Law he was sort of like a light or a hope to this dark world to me and all of us have been lost in it.

He was like this probably because he doesn't want to accept the reality, or he genuinely wants to change everyone to see the light in people.

But he has yet to see the true dark side of the world yet. I hope the day he does, one of us is beside him.

We knew when push came to shove he will take action, but what if the first push was the last push he ever came to know.

We always worry about him because of his good nature, but it was due to this good nature that all of us were drawn to him like a moth drawn to light. We want him to stay like this but at the same time, we don't want him to be so kind to people.

It was a conflict in our heart like this that was shared across all of us that made us stick together.

I felt someone shake me, awakening me from my thoughts, checking who it was I found Lewies smiling bitterly, probably from understanding what I was thinking.

He pointed towards the first group which we were supposed to lead, from our discussion last night.

I noticed Phil and his fiancé Ava there. He was probably planning to discontinue from the exam as soon as he got outside of the exam hall. Hence, his reason for choosing the first group, aka the safest group.

This might be the safest group out of all the expedition we were going to take today, due to the predators not expecting us and knowing which path we will take. But after the 3rd of 4th wave of us they will realise and start ambushing us. Hence, we might need to change strategy after seeing the seriousness of the 3rd wave.

If we decide not to continue as well, it was good because we will have just about the bare amount of food not to starve for the next 36+ hours, by then.

Phil and Ava must have made lots of promise to a lot of people while pulling favours from quite a few people at the same time, to enter the first wave itself.

I knew both of them would enter the first wave itself no matter what, because the more they delayed the higher the chance Ellis will come to know about our plan and find Phil in the later waves.

Hence to not arouse suspicion I volunteered along with Lewies as the leaders of the first group, last night. I made sure to only inform them of the group allocation after making sure Phil and Ava were asleep because I didn't want to take the chance that Phil would join Law's group, due to him being considered the strongest inside the academy.

"Let's go." I said with determination as we walked forward.

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A barkeeper of a bar kept looking outside his bar from behind his desk, while cleaning his glass.

Soon a person walked past the store. Seeing the person, a smile slowly crept from the barkeepers face.

The barkeeper turned towards the tallest person inside the room, who was drinking with few other mercenaries.

*Crash*

A few people in the room turned around to see the barkeeper picking the broken bits of glass from the floor.

"Sorry everyone, let me just go and find a broom." The barkeeper said as he went through the back door for staff.

After the barkeeper left everyone went back to their usual talking.

Few seconds later the tall man rose up amidst the protest of the people around him.

"Hahaha. Screw you guys. I am already late for my job." The man with scar all over his face laughed as he exited the building.

The tall man walked out of the building.

He made his way towards a certain alleyway.

As the shadow of the alley crept towards the tall man, his body started breaking apart into tiny dark parts before he as a human completely disappeared.

The dark parts soon emerged from the shadows of the alley as a flock of crows, which flew above the capital, while locking onto a certain person barkeeper who kept following a person amidst the busy street.

The person being followed soon picked up their pace as they noticed the barkeeper following him.

It didn't take long for the barkeeper to catch up with the women they were following.

The murder of crows quickly went ahead and disappeared in between the gaps of some buildings.

The barkeeper gave a gentle push as he walked beside her as they went past an empty cornered alley.

The women who didn't expect the push fell to the side. However, before she landed on the floor, she felt something soft supporting her, while something dragged her into the darkness in between the buildings.

The women quickly stood up to see the dark empty eyes of what seemed to be dozens of crows staring at her. The women stepped back in fear while gathering her magi to defend.

Before she could do that, she felt something cold on her neck.

Before her terrified eyes, she saw how the crows in front of her came together to take the shape of a tall man with lots of scar on his face.

"Now please stay still and this will hurt." She heard a raspy voice behind her as a bony finger smothered her hair.

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Archer quickly made his way to a certain room.

Without knocking he opened the door to a large room.

Hundreds of screens assaulted his eyes, and a person sitting in front of it while watching those said screens.

"What happened?" Ez voiced out.

"The secretary of 'The velvet' banquet hall's owner, we booked has been missing for the past 3 hours." Archer replied with worry laced in his voice.

"Do we change the hall?" Archer asked seeing the silent John.

"No." John shook his head.

"If we do, they will do the same thing to the new owner. Besides I like that hall. Also, now we know that they are coming for me and not the students." John explained.

"We can expect them in the banquet hall?" Archer asked.

John nodded while looking at a screen.

