A new wind blew through the open fields of Atntis. The course ged from the relut end with Miltiades to a new danger. Well-worn ft stones id out an intricate patter of no purposeful design. Mixed amongst the stone, rge rock sbs jutted up a full four meters creating walls and in some pces pathways.

  Equally unaware of his friends’ ditions, Yuki forced himself to keep stepping back to avoid being clipped by a rising stone wall. Each time he tried to give himself the pause to trate oing his Law something interrupted him. The test came under one of his feet, nearly knog him off bah its speed. He staggered back against the neighb wall. ‘Damn! I ’t eve a sed to stop to think! I swear he’s purposely trying to keep me from using my Kasuo-ryoku!’

  Chapter 120 – Labyrinthine Doubts

  Yuki stood back up straight getting his footing. Behind him, walls already brushed over his escape. ‘I’ve got to get out of this and find that annoying bastard!’ He ran out for the open area he saw dodging a few of the walls created. It felt like he gained ground as less surrounded him. ‘I’m almost out!’ However, several walls drew in at oo dead end his path. His fist pounded against the erected wall in frustration. ‘So close…but I guess he won’t be making this easy…’

  Stuck for the moment, Yuki tried to take the time to sketch a new course of a. Metal spikes from the solid stone shot up at him. He narrowly avoided the spikes, but his tunic was less fortunate. A few tears carved in the weave. ‘He really isn’t lettiop!’ Yuki bounced around the narrow hall to return to hopefully safer ground.

  The moment he came to a stop his foot suddenly gave, depressing a raised stone blobsp; The grinding from stone against stone was enough for him to panid jump away. He mao dodge the set of five small arrows as a result. ‘What sort of Field is this?! It’s like it is a maze with traps that are overused in adveories!’ His question soon answered itself when he realized that was exactly what it was. ‘Damn it! And if I ’t trate on my powers he’s going to kill me before I eveo him! This is such a me way to die!’

  Not wishing to remain blocked in the dead end er, Yuki rushed off to backtrack where he knew another exit waited. ‘I just have to get out…’ Less than careful footwork set off three more traps in the process varying from sharpened metal shooting out to crushing walls. The only thing that saved him was not stopping. At the end before turning the er, he looked back feeling the pounding in his chest from recklesshat leaked to his heart. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t do that again…’

  However, he turned his eyes back to his new dire and saw some of the maze not structed yet. He ran for the exit not sidering traps, despite his previous thoughts. The stretch of hall didn’t try to attack him and he saw wide brush strokes of green fields.

  A neainted in to block him, but he wasn’t going to give up. Yuki lunged for the wall hoping to clear it, but hit the ainfully in the fabsp; His hands nimbly grabbed the top of the wall still rising. ‘Not quite as pnned, but this will work!’ Yuki lifted himself up to the top of the wall.

  New height on the maze gave him a better view. In the distance, he saw the Athat trapped him. He couldn’t see well from the distance, but he saw a darkly shaded figure in a cloak with metal ptes refleg the sunlight back at Yuki. ‘He’s oddly armored for not even trying to e after me. I wonder—’ The sudden dispt of his feet cut off Yuki. “What?!”

  Yuki fell back down to the stone floor. He rolled away minimizing the damage and fell into the adjoining hall. “What just happened?” In front of him, the wall that he had stood on was no longer present. He could see into the other hall. “Right…annoying powers…”

  At the ter of the maze, Antipas stood calmly monit everything within the reach of his Field. The current progress of Yuki had him very intrigued. ‘He’s qui his feet even without his Law and he already found one of the weakoo… He’s definitely a dangerous one… I must bring him down in the byrinth if possible…’ He introduced the step to the maze, withholding it before to serve oal strength.

  A new groaning of stone scraping against stone from above alerted Yuki. He looked up to see his sky painted out with a ceiling introduced. Yuki ched his fists together at the new sign. ‘Making this even more difficult for me? Now I only find a.’ No longer ied in staying, Yuki hurried off down his new hall. Being more aware of the traps, he proceeded through with greater caution. Unfortunately, they weren’t always easy to spot. He had to dodge rge axe-like bdes swinging through. ‘He’s just a book of clichés…but I guess if it is effective…’ Yuki trudged onward.

