Way of the Knights

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Jackson felt the familiar sensation of his spear sinking into a flesh, an indicator that his thrust penetrated the belly of the Blood Burst Tiger. The beast's eyes widened in disbelief and it tried to struggle free from the spear tip, however instead of freeing itself, its struggles proved to only wedge the spear tip deeper onto it's body. Blood flow on the corners of its mouth and it glared hatefully at the human that impaled it, but no matter how much hate are in those eyes, Jackson returned an even colder gaze to it.

"Jordan, George! Take care of the lion. It's severely weakened right now! Don't let it escape!" Raven hurriedly said as he saw Jackson successfully impaling the tiger.

The two men panicked for a bit and scrambled to take out their weapons. It is very clear that they're not hiding anymore. Unknowingly, the phrase: "Mantis stalks the Cicada, unaware of the Oriole behind." Became the situation that they're currently in.

Both of them took out their sword and leapt out of the bush, they then rushed forward and faced the weakened lion to prevent it from running away. A ferocious roar came out of the lion, but its wounds greatly nullified the intimidation it gives which means that it was incapable of scaring neither Jordan nor George for that matter.While the two faced the lion, Raven placed his attention to the tiger. As Jackson's spear was still embedded to it's chest, Raven rushed forward and faced it directly. He clenched his hand into a fist and threw out a punch, when the tiger saw this, it attempted to bite of his hand but before it connected, Raven feinted his attack and instead grabbed both the top of its head and its jaw.

He grunted roughly and with one strong twist, the neck of the tiger snapped and its eyes lost their brilliance. The tiger fell limp on Jackson's spear tip signifying its death.Meanwhile, Jordan and George had not been idle. They tried to corner the beast a couple of times by slashing away at it, making sure that it does not have any time to rest between attacks. Their goal is to exhaust the lion even further to make sure that it won't even have the slightest energy to run away later.

"Harvest whatever we could get from it, I'll go help the two." Raven said as he rushed forward to help Jordan and George. When he arrived by their side, the lion immediately growled and changed targets. Directly ignoring the two, it rushed forward and pounced on Raven, clearly wanting to chew on his flesh. Unfortunately, it picked the wrong target…

"Hmph! Vile beast! Think that I'm a pushover? Come then! I'll show you!" Raven grinned maliciously as he assumed a stance.

Jordan and George perspired nervously as the beast successfully passed through them and went for Raven instead. They tried to catch it but they reacted a bit late, the lion was already pouncing towards him. Just as they thought that Raven was done for, his body spun vertically and the heel of his foot struck the head of the lion.The lion plummeted on the ground like a meteor, kicking a cloud of dust as it did. Raven's kick contained all the force he could muster, and he was pretty sure that this lion is suffering from hemorrhage right now. Trickled of blood coming out of its ears was a clear indication that it was severly injured with that exchange, the flames on its body were directly snuffed out and the lion can't even muster up enough energy to stand back up.

"End it now!" Raven said. Jordan and George blurred into action. Grunting loudly, their swords impaled the beast. George impaled its back all the way to its heart and Jordan stabbed its head all the way down to its jaws. With both beasts down, the team finally heaved a sigh of relief and relaxed. It was at this moment that both Jordan and George felt that their backs were actually soaked with sweat right now. And this is from barely doing anything. All they did was to make sure that the lion won't escape, it was Raven who made it possible for them to kill it, yet the stress and pressure they felt was enough to make them feel like they ran for a couple of miles.

While the two spent time to catch their breaths, Raven went towards the carcass of the lion and quickly went to work. He summoned a couple of old papers from his spatial ring and covered the carcass of the lion with it. After that, he took out some ropes and tied the carcass nicely before placing it on his other spatial ring. He then faced the two and said: "I'll hand over your share once we get back and sell this."Jordan and George was surprised to say the least. They weren't expecting him to even consider giving them a share since what they did was negligible. But Raven's tone offered no refusal so they could only accept and thank him.

The three went back to where Jackson and Alina is, they saw that he was already done harvesting the Tiger while Alina, was still drying up her tears behind the bush. "Let's move away from this place as soon as we can. The clash and the smell of blood will attract other beasts in here." Jackson explained earning nods from the team.

Without any further ado, they stood up and moved along. Minutes after their departure, a couple of beast showed up in that place, searching for that delicious smell of blood that they smelled earlier. But instead of finding food, they will instead find other beasts who are also looking for food. And since two predators met, it will inevitably result in a huge fight.Good thing that the team is long from there.

***

The team went along the suggested path, on their way they did their outmost best to stay hidden and remain alert to their surroundings.The situation earlier is just one instance that one could never become too careful in the middle of this wilderness. They were forced to stop on their tracks multiple times because of activities near them. Sometimes, they needed to spend a couple of minutes before moving, while other times they have to stay low for longer. Since it's out of their sensory capabilities, they guessed that some of those activities were from beasts moving around and hunting for food, either that or these beasts are just migrating. Either way, they took their time and proceeded with caution, they don't want to be stuck between a rock and hard place again.

As time went on, they approached the point of investigation closer but dusk was fast approaching so they were forced to search for a place to rest. Luckily, they found a cave relatively close by and it's hidden behind a shrubs which serves as a natural concealment for them.

They went in, and after making sure that it wasn't a nest of some sort of beast, they decided to settle down and rest for the night.

The team was visibly exhausted, being placed at a constant danger truly take its toll on their body. This is specially true for Jackson and Raven.The stress of constantly observing for any potential danger and giving mental commands, plus dealing with the disorienting Shared Vision from Hopper really exhausted Jackson. In fact, Hopper was also exhausted.

As for Raven, he's faring a little bit better compared to Jackson since he's only using his Spiritual Sense and his ocular technique from time to time. Add the fact that he's no ordinary child, of course he had it better that the rest. But it's only the two of them who's doing all the work, and he doesn't trust these people enough to relax while he's with them so he's exhausted as well.

The Adventurers knew this very well, specially Alina.

She knows just how useless she is. She is aware that she's just a useless baggage right now, that's why she haven't even said a word so far, in case that she sows further discord to the team and cause them to leave her behind to die. Alina don't want to die just yet, and if not saying anything will save, then she will remain silent for the rest of this journey, count on it.

Jordan and Alina took the initiative to cook for the team while the rest built up tents. Once he finished up his tent, Raven went in and cleaned himself of all the grime from his body and made sure to apply some medicine from all the scratches he received, he didn't even remember where he got these from but just in case something poisonous injured him, he might as well take care of it.

Besides, having the Great Wood Elemental Gate opened gave him absolute immunity towards weaker poisons, so it's not like he has to worry about it too much.

After cleaning himself, he went out of the tent and ate with the team.. After briefly discussing their agenda tomorrow, each of them went on their tents and slept like logs.