Bear School Astartes

Henrik and Mark, as usual, found a place as a meeting point and gathered before nightfall.

Two young men with not much experience, one became a formal Hunter, and the other joined the Church Hunters.

Although there are not many beastly patients now, the Hunters teaming up would actually cause a waste of defense power and a reduction in the defense area, but no one said much about it.

After meeting, the two merely raised their hands to each other, which counted as a greeting.

Even without saying a word, this was considered an enthusiastic greeting among Yan’an’s Hunters.

The moon gradually rose, and the broad moonlight was divided by Yan’an’s tall and sharp Gothic architecture spires.

"Same as before."

Henrik said as he moved the wrist holding the meat saw.

The Old Hunters were not used to such improved new weapons, but Henrik felt this thing was far more useful than the old-fashioned weapons.

Mark nodded silently and added fuel to the flamethrower in his hand.

Beastly patients generally fear fire, so Church Hunters also proficiently use flames.

And the weapon Mark used for melee combat didn’t match his usual calm and aloof demeanor— it was a massive stone hammer!

[Church Stone Hammer].

The stone hammer strapped behind Mark, the overall hammer was a giant stone block nearly half a cubic meter, with complex floral script carving various maxims and scriptures of the Healing Church on the hammer’s face.

Such a large stone must weigh between a ton to a ton and a half.

This size hammerhead was only a circle smaller than those of the New Continent Expedition Team Hunters.

But as a Church Hunter enhanced by [Blood Therapy], Mark could handle such a heavyweight weapon.

And the hammer’s handle was actually a sword sheath, which housed a simple yet practical one-handed sword.

In this peaceful night, just pulling out the one-handed sword should suffice.

Yes, ’peaceful night’.

Henrik and Mark spent most of their time at night patrolling.

In today’s Yan’an, the emerging plague of grey blood disease seems to infuse more fear than the ancient beastly disease.

Finding the beastly patients was even more difficult than hunting them.

Henrik had even discussed with Mark, preparing to split up for better training in a few days.

Otherwise, there was truly no target to practice with.

Fortunately, today their luck was good.

In a dark and damp alley, stepping on a layer of hazy cold mist pressed close to the ground, the two Hunters walked inside.

Similar to the first meeting between the young Henrik and Lann, but this time, the torch dispelled the darkness, revealing two tall and thin shadowy figures deep within the alley.

Typical beastly patients.

Resilient yet coarse black hair grew lush and even broke through the clothing, twisting and elongating their bodies to over two meters under the affliction of the beastly disease.

Dirty bandages were wrapped around their faces.

It seemed to be used to cover the black hair on their faces before the disease progressed this far.

At that time, they should still have retained some sanity.

But now, in Yan’an’s age-old customs, they were no longer considered human.

Henrik asked, "One each?"

Mark answered, "Quite fair."

In this peaceful night, even inexperienced Hunters had to allocate their prey to get some practice.

Mark always acted swiftly and decisively.

First, he used the flamethrower in his hand to spray flames into the face of the beastly patient across, making it stagger before following up with his right hand’s one-handed sword slashing down.

This beastly patient was still in the early stage of the disease, which hadn’t granted it strong life force.

So Mark, with one sword stroke, chopped off half the raised hand trying to block, cut off a section of the forearm with the second sword, and severed its neck with the third.

This was considered unskilled among Hunters.

Normally, the successful distraction of flame at first sight would directly lead to the execution process for a Yan Nan Hunter.

But Mark took three swings to end the beastly patient’s movement.

Yet just as Mark was contemplating the flaws in his technique, Henrik was still not done.

The Hunter’s firearm rang repeatedly, but the beastly patient across didn’t seem much injured.

Finally, the gunfire in the alley ceased for a moment.

Under the perfectly timed impact of a shot, the beastly patient revealed stiffness in its whole body, lost control, and nearly fell to its knees.

Henrik apparently hadn’t expected the shot to be effective; he had aimed entirely by chance.

Hurriedly, he rushed from the shooting range to close quarters, intending to thrust the iron-cased fingertips glove into the beastly patient’s chest and belly.

But it was already too late; the imbalance and broken posture from the firearm’s impact had already passed.

By the time Henrik got close, the patient was standing again.

Regrettably, facing the beastly patient’s aggressive counterattack, Henrik’s meat saw flashed and chopped off one of its hands.

The beastly patient rolled on the ground, out of balance, howling.

"You didn’t add blood to the bullets?"