Archer followed John's gaze towards a certain screen.

"The head of the Springwood is going to retaliate your highness." Archer informed John as he watched the only imperial princess in the exam leading a group of students.

"It won't just be the Springwood, Archer. Expect another family as well." John said while Archer furrowed his brows.

"Will, you able to deal with it?" Archer asked.

John shrugged his shoulder while watching the screen with bored eyes.

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The group of students led by the imperial Princess and commoner, Lewies, went past the halfway mark towards the exam hall.

However, they seemed to not even encounter one person from the predator faction, despite the foreknowledge that people from the prey faction will at least attempt their way to here, to look at their score.

Everyone in the group was tensed and hoped no one will notice them as they steadily made their way across using different alleyways and any sort of camouflage and distractions possible.

Suddenly Lewies who was leading the group tensed and showed a sign so that everyone would stop and gather.

Everyone gathered together, keeping a lookout for the danger Lewies might have sensed. While Phil got visibly stressed the closer they reached the exam hall.

He hoped that he could make it there and get out of this situation before Ellis caught him. How he had gotten so strong was out of his head?

Suddenly a fog slowly descended upon them while Phil's heart nearly stagnated remembering a certain person using the same spell to retaliate against a barrage of spells yesterday.

"Phil...?" Ava worriedly voiced out while looking at the fog.

"Nothing will happen Ava. No matter how strong he is, it is impossible for him to fight against two rank 2 magis, especially her highness." Phil reassured her.

"Phil, you should have listened to me and never participated in the exam." Ava retorted in worry.

Phil cursed his bad luck remembering the warning Ava and his other family members had given him.

They all had informed him about the possibility of Ellis joining the exam, but how was he to know that a person who took 7 years to reach rank 1, was able to reach rank 2 after his accumulation was dispersed to rank 0.

He had thought if Ellis were to join the exam he would personally finish what he had started that day.

However, all this changed the moment he saw the rank 1 spell cast by Ellis. He knew at that moment that Ellis wasn't simply an apprentice anymore but a rank 2 magi, and the moment he figured it out, he ran together with Ava.

Luckily he met the elite 7 of the academy and quickly came up with a plan to use them, otherwise, he was sure what awaited him would have been death. Not only that her highness had suggested a perfect plan for them last night, which he could use to get out of the exam.

"Stay close everyone. Raise your barriers. Someone is coming!" Lewies informed everyone.

There was no doubt the person who was coming was Ellis, and if worse comes to worst I will cast a rank 1 spell and hope dad can buy for me that godly food from Prince John, like last time.

Suddenly we heard someone running towards us. I didn't wait for any orders, not that anyone could see me, and quickly launched an ice bolt towards the general direction.

*Squelch* I heard the sound of something being pierced.

"Ahhh." Followed by a scream.

Very quickly the fog lifted as we saw a person lying on the floor squirming in pain on his blood, while an ice bolt poked through his thigh.

I didn't know whether I was happy or upset when I realised it wasn't Ellis.

"He is not a predator." The princess announced while lowering her arms.

"Huh, are you serious? Then why did he try to attack us?" A girl in the group asked while looking at the normal badge on the boy, who was crying in pain.

"He didn't. He was merely running towards us." Natasha answered back while walking towards the boy, with a frown.

Lewies walked right behind her and tried to help the bleeding boy.

As they got closer the soon noticed all sorts of wounds on the boy and not just the ice bolt on him.

"Who attacked him?" Lewies asked as he looked back at the group. Seeing that everyone was silent, he shook his head in anger.

"Lewies, the ice bolt was from our group. The rest of the wound was from someone else." Lewies heard Natasha's voice behind him. He turned around to look at the wound to notice that many of the wound were already partially dried up.

"Why did you impair our vision, with the fog?" Lewies asked after sitting the boy up, while Natasha took the ice bolt out of his leg.

The boy amidst the pain and agony hissed "I... didn't."

Everyone waited while for an explanation from the boy. "That person... he captured us last night... he didn't convert us... he tortured us... I escaped... he was chasing me...I saw you guys... ran to you guys... hoping to escape from him." The boy said while breathing heavily.

Natasha had a frown while casting a rank 1 healing spell to close the wound in his thighs.

"Who?" Lewies asked, wondering what kind of madman would do this.

"The first predator...Ellis" The boy replied after feeling the relief from the healing spell.

"AVAAAA!!" Suddenly there was a scream from the group.

As everyone looked towards who it was they noticed it was Phil.