Way of the Knights

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No one said a thing. Old Lee, Jackson and Arnold calmly entered the opening that Raven made and walked in front of the caged criminals.

Their eyes were filled with killing intent, the criminals prepared themselves since they knew that a battle is going to be really unavoidable.

"Calm down everyone, there's only three of them while we outnumber them. Just focus and we will get through this alive."

As expected of the chosen leader, Tiger calmed his nerves down and uplifted the spirit of his team. This proved to have an effect as the team quickly sobered up and took out their weapons.

But the really hit them rather hard on this one. Jackson and Arnold alone greatly overpowered their forces. How so? It's because both of them are peak Senior Knights.

Skin Toughening, Muscle Training, Organ Refining, Bone Forging and Marrow Cleansing. After an individual reached these stages, he/she will be considered as a 'Fighter', however the path only starts at that stage.

What comes after the Fighter stages are the 'Knight Stages' which consisted by Soldier, Junior, Veteran, Senior, Knight, Oath, and so on stages.

Tiger himself is a 2-star Junior Rank Knight, while his team just barely touched the Soldier Rank. Arnold and Jackson are both 4-star Senior Knights, which could literally take on a handful of them and won't even be hurt.

As they the two flashed their cultivation bases, Tiger and his team paled in horror. The pep talk that Tiger did before hand was completely swept away. What rotten luck was this? There's tons of people that could be present in this current situation but they just have to be these people who could literally shove their faces in dirt without even breaking a sweat.

Arnold and Jackson didn't bother with useless talk, both flashed forward and reappeared in front of the team. Arnold held a Morning Star on one hand and a Tower Shield on the other. As for Jackson, he didn't have a shield but held out two daggers which tips are covered with dark hue, obviously poisoned.

Bear, Boar and Monkey bore the attack of Arnold. Bear saw the Tower Shield descending towards him. He hurriedly crossed his arms on his chest to tank the attack since he saw Boar and Monkey using the current situation as an opportunity to attack. What they didn't expect was Arnold feinted his attack.

Before his shield could even land on Bear's body, he stopped and lifted the Morning Star to smash the metal armors of the attackers. The silhouette's of Boar and Monkey flew and splattered on the walls of the cage, T-posing as they slid down unconscious. Bear's eye twitched but soon found out that his slight distraction was huge mistake in a high level battle.

As he turned around to face Arnold, he saw that the Tower Shield was already on his face and it didn't even took a second before hitting him square in the face and cause him to fly away and experience the same situation as Boar and Monkey had.

Meanwhile Snake, Mantis, and Eagle were all lying on the ground, weakened and bleeding profusely. Jackson made a quick work out of them. He disappeared in plane sight, and slashed their leg tendons with poison covered daggers. The poison wasn't anything strong, it will only cause them to be paralyzed for a whole day while preventing their wounds from closing up. If these three weren't treated immediately they will die due to extreme blood loss.

As for Tiger and the Worms? Well, they didn't even have time to lift their weapons up to battle. Of all the people they have to underestimate, they chose Old Lee. A huge mistake.

The instructor just gently appeared in front of them, twisted their necks in a weird position and there we have it. Three unsuspecting criminals, done in by a kind looking old man.

"Holy…" - Paul.

"Shit…" - Ellen.

On top of the roof, were Raven and his crew were, all of them saw the entire thing happen. It was a quite a spectacle to be honest. Their horizons were broadened by a huge margin even though the fight was over very quick.

"I didn't know that Old Lee was such a badass!" Paul said as he recalled the swift actions of their teacher.

Mark on the other hand focused on Jackson and repeatedly played the scene of how quick he snapped the leg tendons of his opponents. He figured that it would do him good to study the way Jackson used his daggers and maybe he could do it as well with his short swords.

"I don't get it though. These people are criminals, god knows how many people have died on their hands. Our chaperone are obviously stronger than them but they didn't kill them right away?" Mark spoke his opinions.

The atmosphere within the group mellowed down a bit. They completely understood Mark's insight, though his thoughts might be ruthless, it is very apt for the current situation. This world isn't as kind as many thought it would be. Strength is what divides the masses from the predator and the prey.

They might be kids as of the moment but eventually they will grow up. The whole reason why they were training all along was to protect their home by any means necessary, and for that blood has to be shed. The baptism of killing is something that they have to come to terms with or else, all will be for naught.

His mindset must also be the cause of his upbringing. Mark came from a military background where his father is a General. His dad used to say: 'Mercy to your enemies is harm to your loved ones'. Without a doubt, Mark looked up to his father all throughout his life and worked very hard to clean his own reputation in order not to bring shame to him.

Mark felt a solid hand on his shoulders, it was Raven who then said: "Interrogation. Every intel is highly important to us no matter how grand or little it is. This might not be the only their only move so far."

Mark and the rest shown an enlightened expression. As they turned their attention towards the arena, they saw that the adults had already finished tying up the criminals and were already dragging them out of the cage.

Raven and his crew climbed down the roof and faced them. By now, some of the criminals had already regained their consciousness and hatefully glared at the kids. It was obvious that they were still bitter about the whole scheme of them.

"Once again, thank you for your help with dealing with these people, this might be a traumatizing event for you lot but remember that you saved tons of people by doing this so be proud of yourselves." Old Lee smiled kindly to the kids as he said this.

"We only did what we could Professor Lee, it was all Raven's plan anyway, we were just acting accordingly." Anne graciously replied. The rest also agreed to what she said.

Raven waved his hand and said: "Don't mention it. More importantly…" he pointed at the criminals and continued, "…they should be up for interrogation right? "

"Correct. We have to know if they planned more than this and take action right away." Arnold nodded and replied.

"Hah! Fat chance! You guys won't get anything from us so better kill us instead!" Boar defiantly roared. His groans were silenced by a loud slap from Hopper's paws that left scratch marks on his face.

Raven flashed a 'smile' and crouched in front of Boar. "He there big guy. So you said that we won't get anything from you right?"

"Hmph! It's you kid! Why don't you untie me so that I can make a soup out of your brains!" Boar roared once more, his face showed seething anger and killing intent.

Raven was unfazed and instead he placed on hand on Boar's jaw and plunged his fist down Boar's mouth. Everyone was dumbfounded by this scene, no one expected Raven to do this action while smiling too.

Boar was in pain, Raven didn't hold back in his punch, it was rather unexpected that his punch alone could cause a few of his teeth to fly causing his mouth to be bloody. As Raven retracted his hand from Boar's mouth, everyone saw that there was a blue bead between his index and middle finger. The criminals were horrified to see this bead, the adults were shocked while his crew was puzzled.

"This is the source of your confidence right? A poison bead located at the very back of your mouth. I have to give credits to you supervisors for thinking about this little trick. But you are greatly mistaken about the uses of this bead."

"It is true that if you say anything that will betray the Black Curtain Guild, this bead will melt and instantly kill you. However, they didn't tell you that if you hadn't had the chance to spit out anything at all, then this thing won't be of much help to you now doesn't it?" Raven nodded to Old Lee and the instructor instantly knew what he meant.

Like a phantom, his hands tapped the napes of the criminals, it's force was strong enough to make them spit the beads that Raven had in his hand.. And just like that, the criminals suffered yet another loss from a kid's hands.

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