Since the dawn of man, there has always been a desire of competition. There are few humans who can honestly claim that they've looked over at a large collection of possessions that they do not have and not felt a little envious. The desire to possess things greater than what another has, brought out the green-eyed monster in more than one human since ancient times. Some sought to simply take items from others, but the more socially acceptable means of lording things over a rival has been to seek out and claim something better than what they both have.

Thus, it was understandable that when the teachers of Beta Year told both Ray and Ben that they could not directly compete, but rather had to settle their differences through a maze, whereby the victor would have bragging rights over the loser, news spread fast and there were a number of people who sought to take those bragging rights for themselves.

The first was Donovan Deegan, a second year student who already had a pokegirl named Miranda. Donovan only 4'6", but that was a few inches taller than Ben. He had black eyes and brown hair that went down halfway to his back. His request to apply to the race brought forth others who wanted to enter, and once the door was open, there wasn't much to hold things back.

The next to join in was Kin, a fairly short boy, around 4'1", with shoulder-length white hair and red eyes, though his right eye was lazy. He was rather quiet, so Ben didn't really understand why he'd decided to join in on the race. Kin wore a pale grey shirt and dark pants.

Next was Fred Masters, who was the tallest entrant at 5'9", with brown hair in a crew cut with a grey widow's peak, and cobalt blue eyes. He was dressed in a black trench coat, black jeans, a white dress shit and a pair of scuffed up black combat boots. Ben didn't know him at all, so he wasn't sure what Fred's motivation for entering might be.

Ben was surprised that Alexis and Azalyn had both shown up to join in the race. Alexis was wearing a blue shirt with white trim, a blue skirt with a white belt, and blue shoes. Azalyn was wearing an oddly out of place purple jogging shirt and sweat pants.

Wendy Myght showed up, bringing back Ben's fear that his rivals may join up against him. She wore her usual green dress and green hat, but she took one glance at Ray and openly huffed, turning away from the blonde boy.

Ray glared at Wendy and also turned away. Ben's fear wasn't completely quelled, as it could be a trick to lull him into a false sense of security, but at least for the moment, it didn't seem like that would be the case.

Ray wore a white long-sleeved shirt, overwhich he wore a sleeveless blue robe that only reached knee-level, baggy white pants and black shoes.

Ben himself had chosen a black shirt with an amazingly cool (at least to him) Pre-Sukebe red dragon design encircling it, black pants and black sneakers.

The Challenge Vestabule was where they were waiting. It was a fairly dull room with a large flatscreen monitor taking up the left side of the room, and a small circular step in the middle of the room. It currently had a table with plain brown box on it. The only distinguishing feature of the box was the fact that it had a hole on the top. Next to the box were thirty small rectangular plates, each bearing a number from 1 to 30.

The instructor in charge was Mr. Armstrong, who was just finishing a conversation on his T-Phone (1), "Listen up. We had other entrants, but they're all sick with the flu."

The 'flu' the instructor was mentioned was actually the result of a reckless student trying to get an "A+" in Plant Studies. He'd cast a spell to accelerate the growth of his plant, but the side effect was that the plant began releasing a large amount of magical pollen that had stricken over thirty-eight Beta Students with flu-like symptoms. And like the flu of Pre-Sukebe eras, there was no real cure. The teachers could only provide the suffering students a number of age old remedies in the hopes that all of the students would be over it by the end of next week. The student responsible had been given a "D-" and was responsible for providing supplies to the stricken students. Mister Armstrong continued, "So, for those of you still here, here's how we'll do it."

Mr. Armstrong pointed to the box on the table next to him, as he picked up the first eight of the plates and dropped them, one by one, into the box, "You'll each pick a plate out of the box. Once everyone has a number, the person holding the number 1 plate will be given an emergency charm and sent into the first maze."

"First maze?" Wendy inquired.

"That's right. Every time we use the maze, we change it to prevent students from memorizing it or giving out that information to others. Since we feel this sort of challenge will be more common in years to come, and we've been looking for an alternative to dueling, we've set up thirty special mazes, though for now, we only need eight of them." Mr. Armstrong answered.

Mr. Armstrong cleared his throat, "When you enter the maze, be mindful. There are traps, monsters and healing items to look out for. The exit is locked, so you'll need to find a red key before you can get out. Each maze is different in size, scale and number of rooms, so don't get lazy. Whether you pass out or complete the maze, you'll arrive back here."

Mr. Armstrong motioned to Ben, "Since you and Ray are the first two to start this, you two will be the first to pick."

