Omniscient Extra's ViewPoint: Supreme Adaptation-Chapter 27: On it!

The trial had begun, and the timer above started counting down.

Most squads instinctively moved towards the left, believing it to be the safer route.

This left the right side mostly empty, with only Squad Number Sixteen and Squad Number Eighteen choosing different paths along that direction.

They ran at full speed, scanning their surroundings before taking any turns.

So far, they had not encountered any traps.

"Anything yet?" Vorden asked, keeping pace behind Damien, who was at the front.

"No..." Damien muttered, his eyes fixed ahead.

Vorden stole a quick glance behind.

Cherry and Luminen were keeping up well—Cherry moved with the ease of a trained athlete, while Luminen ran as though something was chasing him.

Suddenly, Damien's eyes widened. "Trap—!"

A sharp grinding noise erupted from the walls ahead, and without warning, several jagged spikes shot out, crisscrossing the path and leaving only narrow, unpredictable gaps between them.

There was no time to stop.

"Left, three steps! Pivot—NOW!" Vorden barked, reacting instantly.

Without hesitation, he veered left, his foot hitting the ground at an angle before pushing off.

The squad followed his lead.

"Jump—diagonal!" he ordered next, spotting a brief opening between two extending spikes.

As they leapt, the spikes fully extended, missing their legs by inches.

"Roll forward!"

They hit the ground, rolling just as another set of spikes jutted out behind them, narrowly missing Luminen's back.

One final obstacle remained—a low horizontal bar about to extend across the path.

"Under—drop low!"

All four of them instinctively dived just as the bar slammed into place above them.

They landed on the other side, panting but unharmed.

Vorden exhaled sharply.

"We keep moving. Stay sharp."

Without wasting another second, they picked up speed, leaving the deadly trap behind them.

Obviously, all the deadly traps were holograms, meaning they wouldn't draw blood but would still inflict unbearable pain.

Damien and Cherry were growing increasingly impressed by Vorden's leadership and intelligence.

Luminen, meanwhile, was questioning why he had even ended up in this mess in the first place.

Maybe he should have accepted the fact that he was never meant to become a Seeker.

He shouldn't have idolised those Seekers on the screens when he was younger—the ones returning from Night Shifts, looking powerful and untouchable.

Glory had unexpectedly chosen him—a wish he and his family had once hoped for, now fulfilled.

That admiration had brought him here.

And now, he was regretting it.

He could almost cry when he realised this wasn't even the true beginning of the hardship ahead.

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If he didn't want to drag them down, he needed to make a decision—either get stronger or quit entirely and start selling items, pets, or perhaps take up farming.

For now, he was undecided.

All he could do was keep running in fear and follow their lead—Vorden's in particular.

He wished he were someone like Vorden.

Meanwhile, Damien had already started to suspect that Vorden was far stronger than he claimed, but he had no concrete proof yet.

Not that he cared to dig into it—he had no interest in meddling in other people's affairs.

His only concern was growing stronger himself and proving his—what, exactly?

Cherry, on the other hand, remained relaxed.

She had already decided that if an attack came and Vorden was unable to react fast enough with a plan, she wouldn't wait for orders.

She would use her Special Sense to defend them or face the threat head-on.

Without warning, the entire maze underwent a violent transformation.

The ground shook beneath them as the walls reconfigured, their rigid structures forcefully repositioning into an entirely new layout.

Damien had reacted immediately, as his attribute made him alert to the abrupt shift.

"Something's coming!" he warned sharply.

Vorden's instincts flared, but before he could respond, a second trap activated almost simultaneously.

Two dangers appeared at the exact same moment.

Damien's jaw tightened as conflicting danger signals overwhelmed his senses.

He caught sight of the first threat but had no opportunity to fully perceive the second.

Before they could react, jagged spikes shot from the walls, advancing towards them at an alarming speed.

Cherry did not hesitate.

She brought her hands together, forging a barrier of thick iron spikes from the ground.

The trap collided with her construct, metal grinding against metal, producing a deafening screech as shockwaves pulsed through the air.

The team had no time to recover.

The maze was still in motion.

Vorden assessed their surroundings.

They could not remain stationary. Defence alone would achieve nothing.

His eyes locked onto the shifting floor patterns beneath them.

That was it.

"The floor is resetting! Move on my command!" he instructed. "When I say go, break left. Step exactly where I do—no unnecessary movements."

There was no room for hesitation. They acknowledged his command.

Vorden moved first, veering at an angle, carefully stepping onto sections of the ground that had just stabilised, avoiding any unstable surfaces.

Cherry withdrew her iron construct, and the group followed his lead, narrowly avoiding the secondary trap—spiked chains that descended violently from the ceiling, slashing through the space they had occupied just seconds earlier.

A moment later, both traps deactivated, leaving no visible trace.

However, the danger had not passed.

As soon as they cleared the trap, the maze altered once more. This time, the walls did not just shift—they sealed completely.

Within seconds, every possible exit was gone.

The walls before, behind, and beside them locked into place, confining them within an enclosed section.

Then, they rose—ten, fifteen, twenty metres high—eliminating the possibility of climbing over.

Vorden halted abruptly, scanning their surroundings.

There were no footholds, no handholds, and no discernible gaps.

Cherry clenched her fists. "You have got to be joking."

Damien let out a slow breath, and said with irritation, "We are trapped."

And they were not alone.

Beyond the barricade, another team was stuck in an identical predicament—Squad Eighteen.

Their voices carried faintly through the dense stone. They had also encountered a dead end.

Then, the reality became clear to Vorden.

The maze was enforcing a decision.

Only one team could move forward.

A hidden passage must have existed between their enclosed spaces, but activating it would require a sacrifice—either delaying progress or ensuring the other squad's elimination.

There was no time to experiment sh*t.

They glanced upwards. Fifteen minutes remained.

Had they really been running for that long?

Vorden's mind worked rapidly.

The exit mechanism had to rely on weight, force, or an external trigger.

This meant that one person would have to sacrifice some of their time to allow the others to escape and then return to rescue them.

Alternatively, he could simply eliminate them in a way that allowed him to use them as a means of escape and get out of here.

However, a more pressing question arose—was Squad Eighteen worth it?

There was no guarantee that they would return the favour if given the opportunity.

Vorden chose the latter option with a bright grin.

Saving them would be a waste of time.

If Squad Eighteen had to be sacrificed for Squad Sixteen to proceed, then so be it.