Author: M_W Cancer 

Proofreader: M_W Miss Fierce

Whooooosh!

While Leo was thinking about Ahmed's team, in the light screens, the barrier that covered the entire spectator stands of the Victory Arena suddenly started moving forward towards the center stage.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

As soon as the barrier touched the periphery of the maze, it right after got destroyed with its debris and other stuff pushed forward.

The barrier continued moving forward without any signs of stopping. Albeit it was moving slowly, it would definitely not take that long for the entire maze to be destroyed.

"Oh, no! It seems like the timer for everyone to escape the maze has finally begun!" Elmont announced loudly after seeing the sight of the barrier shrinking in size.

Once again, another information that was deliberately said too late by Elmont, Tifa, and Tila in order to catch every participant with such a sudden turn of events.

The faces of every leader of the remaining 75 participants except for Leo, Orcborg, and Selina can't help but turn ugly.

Honestly, they were somewhat expecting already that the chest wasn't the only surprised that the Evergreen royal family had prepared for this game 'The Maze'. That is because the existence of the chest hadn't really caused them that much damage than what they have expected so far. Though some teams had indeed gained a lot of advantages through those chests and some capable teams were even eliminated because of it by teams much weaker than them, but after the others had discovered how helpful the items inside the chest were, its purpose had immediately lost any effect.

With only those chests and looking for the exit of the maze serving as a challenge for all the teams, the game 'The Maze' seemed like it feels so inferior compared to the first game 'Hide and Seek'. 

Although there were still killing involved in the second game 'The Maze', the only difference it had with the first game 'Hide and Seek' was that the map had become really complicated, which, honestly speaking, wasn't really that serious compared to having some Seeker groups searching for them.

Unfortunately, none of them had really expected that the unexpected twist of the game 'The Maze' was actually a timer. And not just any ordinary timer, it was something that would undoubtedly kill anyone that would get caught by the barrier due to tsunami-like debris it was pushing forward.

Unlike the first game 'Hide and Seek' where everyone could just simply choose to hide until 25 teams were eliminated, the second game 'The Maze' would cause all the teams to eagerly look for the exit, lest they get squashed to death.

Even though it is still possible to wait until 25 teams got eliminated in the game 'The Maze', but the question remained whether they could really survive until then. After all, the barrier is gradually enclosing them as time continues to pass.

Looking at the light screen, Leo felt a bit surprised as he remembered the timer that Uncle Elfin had mentioned to him before. He said that all the teams would have to look for the exit of the maze before the time was up. What he just didn't expect was it actually wasn't going to just be any ordinary timer, but rather a timer for their impending death.

Observing the Mirror Map Table, Leo easily found the exit, specifically located nearby the center to the west.

Truthfully, the location of the exit of the maze wasn't really that surprising. With the barrier slowly enclosing towards the center, it is only natural for the exit to also be located in the center. Simply put, the barrier somewhat acted as the clue for the location of the exit. 

Without wasting any time, Leo quickly informed Ahmed's team through the communicators, "Quick, go to the center of the map!"

Brad's wound has long already recovered, so the moment they heard Leo's instruction, Ahmed's team didn't bother returning to the previous mountain as they have planned before, instead, they immediately choose to move to the center of the maze.

Through Leo's guidance, it was very easy for Ahmed's team to traverse the complicated pathways of the maze.

When they reached close enough to the center, Leo suddenly informed them to go towards a nearby mountain to their left.

The mountain that Leo has chosen this time was perfectly located on the border of both the southern region and western region. It was also very close to the center, thus allowing them to easily reach the exit of the map whenever they want.

Aside from those two reasons, this was also the place where plenty of teams, especially those teams with members of the Naughty Elves organization in them around both the southern region and western region, are expected to pass through before they could look for the exit of the maze. Therefore, they will hide in this mountain and look for prey to hunt once plenty of teams have finally arrived. In other words, rather than look for them one by one, it is much better to simply wait in patience for their prey to come close to their mouth.

While the Mischievous Lion was opening its mouth and waiting for the prey to enter, the rest of the teams finally noticed the barrier slowly approaching them.

Curios teams went to check what was wrong, only to swiftly turned around after a few minutes as fast as they could the moment they saw the huge wave of debris mixed with trees and other stuff that could be found in the maze.

Without needing to think about it, they could already imagine their likely Fate once the barrier caught up to them. It wouldn't even be surprising if their bodies would no longer be found as they would get crashed and turned into meat paste. If they got to choose between that and be killed by other teams, then they would, without any hesitation, choose to be killed by the latter than have their bodies be turned into the former. No other reason aside from that they could at least have an intact body in their coffins once they died.

Sensing that the barrier should have begun moving by now, Orcborg and Selina's team finally decided to temporarily hold their killing of the members of the Naughty Elves organization as they moved towards the center. Anyways, it wouldn't be too late to eliminate more once they arrived at their destination. What's even better is they don't have to search for long anymore because most teams would be gathered in close proximity with each other.

After tens or so of minutes of patiently waiting, a few preys had finally appeared on Ahmed's team's sight. The only unfortunate thing was, there was actually no member of the Naughty Elves organization on them. Because of that, they could only feel a bit disappointed and continue to wait for more teams to arrive.

"No need to rush, let's get more teams to enter first before we finally begin our hunt," Leo advised, he continued, "In such a way, we can just freely hunt for them without needing to worry about their whereabouts,"

Hearing Leo's words, Ahmed and the others nodded their heads in acknowledgment, "Affirmative Guild Leader Loki,"

As time continued to tick, the barrier continued moving closer and closer to the center of the maze. The tsunami of debris and stuff that they were pushing forward also became bigger and bigger as time passes.

Meanwhile, more and more teams also arrived at the center of the maze. All of them were wearing solemn and impatient expressions on their respective faces as they began to hastily look for the exit of the maze.

Naturally, because there were now a lot of teams in the center of the maze, fights began erupting from one place to another. At first, there were only a few sounds of fighting around, but as time goes on, more and more people started fighting against each other.

Those parts of the same alliance also finally have a few of their members gathered together, allowing them to help each other while searching for the exit of the maze.

This didn't exclude Orcborg and Selina's team, who were close enough with each other. Both of their teams fake a coincidental encounter with each other at a crossroad, thus it wasn't suspicious as to how they have met with each other despite how big the maze was.

On the other hand, Ahmed's team remained hidden as they keep on waiting patiently for more and more teams to enter the center of the maze.

Their patience was now running low, as they can't wait to begin hunting for their prey. Too bad though that Leo kept on holding them down by saying that majority of the teams with members of the Naughty Elves organization on them have yet to have arrived. If they begin killing them now, then it would without a doubt look very suspicious if they suddenly turned around just to attack a team. Aside from that, he also wants to make the center of the maze a perfect playground for the Mischievous Lion to play. It wasn't yet perfect, so they would have to continue waiting.

Fortunately, their wait didn't take that long, as there were soon more than enough teams with members of the Naughty Elves organization on them that had arrived at the center.

Standing up from the ground, Ahmed, Brad, and Illiad brandished their respective weapons as they prepared to go down and begin the long-awaited hunt for their prey.

"Begin the hunt!" Leo announced through the communicators.