Chapter 96: Maze runners 3

A few maze blocks away from Damon’s team, a team of four were walking cautiously. They were being especially careful, after encountering a beast not too long ago.

But suddenly, a projection appeared before them.

“Showing the locations of the map holders for the next ten minutes.” The voice of the translucent man echoed from everywhere.

“Is this…?” The assigned team leader muttered, before a wide grin appeared on his face.

The team quickly figured out which dot denoted them, and which were the teams closest to them. The closest team to them was coincidentally one of the two golden dots, and it didn’t take them long to figure out it was one of the two full scale maps.

And the projection also was much larger than the maps the teams were given, so it was easier for the team to navigate, than it was for those with the maps.

They continued chasing after that team for the next five minutes, before they finally got to catch them, and that was because the other team took a wrong turn.

———–

**Roughly an hour and a half earlier.**

**Damon’s pov**

The beast’s eyes soom dimmed, as it’s corpse slumped forward, crashing hard onto the ground, but thankfully not on my head.

“Good riddance.” I muttered, wiping it’s black blood off my face. Almost immediately, the wall that had shut itself after we entered this path, slowly shifted back to it’s former spot.

“I have never looked this unsightly in my entire life.” Sia walked towards me, all drenched in the beast’s blood.

“Well, I could argue that you looked worse there days ago, specifically after your fight with Amara.” I pointed out.

“This beast was unusually strong.” Dpress who stood not far away from us muttered. “Although it’s rank was at the Theta rank, the strength it displayed was more closer to top tier Theta+ rank.”

“Who cares what strength it displayed? It still died in the end, didn’t it?” Sia offhandedly mentioned.

Yeah, she was kinda right.

Once everyone regained their self, we began a rather sloppy march. The reason I said sloppy march, was because each one of us was dripping down with blood with every step we took. Unlike Sia who said she’d never felt this unsightly in her entire life, I, on the other hand, had never felt this sullied in my entire life.

Not to mention, we stank, like crazily. At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if we got jumped by another beast. I might have just raised a red flag there, haven’t I?

Time continued to flow as we navigated the maze. Much to our liking, we hadn’t encountered any other beasts, though there were cases where a path we were taking ends up in a dead end when we were this close to exiting it.

“Ahhh, this is exhausting.” Sia drawled next to me. “When is this going to end?” she continued.

I turned to her.

“Believe it or not, we haven’t even crossed one tenth of the maze yet.”

“You’re kidding.” Her eyes bore into me. I didn’t blame her, seeing the same dark wall over and over again had a way of getting to you. Though, she was most probably just exaggerating.

“Let me see the map.” she snatched the scroll from my hands.

At that same instant however,

“Showing the locations of the map holders for the next ten minutes.” The voice of the translucent man echoed from everywhere.

The map in Sia’s hands slightly flared, then at different places on the map, red dots began to appear, until there were six of them, a single gold dot, and then followed by two green dots.

We froze. This fact had completely eclipsed my mind, and I guess theirs too.

“What the hell..?” I cursed. “It’s already been two hours?”

“Shit, this is not looking good.” Dpress muttered.

We were concerned from every direction except the front.

Sia glanced across the pathways for a bit, probably trying to discern a path that we could take that would keep the other teams off our tails, for the next ten minutes until the locations faded.

“Let’s move.” She said after a while, rushing forward. The pathways blurred as we raced, with Sia taking only a single moment to ascertain the next path we should take.

But a certain team was dead set on our tails, specifically one of the two green dots. If my calculations were correct, they were probably one of the two teams that didn’t get a map.

As we blurred through the maze, Sia suddenly took a sharp turn towards the left.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked. If we continued on this path, it wouldn’t take long before the other team cut off our way forward.

“I’m going to nip the problem in the bud.” She muttered nonchalantly. It seemed she had gone back to her Anastasia persona.

My eyes widened. I had an inkling of what she was trying to do, but hearing it from her mouth was another thing.

“I’m afraid that is too much unnecessary trouble Miss Sia.” Dpress spoke. “We’re better off keeping them at a distance until the time runs out.”

“He is right.” I seconded. “Once the time runs out, they’ll just be running around like headless chickens.

“No, take a look.” she handed me the map. “The paths we’re in, and the paths they’re currently walking will later converge even after the time is over.” she continued.

I quickly took a glance all over the map, and to my dismay, she was correct.

“Damn it!” I cursed. “Fighting it is then.”

We continued to purposely take wrong turns. If the other team were smart, they’d have figured out what we were trying to do by now.

“They’re just ahead.” Sia muttered, after our next turn.

Sure enough, we began to see their figures after a while. The team was composed of two men and two women. Yeah, they were only four.

“How lucky.” The one leading them said, his eyes dead set on Sia. “Hand it over and things won’t get messy.”

“…Wait, they’re only four?” Dpress muttered baffled.

I knew why, I was also skeptical of their strength, this team hadn’t managed to eliminate any team during the first trial, and they still lost a member.

The rest of our expressions remained blank unlike Dpress.

Sia didn’t reply to their to the man, instead, she took a step, then another, then her sword appeared in her hand.

“You won’t hand it over huh?” The man’s expression grew solemn. “Then don’t blame us for what happens next.”

Immediately, he and his team rushed forward.

“Leave them to me.” Sia muttered, before disappearing before us, and appearing before the rushing team. I wasn’t skeptical of her being able to beat them. If there was something I had noticed after Sia fought that woman named Amara, it was that her confidence had grown so much that it bordered on arrogance.

I didn’t know maybe it came from the fact that she defeated a Theta+ ranked aetherial or not. But she was definitely a lot more confident.

I had also made some progress on one of my techniques. My aether reinforcement had jumped to the grandmaster rank.

Status====

Name: Damon Darkfell

Race: Human

Age: 18

Title : Third prince of the Darkfell empire.

Rank : Eta

Strength : Eta

Agility : Eta+

Stamina : Eta

Aether capacity : Theta-

Luck : Delta-

Charm : Alpha

Techniques: Aether reinforcement (Grandmaster), Darkfell royal sword style (Master), Mirage steps (Master).

Unique physique : Nexus prism physique (Omega rank.)

– initial ability: One of many [Create reflections of yourself to confuse foes. The strength of your reflection depends on the amount of Aether spent. You can seamlessly swap places with any of your reflections.]

———-

My aether control had increased due to me having to take care not to rupture my innards when channeling. During the process, my aether reinforcement jumped to the grandmaster mastery on its own. It was quite unexpected, but it was very welcome.

On Sia’s side meanwhile, she watched as the supposed leader thrusted his spear at her. Too slow, she sidestepped as he slowed down to a crawl. She then caught hold the shaft of his spear, pulled him forward using the spear, then removed his head from his shoulders.

It hadn’t even taken one second from the time the man thrusted to the time he died.

This made the rest of the members of the man’s team take a hesitant step backwards.

The man was the strongest among them, if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have been the leader.

“Anyone else want to follow after him?” Sia heard Damon about from behind her. Sia almost smiled despite herself, but since she was keeping up an air of ruthlessness, she had to see it through. Not that she wasn’t ruthless to begin with.

“That’s what I thought.” He added after seeing that none of the team members of the man dared to step up. They stood hesitant, before they eventually ran off. What was some mere treasures compared to their lives.

**********

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