Bear School Astartes

"Do I look like someone who cares about other people’s opinions?"

Lann tilted his head in speechless retort, while Triss laughed on horseback, her shoulders shaking.

Her sense of humor always left Lann puzzled, yet undeniably, amidst the sorceress’s allure, it added a touch of cuteness to Triss.

The female warlock dismounted swiftly, handing her mare over to a soldier passing behind without a backward glance.

The path to Floating Port was rugged and difficult, but thankfully it skirted along the edge of the Mahakan Mountains, still considered a passable route.

But to delve further into the mountains for a thorough investigation, it was far more manageable on foot than on horseback.

Triss didn’t report to or notify anyone.

Her identity as a female warlock faced resistance in Duke Elrand’s ranks; no one was keen to associate with her, knowing Seward’s stance.

Yet, as Veltrest’s appointed magic consultant, she had to receive appropriate treatment for political reasons.

Thus, she found herself in an awkward position within the ranks.

Triss dismounted and stood with Lann, and as they paused, the advancing convoy quickly left them behind.

Watching the procession grow distant, Lann raised his hand, rubbing his magic ring.

Triss raised her eyebrows happily, as she had crafted the ring herself.

Suddenly, the rustling ’shush’ of leaves and branches from the adjacent mountain rocks reached their ears, and from the high bushes emerged a sizable, pale-furred feline head, along with the Elu Cat.

"Hello meow!"

"Hisss~"

It was the Qilin and Rong Buqiu.

Lann, using his claws, led Triss up and perched on the sturdy back of the Qilin.

"This horn is trimmed?" Triss, seated sideways in front of Lann, curiously touched the Qilin’s broken horn. "Such neat craftsmanship."

The Qilin snorted displeased, shaking its head and glancing at Lann, but there were no sparks.

The growth rate of its broken horn now far exceeded the last time, with only a third of the tip remaining unfixed.

This also greatly stabilized its thunder-wielding ability.

"Point the direction." As Lann fed it some special feed, he tugged its mane and shifted its direction, speaking to Triss.

"Where’s the incident area?"

"Deep within the Mahakan Mountains, we need to head south first." Triss seemed pre-planned, skillfully organizing.

Simultaneously, she closed her eyes, and the chaos magic power’s unique essence began to diffuse.

The demon hunter’s necklace started its ’swishing’ dance.

It was her releasing a sensitivity to chaos magic power.

Lann nodded, patting the Qilin’s neck, ready to set off.

"We need to delve thirty kilometers into the mountains; though the anomalous area is spreading, but still..."

Triss, eyes closed, supplemented the information she had previously sensed to Lann.

Yet halfway through her words, she suddenly opened eyes that had been calmly shut!

"Huh?!"

The startled tone and gaze made Lann’s heart tighten involuntarily.

But he maintained a calm and steady tone; the more abnormal things became, the more rational they had to be.

"What did you sense happen?"

"...Twenty kilometers."

"What?"

Triss herself was baffled, muttered in a daze.

"The area expanded ten kilometers overnight towards the Ponta River Valley!"

"..." The demon hunter’s expression grew slightly grave, "Triss, open a shield ahead of us first."

"Once the Qilin runs, these soft branches and leaves will turn into spiked whips at speed. My [Quen Rune] can’t withstand twenty kilometers."

"Oh, oh!"

The female warlock fully became serious now, and after a brief incantation, a magic shield appeared in front of the Qilin’s horseback.

The Ancient Dragon also promptly began its sprint at Lann’s indication.

With a white base and azure thunder streaks, the steed, even when suppressing its speed for carrying passengers, instantly became a bolt of lightning in the vast Mahakan Mountains!

The Ancient Dragon’s strong physique wasn’t dodging; any obstacle in its path, be it fragile bushes or century-old trees, all turned to mere shreds before the Qilin’s lowered head charge.

These shreds were insignificant to the Ancient Dragon’s body, but to ordinary humans, they were enough to skin them.

The ensuing shreds crashed into the magic shield, stirring a ripple for naught.

To counteract inertia, Rong Buqiu tightly gripped with its tiny fangs, its little paws clinging firmly to Lann’s shoulder.

The Qilin began high-speed maneuvers through the mountains.

Traveling through the mountains and covering a straight five kilometers in a day was deemed exceptional.

With twenty kilometers of straight distance from the mountain outskirts, it truly was considered ’deep forest’ territory.

Yet, if it expanded ten kilometers overnight...that distance no longer counted as ’safe buffer’.

"Isn’t such expansion speed abnormal?" With the Qilin’s running capacity worry-free, Lann questioned Triss while managing directions, "Or has it been expanding in such a manner previously?"

