Bear School Astartes

"What exactly did you summon?"

Lann asked seriously.

At this moment, he felt that his knowledge and experience were not enough.

Because it was clear that the so-called ’gluttonous demon’ now appearing in the Mahakan Mountains was not recorded in history.

The Mahakan Mountains had been the ancient dwelling place of dwarves long before humans landed in the Northern Territory.

The powerful monsters that have appeared here over thousands of years should have been recorded by the dwarves.

But till now, Veltrest, who bears the title of ’Protector of Mahakan’, still hadn’t received any news from the dwarves.

The dwarves themselves were frightened, completely sealing off their fortress in the mountains during this time.

This was enough to show that the creature’s appearance was abrupt and without trace or cause.

Most likely, it was something small-scale brought over by a convergence of spheres.

And once it involves a convergence of spheres... who knows what kind of monster could come from so many worlds?

Even the most knowledgeable monster expert wouldn’t dare to make hasty conclusions before formal contact, not even Vesemir.

"Heh."

The elf woman lying on the ground showed a fierce smile.

The elves of this world lack canines, which scholars from Ossenford once saw as a sign of more complete evolution, further detached from beastliness.

But now, the smiling lips revealed teeth stained red with blood... ferocious as any wild animal.

She said nothing, which was enough to show her attitude.

The beautiful elf woman just lay powerlessly on the ground, laughing mockingly.

"You humans can’t escape."

As she spoke, she spread her legs towards Lann, smiling as she said.

"Come, don’t you want to use me before I die? Am I not beautiful enough?"

Her agile body, strong and powerful thighs were wrapped in tight breeches, showing off graceful curves.

"No, I’m not a beast," Lann shook his head, "and I think you just want to castrate one more human before dying."

She laughed dryly: "Heh... seems like your brain isn’t controlled by your genitals, knowing that people are most vulnerable during climax."

"You even know we are summoning something, seems you did find out a lot. Among monkeys, there are indeed a few smart ones."

Facing the other’s discriminatory remarks, Lann’s expression remained calm.

"Using discrimination to fight discrimination is never wise, madam. Especially when your race is at a disadvantage in strength."

"Now, tell me what exactly you summoned."

The elf woman smiled indifferently: "Are you going to torture me? Go ahead, see if I’m a coward!"

Lann looked at her: "That thing leaves no survivors wherever it goes, and you’re now in the River Valley too."

"Do you think we care?"

"The feeling of death is not as simple as you think, madam," the Demon Hunter said professionally, "even those who commit suicide are most likely to experience instinctual struggles in their dying moments, it’s the nature of living beings."

"And that thing can devour all kinds of creatures, no matter how big or small, over such a large area... I imagine the process is neither pleasant nor straightforward."

At this moment, Lann saw evident, subconscious fear in the elf woman’s eyes.

Undoubtedly, she must have seen it.

And from this performance...

"Are you trying to lure that thing to the Floating Harbor or Haji Fortress?"

Lann suddenly said.

The elf woman froze for a moment, but quickly forced herself to calm down.

"You want to stall Seward’s convoy, but you’ll break away immediately after engaging, heading in another direction. Leaving behind a human convoy that’s spooked, suspicious, and on high alert."

"Then that thing can finish at other places first before finding the convoy, while you manage to escape?"

A clear chain of reasoning unraveled through the collaboration of Mentos and Lann.

The elf woman’s expression also confirmed the correctness of this reasoning.

Lann suddenly understood, although most of the Squirrel Faction warriors were fearless individually out of hatred or incitement.

But as a guerrilla unit, their priority should always be to preserve themselves and their structure.

Only by maintaining the existence of the unit can they have the opportunity to continue fighting later.

For a military unit, mindless, emotionally uncontrolled fearlessness is just a reckless breaking point when facing difficult situations.

And this unit, in their plan, was supposed to safely withdraw from this troublesome matter after completing the mission.

That’s why when Lann mentioned ’they’d be eaten by that monster’, she showed an unexpected look of horror.

That didn’t look like someone who had psychologically prepared themselves for it.

But just as Lann was about to use this as a breakthrough to further crack the opponent’s psychological defenses... fog started to form.

Some seemingly light, yet heavier-than-air mist began silently and odorlessly creeping in from the dense forest floor behind them.

Fog is always hard to notice before it becomes dense.

