Chapter 27 Ch 25: End To The Test [Pt1]

“Sarah, I hope you have a good reason to make me end my meeting early. I would have you know that I almost had those bastards cornered here.”

Principal Marbel sounded annoyed but eager to know what Sarah had to say to her. And Sara felt sorry that she could not give her superior good news. This was the gravest news Sarah could have given the Principal.

“The thing is-”

Sarah repeated everything she had heard from Joni and Principal Marbel's relaxed mood shifted into a dark and dreary one in an instant. She opened her system to issue a warning.

“Everyone, this is an emergency. We need all available teachers to scout the school. Also, send someone to the monitoring room. I am afraid we are under attack right now.”

Once that was done, Principal Marbel went out of the room.

Since this dungeon was artificially maintained, there was only one person who could help them out - Mark, the one responsible for all the technical stuff in the academy.

And Principal Marbel was sure that Mark would not delay helping them out as well. Especially since Horas was involved in this incident.

…………………..

Mark was currently having a shitty day. His experiments had failed and he did not have Horas to help him re-write and debug the system.

What was worse? There was no known source code for what he was trying to do so he could not look it up either. He was currently drawing a blank.

And his day just went from bad to worse when the door to his office was banged open by none other than Principal Marbel. It scared Mark enough to make him delete several hours of work.

“What the hell woman? Can you give me a warning when you decide to show up next time? You caused me so much harm in the process.”

Mark looked at his laptop with a mournful look on his face. He could not believe that he had not so much data.

However, Principal Marbel did not even have a hint of remorse on her face. In fact, she looked calm but determined when she walked in. Lady Heals, aka, Sarah Mills was also standing behind her with a determined expression on her face.

“We have an emergency. I need you to listen carefully.”

Mark listened to the Principal with half an ear at first and then his indifference turned into alarm.

By the end, Mark was too annoyed and stressed to make much of anything. He knew this was a possibility but it did not make sense why the villains decided to make a move now of all times.

“How could you not check for this beforehand? And what were the overlookers doing not reporting this?”

Mark hissed as he opened his panel. He quickly opened a camera that showed the overlooker’s room but it was a horrible mess.

The overlooker had been killed off and his hand was left reaching out for the alarm button. The fact that no one had reported this until now was a shock to everyone in the room.

“Shit, we were outdone by the villains this time. We need to stop the test.”

Mark exclaimed as he quickly began to try and find a way to get everyone out of the dungeon.

It would take too long to get a team of high-level people restrained enough to go in. And there was also the chase that the F-class dungeon would collapse if it was stretched beyond its mana limit.

The tense silence in the room was broken by an emergency call. Principal Marbel opened the phone and quickly picked up the phone.

“P-Principal Marbel, we have instructor Harris suppressed and ready to send in. Should we proceed?”

The nervous instructor asked as she pointed toward Instructor Harris. The elder man was dressed up in his gear and ready to go.

“Instructor Harris, are you sure you will be alright alone? Due to the circumstances, sending any backup for you would be nearly impossible and-”

“I got it from here, old hag. I will make sure to put an end to the villain myself if I have to. No one messes with my students.”

Instructor Harris looked ready to commit crimes and Principal Marbel was not sure he would hold back enough to bring the villain back alive.

She just hoped that Instructor Harris would be aware enough to not injure any students. Dealing with villains was tricky after all.

“Alright, go ahead and make sure you come back soon.”

……………………..

“Man, you are good. Are you sure you are seven years old?”

Horas’s classmate asked as she watched him dodge and engage Reed in combat. Her curious eyes followed Horas’s moment as Reed pushed her bloody projectiles his way.

It was hard enough for Horas to dodge Reed without the running commentary his classmate was butting in. Horas did not even have stable ground to stop and shot at Reed.

‘Ugh, dangers of being a long ranged fighter. I cannot do anything when I can’t shift.’

Horas was in a dangerous situation and Reed was about to pierce his arm when she stopped and changed the direction of her attack.

Her blood ended up scorching the ground a few meters away from where Horas’s female classmate was standing.

“Holy, I did not even notice you there Sylvia. Were you hoping to get a drop on me?”

Sylvia’s hair looked haggard and she was also bleeding from the small wound that had been inflicted on her arm. But she looked alright overall.

“Fancy hearing that from a snake like you, Christi. After all, you are the one venturing around this place and attacking teams. So what happened? Were the monsters too much for your taste?”

Sylvia taunted back as she brought her dual swords out of her inventory. She held them at ready to counter any attack.

And that ended up saving her life when Reed changed her target from Horas to Sylvia. Horas took this opportunity to shoot at Reed but her blood ended up forming a defensive barrier.

“Reed, what are you doing? Are you willing to kill people now?”

Horas questioned and he flinched outright as soon as those words left his mouth. He knew about Reed and her insecurities so Horas also knew that he should not have said those words.

He hesitated to look at Reed but he had to be brave and face the consequences of his actions.

Reed looked no different from before. There was no anger or disappointment in her eyes. There was not even a hint of recognition.

It was like Horas was looking at a doll right now and that did not sit right with him. Reed was someone with a lot of personality and attitude.

If she did not like something, she would let you know right away. Horas knew that much from experience.

“Don’t bother. It’s not like Reed is interested in us weak humans so we decided to make her ‘interested’ in us. She’s finally being a good teammate and I would like to protect that.”

Christy finally decided to get involved, taking out her bow and arrow. She was a long-ranged fighter after all.

“Hey, did you drug a student? Christy, I knew you were scummy but those mind-controlling pills are harmful to use. Don’t tell me you ended up using them. They will be traced back to your team.”

Christy laughed a hearty laugh as soon as she heard Sylvia speak.

“Those small pills have nothing on what we did. But there’s no need for you to worry since you will be dying here right now. Maybe that will finally be enough to push Reed over the edge and stop resisting.”

Horas was offended on his friend’s behalf. He did not like the fact that Christy was treating Reed as a pet that needed to be broken in.

But there was something weird about Sylvia. Her behavior and her words did not feel like a teen's. There was cruelty behind her actions that could only come with age.

“Don’t tell me! Are you a villain pretending to be a student? Are you controlling Reed?”

Christy's look was surprised before it turned into glee.

“Man, you are a little genius. I would have loved to take you with us as well but our only target is Reed Whinstone for today. But maybe you will also prove to be a good toy if you sit still and get brainwashed by us.”

Christy looked at trump as she signaled Reed to go ahead and deal with Horas and Sylvia.

Reed raised her hand and the blood followed. But before she could make a move, something hit her in her neck and Reed fell unconscious.

Christy looked taken aback but she was not able to flee the scene. She tried but ended up colliding with someone hard.

“Looks like we will have to comb through the students as well now. Man, these villains are a pain in the ass.”

It was instructor Harris who ended up saving the day. But he was not alone.

Alicia and Tyson also arrived on the scene with two unconscious bodies. That was four of the five in Reed’s team who had been caught.

“Sorry, the last one managed to escape our capture attempt. But at least we managed to round up the rest.”