"I ONLY WANT TO GET BACK HOME! PLEASE!"

  Maro's cries were now audible for Stella and Anut after they sprinted through the yellow-crystal tunnels for a few seconds. The Human couldn't help but keep smiling as the one responsible for their mess tasted a cold, refreshing karma cup.

  "THE GOLDEN MATRIARCH DOESN'T ACCEPT SURFACE VISITORS!!! ESPECIALLY NOT A WOLF PUP!!!" Akuru, presumably, had a humorous voice, better described as if Kermit the Frog had a cold.

  The unlikely alliance of Human and Spider found the sentry in a less narrow area, where the tunnel branched out to another three separate paths. Their eyes immediately locked on-

  Oh. The sentry WAS a Frog, as it turned out. Huh...

  Akaru kept the still-resisting pup pinned down with his large, webbed foot while he grinned arrogantly. He was much thinner and lankier than Padda, though the sentry's lilac eyes were considerably wider. His skin was purplish brown except for his fingers, palms, and soles, which were white. He wore a light grey buttoned shirt with elbow-high sleeves, denim blue shorts that barely reached his knees, and a canary yellow sash and neck kerchief.

  "Stop defying me, kid!" He flicked out his long tongue to hit Maro's snout in a surprisingly powerful attack. "You cannot escape the law! No matter how old you are!"

  Geez, he sounded like a douchy version of Asra's persona. Well, if that meant Stella had another bully to beat up...

  While Anut snuck around by crawling on the ceiling, the Human bellowed to catch the sentry's attention. "FUCK THE LAW, BRO!!!"

  The stupid yet effective cry caught the anuran's attention. "Who goes there?!" His eyes narrowed when they locked on her. "I swear, you interlopers get uglier and uglier..." He shook his head. "Whatever! You're also coming with me!"

  "About that..." Stella cracked her knuckles. "My day wasn't the best, and I'm not in the mood for police brutality." She assumed her fighting stance as her golden aura took form. "You want me? You gotta work for it, Froggy!"

  Surprisingly, Akuru's grin widened with her words. "That's what I was hoping for..." The girl's heart stopped when the sentry lept once from his location and closed the gap between them. She instinctively ducked from her opponent's powerful tackle, deciding to run towards the fallen pup, who was groaning from the royal ass-kicking he must have endured.

  Unfortunately, Akuru intercepted her faster than even Asra without his Lightspeed. "Nice reflexes!" He quickly messed with Stella's balance with a sweeping kick on her legs, then caught her with his tongue before she could fall on her back.

  The sentry pulled out his tongue and grasped the girl by the collar. "By Tizohi's antlers, you're even more hideous from up close..."

  Stella gritted her teeth, silently commanding a piece of the cave floor the size of a basketball to come to her hand. Clenching it tight, she struck the Frog's eye with it, a streak of red blood gushing out from the zone of impact.

  Akuru let the Human go and stepped back. "YOU- ARGH!" He trembled in agony. "YOU WENT FOR THE EYE?!"

  Stella's knees became unsteady, her heart pounded as reality settled in, and regret crept into her. She acted on her instinct, judging his big eyes as the most obvious weak spot to attack. "Have I just fucked this all up?"

  She held her hands in a foolish attempt to placate the sentry. "H-Hey, I'm sorry. You scared the shit-"

  Even as red ichor dripped down his closed eye, Akuru was not deterred. In fact, his determination erupted to greater heights! "YOU MEASLY INVADER!!! I'LL SEND YOU TO THE MATRIARCH IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!!!"

  The Human conjured her barrier at the last second before the Frog assailed her with a frightening combo of strikes filled with ferocity, including swinging his tongue like a whip, which was the one who gave more trouble for her shield, followed by his kicks.

  Shit. Similarly to the sparring match against Asra, she had no window to lift her barrier and counterattack. The sentry was determined to keep up his raging assault until she was a bloody pulp on the floor.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Wait. The Knight was far superior to Akuru in terms of strength. What wouldn't work on the hero might do the job against the sentry...

  Stella manipulated the fracturing Saniya to become unstable, this time not intended to be a feint. The Frog's blind resolve, combined with his more literal vision problems, made him unable to react as the Human girl pushed him far away with a burst of golden energy!

  Akaru flew into the central tunnel. Hopefully, that'd be enough distance so Stella could reunite with her unlikeable future cousin-in-law, who carelessly sat his ass on the ground like this wasn't a fight for THEIR freedom.

  Maro's eyes were wide open, never leaving her. "You seriously saved me?"

