Way of the Knights

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"Does anyone have an questions about the plan?" 

Luis asked those who were with him in this meeting. He just explained the plan on how they are going to initiate contact with the enemy. No one raised their hand, meaning that everyone present understood the plan and were ready to execute it. 

"Alright, Raven will be your commander for this assignment. His orders will be the law, anyone who fail to comply will face a severe punishment after this." Luis announced while looking at his son.

Raven stepped forward, behind him were his team clad in full battle gear and ready to meet their enemies. Everyone who were participating with this mission had no qualms being led by a 17 year old guy since all of them here knew that he could take all of them on without even breaking a sweat. 

"We'll move out within two hours." Raven announced, "You may go back and make preparations for a long trip, after that meet us at the Southern Gate. Move!"

"Sir!" The soldiers saluted and left the meeting area. As soon as they moved out, Raven faced Luis who was clearly feeling a little worried. 

"Don't worry Dad. I'll take us back home, that's a promise." He comforted.

Luis sighed and patted his son's shoulders, saying: "I know you will. Just make sure to come back in one piece, you hear?"

"I will, Dad." Raven gave him a hug and turned towards his team, asking: "You guys ready?"

Each of them gave him a nod. Raven then said: "Alright, let's go to the Southern Gates."

After saying that, he and his team turned into blurs as they ran towards their destination.

Three weeks passed by like a blur with Raven being too busy preparing for a counterattack. During this time, on top of training himself and his team, he was also discussing tactics with his father in order to secure the best possible outcome out of this clash. 

The Grand Purging Array had been built and activated for the Kingdom's protection. Just as Raven expected, the project was done in less than a week. The array was tested by the inscriptionists under Raven's instructions and passed, meaning that the Kingdom's safety is at least secured.

In the end, both of them agreed that they can't bring too many people since that would hinder their movement far too much. They decided to bring out 25 people who were considered as elites through the Kingdom's new soldier standards. All of these people benefitted from Raven's reform of the Kingdom's military and are a far cry from their previous strength, which is why they didn't oppose him leading them on this operation.

The plan they agreed upon is that, Raven and his team will initiate the confrontation. Since Raven just got the message from his slave that there would be a total of 515 soldiers escorting their target, the team will try to shave as many of their numbers as possible before calling the elites over to finish them off. 

What happens after that will depend on the situation. If the threat was too strong for them to handle, they will try to injure him/her at least before signaling retreat. If they could take the target down, then there should be no hesitations. Of course, there is a possibility of an unexpected event happening and it will be up to Raven's decision at that point. 

After grabbing everything that they will be needing, the participants of the mission were gathered at the Southern Gates. All of them, except Raven and his team, were wearing black cloaks made out of special materials that would minimize their presence, this is useful for them since they don't want their travels to be impeded by a sudden attack from stray beasts. 

Once they signed off their names, Raven gave the signal and they immediately blurred into action. 

Raven and his team lead the way, taking flight for a faster and unrestricted travel, while the rest of the crew took the ground and travelled in batches to cover each other's back. The team kept a 500 meter distance between them and rest, this is intentional since the plan was the team will be the one who will initiate contact, the rest were considered as back up. 

"Anne, any signs of a Diamond Dust Eclipse?" Raven asked as he flew with Luna's Pegasus. He would've rode Venus as a mount but she wasn't big enough yet, plus she can't fly so Raven had to share with Luna in the mean time. 

"None." Anne replied, "It just passed about a week ago if I'm not mistaken."

"Good." Raven replied, "At least we could cross that possibility out." 

"Hey, I'm calling dibs on one of the Emissaries okay?" Paul exclaimed while being carried by Ellen. 

"Shut it, you Big Oaf!" Ellen grunted, pinching his hand. "Your voice is too damn loud, what if you alerted some beasts huh?"

"Oh right, Haha my bad." 

"It's fine." Mark said out of nowhere, "I'm covering us with Bewildering Fog. That should minimize our sounds and slightly conceal our presences. Just don't do it too much."

"Oh!" Paul exclaimed, he looked a their surroundings and saw a faint traces of ashen fog covering them. "Nice, Dude. You learned this from Sir Jackson?"

"Yeah." Mark nodded, "Lair Hunters have many tricks up their sleeves. It makes sense since their lives are always on the line with their job."

"Good for you." Anne commented, "I wish the Ruby Knights had some of those tricks as well."

"I know right?" Ellen also commented, "Those Elder Sisters are way too focused on frontal combat, it's almost too rigid if you ask me. It's like they exist for the sole purpose of facing head on."

"I wouldn't be bad if they have some neat tricks available to at least make sure that they could keep themselves alive." Anne added.

"Alright, girls." Luna chuckled as she heard the complaints of the two. "Now's not the time to criticize the ways of the Ruby Knights. Let's focus on the task at hand, okay?"

"Yes, Princess." Anne and Ellen said in a playful tone, making Luna laugh at their reactions.

"Heads up, everyone. Scouts." Raven called out in a soft voice, making his team unleash their alertness. 

About 200 meters away from them, cloaked by the shadows of the trees, five people were hidden and currently observing their surroundings. The team saw them and immediately went on guard. 

"Half-step Knights." Mark said after gauging their strengths. Behind him stood Anne who's bow already stretched taut. A signal from Raven is all she needs and these people were done for. 

"Chill, Anne." Raven said, making her withdraw her arrow. He then said: "Paul, you're up. Illusions will do."

Paul nodded at him and tapped Ellen's hand, signaling her to release him. The girl got the message and released Paul from her grip. As Paul fell down, his spear materialized in his hands. 

He grabbed a tree branch before he made contact with the ground to minimize the impact. With a strong jump, he leapt and was instantly behind the scouts. A rainbow colored light illuminated the tip of his spear, he then performed five thrusts which sent five rainbow colored projectile towards the unsuspecting scouts. 

As the lights struck their body, they froze where they stood and had their consciousness dulled, Paul already have them trapped in illusions which is evident by the empty look on their eyes. Unless someone came and dispelled them from this state, they would remain like this for weeks. 

Raven gave a signal to Ellen and she swooped down to pick Paul up. 

As Paul grabbed her hand, he heard her say: "Look at you. Feeling smug and shit. I don't like it."

"I'm just going to pretend that you said 'Great job' instead. Thank you!" Paul shook his head which caused Ellen to snort but did nothing to refute him.

Ever since Paul received the gift of Illusions from the Immersion Forest, he had been sharpening his skills all this time since he believed that wielding Illusions will at least increase the diversity of his prowess, making him less predictable. 

"Mark, warn the Elites. Tell them to avoid those guys." Raven said and Mark complied.

"Why didn't we take them down instead?" Ellen asked Raven, curious as to why he decided to trap them in illusions instead of killing them.

"It's because we don't know whether they have some sort of signaling device or not." Anne replied for Raven, "These are scouts, their job is to spy ahead and report back. Just like us, they might have some device which will alert their comrades about our arrival. If that happens, then this plan of ours will be foiled before it even starts."

"Exactly." Raven seconded. Ellen nodded, making sure to keep this kind of information in mind since it might become helpful in the future. 

"Alright, I sent the word to the Elites. I've gotten affirmative signals." Mark reported as soon as he received the responses. 

"Great." Raven commented, "Alright team, keep your eyes peeled. We might encounter more from here on out."

The team nodded and they resumed their journey.

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