Way of the Knights

Chapter 40 - Scheme #2

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"Took them a while…" Ellen said in a deadpan tone.

"Honestly though." Anne chimed in.

"They're strong but pretty stupid." - Mark.

Raven chuckled while shaking his head, Luna sighed in relief instead.

Yeah. Everything that they did was staged. From the very conversation, down to the constellation. Everything was played out just to bait these people in hopes of imprisoning them for capture.

"You brats! What did you do!?" Boar roared as he charged forward only to face a similar situation to Tiger.

"No use blockhead." Raven sneered. "If you don't have the strength of an Oath Knight, then you could only dream of breaking your cage."

The masked people went slack jawed upon hearing his words. Based from this reaction alone, it's easy to say that they didn't have any expert of such caliber on their team.

"I don't believe it!" Bear roared, he erupted with a ferocious force that covered his entire persona. Several pieces of armaments surfaced out of nowhere and attached to his body. He then became covered in armor that looked like it was casted from a heavy lead.

Some of the kids were forced to step back because they felt the sheer strength that Bear suddenly released, at one point they doubted Raven's words and prepared for the worst possible outcome. Bear and the team also saw this and felt their hopes went up, Bear charged and sent a punch towards the kids using his full force. At this point, he didn't even hold back nor was afraid of killing the kids, what more important is that they get out of this cage and retreat.

As some of the kids braced for impact, they sighed in relief because of what happened next. As the force of Bear's strength flew towards them, it met a wall and dissipated like smoke on a windy day. That ferocious strength wasn't even enough to make the wall ripple.

Everyone was dumbfounded by this development. No wonder Raven wasn't panicking at all!

"See? What did I say? Even if you rampage there all night long, you won't be breaking that cage." Raven sneered once more.

Bear, Boar, and Tiger didn't want to believe it and kept on battering the invisible wall repeatedly with all of their strength. The others didn't stayed idle. Monkey tried climbing the wall of the cage only to meet a rebound forcing his to stop with his tracks. Eagle tried to fly only to hit an invisible ceiling that sent him crashing down. Mantis slashed the roof repeatedly with his claws but saw that he isn't even scratching the surface.

Not even ten minutes after their outburst, they stopped and felt the pang of defeat in their hearts. This was too unbelievable. A bunch of kids who can't even meet their cultivation level, managed to do them in and drive them to point of defeat.

"Since when?" Many were startled when Snake suddenly asked a question while glaring at the kids.

"Oh you mean since when did we notice your presence?" Raven asked back, he didn't wait for anyone's reply before continuing.: "Since I came back. My Mirage Hawk spotted you guys immediately and warned me."

Snake was startled, he was about to say something when he heard Raven speak again: "Your move is rather ruthless. First you infiltrate the Beast Domestication Center, a place full of demonic beast, a create a huge chaos using Flesh Eating Vines as a tool. Then when the whole place is under attack you move here, attack the kids and abduct them to use a trading token to the kingdom. The masses will have a different view about the security of the kingdom because of this, which is what you truly aim for right? While also earning some gold and resources from the kingdom as a bonus. Quite an impressive plan really. But it's just that luck isn't on your side."

As he narrated the gist of the events, everyone became shocked once again. His friends was surprised to hear that there was such a deliberate plan from the shadows and Raven was one of the people who managed to encounter it. This goes specially for Luna, she had a brief image of what will happen if they managed to succeed with this plan of theirs, the thought horrified him.

On the other hand, Tiger and his team were shocked to hear the plan, which was made by their superiors, be uttered by a kid. A kid, whom they never knew nor heard of…or at least they thought.

"Hoh…so such a movement happen right under our noses without notice? It seems that the Black Curtain Guild is becoming desperate." An old and wizened voice suddenly emerged from the kids' back.

It was Old Lee, Jackson and Arnold. Neither of the three were smiling. Their faces emitted a thick killing intent that could make corpses jump from their graves

"Oh, Seniors are here. This means that the rest of the class are now evacuated onto a safe place." Raven smiled and faced them.

"This is all thanks to you young man. I have to say, I'm really impressed by your plan. As expected of someone who's dad is the Hawk." Arnold threw a thumbs up a Raven and smiled.

Tiger and his team were enlightened. They all thought 'No wonder! He's the son of that god damned Hawk!'

"Oh please." Raven waved his hand and shook his head, "I just happen to be knowledgable so that I won't sully my dad's reputation that's all."

"Still, your plan is dangerous. First you send your hawk to deliver a message to us and your friends, notifying us about these people. Then you form a plan where you children are to distract them, exposing yourselves into a close proximity of dangerous criminals, just to have your fellow students be evacuated into a safe place. And to top it of, you even imprisoned them long enough for us to come back. I'm seriously going to have a huge headache making a report out of this.

Old Lee sighed as he thought about the stress he was about to face, Raven scratched his head in embarassment while chuckling awkwardly.

"How did you imprison them anyway?" Jackson couldn't help but ask.

"Acting." Raven said while shrugging, "I told the guys to act like we wanted to stargaze, then we specifically named constellations after the prints of their masks but in reality the symbols I placed on the roof are a 'Formation' called '7 Saint Gates' which can't be penetrated unless one had a strength of an Oath Knight."

Raven's plan was simple, there was no doubt about that. But just because it is simple, it doesn't mean that it's easy to carry out. There were too many variables that needed to be noted, and if it weren't for the fact that Tiger and his team severely underestimated the kids, then this plan might've ended up with the crew as a sacrifice.

"How did you know all of this?" Arnold was extremely surprised about this. He wasn't expecting such a formidable child was hiding all this time! He then felt a firm hand on his shoulder, it was Jackson saying…

"Don't ask, don't tell. He's a seedling that needs time to mature. Just know that he is on our side so let's provide him some shade first. For now, we have more important things to deal with."

Jackson averted Arnold prying gaze off of Raven and redirected it to the criminals. Raven felt a deep gratitude for Jackson since he knew that he was doing this for his sake. He wanted to hide Raven's identity from the radar of Black Curtain Guild for as long as he could. This proves that he believed in Raven's potential.

Fortunately, Arnold caught the bait and redirected his attention, he too understood what Jackson was implying and he thought that it would be better to do what he said.

"I'll transfer the Formation to the ground and expand it a bit so that you guys have a room to move." Raven immediately did what he said and everyone suddenly witnessed the criminals float and be transferred on the ground.

The formation was now unleashed. Seven enormous gates with an etched symbol appeared on everyone's vision, creating a huge cage which kept the criminals from running away. As the walls expanded to make room, Raven's hands turned into blur and formed one seal after another.

This time, he took out several gems from his spatial rings as a medium and formed another massive formation. He threw the gems all over the place and after he did that to each gem, a huge curtain of aurora formed and covered the entire inn along with the place where he placed the criminals as well, before dissipating. Just as everyone was preparing to ask, he already answered them.

"I placed an enchantment called: Lucid Visage Curtain. It masks off any forces along with providing some fake image of the inn's original appearance. So your guys could go to town and don't have to hold anything back."

His words received a collective thumbs up form Old Lee, Jackson and Arnold.