Ben nodded and went up to the box. The last number put inside was 8, so he was hoping to grab it, as it would give him the most amount of time to find out what he might encounter in the maze. But when he stuck his hand in, it didn't feel like he was putting his hand in a box, but rather, it felt like he was sticking it out a window on a windy day. He frowned for a few seconds as he realized that there was no way the box could have a draft. His fingers brushed against something cool and hard. He hoped he wasn't accidentally feeling someone up as he grabbed it and pulled it out.

The plate read "4".

"Next." Mr. Armstrong announced as Ben stepped away, eager to be away both from Ray and the strange box.

Ben wasn't the only one to have a weird look on his face as Ray look like he'd just stuck his hand in poop by accident. Ben had to hold back a laugh, but for some reason, the mental image of Ray and poop wouldn't leave his head until he chuckled inwardly about it.

Ray got the number 5.

Alexis drew 6, Azalyn drew 8, Wendy drew 2, Kin drew 3, Fred drew 1 and Donovan drew 7.

Fred put on the emergency charm, which looked like a pink friendship bracelet, the sort girls tended to trade back at Ben's last school, and stepped onto the circular step. He vanished into the maze. As he did, Mr. Armstrong handed out the rest of the 'charms', all over which were identical to Fred's bracelet. At least Fred wasn't the only one who would look awkward with it.

Once the bracelets were all on, the television blinked to life, displaying a map:

Fred didn't show any outward signs of being nervous, but inwardly, he was quite unsure of the level of difficulty he would face. The maze itself was no doubt elaborate. With determination, he started down the zigzagging hallway, ignoring the first two doors he came across and turned the corner. When he came to a T-intersection, he found the right path to be a deadend and the left one ended with a door on the right side of the path.

He headed down the left path and opened the door. With a quick glance each way, he stepped forward.

Right into a trap. A purplish rune on the ground flared angrily as he put his left foot forward into the hallway.

Fred yelped in pain as his left leg was suddenly encased in ice up to his knee. Panicking, he tried to decide on which magic could best free his foot, but he quickly realized that he didn't have a spell that wouldn't fricasse his leg along with the ice or take too much precious time to do anything significant. He cast an insulation spell to fight off any chance of frostbite and continued into the corridor, dragging his left leg like grabby little brother.

He was at another intersection where his only choice was left or right. Considering left had just given him an icy leg, he turned right, passed a deadend left turn and found himself staring at another deadend and a left turn that would bring him down another hallway.

He stumbled as he began moving forward, his encased leg sliding forward as if he'd just stepped onto bunch of marbles, but his right leg was able to keep him upright.

He realized that with the base of the leg encased in ice, he could move it like a scooterboard. Smiling, he pushed forward on it. Getting his balance was a bit difficult, but he was definitely able to move more quickly with than trying to drag it along like a broken limb.

Once again, he found himself at a T-intersection, and he turned right. A door was on the right wall, but the left was open. Sliding over, he glanced around the corner and found it did a another turn, this time to the right, in about twenty feet.

Since he wanted to keep moving forward, he slid down the corridor and turned to find another door. Since it had been his choice, he opened it and found a rather spacious room that had a open path his left. Just as he moved toward it though, another rune-trap flared to life, this one sending searing flames into the air, melting the ice on his left leg, but searing his forearms. He growled in frustration before he realized he wasn't alone in the room.

From the corner came two skittering bushes. While no normal botany class would have any knowledge of them, Vale's botany class gave mention to the numerous types of flora and fauna that were in the maze and the Beast Bush was one of them.(2) It wasn't deadly, but it had the Leech Seed attack, which could sap his health until he fainted.

"FIRE!" Fred yelled, gesturing towards the plants as he hurried around the corner and down to another door. As he dashed through the door, spun and was about to slam it shut, one of the bushes was already it's own funeral pyre. The other, though, was closely in fast. He slammed the door and turned, panting with relief.

Ten feet ahead on the right was an open doorway, and another open doorway was to his left, but it was further away. Fred weighed his options. Considering what he'd already experienced, there was a good chance there was a monster or a trap either way. After a random decision, he went for the right passage way. This time, Fred felt a wave of disorientation hit him as he found himself in a closed room. On the far side of the room was the golden key he was supposed to watch out for, but there was only one exit to his left, a door.

Snatching the key, Fred headed to the door, confident that he'd just lucked out. However, the lightning rune trap that went off just as he got the door made him think otherwise. He stumbled backwards and felt flat on his ass.

Coughing, he forced himself back up and opened the door. He was almost done, after all, and it wouldn't do to pass out.

