"Loretta." Raven sheathed his sword, the silhouettes of the Ancient Dragons and the four Black Blade Kindred framed against the distant Erdtree canopy reflected in his eyes.
"I will do my best to hold one of them off," Loretta said grimly. A shimmering cerulean greatbow formed from condensed glintstone mana appeared in her hand, and a massive, glowing arrow was notched to the string. Even if she were here in her physical body, she wouldn't be entirely certain of defeating a Black Blade Kindred; in her current spirit form, merely stalling one was the limit of her capability.
"Wait!" Raven leaped up lightly, gripping the bow's arm with one hand as he leaned in to whisper his plan into Loretta's ear.
"No one could pull that off," Loretta's eyes widened in shock. "Even for you, Your Highness—"
"Trust me." Raven squeezed himself onto the horse's back behind her. A pale, azure crystal began to condense in his palm, creeping up his sleeve and encasing his arm. "Go. I'm ready."
Raven's hair whipped in the breeze. Loretta caught the faint, sharp scent of Fulgurbloom, reminiscent of the air on a crisp morning following a thunderstorm.
"Does Your Highness remember the night Astel attacked? We were much like this then, weren't we?"
"Yeah." Raven allowed himself a nostalgic smile. He remembered it vividly. That night, he had shared a horse with Loretta, wandering through the darkened streets of Raya Lucaria. He had been clutching a forbidden book borrowed from the Grand Library, excitedly rambling about a grand discovery, when malice from the outer reaches of the cosmos descended from the sky.
Back then, he could only watch as Loretta challenged the Fallingstar Beast. The only thing he could do was steady her trembling arm as she drew her bow. When she eventually collapsed from exhaustion, he had been utterly powerless. He had never hated his own weakness and insignificance more than in that moment.
Had it not been for Astel's attack, perhaps everything that followed would have been different. He would have grown up in the Carian court, living a tranquil, happy life at the Academy. His greatest worries would have been final exams or petty squabbles between classmates. The Battle of Windmill Village, the Mt. Gelmir rebellion, and the Scarlet Rot attack on the Royal Capital—all of it would have been mere distant rumors, idle gossip to be shared over dinner in the Great Hall.
Of course, he wasn't the only one whose fate was upended that night, and he was among the fortunate survivors.
Streets and buildings had been reduced to rubble. Citizens were jolted from their sleep, fleeing in their nightclothes under the guidance of equally panicked guards. Countless families were buried forever beneath the ruins. Even when Raven woke up days later and hurried through the Academy corridors, he could still see the rows of obituaries pinned to the walls, featuring the faces of many familiar classmates.
"But now, I am capable of protecting others, rather than just being protected." He gripped the massive arrowhead with both hands, fusing the crystal on his arms to the shaft. His voice sounded heavy and muffled beneath the crystal mask covering his face. "Draw the bow, Loretta!"
The beastmen noticed Loretta's movement and lunged forward. Rya drew the shortsword Lansseax had given her, standing firm to block their path.
Clang!
A dozen metallic impacts merged into a single, ringing note that vibrated through the air. Malenia executed an elegant mid-air pirouette, landing on one foot with a dancer's grace. Her prosthetic blade pointed diagonally toward the earth as a trail of afterimages slowly dissipated.
Around her, fourteen beastmen were sent reeling back to their starting positions, and the rest of the pack halted in their tracks.
"This matter does not concern you, Malenia the Severed," the lead beastman spat, eyeing a fresh notch in his great curved sword where her blade had struck.
"Order the Black Blade Kindred to stand down," Malenia said, flicking her blade clean. "I will not permit you to disrupt this expedition."
Before the beastman could respond, Loretta released the string. Raven, his hands fused to the magical giant arrow, shattered the air with a sudden burst of velocity, soaring into the sky.
If anyone else had tried to grip Loretta's arrow with their bare hands, they would have had the flesh stripped from their palms or had their arms torn off like a rag doll's. But Raven used crystal sorcery to distribute the crushing pressure of the acceleration across his entire body, flying out like a bolt of steel cast into the arrow itself.
The crystal covering his skin instantly spider-webbed with countless cracks. It felt as though a massive hammer had slammed into his chest; his vision blurred, and the iron tang of blood filled his mouth.
Forcing down the nausea and pain, Raven kept his eyes wide. Through the fractured crystal, he watched the Black Blade Kindred draw closer with terrifying speed.
The Black Blade Kindred thrust its Gargoyle's Black Halberd, striking the arrowhead dead-on. A flash of light exploded at the point of impact, and a violent storm of magic swept across the sky—but the figure clinging to the arrow vanished like a phantom, leaving only a cloud of falling crystal shards.
Sensing Raven's presence appearing directly behind it, the Black Blade Kindred snapped its wings shut to protect its back, preparing to spin and cleave him in two the very next second.
Using Bloodhound's Step to blink behind the creature in mid-air, Raven knew he had no footing and wouldn't get a second chance to maneuver. He took a deep breath. He didn't draw a sword or a staff; instead, he drove a single fist into the center of the creature's wings.
"Foolish whelp," the lead beastman sneered, dismissing the interruption. He turned and leaped onto the last Black Blade Kindred remaining on the ground. "Priests, mount up! Prepare Bestial Sling magic for support. We must ground those two Ancient Dragons!"
He received no response—only a collective, hushed gasp from his subordinates.
A Black Blade Kindred was growing larger and larger in everyone's vision, plummeting diagonally from the sky. Its massive body tumbled through the air before crashing into the earth a hundred meters away, carving a long, jagged trench into the soil.
At the end of the furrow, it staggered to its feet like a drunkard, only to be tripped by its own weight and collapse again in a cloud of dust.
"Impossible! Not even Lord Godfrey could bring down a Black Blade Kindred so swiftly!" the beastman roared, just as a second gargoyle came crashing down from the heavens.
Raven clung to the base of the gargoyle's wings, his coattails flapping violently in the wind. He squinted at the only two remaining Kindred in the sky, noting that they had already pulled back, denying him any opportunity to leap to them.
The creature beneath him began to thrash, beating its wings in a desperate attempt to regain balance. Raven drove an elbow down into its spine. Ochre Flame seeped into the cracks of its stone hide, triggering a violent reaction from the corpse-wax power within the creature, forcing it back into a head-over-heels descent.
Against an ordinary gargoyle, Raven wouldn't have had such an easy time. But the Black Blade Kindred had served Maliketh for eons; their corpse-wax was saturated with the aura of the Rune of Death. Faced with a sudden manifestation of the Law of Death, they immediately spiraled into a total loss of control.
Raven adjusted the Longtail Cat Talisman on his chest, bracing for the impact of the landing, when a massive dragon claw reached out from the side. He pursed his lips and kicked off the gargoyle's back, leaping into the waiting grasp.
"See, sister? This is my Blade—the Blade of Lansseax." Cupping Raven in her claw, Lansseax placed him atop her head, boasting to Fortissax with immense pride. "Impressive, isn't he?"
"Your 'Blade' looks very displeased," Fortissax observed.
"Eh? Really?" Lansseax strained to focus her eyes on Raven. Her ruby-like pupils went cross-eyed, and she nearly collided with her sister in her daze.
"Land. Now," Raven said with a stony expression. "Ignore the remaining Black Blade Kindred. They've learned their lesson."
Support me here: https://[email protected]/AuAuMon
Elden Ring: The Unborn One's Journey Through Elden Ring(192 Chapter - Ongoing)
Join the journey and become part of the story!