Bear School Astartes

Continuing deeper into the cave, Lann and Cassandra encountered more of these bizarre ’humans’.

Their bodies were rigidly grafted together with various animal limbs.

In terms of combat difficulty, these enemies posed less trouble than the ’original parts’ of their grafted limbs.

Without a detailed surgical plan and biological knowledge, these limbs were just awkwardly attached to human bodies.

The attempt to make them perform powerful functions was less effective than praying to a meteor shower.

Lann, with his academic prowess and pride in the field of biology, completely refused to acknowledge these things as ’augmented by biological means’.

They resembled the augmented humans found in old science fiction novels.

Those who did this lacked the corresponding knowledge and understanding, merely selecting what they considered powerful animal limbs and roughly attaching them to human bodies.

Rather than being a sophisticated biochemical surgery, it was more like a grotesque art born from a worship of primitive force, cruel and ignorant.

The only thing that made Lann uneasy was—

This reckless modification, based solely on imagination and lacking any knowledge or experience, had somehow actually worked!

Regardless of how long these Ares followers, awkwardly stuffed with beast limbs, could survive, the limbs were attached and in some sense functional.

Lann found this phenomenon worthy of investigation.

A group of various beasts, or rather, these Ares followers who couldn’t even reach the fighting strength of beasts, would be quite troublesome for ordinary warriors.

However, they caused very limited trouble for Cassandra and Lann.

Moreover, they were more of a psychological interference.

Lann could handle it; he was a materialist. Even standing before a conceptual deity like the Lady of the Lake, he could still converse normally.

But Cassandra was a native girl from Ancient Greece.

The intense religious atmosphere and the worldview from the dawn of civilization naturally shaped her own mindset.

Thus, Cassandra began relentlessly praying to Zeus, considering their close proximity to Athens, and prayed to Athena several times as well.

”These monsters... could they be things that escaped from Tartarus? Didn’t Hades guard them properly?”

Eventually, Cassandra even refused to use human pronouns to refer to them.

”Is there really nothing wrong with this blood?”

She cautiously asked Lann several times if there would be any problems from getting blood on her during the fight.

And Lann’s response was straightforward.

In the dim, cold cave, the bright silver light of the Lady of the Lake’s Sword swept across the blood-stained frosty ground.

With a ’crunch’, a large bear paw was sliced off from the already dead Ares follower.

Lann lifted the bear paw with the tip of his sword, bringing it up to Cassandra’s face.

”This grizzly bear is probably about five years old,” Lann said with a smile. ”It wouldn’t be a problem if you wanted to cook bear paw.”

”No, I’d rather you give me some bread and pickled olives.”

Cassandra said, expressionless, using one finger to push the bear paw away on the blade of the Lady of the Lake’s Sword.

After dealing with the joking Demon Hunter, Cassandra turned her head, avoiding looking at the unfamiliar corpses on the ground.

”We’ve caused a big ruckus, but that Hapalos you mentioned... is he deaf? Or does he simply not care about his subordinates?”

”I think it’s the latter,” Lann said, shaking off the bear paw from his sword tip, with a rational tone after the joke.

”He revealed an air of arrogance in that clue note. Those who believe they have received divine grace probably don’t regard their mortal subordinates as companions.”

”And do you think all the bones in these caves are from the victims they’ve captured?”

The armored boot with plating crushed a scattered human tibia with a ’crunch’.

The shattered bone fragments danced on the frozen hard ground, emitting a series of crisp sounds.

”There must have been sacrifices in the early stages of producing these things, and capturing beasts for raw materials would have cost lives too. Clearly... Hapalos doesn’t care about them.”

”Let’s see for ourselves then,” Cassandra flicked her broken spear lightly, shaking off the viscous blood and blood-stained fur.

The two of them glanced in unison at an empty chamber at the deepest part of the cave.

Cassandra had a radar-like sensory ability, which she called [Athena’s Sight]. Even targets unnoticed by Icarus could be revealed by this sense.

And in [Athena’s Sight], that chamber was the deepest part of the cave.

Inside, sat a quiet person.

Lann and Cassandra’s footsteps made no further attempt at concealment as they walked directly toward the cave chamber.

An even greater chill exuded from this chamber, which was the source of the entire cave’s unnatural temperature.

Both the ground and stone walls were no longer covered in a thin layer of frost; they were crystallized into ice!

A few candles and fire brasier s illuminated the area.

Hapalos knelt before an over five-meter-tall Ares statue, including the pedestal.

Where they found this statue and how they brought it in was unknown.

Now, that towering and mighty Ares statue was covered with blood, hair, fragmented bones, and other filthy things.

As if there had been one slaughter after another before the statue.

Hapalos heard the footsteps behind him and seemed to know who had come.

Yet he remained kneeling, mumbling a hymn about Ares before standing to face Lann and Cassandra.

He was a bald man, his chest and face painted bone-white like most Ares followers.

His attire was a simple armor adorned with small human bone components.

At first glance, he looked no different from any ordinary Ares follower.

But at his feet lay a corpse with a wolf’s upper body and a human lower body, causing a chill to run down one’s spine.

”Demos’ sister, [Hawk Trainer] Cassandra. And the demigod from Cephalonia, greetings.”

Hapalos’ eyes were bloodshot, bulging like a sick fish out of water.

But unexpectedly, his speech was quite coherent.

”I’m glad you know our names, though I’ve never considered myself any ’demigod’.”

Lann spoke while staring intently at him, his high body temperature making his breath visible in the cold air.

”But I heard you’re a member of the ’Bloodline Cultivator’ branch within the Order Divine Teachings. So? Aren’t you going to acknowledge the noble bloodlines you’ve encountered? Although I’m not one, Cassandra should be considered noble in your system, right?”

”Indeed so.” Hapalos grinned, readily admitting it.

Yet he remained absolutely still in his actions.