40 Scheme #2 (1/2)

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”Took them a while…” Ellen said in a deadpan tone.

”Honestly though.” Anne chimed in.

”They're strong but pretty stupid.” - Mark.

Raven chuckled while shaking his head, Luna sighed in relief instead.

Yeah. Everything that they did was staged. From the very conversation, down to the constellation. Everything was played out just to bait these people in hopes of imprisoning them for capture.

”You brats! What did you do!?” Boar roared as he charged forward only to face a similar situation to Tiger.

”No use blockhead.” Raven sneered. ”If you don't have the strength of an Oath Knight, then you could only dream of breaking your cage.”

The masked people went slack jawed upon hearing his words. Based from this reaction alone, it's easy to say that they didn't have any expert of such caliber on their team.

”I don't believe it!” Bear roared, he erupted with a ferocious force that covered his entire persona. Several pieces of armaments surfaced out of nowhere and attached to his body. He then became covered in armor that looked like it was casted from a heavy lead.

Some of the kids were forced to step back because they felt the sheer strength that Bear suddenly released, at one point they doubted Raven's words and prepared for the worst possible outcome. Bear and the team also saw this and felt their hopes went up, Bear charged and sent a punch towards the kids using his full force. At this point, he didn't even hold back nor was afraid of killing the kids, what more important is that they get out of this cage and retreat.

As some of the kids braced for impact, they sighed in relief because of what happened next. As the force of Bear's strength flew towards them, it met a wall and dissipated like smoke on a windy day. That ferocious strength wasn't even enough to make the wall ripple.

Everyone was dumbfounded by this development. No wonder Raven wasn't panicking at all!

”See? What did I say? Even if you rampage there all night long, you won't be breaking that cage.” Raven sneered once more.

Bear, Boar, and Tiger didn't want to believe it and kept on battering the invisible wall repeatedly with all of their strength. The others didn't stayed idle. Monkey tried climbing the wall of the cage only to meet a rebound forcing his to stop with his tracks. Eagle tried to fly only to hit an invisible ceiling that sent him crashing down. Mantis slashed the roof repeatedly with his claws but saw that he isn't even scratching the surface.

Not even ten minutes after their outburst, they stopped and felt the pang of defeat in their hearts. This was too unbelievable. A bunch of kids who can't even meet their cultivation level, managed to do them in and drive them to point of defeat.

”Since when?” Many were startled when Snake suddenly asked a question while glaring at the kids.

”Oh you mean since when did we notice your presence?” Raven asked back, he didn't wait for anyone's reply before continuing.: ”Since I came back. My Mirage Hawk spotted you guys immediately and warned me.”

Snake was startled, he was about to say something when he heard Raven speak again: ”Your move is rather ruthless. First you infiltrate the Beast Domestication Center, a place full of demonic beast, a create a huge chaos using Flesh Eating Vines as a tool. Then when the whole place is under attack you move here, attack the kids and abduct them to use a trading token to the kingdom. The masses will have a different view about the security of the kingdom because of this, which is what you truly aim for right? While also earning some gold and resources from the kingdom as a bonus. Quite an impressive plan really. But it's just that luck isn't on your side.”

As he narrated the gist of the events, everyone became shocked once again. His friends was surprised to hear that there was such a deliberate plan from the shadows and Raven was one of the people who managed to encounter it. This goes specially for Luna, she had a brief image of what will happen if they managed to succeed with this plan of theirs, the thought horrified him.

On the other hand, Tiger and his team were shocked to hear the plan, which was made by their superiors, be uttered by a kid. A kid, whom they never knew nor heard of…or at least they thought.