The arena was silent for a moment, save for the distant murmurs of the crowd still reeling from Rufus's repeated humiliation. But then—
"CRUSH HIM!"
Rufus's roar snapped everyone back to the present.
The nine remaining fighters stepped forward in unison, their eyes locked onto Raven. Some had smirks, others were cautious, but all shared one thing—resolve.
Raven, however, relaxedly twirled Rufus's badge between his fingers, tossing it once into the air before tucking it away. His eyes scanned the incoming enemies, absorbing their formations and reading their intentions before a single step was taken.
Among the remaining nine people were three from the Ros Vaise family—Rufus's goons.
They seemed shocked by Rufus's elimination but weren't deterred. To them, it looked like Rufus was taken by surprise, and Raven had just made use of a moment.
'They'll surely use the blood trail steps,' Raven observed as he saw how all three stood separately, ready to jump on him.
His eyes then turn toward the four children of the Wal Vaise family.
Among them was Jessy, their most notable warrior.
Unlike the Ros Vaise fighters, the Wal Vaise valued coordination over brute force. Their techniques emphasized precision, leveraging their clan's famed control over movement and momentum.
'So they want to focus on defenses, huh?' Raven noted, finally turning to the last group of people.
There were only two of them, both from the Von Vaise family, the one Raven himself came from.
They should've been standing on his side since he was the son of their patriarch, yet they stood against him. Not because of personal hatred, but because he lacked backing—something worth more than anything.
Their stance was clear: they didn't want to offend Raven's enemies in his own family by siding with him.
Unlike the branch family members, however, they were tense because they knew the truth about the rumors surrounding Raven.
They knew that none of them was a lie.
Then—
BANG!
The first attack came.
The Ros Vaise siblings moved. The three of them pushed in unison, their attacks coordinated.
"Although we can't see the red light yet, it is the blood trail steps," one of the instructors muttered as he saw them move. The others nodded, all eyes focused on Raven, curious how he would respond.
They saw it soon.
"What?!"
To their surprise, Raven rushed at them head-on, ignoring the others, who were still cautious.
"That's the worst way to counter blood trail steps!" An instructor frowned, wondering what Raven was doing, but Raven, who heard those words, grinned.
'It sure is the worst way,' Raven thought with his fist moving toward the first guy, who scoffed, confident in his moves, ready to dodge at the last moment.
After all, the blood trail steps, which made one move swiftly like flowing blood, were faster than any physical attack.
"Blood trail steps are the fastest—" the boy in the lead mocked, only to have his voice cut short as Raven's fist reached his face. "—Gah!!!"
Whoosh—Baam!
'If we are talking about people with similar statistics, that is.' Raven completed his thoughts, his fist hitting square on the guy's face, sending him rolling back.
"The Ros family's future looks bleak with you all being the leading figures of the upcoming generation," he added when he saw the remaining two coming at him with more force instead of backing off and strategizing.
"Shut the fuck up—!" Roared one of them as he reached close to Raven, confident about his attack since he was just a hand away from him, but Raven just sighed.
BASH!
"Man, all of you speak a lot, only to have your words cut short," he said, yawning as the second warrior of the Ros Vaise flew back, his body landing on the guy who was knocked out before.
Swoosh!
"Oh?" Raven raised his brow in surprise as he saw the last Ros Vaise trying to sweep him off the ground, his feet about to hit Raven's shin.
"Nice try," Raven admitted, his leg muscles coiling, and before the guy could hit him, he attacked, his kick landing on the guy's stomach.
BAM!
"But too bad, it won't work on me."
The guy was sent sliding, crashing into the bodies of the other two of the Ros Vaise, all of them unconscious.
With that, the Ros family was taken care of, and Raven, ignoring Rufus's curses, turned to look at Jessy, who seemed to have finally decided to make a move.
"Good," he nodded, his foot slamming into the ground as he rushed forward again. "I was getting tired of dealing with those guys, anyway."
Jessy, who was taking the lead, ordered. "Don't break the formation!"
She knew her enemy was out of her league.
Raven was too strong for them alone.
