The horn's echo had barely faded when the ground beneath their feet trembled — as if the field itself woke from a long sleep.
Without waiting, students surged forward, some in packs, others alone, each chasing a path to survival.
Kieran hesitated only for a breath. Then he ran, the heavy gates swallowing him into a world unlike any he had known.
The Labyrinth Field was a maze of ruin and wilderness. Towering walls of broken stone, gnarled trees, and mist-shrouded chasms hid dangers he could only imagine.
The first trap struck within minutes.
A group ahead crossed a bridge of cracked stone — and the bridge moved, snakelike, hurling them into the gorge below. Their screams faded into silence.
Kieran froze, heart pounding.
"It's alive," he whispered.
Behind him, footsteps. The girl — the one who'd spoken to him before. She glanced at him, breathless.
"You can stand here and die, or you can move. Your choice."
He followed.
The deeper they went, the more the field revealed its horrors: walls that closed in, trying to crush the slow; plants that lashed out with thorned vines; shadows that shifted without source.
And all the while, Kieran felt something stir within — a sense that the field spoke to him, and he could almost hear it.