The Ambush of Avarice
Their hard-won respite was tragically short-lived, shattered not by the labyrinth's monsters, but by the predatory nature of their fellow man. A group of ruthless candidates, who had been stalking them from the peripheral shadows and waiting for the exhaustion of the serpent battle to take hold, chose this moment to strike. In a whirlwind of chaos and desperation, the air was suddenly choked with the ozone of elemental magic as the rival Harvesters launched a coordinated barrage of fire and earth. Nana moved to stand, her mind already cataloging a strategic counter-defense, but the attackers were prepared for her reputation. One candidate fired a volley of jagged earth rocks that clamped over Nana's hands like heavy stone handcuff-gloves, snapping her wrists together and severing her connection to her somatic gestures. Before she could recover, a second attacker unleashed a concentrated wind blast that slammed into her chest, knocking her to the ground. As she hit the floor, a third candidate pressed their palms to the stone, causing the earth to rise and wrap around Nana's legs, completely immobilizing her in a tomb of rock.
"Nana!" George cried, but the chaos was only beginning.
Simultaneously, two other candidates combined their mana for a precise, lethal fusion of wind and fire. The resulting inferno-blast struck Kayn with the force of a battering ram. Despite his immense resilience and shadow magic, the sheer suddenness of the combined elemental weight was too much; the explosion sent him spiraling into the stone wall, where he slumped to the ground, unconscious. Arthur and George stood their ground, a final line of defense. Arthur swung his sword with fluid, royal precision, the silver blade singing as it parried a flurry of ice shards. However, the lead candidate—a man with cold, calculating eyes—was too swift, weaving through Arthur's guard with supernatural agility. George fired a desperate barrage of wind blasts, but the sheer numbers against them were insurmountable. His gales were absorbed by a wall of reinforced earth conjured by the rival mages.
The weight of the ambush finally overran them. The rival candidates swarmed, their combined magic overpowering the weary group. Within moments, they had Nana and Kayn bound in magical restraints, and through a coordinated strike of heavy earth magic, even the valiant Arthur was pinned and captured.
"George, run!" Arthur yelled, his voice strained as he struggled against the stone vines coiling around his gauntlets. "Don't worry about us! We'll find a way to escape! Just go!"
Seeing a group of attackers closing in on George, Arthur gathered every remaining spark of his aura. With one free hand, he channeled a powerful, explosive wind push—not at the enemy, but at George himself. The force of the royal gale sent George reeling backward, flying through the air toward a jagged, hidden drop near the edge of the corridor's precipice. George let out a startled cry as he tumbled into the dark abyss, falling several stories before landing with a bone-chilling splash in a subterranean stream of icy, rushing water. Above, the rival candidates rushed to the edge of the drop, their spells glowing in the dark as they prepared to hunt him down. The leader of the ambushers held up a hand, a cruel, dismissive smile playing on his lips as he watched the dark, turbulent water swallow the boy.
"Leave him," the leader commanded, his voice cold and final. "No one could survive that fall, let alone the current. Focus on the prisoners. We have what we need."
As the sound of the candidates' footsteps faded into the distance, George was swept away by the dark tide, the light of his friends' presence vanishing into the gloom of the deep maze.