Chapter 36 - Talented Little

"Why are you still blindfolded?" He wanted to ask but thought it's none of his business.

"You know her?" Kiyan asked as they resumed walking but Raten shrugged saying he had only seen her once. The blonde girl whom Kiyan had helped with a single fireball now moved with them and at their own pace, though she still thought they were progressing really slowly.

"Okay, Raten, it's your turn, right or left?" Kiyan asked as they were met with another turn.

"Left." He answered.

"No, we should go right." The girl with a blindfold said.

"You can't even see where you're going, how can you tell which way is best, I think we should go left." The blonde girl spoke and was ignored. Her first statement did make the boys think, if the blindfolded girl can't see, how had she been moving with no help at all. She walked and avoided everything if not better than the ones with eyes open.

She said nothing to defend her choice and walked off taking the right path. "Do we follow her?" Kiyan asked his brother.

"I don't know, but I think we should." Raten replied and they both went with the girl. Blondy felt a bit embarrassed after being completely ignored and though she still thought they should go left, she didn't want to walk alone. Letting out a groan, she followed them.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Raten questioned the blindfolded girl.

"The other way is a dead end, so yes, I'm sure." She replied.

"How can you tell?" Kiyan asked this time.

"Let's just say it's an ability of mine." She replied.  The blonde girl rolled her eyes.

"In that case, lead the way Little." Raten said and tapped her shoulders.

"Little?" She paused on hearing what he referred to her as. From her tone, she clearly didn't like it.

"You are quite small compared to the rest of us here, so.. Little." He said with an innocent smile. Both Kiyan and the blonde girl tried to muffle their chuckles. The one being referred to only let out a huff and kept going deciding to ignore him.

"You are teasing our leader now?" Kiyan raised a brow.

"What? Isn't she little?" Raten replied and they kept walking and as their new leader had picked up pace, so did they. As they moved further into the maze, more creatures came out. The twins deciding not to wear themselves out brought out their preferred weapon - Kiyan, his sword which was now out of it's sheath and in his hand, and Raten, his dual blades. The blonde girl also had a sword on her and the blindfolded girl, well she had nothing but chains around her wrists.

Small critters with razor sharp teeth came rushing at them. Kiyan sliced them in half smoothly with his sword, so did the blonde girl with hers, but Kiyan was quicker and more graceful with his steps than her. Raten having his small dual blades dealt with the ones that got within arms length. He twisted and turned, stabbing and slicing, he also had his eyes on the blindfolded girl who avoided every pounce or attack from the critters as they neared.

When the place seemed clear, they continued on their path.

"See that, she doesn't know where she's going." The blonde girl mocked as they were met with a dead end while following Little's lead. Little said nothing and kept walking towards it and almost as if she vanished, she was nowhere to be seen.

"No one asked you to walk with us." Kiyan said and walked off with his brother in the direction Little went. As they neared the shrub-formed wall of the maze, they noticed a path which was blocked out due to fog, they went in. The blonde girl, clearly a bit infuriated that she was wrong again, followed still and had to move faster or she would miss them.

Lifting an axe with a chain at its end, a certain black haired, tall and broad lad cut the head off what looked like a human sized spider. Around him were two other decapitated spiders, three boys who were hurt and one quivering girl. One of the boys who looked more hurt than them and could barely move sunk into the ground to be seen no more.

"Uhm.. what just happened?" The blonde girl said as she noticed the boy get sucked underground.

"I don't know, but it has happened to a lot of hurt people, they get sucked underground." The tall boy replied placing his back into the straps on his back.

"Jarett?" Kiyan called out.

"Oh, hey!"

"The crystal is almost found and more of those are coming!" Little suddenly said and started running. The blonde girl ran after her.

"Huh?" Jarett looked confused.

"That's Little, she knows where she's going." Raten explained and ran off as well. Jarett didn't need to be told what to do as he ran off with them. The other two boys and the girl did same.

On the other side of the maze, pulling on his bowstring, Lecter shot at the head of a bee with spikes for arms. It was just like the first beast he had faced, but this one seemed less dangerous as the arrow pierced through it's head and it fell to the ground dead. With him were ten more people and they kept running in search of the crystal.

As they made a turn, they were met with what looked like an icy gorilla. From it's nostril, snowflakes came out as it let out a breath.

"You with the firepower, handle this." Pulling a boy to the front was a brown haired boy.

"You made me use my ability so much already, I am exhausted." The boy complained trying to escape the other's grip.

"Are you saying you are useless right now?" He questioned in an infuriated manner. In the midst of nine others, he was the only unhurt one as he kept making others do the fighting. Someone had disagreed once and got his joints broken, and it looked like the boy with fire ability was about to meet the same fate.

"I am saying LET GO!" He kneed him in the stomach. The brown haired boy then held him by the throat and used him as a human shield as the gorilla had let out an ice breath which froze nearly half the children with him, including the one in front of him.

All the frozen bodies sank into the ground leaving six participants including Lecter. "You seem dangerous." The brown haired boy said and his right fist grew in size, more correctly, he coated his fist with the rocks in the area, making it large and though heavy, he could swing it just fine.

The other kids tried using whatever ability they had to attack the beast, but unfortunately, some of them had no ability, and the others just didn't have one that could beat ice. Three more participants ended up frozen and swallowed up by the earth.

"I'll get rid of this nuisance." The brown haired boy said and lifted the earth beneath his feet, launching himself at the beast. He swung his arm from the top and smashed the icy beast's head till it was nothing but unevenly cut ice cubes. The rocks fell from his fist and the beast fell to the ground dead and headless. He then ran forward, Lecter and the only other boy with him ran forward as well.

Meanwhile,

"What do we do?!" The blonde girl with Kiyan and Raten's group yelled while pulling on her cheeks.

"Can't you be quiet?! You've been screaming ever since." Jarett snapped back annoyed at her behavior. In front of them were three icy gorillas, behind them were dead large porcupines and among them where four iced bodies being sunken into the ground. Along the way, they had met a few more people and now they were nine.

"Enough of this!" Kiyan yelled and placed his sword in it's sheath. He then placed his palms together and stretched them forward, out of his hands came flames so large, and immensely hot it covered the top half of each gorilla melting their icy bodies. It came at a cost though, their path was on fire.

"Couldn't you have found a better way to do that?!"  The ever annoying Blondy complained.

"I didn't see you do anything to help!" Kiyan yelled.

"I can get us through." Jarett said and as they were about to ask how, the blindfolded girl, or as Raten calls her - Little - who had moved back a few steps, ran forward and stepped on the head of one of the slowly sinking iced bodies. She made a flip over the fir and landed on her two feet on the other side of it unhurt, as she put off the little flames that had caught on her dress.

"You see that?!" Raten said to Blondy, "Unlike you, Little's got skill."