Rise of the Crusader

"Now I see why you were adamant about wanting the kid, Grayson."

Iris Waldorf, the director of the tech division, stared at the man beside her.

Grayson, however, flashed a light smile at her.

"The elite division is just wasting his talent, the murderer division is where he truly belongs. And I won't stop the pursuit until I have him in my division." Grayson blurted.

"Hahaha!"

A second after Grayson spoke, Iris laughed out loud.

Meanwhile, Grayson turned towards the silver-haired man among them and said.

"You know, it's such a pity, Vermont." He said.

"It would have surely been a delight to see my students rip apart that peasant always hiding behind a mask in your division."

Grayson didn't hide his dissatisfaction about the assassin league not always participating in the tournament.

He had always been against the idea as instead of the league fighting like the others, they chose not to involve themselves in it.

And as if that weren't outrageous enough, the assassin league chose to do the dirty work of others.

Their job in the academy tournament entailed one single aspect.

Assassination!

"But, let me warn you, Vermont, I won't allow what transpired in the last tournament to happen again." Grayson blurted.

"And so help me, devil, if I see any of your students lurking around my divisions, it would be repaid in the bloodbath of the assassin's division."

Grayson's voice wasn't only filled with killing intent, he also excluded the intent from his body as he spoke.

Vermont's mouth opened slightly after Grayson spoke.

"I'm afraid, it's already too late."

"Our task is simple, we provide help to those who need help. And who are we not to help the needful."

A chuckle escaped Vermont's mouth afterward.

Grayson was about to flare from the words he had just heard from Vermont when he was quickly restrained by Nicholas.

"The both of you should quit acting like a kid," Nicholas exclaimed.

"You know how this works, I shouldn't have to explain it to you. We can't interfere in what goes in the academy, if it happens, then it happens."

A second after Nicholas spoke, Grayson's voice rang out.

"That bullshit Nicholas!"

"We spend all our effort tutoring our students in the right aspects, only for them to be assassinated at the end," Grayson said.

"Every tournament we lose over half of our students in the hands of the assassin division, and it isn't only us, the other division as well. This is not only insulting, but it's also embarrassing."

Grayson glared at Vermont as he spoke.

His words, however, meant nothing to Vermont, who kept a straight face the whole time, likewise Nicholas.

"It's like you said, we all lose students during the tournament. But, that's just how it's going to be." Nicholas said.

"The assassin division is doing their work, we should also do ours. It's that simple."

A nod came from Vermont after Nicholas smiled.

His lips were curved inwardly, as he then gave Nicholas a thumbs up.

"And by the way, how many quotas do you have this time around?" Nicholas couldn't help but ask.

Quota could be termed as different things, but in the assassin division, it simply meant the number of students that were booked to be assassinated.

And when Vermont heard Nicholas, he simply smiled.

A frown was quick to appear on the faces of the directors. They glanced at one another, before heaving a deep breath and then shifting their gaze to the battle.

Victor was on stage.

Even though the bandit division had applauded Raphael for the way he handled one of their own, they were still very much pissed about it.

And at that moment, Victor was lashing that anger at the tech division student in front of him.

Ka! Ka! Ka!

Victor held nothing back and despite already shooting four bullets at the body of the male student, he still continued to shoot more at him.

While the students from the tech division were always wearing full-body armor beneath their clothes, the armor wasn't able to handle the impact of Victor's bullet.

It could be said that the tech division was having a taste of their own medicine.

As the magnum bullet that was capable of passing through even the strongest body armor was their own creation.

Victor had paid for the bullets to be made from the tech division, and now he was using it against them.

"Ahhhh!"

As blood oozed out of his mouth, his body shook violently from the bullets that penetrated into his body.

He was in a disastrous state, with several holes all around his body.

How he still managed to stand on his feet after the number of shots he had received from Victor was still a miracle.

"Y-You…"

Victor's eyes suddenly twitched, and he stammered, seeing the man covered in gunshots walking towards him.

However, he had only just taken a step forward when he stumbled to the ground.

Victor heaved a deep breath, he didn't walk toward the man immediately, and it was only after he fired another shot and confirmed the man was truly dead.

Did he move.

"Hehe!"

With a grin on his face, Victor flipped the man's body to the other side.

He glared at the hole that was in his face and then pointed his guns at him.

Bang! Bang!

Victor ensured he had destroyed what was left of the man's face before he walked past his body.

"Hahaha!"

The students of the bandit division began to cheer Victor one after the other.

Even though the tech division wasn't the one who caused them shame, it still felt good taking their anger out on the student of the tech division.

A few hours went by quickly, and as time moved, the death count increased, while the number of students that were eligible for the second round of the tournament was attained.

One of the directors stood from the obsidian throne.

"The one hundred and fifty students who would be participating in the second round have been attained, so that will be all for now," Nicholas said.

"I wish you the best of luck, and hope that you would be able to get past whatever is thrown past you."

"See you in two days, Goodbye!"

With that said, and the seven directors of vanished from their seats.

Whether it was the students from the elite, murder, norms, tech, research division, or the instructors, they all shifted their gaze to the area where the assassin division was seated.

The battle to win the grand prize wasn't simply on stage, it was also off-stage.