Chapter 1673 Labyrinth [9]

Chapter 1673 Labyrinth [9]

There were only five geniuses remaining in the competition. August, Valerie, Remelia, Eris Noct, and a man named Mikael from the Dawn Dragon Clan. Now, less than half of them were left in the arena. The rest had been eliminated in some way, shape, or form.

Mikael just took down the last one, leaving the five of them as the only remaining competitors.

He was nowhere near any of the others, but his actions had a profound impact on them all.

Suddenly, a map appeared in front of each of the geniuses. Its contents were simple. A rough picture of the maze that showed them the relative structure of the labyrinth without revealing its actual paths and patterns. And, on it, five red dots.

Not a single one of them misunderstood what those dots were.

Their positions had just been revealed to each other, as had their progress.

Valerie had just created a territory for herself which allowed her to fight Remelia evenly, so she now had the freedom to look at the map.

There were two groups and an individual.

One group was her and Remelia, but the other...

Two dots were moving closer and closer to the labyrinth's center with every passing second. She and Remelia weren't moving, so it was obvious that those were two other geniuses.

Somehow, in the small amount of time that had passed, two people had made an alliance that allowed them to see the finish line. Yôur favorite stories at novelhall.com

Which meant that everyone else was falling behind. "Hey, let's stop!" She yelled, getting Remelia's attention.

They needed to rush towards the center before continuing this battle if either of them wanted a chance to score more than a single point.

Remelia definitely heard her, but she didn't react at all.

BOOM!

She let her flames loose, attacking Valerie as if nothing significant was happening.

She also saw the map. She also understood its implications, but she refused to leave a battle unfinished.

The only thing she learned from the map was that she needed to remove Valerie even faster than before.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

Valerie shouted while she blocked the fire and counterattacked.

Her forest blasted vitality into the blazing inferno it bordered. It vied for the space, extinguishing everything that couldn't incinerate it.

"We need to get to the center! Now isn't the time for us to fight!"

In case her opponent was an idiot, she said it out loud to get it through her skull.

And how had they managed to form an alliance in this free-for-all environment?

Well, it was a funny story, actually...

***

It happened just under half an hour ago.

August was doing as he did, entertaining the crowd with his various tricks as he traversed the labyrinth at a speed faster than anyone else.

He'd practically understood its entire structure at this point. With the knowledge he'd accumulated, finding his way to the center was simple.

He was responsible for the defeat of yet another genius, this time one from the Karmic Dragon Clan.

His power was esoteric and hard to predict, but at the end of the day, that kind of genius was more skilled in intellectual challenges.

If it came to who could reach the center fastest without any obstacles inhibiting them, then that genius would have been a top contender for first place.

Unfortunately for him, he met August.

His end wasn't even met valiantly in battle.

August used him as a test subject to see if he could properly exploit the labyrinth when he needed to, and he'd found exactly the results he'd wanted.

Regardless, it was a small hiccup in his otherwise unimpeded journey. He continued on his way without thinking much of it. But, his fortune was also riddled with some chaos.

His relatively simple labyrinth challenge ended with a single encounter.

He rushed through a straight corridor and took a left turn. He took the first right after that, then continued straight for a while longer.

In the end, August found himself at the exact dead end that he was expecting to find, and as it moved to show him what stood on the other side...

He froze.

He'd run into the only person he wanted to avoid in this entire labyrinth, the person nobody wanted to see.

Their meeting made the crowd go wild in anticipation. August Void, a newcomer from a common background who'd surprised them over and over...

...and Eris Noct, an indomitable force that had shown herself to be invincible among her peers. Were they going to fight?

Was August going to be defeated casually like everyone else who ran into Eris?

Or...would he show them another surprise and find a way out?

The crowd was dying to know.

But as the two's eyes met, there was only silence between them.