The Minotaur, now the size of a small house, pulled back both flaming chains and attacked, both coming from above. Everyone scattered instantly, running as fast as their feet could carry them. The chains slammed into the ground, sending out a powerful shockwave and leaving a trail of flames on the ground, but no one was touched.

"Tsk," Aren clicked his tongue. "I'm taking the front." He said, then lunged forward, summoning Fang, who was now fully evolved. Fang looked far sleeker, faster, and overall more powerful. His blazing red eyes kept locked in, and his speed was amazing.

Aren rode his back like a horse into battle, and when they were close, he leaped off the back of Fang, while Fang still bolted toward the Minotaur.

The Minotaur saw both threats coming at it. It froze for a second before finally making a decision on what to do. It swung both chains, one high and one low, but the initial delay had already shattered any hopes of blocking, as two massive spatial spheres ripped through the air, whirling as they moved and rammed right into the chains, exploding on contact.

The chains were sent flying in different directions. The shockwave travelled through them and also forced the hands apart. This was an opening that the Minotaur couldn't stop now.

Fang, seeing the opening, suddenly went faster, his body erupting in some sort of black flames as he moved, and slammed headfirst into the Minotaur. Aren saw the black flames. He wanted to know what they were, but now was not the time.

The Minotaur staggered back, struggling to keep its balance, but then from above came Aren, his fist crackling with lightning. He landed the punch right on the head of the Minotaur.

BOOM

The punch resounded like an explosion. The head of the Minotaur cracked, lightning jolted through its body, and it convulsed while staggering backward before falling.

"Now, Aiden." Aren yelled before he even got to the ground, and Aiden immediately bolted with his enhanced speed, moving like a rocket on land. Sword extended, he thrust, stabbing right through the heart of the Minotaur with pinpoint accuracy, then slashed right to the side, ripping it out the other side.

Dark red blood splattered the floor. The Minotaur was dead. Its massive body collapsed to the ground with a bang.

[100 Maze points added]

All of them got the same message about maze points.

"Oh, so that's one way to get it." Aren muttered.

"It's logical for killing monsters to be one of the ways," Zero said, "and it seems it gives it to everyone that contributed," she added.

"That's good then, we don't have to worry about not having enough," Aiden said. He was lucky to get the last kill. Aren could have easily finished that off, but he chose not to, and Aiden got the soul fragments, so these maze points made him feel a little bit better.

"This Minotaur was at least a high Awakened monster. She said things got harder daily, we might start seeing evolved soon," Zero analyzed while staring at the corpse.

"What's the strength difference between the two?" Kira stepped forward and asked.

"A lot. The gap isn't small, because evolution for monsters is major. They gather all their energy through their awakened stages, and then one day use it to blast through to the new realm, and that's like an extremely high bouncing trampoline.

Most of them have double the strength they had as high awakened, and some simply get far, far more," she explained.

"So you mean to say that we might be facing monsters twice as strong as this?" Kira asked, some fear in her eyes when she thought about it.

"We'll face them together like we did now," Aren said to assure her. She nodded in response.

He decided to pull out the map and check where they were and where they had to go, but as he was checking, the system sent a message to everyone in the maze.

[Location of the six map bearers, updating for one hour]

When Aren and the group saw this message, their hearts froze. They thought this would come after the first day, but they had forgotten that the trial never did anything to benefit anyone well.

"Shit, this is bad," Aiden said.

"Yeah, they are definitely still close around," Kira said.

"Ten minutes top before the first group attack," Zero said.

Aren took a deep breath. "Sigh. It's fine, let's move. I'll go all out to ensure that no one is harmed," he said, then started walking.

"Hope you don't plan on handling them on your own?" Aiden asked.

"The map is my responsibility. I'll do what I must to protect it and you guys, since this is basically my fault. But if it gets too much for me, I'll allow you all to help as much as possible.

But for the most part, I want you to focus on defending yourselves, please," Aren stated.

Aiden wanted to argue, but Kira grabbed his shoulder. She shook her head. Aiden let out a sigh, nodded, and followed behind.

After the next turn, Aren spotted some figures ahead. At first, their humanoid shape made him think they were awakened, but after a closer look, he realized they were ogres.

They were gathered together on the path with a camp set out, and their numbers reached up to twenty. Each one was at least seven feet tall, with grey skin and one or two horns.

"Why the hell do they have a camp here?" Kira asked in shock.

"It doesn't matter, let's take them out," Aiden said.

"I like you," Zero stated and walked to the front, standing beside Aiden, who gave her a nod.

The both of them were impulsive, so it made sense.

They lunged forward at the same time. The ogres noticed their presence, immediately grabbing their weapons, swords and spears, baring their teeth in rage and attacking back. A full four versus twenty was about to happen.

Aren decided not to even fight, summoning Fang and his lightning wolf. Black fire and black lightning both lunged ahead, and in less than a few minutes, the entire camp was cleared, and Aren came out of it with 300 Soul Fragments.

While they were busy celebrating their win, Aren's Shadow Sense picked up several awakened headed their way. His expression turned grim immediately, and when the others saw it, they knew.

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