Way of the Knights

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"Poor guy." Paul whispered, "Of all the people to provoke, you chose him. Now you\'re just asking for a beating."

"Come to think of it, Avi must\'ve pitied the guy, if not then he wouldn\'t have gotten away with just a single punch."

"I agree, he would end up with multiple bones broken if that\'s the case."

Their discussion was hushed so it wasn\'t heard by the crowd. If their words were heard by the crowd, then who knows what their reaction would be.

"I-The winner of this match, Vendrick Valorheart!" Carl stammered in his announcement. It was then followed by a massive applause and cheers from the crowd.

"Holy shit! Tell me I wasn\'t the only one who saw that!"

"You\'re not! I saw it too! He stopped the blade using his fingertips! How was that possible!"

"Not only that! He also ended the match using a single punch!"

"He said that he named the move \'A Casual Punch\'! How domineering was that!?"

"I know right!? He\'s too badass!"

Raven couldn\'t be bothered by the cheers of the crowd, he turned around and made his way down to the arena. However, before he could come down from where he was, he heard a malicious roar...

"Damn you!!!"

The masked man roared with indignation, the crowd was dumbstruck and their breaths stagnated. Luis abruptly stood up, but before he could do anything he saw that the masked man was already charging towards his son. He cursed as he was too far away from where he was, he glanced at his son but couldn\'t see any traces of panic on his face, unknowingly he relaxed.

The masked man picked up his blade and ran towards Raven, he wanted to skin him alive to free him of this humiliation, he no longer cared about his seniority nor his superiors, what\'s more important for him, is to kill this brat for ruthless stomping on his pride as a man.

"Tch, what a nuisance." Raven sneered, he abruptly turned around a blurred into motion.

Under dumbstruck gazes of the crowd, he appeared beneath the charging man with elbows sticking out. His attack wedge deep onto the stomach of the masked man causing him to vomit some gastric acids.

Once again, Raven\'s silhouette disappeared and reappeared behind the masked man. He jumped and kicked the back of his head causing his face to be embedded deeply onto the tiled floor.

The crowd flinched under impact of his attacks. It had to be known that none of the fights earlier managed to crack the floors of the arena, yet just a single kick from him cause the masked man\'s head to be buried there. Aside from a few fractures on his skull, this man would be lucky if he didn\'t suffer from hemorrhage.

"I won\'t be blamed for this right?" Raven faced the speechless Carl and asked.

Carl hurriedly shook his head and said: "No. Of course not young friend, you merely defended yourself. On behalf of the Institute, I would like to express my sincerest apology for this man\'s unsightly behavior, please do excuse us."

Raven smiled and said: "No worries there, this isn\'t the first time I\'ve dealt with people like this." He then bowed towards him and made his way down.

"The matches are over, we await the judges to finish the deliberation and after that, we will announce the results. For now..."

"Capture this fool! Lock him up and make sure he realizes the severity of his actions!" After nodding back to Raven, Carl\'s face went extremely cold as he gave out the order to imprison this foolish man.

Back to the Headmasters Room.

Ian\'s face was incredibly ugly, the Crown Prince similarly had an unpleasant expression as well as Leon.

"Pardon us from this Lil\' Mu. I didn\'t know what this idiots are thinking, hiring some random thug for this kind of event." Ian made the initiative to apologize to Balmung after the unsightly display.

"It\'s not your fault Headmaster, I\'m displeased at the person not the management. I\'m sure that they didn\'t see this coming too." Balmung smiled and comforted Ian.

Leon didn\'t say anything, instead he just silently observed the situation below. He was just making sure that the crowd won\'t fall into too much disorder after what happened.

"Anyway." Balmung interjected, "Let\'s not make the brats wait and finish the deliberation. I\'d say they are truly fit to be included in the Genius Class. How about you two?"

"I agree with Crown Prince\'s decision." Leon said in a low voice.

