Kai races through the final maze, repeatedly hitting dead ends while avoiding shifting walls and snakes. When the hedges begin closing around him, he prepares to be crushed, but the walls stop just short, leaving only a tight single-file passage. Kai bitterly recognizes the design as his father’s work and understands that the maze is forcing contestants into direct confrontations they cannot avoid.

As Kai continues, he comes face-to-face with Andy in jaguar form. He immediately realizes she has stayed shifted too long and is losing control, making her a danger to him and to herself. Because the path is too narrow for either of them to pass peacefully, Kai tries to calm her and reaches for a nearby ability. He manages to grab Jax’s Blink power just as Andy attacks, and he uses it twice to evade her lunges.

When Jax moves too far away and the borrowed ability fails, Kai has no choice but to shift into a jaguar himself. The two cousins savage each other in a brutal animal fight, and Kai feels how easily instinct could overwhelm his mind. He gains the upper hand and nearly kills Andy, but a flash of light jolts him back to himself in time. Andy escapes by shifting into a falcon and trying to fly out, only to find the maze sealed overhead; she then shifts back and limps away instead of continuing the fight.

Kai immediately returns to human form and takes stock of his injuries, especially a deep bite in his shoulder. After tearing off part of his shirt to bind the wound, he forces himself onward through the maze despite the lost time and pain. Then he hears screams, senses a Bloom’s power nearby, and eagerly seizes it, ending the chapter with a new advantage.