Bear School Astartes

Lincoln, who had just stabbed two Fog Demons to death in a recent charge, turned his head towards the small hill at the far end of the battlefield while controlling the reins.

There, the Chaos Magic Power glow in the Female Warlock’s hands was getting brighter.

They were still maintaining the transmission of the typhoon’s power from the sea to suppress the stubbornly growing white mist.

The Ember Knights knew who they were because Triss had actually re-entered the Ponta River Valley together with the Ember Knights.

Afterward, they used a Conical Crystal as an anchor point to establish communication with Airetusa and had Tishaya perform the teleport first.

The Magic Power environment in the Mahakan Mountains was complex, and the terrain was also complicated; if one used short-range teleportation recklessly, it would be akin to seeking death.

The risk of being trapped in the rocks was too high.

The sea-scented wind swept over the mountain body; the Ember Knights were all from the coastal country of Sintra, so they were not unfamiliar with the current weather.

Splinters of broken wood, tree leaves twirled in the wind, colliding with each other with a continuous ’popping’ noise.

Their hair hanging down from under their helmets fluttered, and the mane of the warhorses under them fluttered too.

And not far away... "Boom!!"

The earth trembled and the mountains shook!

The enormous Terror Tyrannosaurus suddenly lifted one of its hind legs, putting the weight of its entire body on the muscular leg.

The large hulking body swayed with the shift.

Then, leveraging the height difference from the lifted leg.

The force of the entire leg, along with half of the body’s weight, exploded completely with one stomp!

Amid the thunderous roar, the claws of the Terror Tyrannosaurus stomped directly into the mountain rock plate!

The rock plate was first pressed down underground, causing an unusually small yet intense vibration within a twenty-meter radius.

Boulders the size of a person bounced up like pebbles!

Following that, the rock plate couldn’t bear the flesh and power of the Terror Tyrannosaurus and was stomped into pieces!

A muffled ’crack’ of fracturing sounded under the ground.

Blue Lann, who had initially run to the only two support points of the Terror Tyrannosaurus, its feet, to weaken its mobility, found himself suddenly thrown off by the unexpected stomp, despite relying on [Iron Mountain Lean] to avoid destructive impact.

But he was catapulted defensively, sending himself flying.

Lann, who was sent flying, had his steel-plated leather boots scraping the ground fiercely.

Grinding through numerous plant stems and tree trunk splinters, he finally stopped with a dull thud against a large rock that the Terror Tyrannosaurus lifted from the mountain body.

The Demon Hunter himself showed no surprise.

Immediately as he stopped, his body and Greatsword burst forth with a sudden flicker of red light!

The light red Fighting Spirit ignited!

The sword blade dragged on the ground in front was suddenly kicked upward!

The sole wrapped in condensed air hammer.

[Immortal Peak Kick]!

The powerful kick imparted the motionless [Muddy Stream·Destruction] with a tremendous initial velocity, and then Lann’s own tightened waist and back muscles suddenly contracted!

Changing from a stance holding the sword leaning forward to leaning backward.

The heavy Greatsword cut a fierce fan-shaped shadow from bottom to top, black with white edges, in front of Lann.

"Clang!!!"

The upward slash just cut into the terrifying jaw of the Terror Tyrannosaurus that was pursuing relentlessly!

The sword blade shattered the protruding jagged teeth from the opponent’s flesh, directly knocking the house-sized head of the Terror Tyrannosaurus to the side!

The Terror Tyrannosaurus’ viscous acidic saliva scattered like it had been punched, and was further dispersed by the sea-scented wind.

In the chaos, fine droplets fell onto Lann’s face.

The ’sizzling’ sound accompanied by white smoke was the sound of flesh being corroded by acid, proteins rapidly changing structure.

Yet Lann did not blink, lifting his hand to wipe away the acidic saliva of the Terror Tyrannosaurus from his face with his thumb.

The skin already corroded and altered by the acid had lost its resilience, tearing off as it was wiped.

Revealing beneath the skin a layer akin to steel cable, the [Tendon Coil].

The ’sizzling and cracking’ sound again arose, this time because the wound on Lann’s face was rapidly healing.

[Belisarius Furnace] was releasing its stored hyper-speed healing substances.

In the battle, both Lann and the Terror Tyrannosaurus’s body temperatures were rising rapidly.

In the typhoon coming from the sea, wisps of hot steam began to emanate from their bodies, then were carried away by the wind, disappearing.

On the other hand, as both parties quickly recovered from their injuries, and experienced a rise in body temperature due to increased metabolism... they both became hungry!

"Master! I’m here!"

Lincoln, cautious yet courageous, rode his warhorse, lingering outside the battle area between Lann and the Terror Tyrannosaurus, shouting inside.

"What do you need me to tell the ladies? Is it intelligence about this thing?"

