Shinji was swallowed by the shadows before anyone could react, his body yanked into the forest as though the trees themselves had come alive to drag him away. A dozen horrified eyes followed the trail of darkness, wide with disbelief.
"What in the hells was that?!" a dwarf cried, stumbling backward, putting as much distance between himself and the treeline as he could.
"He… vanished…" another examinee whispered, his voice trembling as he scanned the dark woods for any trace of Shinji.
The group faltered, their courage bleeding away, until the ground quaked once more beneath the lumbering steps of the forest golem. Despair tightened its grip, but then a voice broke through. sharp, commanding, and unyielding.
"Remember what the proctor said! You cannot die here! You just teleported back to the coliseum. So fight—unless you want this all to mean nothing!"
