(Black sash knights wear what they want armour wise but have a black sash tied around them and are assassins.)

  Over the next few days, Ray spent most of his time by the city wall. Gary and the others were constantly bugging him about when they would be going out to the caves in the mountain. They were like a bunch of school kids excited to go out on a field trip for the day.

  The most important thing that Ray needed to figure out though, was how to leave the city walls without being noticed. Ever since the attack, the security had almost doubled, especially at the front gate. They now either had a master knight or a black knight out on watch at all the times.

  The black knights were a strange existence. When Ray first saw a black knight guarding the entrance of the red door, he could tell they were powerful due to seeing their aura using the dragon eyes skill. But ever since Ray had evolved, his dragon eyes skill became stronger.

  When looking at most people, their aura stayed mostly the same, but it was different when he looked at the black knights. Now with his improved dragon eyes, the black knight's aura grew even stronger. Suggesting that the armour they were wearing had some sort of suppressive skill or was made out of a material similar to the red door.

  What was even stranger to Ray was the fact that if they were that strong, why didn't they help when the city was being attacked? There were too many questions and not enough answers.

  Ray was currently standing just outside the back part of the city wall. Here the city wall was built up against the back of the mountain. If you were to stand on the wall and look out, all you could see was mountain completely blocking your view.

  Behind this mountain was a field of mountains and was one of the hunting grounds the students would go to. The caves were located on the side of the mountain that was just behind the city. This was why the sound of magical beasts could be heard at night, especially on the night of a full moon.

  This was also why Ray thought it might be possible that one of the caves in the mountain actually led to the underground tunnels that they had discovered behind the red door.

  Ray had been watching the knights on guard and was pretty sure of their shift pattern. He was struggling to find a way to escape without being seen. In hopes of finding a gap in the shift, Ray decided to approach one of the knights who was on guard duty at the gate.

  "How can I help you?" The knight said as he looked at Ray's sash, indicating he was a student of Avrion.

  "What's the shift duty of the knights at this gate?"

  Suddenly the man's eyes looked lifeless. At the same time, he started to reply in a monotone voice as if he was hypnotised.

  "There are a total of four guards on the top of the city wall on shift at all times. These guards are switched out every two hours. There are also an additional two guards by the city gate."

  After the knight finished answering Ray's question, the colour in the man's eyes started to show again. As soon as he saw Ray, he once again asked.

  "How can I help you?"

  "I'm okay, I was just having a look at the mountain," Ray said as he walked off.

  It was as Ray thought. It seemed like it was impossible If they were to try to sneak out of the gate. If Ray was on his own then perhaps he could do something about it using Noir but Ray had a group of eight with him.

  Ray thought about it for a while until he finally came up with a plan.

  Ray then went back into the dorms and called everyone over including Jasmine. He checked to see if anyone was watching them with his dragon eyes skill and it didn't seem like anyone was there. The feeling Ray had at the library didn't appear either.

  Ray proceeded to tell the others of his plan. The others liked the sound of the plan but Slyvia was still worried about a few things.

  "Won't the academy notice we're missing? What about if we don't come back for a while?" Slyvia asked.

  "I wouldn't worry about it too much," Gary said. "You saw how the knights reacted when we were stuck in the arena. They abandoned us. If they found out we were missing, they wouldn't even have a search team look for us. We'll just take whatever punishment they give us when we come back."

  The others felt slightly awkward by Gary's words. Each one of them had a clear image of what happened at the arena and they knew Gary was right.

  "So when do we leave?" Monk asked.

  "On the first night when there's heavy rain," Ray replied. "It's best we do this at night time as well. Both of these things will make it harder for us to be seen and if we can, it would be best if we avoid the attention of the master knights. I don't want them wondering where we all went off to. This will give us a chance to come back before they ever find out."

  The rest agreed and eagerly waited for a night were rain would come and as if fate itself wanted Ray and the others to act, the very next day there was a heavy downpour of rain and heavy gust of winds. It was a full-on storm. The rain was so heavy that most of the knights took cover inside apart from the ones who were forced to stay on guard duty.

  The sun went down and the storm continued on throughout the night. It was a full moon today but even the cries of the beast couldn't be heard through the storm.? The others decided to meet up in an alley behind two houses just by the back gate.

  Finally, one by one everyone had arrived separately making sure that they didn't look suspicious travelling as a group.

  "Is everyone ready?" Ray asked.

  Everyone responded with a nod.

  Then Ray opened up his status screen and proceeded with his plan.