"I too, agree with the decision. Another unanimous decision." Ian smiled and sent a voice transmission to Carl. "The brats passed the test. Announce their inclusion to the Genius Class."

As the transmission made it\'s way to Carl\'s ears, he smiled widely and smacked his cane to gather the attention of the crowd.

"The deliberation was made. I announce, Anne Fiore, Mark Anderson, Ellen Redcrest, Paul Gregory, Luna Moonsong and Vendrick Valorheart passed all of the pre-requisites to be a part of the Genius Class! Everyone, let\'s give them a warm round of applause for their splendid performance!"

As Carl announced this the whole stadium shook and waves of cheers and applause echoed to each corner of the place.

The crew gave them a curt bow and high-fived with each other. All of them felt refreshed and lively, like a huge boulder was lifted off from their shoulders. As they turned around, they saw their parents smiling and clapping along with he crowd. The team dispersed and went to their families to celebrate for a bit. Even Balmung, who worn a disguise welcomed Luna along with Old Lee who felt incredibly proud of the little princess.

Luna smiled on the surface, but in her heart there was a tinge of jealousy whenever she looked at the happy smiles of her friends with their parents. This was not to he mistaken that she wasn\'t happy, in fact she\'s incredibly thankful that her brother took some time out of his bust schedule to be here. But it would be nicer if her parents were here too.

"Come on, don\'t make that face." Balmung pinched the cheeks of his little sister. "They might not be here but they know what\'s going on. I recorded your performance and sent it to them. Mom will surely see it, as for Dad well…we\'ll know once he gets back. Nevertheless, we\'re proud of you, alright?"

"Mn." Luna bit her lips and smiled, "Thanks big brother."

***

The promotional tests, were over. The news about the students who were successfully added to the Genius Class was spread in every part of the the kingdom.

As the commoners fervently talked about the events that occured in the stadium. Most of the people who were a part of the influential backgrounds made a conclusive reports of what happened to their superiors.

The nobles, merchants, militants and even the royalties paid close attention to this event. Making it to the Genius Class is a huge deal for them since they are looking at the prospective members along their ranks. If they maintained a splendid performance in the Genius Class then their futures would be limitless, so it\'s safe to say that this people are now preparing to plan on what to do.

"Is this true?"

At one part of the inner court of the kingdom, a man kneeled in front of an elderly who was sitting on a fancy couch while re-reading the report that he made.

"Yes, Clan Head. I swear to the heavens that my report is true."

Hearing the man\'s pledge, the elder\'s eyes flashed a trace of coldness. His expression was twisted into an ugly grimace as he whispered: "So the little rascal of that deserter finally bared his fangs huh? Very well. Don\'t think that I\'ve forgotten how much suffering you brought to us you piece of shit. I will make sure that your life would be a living hell once you step in here."

The elder sneered with a malicious expression as he crumpled the report using his bare hands.

***

Beyond the great walls of the Final Haven Kingdom, several kilometers deep into the Forbidden Woods. There is a great cave that lead deep down into a chasm of darkness.

In a table filled stained with blood, five hooded figures gathered, there are no other lights aside from those \'candles\' lit the skull stand.

"…and that concludes the recent report of what happened in the kingdom my Prince."

A hooded figure just finished talking, he politely leaned back to his chair awaiting for his superior\'s words.

"Thirteen year olds and stepped into a Marrow Cleansing Realm huh?"

A deep and gritty voice echoed in the corners of the room, there was this natural coldness into his voice that cannot be concealed. For a brief period of time, the only sound that could be heard in the room was the continuous tapping of his fingers on the table.

"Continue monitoring them for now. If they ever so shine with a brilliant resplendence, we will snuff them out as early as possible. They are not allowed to grow up to be our next headache."

"Affirmative, Demon Prince."

The hooded figures retreated back into the darkness, leaving the Demon Prince alone. His fingers were still tapping on the table, after a while of silence, a whisper escaped from his mouth.

"Nearly there...nearly there...."