The group of students were left stunned once again. All of them could feel their blood boiling moments ago. They were ready to jump on Raze the second he acted; they were ready to help the other red student as they battled.
In their heads, they already imagined what they were going to do. In the middle of the confrontation, they imagined that they would jump in, and with multiple of them, or all of them, they could take on Raze.
Yet, they were unable to act when the moment had come. Raze had drawn his sword, and they almost didn't see him strike. They were unable to hear anything, and the swing had no resistance. As it struck the student, they all feared that if they tried to act, they would be taken in the same way.
The next action was even more bizarre for them. Because they saw Raze in the middle of everyone currently present, dragging the student away across the floor, taking him into the darkness.
"Hey, hey," one of the students asked, pointing toward the dark hall, his fingertip shaking in the air. "Is no one going to stop him? I mean, the student isn't dead, but if someone takes him away like that, then he'll end up like the others."
A lot of them there thought the same thing. The issue was, no one was willing to go and stop Raze. No one was willing to go against him, and those who could, the main disciples, were just leaning up against the wall, practically doing nothing.
"So that confirms it then, right, that he was the one doing the killings in the end?" Sherry commented.
"Does it?" Mada replied. "I'm not saying that I don't think he's capable of killing people, because he certainly is, but let's think about this a bit more. So far, this killer has been killing people in secret.
"And now, Raze decides to attack right out in the open after hiding all this time. I think he made it clear that he is not one to act in the dark. If anything, that was a message."
"And what type of message is that?" Lisa asked, thinking that was a pretty weird message to leave if it was one.
That was when Ricktor stepped forward.
"For anyone that wants to accuse him of being the killer, this is the result, and to send a message to the real killer that he isn't just going to do nothing and stand by. What I'm more interested in is the fact that after telling you guys about this assessment being based around the martial arts tournament, and there only being eight people, that someone decided to act.
"It could be a coincidence, of course, but the fewer people there are, the quicker we get out of this place, and I'm sure more and more will be able to figure this out. I can feel the tension rising in this place, and any second now, it's going to turn into a bloodbath. People will soon start to choose their sides."
Raze continued to drag the cut-up student across the floor. He went past the seclusion rooms into the dark space and threw him by the head. The student felt his body tumble, hurt and bruised.
He was coming to from the shock of the attack, but now he was surrounded in complete darkness. He was unable to see Raze or hear where he was coming from.
"Please, please don't kill me! I don't want to die," the student pleaded.
"Your tune certainly changed," Raze said as he took steps around the area. He had observed and had a good idea of just how large the meeting space was since he spent so much time in it.
So even if he couldn't see, he had a bearing of where he was in the room and how close or far away from the walls he counted they were. While walking, his voice was bouncing off the walls, and the direction of sounds was coming from all over.
"I just didn't want to get hurt. I was scared, and I thought it would be best if we dealt with the problem before it became a bigger problem. But you don't have to do this."
"Oh, but I really do," Raze said. "Because I'm going to use you to find the real killer."
The situation continued for a while with things dying down. They felt like they weren't going to see anything crazy anytime soon, as they hadn't even seen Raze return.
"Do you think we should check up on him?" Liam asked.
"Hey, do you really think he's having trouble? Look what he did!" Dame commented. "He managed to silence everyone. People aren't even publicly saying he's the killer anymore. They're probably scared he's going to appear behind them and slash their neck or something."
That certainly was true, and this time, unlike the times before, it didn't seem like an attack out of anger but more so one that was calculated in a way, as if he knew what type of reaction he would get.
With that, the rest of the group decided to head to the seclusion rooms, but it wasn't just them this time; the main disciples had broken off and decided to head inside as well.
The main disciples had picked seclusion rooms close together. The rooms weren't marked in any way for whose room was whose, but when they first started using them as cultivation and treatment areas, others wouldn't use a certain area if they had seen someone else using it. Thus, the rooms had become each other's.
It was why they had also placed the dead bodies back in the seclusion rooms where they would train, so they were out of the way, out of sight from the others.
In the main disciple room, they were all in a meditative state, gathering energy around them, and that's when a voice was heard through the walls.
"Your update was one that I didn't expect. I thought there would have been a chance to get rid of him by now," a voice whispered through the walls.
"He is still strong. He doesn't seem to be affected by the lack of food at all."
"Well, you better act fast!" the voice whispered back. "There are only so many spaces for the martial arts tournament. Just because you are a main disciple doesn't mean your position is guaranteed.
"You know, there are others, not just the White Dragon, that can take your position. If you lose your place, the clan will be affected. I hope next time, I hear an update with some good news."
"Very well... I will do as you say and act now."
