The two wore a black and white hood, contrasting each other, signifying one being from the Republic of Orlan and the other from the Ilios Empire respectively. In the middle was a monster, a giant bee, hovering around and trying to attack with its stinger. The three danced around each other, avoiding the runes and trying to touch the box in the middle of them.
Arthur was a distance away, safely hidden behind a tree. After a few moments, the one from Orlan was eliminated after touching three runes on the ground, as Arthur noticed. The one from Ilios took the chance and grabbed the box, disappearing as well.
The box then crumbled. It seems a group was lucky enough to be teleported near this place and five already found the boxes. Arthur wasn't too worried, though. However, a sense of urgency did overtake him.
"Pss, Arthur, pss," A slimy voice called out to him, making Arthur flinch and turn to the tree the sound came from. A lizard hugged the tree and was looking directly at him.
"Pss," The lizard licked and there was a voice no longer, making Arthur doubt his hearing. "Arthur, it's me."
It talked again. Without saying anything, Arthur turned around and began to run. The runes were everywhere, but he got a general sense of how many there were. That's why he had an easier time fleeing. He was not about to answer a talking lizard in a godforsaken place.
"Wait!" The lizard was jumping from a tree to the other after him. Cold creeps covered Arthur's skin at this realization. "It's Reece!" The lizard said, making Arthur's head blank and stop him in his tracks.
The lizard fell next to him, breathing laboriously. Arthur hesitated for a second before picking it up. As if it was a human, the lizard placed its hand on Arthur's finger and leaned in for support as it tried to catch its breath.
"Reece? Is it really you?" Arthur asked, doubtful. When the lizard gathered its breath, it nodded.
"Pss, this is one of my abilities. Sorry for scaring you like that, sweetie, pss."
'Yup, it's Reece.' Arthur sighed. "What are you doing here?" He asked curiously.
"Help you, pss. I've found Tyrin, pss." His words made Arthur elated as he stuffed the lizard into his robe's inner pocket.
"I have no idea how you did it, but this is great. Where is he?" Arthur whispered to his inner pocket. Reece's sound soon came, with the same slime-like feeling it had earlier.
"East from here, pss. What are you going to do?"
"I'm not going to let him pass that easily." Arthur thought the answer should be obvious as he headed east.
"He's with others, pss. They found a black box, pss." The lizard answered, making Arthur increase his speed. Although he wasn't sprinting at his maximum speed, it was still dangerous to run in a booby-trapped place like the forest.
"Arthur, slow down. You'll get eliminated." Reece warned, afraid Arthur was being impulsive again. Usually, contests would barely be able to walk in this place without triggering runes. However, Arthur was running.
"I can manage, now tell me where they are." Arthur didn't explain further. Reece went quiet and Arthur stopped his running. "Reece, I'm not being impulsive. I just want to teach that bastard a lesson." He implored. Reece was silent.
Arthur didn't say anything further, since he was confident this time. He can stop them and run away; he was the only one who can do that without being eliminated. His ability was runes itself, this competition didn't pose a challenge for him, only a stepping stone. If he lost in front of people who used artificial runes while his ability was about runes, he might as well give up his legacy.
"Senior brother, please." Arthur gritted his teeth and used a cheap tactic. However, despite how cheap it was, how cliché it was, it still worked like a charm.
"Hehe, since my junior asked, I can't refuse, hehe, pss." The slimy texture of his voice was far less creepy than his bashful laugh. "Go straight through here and you'll find a cliff," Arthur began to run again. He avoided the runes expertly despite the mental effort to avoid them all. "The box is embedded in the cliff's steep side, and the group has seen it from afar and trying to get there."
Arthur's eyes scanned the surroundings, finding the most optimum path, clear of runes, for him to get there. The forest ended and a stone wall appeared, the cliff Reece has mentioned.
"Follow this wall for a while, be careful of runes! Pss."
"How did you find them, Reece?"
"A hawk, pss." There were some slight pride and disappointment in his voice. If Arthur had to guess why: then the pride was in his ability and the disappointment was in Arthur not calling him Senior Brother. Arthur ignored his disappointment.
"Why didn't you take the box yourself?" Arthur asked, doubtful.
"Tried, pss. It's embedded in the rocky wall, pss." Reece went silent and then resumed his talking. "He's with a group from Ilios, pss." Arthur frowned at this information. If this was true, then things might be direr than they thought. Ilios was an empire that was as wide as the Yalveran Union, known for its military strength.
The cliff ran along the forest, forming an arc that made Arthur go into the forest as a shortcut. After another few moments of avoiding the runes, the leaves, and anything that moved, Arthur could finally see the cliff again.
He also saw a group of people trying to climb it. Now normally, awakeners were superhumans. A leap would get them half of the distance toward the box. However, the Forest of Traps being at it is, this cliff was surely covered in runes. If you touch three runes at the same time? Instant elimination.
The group was studying the walls, trying to find the best part of it to start climbing. Four white hoods and one golden one. It matched the description Reece has provided.
"Are you going to attack them?" The lizard asked, its tongue licking its eye. Arthur realized that Reece's voice wasn't from the lizard's vocals, but mana-generated. It was the work of a skill.
"No," Arthur shook his head, he doubted he was strong enough to attack the five of them – and possibly, the Ender accompanying Tyrin – and emerge victoriously. However, he had an advantage in this place and he was going to use it.
Without pausing, Arthur kept running forward. He was behind the group in an instant and they turned and they heard the noise they made. Despite the hoods covering their faces, Arthur was able to recognize Tyrin. It was him, as Reece said.
However, Tyrin didn't seem to recognize him, which was understandable. Arthur only met him in the Green Golems dungeon, and nowhere else. At the bar, he didn't get to see Arthur. As for the woman, Arthur doubted she had a good look at his face since she was punched in the face before he faced her.
"Back away, or you'll get hurt!" Said a gruff voice from under one of the white hoods. However, Arthur didn't care. He sprinted in their direction faster. Their faces turned pale since facing an enemy, no matter how weaker the enemy was, was deadly in this forest.
They stared as Arthur sprinted, stepping beside rune by a few inches, unafraid of being eliminated. Unexpected by them, Arthur had no plans of fighting them. As they braced themselves, Arthur simply passed them by and sat foot on the wall, and it sank as if he was stepping on sandy ground.
The first step propelled him forward, he used his other foot and it also sank to the wall as if the wall absorbed it. This was the work of his skill, Earth Manipulation. He started running up the wall as fast as he could, feeling the earth's gravity pull him to his fall.
"What – Stop him!" The gruff voice ordered again, and the group followed to use the holes Arthur left in the wall to climb. They were aware that if Arthur touched the cube, one of them wouldn't be able to get teleported like the others.
Tyrin seemed unfazed, probably thinking that he would never be the one left behind. However, Arthur had different plans. Halfway from the box, Arthur had to jump and start climbing with his hands. He did all of this while avoiding the runes. The places he used to climb were the safest on the cliff.
As expected, he reached the box before the others were able to catch up. Instead of touching the box and disappearing, Arthur used his skill Earth Manipulation to cover the box with dirt before hardening it. He ended with a cube-shaped rock, and he grabbed it without being teleported outside.
"Don't you dare!" The man in the white hood bellowed, finally losing his cool. As for Tyrin, his face was pale with anger when he saw Arthur's action.
'This is only the beginning, Tyrin.' Arthur grinned at them and kept the box in his leather bag. He continued his climbing and reached the edge of the cliff before pulling himself atop of it. It was time to flee with the box as the five raged after him in pursuit.