...

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Large rocks started to fall down towards the group of the prisoners which made them panic.

Aaron was wearing a solemn look on his face when he saw that and quickly gave his orders desperately. "Support team, use your toughest defensive techniques! Assault team, attack those falling rocks; pulverize them before they hit our barrier."

The group desperately did the best that they could, trying to save themselves from the current situation. But everything was already too late since they already fell on the trap set up by Shin and the others.

"Shatter!"

Then the group fell in terror on the very next moment because the barrier surrounding that was supposedly protecting them collapsed all of the sudden.

Aaron's eyes suddenly turned wide when he saw what happened and quickly turned his head towards the direction where the voices that they heard were coming from.

He then saw Jillian and Alice standing a few meters away from them. They were currently releasing a fraction of their Mental Energy while forming a seal with their hands.

"They disturbed the balance of our barrier by forcefully feeding it with their own Mental Energy!" said one of the Mentalists in their group.

"Then build it again!" shouted Aaron with a mix of enraged and desperate tone.

"B-but… it is impossible right now. There is a foreign energy mixed in the air and it is preventing us from properly rebuilding our barrier," said by another Mentalist.

After that, they saw the two girls simultaneously disappear after infusing their Mental Energy on the talisman that they were holding on their other hand.

"Don't underestimate us!" shouted Aaron as Natural Force surrounded his body before throwing a series of punches on the air above them to crush the falling rocks. And when the other members of the group saw that, they immediately followed suit and went all-out.

Even their Mentalists were doing the same. Since they couldn't properly rebuild their barrier, the only thing that they could do was to assist the others in breaking the falling rocks at them.

"I've been waiting for that."

Bang! Bang! Bang!

But amidst all of it, a series of gunshots was suddenly mixed in the rumbling sounds of the falling rocks. And the moment Aaron heard those shots, his eyes suddenly turned wide as he could already see what was going to happen next.

"She's been waiting all this time?" he thought to himself, cursing. Everything happened a little too fast for him to give his orders, so all he could do was to focus all of his efforts to defend himself. At this point in time, he knew that it was already too late to save the others.

"Ugh!"

Then consecutive grunting sounds could be heard among their group as the bullets pierced through their bodies. And even if it didn't directly kill them it was more than enough to put the final nail in the coffin to seal off their fates.

Boom!

Then the raining falling rocks that they failed to break buried them alive.

Hu!

In the spot where Lorraine was hiding from their enemies' sight, she finally got the chance to stand up and stretched her waist after lying flat on the ground for a long time. She then blew the muzzle of her rifle before muttering to herself. "Now, my job is finally done~!"

"You can't be sure about that yet. From what I heard from Shin Bro, the other side seems to send quite a few elites to capture you," said Leonard from the side as tried his best to redirect his eyes away from Lorraine who resumed stretching her waist left and right.

Seeing his reaction, Lorraine couldn't help but want to tease him a little more and continued to stretch her body with a much tempting position.

Cough! Cough!

Leonard suddenly cleared his throat when he saw her actions and quickly changed the topic. "We should be going now before our enemies arrive here."

Unfortunately, his efforts only made Lorraine tease him a little more. "Ho~! Can I take that as you worrying for me?"

Seeing that, Leonard could only sigh helplessly and decided to go back to how he used to treat her. So, he immediately turned around and started to walk away, ignoring her. But contrary to what he was expecting, Lorraine only found his actions cute.

Regardless, she still knew when to stop. So, she turned silent for a moment and chased after Leonard.

...

In the meantime, Ivan suddenly heard the series of explosions coming from the valley. And not long after that, they saw that the edges on top of the valley suddenly collapsed and huge rocks started to fall from it.

"That's!"

Seeing that, Ivan knew that they fell into another trap set by their opponents. He wanted to save Aaron and the others, but he knew better than anyone that it was impossible to do that right now since with his great eyesight. He could accurately gauge that Aaron's team had gone a little too deep in the valley, so it was impossible to save them with the current distance that he needed to cover.

All he could do was tightly clenched his fist as he watched the rocks fall from the edge of the cliff. And while he was busy looking at the distance, he suddenly discovered that the area around him turned quiet all of a sudden.

Realizing that, he immediately spun around to take a look at his surroundings and saw that all of the remaining prison buddies that he had around him earlier were now all dead. "What!? Since when did-…?"

He was in the middle of talking when he suddenly heard a young man's voice behind him. "This happened?"

Hearing that, he quickly spun around for another time and saw Shin standing in the place where he was not standing previously. He tried to open and close his mouth and wanted to say something but no words came out of it.

On the other hand, Shin looked at the talisman that he was holding and muttered with a little unsatisfied tone. "You recovered a little faster than what I expected. Looks like there are still some things that I need to improve with this spell talisman."

"What did you do?" asked Ivan while looking around him and discovering that no one is alive aside from him.

"Nothing special, just a little trick to fool your senses for a brief moment," said Shin in a nonchalant manner.

"A brief moment?" repeated Ivan with a solemn tone while looking around him once again. 'If it is just for a brief moment, then how come he managed to kill all of these guys?'

