Way of the Knights

Chapter 279 - Going In

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"Great." Ellen said with a voice full of sarcasm, "What do we do now?"

"Let me think for a bit." Raven said as he went inti deep thought once more.

Seeing a barrier of this caliber in this place definitely surprised Raven. He did not expect that someone would be able to construct such a complicated array from their enemies. He suspected that the one who built this array must've been the mysterious person they're after but it also could've been Vit'hum who imparted the knowledge of this barrier to his minions. The Pale Bastard's been around for ages after all, it wouldn't be surprising if he knows some additional tricks here and there. 

"Can't we just force our way in?" Paul suggested through voice transmission. "It doesn't matter if we do it by stealth or force, they will know about us anyway. The point is, we have to go inside that underground cave, ASAP I think."

"I'm okay with that." Mark replied, "But Raven is still thinking so let's wait for him."

"No, it's fine. We'll do it as he said." Raven stated which surprised the team.

"Really?" Paul asked in disbelieving voice. Even he, who suggested this rather simplistic plan, was surprised that Raven agreed on it. 

"Yes." Raven confirmed, "Just like you said, they're going to detect us either way so why not play that to our advantage? I can certainly deactivate this array but we can't do it from this far. So in the end, we can't avoid confrontation."

His explanation was sound, and since he already told them what they will be doing, the team made preparations for the confrontation. 

"Paul, get ready. I want a big one, you hear?" Raven told him, which made the guy very excited. 

"No need to tell me twice." Paul replied as he took out his spear and aimed it towards the camp. 

As the team watched him prepare, Raven sent a message to his slave to flee far away from that place. He had more uses for him so he can't die just yet. Once the slave got the message, he made some excuses and fled from the place. 

The slave managed to leave just before Paul threw his spear. It arched in the air, seemingly unthreatening as it fell precisely in the middle of the camp. The soldiers of the Black Curtain Guild became confused as to why a spear would suddenly fall in the middle of the camp. Some of them even yelled at the others and asked who in the world threw this spear while the others tried approaching it. 

But before any of them could approach the spear, they felt the ground quaked fiercely. Some thought that there might be an earthquake but they were wrong…

"Watch out!!"

A loud warning sounded across the camp, voiced by one of them. Out of nowhere, Paul came crashing down like a meteor with an explosive force. The very ground shook as a large crater formed from where Paul landed.

Paul didn't even bother dusting himself off, he got up and picked up his spear, feeling smug about the horrified expressions of the people around him. He lifted his spear and punctured the ground, causing several spikes to rise up and impale the dumbfounded enemies. 

It wasn't after witnessing the deaths of their comrades that someone finally had the courage to yell: "ENEMY ATTACK!!!"

This guttural shout served as their wake up call, making the rest pick up their weapons and prepare to gang up at Paul. 

"Come!!!" Paul shouted fervently as he picked up his shield and went on guard to receive his enemies.

But of course, how could Raven allow Paul to face all of them alone? 

*Screech!*

A brilliant fire emerged right above Paul, almost like a sun beacon that threatened to blind those who were charging towards him. From that fire emerged a beautiful red haired lady floating in the air as her vermillion wings flapped in the air. She was holding a sword that appeared to be made out of pure fire. One slash was all it took for her to sunder multiple tents alight and reduce some people to ashes. 

"I've got to say..." Ellen said while looking at Paul, "I like this plan of yours." 

The tanned blonde smirked as he stood in front of Ellen like a proper guard. 

Next came a rain of green arrows which accurately pierced the hearts and heads of the enemy soldiers. Anne was on the air, carried by her Eagle which is composed of her Wind Laws. She will often pluck her bowstring like it was Zither cords, arrows will then fly from bow to find its way towards her enemies. 

Mark came dashing like a bolt of lightning, impossible for the naked eye to follow. Wherever he went, heads will be separated from their shoulders before he moves on to his next targets. Many tried striking him down out of fear for their lives but he was too damn fast, they couldn't even graze the hem of his clothes. 

And while his team were busy dealing with this wave of enemies, Luna went along with Raven towards the Four Cardinal Seal Barrier to deal with it, her acting as his guard so that he won't be disturbed as he cracked down the array. 

Luna hardly left Raven side. Just like the rest of the team, Luna never compromised when it comes to her training, she would often spar with Raven which caused her to improve so much that just with her skills with the spear, she could take down waves of enemies coming her way. 

Raven knew that he could focus on deactivating the array since Luna's by his side. His girlfriend was not some damsel in distress after all, if she went all out she could even force Balmung to point of fleeing. 

Venus also had her fill for today. While Raven prohibited her from eating humans for now, he instructed her to devour the enemy's cultivation instead, which is nothing less lethal in all aspects. 

It wasn't hard for her to learn how to do that. After all, Venus was born from being fed with the purest source of energy thanks to Raven's methods. 

Once caught by Venus, one should forget about struggling free from her grasp. At max, Venus could crumple steel just by squeezing it. Those who could struggle from her wrap are people who trained their bodies for a very long time, even then it would still take them a long time to free themselves. And with Venus devouring their energies from their bodies, Raven could only give them his best regards on stopping her. 

Raven thought of destroying the array entirely but decided not to. Raven didn't know if anyone in the team was fast enough to avoid the binding effects of the barrier once it was broken, so he went with deactivation as his option. While this will alert the enemies inside the cave, it doesn't matter since they are already causing enough ruckus here.

It didn't take long for the team to dismantle the whole camp and for Raven to deactivate the barrier. 

The team didn't spend that much energy dealing with the initial wave of enemies, in fact they're relatively full even after that battle. 

As the barrier dimmed down, the team went into a formation and braced themselves for another wave of enemies charging towards them. All of them tensed up since their target was in that underground cave. While they were prepared for a confrontation, having an enemy that is shrouded by mystery certainly didn't make them feel okay.

The team waited…

And waited for some more…

Holding their positions just in case but…

"What the heck?" Paul groaned, "What's going on?"

"They're not coming?" Ellen asked, "Don't tell me they didn't hear anything!"

"That shouldn't be the case." Anne commented, "The commotion should've at least alerted them."

"Yes, and normally someone would come out to check it out. But…" Mark said as he trailed off, feeling uncertain.

"No one's coming at all." Luna finished his sentence, "They should've arrived by now right."

Raven stared at the cave entrance, opening his eyes widely while his ocular technique is active. He couldn't help but frown and say: "This, doesn't feel right. I can't see anyone. How about you Anne?"

"Same." She said while shaking her head, "I can't see anyone at all."

"Dude, this is creepy." Paul commented, "What do we do?"

Raven inhaled sharply as he made a decision. "We go inside. Stay sharp everyone, remember this is an underground cave, one mistake here and we will be buried. We will communicate using voice transmissions, is that clear?"

"Yes." 

"Alright, move." 

With Raven's command, the team slowly walked inside the underground cave to investigate what's going on inside. They stayed close to each other and remained alert, not daring to miss even a single bit irregularity that they could see. They communicated with each other using voice transmissions to minimize the sounds but the farther they went in, the more creeped out they were about the strange atmosphere inside the cave.

It wasn't until they got to the other end of the cave that they finally saw what was going on. What they saw was something that none of them expected at all. The silence was broken by Paul's careless comment…

"What the fuck!?"