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WD - Chapter 181: A steady pace
🕑 Added 2024-12-22 18:08:50 +0000 UTCLuke walked down a long and wide hallway of the maze. He had already been left behind by everyone in his group, who, unlike him, were in a hurry because they wanted to win the ten thousand dollars and be crowned champions.
'Even Eugene left me behind,' Luke thought, sighing lightly.
He walked, observing the surroundings, though there wasn't much to see. There were statues, but after looking at them for a while, they stopped being interesting.
The hedged walls were very tall, over 10 meters high. The hallways were wide, and many people could comfortably walk in a horizontal line.
The lighting was poor since it was night, and every now and then, there were torches with weak flames that incredibly couldn’t burn the vegetation walls. Thanks to his enhanced vision from his clairvoyance, the dim lighting wasn't a problem for him.
'This is boring,' Luke thought, five minutes after entering.
He had imagined a romantic walk through the maze with Wednesday under the moonlight, admiring the grotesque and eerie statues, but she wasn’t by his side.
He could have told Ajax to put them in the same group, but Wednesday had the competition with Bianca, so it would be pointless.
"Ten thousand dollars wouldn’t hurt…" Luke murmured, and in the blink of an eye, he started running at an incredible speed. If he just took a stroll, he’d only see stupid, repetitive statues.
At least he would see if the traps Ajax set were a challenge. That would be more fun, and he could even win ten thousand dollars and beat Bianca and Wednesday. It would be amusing to see their expressions when they saw him sitting on top of the chest.
Luke expanded his domain. As Ajax had told him, his domain was limited. However, it wasn’t useless.
He could only expand it by one kilometer. A huge reduction from his maximum of 35 kilometers. But this was still very useful.
This single kilometer allowed him to foresee traps when he encountered them, detect enemies from a distance of 1 km, anticipate changes in the environment, and even see through some walls.
It wasn’t bad at all.
Luke decided to fly, his feet just inches from the ground. His great flying speed allowed him to catch up with some teammates who had left him behind earlier.
‘So fast!?’ two boys thought in surprise as Luke passed them, and soon they lost sight of him when he turned a corner. It was impossible for them to compete with that speed.
In a few seconds, as if it were a simple game, Luke returned, barely slowing his flight as he passed in front of them before taking another path, quickly heading down a new passage.
“Heh, he's just trying his luck. He’ll never find the right path that way,” one of the boys scoffed.
The method Luke was using to navigate the maze was simple.
Using his 1 km domain, he eliminated the paths that didn't seem correct. Although he couldn't see the entire maze and its pathways, one kilometer allowed him to identify any changes that could indicate a trap or a dead-end fork, as long as the hallway wasn’t extremely long.
Although this method wasn't 100% effective, as seen with the path he had just chosen, which turned out to be a dead-end, if he chose incorrectly, he simply retraced his steps with the same speed as before and took the other path that seemed least like a trap.
Luke realized that this approach was effective, and he could see much faster progress than any of the others in his group.
Despite the efficiency, his teammates only saw Luke as someone who relied purely on speed and used the option to retreat as if it were a simple trial-and-error game. They didn’t understand that his domain gave him an even greater advantage.
As for the traps, Luke could easily stop them with his telekinesis and the great reaction time he had trained in the Addams mansion.
Among these traps were dozens of arrows or darts, floor traps that he didn’t even activate since he was flying, but he detected them with his domain, and some other traps with sharp, deadly weapons.
He also encountered a few statues that attacked him, but a simple telekinetic punch shattered them to pieces.
In no time, Luke arrived at a larger room. This was a good sign. He was the first to arrive from his group. He didn’t know if he’d cross paths with people from the other groups yet; he should, but it would be difficult.
The room was large, circular in shape, with tall walls made of dense bushes. In front of him, several meters away, there was a door. The problem was a statue about ten meters tall.
The statue was of a human in armor, holding a long sword and a round shield. It seemed to have been resting there for a long time, but as soon as Luke stepped on the ground, it began to move slowly, awakening from its slumber.
When the statue was about to wake up completely, Luke launched a telekinetic orb at it.
BOOM!
The knight couldn’t do anything to dodge the telekinetic orb, which, upon contact, released its telekinetic energy, causing a powerful explosion and shattering him to pieces.
"Weak," Luke muttered, dodging a piece of stone that was the knight’s hand with a slight tilt of his head.
The telekinetic orb he sent wasn’t even the most powerful one he could launch. The door, upon detecting that the knight had been defeated, trembled and opened on its own. Luke resumed his unstoppable march toward the 10,000 dollars and beating Wednesday and Bianca.
