Way of the Knights

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Raven didn't even need to turn around to know what happened, nor he wants to for that matter.

As soon as he heard that crack, he immediately turned into a blur and began booking it towards the entrance of the nest. 

*Screech!*

A loud and piercing shriek was heard from the nest. Who else could it be other than the provoked and angry Queen Arachne? 

Raven clicked his tongue and inwardly cursed. He ran faster and exited the nest as fast as he could. However, even without looking back, he could feel a dangerous presence following him and could hear that hair-raising sound of its movement.

He took the twin pixies out of his scarf and said: "I'll distract it away. Find somewhere to hide or escape. Make sure you two are safe okay?"

"B-but…" Aina was about to object but Raven interrupted her.

"No time for arguments." He then placed them inside a bush and said: "Remember what I said."

Raven then faced the Queen Arachne with his hammer on his hand. A steel armor appeared on his body as he ran towards the huge spider and smacked the incoming leg aside using his hammer. 

He planted on foot forward, strong and firm. He grasped the hammer using both of his hands and issued a mighty swing.

*Boom!*

The air seemingly exploded as the spider flew back like it was struck with a battering ram. A piece of its carapace cracked under Raven's strength. 

Raven didn't give up on the offensive, he leapt forward and landed on top of the Queen Arachne. He raised his hammer to deliver yet another strong strike but the spider's body suddenly moved.

The Queen Arachne sent a thick spider thread towards a very tall tree and leapt back, causing Raven to lose his balance and fall, which she used the thread she sent to adhere to the surface of the tree. 

*Screech!*

The spider let out another piercing shriek that could be heard all over the forest. Raven glared at the spider while the latter started spouting pools of violet colored acid towards him. 

Raven employed his evasion movements, he dodged the incoming pools of acid with relative ease but he didn't dare to be negligent about them. As soon as those purple acids make contact with the ground, it melted everything it touched. If Raven was to get hit by these acids, there might be nothing left of him when its done. These acids were similarly used by the Queen Arachne to build her nest. 

Seeing how easily the little human was dodging its acids, the Queen Arachne was incensed. It curved its body to an impossible angle and started spraying threads of spider silk to where Raven was. On top of this, the Queen Arachne also didn't cease to send purple acids towards him. 

This is how she deals with nimble enemies. First she reduce their mobility by covering them with webs and then, when they're slowed it would be easier for her to melt them down using her acids of turn them into food. 

This is a good plan, specially for a beast that doesn't have a high intelligence. Unfortunately, it met Raven. 

Raven didn't even do anything about the spider silk. Well, it's more accurate to say that he didn't have to anything. From the moment the silk threads touched his armor, they would be destroyed. None of the threads even touched his skin nor did their purpose of slowing him down before they disappeared. 

This happened due to Raven's armor emitting Destruction Laws. Though the spider threads were strong and is enough to immobilize someone, it's not strong enough to oppose the force of nature itself. 

The Queen Arachne got angrier since anything she does didn't work at him. Raven knew that she was getting impatient and that's precisely what he wanted. In fact, he even gave her more reasons to get angrier. 

Switching to the second form of the hammer, he grasped it with both hands and mobilized his energies.

"Twisting Decimation." 

Raven uttered as multiple arms condensed behind him and combined into something that resembles a battering ram. It flew forward towards the surprised spider, the Queen Arachne reacted too late, causing her to get hit by Raven's attack and fall down from where she was. The tree she climbed earlier also fell down due to the force behind the attack. 

Now that she lost the high ground, the Queen Arachne's patience were gone. It screeched extremely loud and charged towards Raven. 

How could Raven shy away from a direct confrontation? Of course, he too charged forward and met the Queen Spider with just as much ferocity that she emits. 

Legs meet Arms. The spiky sharp legs of the Queen Arachne would be repulsed by pillar-sized arms manifesting from Raven's techniques. Each time they clashed, the huge spider could feel the dispersed strength of both hers and Raven's attack assaulting her body, causing internal injuries that even the Queen Arachne herself isn't aware of. 

As their battle went on, the spider could feel that Raven was becoming faster and faster, his attacks were also becoming stronger as well. 

But it's not like that at all. Raven was neither getting faster nor stronger, it was the spider who's getting weaker. The internal injuries she's receiving is now affecting her. Even though her tough carapace is only damaged at best, Raven still achieved his goals. 

And when the Queen Arachne was exhausted enough, Raven's eyes gleamed with a determined light as he whispered: 

"Time to end this." Raven switched back to the hammer's default form and charged towards the spider. 

As the Queen Arachne saw him coming, it tried to intercept him by spitting out acid at him but to her surprise, Raven seemingly disappeared. 

She looked around her, trying to search for him but couldn't locate him. She was about to go back to her nest since her eggs just hatched and all but before she could do so, her beastial instincts screamed danger. 

Raven was high up in the air. With a sudden boost of speed earlier, he evaded the spider's acid and used broken tree earlier to boost the height of his jump. 

As soon as he reached the peak, he mobilized his energy and concentrated. Feeling the momentum building up inside of him. His body spun horizontally, and as gravity pulled him down to the earth, the bubbling momentum on his body exploded, transforming him into a shooting star which directly fell on top of the Queen Arachne's body. 

*BOOM!*

An explosion that shook the very earth, occurred. The Queen's Arachne was flattened to the ground. Her legs were severed from her body due to the impact. The spider's eyes dilated as it lost consciousness. 

And as if that wasn't enough, the ground beneath her cave in. Causing both her and Raven to fall down to where her nest originally is. The webs that are holding the bundle of eggs were snapped, causing it to fall down. Some of the eggs were shattered and the spiderlings who just came out of their eggs, were similarly flattened by the falling debris. 

In the middle of some rubbles, a chunk of rock slid down. Revealing a sweating Raven, who dusted himself off and admired the destruction that he caused. 

He looked at the hammer on his hand with satisfaction and felt elated that he's getting more and more proficient in harnessing the power of that momentum. 

Raven then looked at the corpse of the Queen Arachne. He then walked towards after confirming that it was dead. He took a sharp dagger out of his spatial ring and started carving out the head. 

Green-ish blood dyed his hands while some even splattered at his face, nevertheless Raven continued carving until he felt that he hit a hard object. From then on, he used his hands to tear away the remaining flesh from that solid object. 

With a forceful tug, he pulled the round object out of the Queen Arachne's head and began inspecting it. 

"Good. She really has a Beast Core. This should be useful." He said, placing the Beast Core inside his spatial ring. 

Beast Cores is the source of a Demonic Beasts strength. These Beast Cores contained abundant energies that Raven could use for his future breakthroughs. 

Raven planned to jump outside of the nest and search for the twin pixies. However, he suddenly felt strong winds kicking in. At first he ignored it but it swiftly transformed into a powerful gale that almost lifted him off the ground. 

Raven panicked, he didn't know what was going on. He tried keeping his eyes open but the strong winds were quickly drying out his eyes. He squinted and looked around him while shielding his face using his arms. 

Amidst the chaos around him. Raven's heart suddenly palpitated. Alarm bells started going off and for the first time ever since he stepped out of the Kingdom, he felt genuine fear.

A pair of eyes that belongs to a predator was staring at him with lightning coursing through them. Raven felt so scared that he couldn't even take out his hammer or think about defending himself.

However, as fast as that predator eyes appeared, it disappeared in a similar way.. As soon as it went away, the strong winds disappeared and Raven could only stare at the sky with a blank expression. 

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