Way of the Knights

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The reactions of Raven's teammates quite a sight to behold. 

While all of them struggled to the point of nearly losing someone just to deal with just two devils, Raven handled one by himself and came out unscathed. None of them saw how he fought but his results were more than enough to tell them that he's capable of surviving on his own. In addition to that, he even brought the devil back intact. 

If there's anything that confuses them, that would be…

"Why would you want to dissect a Devil's body." Jason asked, pretty much asking what the others want to know as well. 

"Well, I mean aren't you guys curious?" Raven replied in an amused tone. "I don't know, maybe that'll help us understand what kind of Devils we are facing."

"Weird, but I don't think it's going to help us that much." Jason stated. "I mean if you want to, then maybe later after we set camp. Right now, it's time to move out. I'm afraid that the smell of corpses will attract more of them."

"Alright, I didn't say I'm going to dissect it now anyway." Raven said, he then kept the corpse of the devil inside a spatial ring and walked together with the rest. 

He observed the situation of the group and discretely sent a voice transmission towards Jason, asking: 'What's with the gloomy mood? Did something unfortunate happen?'

Jason smiled wryly and replied: 'Michelle almost died. I'm pretty sure she saw her life flashing before her eyes. The illusions caught us off-guard and the devil's were too fast. That's why.'

Even though the report was brief and has less details, Raven could more or less understand what took place in here. Judging from the remnant corpses of the other devils, it wouldn't take a genius to find out that the team had a hard time dealing with the devils earlier.

Thinking about this caused him to be reminded of something…

'Oh yeah, I heard the devil screeching earlier. Get everyone on guard, we don't know that's a dying wail or a call for reinforcements.' Raven's words caused Jason to visibly shook. 

There was an expression of panic on his face as he immediately got the attention of the team, saying: "Guys, be on guard. The devil earlier must've called for reinforcements with its last screech!"

His warning caused the team to stop on their tracks, their expressions changed as they took out their weapons and became alert. The spying team observed their surroundings even further, glaring at each spot in order to make sure that they won't be ambushed. 

"Spotted! Holy shit! They're moving underground! Be on guard everyone!" Edward exclaimed as he glared beneath him. 

Thankfully it wasn't only him who could see under ground, Raven warped his vision to cover underground and saw the several figures moving as if they were diving in water. 

"I see five, how many can you see?" Raven called out. Edward was surprised at first but he discarded it and replied:

"I see five too - shit! They's splitting!" Edward exclaimed at the sudden development. 

"One on each direction, the last one will try to pop-up in the middle of our group." Raven swiftly move, sending beams of Cosmic Energy to five different spots around the team. "That's where they're going to appear. I'll give the signal when and where they will pop-out, you guys confront them. Get into position!"

Raven gave out instructions swiftly as they truly have no time. Even if they were moving underground, the speed of these Devils remained the same. Just a few seconds from now and they will arrive. 

The unit member got into the position, holding their weapons tight as they waited for Raven's signal. And even though Mira was feeling absolutely irritated to be ordered by him, she understood that now is not the time for any of that, so she too got in the position. 

Raven and Jason was at the center marker. Mira and the Crawford Twins were at the Eastern marker, Floyd and Nelson was the West marker. Juniper and Edward and Anthony was at the Northern marker, and Ryan as well as Franklin was at the Southern marker. 

Three seconds passed as they already heard Raven yell: "East! Two, one, NOW!"

*Boom!*

"South! Two, one! Now!"

*Boom!*

"North and West. Three, two, one, NOW!"

*Boom!*

Raven was about to call out the countdown for their spot but saw that the Devil underneath did something he wasn't expecting. It morphed into a much bigger and beefier size compared to the other four and it's speed raised a couple of notches too. 

He didn't have time to give out the call anymore. He raised his fist and white bubble covered it. After which, he unhesitatingly slammed it down, causing the ground beneath them to quake fiercely. 

Raven slammed his fist, covered by a bubble condensed from raw Destruction Laws, he also hit a Fault Sign in the process, causing the destructiveness of his attack to double. 

The Devil underneath him received the full burnt of the attack, completely defenseless too. Its body was thoroughly destroyed, torn into pieces and buried underground along with broken pieces of rubble. Raven checked it first and confirmed that the devil was thoroughly dead before sighing in relief. 

The magnitude of his attack caused the ground to cave in ever so slightly. Everyone's pupils constricted in shock and they're not to blame. 

It had to be known that they had never seen Raven in action before. This was his first display of strength and it was eye-opening. Even though they can't see what's happening beneath them, the impact of his attack was so intense that they didn't need to. None of them doubted that the devil was dead. It'll be a miracle if it still lived after that. 

Needless to say, his skills definitely caused them to ponder over things. They didn't know why Raven didn't join the third part of the exams and mini-contest before. With his skills, he'd surely get an acceptable spot, so why didn't he? 

Amidst their shock however, they saw Raven stood up and look towards Edward, asking: "Did you see that?"

Edward nodded earnestly and replied: "Yeah, I did. And holy shit. I didn't know that was possible."

"What is?" Ryan asked curiously.

"The Devil that he killed, right before he attacked, it doubled in size!" Edward explained, "I saw its aura blazing as it did. It was beefy and it became quicker. I don't what the hell that is, but if he didn't attack sooner, we'll be in deep shit!"

That information wasn't a good news for any of them. They all knew that if it weren't for Raven's quick actions, they won't be able to come out unscathed like they currently are. 

"Just for the briefest of moments, I felt it carrying the strength of a Lord Knight." Raven stated solemnly.

"You're kidding right?" Michelle asked in disbelief.

"I don't think he is." Edward added, testifying for Raven's statement. "I was watching it remember? Back in the Twin Star Academy, Franklin and I felt the strength of a Lord Knight up close and personal. I felt the same thing but I wasn't sure, but now that he said, then my guess was correct."

"About us witnessing the strength of a Lord Knight, its true. We did experience that." Franklin added, solidifying the weight behind Raven's words even more.

"That's two realms higher than ours! How are we supposed to deal with that!?" Pyra asked in a panic. It wasn't just her, pretty much everyone was feeling an inner crisis right now.

"Alright, let's hold our horses." Raven stated, trying to pacify the mood of the team. "Like I said, I only felt it for the briefest of moments. Which might mean a few things. One, it must be some kind of a ruse. Two, its some sort of a trump card. And three, there might be a heavy price for that."

"Either way, one things for certain. If we want to survive this hunt, then we must finish our battles swiftly." Raven sighed, "We can't let those things have the chance of tapping into that kind of power or else it will be dangerous for us."

"I also want to take this time to re-address the capabilities of what we are facing." Raven solemnly said, the attention was focused on his as he listed what he knew so far.

"For now, let's say we are dealing Imp Devils." Raven started, "First, they are midgets with an astonishing speed. Two, they are capable of putting us into an illusion. Three, they can move underground like swimming in water, additionally should be able to sense us even in that state. Four, their intelligence is high enough to form a plan such as ambushing, pincer attacks, and attacking underground, who knows maybe they could even understand our language. And finally, they had a trump card that might or might not enable them to tap into the strength of Lord Knights."

Raven took a sharp inhale of breath as he listed all of those things. He then scratched his head in irritation and finished his statement.

"In short, they are a handful to deal with. We'll do our best to survive and when we get back, we'll read all the information we fucking need to know about these little fuckers.. For now, let continue with the current formation and move along."