  She shrugged. "I was about to join the Frog if he wasn't an even bigger jerk." She begrudgingly offered her hand to him. "Spare me your 'thank you' and get up! I got a feeling he's not down yet."

  The pup returned her reluctance. "Fine." He stood back up with her help. "I don't think I can help you." He clutched his ribs. "That loudmouth got me good..."

  Stella rolled her eyes, pointing her thumb to her back. "Just don't get in my way."

  "I DON'T KNOW WHO OR WHAT YOU ARE, BUT YOU HAVE DONE IT NOW!" Akuru stepped back into the room, clenching his broken eye. "The punishment my boss will give you..." He smirked wickedly. "MY PROMOTION WILL BE GLORIOUS!!!"

  The sentry hopped in her direction. Stella stomped the ground, compelling a rock pillar to appear before his feet and force him to stumble. However, the anuran redirected himself just in time to his side.

  "Not falling for that trick!" he cried as he went for a powerful kick to Stella's side. The girl blocked the strike with both hands but still was pushed back, crashing against a wall!

  Her ribs ached as she recovered herself. "Froggy is crazy strong..." She stared intently at him, attempting to find a single weakness.

  The sentry croaked, inflating his throat. "How's that?! Thinking of giving up?!"

  Stella spat on the ground. "I ain't done yet!"

  He shrugged. "Suit yourself." The Frog extended his rapid, powerful tongue, swinging it in an arch for a decisive blow. The Human conjured her Saniya barrier again, only to be speechless when her opponent's natural weapon didn't even reach the protective spell.

  Akuru pulled his tongue back, his remaining eye twitching. "What? I swear the range was right!"

  The girl deactivated the bubble. She was sure his mistake resulted from his impaired eyesight, almost like he had little perception of how far or close anything was. She couldn't help but snicker at her findings...

  Flaring her Saniya, she summoned tens of rocks the same size as the one that destroyed Akuru's eye, gravitating around her like the rings of Saturn. The sentry tensed at the sight.

  "Can you catch all these?!" All the rocks were flung towards the sentry, who answered by making a Saniya barrier of his own, shimmering in a bright violet light.

  "Son of a bitch." she cursed in her head. Well, if he insisted on playing the long game...

  The girl summoned an even larger quantity of solid rock pieces from the cavern's floor, turning it into a lower-scaled representation of the Moon's surface. Twenty rocks crashed at the Frog's shield, creating substantial cracks, but Stella would tire herself out when his spell gave out.

  The sentry's growing smirk taunted Stella and pushed her towards desperate measures. Frantically searching for anything useful in the room, she finally paid attention to the room's source of light. Sikpha crystals were filled with Saniya, so how effective were they as weapons?

  The Human pointed at the one closest to her. She was inexperienced with manipulating crystals, but it was either that or becoming another victim of this bully.

  Since she expected the crystal to shatter in the worst-case scenario, her shock was unquantifiable when the mineral formation cracked once and released a powerful, loud explosion of yellow energy, blinding the girl momentarily and pushing her onto another wall. The noise worsened when more crystals joined their sibling in a chain reaction, forcing her to cover her ears while the shockwaves threatened to tear her apart.

  When she uncovered her ears and reopened her eyes, she was relieved that the ceiling didn't collapse on them. However, her heart restarted to run fast when she saw the sub-hub vastly expanded on one side by the incident. The worst part was that her entire body ached too much to accomplish much movement.

  "T-That..." Stella swallowed hard, her tone weakening involuntarily. "That was-"

  "THE SECOND BIGGEST ACT OF VANDALISM AFTER THE DESTROYER!!!" Akuru screamed, his eye twitching with pure anger. "WHY IS EVERY TIME A WOLF PUP FALLS DOWN HERE, DESTRUCTION FOLLOWS!?"

  The girl could barely move. How could she be so foolish? Asra warned her about mixing Human and Monoke Saniya together! And yet, her blind desperation for victory only ensured her defeat...

  The sentry slowly stepped towards her as her vision blurred. "Unbelievable. How did you even manage to do that?! Sikpha crystals are not supposed to react like that when they crack!" He loomed over her, probably judging her condition as too battered to step on and taunt her. "When you wake- GAH!"

  Akuru weakly croaked as he drunkenly stumbled over his webbed feet. A dark blur appeared in the Human's vision behind the sentry. Before exhaustion claimed her mind, she saw the figure's eight long legs...

  "Sleepy time, Akuru..." a feminine voice rang.

  Stella's heart pounded harder briefly before it regulated when her eyes invited the caring embrace of unconsciousness.