Page 19 of Wild Hunt
Daphne smiled sheepishly. "It was just a tie."
"Yeah, against literally the strongest student in school. Credit where credit is due."
"Now I really feel useless," Dionysus sighed.
I gave him a playful nudge. "There's still plenty of time."
"I wonder what the next event will be," Daphne mused. None of us had to wonder for very long. Artemis announced that we were moving to a special arena, and I could only imagine what that meant.
We were all instructed to form a circle in the center of the field. My foot hit something, and I realize there was a wire embedded in the grass. I followed its path, winding in a great circle around us in strange patterns I couldn’t make out. It was only when the wire began glowing with pale blue magic that I realized it was some sort of sigil.
Before I even had the time to blink, I was standing at the beginning of a stone path tightly hemmed in by hedges so tall they blocked out the sky.
"Daphne?" I cried, looking around the corner. "Dionysus?"
I’d barely taken a few steps before some unseen force pushed me back to where I had been originally standing. A disembodied voice made me jolt, but I soon recognized it as Artemis’.
"Alright, everyone," she called. "This phase of the preliminaries is called the labyrinth. While this isn't quite as straightforward as the other challenges, I think you'll find the theme is similar. Get from point A to point B while using your powers as you see fit. Whoever makes it to the end of the labyrinth first is our winner, but be warned: You may discover it's more difficult than you think."
I had a feeling may was an understatement. Whenever it came to any tests at the Academy, there was always more than met the eye. At least this challenge was literally in my element. I reached out to brush my fingers against the hedges and allowed the energy from the lush greenery to sift through me, painting a cerebral picture of all the twists and turns. I could see the path to the finish, but even knowing what was ahead, it would still be difficult to make my way through the maze.
Even so, it seemed a bit too simple. There had to be a catch. I was tempted to make the hedges part like the Red Sea and walk straight through, but something told me not to. Whatever it was Artemis had warned us about, it was obvious this was an exercise in stealth and careful planning rather than mere brute force.
I hurried through the path I knew to be up ahead, but the moment I rounded the corner that should've split into three equal paths, I found it had split into seven.
That shouldn't have been possible.
I reached out to touch the hedges again, convinced I must've taken a wrong turn somewhere. I soon realized it wasn’t my initial mapping that was off, but rather the fact that the entire labyrinth had changed.
Was it adapting to me? Or just changing randomly? I decided the only way to find out would be forging ahead, but a strange sound caught my attention.
It must've been one of the other students, but how had I not run into anyone already? Was the labyrinth really that big? If so, that meant we each had our own path to the finish line. If they intersected, I could be in for a battle of powers as well as wits.
The rumbling sound grew stronger, and I realized it wasn’t another student at all. I froze in my tracks and felt my chest tighten. The hedges rustled up ahead and I braced myself, prepared to fight.
"Fenrir?" I asked hopefully.
I watched in horror as a black shadow emerged from the bushes with glowing red eyes, a far more terrible creature than even he had been in his beast form. I turned and ran back the way I'd come, only to find that the route had shifted again, blocking me off.
I could hear the beast’s footfalls pounding heavy on the stone path, and my heart raced. My vines were good in distance combat, but not this close range, and I’d certainly never fought something like that before. He was closing in and I was trapped, panicking with no option other than to force the hedges to part and push my way through.
I fell out onto the ground on the other side of the labyrinth, and found myself being watched by the crowd, teachers and all. Loki and Hades were near the front, and I could tell from the light of mischief in their eyes that they'd had a role to play in this.
Once the shock of my unexpected emergence wore off, Artemis came over with a bewildered look on her face. "Kore is disqualified," she announced, loud enough for the crowd to hear before lowering her voice. "What on Earth are you doing?"
I staggered back to my feet, my palms and knees bruised from the sudden fall. "That thing tried to kill me!" I cried.
Now Artemis was looking at me like I'd lost my mind. "What thing?"
"The beast," I answered. I looked over at Hades, who was still smirking as he stood on the sidelines, reveling in my humiliation. "You did this.”
"Calm down," Artemis said with a heavy sigh. "Now, tell me exactly what you saw."
At least half of the other contestants had finally emerged from completing the labyrinth the right way, and Dionysus was among them. He watched me worryingly as Daphne came over to stand aside.
I turned back to Artemis, my panic giving way as I realized the beast wasn't following me out. That raised more questions than it answered, though. "It was a huge black wolf... thing," I said, feeling ridiculous even before the words left my mouth. "It was solid black, like a shadow, and it had glowing red eyes."
Artemis stood staring at me, speechless. "That's impossible," she finally said.
