Ranran put on the sprint monocycle in seconds. Four tires screeched, whirled, and rushed forward like lightning. They two dared not look back, even though they did not know what was making the purr and still in hot pursuit.

There was a long straight ahead. William bent down, lowered his weight, and signaled Ranran to do the same. "It helps when we turn corners," He explained. Soon his voice died away, for the wind whistled frightfully as it sped past them.

The purr did not die away much. If they had turned around, they would have seen a monster with a head of a scorpion, a body of a snake, and legs of a spider, roaring and chasing them. If they were a little closer, all the details would be clear. The monster was extremely bloated and ugly. Its head was covered with frightfully shaped spots, and inside them were hidden thousands of small muzzles ready to fire plasma shells. A murderous red eye stared angrily at two small ant-like figures in front of it. Its mouth growled as corrosive saliva of fluoroantimonic acid flowed down. Eight bloated and misshapen legs propelled this enormous object rapidly.

William and Ranran had no time at all to see what the monster looked like. They wanted to reach the end of the road and hide into the spaceship this second.

But they had only covered about 5% of the whole distance. To make matters worse, the monster had not yet been shaken off.

The monster let out a roar and opened all the spots to reveal the thick muzzles. At once a bewildering array of shells shot out of the muzzles toward William and Ranran. It was a good thing they had stooped low enough, or they would have been badly scalded by the scorching heat -- no joke, because the parts that were hit could have really melted!

William fired back with laser guns. Some of the bullets hit the monster. It growled in pain and then began to fire again. They had to turn around and sprint as fast as they could, for they had a slight advantage in speed and no advantage in weapons.

"Are you all right, William?" Ranran's voice seemed particularly weak in the howling wind.

"Oh, I'm fine. Run fast and don't get hit by the bullets! Time to turn; bend over, and slow down!" William replied quickly, watching the first sharp bend appear a few hundred meters ahead.

"All right!" Ranran said. The tires decelerated immediately. They shook hard from inertia, as if a hand were pulling them forward forcefully. Their bodies involuntarily leaned to the inside of the curve to get through it faster. The monster watched them disappear prematurely around the bend, howling wildly and shooting harder. Before Ranran could change direction, a red bullet passed just a few centimeters above her head.

Not far away was another bend. Thanks to the long straight they had just run, the distance between them and the monster had widened by tens of meters. "Oh, what's that!" Ranran pointed ahead at a hole with a faint light, saying.

They sped into the hole. On the front wall was a large writing.

It is OK to turn both left and right. The two branches will join at the exit.

"Quick, let's split up! See who the monster hates more!" William said. So he turned left, while Ranran turned right. In fact, these two branches were exactly the same, except in their direction.

The monster did not hesitate to run after William. "Look out!" Ranran shouted as she heard the monster's feet moving away from her. All she heard was William's "Don't worry!" and then she turned another corner.

Ranran galloped through the cave. From time to time she looked to her left, wondering if William was far enough away from the monster, though she could only see some stones. Occasionally the monster's roar came through the stones, but it was very faint.

"Ah," She said to herself nervously, "hold on, William!"

At the same time, William was speeding through the cave. He was about 300 meters ahead of the monster, but the stones' ability to reflect sounds was incredible. So he always felt that the monster was close at hand. "I must go faster, faster!" He kept repeating these words. His brain had only one command to run, and that was to make him run faster.

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They had time to notice neither how fast the wind was blowing which was mixed with the roar of the monster, nor how much it hurt them. They just wanted to get in the ship, pass the five-dimensional space using the energy core, and go home.

The cave was perfect for dodging bullets because the straights were not long. William had turned a corner before the monster could see him.

As it could not catch up with the other two little ones, and could not fire for a while, the monster became even angrier. So it took a deep breath, and the roar became more deafening. Nervously, Ranran heard the stones shaking all around her.

They soon met each other and drove quickly out of the cave. The golden road appeared again. "Hurry up! We need to get as far away from the monster as we can, to better avoid its bullets!" Said William nervously.