Until...

"You... don’t even think about... ?!"

The elf woman lying on the ground still seemed to want to say something with a cold smile.

But strangely, Lann, looking at the elf woman just a few feet away, felt that her voice seemed very distant and faint. As if a thin layer of mist was blocking out most of the sound.

And it wasn’t just him who noticed this strange phenomenon; the elf woman’s face suddenly showed a hint of terror.

Her unfinished words were suddenly choked back.

"What is this!"

Lann shouted to the elf woman, but he found that although he was shouting, his voice now was as soft as a whisper.

His surroundings suddenly fell into a deathly silence.

The Roaring Bear Head Pendant on the demon hunter’s neck began to jump by itself.

The mist had silently spread, and in places covered by the mist, all sounds seemed absorbed.

Lann held his breath and surveyed the Squirrel Faction members he had knocked to the ground.

He found they were coughing uncomfortably in the mist, but their other physiological indicators showed no significant fluctuations.

So he cautiously began to breathe.

"It carries a metallic stench... but it’s not very toxic, to ordinary people, it’s just like drinking from lead pipes."

The mist gradually thickened, and now visibility was less than ten meters.

And the surroundings became even quieter.

No sound could be heard, only within the body: the friction of bones, the flow of blood in vessels, the breathing in the lungs, the heartbeat, the stretching of tendon coils... these sounds became prominent in the silence.

They transmit to the sensory organs relying on the vibration of solid substances within the body.

Lann moved his steps cautiously, and the sound of friction between his shoes and the grass, the earth, disappeared.

But he could clearly feel the resistance under his feet.

The necklace on his neck, which should have been jingle in motion, left only the slight touch on his chest without making a sound.

The contradiction and counterintuitive phenomena of moving but receiving no sound feedback crept into the heart with unease.

And it wasn’t just that...

Lann frowned, his vertical pupils contracted slightly.

Opposite him, the elf woman’s eyes contracted slightly as she looked at him.

The hair on one side of the demon hunter’s neck suddenly stood up, sensing something.

Without thinking, the Lady of the Lake’s Sword came unsheathed from his waist.

The bright silver light directly blocked Lann’s side.

A force not large from the blade accompanied by a disproportionally small ’clang’ sound, and sparks spewed from the collision.

Though it was barely a move of attack and defense.

Yet in that instant, Lann’s body recorded the flow of force, analyzed in his biochemical brain.

The opponent’s force size, body’s general structure, attack model... a rough instinct blueprint established in Lann’s mind.

The technical key of Iwami Style: Climbing Carp essentially involves understanding an opponent’s moves and physical condition through force transmission produced in attack and defense, then breaking the enemy’s stance.

So in that split second, without turning his head, Lann’s body precisely and swiftly counterattacked.

His foot withdrew a step and then suddenly added force upon landing, moving sideways!

Just as he had predicted, the opponent’s body was light, almost ethereally thin in touch.

Yet his kick landed accurately on the opponent’s knee joint.

Then Lann smoothly turned, the connection of movements seeming pre-planned like flowing water.

His palm accurately caught the opponent’s head, initially shorter than him and now lowered after stumbling.

Having fixed the head, Aron Dite originally used for defense went on to thrust downward!

The blade easily pierced the opponent’s forcibly skewed neck, exposed collarbone, straight into the chest cavity!

A splash like blood mist sprayed out, yet white mist came from the knife wound on the opponent’s collarbone.

But no sound of flesh being penetrated, nor was there a shrill scream from the opponent’s hideous, contorted mouth.

Lann frowned, withdrawing the long blade with glowing runes, a segment of golden light from the enemy.

His hand also released the opponent’s head, letting it freely fall to the ground.

Once the opponent’s body hit the ground, it instantly disintegrated into a white mist, dissolving into the environment.

"... Fog Demon?"

Silent mouthed words from the demon hunter, watching his adversary’s shape vanish.

The appearance of what attempted to grab his neck from the side became fully clear the moment he turned and thrust the long blade down.

Pale skin, pointed ears, humanoid deformed frame, sharp claws, arms longer than knees, and a menacing, filthy face paired with this mist indeed aligned with an earlier deduction Lann had made upon receiving intelligence.

Fog Demons could indeed emit this sound-absorbing, subtly toxic magical fog.

Yet...

Could Fog Demons manage such a vast scale?