"How is that possible?!" Triss extended a hand forward, maintaining the chaos magic’s protective shield, still with unsettled surprise in her tone.

"Expanding ten kilometers overnight, from when the anomaly was discovered, it should’ve crossed the Ponta River Valley and entered the Kestor Mountains by now!"

In other words, the expansion speed suddenly increased, or the expansion direction changed?

Lann’s brain was racing, while Mentos assisted in organizing his thoughts.

Two possibilities were instantly deduced.

It’s unclear which one specifically, but no matter what, it doesn’t escape one issue: it must be influenced by something.

Otherwise, how did it suddenly change like an erratic gust?

"The direction is roughly determined."

Lann said steadily.

After several adjustments in direction and guidance by Triss, Mentos had already established a persistent coordinate position in Lann’s mind with enough data.

Now he could guide the Qilin towards the target.

"There’s something else I need from you now, Triss."

"Spread out your focused perception. You don’t need to fixate on one area for guidance, I need to know the general region this thing passes through."

"I can’t do it!" Triss said with difficulty, eyes closed, "The chaotic magic power in the Mahakan Mountains is a tangled mess right now!"

"Just roughly, I only need an outline."

Lann’s calm tone affected Triss, who had been somewhat panicked, she took a deep breath and nodded.

She’d already been here for many days; originally, she had a grasp on the spread of that unusual area, which allowed her to relax earlier.

Because according to her predictions, it would still take some time for this thing to cover the Ponta River Valley.

But opening her eyes today, it seemed to be on the verge of reaching the border of the Ponta River Valley!

In the howling wind generated by the Qilin’s speed, Lann’s bio-brain was operating at high speed.

The recently completed blood reconstruction filled his bloodstream with vast nutrients, powering his super organs while enabling Mentos to feel the seamless blood flow to the brain.

"Sir, based on the rough mapping provided by Miss Triss and our field investigation, I am confident we can complete trajectory calculations within half an hour to an hour."

The task report from the bio-brain made the Demon Hunter nod slightly.

"I’ll leave it to you, Mentos."

"It’s my duty, sir."

And after a series of exchanges, the first location sensed by Triss was already imminent with Qilin’s speed.

Lann swiftly dismounted, Rong Buqiu jumped to his shoulder, using it as a stepping stone before skillfully landing on the ground.

"Triss, stay outside. If you enter the range, even more chaotic magic power will make it harder for you to sense the trajectory."

Lann reached out to help the Female Warlock down, then turned to nod at the Qilin.

They had been together for a long time, often understanding each other’s meaning even without using the mutated Yakxi Rune.

The noble steed nodded to Lann.

With this Ancient Dragon here, even without exerting its dragon pressure, the strong electrostatic field unconsciously emitted was enough to keep many poisonous insects and sensitive creatures away.

Wait...

Pressure...repel...expel...no living things...

A series of associations flashed through Lann’s mind, furrowing his brow as he developed a new hypothesis.

But since there was still too little information, he temporarily suppressed this speculation.

The Demon Hunter nodded at his Elu Cat partner, who gave a spirited ’meow.’

Then followed closely behind Lann, heading into the dense forest of the mountain.

The rocks and soil, intertwined with tree roots on the ground, were terrible and uneven.

Walking on them normally required several times the usual attention, to avoid twisting an ankle and to stand firm.

This is one of the reasons why climbing mountains feels exhausting.

Fortunately, both Lann and Rong Buqiu were skilled experts who had achieved the Light Body Breathing Technique, simple terrain rarely troubled them.

The little cat leapt alongside Lann’s big strides.

According to logic, the dense forest in the mountain should be sunless and thick.

Especially now as spring neared summer, not autumn or winter when leaves fall.

But as Lann and Rong Buqiu ventured deeper, within five minutes a ray of sunlight sprinkled a spot through the intersecting leaves onto their faces.

...They exchanged a glance, their expressions growing solemn.

Indeed, after advancing just another dozen steps.

"What’s this...?"

Rong Buqiu ran ahead with its four feet, mouth open speaking.

In front was a vast stretch of dense forest that should have extended far along the mountain...now reduced to a land of broken timber!

These resilient and long-lived trees were easily snapped, some extraordinarily good, tough woods evidently bent to the extremes before breaking.

The roots remained in place, but the thick trunks had flown fifty meters away! Crushing another area of trees.

This large forest, with the tenacity and ability to hold soil, even able to block small-scale landslides, should hold firm.

But now...this vast ancient forest looked like some unruly child wielding a stick, sweeping, snapping an entire field of reed poles.

This was hardly deliberate ’destruction,’ more like...

"A natural disaster."

Lann, next to Rong Buqiu scanning the surroundings, furrowed his brow and uttered this word.