The fight was still ongoing as Raze heard the voice, and he immediately needed to act. In that moment, it was no longer about conserving his strength but instead about taking action.
He used his Qi to quickly push himself back a sufficient distance away from Bargo. Seeing this, Bargo blinked a couple of times.
He wasn't expecting such fast movement, so he was unable to properly discern what had occurred, but when he looked at Raze, he was in for the biggest shock of all.
"What are you doing!" Bargo shouted out, his voice slightly shaky.
He could see that the person taking the assessment had their own sword held up against their own neck, as if they were going to take their own life.
'Did I push this one too far!' Bargo thought. 'But to resort to this, does he have anxiety about losing? Does he think he has failed the assessment and decided to go this far?'
Whatever the case, Bargo didn't want to lose a potential talent. So he needed to proceed with caution.
"Just don't move closer!" Raze shouted out.
Knowing what the blooded woman had done before, he couldn't just take her words as words. He needed to treat them as fact.
He knew she had the ability to kill outside of his body, which was why he had decided to resort to this.
'Why did she act now? She hasn't done this before. Is it because of what I did with Shing? Was that a mistake? Communicating with her, has the connection between the two of us grown to the point that she is freely acting right now?' Raze thought.
In the end, it was the only option he could see to try and stop her from acting.
'I'm sure you can hear my thoughts, since the two of us are sharing the same space,' Raze said inwardly. 'If you dare try and do something, then I will take my own life.'
'You wouldn't dare… I know you… you would never give up, not at your own blade,' the woman replied.
It was quite true. Raze had done everything he could to get a second chance, and to ruin it here, he would rather take his chances trying to eliminate everyone in the city than take his own life.
'You can't act rashly!' Raze echoed in his own mind. 'If you kill this man in front of you, then the whole city comes after us, the whole clan.
'There is a good chance that me and you won't be able to survive this. I am doing everything for the sake of my survival, and you said that you would be doing the same, so don't do stupid things!'
Raze was waiting for an answer, to hear her say it was okay, and while waiting for the answer, the others that were on the field were getting a little impatient.
"What is this?" The head assessor from before said. "A damned no-name is threatening their own life just to pass; this is ridiculous."
The head assessor started to walk forward, and fear could be seen in Raze's eyes. There was one person there that knew this was true fear.
The head assessor suddenly felt the back of his shirt being grabbed, and before he knew it, he was looking at the sky.
"Did you not hear him? He said to stay still!" Anna ordered as she slammed him to the ground and pinned him down.
The hit was fairly strong to the point where the head assessor feared that his back might have been broken.
Immediately, seeing that Anna had attacked the head assessor, the other clan members came forward trying to surround her.
"Don't attack her; she is merely looking out for her comrade!" Bargo shouted. The others instantly stopped, and at the same time, straight ahead, Raze had placed his sword down with relief.
He had been given an answer, one that satisfied him enough to let down his guard.
Seeing this, it appeared as if Bargo was satisfied as well, to the point that he soon let out a loud bellyful of laughter.
"What an interesting group of people, I must say!" Bargo claimed. "You all pass, and I believe we should all get some rest."
"Let's not dwell on what happened, at least for now. Let's welcome our fellow members into the Lethal Bite Clan and have them complete their duties."
Anna, hearing this, had let go of the head assessor, who was beyond annoyed, but the other clan members also took a step back.
It was then that Raze noticed something: they seemed to be following the small pot-bellied man's orders, rather than the rest.
'I should keep note of him; he seems to be more important... and I guess I'm on his good side for now.'
"Come on, bring them into the barracks and let's get everyone ready! Welcome to the Lethal Bite Clan." These were words Bargo never expected to say, but he could tell there was distaste in the head assessor's mouth.
Hopefully, if things went well for Bargo, this would be in his favor. If he could dissuade these talented individuals from joining the Lethal Bite Clan and instead joining his Moon Shield Clan, it would be a big win for him.
Himmy and Charlotte wasted no time running an investigation. They had gone to the border to make note of those that had entered and left.
According to the clan members, they checked all the supplies that came in and out due to it being on the border of the Demonic Faction.
So they were sure that the person in question they were looking for, a young man by the name of Barred Clarton, hadn't left.
It was one step forward; at least they knew the name of the person who was presumably still alive, but they still didn't have any more leads other than that.
"The person who's still alive, it seems that they are a mage," Charlotte commented. "I checked the list just to make sure."
"You're right, but why are you mentioning this to me now?" Himmy asked.
In his hand, Himmy was playing with the Alter communication device. He was hoping that it would activate if they were within the area, narrowing down their search.
The issue was whether or not their targets knew they were from Alter as well or just removed all items from him. There was also another option: the person was already dead.
"Well, if he's a mage and he knows he's in a serious situation, do you think he might try and leave a clue behind to let others know where he is? He should know that Alter will be investigating this," Charlotte explained.
"Are you suggesting that he would use magic, even though it's forbidden?" Himmy asked.
Charlotte couldn't help but smile. "You know hardly anyone follows that rule. It's more of a guideline; just don't use a crazy amount of magic. I believe in this situation, whether Alter deals with him or his kidnappers do, he would rather take a chance."
"Go ahead and do what you need to do to find him," Himmy answered. "Rules are meant to be broken; otherwise, I would have never invited him onto the team."