As he stepped into the hallway, he noticed a pile of rocks to his left. As he turned his back on it, though, he heard the sound of rocks sliding against rocks.

He glanced back at the pile, which was now taking on a man-like shape, and decided to run.(3) Unfortunately for him, he chose the wrong direction.

When Fred arrived back at the starting room, thirty minutes later, he was bruised, sweaty and exhuasted, and clutching a golden key defiantly. Mister Armstrong took one look at him and made a mental note that while the length of the maze had been shorter than the others, they would need better medical staff on hand.

Mister Armstrong raised his T-Phone up and contacted the nearest nurse.

When Wendy appeared back in the starting room, she was sweaty and exhuasted, but her time was unmistakeably better than Fred's. The group didn't get to see the actual participant, only their progress through the maze, but somehow, getting teleported right to the key right after making a wrong turn seemed like it would be difficult to beat, yet somehow, Wendy had figured out which way to go in the notably bigger labrinyth.

Kin was a bit put off by the three-way start to his maze. He'd noticed that Wendy's maze was longer than Fred's. The teacher had assured them that despite looking longer, all of the mazes were of equal size.

Kin sincerely doubted that, but he pressed on nonetheless. Since he wasn't making any progress just standing around, he chose forward, since there was a branching archway just to the left. He found himself looking down a corridor that had continued to the left, but there was a door right in front of him. He opened the door and found a spacious room with another door on the far side of it. He opened that door and found himself in another corridor, the left path branched quickly north while the right didn't branch, but arched southward.

Kin stepped left and found himself on his ass, soaked with water. He growled at the fading blue trap ward, and continued forward, ignoring the branch and following the path to yet another three-way, which he took right until he found yet ANOTHER three-way. He gambled on the eastward branch, which led to a door, and opened it.

There, several white stones hung in midair, whirling in a pattern around a central stone. Kin frowned, before realizing it was an Ice Crystal.(4)

He yelped and leapt backwards as a frosty spell slammed into the wall right next to where his head had been seconds prior.

There was a good chance this thing was a defender for something important. Since Kin was sure that the door was quite a ways away, that meant it was likely the key.

"FIRA!" Kin yelled, unleashing the second most powerful fire spell he knew. Flames surrounded the crystal, spewing a super-concentrated arch of flame over it.

The Ice Crystal stopped spinning and the stones clattered to the ground. Kin half-smiled as he walked back into the room and looked around. The key was around the corner, and while no further obstacles remained in his way of getting it, there were two doors out of the room, the one he'd just taken and one on the south-western wall, but he had a strong suspicion that heading back wasn't a good idea. Fom what he'd examined in the first two mazes, there seemed to be progressive theme, as if turning back was the wrong thing to do.

As such, he headed for the new door.

Opening it, he suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his head rise as a crystal golem burst through the wall behind him.

[This must be what caused Fred and Wendy to suddenly start running!] Kin thought as he turned and began racing through the maze.(5)

It wasn't until he was sure he had both lost the golem as well as himself, that he slowed down.

He groaned as he realized he could have passed by the exit.

By the time Donovan Deegan started in the maze, a majority of the others were already depressed. Both Kin, Ben and Ray had failed to match even Fred's time, which meant that Alexis, a girl who probably didn't even have much interest in the race, was likely going to be the winner.

But, Donovan was going to give it his best. He conjured a small air elemental and had it direct him through the maze. Because of it's aid, Donovan didn't really encounter much trouble until after he'd found the key.

He had just returned to the corridor and was heading to the door the elemental had directed him towards when the spell worn off. Donovan silently wished he'd had a incense burner, so he could've made the spell last longer.

Opening the door, he started to turn left, but a gout of flame flew at him the very direction he'd started in, forcing him to roll out of the way, and right onto a trap ward.

Donovan yelped as his ass became an impromptu lightning rod, and he dove for a door, and opened it, slamming it behind him before the flame-throwing thing could follow.

He turned left and start down the corridor, ignoring the doors and the deadends until he found a small fountain. He blinked, then noticed the sign from Mister Armstrong that read, "Healing Fountain". Since the instructors weren't allowed to lie, Donovan took a deep drink of the water. Within moments, the fountain went dry and Donovan's ass felt better.

Donovan summoned an earth elemental to help guide him the rest of the way, but quickly began wishing he'd memorized another "summon air elemental" spell as the earth elemental wasn't quite as quick as Donovan had hoped.

Then again, earth elementals were known for their strengtha nd durability, not their speed.