In the darkness, the sound of the others fighting was heard, and the group of people had come up with their own tactic to fend off those fighting them.
In the first place, it was almost impossible for all of them to see, and covering their backs from the attacks was a hard thing for them to do as well.
Which was why Ricktor had made a suggestion of a truce. After the others had agreed, all of them had gone back to back with each other.
Now they at least knew that they just had to worry about what was in front of them; still, their movements were limited, and nearly all of them had been struck a few times.
"Are you not going to help?" Ricktor said as he lifted up his sword and swung it down. When he did, a large line of Qi struck out in a straight line, attacking ahead and hitting the wall on the other side.
However, it had hit no one; he could tell that they had avoided his strike.
"In this situation, it would be unfair if I were to help; this is something that you must all overcome," Dame commented from the sideline away from the group, and after saying those words, he had moved position.
He had been observing things so far and was able to tell a few things. For one, most of those that were attacking were now Stage 4 warriors.
They had jumped from stage 1, stage 2, all the way to stage 4. In such a short amount of time, it would have been an impossibility, unless they were put in a situation like this.
Where they were going up against everyone else, and everyone was desperately fighting for their lives. The body had no choice but to bring forward whatever potential one had and help them survive.
If the others were able to get so much stronger due to these trials, then maybe this is what they needed. They too needed to face the reality of the trials and try to grow.
"These guys, they are a lot better at fighting in the darkness than us. We have no choice; we have to try to get out of here," Mada suggested.
"I think they are able to track where we are from noise. The moment we try to move out of here, all of them will attack us at once," Ricktor replied.
The way they were talking about them, it wasn't as if fellow students were down here with them. It sounded as if they were talking about a pack of wild beasts, and it certainly felt that way when they were facing them.
"Hey, so you're saying if we had something like a human meat shield, then things would be fine, right?" Liam suggested. "Then I have just the friend. This is what you've been training for."
"What!" Simyon shouted, knowing full well that they were talking about him.
"Come on, isn't this what you imagined: a situation where none of us can do anything, and you're the only one that can help us! You're the hero, the hero at taking hits!"
Simyon had been mostly blocking so far, since he didn't really use a weapon, he had less range than those attacking him, and there was one person he was worried about, which was Safa.
"Alright fine, I'll run forward, and when I do, I'll scream as loud as possible, you guys, stay right behind me!" Simyon said.
He took a deep breath in, and right after, he had sprinted forward.
"ARGHHHH!" Simyon yelled at the top of his lungs.
While running forward, immediately he felt something swing at his ribs, hitting him with Qi, but like a bulldozer, he continued to run forward.
Then he felt someone climb onto his back, trying to use their hands to rip at his neck, but the Qi covering his body, and his special metallic body, was making it hard for them to dig into his skin.
Eventually, Simyon had entered into the hallway, and as he went past the seclusion rooms, small rays of light were seen on him.
Those from behind could see that the attackers were clinging onto him doing whatever they could.
Seeing this, Safa shifted forward as fast as she could and lunged her wooden spear forward, stabbing one right in the back.
The student had fallen onto the floor, and everyone jumped at the same time, avoiding the body.
It was only a short distance now, a short distance until they were in the lit-up room.
Simyon burst through into the lit-up arena, and all of the Red Headband students were standing, looking at who had just entered.
They could hear the sound of fighting and a commotion going on, including the yelling of Simyon. They were ready for anything that was going to come through that door, but they weren't ready for this.
Simyon had three people piled on top of him, hanging on every part of his body. With his hand, he held onto one of the students, and the glove, it started to spark slightly.
"I'm telling you to get off me!" Simyon shouted.
The person's body shook uncontrollably, and with the strength of one arm, Simyon threw one of them onto the floor.
There was another that was held onto his leg, and as Simyon was ready to get that person off from his body, he saw a red furious sword coming off from the side.
The person had let go, trying to block the attack, but was hit by the sword and flung in the air until they had crashed into the side of the wall.
"I won't let anyone else harm my sweet toy," Ricktor claimed with a smile and licked his lips.
Being thankful to Ricktor, it just didn't appear like it could be the case for him.
Soon, Safa, Dame, Mada, and Liam had all entered the room after, but as they ran in, chasing behind them like a horde of zombies were several of the other headband students.
The look in their eyes, they didn't appear sane; their bodies were quite thin, and their movements around the place, it was exactly like that of beasts.
Immediately, the other Red Headband users that were in the room had no choice as they picked up their weapons.
One of them lifted their sword up, but as they were hit by a wild swing from the attackers, they felt their whole bodies shifting across the ground.
Lisa, one of the main disciples, noticed this as well; she went and hit one right in the stomach, but he didn't go back far and had managed to recover, throwing out a kick that had hit her hard on the side of her head.
"All of these guys, they're higher-stage warriors than us; how are we meant to win this?" Lisa thought.
Dame, who was observing everything, what he had found which was even more interesting was why these twenty students who had all been through the same thing were not attacking each other.
Instead, they had decided to attack those that had been in the assessment area from the beginning. He could only come up with one conclusion.
'They survived by attacking those that were weak. Those that they thought were an easy target. They did whatever they could to obtain power.'
"And now, the rest of you need to do the same. The world of Pagna is a fight to the death; survive, and when you survive, never forget this feeling, and use it to go against the ones that put you in this situation in the first place!" Dame clenched his fist, wishing them all good luck.