Understanding what Ivan was thinking, Shin suddenly waved his hand and said. "There is no need to think too much about it, there is nothing special about this trick."

Bang!

But in response, Ivan suddenly kicked the ground below him and launched himself towards Shin in a very aggressive manner.

Unfortunately, Shin was just looking at his charge calmly while putting his left hand on one of his sheathed katanas.

Cling!

And with a flick of his thumb, the guard of that katana was slightly pushed out of its sheath and partially revealed its blade.

Then Ivan suddenly felt a very threatening feeling form from Shin's body which made him forcefully halt his advance. He then stared at Shin with a dumbfounded look on his face. "This kid-…! Just how many did kill to get that kind of Killing Intent at such a young age?"

Meanwhile, Shin felt a little disappointed that his opponent didn't continue charging at him. "I guess the people living in this harsh place really have sharp battle instincts."

Gulp!

Overhearing Shin's mumbling, Ivan couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva as he could read the hidden meaning from those words.

"If I continue moving forward, this kind really is going to kill me without any hesitation," muttered Ivan to himself as he broke in a cold sweat.

He was not as talented as the brightest prodigies and geniuses of his generation, but he was still a battle-sharpened veteran who had already gone through a lot of life-and-death situations. And the instincts that honed after going through those battles was currently telling him to run away from his place as soon as possible.

'Who the hell is this kid? He is completely different from the reports that we receive so far,' thought Ivan while staring at Shin with widened eyes.

Seeing that his opponent didn't have any plan of attacking, Shin could only take the initiative to end this final battle. "I want to end this as soon as possible so that we can finally go home and get a proper bath and peaceful rest, so don't blame me."

Swoosh!

He then suddenly disappeared from his current position and reappeared in front of Ivan, ducking forward while maintaining a sword drawing stance.

Shing!

After that, he quickly pulled out the katana from its sheath and swung it at his opponent with great speed and accurate precision. "Let me try this skill that I personally re-created during my special training."

Ivan didn't know why, but he couldn't move his body despite him being able to see that incoming attack. It was as if his own body was refusing to obey his orders.

All he could do was watch the incoming blade came after his neck. From its trajectory alone, he could easily see that this was a decisive blow that was trying to sever his head from his shoulders.

"Am I going to die here?"

In the face of death, Ivan's body suddenly froze as he saw the flashes of memories in front of his eyes alongside the crimes that he committed during his time outside the Prison Island. And when he saw that, he finally remembered why he was living in this sh*tty place.

"Yeah, that is right! I really deserve to die," he muttered with a soft voice before closing his eyes and fully accepting his fate with a smile.

Clang!

But contrary to his expectation, he didn't die as someone suddenly interfered.

"Looks like you finally realize and acknowledge your sin, Ivan," said a familiar voice. And when Ivan reopened his eyes, he saw Lennon standing between him and Shin while blocking the blade of the katana with his bare hands.

"Lennon! What are you doing here?" asked Ivan, fully surprised.

"Boss orders. He knows that you are going to do something stupid, so he sends me here to save your sorry *ss," replied Lennon with an annoyed tone.

In the meantime, Shin was quite shocked at the sudden appearance of the new guy; especially that his attack seemed to be casually blocked barehanded.

After that, he quickly separated from the two before solemnly looking at Lennon. "This guy, he is completely different compared to those prisoners that we encountered so far. He has an unusual speed and almost got me earlier. If not for my 'Zone', I'd most likely get assassinated by him."

But unknown to Shin, Lennon was also looking at him solemnly and assessing his strength closely. 'This kid is a monster. To think that he is going to redirect his katana at me at the very last second? I almost get myself killed instead of taking his life.'

"Kid, how about we stop here right now? You already killed quite a lot of our brothers, so that should be more than enough for you to pass the exam, right?" said Lennon after calming himself a little.

Naturally, Shin was more than willing to accept such a good proposal in normal circumstances. But how could he let his opportunity go by now that he finally found a good opponent to really test how much he improved after his special training.

"Fine by me, but how about seniors enlighten this junior for a moment? It is such a small request in exchange for his life, isn't it?" asked Shin to respond while pulling out his other katana with his free hand.

"This kid is crazy," muttered Lennon when he saw those actions. He then smirked at Shin and replied. "Don't push your luck too hard, kid. We are not playing here."

When those words left his mouth, a small group of prisoners suddenly appeared behind him before positioning themselves beside Lennon. Their numbers might be smaller than the previous group but it was clear that they were much stronger compared to all of the prisoners that Shin and the others fought so far.

But to these guys' surprise, Shin took a step forward and welcomed the pressure that they were releasing instead of backing down.

"Then it is even better since we don't conserve our strengths on this final day to just play either," said Shin as he released a powerful pressure despite having a smaller physique compared to the opposing group.

At the same time, the other members of his group also appeared behind him one by one while wearing serious looks on their faces. Especially Leonard who was dragging Froilan's corpse by hand and Arthur who was hanging his arms on the steel spear that was on the back of his neck.

Seeing the scene in front of him, Lennon was reminded of a certain event that he witnessed decades ago and made the hairs on his body stand straight. "These kids-…."

...