No matter what she thought before, she now knew that the rumor about him surviving in the mana baptism for ten minutes was true.
There was no other way to explain his monstrous strength.
But that didn't mean she would admit defeat. If she wanted to do that, then she would never have agreed to Rufus's order.
Like others, she knew that defeating Raven was only possible in a group, and the family that was the best in group formations was hers—the Wal Vaise family.
The formation they were using was the one that every child of the Wal Vaise family was taught first.
The Iron Wall Formation. It was the simplest yet the base of all other formations in the family.
"They're quite good," an instructor commented, breaking out of his shock from the instantaneous defeat of the Ros Vaise.
"Yeah. They aren't moving like children," another instructor agreed.
A Wal Vaise instructor then puffed his chest. "Of course they are good. All children of our family are taught perfection."
Taking a pause, basking in the gazes of other instructors, he continued. "If that was not enough, Miss Jessy, known to be among the best geniuses of our family, is also there."
There was pride in his voice when he talked about Jessy, and it wasn't uncalled for since even Raven knew how good Jessy was.
'Let's see if you can force me to use my trump card,' Raven thought, his kick flying toward Jessy, only to hit empty air.
Woosh!
Jessy was pulled away by another player in her group, the distance between her and him increasing, but that wasn't all, as instantly, a guy flanked him from the side.
"Quite good," Raven muttered, ducking under the boy's kick, avoiding it by an inch.
But before he could counterattack, the guy was pulled back as well.
The hit-and-run tactic—that's what they were using.
Since they were in a group, they wanted to tire Raven out using their numerical advantage.
"This would be annoying in the long run," Raven muttered, realizing the point, but then he just shrugged. "I guess I'll just take some hits."
With that, he pushed forward, right in the range of the Wal Vaise family's children, who didn't miss the chance and lunged at him.
Fwoosh! Swoosh!
In just a second, there were two fists and two kicks flying at him.
It was a situation where others would start panicking, wondering how to avoid so many attacks, but Raven didn't even flinch.
"Heh."
He just smirked and braced for impact.
BAAM! X4
All four attacks hit, but before they could celebrate, Jessy's eyes widened.
"Retreat!" She yelled, withdrawing her fists with a jerk and jumping back.
However, not everyone was lucky enough.
"Shit—!"
One of them—a boy—cursed as he found his foot, which should've smashed Raven's face, was held tightly in his palm.
He tried to break free, but Raven's grip was like iron. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't free himself, and then...
Smash!
"—GAHH!" With a punch straight to his face, he was sent flying toward the unconscious Ros Vaise children.
"That's one out," Raven dusted his hands, cracking his neck as he stared at Jessy and her remaining team.
But just then...
Woosh! X2
A punch and a kick flew right at him. Using his instincts, he avoided one, but the other he couldn't.
"Damn..." He muttered as he caressed the sore spot on his rib where the kick had landed. "You guys sure are good at sneaking up."
It was the Von Vaise duo.
The two of them seemed to be in cahoots with Wal Vaise because the moment they saw their attack fail, they joined Jessy's group.
It seemed that while Raven was dealing with the Ros Vaise, both Wal Vaise and Von Vaise had made battle plans, landing a perfect hit on Raven.
"Is that the phantom step?" Raven muttered, staring at the duo of the Von Vaise family, and after exchanging a glance, they nodded their heads.
'If only my father had been a bit dependable, even I could've learned it,' Raven sighed, understanding why the original Raven hated his father.
Despite being the son of the patriarch of the Von Vaise family, Raven was never taught any martial arts of the family.
Alex, Clara, and Jake, who became his teammates, were stripped of that right as well.
All of that because his talent made him a thorn for the patriarch's other children. They couldn't kill him in the family, not after the first attempt failed, but they could still obstruct him like this.
The worst thing was that, because his mother had supposedly died, he had no one to support him.
Gritting his teeth, Raven cracked his shoulders.
"I was just now reminded of something very unpleasant," he said, his voice calm, but unlike before, it didn't carry a cool tone. "I will get really serious now. Be sure not to get knocked out in one punch."
With those words, Raven decided to finish the fight.