid had used his ability three times now. Even with the strength he was displaying, she found it hard to believe this kid was more than E-rank. That meant he could seriously injure himself if he used that ability for a fourth time in such close succession.
The minotaur rushed at the kid once more.
The teenaged boy readied his fist once more with the glowing yellow aura.
Idiot!!
The two fists collided and the minotaur was sent back, less than a meter.
The kid on the other hand collapsed on the ground. Unconscious. Maybe dead.
With the kid indisposed, the minotaur turned back to Sakura now.
It took a step towards her.
“Try and suffocate me again, jackass,” she said.
She had to use all her power here.
She triggered her slice ability.
The beam of energy stretched out, zooming across the park.
The energy blade moved so fast, the minotaur didn’t have time to dodge or even block the attack.
The beam of energy pierced the skull of the minotaur, ripping through its hide.
“Argh,” said Sakura, gritting her teeth as she pushed the energy blade deeper into the creature’s skull.
The energy blade broke through the second wall of defense and sliced through the creature’s brain.
The minotaur’s glowing red eyes faded to a subdued black.
It then collapsed on the ground.
The body of the monster glowed silver until it shrunk down to its red-hued monster core, leaving a few coins behind as well.
Sakura quickly glanced at the core.
Ruby core just like she thought.
She picked up the monster core and coins and tucked them away for later.
She hurried over to the kid and picked him up.
The idiot needed medical attention as soon as possible.
She ran forward, carrying him in her arms.
She hoped it wasn’t already too late.
7
An hour later, Sakura stood over the resting boy in the hospital wing.
He was sound asleep, hooked up to different monitors, checking his heartbeat and mana meridians.
“Sakura?”
A young man entered the hospital room. It was the city climber she’d spoken to after arriving at the hospital and letting the healers take over on mending the kid.
The man gripped a folder with a few documents enclosed.
“I drew up as much information as I could on the boy,” said the man, handing the folder to Sakura. “You might want to take a look.”
Sakura thanked the man and then quickly flipped through the file.
Max Rainhart...16 years old...citizen of the outer-rim.
“He’s from the outer-rim,” said Sakura. “How did he end up over the wall?”
“We’ll have to look into it,” said the man. “I held back on alerting the police climbers in case you wanted to look into it yourself.”
“Good thinking,” said Sakura.
“There’s more in that file that raises eyebrows,” said the man. “Look at the analyst and medical records.”
The woman flipped the page. Her eyes bulged with shock when she read it.
“This...is...incredible,” she said.
She then promptly closed the file and turned to the man.
“Do you smoke?” she asked.
The man looked at her confused. “Yes, but I don’t see why that matters right now?”
She held out her hand. “Do you have a lighter on you now? I’d like to see it.”
The man ruffled through his pocket and then handed her a lighter. She triggered the flame and then set the folder on fire.
“What are you doing!?”
The file went up in flames and then Sakura threw it on the ground and stomped it out, leaving a pile of ash on the floor.
“You’re going to keep this file between us for the time being, got it?” said Sakura. “If this kid’s file has already been uploaded to the climber database, I’d like you to go and remove it.”
“But—”
Sakura cut him off. “That’s an order from a superior-ranked climber. Now go.”
The man nodded and hurried off.
Sakura turned back to the boy.
Max Rainhart.
Where did you come from?
Sakura sat with Max, trying to figure out what they were going to do with him, when an older man walked into the hospital wing.
She immediately stood at attention.
“Climber president,” she said.
“Sakura,” nodded the man with a familiar tone. “I hear the tower-zone has received its newest citizen from beyond the wall. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
The man walked over and placed his hand on Max’s hospital bed.
“What do we know about him?”
Sakura let out a sigh. “I honestly don’t know where to start. The kid has a unique trait for one thing.”
The climber president nodded at that, thinking to himself.
Considering the rarity of a unique trait, Sakura was surprised by how cavalier his response was.
She continued. “The boy also has one of the three great passive skills.”
The climber president raised his eyebrows at that.
“Impressive for a boy so young,” said the president. “Which one does he have?”
“Kokoro, sir. Warrior spirit.”
“Ah,” said the climber president.
“All of which leads to the strangest thing of them all. The medical healers were able to find an arcane inscription on the boy’s back. Invisible to normal human eyes. It forced the kid to be wheelchair bound for the majority of his life. Not to mention unable to access his trait or profile.”
“I see,” said the climber president. “So the warrior spirit was what ultimately broke the inscription then.”
“That’s what I figured,” said Sakura. “But who would do such a thing to a mere child?”
She looked over to the boy. An orphan. Disabled. This boy had not had an easy life. Her heart ached for him.
“Whoever did this, they did it because they wanted to neutralize a threat,” replied the climber president.
Sakura thought back to the fight with the minotaur. For someone near death and untrained, the boy had shown remarkable resilience and power.
“The kid’s outer-rim file says his whole family was killed in a car crash,” said Sakura. “But that doesn’t quite line up with the fact that he has a unique trait and passive skill.”
The climber president scratched
his chin. “Red hair, mysterious past. Reminds you of a certain climber, doesn’t it?”
Sakura’s eyes rose at the climber president’s words.
So she wasn’t crazy. There was a similarity.
But all that could be dealt with later. There was a more pressing question.
“What are we going to do when he wakes up?”
“Well,” said the climber president. “He’ll have to stay on this side of the wall now that he’s here. Those are the rules.”
“I want to train him,” said Sakura, clenching her fists with determination.
The climber president looked surprised.
“You!?” he coughed. “The great Sakura Sato. Sakura The Golden Blade wants to train a kid with a unique trait. That’s not like you. I’m surprised.”
Sakura smirked. “His ability is powerful, but it’s so situational as well. Without proper training, he could be even less powerful than someone with a common trait. Plus, with everything the boy has gone through, he won’t have the regular privileged smugness of someone with a unique or rare trait.”
“You’re not wrong,” said the climber president, looking at the resting boy once more. “But what makes you think he’ll even want to stay? He’d be eligible to re-apply for outer-rim citizenship, get a visa, return to where he grew up legally. It might take a while, but the courts might speed it up due to the unique circumstances.”
Sakura recalled the boy punching the minotaur with everything he had. The determination.
Then there were the bruises on his arm. Swollen. Older. Those were given to him before the fight with the minotaur.
“Something tells me, this kid’s not going to want to go back.”
Definitely not, she thought. Especially if he was related to the red-haired climber he resembled…
8
Max’s eyes twitched. He heard the faint sounds of beeping.
Where am I?
His eyes cracked open, revealing a white ceiling above him.
More curiously were the words floating in front of him.
The words read as followed:
Name: Max Rainhart
Rank: Unranked
Trait (Unique): Mimic. Unleash the last move you were hit with at double the power.