…
"Why are you taking this so seriously!?" Ajax exclaimed indignantly, watching through a camera as his great stone knight was instantly destroyed by Luke.
Now, the group moving through the northern part of the maze could pass through easily without any challenge.
At first, Luke seemed to be strolling, as he had said at the beginning, but suddenly he changed his mind and began flying at a dizzying speed. His method, which seemed precarious, was very effective, putting him ahead of all the groups, surpassing Wednesday and Bianca, who were the second closest to the chest.
His friend managed to get ahead, even though for five minutes, he had been walking lazily, observing the statues.
"According to my analysis, Mr. Luke got bored with the statues, so he decided to change his approach," said a young maid from the Petropolus family, standing behind Ajax.
"I know… Who would’ve thought our ancient statues would be so boring. At least I’ll give the money to a friend," Ajax said, sighing.
From what he saw, it was impossible for Bianca or Wednesday to keep up with Luke's pace.
Wednesday was the one on his heels, but she wasn’t as aggressive as him; he didn’t slow down almost at any point, and he didn’t care about traps or enemies.
…
Wednesday advanced through the dark hallways. The darkness wasn’t an obstacle for her; it was even an advantage. She could use the ambient darkness to attack, defend, or move more effectively, as she didn’t have to exert the effort to conjure it.
'The traps are getting more dangerous. That's a good sign,' Wednesday thought, using the darkness around her to create a shield that defended her relentlessly from a dozen arrows.
Hearing footsteps behind her, she slowly turned her head and frowned when she saw who it was.
"Why are you following me? Make your own decisions," she said coldly, staring at Enid, who had managed to keep up with her all this time despite using her camouflage and moving at a speed that was anything but slow.
"My decision is to follow you," Enid said with a friendly smile. She knew that the best choice to take the right paths was to follow Wednesday.
Enid had no idea how to navigate a deceptive maze. She watched as Wednesday summoned small crows that flew through the hallways, seemingly giving her information. After that, she would choose a path, and it always turned out to be the right one. They never encountered dead-end paths or ones that looped in circles.
Enid managed to follow Wednesday without losing sight of her thanks to her sense of smell. Her olfactory abilities couldn’t be underestimated, even though the darkness was the perfect environment for Wednesday to camouflage herself.
Enid stepped on a block that slowly sank into the ground.
As soon as she felt the block sinking under her foot, she knew something was wrong. The sharp whistle of something cutting through the air confirmed her instinct.
She quickly turned around and saw the metallic gleam of a massive axe shooting out from one of the walls, speeding toward her at a lethal pace.
Her hand partially transformed into a werewolf’s claw: the nails elongated into sharp talons, and the muscles tensed. She extended her arm and caught the axe mid-flight, gripping it tightly just before the blade could reach her.
The push from the weapon forced her to step back several paces. She completely halted the axe's movement, the blade trembling slightly in her grip, but it didn’t advance another inch.
With a snort, Enid applied more force with her hand. Her fingers tightened further on the metal, and in a swift, decisive motion, she broke the axe.
“What were we talking about?” Enid said, turning her gaze toward Wednesday, but there was no one there anymore.
“Hey, you can’t escape my sense of smell!” Enid shouted, running toward a hallway that clearly had Wednesday's scent.
In front of the straight hallway, Enid ran at full speed. Her speed was much greater than Wednesday's base speed, since she was a werewolf.
As she exited the hallway, Enid arrived at a large circular room. She saw Wednesday's back and sighed in relief that she hadn't lost sight of her.
Enid, who was about to say something to Wednesday, looked ahead. Her expression grew more serious.
Throughout the enormous round room, five stone statues, each at least four meters tall, began to move slowly, their joints creaking and the sound of stone rubbing against stone echoing.
Their imposing figures resembled ancient warriors, armed with swords, maces, and spears.
It seemed they had to defeat them in order to proceed through the door on the other side of the room.
"Now that it's just the two of us, we’ll defeat them faster. See? It's not so bad having someone follow you," Enid said.
"Just don’t get in my way," Wednesday said dryly, conjuring her scythe of darkness.
…
“Damn it, they got the hardest middle room!” Ajax complained, banging the edge of a table in frustration.
The image in front of him showed the five statues slowly approaching Wednesday and Enid.
The labyrinth was unpredictable; its rooms and obstacles changed depending on when someone reached them. Now, they would take longer than Luke, who only faced one statue, albeit a larger one.
Ajax had hoped that Luke would have some competition, but now his closest pursuers had encountered an obstacle that would delay them for a few crucial minutes.
