"Keep your distance! Use Glintstone Pebbles to wear it down!"
Rumble!
A giant crawfish, two stories tall, brandished a pair of massive claws. It hissed shrilly as it pursued the rider, churning up mud and shattering trees and stones in its wake.
Raven pulled the reins, nimbly dodging a falling trunk. With a flick of his wrist, he leveled a glintstone staff, and a sphere of brilliant azure light shot from its tip.
Facing this small orb of light, the aggressive crawfish acted with surprising caution. It crossed its claws to shield its head and neck.
BOOM!
The impact sounded like a cannon blast. Even as its dozen legs scrambled frantically through the dirt, the creature couldn't halt its momentum. It was blown back two or three meters, leaving a deep furrow in the ground, and several cracks webbed across its claws. The crawfish screeched, moving laterally with an agility that defied its massive bulk to dodge a second Glintstone Pebble.
Raven circled on horseback, firing orb after orb. Even a beast as ferocious as this giant crawfish was forced into a Z-shaped approach, using trees and boulders as cover while it pursued him. Only when absolutely necessary would it raise its claws to block a projectile, refusing to take a direct hit to its torso.
Because of this, however, it stood no chance of catching Raven. He easily kept it at a distance, steadily accumulating an advantage. As the eighth Glintstone Pebble found its mark, white ichor sprayed from a large fissure in one of the creature's battered claws. It was clear that a few more hits would shatter it completely.
At that moment, Raven broke through the treeline, and the stone walls of a ruin appeared before him. He was forced to pull tight on the reins. His pony slowed abruptly, preparing to wheel around.
The crawfish lowered its claws, its small eyes gleaming with malice. Suddenly, it spat a massive jet of high-pressure water. It seemed the beast had known the location of the stone wall all along, deliberately herding Raven into a corner.
Raven gasped. He could still leap from the saddle to dodge, but his pony, caught mid-turn, would surely die. Making a split-second decision, he manifested a shimmering azure shield in his left hand, angling it to meet the water jet.
The force of the collision was immense. Raven was sent flying from the horse's back, snapping two tree trunks before slamming into the stone wall ten meters away. However, the water jet had been deflected; the pony was only caught in the aftershock, rolling across the ground before scrambling back to its feet.
The crawfish hissed triumphantly. It charged toward the ruins, kicking up two walls of mud behind it. It raised its claws high, intent on crushing this pesky insect along with the very stone he was embedded in.
Suddenly, a series of muffled thwips rang out. The crawfish's movements froze.
Seconds later, its body listed to one side and collapsed heavily, sending a massive spray of water into the air.
Deeply embedded in a massive crater on the crawfish's back were three shimmering blue greatswords. They had pierced almost entirely through the beast, its central nervous system shredded.
Greatblade Phalanx. A Carian royal sorcery that forms a semi-circle of giant glintstone blades to automatically track and strike foes. Even as Raven had been weaving the magic shield, he had used a dual-casting technique to prepare this spell.
Thinking its scheme had succeeded, the crawfish had charged in for the kill, completely failing to notice the three magic blades floating behind it. It had already suffered a direct hit from a Glintstone Pebble at the start of the fight, leaving its carapace weakened; now, with three greatswords striking that same spot, it was dead instantly.
Raven struggled to pull himself out of the stone wall, leaving a man-shaped indentation behind. The magic shield had absorbed most of the water jet's impact, but since he wasn't wearing armor, hitting the rock with his back still hurt. His breath tasted faintly of iron.
The crawfish remained motionless, seemingly dead for good. But Raven dared not underestimate this vicious, cunning beast. He raised his staff and condensed another Glintstone Pebble, preparing to finish it off.
Suddenly, the ground began to tremble.
An earthquake?
Before Raven could react, a shout rang out from the distance: "Watch the ground!"
Raven's expression shifted. He realized something was about to burst from the earth. With no time for anything else, he crouched low and lunged upward.
Just as he leaped, a massive pincer snapped out of the ground, narrowly missing the soles of his boots. Raven kicked off the pincer, using the momentum to jump even higher.
With an intimidating roar, a giant crab crawled out of the marsh. Its size was no smaller than the carcass of the crawfish nearby.
Raven began to fall from the peak of his jump, and the giant crab was already waving its claws, waiting at his landing point. He dropped his staff and drew a light greatsword from his waist. Gripping the hilt with both hands, he poured every ounce of his strength into a thrust aimed at the oncoming claw.
The pincer swung with a sonic boom, a ring of mist exploding from its edges like a supersonic fighter jet slamming into him. Raven gritted his teeth, his grip on the sword remaining steady.
Suddenly, there was a violent flash and a deafening roar. If the pincer's sonic boom was comparable to a fighter jet, this sound was like a low-flying aircraft carrier!
Raven landed on the ground unscathed, his ears ringing and his vision a blur of white. By the time his sight partially recovered, the giant crab was flipped onto its back, its pincers and eight legs twitching frantically toward the sky.
A glowing great-arrow was buried deep within the crab's cephalothorax. While Raven was still dazed, a silver-armored knight swept past him like the wind. A silver war sickle trailed behind her, carving a brutal path through the center of the crab's eyes.
The knight reigned in her horse and raised her sickle, unleashing a savage flurry of seven or eight more strikes until the crab finally stopped moving entirely.
"Your Highness, are you injured?" The silver knight turned back, her voice laced with desperate anxiety. "Let me see where you are hurt! Please, mount my horse; I will take you back to Raya Lucaria for treatment immediately!"
