Leon sheathed his sword. After each elimination, he noted that not a single examinee had any cores, or anything else worth looting for that matter. He looked up at the sky after eliminating the final ambusher, his expression indifferent.

'Look's like it's been almost four and a half hour's since this hunt began. It will look suspicious that 7 of the participants have been eliminated, and I'm the only one that's missing, but I don't have a choice right now.' He thought to himself before beginning to dash toward the center.

***

Alten and Rylan sat in the tent, continuing to think of ways to avoid giving the cores, and also avoid the punishment for doing so. They were the smartest in their classes for their entire lives, yet, they still couldn't find an answer to this dilemma.

Alten seemed to be far more mortified than Rylan, "Im so pathetic! We are all going to fail this exam because of me!" He sat with his arms wrapped around his knees, pushing them into his torso.

Rylan could only look from afar, not knowing what to do. He tried to better Alten's viewpoint of the situation, "It's alright man, it's not your fault! It's obviously the fault of those bastards that want to steal your cores!" He exclaimed.

Alten looked up at Rylan, his eyes slightly teary, "There will always be problems like them... it's my duty to be strong enough to continue in life without being slowed down or stopped by them. I can't just go on living and complaining about problems, I should be able to overcome the problems!" He shouted, frustration coating each word that came out of his mouth.

Rylan was slightly taken aback by this somewhat deep statement, but he wasn't going to back down. He knew that what Alten was doing right now wasn't the answer either, "Look! I get what you are saying, but sitting here crying about what you could or should have been or done isn't going to help you either!" He yelled back, trying to make Alten understand.

A few moments of silence passed, as the two came to a somewhat mutual understanding of each other, but were also too upset to speak.

*Step step step*

Both Rylan and Alten turned to look at the entrance of the tent, hearing the footsteps very close by. Outside stood Kedward Sigel, the boy with the long white hair and white clothes from before who threatened Alten. Behind him were Rylan's bullies from before as well.

"Boys... you can't want to hide... while yelling at each other at the top of your lungs! That's a dead giveaway!" Ked said, a smirk on his face. The others also grinned behind him as he quickly opened the flap to enter the tent.

Crawling inside, he quickly surveyed the inside as he spoke, "Sun's down. You better have the 500 prepar--" He stopped talking, as he noticed a hole in the back of the tent with air flowing through it, "Behind! They made a run for it!"

20 meter's up from the tent, Alten and Rylan were desperately trying to make their way back to the main hub of the center. "You sure this is our best chance!?" Rylan said, questioning Alten as they ran. historical

"This isn't a chance at all. There's no way it will work, since we aren't faster than that Kedward boy... not even close. But trying to get to Leon is our only option! I don't care if it won't work, I'm still going to try!" Alten shouted as they made it to the center of the main hub in the middle of the dome.

At sundown, many people were still up and about, roaming freely. They were thankful that they made it there but were quickly stopped by the wandering kids spread around.

At that moment, the bullies had already caught up to them. "St--stop right now!" The fat one exclaimed, panting heavily as he pushed his hands against his knees, his lackeys arriving shortly behind him.

Alten and Rylan turned around. A crowd had formed behind them of people wanting to spectate what was going on. It was late at night, so this kind of commotion warranted some interest.

"Stop right there! Where the hell do you think you're going!?" The fat bully exclaimed, straightening his posture.

Murmurs from the crowd began to surface as Alten and Rylan tried to back up. By now the crowd was too thick. Even if they tried to squeeze through, they would be caught while trying to do so.

"What's going on?" A kid from the crowd questioned.

"This stuff... it usually doesn't happen in such public. I'd think the other factions would fight back."

"These two aren't a part of any faction though, so why would they be protected?"

As whispers such as this continued to sound from the group of kids gathered around, Kedward emerged from the slight slope that led to the center hub.

Making his way past the bullies, he saw that along with random kids, a few kids from bigger factions had also appeared. At that moment, a giant circle of kids had formed completely around Kedward, the bullies, and Alten and Rylan.

Suddenly, from the left came a small group of kids. Everyone looked at them, shocked, "What's going on here!? Is one of our group members in trouble?!" A kid shouted from the front of his group.

ραΠdαsΝοvel.cοm Alten recognized one of the faces of the group members. It was the black kid who saved Rylan last time from the encounter with the bullies. The boy who spoke right now wore the same thing that the black kid was wearing, and everyone else in that small group of five was also wearing clothing similar to that.

A sleeveless tunic in a pristine white hue, crafted from a unique blend of iron and plastic, which not only emphasized their well-defined arms but also extended slightly above his shoulders.

"White Knights!" One of the kids from the crowd exclaimed.

"They are one of the top four strongest groups that are also in the yellow dome!"

At that moment, another group of kids popped out from the left side. Wearing all-black robes, similar to the one that was hosting the hunting event that Leon joined, they made their stand similar to the adjacent group that appeared before them.

"Dark Horses..." Rylan spoke under his breath, as Alten looked over, slightly confused.

"No wonder they would show up. All of them. They've been looking for a reason to confront or at least, deal with the Deck Group... the real reason they are all coming here in this commotion isn't to see if their group members are in trouble, but to confront the core stealers..." He put the pieces together, slightly surprising Alten.

Rylan looked around, waiting for the final group to show up. "Are they not going to come? Supposedly the strongest one... the Yaltan Wind group..."