Marcus pulled out his long sword and pointed the tip at Grayson’s throat. "Grayson! Say one more word, and I swear you won’t leave this hall alive!"
Grayson laughed. "Veronia, look at him. Doesn’t he act like a clown who got caught red-handed and is now throwing a tantrum?"
Marcus’s face turned red. He swung his sword at Grayson.
Veronia sighed and sent out a mental shock. "Stop it!"
Hit by the mental attack up close, both Marcus and Grayson turned pale.
Veronia looked at them both and warned sharply, "Remember who you are and what your job is! If you keep fighting like this and mess up the test, you can go explain yourselves to the Guardian."
Hearing the name "Guardian," both Grayson and Marcus went quiet and lowered their heads.
Inside the magic barrier.
Raymond sat by the fire, roasting meat.
The skin sizzled with oil and gave off a mouthwatering smell.
Ralph and Bobby sat nearby, holding their knees tightly, staring at Gregory in the prison cart.
"Hey, you think that guy won’t break out again?" Ralph whispered.
"Whether he escapes or not doesn’t matter. What matters is how many people will come to kill us later," Raymond said as he took out a knife, cut off some meat, and handed it to the two across from him.
Ralph and Bobby took the meat. Just as they brought it to their mouths, Raymond’s words froze them in place.
"Someone wants to kill us?" Bobby’s eyes went wide. He could hardly believe it. "The rules say the enemies are just here to free the prisoner, right?"
Raymond rolled his eyes at them but didn’t explain much.
These two young men had no idea how dangerous the world really was.
Raymond was a thorn in Marcus’s side and also an enemy of Barron. They would definitely try everything to kill him.
As for Ralph and Bobby, they were top students from the Imperial Magic Academy. Someone tricked them into giving up their silver coins and sent them to the Abyss Prison. That was also very suspicious.
Someone might be trying to use their deaths to stir up conflict between the Abyss Prison and the Imperial Magic Academy.
Realizing that, Raymond picked up a stick and tapped both of them on the head. "Eat up. If you don’t want to die, get ready to fight!"
Ralph and Bobby nodded silently and swallowed the meat.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Three sharp whistles suddenly cut through the air.
Three arrows flew through the fence, straight at Raymond and his two companions.
In that split second, Ralph and Bobby’s faces filled with despair.
But Raymond was quick. He turned sideways, pulled out his sword, and knocked all three arrows away.
The angle and power of those shots... it was Barron!
Raymond realized who the enemy was. He stood up quietly and stared at the bushes outside the camp. "Stop hiding. Come out, all of you."
As soon as he spoke, several dark figures slipped out from the bushes.
Raymond looked around. Three men had appeared. They were all wearing prison uniforms.
"Prisoners?" Raymond narrowed his eyes. A bad feeling crept into his mind.
The three prisoners didn’t answer. They pulled out their weapons - and they were holding the standard longswords of junior guards.
And the archer was still nowhere to be seen!
Raymond narrowed his eyes. He kept one eye on the hidden archer and the other on the three prisoners closing in.
Just then, the leader of the prisoners noticed Ralph and Bobby trembling. He grinned. "Hey, there’s a girl! We’ll kill the men first. Then we’ll have some fun with her before we finish her off."
Behind Raymond, Ralph hid behind Bobby and didn’t dare look up.
Bobby tried to act brave, but the magic wand in his hand was shaking.
The three prisoners laughed at the sight.
The leader finally looked Raymond in the eye. "Kid, be smart. Throw down your sword and kneel. I’ll let you watch me have my way with the girl before you die."
Raymond didn’t move. He just stared coldly at the three prisoners.
"Haha! The kid’s scared stiff!" One prisoner stepped into the fence first.
The other two saw Raymond not moving. They laughed and followed him in.
The moment they were all inside the fence, Raymond moved.
He moved first, thrusting his sword straight at the leader of the prisoners.
A cold flash of light swept across the prisoner’s neck. The man suddenly saw his own body fall to the ground, and then everything spun around.
Thud!
The moment his head hit the ground, he realized he had been decapitated.
The other two prisoners hadn’t even reacted yet when Raymond dashed toward them like a hunting leopard, swinging his longsword.
A single spinning slash!
Raymond shot through the gap between the two men, cutting them both in half - four pieces in total.
Before they died, their eyes were filled with disbelief and confusion.
"How is this possible?"
"The intel said you were only Level 15!"
...
By the time the two prisoners had closed their eyes for good, Bobby finally let out a scream and fired a Fireball spell, blasting the bodies.