Mark walked over to Henrik, frowned, and asked.

Ordinary bullets have little effect on Yan’an’s terrifying beasts; only mercury bullets mixed with blood are truly effective.

If the quality of the blood is particularly high, the damage becomes even more pronounced.

And just now, Henrik fired his Hunter’s Firearm without hesitation, yet the beast-transformed patient across didn’t die no matter how many shots were fired.

Clearly, those weren’t specialized mercury bullets.

"It’s expressly forbidden to hunt with ordinary bullets."

Mark recited the rule.

"I’ve got mercury bullets." Henrik sarcastically retorted while giving a pat to his waist pouch, "But since I finally encountered a good practice target, I can’t just let it go."

"There are fewer and fewer beast-transformed patients now."

Henrik ended with a touch of melancholic sentiment.

"Of course there’ll be fewer." Mark matter-of-factly replied, "The Healing Church has developed ’Blood Therapy,’ and we can save everyone."

"Once the Grey Blood disease passes, the beast transformation plaguing Yan’an will be overcome, sooner or later."

Speaking, Mark patted the Church Stone Hammer behind him.

"That’s also why I joined the Church Hunter. Ordinary hunters clearing beast transformations will eventually have no work."

Henrik was already used to his friend’s overt and covert attempts to persuade him to join the Church Hunter.

He shook his head and said, "We’ll talk about that when the time comes; I prefer a bit more freedom. The Church’s rules are too strict."

As he spoke, the young hunter squinted his eyes caught between a triangular hat and a mask.

Taking out a mercury bullet from his waist pouch, he loaded it into the emptied Hunter’s Firearm.

Then, stepping on the cold mist and beast-stinking blood on the ground, he moved forward and pressed the muzzle against the skull of the wailing beast-transformed patient.

This beast-transformed patient had lost an arm, making it difficult for him to stand, thus losing his value as a ’practice target.’

Hence, Henrik directly loaded a mercury bullet, planning to blow its brains out.

Meanwhile, beside Henrik, Mark had already turned around out of boredom, ready to leave the dim alley and continue their nocturnal patrol.

But just as the tranquil night was about to continue...

"Tap-"

"Click."

The sound of Mark’s boot stepping on the damp ground, combined with the surprising grip on the Hunter’s Firearm handle by Henrik, suddenly rang out simultaneously.

A hunter’s steps should be light and swift; they only heavily step if they’re out of control.

A hunter’s gun handling is refined; they seek to trigger quickly and won’t grip the gun too tightly like a novice, which would make them shoot inaccurately and slowly.

Henrik and Mark simultaneously making noises they shouldn’t have, can only mean that at this moment... they both lost control!

And it wasn’t just them, nor was it just this alley!

An abrupt, sudden silence covered the entire Yan’an.

Everyone realized something happened, but most didn’t know what exactly.

Just a heavy, fear-inducing emotion suddenly settled onto their hearts.

And after this brief moment...

"Roar!!!"

The previously dead silent Yan City suddenly erupted with deafening beast roars!

Henrik and Mark, two young hunters, were discussing just a minute ago about the increasingly rare beast transformation cases in Yan’an and what hunters might do in the future.

But a minute later, the roars of beast-transformed patients seemed to arise instantly from all corners of Yan’an!

Omnipresent! They’re everywhere!

And the closest, undoubtedly... right in front of them!

Henrik’s eyes caught between the triangular hat and the mask suddenly widened in horror.

Because right before him, pushed by his Hunter’s Firearm and missing an arm, the beast-transformed patient...

In the blink of an eye, it completed the long process of beast transformation deterioration!

In the previous second, it was just a lightly beast-transformed patient with its face wrapped in grimy bandages, dressed in ill-fitting suit jackets and undershirts, barely concealing the clustered black fur.

But in the next second...

The ’tsss’ sound was accompanied by the stout, coarse black fur tearing apart clothes and bandages!

The sound of skeletal and flesh being violently distorted by beast transformation, as the whole process happened too briefly, sounded like someone’s skeleton and flesh being smashed at once!

Limbs that still had a human-like appearance turned into more skeletal, longer claws and reverse jointed legs.

The abdominal flesh completely vanished, and the ribcage covered in black fur moved grotesquely in the air.

"Boom!"

The muzzle’s flash ignited!

Despite his shock, Henrik seized the opportunity amidst his surprise to fire immediately!

The Hunter’s Firearm already at the opponent’s head fired the mercury bullet infused with hunter blood.