Bear School Astartes

When Lann pulled back his hood, he was essentially declaring the martial power he wielded here.

It was a deterrence forged live on the battleground, akin to a meat grinder.

Seward was well aware of this fact and expressed incredible understanding toward the Duke of Sintra’s use of emergency powers.

The Ember Knights naturally became nodes in Lann’s command system.

Everything proceeded very smoothly; they already possessed a tacit understanding of teamwork.

"To maintain basic combat efficiency, I won’t confiscate the White Rose Knights’ weapons, alright?"

Lann spoke to Lincoln beside him without turning his head.

The young secretary smiled, looking at the knights gathered around Seward, all of whom had already sheathed their swords.

"Let them try, sir." The young secretary said nonchalantly, "It’d be best if they try. I’m a bit curious about their quality."

The Demon Hunter shook his head.

The Ember Knights, in their cautious demeanor while operating, unknowingly displayed a proud personality, learned from somewhere unknown.

"Sir, what is our primary objective?"

Another Ember Knight asked beside him.

Lann pointed around, "Just retreat as quickly as possible."

Right now, there was really no room for intricate command, because the primary aim was to evacuate this group from the Ponta River Valley.

The Squirrel Faction had destroyed many wagons and killed numerous livestock.

This drastically reduced the transportation capacity and operational efficiency of the convoy.

This was also the main evidence for Lann’s belief that the opposition was essentially trying to delay.

If the cars are destroyed and one is reluctant to part with the cargo, then the remaining cars must be overloaded and move slower.

What Lann and the Ember Knights could do was actually only to forcibly command and supervise these people to abandon baggage, discard all unnecessary items, and start moving swiftly towards the outside.

The Ember Knights began to take over the management authority of the entire team under Lincoln’s leadership, while Lincoln himself, once again holding up the notebook that could be slung on one shoulder like a large bag, commenced as the secretary of the supervisor.

Triss only approached Lann after the Ember Knights began each performing their duties.

"What exactly did you realize?"

The Female Warlock folded her arms, holding the weight in front of her chest.

She hadn’t connected the fragmented clues into a line in her mind like Lann.

She was merely prompted to find Lann after discovering that the Squirrel Faction’s arrow were the same as those found previously while pulling out one embedded in Buchet’s right arm.

So, although Triss stood behind Lann, showing her supportive stance, her mind was actually not clear.

Lann pursed his lips and kicked a wagon with a broken axle into the ravine by the mountain path.

"The creature we’re investigating can indeed be lured, Triss."

Lann turned to look at the Female Warlock.

"Have you ever thought about, ’no living creature in the area it passed’... what exactly did it do to those living creatures?"

Lann’s eyes were beautiful; Triss very often liked looking into those eyes when they were both kissing and deeply entangled with each other.

But now, those eyes also looked at her, yet the imagery that unfolded within his words... gave her a chill that seemed to seep from her bones.

"You mean..." Triss said stiffly, refusing to believe, "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is: those living creatures, those... ’meat mass.’"

Lann contemplated his tone when he spoke the last word.

"For creatures, aren’t they generally... meant to be eaten?"

"..." Triss blinked, somewhat unable to understand the statement. "Meant to be eaten?"

She repeated, "Meant to be eaten? Lann, do you know the size of the range that thing has passed? How many creatures are within?"

"Since it first appeared, it has already crossed one-fifth of the Mahakan Mountains!"

Mahakan is a long north-south range, and the ’crossed’ mentioned by Triss is not transversing, but emerging from the middle of the mountains, and now nearing the Ponta River Valley.

This distance has indeed approached one-fifth of the Mahakan Mountains’ length!

If the creatures within this range have all been eaten...

The mass of meat could block the mountain stream beneath their feet now!

Turn into a bloody meat dam!

This is also the reason why such a speculation wasn’t brought up before.

The meat mass... in many small countries in the North, lots of nations’ annual meat consumption doesn’t reach this level!

What could devour all life in one-fifth of the Mahakan Mountains area in less than a month’s time?

"But this is a highly probable hypothesis." Lann said calmly.

"From the initial trajectory of this thing, it can be seen that it is a brainless, frantic creature. It often heads in one direction, then halfway through, it changes course randomly."

"Its eating is too ferocious and too much. Thus, it often buries its head to eat in one direction, and when it sees that the meat in another direction is more and closer, it will turn. No planning, no thinking."