"Exactly, Lincoln."

Lann responded methodically, while his eyes never dared to leave the massive Terror Tyrannosaurus opposite him.

The opponent was approaching a certain physiological limit, Lann could feel it.

But after the Terror Tyrannosaurus crosses this limit, whether the impact on the battle is good or bad... Lann isn’t optimistic.

So even while violently fighting the Terror Tyrannosaurus, he never dared to relax for a moment.

"Without the female warlocks’ assistance, we can’t handle this!"

"Please continue!" Lincoln shouted in the wind as he adjusted the position of his warhorse amid tension, "I’ll relay everything!"

Lann was assured of this, for Lincoln’s cautious and thorough nature was his favorite.

"It’s not a ’living being’ right now, Lincoln! At least not entirely! You didn’t see any footprints, right!"

"It’s now... possibly cursed! Perhaps something else! In any case, this Terror Tyrannosaurus is now in a ’semi-spiritual form’!"

Lincoln, wandering at the edge of the core battlefield, unconsciously opened his mouth wide.

The roaring wind swept the broken and torn field into a more chaotic mess.

And as the battle continued, the sky had completely darkened.

If it weren’t for the bright and large moon tonight, it would simply be an apocalyptic scene of darkness and doom.

In the storm of the apocalypse, a gigantic beast that never appeared in any epic or myth, yet rivaled any demon from them, destroyed everything with an overwhelming ferocious momentum.

If a warrior from the Skellige Islands were here, he would undoubtedly think: now is the time for the Golden Chicken Kambi to crow, summoning the great hero Hamdor to stand on the Rainbow Bridge and join the heroes of the Heroic Spirit Hall for the battle of the apocalypse.

But Lann tells him that this monster is a... ’semi-spiritual form’?

Lincoln wasn’t unfamiliar with Demon Spirits, having seen tragic scenes on the land of the Sintra Kingdom caused by the whirlpool of war. He passed through completely destroyed villages, where only wandering Demon Spirits remained several times.

But those eerie, weightless things, and the monster before him... are they the same kind of thing?!

Lann knew Lincoln would feel surprised, as he was himself when he confirmed this idea.

But he also knew Lincoln would still relay his words word for word.

"Fog Demons and the Terror Tyrannosaurus are forcibly linked by a curse! There is a connection between them!"

"I haven’t seen more, deeper manifestations of this curse, but if we don’t deal with the curse first, we won’t be able to handle it!"

The Demon Hunter vanished into the mist, suddenly accelerating to escape the range of a tail swipe from the Terror Tyrannosaurus, still shouting.

"This guy must have been at a Place of Magic just after a celestial convergence, eaten a group of Fog Demons! It’s cursed! Its body was eroded, transformed into this form!"

"Inform them, see if they have any solutions!"

The body of the Terror Tyrannosaurus is fundamentally abnormal, Lann knew from the moment he saw it.

This Terror Tyrannosaurus had already consumed one-fifth of the Mahakan Mountains’ wildlife, yet it left no biological traces in those places.

No footprints, no occasionally shed and deteriorated scales, none of its rapidly renewing random teeth fallen or worn.

Nothing, not even a scent.

Because it was no longer a ’biological entity’, it couldn’t leave traces belonging to a biological entity.

Even letting the New Continent’s scout insects track it would likely sense no pheromones.

The curse highlights the disorder and twisted nature of Chaos Magic Power.

Its manifestations are varied, twisting the cursed into another life form, which is quite a regular type.

Werewolves, for example, are a kind of cursed ones. Also, there was Baron Cormorant, whom Lann once helped free alongside Geralt.

Desecrating divine beings, a heartfelt utterance at a place dense with magic, an unknown creature’s prank... inconspicuous little details might be enough to form a ’curse’.

Based on the ecological habits of the Terror Tyrannosaurus and the interaction between the Fog Demons and the Terror Tyrannosaurus, Lann’s speculation was very reasonable.

Fog Demons also prefer to stay in Places of Magic, which are rich in magical power. When they gather and suddenly get eaten by a Terror Tyrannosaurus, the accumulated death and emotional fluctuation trigger the magic, forming a curse.

Demon Hunters often destroy monster nests and hunt monsters in places dense with magical power.

But Demon Hunters usually act very ’cleanly’, as they themselves are skilled in breaking curses. They know what to do and what not to do.

Preparation beforehand, wrapping up afterward, there are guidelines for everything.

Most serious Demon Hunters are instinctively cautious in this regard.

So, though they make a living killing monsters, Demon Hunters themselves aren’t prone to getting cursed.

But the Terror Tyrannosaurus...

Lann suspects when this Terror Tyrannosaurus ate the Fog Demons, it may have plowed through the magically infused ground together, consuming it into its belly.