Ralph peeked out from behind Bobby and stared at Raymond with admiration. "That was amazing swordplay! Which noble family are you from? Will you be my swordsmanship teacher?"
Bobby smacked Ralph hard on the head with a trembling hand. "You idiot! You hid behind a woman in a life-or-death moment! Are you even a man?"
Raymond ignored the two young people bickering.
Just now, three ghostly transparent cards had appeared in his empty space.
He stepped closer to look. They were cards of the three prisoners he had just killed.
[Sinner: Bastian]
[Race: Human]
[Strength: Black Iron Stage, Level 20]
[Status: Serving sentence]
[Crime: Unknown. Requires 100 Guard Contribution Points to unlock.]
[Guard Contribution Points: 50]
[Draws available: 3 (Sinner has died. Card will disappear after draws. No further draws will accumulate.)]
...
Seeing this, Raymond’s pupils trembled.
He looked at the other two transparent cards.
The Guard Contribution Points on each were also 50, and the number of draws available was three each.
So, killing an escaped prisoner not only gave you a fixed 50 Guard Contribution Points, but also three chances to draw something from them.
But there was still an archer hiding somewhere outside. This wasn’t the right time to draw.
Thinking this, Raymond pulled his mind back to reality and kept standing guard around the camp.
At the same time, Barron was hiding in the bushes a few hundred meters away. He slowly backed away, not making a sound.
Only after he had retreated five hundred meters did he dare to crouch down. His face was full of anger as he cursed under his breath. "Damn it! Two Level 19s and one Level 20, and they couldn’t even last two rounds against Raymond!"
He spat on the ground. "Raymond, just you wait. Next time, it won’t be three death row prisoners."
On the other side.
Raymond kept patrolling around the camp. After a full fifteen minutes with no attack, he was sure the archer hiding in the dark had run away.
He went back to the fire. Just then, a creepy laugh came from the prison cart.
"Hehehe! They’re coming! They’re all coming! I’m going to die, and so are you!" Gregory’s face twisted into a strange grin.
Ralph was already scared. Gregory’s laughter made him even more nervous.
"Stop talking nonsense! I’m telling you, Raymond is really strong!" Ralph’s voice trembled as he moved closer to Raymond for courage.
But Gregory ignored Ralph and kept talking to himself. "You must have figured it out by now. The people who attacked you are death row prisoners taking part in this test. The fact that those three got here means the guards watching them are dead."
He laughed even louder. "Just wait! Soon, the guards at the other camps will die too. When those prisoners don’t find me, they’ll come straight here and send you all to hell."
Gregory suddenly turned his head and looked at Bobby. He licked his lips. "What a pretty little doll. If you don’t want those bastards to have their way with you, I’d say kill yourself. Those death row prisoners - the weakest is still Black Iron Stage 18, and two of them are mages."
When Ralph heard this, his face turned pale. "Then we’re as good as dead, aren’t we? Even if Raymond is strong with his sword, he can’t fight against noble mages, right?"
Bobby glanced at Raymond, worry spreading across her face. "Let’s give up on the test. This is way beyond what a junior guard can handle. If we find a way to escape the magic barrier now, we might still make it out alive."
Gregory let out a nasty laugh. "Pretty women really have no brains. Have you stopped to think about how we death row prisoners managed to break out in the first place?"
Bobby was about to say something, but Raymond cut her off. "The examiners let the prisoners escape on purpose."
Hearing this, Bobby’s eyes went wide. "That - that’s impossible! That’s a crime!"
Raymond turned to stare at Gregory and said in a low voice, "If I’m not wrong, the man pulling the strings behind this test is Officer Marcus, isn’t it?"
At the mention of Marcus’s name, Gregory froze and didn’t say another word.
Raymond let out a cold laugh, his eyes turning icy. "If you don’t say anything, I’ll take it as a yes. Marcus wanted his people to pass the junior guard exam, so he set up this whole thing - let the prisoners kill off the competition and make sure his own men get good scores. Am I right?"
Gregory looked uncomfortable. "I don’t know anything. I’m not saying anything."
Raymond pressed the memory stone hidden in his clothes and sneered. "Fine. Say nothing. But just watch."
With that, he yanked open the iron door of the prison cart, dragged Gregory out like a sack of potatoes, and tied him up tight with chains.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Ralph shouted in panic.
"I’m going to send those cheating examiners and guards straight to hell." Raymond dragged Gregory along and walked out of the camp in big strides.
Ralph and Bobby exchanged a look, then quickly grabbed their magic wands and followed.
...