Shattered Sanity

(Present Moment, Riven’s POV)

Riven and the group instinctively knew that it was time to activate the plan the moment they approached the first tree marker, as they dramatically veered left of the tree before immediately changing course and cutting across diagonally to the right.

Their pursuers, however, continued along the more natural route from the right, which was considerably shorter and allowed them to close some of the distance Riven’s group had created without suspecting that there had been any reason behind the strange maneuver.

None of the six looked back immediately, as they continued running deeper into the Northern Forest while the Aureate students behind them charged along the shorter route with their attention focused almost entirely upon catching the group ahead.

The first Aureate student crossed the area without incident, while another followed only a few feet behind him and several more continued charging close behind in a loose formation.

Then the ground beneath one of them suddenly collapsed.

CRACK!

”SHIT!”

His right foot plunged through the thin covering of leaves and branches concealing the shallow pit underneath, sinking barely a foot and a half before striking the bottom.

The pit wasn’t remotely deep enough to trap him, although it didn’t need to be, as the sudden drop caught him in the middle of a full sprint and caused his upper body to continue moving while his planted leg abruptly stopped.

The Aureate student pitched forward and crashed shoulder-first into the ground, while the student immediately behind him had less than a second to react before his shin struck the fallen man’s hip and sent him tumbling over his body.

”What the fuck?! Get off me!”

”My fucking knee! Someone dug a trap here!”

The two complained, as Riven finally looked backwards and could barely believe how effectively something as simple as a shallow hole had disrupted the pursuit, despite the fact that nobody had actually been trapped inside it or appeared to have suffered anything worse than bruises and scrapes.

”By Minerva’s grace! We have got a couple!”

Riven muttered with a big smile plastered over his face, while the others around him could not hide their giggles either.

”Hehehe, You dug that hole! Congratulations, Jeff! Truly incredible work!”

Batista added before bursting into laughter.

”Muahahaha! Two people just ate dirt because of my hole! From today onwards, I shall be respected as Jeff the Digger!”

Jeff said, as the others started laughing as they continued running deeper into the Northern Forest, while behind them, the fallen Aureate students hurried back onto their feet and attempted to rejoin the pursuit.

Their companions hadn’t stopped either, with most simply moving around the pileup and continuing after Riven, although several were now glancing towards the ground considerably more often than before.

The first trap had done exactly what Circuit intended, as it hadn’t needed to defeat anyone when simply introducing the idea that traps existed inside the Northern Forest was enough.

Riven turned his attention forward again and continued scanning the passing trees until another familiar marker finally appeared amongst them, with a small nail driven into the trunk and a broken branch awkwardly tied around it.

The second marker.

Nobody needed to say anything.

Riven veered sharply towards the left of the marked tree, while the other five immediately followed before cutting diagonally towards the right again once they had passed it.

Their pursuers continued after them, although unlike before, several of them were now watching the ground as they ran.

”WAIT! There’s another fucking trap!” one of the Aureate students suddenly shouted, as several others slowed almost simultaneously and followed his finger towards a thin cord stretched between two exposed roots along the path ahead.

The cord wasn’t particularly well hidden, especially now that everyone knew they needed to search for something unusual, and the students quickly began spreading around it rather than charging blindly forward.

One stepped carefully over the cord without anything happening, while another moved around the side before a third crossed safely and turned towards everyone following behind him.

”It’s just a tripwire! Watch your feet and keep moving!”

The tension amongst the group eased almost immediately.

They had already fallen for one hidden trap, although this time they had found it, and several students began moving again while carefully stepping around the visible cord before accelerating once they were safely beyond it.

Riven glanced backwards while continuing to run, watching the first student pass through safely before the second and third followed without anything happening.

’Come on.’

For the briefest moment, Riven wondered whether Matt’s mechanism had failed.

Then another Aureate student stepped onto the patch of ground beyond the cord.

SNAP!

The sound echoed between the trees as several heads instinctively turned upwards, although by then, the thick branch that had been bent backwards and secured under tension was already tearing free.

WHOOSH!

It swept horizontally through the route the students had chosen to avoid the visible cord, striking the first Aureate student across the shoulder and throwing him sideways into one of his companions, while the second took the branch across his upper chest and crashed backwards.

Another student attempted to duck at the last moment, only for the edge of the branch to clip his arm hard enough to spin him around and send him stumbling across the leaves.

The students behind them immediately stopped, staring towards the three people scattered across the ground as they struggled to understand how they had fallen into another trap despite successfully identifying the first one.

Riven’s eyes widened slightly as Circuit’s explanation finally made complete sense.

The cord had never been intended to catch anyone.

It was supposed to be discovered, as by placing something obvious in their path after the first hidden trap had taught them to search the ground, Circuit had practically guaranteed that someone would notice it and think that they had evaded the trap and lower their guard.

Which was exactly what happened.

The Aureate students thought that they had evaded the trap, only to fall into another, which was now sure to mess with their psyche.

’Oh Circuit, You clever little bastard.’

Riven thought, as the confused faces of the Aureate students pursuing them, gave him an immense kick.

”Holy shit! They saw the fucking trap and still walked into another one!” Randy exclaimed, as he looked backwards while continuing to run.

”Circuit is fucking terrifying!” Batista replied, laughing loudly enough that Riven could hear him over the furious shouting behind them.

”THE WHOLE FOREST IS RIGGED.”

”Guys be careful, just anything around you can be a trap!”

A few Aureate students screamed, as the desired effect began to kick in.

Instead of running behind them wildly anymore, the Aureate students started to slow down significantly, as anything unusual around them triggered the suspicion of there being another trap.

Whether it was a pile of dried leaves gathered unusually around the roots of a tree or a slightly broken branch hanging awkwardly from above, the Aureate students stopped to check almost everything, while Riven and company continued accelerating ahead and gained a few dozen meters every ten seconds.

At the rate they were going, Riven realized that they were going to disappear from sight entirely before long.

”Keep your eyes open! Check the ground and the fucking trees! Just don’t touch anything that looks strange!”

Warnings like these echoed from behind them as the Aureate students continued moving slower and slower, with every suspicious patch of terrain giving them another reason to hesitate before taking the next few steps.

One student stopped after noticing a section of loose soil beneath his feet, while another immediately warned the people beside him about several vines hanging between two trees, despite neither having anything to do with Circuit’s traps.

”Wait! Don’t step there!”

”There’s nothing there!”

”How the fuck do you know?! The last trap was hidden behind the one we fucking spotted!”

That argument alone cost them several more seconds.

By the time they finally agreed to move forward again, Riven and the others had already disappeared deeper amongst the trees, leaving the Aureate students staring towards an empty stretch of forest where their targets had been visible moments earlier.

Several of them attempted to continue, although their pace immediately slowed again when another pile of leaves appeared ahead.

Eventually, the students at the front ground to a complete halt.

They had completely lost sight of Riven.

More importantly, without him and his group visible ahead of them, they could no longer use their movements to judge which parts of the forest were safe to cross.

”What do we do now?”

”Where the hell are we supposed to go?”

The Aureate students wondered, as the paranoia gradually settled within their hearts and left them uncertain about how they were supposed to continue chasing Riven anymore.

And that was precisely what Riven and company wanted, as the chase had finally reached the point where they could stop running as the prey and begin hunting their pursuers instead.