"The Squirrel Faction living and guerrilla fighting in the mountains, that piece of armor of the Yaden officer was likely used by them to lure that thing to turn, as part of a pile of flesh and blood."

"The people sent by Yaden must have all died long ago, only their corpses were reused."

"And now..." Lann turned around, speaking toward the still scattered and messy mountain road, "all they need to do is delay people, wait for that thing to reach the Ponta River Valley."

"So there’s no need for a meticulously planned attack, no pursuit of a one-hit victory. After all, the goal is simply to drag out the time."

Triss’s slender fingers supported her forehead, for a moment feeling a shock as if her worldview was being reshaped.

She ultimately still spent too little time with Lann and did not know what kind of monsters he had faced before.

A creature that in over a month can consume an amount of flesh equivalent to a large river dam, to be honest... this thing is still within Lann’s imagination range.

If Tishaya was by Lann’s side at this moment, she would accept the situation quickly.

And Margaret, after being lectured by Tishaya again on the subject of ’Divinology,’ and urged to review the deeds of the ancient wizards, was also approaching her teacher’s level of acceptance.

Triss’s mouth opened and closed, but after a few deep breaths, she managed to accept the impact on her worldview.

She still held her forehead with her fingers, "But if that’s the case... something that can consume one-fifth of the Mahakan Mountains’ living creatures, if it reaches the Ponta River Valley..."

The female warlock’s face turned ugly.

From this perspective, the current danger is not just the small convoy of a few hundred people brought out from the Elrand Duchy.

In the entire narrow Ponta River Valley, even the largest military stronghold, Haji Fortress, could not independently resist such a thing.

Although it is still unknown how that thing has such a high eating efficiency, how it consumes things.

But it undoubtedly exceeds the capabilities of ordinary soldiers.

"Although it’s very pessimistic, you’re right."

Lann nodded, admitting Triss’s worries.

"So having the convoy escape quickly is actually just to reduce the death toll, just as I told Seward."

On the other hand, how many people are still in the entire Ponta River Valley?

Anyway, there are at least the scale of two small cities in there."

"Wait!" Triss first nodded lowly, then suddenly seemed to notice something, raised her head to look at Lann. "What are you going to do?!"

Lann raised his eyebrows at Triss’s expression and chuckled, "Hey, don’t think of me as so impulsive."

After laughing, the Demon Hunter became serious again.

"I do want to block it before that thing comes. But until now, I still don’t know what it is, it’s too passive."

Lann’s hand reached into the alchemy pouch at his back waist, took out a conical crystal and handed it to Triss.

"Quickly get them out, Triss."

"Then I need help."

Triss looked at the conical crystal placed in her hand and nodded.

-----------------

Under the watch of the Ember Knights, although many in the convoy looked at the scattered supplies and equipment with eyes glowing.

After all, these things would definitely fetch a good price if they could be taken out and sold.

But in the end, all things were ordered to be left behind, everyone traveled light, did not delay a moment, and immediately began to evacuate outside the Ponta River Valley.

"We’ve only been walking for half a day, and we’re evacuating just because we were ambushed by the Squirrel Faction once?"

Even though Triss’s right upper arm had been impaled by that customized Squirrel Faction arrowhead, and when she pulled it out, it ripped out a few muscle fibers, Buchet was still worried about the decision to evacuate on the way out.

This bull-like man could only lie in the cart powerlessly, speaking forward.

"Come on, Buchet." Yalpan controlled the reins carefully and seriously, speaking without turning his head. "This Squirrel Faction ambush is different from their usual tactics, there’s definitely a problem, didn’t I tell you?"

The dwarf scratched his big beard and shot a big smile at the Ember Knight riding the horse beside him.

"Squad Leader, don’t mind him, he’s just not smart, and he’s complaining a bit."

Before setting off, when the Ember Knights took over the command from Seward and the White Rose Knight Order in front of everyone, although this group of people still didn’t know what had happened.

But they were sharp enough to understand who to listen to now.

And among them were individuals knowledgeable enough to make a connection through the re-hung gun flag by Lincoln.

"I don’t mind."

The unrestrained Ember Knight looked at them calmly.

"As long as you don’t slow down, I don’t care what you say."

On horseback, the Ember Knight exhibited control matching their current reputation. The convoy of several hundred people was temporarily taken over by ten of them, yet no chaos affecting speed arose.