The twist and turns inside the maze made the task given to the hundred or more teenagers present in it a harder one. There were times where the path they took led to a dead end. This of course meant they had to retrace their steps to get back on track. And in the course of hurrying to make it to the end of the maze first, it was unlikely that anyone actually paid attention to the path they had taken. Instead, they were more worried about who was behind or ahead of them and what that person had planned.
It was now at this point not just the maze that posed a problem to them. But they also were a problem to themselves. Considering there was only one flag promised to be at the end, they weren't so keen on sharing their spot.
A lot of people had been either injured or about to be injured and beamed away by the strange bracelets given to them prior to them coming here from the mana test center the previous day. There were obstacles at every turn as they proceeded further into the maze. Most of them had already given up seeing that the path they took led them back to the initial start. It had occurred like that with a few and they just lost hope feeling they had fallen too far behind and most probably the flag had been retrieved. But given how the maze structure remained standing and there was no announcement of such, a lot of them regained hope that there might be a chance to still pursue their dreams.
Even without being told by the announcer that there were certainly no rules to this kind of race, they all were poised to destroy each other from the beginning already.
At the first section of the maze, the kid with the red hair remained undoubtedly undisputed. He had cleared out most of his competitions to begin with. And the few that remained felt it wise to just keep a steady pace from behind. No one was brave enough to over take him again as they either ate a lightning or two for their struggle or were sacrificed to the maze gods. The maze gods was a term coined by one of them who had been beamed away. He simply referred to every obstacle they met in their way as a maze god. And the red hair kid with lightning power didn't fail to make sure the gods remained fed thoroughly. He had truly personified "Any means necessary". And was doing quite a fantastic job as well in succeeding at it.
In the other tunnel, particularly the third, they were facing a different crisis of their own. Every step they took was either a trap or they on their next step forward.
" I think it has a sequence. I mean if we do it together, we might be able to get out of this guys" Arsha who led this set of teenagers said. Apparently they paid more ears to her than initially. And as it turned out, she somehow turned out always being right.
"I can't remember your ability. Are you just some super brained girl?" A buff tall boy with little shades of early mustache asked. The fact that the hair was scanty made him look a little awkward as he had a mix of an adult and a baby face all together.
"Uhm...you can say that I guess?" Arsha responded mid crisis. The remaining twelve left in her group all looked at the guy wondering how then was a good time to ask such questions.
Up in front of them was a clear path but they knew better than that. One wrong step placed on the ground and the maze gods were triggered and once again on them. The atmosphere was in tense but Arsha seemed calmer than ever.
"The last person, take a step back" Arsha commanded.
"What?!!.. Why should I?. You want to get rid of me?" The girl at the back who happened to be the last protested. She had freckles on her cheeks and had short dark hair with a below average height. Certainly someone her size packing that much courage came as a surprise to them given she had given off the impression of being a timid one.
"Yeah, I think that big brain of hers has this all planned all along. She's tactically trying to take us all out!!" Another guy picked up where the small framed girl dropped.
"You guys, if it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have made it this far. Can you all just think for a moment!!!" A guy with blonde long hair and an average build said.
"Oh, looks like you are in on the plan too. Or have you suddenly fallen in love with miss braniac over there?!!!" And just this way, the place was thrown into chaos. They all argued back and forth but at the back of their minds, they all kept their position not moving an inch or even turning to respond to whom ever they argued with.
But this cohesiveness didn't last for long as soon the girl who had been asked to step back did something drastic.
"Screw this!!" She said and immediately her hands began to expand. They grew large and tore through the sleeves of her shirt. Now when looking at her, a single arm of hers looked like her entire body frame all together.
"Out of my way!!" She yelled and pushed everyone in front of her out. No one stood a chance as they were either pushed or flung aside. Some of them were flung so hard that they banged their head on the maze wall and instantly, they were beamed away.
But her actions did have consequence as the lasers attached high up to the wall came alive and numerous maze bots came out too. In less than seconds, they all began to fire at them. The girl with small frame and large hands roared and it came as a shock to those around as they didn't quite understand her antics.
Soon enough she ran straight to one of the walls and jumped, punching holes into it breaking the earth but this gave her leverage as she used it as a form of propeller to run on the wall. She ran on the wall simply by punching holes in it.
"Who would have thought?" The kid with the weird scanty mustache mouthed in shock as they watched the large arm girl make her move to one of the lasers on the wall.
She scaled the wall almost too perfectly like she did that all her life. The robots on the ground were shooting laser beams at the rest of the participants. But when they heard something get smashed, their attention turned and they could see the large arm girl with a piece of the lazer equipment pulled from the wall as she repeatedly kept on smashing it.
She too noticed the robots had turned their attention to her and with a powerful push off the wall, she launched at one of them closest to her. By then, a beam was already gathering up in the robot's hand that was long and had a circular opening just at the end to allow the beam out.
The beam shot at her and caught her right in the stomach blasting her to the ground. But what everyone expected next never happened as instead, she staggered back to her feet with one arm wrapped around her stomach and charged at the robots again.
"How is she still standing?!" The guy with the mustache asked.
"Better question should be why hasn't she been beamed away?" Another girl asked.
The beam from the robots were certainly none fatal as they barely even burnt the clothing she wore. But they sure were painful and a few of them who had actually evaded it by the hair of their skin knew better than most that she shouldn't be standing.
"I think this bracelet thing monitors our vitals and measures our strength to a degree. If our vitals spikes up too much or they see a fatal shot that we can't handle, they teleport us away" a guy in glasses with short curly hair and a slim frame proposed. He looked to have been having a cold as he was constantly snorting.
*Raaghrrr!!!" A scream was heard from the girl up ahead as she smashed her large arms into the robot knocking it over. She went on to jump on it and smashed more and more. But then all the robots turned and fired at her.
"Something is wrong. By now, that should be deemed as a critical situation. And she should be beamed away" Arsha said as she observed that the girl fell on top of the robot that she was pounding moments ago after taking multiple shots.
The boy in glasses was right about the bracelet being able to gauge somewhat the powers that one had even though it wasn't as accurate as it only measured the amount of power one exerted while wearing it and not the actual full tank the said person had. It also kept tabs of the wearers vitals and at anytime would teleport them away automatically if it sensed danger. But in this case it didn't do so for some reason.
"Hey, isn't that one of the bracelet thingy?" The weird mustache guy asked. They all turned to where he pointed at and could see a bracelet just like theirs behind them that had been split into two. Now they all understood what had gone wrong and they could see the bots were still firing at the girl.
..