The momentum of Aina's palm was suffocating. Little Fox was taken off guard by her appearance alone, let alone the fierceness of the attack. It felt like, for a moment, death was standing right before him. There was no way to dodge, no way to evade, no way to...
"Mental attack!"
Little Fox quickly snapped out of it. If he was truly a little boy, his life would have ended right then and there, but his actual experience was far beyond his age.
None of them could have expected that this would happen. They assumed that there was nothing that Leonel was still hiding, but to think that Aina was such a Dream Force expert.
Even so, there was no time to regret it now. Leonel hadn't given them any time to assess what happened. The only thing left to do was fight.
So long as he could hold on and reach the end of the maze, it didn't matter what Aina did, the victory would be theirs.
Little Fox quickly clasped his hands together and protected himself with a shield of Dream Force.
BANG!
His vision went black as the palm landed. The disparity was far greater than he could have ever imagined.
Just now, he thought he had a firm handle on Aina's strength. The palm was powerful, but the Dream Force control was poor and lacking. This made sense, it seemed that Aina was a lot more like Gregwyn in this respect, relying on great talent but lacking in experience.
However, when the palm actually landed, Little Fox felt as though he was nothing more than an ant facing off against an elephant.
He had no idea how Aina had done it, but despite the simplicity of her attack, the hidden complexities within were on another level entirely.
It clicked for Little Fox the moment his consciousness faded back into focus.
Little Fox's heart was practically beating out his chest.
This maze was so complex. Although he knew there were patterns, the idea of actually capitalizing on them in such a life and death situation was the furthest thing from his mind.
It didn't make sense for Aina to be able to both focus on hiding the true extent of her Dream Force abilities, while also calculating everything else in advance as well.
"No!"
Aina's palm struck down again, ignoring Little Fox's final plea. The little boy teleported his hands toward him in the final moment, but four of his palms barely managed to deal with Aina, not that he had to divert them toward separate attacks, he stood not the slightest chance.
His body was shattered into a rain of blood and gore, and the world fell silent.
Aina reached out and grabbed the four palms that remained, gazing toward them curiously before turning away and leaving.
It was a maze that should have taken weeks to navigate your way out of. Between the dangers, the traps, and the attacks on the mind, not to mention the changing to the maze over time, this was already a great time.
Yet, not only had Aina found Little Fox in barely a few hours, she left the maze in less than a day.
When Aina completed the maze, Leonel's eyes slowly opened, his gaze calm as his wife appeared by his side.
What remained of Little Fox's body were pulled to their side, but his palms stayed with Aina.
The bars of points rolled forward and a disadvantageous situation was turned around. In a single breath of time, the Vast Dream Pavilion took their victory, rising up to the 163rd position on the leaderboard.