Once they left the woods area and saw the third area, they knew immediately what the challenge was. After all, it was right in front of them.
The third area was simulating a small city that was on fire.
Everything was on fire — the roads, the buildings, the trees. Obviously not every single inch of this area was on fire, but it was everywhere.
Ren covered his eyes from the brightness.
This is gonna be a problem… this is most definitely the hardest area to pass so far. After all, fire was everywhere, and even if they could move through it normally, the smoke was a problem as well.
Ren just sighed.
"Rex, let's take a deep breath and keep our heads low."
Rex nodded, and they moved into the fire area.
They moved carefully. After all, they didn't want to get close to the fire, because if it got on their clothes, they would probably be teleported away before they even got the chance to put it out.
They moved normally through the fire area. So far, it wasn't so hard — until they got up the stairs and found their path covered in fire.
In fact, every other path was on fire.
This was problematic.
They had to find another way to move forward, and that's a problem because if they kept doing that — retracing their path — they were eventually going to get stuck.
Ren noticed something from the other side, where there was an entrance to a building, and he could see on the other side another door open with a clear street, but there was fire on the street between him and that entrance.
Ren thought about it for a second and got an idea.
He touched Rex's shoulder, telling him to follow.
He got on the edge of the elevated area and summoned his shades to function as a bridge. He made their surface wide and summoned all his shades as well to function as the bridge, and they moved through it carefully.
Because his shades are strong and flexible, which is perfect when he enhances himself with the unique way in Shadow Skeleton — but it isn't perfect when he wants them to function as constructs, like as a bridge in this case.
But thankfully, it didn't wobble too much. It didn't make them fall because he was trying to control them to be stable, and eventually they crossed the fire, entered the building entrance, and got out to the other side where the road was clear and they could move forward.
Now, that felt great, Ren thought to himself.
He felt great because so far he had relied on Rex's capabilities — his incredible senses in the rain area and his scouting abilities in the woods area — so him using his ability to help their team for once in this test felt great to him, and he probably would do the same a lot in this area considering his ability is great for utility.
Ren and Rex walked a little slowly this time.
Even though the street that they were in currently was safe and the fires were a little far away from them—
"I can't help much in this area," Rex said.
Because of the street being safe without any fire, there wasn't much smoke, so they could freely speak.
"The fire all around here is kind of bright and it stains the air, so my vision is useless for long range. I can't use my hearing because I can only hear the sound of fire sizzling and stuff burning, and I can't even use my sense of smell considering the smoke."
Ren nodded his head.
"Yeah, I already know that."
Rex smirked and said,
"Well, I guess for once you'll be truly helpful to the team and I don't have to carry you."
That really irritated Ren.
He already knew that, but hearing him say this in his smug tone really made him want to punch Rex — but he swallowed his rage and, instead of saying anything, stayed quiet.
They moved through the street to the end, still following the light pillar, and reached obstacles that they had to go through — and naturally those obstacles were fire blocking their way.
And naturally, they used Ren's shades to get over them — either climbing with them or creating a way for them to move through. Heck, they even swung through the air using his shades.
So far, things were going smoothly.
They did see a couple of other students, but they were separated by fire, and they had no reason to get out of their way just to fight them, so they continued to go through the city until they saw a building.
As far as they could see, going through the building was their only path forward.
So far, they were trying to avoid getting into buildings unless they were quickly passing through them like earlier, because in a fire, a building is the worst place to be in.
They quickly got inside the place.
They walked quickly, but they didn't run. After all, this place's status is fragile. So far, it didn't look so bad. The building was sturdy, so it shouldn't be falling anytime soon.
And so they moved quickly through the building.
When the fire was covering the hallway, Ren created shades to cover the floor, and they quickly ran through the hallway before the fire burned through the shades.
They went through the building until they entered the garage, which was quite big.
From far away they saw the door, but the problem was there was a wooden pillar above it — and it started to collapse.
"Oh shit. Run towards the door now!" Ren yelled.
So him and Rex ran as fast as they could, and Ren summoned all his shades to hold the wooden pillar so it wouldn't fall before they could go through — but it wasn't going so well.
It held it back, but the weight he was trying to hold was too much.
But it was still giving them some time, so they ran as fast as they could until—
Bang.
The pillar fell, and Ren and Rex got out of the door before—
Bang.
The pillar fell completely, blocking the door behind them.
Ren and Rex dropped to the ground, trying to catch their breath.
After a few seconds, they got up and saw what was behind the door — and it wasn't fire or anything.
It was the end of the fire area.
And what they saw beyond it is—