The tires span rapidly again. A moment later, the monster came running out of the hole, roaring at the top of its lungs. A barrage of bullets made them two dare not straighten their backs.

They saw another corner. Then the two bodies leaned to one side and turned around with lightning speed. The monster roared behind them. Only a few seconds later, another bend in the opposite direction was in sight. It was sharper than that, so William and Ranran passed almost lying down. William could only see the horizon turn vertical and hear the wind howling.

Their backs went vertical again. They shook backward as the tires accelerated violently. But a barrage of bullets quickly forced them to bend over again.

"Where are we?" Ranran asked.

"We are more than half way through it. Hold on a little longer!" William replied.

Under the quiet night sky, in the distance was the sleeping earth, and close to them were the monster and two aliens. The stars blinked feebly, as if no amount of volume could awaken them. Unbeknownst to them, there were two aliens who were desperate to go home frantically evading a monster coming from a pyramid.

The sprint monocycle's tires were still spinning fast. In front of them appeared some springboards they had seen in the strange forest when they first came to the planet. "Oh! Look! We've got helpers!" Ranran exclaimed excitedly, pointing to the springboards.

William noticed, too. "Yes, we need to make good use of these non-creature helpers." He said.

They quickly approached the first springboard. The moment the tires touched its surface, it was dramatically compressed by the weight of them two. Immediately after that, the springboard elongated. William and Ranran were pushed into the air by this powerful force, watching the golden road and the monster get smaller and smaller behind them until the monster was almost an ant.

This planet's gravity was at work. Instead of rising, they accelerated downward until they fell back to earth. "This is nice!" Ranran said.

Unfortunately, the monster also learned to use the springboards. As it turned out, they were as far away as they had been. Also, because the monster was heavier, the ground shook violently when it hit it. It growled as it continued to chase William and Ranran.

There were a few more springboards ahead. "I wish I had more." William thought as he flew, "Then we'd save the power for the sprint monocycle."

They used all the springboards. Now, it was time to turn a corner. The night sky soon became vertical. Ranran saw that in the distance there were several hills of similar height. They now resembled the spiral staircase of the pyramid. When she remembered how they had startled the monster, she broke into a cold sweat.

They were near the end of the road. The last corner was close at hand. The monster roared angrily, seizing the opportunity to fire wildly. A bullet went sideways over William's shoulder, narrowly missing Ranran's hair.

The compass reminded William that he had not yet used the catalyst the scorpion had given them. "Yeah, what a perfect long straight. Why not try it!" He exclaimed. All at once, the four tires were spewing brilliant flames as they sped away from the monster. Even though the speed of the sprint monocycle was not great, the experience was comparable to driving Natalie because of their low visions.

Nitrous oxide, which was stored, broke down rapidly. The amount of gas produced increased dramatically, which was why it was ejected through those openings. As their speed increased, the sharp wind grew stronger. But William and Ranran didn't care, because they could already hear the spaceship's engine roaring.

"Our friends!" Cried William excitedly, "Here we are!"

Photon was driving the ship. He heard William and Ranran's cries and adjusted the ship's position.

A huge white shadow appeared over the edge of the cliff. Photon and his master smiled at each other. He knew what to do.

The ship changed direction to go in the same direction as William and Ranran did. The monster did not know what that was, so it continued to growl angrily.

The end of the road was right ahead. 100 meters, 50 meters, 10 meters, 5 meters... The road rose steeply and they two rose into the air, trailing four brilliant flames behind them. For a brief moment they had an illusion -- that they thought they had floated into space, higher than the stars.

The ship's hatch had been opened long ago. William and Ranran drew two graceful arcs in the air, and then fell smoothly into the ship. Just then, the sprint monocycle ran out of battery, but fortunately there was a small amount of nitrous oxide left.

The monster flew, too, but there was no way it could catch them. Soon it began to fall, and it kept falling until everyone heard a loud noise.

"Rest in peace." Said William contemptuously, looking back. Then he went to the cockpit to take over from Photon.

"You deserve to be my master because you are able to perform such a difficult maneuver!" The plane praised him. He replied shyly, "Nothing, hee-hee."