Not much more to say. I thought it was just random until I sunk 4 tries worth of energy into it and the game crashed mid-fight every time. Went to LvL. 4 and was able to make it through without a crash.

PS. when I went to report this via the link ("if you continue to have this issue, please contact our support team), I found that the "submit" button was grayed out and I could not send the message that I had typed up.