  Yuki struggled to find his bearings in the maze. The more that he navigated the halls the more it became uain if a was near. His ck of a view of the sky made his sense of dire even worse. Only plig matters were the traps. He had so much focus on staying alive and nering a trap that Yuki fot his position in the Field. ‘This maze ’t be that big. It still has to all fit into that guy’s Field… Am I going in circles?’

  Ba the ter, much of the walls disappeared to make room for the necessary parts of the maze. It gave Antipas far more room and allowed him to keep making steps towards Yuki to ehat he remained in his Field. Even if the traps hadn’t injured Yuki yet, he just had to wait it out until he made a mistake. ‘As things are, I keep him pletely direless by removing walls and making new paths.’ He raised his hand to his thinking for a moment ouation. ‘I may have to add something else soon if I ’t trick him…’

  Dodging traps for Yuki became easier the more he experienced each type. He hadn’t stumbled across a new one for a little bit. It gave him a growing sense of fiden the maze. Unfortunately, the exit still eluded him. ‘Where is the stupid exit?! I’ve got to be getting closer!’ Yuki darted around the er wanting, but not hoping for the end. The hall looked just like the st one.

  Settling in more to the trapped feeling with potentially no escape brought Yuki to a pause. He found what seemed like a safe spot. His mind had been w tely, but he forced himself ba task. However, the reprieve made him go back.

  ‘She saw it somehow…’ Yuki remembered the brief events before the enemy split them up. ‘Yumi seemed to have a good handle on the group, but I guess I didn’t pay that close attention. I wonder if Yumi is safe? I have to deal with this guy and make sure she’s safe! She’s not like Saki, Seiji or Haruo.’

  Yuki looked around the hall and remembered the bothersome situation that he had in front of him. ‘But I have to figure out a way out of this before that…’ He pushed off his back from the wall, no longer leaning. His fist tightened, f determination bato his body. ‘Alright! I’ve got to stop standing around here doing nothing! Being somewhere safe won’t get me out of this maze any sooner!’

  After drawing his resolution, Yuki started down the hall. He made it as far as the urn before he came to a stop. His features drew ft for a moment with his thoughts finally catg up to reality. “If there’s traps I just have to stand still and I won’t be hit! I’ll have the time I o trate!” Yuki gripped his head in his hands angry at his own absentmindedness. “Why didn’t I think of that sooner?! I’m su idiot!”

  Panting a little heavy from gettied with his stupidity, Yuki finally calmed down. “Just need a few moments to focus.” His breathing evened out as his mind began the stru. The Law was still o him, so it took him loo sort everything out. ‘…a little longer…’ He needed more time to focus. Time dragged on slowly, even longer. Yuki went loill in silence.

  A sudden headache shot into his head followed by lightheadedness. His feet buckled a little, staggering him dangerously close to a trap. Yuki threw out his hand against the wall for support to stop his movement. His free hand pressed to his face grasping at the pain. ‘What the hell? I…’ It felt like someoook sandpaper to his skull sending the vibrations through him.

  Finally opening his eyes, a haze surrounded him. ‘What’s going on? I barely see!’ Yuki slid down the wall colpsing to the floor. The pain in his head lessened a little as he could open his eyes more. From the stone floor, he saw ao the blur that covered his eyes. A thick fog hovered in the air in the hall, carrying a foul dark red tint. Yuki slowly turned his head up trying to uand the situation. ‘Is that what’s…making me…feel like this?’

  Yuki forced himself to his feet ahe resurging wave of pain through his head. The quick rise raabbing to the backs of his eyes making him fall backwards in surprise. A low yelp came from Yuki before he realized that he set off a trap by act.

  Several spinning bdes lowered from the ceiling quickly in dest for him. Nothing in his mind thought straight. He rolled through on reflex, still grasping at his fabsp; He awkwardly avoided three of the bdes, but the fourth dug into his forearm soaking in blood from him. The sting from the wou pletely oblivious to him as he tried to clear the area.

  Arrows, spikes, crushing walls and bdes all came after him in his haphazard escape. There was too much for Yuki to see and avoid with the grating in his head distrag him. Only his speed kept him from ing out worse. He colpsed to the floor beyond the fog and in a non-trap deion of the maze.