"I'm not hurt, sorry for worrying you." Raven stood up shakily and whistled for his pony. "Miyu, come!"
To prove he was fine, Raven flipped himself onto the pony's back. "I'm okay. See? It's all about the core strength—ow!"
With a thud, Raven slid off the other side of the horse.
"And you still claim to be fine!" Without another word, the knight leaned down, hoisted Raven up by the back of his collar, and carefully placed him in front of her in the saddle. "We are returning now."
"Loretta, I'm really not injured... though thank you for that arrow. It saved me." With the back of his head pressed painfully against the knight's hard breastplate, Raven gave a bitter smile.
He truly wasn't injured; it was just that Loretta's strike had detonated so close to him that the shockwave had rattled his equilibrium, leaving him dizzy. But if he admitted the reason for the dizziness, Loretta would only blame herself more.
After poking and prodding him all over, Loretta finally exhaled in relief when she found no obvious wounds or signs of fractures.
"I am at fault for agreeing to this venture. You should not be putting yourself in danger. Even if a demigod can return to the Erdtree and be reborn, the state after resurrection..."
"Without people, there is no king. This monster devoured the subjects of Caria. If a king cannot protect his people, then the king has no reason to exist," Raven said. "I am simply too weak. Strength comes from actual combat. I will be more careful in the future."
"Your Highness, why be so hard on yourself? You are only three years old, yet you have mastered such skills. Even for a demigod, this rate of growth would shock the world if it were known."
Raven coughed heavily. "I was born three years ago, but I'm not just three years old! I was asleep in that Amber Egg for many years. You have to count that time."
"Yes, yes, Your Highness is not three." Loretta ruffled Raven's black hair, not even bothering to hide her patronizing, "indulging-a-child" tone.
"Guh—" Raven rested his forehead in his hand but didn't argue further. For one, arguing would only make him seem more like a child; for another, his current height and physique lacked any persuasive power whatsoever.
In truth, the character Raven had designed wasn't that short, and he had grown a bit in the three years since his birth. Unfortunately, the people of the Lands Between were all height-monsters. Heroes and demigods started at two or three meters tall, and four or five meters wasn't uncommon. With Raven's build, he was perhaps only slightly taller than the rumored "Unalloyed" Miquella, who was said to be eternally young.
A classic Soulslike midget... I'll just have to get used to it.
Loretta seemed to struggle with her words for a while before saying hesitantly, "Forgive my overstepping, but Your Highness is truly pushing too hard. I do not understand why it is necessary to be so desperate. With your noble demigod bloodline, even if you did nothing at all, in a hundred years your power would not be inferior to mine."
"A hundred years? That's too long." Raven smiled. "I need at least some ability to protect myself."
"Your Highness! Under the brilliance of the Full Moon, Carian rule is as stable as Mount Gelmir. We, the Eighteen Carian Knights, have sworn to be your sword and shield. we shall strike down all malice before it even reaches your sight. You can trust us completely!"
Loretta choked up, and after a long silence, she spoke softly. "You seem filled with such deep concern, driving yourself so hard... it makes me—makes all of us—very uneasy."
"I trust you. I trust you more than I trust myself. But..." Raven didn't know how to explain it.
Hundreds of years ago, Queen Marika established the laws of Golden Order Fundamentalism. Her chosen consort, Godfrey, raised the banner of the Erdtree and led armies to defeat the Ancient Dragons and annihilate the Giants, seeking to unify the continent of the Lands Between.
As the rulers of the Liurnia region, the Carian Kingdom faced invasion by Radagon, a hero of the Golden Order. They repelled him twice, losing not a single inch of territory.
Following that, the Full Moon Queen and Radagon fell in love on the battlefield. Radagon married into the family as Rennala's consort, and Caria nominally submitted to the Erdtree, bringing an end to the war—though despite this, the Carian Kingdom treated commands from Leyndell as if they were non-existent.
After raising three children together, Radagon betrayed Rennala. He returned to Leyndell to marry Queen Marika, while the Queen's original husband, Godfrey, was banished. From then on, Rennala locked herself in the Grand Library of Raya Lucaria, falling into a deep slumber as she cradled the "Unborn" child within the Amber Egg—until Raven was born.
This was the history known to the world.
Despite such a complex background, the Lands Between were currently in an era of peace and prosperity. The Full Moon Queen served as the head of the Academy of Raya Lucaria, and no force dared challenge her authority. Radagon and the Queen might have had a falling out, but the Golden Order had neither the will nor the ability to conquer Caria; the price of war would be the destabilization of their rule over the entire continent.
But Raven knew that the world would not remain peaceful. The cinematic trailers had foreshadowed everything—the laws of Queen Marika would crumble like a child's sandcastle on a beach, and her own body would be no different. The Lands Between would fall into a dark, hopeless future where people slaughtered one another just to survive, and all glorious civilizations would be reduced to ruins.
He didn't know how these things would happen, or when—perhaps in ten years, perhaps in a hundred or a thousand, perhaps tomorrow—but it was destined to happen. The Full Moon Queen might fade into the background of history, or she might become a mindless boss to be slain by a protagonist.
Living together day and night for three years, he had come to see Rennala as his mother. If destiny had given him this warmth only to cruelly snatch it away again—then he would strangle that cruel fate with his own two hands.
Whatever the cost.
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Elden Ring: The Unborn One's Journey Through Elden Ring(21 Chapter - Ongoing)
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