POV — Kai / Sector 3 / Level 1

The eight creatures arrived all at the same time.

Kai assessed them in the second it took them to cover the twenty meters.

They were quadrupedal — the size of a large bear, their bodies covered in black scales that overlapped like roof tiles.

Six legs, not four, with the two central ones longer, giving their movement a strange rhythm, like something that gallops but in three beats instead of two.

The head was wide and low, no visible neck, with the lower jaw longer than the upper and two tusks that jutted upward from below instead of downward from above.

The eyes were lateral — large, yellow.

Eight of them.

Qi active from his feet.

Kai smiled.

Not the small smile when something turned out right.

The other one — the one that came out in the ring when the opponent was exactly the level of interesting problem.

’Good.’

’Let’s see.’

---

The first one came at maximum speed on all six legs, body low to reduce its profile, jaw open and aimed at Kai’s side — not to bite, to sweep with the extended lower jaw and use the upward tusks as a hook.

Kai waited.

One meter. Half a meter.

He threw himself to the ground.

The jaw passed over him with the sound of air displaced by something moving fast and not finding what it was looking for.

Kai got up in the same motion and struck with his elbow at the joint of the central right leg — the point where the extra length of that leg created more leverage but also more vulnerability.

The joint gave way.

The creature lost its footing, turned badly, all six legs coordinating to compensate for the damaged leg.

Kai was already on the next one.

---

The second used a different tactic — it stopped three meters away and discharged the scales on its back.

It didn’t lose them, it bristled them, the kind of mechanism animals have that use their skin as a secondary weapon.

The erect scales were longer than they seemed in flat position — sharp edges, the length of a finger.

It lunged sideways, using its flank full of scales as an impact surface.

Kai jumped upward — not backward, upward — and used the creature’s back as a springboard for the next leap.

The scales didn’t cut through his soles.

The momentum carried him directly onto the third creature arriving from the front.

Knee to the nape. Full body weight plus the fall.

The third hit the ground.

’The scales are for sweeping. They work if the target retreats. If you advance on top, they have no angle.’

---

[DraconicLegacy: KAI IS SMILING. THREE EXCHANGES IN AND HE’S ENJOYING IT.]

[Wolf1179: he jumped ON TOP of the scaled creature to use it as a springboard. who does that.]

[Mist_Of_Death: Kai does that.]

[RagingMutant: the creatures have six legs and tusks that go upward. designed to sweep from below.]

[Mana_of_Void: and Kai read it in the first exchange and never fell for it again.]

---

Level 1 took five minutes.

Kai had a good time.

He took two hits from the scales on his left forearm when the fourth creature surprised him with a rotation he hadn’t anticipated, and the sixth hit him with a jaw strike to the side that wasn’t the wounded side but protested anyway.

The marks on his forearm were thin, red lines that Qi had partially closed before the level ended.

But the five minutes had been good.

The kind of good that made his brain process everything in high definition and every decision arrive before it was needed.

’This is what I missed about the ring.’

’But better.’

The creatures incapacitated around him. The opening to level 2 visible.

Kai shook out his forearm and walked toward the opening.

’What’s in the next one?’

---

[ACTIVE VOTE — VIEWERS FROM OTHER STREAMS]

[Modification: Level 2]

[Option A: Larger creatures — 12%]

[Option B: Faster creatures — 15%]

[Option C: Nothing — 73%]

[Result: Option C]

---

[DraconicLegacy: (¬‿¬) 73% voted nothing.]

[Wolf1179: the other streams saw Kai enjoying level 1 and decided the best punishment was to give him nothing.]

[Mist_Of_Death: that’s perverse. and brilliant.]

[RagingMutant: wait nothing means there are no creatures in level 2?]

[Mana_of_Void: correct. just the empty corridor.]

[DraconicLegacy: Kai is going to hate this more than any creature.]

---

Level 2

The corridor of level 2 was identical to that of level 1.

Same black material. Same height. Same width.

No creatures.

Kai entered and stopped.

He looked left.

Empty corridor.

Right.

Empty corridor.

Ahead.

Empty corridor with the opening to level 3 visible at the end.

Active Qi searched for something — energy signature, movement, heat, vibration.

Nothing.

Kai waited.

One minute.

Five minutes.

He kept waiting, because the labyrinth had had creatures in level 1 and it was reasonable to assume there would be some in level 2 as well and that maybe the spawn time was different between levels.

Ten minutes.