  The tuni Yuki had a series of cuts and tears with blood soaking into the edges. Yuki came out with only minor cuts. Even the first sli his forearm didn’t look nearly as bad after iigation. ‘Got lucky…’ He propped himself up against the wall to take a moment to recover, but the red fog started to build around him again. ‘Damn! Got to move again…’

  Antipas tio analyze the situation. He adapted the maze as he followed Yuki’s movements. “It took him loo realize that he could stand still… Hmm, was him disc the weakness before a bsp; Well no matter, he’s starting to realize that I won’t allow him to linger long enough.” The slower, less direct route was safer for him. He heard what happeo Eusebios in his enter with the rogue MP user. Proteg himself from the dahat he presented was more important than a fast victory. ‘This victory will show my worth to the Captain.’

  While the young man in his very early twenties was skilled, graduating from the academy gave him the only proof of that skill. Antipas had barely even received his posting to the South Gate before the incursion. The opportunity to py a critical role in saving Atntis from the greatest threat sihe rebellion almost thirty years ago would be er accodes for him. ‘I don’t know what your reason for invading was, but I’ll capture you and protect the peabsp; This may be only a reaissa I won’t let this ce pass! I’ll e back alive and with a prize!’ Antipas reflexively ched his fists together feeling the tension building from his thoughts.

  Staying ahead of the red fog proved as difficult as avoidiing off the traps. Yuki felt a sistent lingering feeling of unease swimming through his head. It didn’t build up as strongly as the headache he felt before. He assumed that even in areas he thought to be safe still had some of the fog. ‘This fog is even worse tharaps! Even if I wao try to focus while on the move, this ever so slight headache is making it difficult to trate!’ His frustration made him slip up and triggered a crushing wall to e in front of him.

  Yuki stayed back letting the trap go, but a brief thought came to him. ‘I wonder if there’s anything behind it that I use as a shortcut…’ He didn’t get much of a look before the wall returned back, but all he saw ainted darkness. ‘Figures with these powers, making something impossible is possible.’ The strengthening of his headache sighe dead end and his o move. Yuki didn’t move as cautiously , f arap. It took him by surprise, making him slow to reabsp; He jumped onto the wall using the gaps for traps not spru for foot and hand holds. ‘…damnit…’

  Ohe spikes from the floor fell back, Yuki let out a sigh and rexed his body against the wall. Unfortunately, the wall held arigger, which he realized a moment too te. “e on! You’ve got to be kidding me!” Yuki quickly scrambled along the wall esg the arrowed shot from the gaps he, a moment before, used as handholds.

  He kept climbing along the wall, fetting to get back down. “This is so me! Why do I have to keep setting off traps? This is already getting old! If you ’t e up with something new, switeone else! I bet Saki wants some s time!” Yuki came to a stop after clearing three lengths of halls. “Why ’t I just defeat this jerk off-s and move on to something more iing!” Silence ughed in the empty hall at Yuki. ‘Damn, this would be more edic with a sed person to retainst…’

  Anh came from Yuki with his rant pleted. Yuki looked around the hall trying to figure out where he had taken himself. “In all of the yelling I sort of fot where I was going…” He saw the ground below him and a thought suddenly came to him. His eyes sed the hall quickly. “Hmm…I see…”

  “Where is he?” questioned Antipas. He sed his maze in search of Yuki, but could find nothing. The byrinth didn’t allow him to see Yuki, but he had other methods. He tracked him without fault sihe beginning, yet he had lost the signal. Antipas began moving and shifting walls trying to turn him up. Nothiempted gave him any success. “What’s going on?!”

  An explosive roar bsted through several walls throwing smoke into the air. The smoke threw all the way back to Antipas blowing against him and bing the Field. He threw up his arms to keep the smoke from his eyes. “What?!” Ohe smoke lowered to the ground clearing up much of the Field, Antipas could see through the ruined walls. Antipas’ eyes widened suddenly. “How’s that possible?!”

  Through the rubble standing in a Field of knee high grass, Yuki bore his fighting clothing with a faint glow about him. His arm remaiended out in front of him. An eager smirk rose on his face with his freedom granted. “Time that I put ao this!”