With Entrance Three cleared, Nova recalled Nidoking into its Poké Ball and kept moving forward at an easy pace on Corviknight's back.
So far, Nova had no fear of losing his way. Azir had already used Supersonic to scout the surrounding terrain and had pointed Corviknight in the right direction. Once its scouting work was finished, Azir left the group for a while to hunt down contestants who had entered the maze through the other entrances.
Since Nova knew his own pace through the maze would always be slow, his only real chance at winning was to strike down the faster Trainers before they could pull too far ahead. The moment the fight at the entrance ended, Azir took off straight for the deeper parts of the maze.
Azir's flying speed was nowhere near the fastest among Pokémon, but it had one advantage that most others lacked. Its Supersonic let it sense every false dead end, loop, and side path hidden in the maze, so it never had to waste time searching for the way forward. It could fly directly toward the heart of the maze's first half.
Even so, by the time it reached that point, Azir's position was not especially high up the ranking. Several veteran competitors had taken part in this race many times before and had the layout of the first half memorized down to the smallest detail. They did not need to search for the path either, and that made them even faster.
This was exactly why the young woman working the registration desk back at the Gym had not expected much from Nova in his very first competition. Compared to these seasoned challengers, a newcomer like him was already at a clear disadvantage simply from not knowing the maze.
If Nova had not thought ahead and sent Azir to intercept the fastest Trainers near the center of the maze, he might have ended up with no ranking at all by the time the veterans reached the second half.
Right now, the fastest of those veterans had already reached the core of the maze's first half, a narrow valley that acted as a natural bottleneck. Trainers who had scattered out from different entrances were forced together here, and there was no unspoken rule keeping the peace in a place like this.
Passing through the bottleneck led straight into the second half of the maze, and whoever got through first stood the best chance at a challenge slot. In past races, the fighting at this exact spot had always been the fiercest and most crowded of the whole event.
Azir naturally sensed the clash happening ahead. Seven or eight of the fastest Trainers were locked in a chaotic fight here, though it looked nothing like an ordinary battle. None of them wanted to commit fully to taking down another Trainer in a spot like this. Their only real goal was to block the others from getting through, while buying themselves as much time as possible.
One Trainer riding a Dodrio made good use of its running speed and agility, dodging several incoming attacks while closing in on the bottleneck. As he approached, he threw out two more Poké Balls behind him, releasing two Pokémon to guard his back. Hawlucha spread its wings and held off anything trying to slip past through the air, while on the ground, Machoke used Superpower to keep any pursuers from catching up to its Trainer.
This Trainer's plan was simple and clear. In the end, this was a race, not a pure battle of strength. Even a team at full fighting power meant nothing if it could not get its Trainer into the top eight finishers. So his plan was to push Dodrio's speed to the absolute limit while Hawlucha and Machoke held the bottleneck for as long as they could. If they could buy him just thirty seconds, he could be the first Trainer through into the second half. Everyone else still stuck fighting at the bottleneck would only fall further behind, and with no one left ahead of him on the path, his odds of winning would be as good as guaranteed.
What he had not accounted for was the very reason Azir had been sent ahead to the center of the maze in the first place: to stop exactly this kind of fast-moving Trainer.
Azir had clearly marked this Dodrio rider as its target. Tucked into a corner that nobody had noticed, it shook its wings hard and stirred up another Sandstorm. The already messy battle turned into complete chaos. Beyond the steady chip damage from the storm, the loss of visibility alone was enough to give every Trainer at the bottleneck a serious headache. The wind and sand blew so fiercely that nobody could even keep their eyes open, let alone tell where the bottleneck actually was. Pushing forward blind was simply not an option.
"Damn it!"
A Trainer riding a Charizard swore loudly. He clearly knew what he was doing, since he immediately recognized the Sandstorm as someone's deliberate attack rather than real weather, and had Charizard use Sunny Day right away to counter it. Charizard was both a Fire-type and a Flying-type, and a Sandstorm left unchecked for even half a minute could have stripped his starter Pokémon's health bar in two.
This Charizard was at level 42, easily one of the strongest Pokémon among all the contestants. Against the Sandstorm whipped up by Azir, a mere level 32 Vibrava, Sunny Day overpowered it completely, and the wind and sand quickly died down.
But Azir had never been aiming for Charizard or its Trainer at all. The Sandstorm's only real purpose was to throw off everyone's senses; it was never meant to deal serious damage on its own. While the storm raged, Azir slipped into the air under cover of the dust and closed in on the leading Dodrio at full speed.
Hawlucha, busy guarding the skies, was blinded by the swirling sand. All it caught was a sharp buzzing sound rushing past, and it realized something was very wrong, something had just flown by, and its target was almost certainly its own Trainer.
Hawlucha was already stretched to its limit, taking Sandstorm damage with its own body while fending off the Pokémon trying to break through. All it could manage was a sharp cry of warning, hoping to alert Dodrio that danger was closing in.
With its sight badly hindered by the wind and sand, Dodrio's pace had already slowed noticeably. The instant it heard Hawlucha's warning cry, its first thought was its Trainer's safety. All three of its heads turned sharply, each watching a different direction. At that exact moment, Charizard's Sunny Day finally broke through and the Sandstorm faded away.
The buzzing sound of beating wings became clear and unmistakable to Dodrio's ears.
In front!
Azir, flying at full speed, swept around directly in front of Dodrio. Even with its approach discovered, it showed no sign of slowing down, instead curving smoothly into a wide, graceful arc right before Dodrio's eyes.
Azir moved like a living desert blade, and as its sleek body whipped around through that arc, its finishing move was already on its way!