Chapter 36: The Mantis stalks the Cicada, unaware of the Oriole behind

Chapter 36: The Mantis stalks the Cicada, unaware of the Oriole behind "Thank you for your hard work! The Count will be glad when we present the flower to him!" Raven said with a smirk. "You coward! You didn’t dare to fight the Imoogi and came to steal the flower when we are unable to fight!" Jane yelled in fury. "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind!" Raven walked near Jane and looked into her eyes as he said the words with the smirk plastered on his face. "I’m the oriole here, you see! Working hard and working intelligent is where the difference between us lies!" "AARRGHHH!!" anger boiled inside Jordan and he couldn’t endure. He gathered the last bit of his mana and rushed towards Raven with the broken half of his shield. "Tch!! See, that’s called useless effort." Raven clicked his tongue in annoyance. His hands moved as a runic magic circle appeared around his wrist. CRACK!! A wave of immense pressure fell on Jordan as he was pushed down on the floor slamming hard on his face, pieces of rock flew around as the floor broke with his fall. The air in the surrounding turned heavy, no matter how hard he tried. Jordan couldn’t lift his body a single inch, he was plastered to the floor. ’Gravity magic!’ Noah’s eyes opened wide in shock. There was only a single mage in Gemburn who was known for his gravity magic, the second in command of the military, general Vale’s disciple, Raven Merlon. "You dare think of attacking me when even Adriana is useless in front of me!" Raven said solemnly, a trace of anger in his voice. "D-don’t you dare...s-speak my c-captains name from...that f-filthy mouth...of y-yours!" Jordan painfully threw the words out of his mouth under that immense pressure. "I don’t have the patience to argue with you lot!" Raven sighed. "Do anything funny and both the girl and your captain will lose their lives." Just then a metallic clang sound came from where the healing cocoon was. A buffed and muscular bald young man covered in full body armor stomped his huge double edged axe on the floor beside the healing cocoon where Adriana was. He removed his gravity field and Jordan could finally move. But he didn’t move and kept laying down on the floor. He felt helpless and ashamed at his weakness and to protect his captain, he gulped the fury down his throat. "We’re both from the military. Why the hell are you doing this! You’ll face the consequences when the Marshall knows of this!" Jane screamed out. "Hahahaha!! You think such things would work on me?" Raven laughed out loud. "What would he say when he knows that you’ve worked with the adventurers. Do you think he’ll reward you and make you a general or something?" "No! he’ll throw you out of the military! And as for me, results are what matters more than the path taken to achieve that! All will be good when I hand him the flower! Keep complaining and he’ll heed you no mind." Raven smirked and walked away towards the flower. Tears flowed out of Jane’s eyes in frustration. They worked so hard for the flower, almost losing their lives in the process. But everything was being stolen away from them. Raven crouched down towards the flower and pulled a metal coin out from the dimensional ring on his index finger. He channeled mana into the coin and it transformed into a glass dome. Shane was seeing everything, he was furious at Raven and the others who were about to steal the reward they worked so hard for. His mechanical arm morphed into the cannon and a ball of energy started forming in front of him pointed towards Raven. But just when he was about to fire the shot, a boot stomped on his arm, crushing his mechanical arm and breaking the bone. "AAAAAHHHH!!!" Shane screamed in pain. "The captain said no funny business! Didn’t you listen baby boy!" A skinny young man with long green hair tied into a bun wearing a long black coat, a heavy pair of metal boots and a long katana in a black glazing sheath placed on his shoulders said as he scornfully looked down on Shane, stepping on his arm. "SHANE!!" Ruby screamed, trying to rush towards him, but the dagger on her neck inched closer with a threat from the man behind her. "Don’t test my patience!" Tears flowed down her eyes seeing her brother screaming and whimpering in pain, but she was unable to move or heal him. Raven didn’t flinch or look at the screams from his back. The runic circle on his wrist rotated and an anti-gravity field formed where the flower was. the flower was slowly lifted out of the ground and passed through the glass inside the glass dome and kept releasing light as it floated inside it. A smile of satisfaction spread across Raven’s face. He put the dome back inside his ring and started walking back. He stopped near Jordan and looked down at him. "I won’t take the Imoogi. You worked hard to kill it. That’s your reward!" Raven said. Jordan gritted his teeth in anger and was about to curse him when Raven spoke again. "No! no! there’s no need to thank me! You deserve it!" he grinned and started walking away. The others from Raven’s team laughed and left their spots as they followed him to the entrance. The one with the dagger behind Ruby vanished, as if he was never there. Seeing the dagger gone, Ruby ran towards Shane and crouched down on her knees as she started healing his arm. "Tell her to activate the circle, Katsu." Raven said to the green haired man. Katsu nodded and pulled out a smooth egg shaped glistening red stone and tapped on the surface. A ripple spread making the surface black and then he waved his fingers over it. Words formed on it and arranged into a sentence. ’OPEN THE GATE’. He had sent a message to someone. The other party got the message as immediately a huge teleportation circle appeared below them. The man with the dagger appeared out of thin air inside the circle and after a few seconds they vanished together from the spot, leaving only some traces of space magic. Silence filled the air as no one was speaking anything, all had a crestfallen expression on their faces. They were helpless and couldn’t do anything except letting them steal the flower. Noah never left Luke’s side. He kept sitting beside him the whole time. Just then the cocoon started cracking and everyone turned to look towards it.