No More Pain For This Villain.

The screen floating in the sky above everyone's head was now panned onto the team of John from Luminary College of Magic, as his team was running throughout the maze while being followed by the Valorian School of Sorcery's team.

They were trying to tag along with the leading team, but it wasn't working for them, as John was having none of it at all.

He turned around and looked at Marcus Brightwood, a half-elven, half-dwarven guy with sandy hair and blue eyes—the leader of Valorians—and gave them a stern look.

A dialogue was about to happen between them when the ground beneath Marcus just disappeared out of nowhere, making him fall into the deep pit that opened beneath him.

"Looks like I don't have to deal with rats like y'all myself," John just smiled as he turned and left Valorians to worry about their team captain.

But as everyone's attention was on the teams that were playing, Eldric, the overseer of the competition, was quiet as he floated above the Maze at a distance, his eyes glued to the maze under him.

"How'd they know the timing? Coincidence?" He muttered to himself.

He just witnessed something that he did not expect: a group of students from the Imperial Academy had somehow managed to get to the third layer of the circular maze.

While it might seem like a minor thing if we take into account the number of circles and obstacles goes way over a thousand, but here, the more the students spend time in there, the more adapted they become.

So adapting that it was weird and hard for Eldric to digest at the start of the competition.

Even though he knows that there's nothing like coincidence, he just couldn't make it make sense that someone had managed to time the shifts of the wall that even he doesn't know.

His eyes went towards the screen, and he saw the picture there showing the blond boy from the Imperial Academy fighting blood goblins.

"Strong," he saw the potential in the boy, but in the back of his mind, he couldn't get the image of that dark-haired mad lad running towards the third entrance.

Meanwhile, in the maze, Ren leaned to his side as the mace, thrown at tremendous force, grazed past him.

Vexa, who was in front of him, saw the mace advancing towards her, so she immediately created a circular concaved screen of constantly spinning water in front of her, big enough to catch the mace's head.

With a thud, the mace hit her spell and then fell down. She retreated behind her spell only to see Ren right in her face.

"What are you..." Ren muttered, only for her to hear.

Vexa's eyes slightly widened, feeling a bit odd by the way Ren's gaze held nothing but a void in them. But immediately, he looked down and ducked. Vexa now saw the incoming figure of the golem running in their direction with Aron behind him.

She felt the ground beneath her move a bit, and the next thing she knew, Ren had picked up the mace on his shoulder. The handle was too big for him to even begin with, and it looked cartoonishly weird for him to hold something that's probably one and a half times bigger than his stature.

Ren adjusted his grip on the oversized mace, his muscles straining under its weight. Despite its bulk, he seemed determined to wield it with ease.

"What are you doing?" Vexa asked, her voice laced with confusion.

Ren shot her a brief glance, his expression unreadable. "Just follow me," he replied, his tone firm.

Before Vexa could respond, the golem charged towards them with Aron close behind. Ren braced himself, readying the mace for impact.

As the golem drew nearer, Ren swung the mace with all his might. The heavy weapon connected with the golem's side, sending a resounding clang echoing through the maze. Despite the golem's sturdy exterior, it staggered under the force of Ren's blow.

The mace's head was blown off alongside the big chunk of the place where it hit the Golem.

Aron, seizing the opportunity, conjured a gust of wind to propel himself forward. With a swift motion, he leaped onto the golem's back, his hands crackling with wind sphere energy.

He pressed it on the Golem's back, forcing it to be lowered towards the ground.

Small tendrils of rocks, working like chains, appeared on the ground and then wrapped around the Golem's neck, done by Erik.

Vexa watched in awe as Ren and Aron coordinated their attacks seamlessly.

Ren ran towards the Golem's now pinned-down head and jumped, his hand clad with mana and covered in high heat as he descended on the Golem's head.

A deafening sound and the part of the ground that sunk a bit showed that the head was destroyed.

Aron breathed a bit and jumped off.

"Careful!" Vexa shouted.

"It's not done, fucker!" Ren cursed.

"What?" Aron didn't get it, nor did Erik.

The Golem stood up, no left side or head, but still standing. It looked around.

"How the heck does it still move- oh no." Aron caught on.

The Golem had begun to form again from the same stones that were crushed by Ren, and the same can be said for its side.

So here's the thing: that Golem is controlled by the red, radiating stone in its chest; it's like a battery or brain for it.

The thing that's going to suck is...

"It'll be smarter and stronger the more we fight it," Ren clarified.

"The more time we take to defeat it, the stronger it'll become," he explained.

"So, I want both of you to listen to me," he said, looking at Vexa.

"Fine by me," she agreed immediately, sensing that he wasn't asking but ordering.

Ren turned to Aron, who just shrugged.

"As long as it's reasonable," Aron replied. He didn't like taking orders, but it's not like the Golem would leave them alone.

"What--" Erik tried to speak.

"Just make sure not to catch punches," Ren interrupted.

The Golem had already recovered, but now it stood silent, observing everyone.

"Ugh, not that."