He set his Muay Thai stance — just in case.

---

[DraconicLegacy: HAHAHAHA HE SET HIS STANCE JUST IN CASE]

[Wolf1179: he’s been waiting in stance for ten minutes]

[Mist_Of_Death: Kai vs the empty corridor. the corridor is winning.]

[RagingMutant: this is torture. for him specifically.]

[Mana_of_Void: the other streams chose well.]

---

Fifteen minutes.

Kai lowered his arms.

He looked at the ceiling.

Looked at the floor.

Looked at the opening to level 3, which was still exactly what it was — an opening in the wall leading to the next level.

’There’s nothing here.’

’Why is there nothing here?’

He set his stance again, this time with his right arm a little higher because the attack angle of the level 1 creatures had suggested that...

There were no creatures.

He lowered his arm.

Twenty minutes.

He sat down on the corridor floor.

---

[DraconicLegacy: HE SAT ON THE FLOOR]

[Wolf1179: twenty minutes of empty corridor and Kai sat down]

[Mist_Of_Death: he has a face like he’s processing a fundamental injustice]

[RagingMutant: Kai who defeated vampires and survived catacombs defeated by the absence of opponents]

[Mana_of_Void: the worst possible punishment for someone who learns by fighting]

---

Twenty-five minutes.

Kai looked at his own hands.

He practiced the hip stance Lira had corrected that morning — no target, no immediate application, just moving in the empty corridor with the echo of his own footsteps.

Thirty minutes.

He stopped.

Looked ahead.

’This is the worst thing that’s happened to me in Aethon.’

’Including Jameson’s time fracture.’

’Including the silver powder.’

’Including the dislocated shoulder.’

’This is worse.’

---

The screen appeared without warning.

Not the A_D_M panel — a screen. Rectangular, the size of the wall, materialized in the corridor in front of Kai with the kind of presence of something that had been there from the beginning but decided to activate now.

A television screen.

Kai looked at it.

He recognized it — the proportion, the frame, the type of light it emitted.

From the same world as the Mirfeld Ferris wheel.

From the same world as him.

The screen split into two.

---

The left side showed Serah.

Serah in level 4 of her sector, in front of the opening, her silver markings at half intensity and her claws out and the posture of someone who has processed what’s on the other side and has decided to go in anyway.

The right side showed Lira.

Lira in level 4 of her sector, facing the unclassified figure, blood magic threads active.

Both in their respective level 4s.

Both with reduced resources.

Both facing something the labyrinth system couldn’t classify.

Kai looked at the screen.

’They’ve been fighting while I’ve been sitting here.’

’Thirty minutes.’

’In the empty corridor.’

’Sitting.’

---

[DraconicLegacy: THE SCREEN SHOWS SERAH AND LIRA]

[Wolf1179: KAI HAS BEEN DOING NOTHING FOR THIRTY MINUTES AND THEY’VE BEEN FIGHTING ALL THAT TIME]

[Mist_Of_Death: Kai’s face right now. that’s high-precision torture.]

[RagingMutant: A_D_M designed this specifically for him. knew nothing would be worse than watching others fight.]

[Mana_of_Void: and the other streams chose it without knowing that. or maybe they did know.]

---

Kai didn’t take his eyes off the screen.

Serah crossed the opening of level 4. Alone. With her markings at half.

Lira approached the unclassified figure. With thirty-two percent magic available.

Kai put his hand on the corridor wall.

Qi pulsed — the labyrinth responded to Qi, he’d felt it since level 1.

’If the labyrinth responds to Qi...’

’Is there something I can do from here?’

’Or just watch?’

The screen showed Serah.

The screen showed Lira.

Both fighting.

Him in an empty corridor with a screen.

Kai punched the wall with his fist.

Not with force — with frustration. The kind of punch that doesn’t seek to break anything but to do something with energy that has nowhere to go.

The corridor absorbed the blow.

Returned silence.

’This,’ Kai thought, staring at the screen, ’is definitely the worst thing that’s happened to me in Aethon.’

---

[DraconicLegacy: KAI PUNCHED THE WALL OUT OF FRUSTRATION]

[Wolf1179: not to break it. out of frustration. KAI.]

[Mist_Of_Death: "returned silence" — the corridor didn’t even give him that.]

[RagingMutant: this is the best episode I’ve seen on this stream. and I got here two Chapters ago.]

[Mana_of_Void: welcome. stay.]

[System — notification]

[Current viewers: 18,500,000]