Bear School Astartes

”He’s breathing heavily!” A soldier quivered, holding his long spear, and repeated once more, ”He’s starting to breathe heavily! He’s tired!”

”Yes, he’s tired.”

Another soldier beside him responded numbly, but had no intention of turning around.

Just desperately using a thick cloak from the military supplies, beating against the wreckage near the Ring Mountain’s gap with those around him.

Hoping to extinguish the fire at the exit as soon as possible.

Darkley was an experienced commander, but he’d never fought a battle where thousands faced just one person.

The formation couldn’t be deployed properly, and the strength of thousands couldn’t concentrate on the ’small’ individual.

Thus, sensibly enough, he still dispatched several soldiers, aiming to carve out a path through the mountain fire by manpower in case the warlock was eliminated.

The mountain fire had now spread greatly, everyone was moving towards the center of the mountain slope, and many on the edges had been roasted or suffocated to death.

The number of these deaths even exceeded those killed in combat. Because flames are always an extremely efficient killing method.

”Shut up! Extinguish the fire! Extinguish the fire and let me out!”

Duke Adal stood on the platform, spitting, and hysterically yelled at the soldiers below.

With Lann’s furious slaughter and the encroaching mountain fire, even the most carefree person now felt involuntary liver trembling.

The high-pressure dangerous environment could destroy human rationality, even the most trivial matters could cause complete psychological breakdown under such conditions.

And this blazing Ring Mountain was the peak of high-pressure environment.

Watching the mountain fire spread towards oneself, watching comrades on the outer circle get burned, roasted, and choked to death alive, and yet no escape route had been cleared... Every moment Niflgaard soldiers screamed desperately and frantically amidst the fire of the mountain.

The whole mountain hollow seemed to turn into hell.

And not just the mountain fire exerted psychological pressure on them...

That Niflgaard soldier tremblingly holding the long spear suddenly widened his eyes, ”Bomb! Alchemy Bomb! Duck...”

But the alchemy bomb being thrown was much quicker than his words.

The bomb exploded in the air above the group extinguishing the fire, instantly a large mass of yellow-green gas settled down.

The crowd of Niflgaard soldiers packed in the gap of the Ring Mountain first looked up in terror, then scrambled madly like a panicked school of sardines.

”Move! I want to leave!”

But undeniably, human groups did not possess the coordinated ability of sardine schools.

The yellow-green gas settled down, encountering the first wisp of flame, and then—”Boom!!!”

Another explosive blaze!

In the suddenly ballooning flames, those clad in armor seemed locked in, making a ’sizzle’ sound of proteins searing on an iron pan along with dreadful screams.

And those who had long since shed their armor due to heat, simply covered their heads and faces and screamed, only quieting down a bit quicker than those in armor.

In the distant shadows of the firelight, Lann breathed slightly hastily, lowering his left hand holding the ”Alder’s Rune”.

If this were only a mountain fire, even with such a disadvantageous terrain, these thousands of Niflgaard troops still had a chance to make a breakthrough.

But now, he was still there.

A ”Dragon’s Dream”, just one, turned the bit of flame extinguished by hundreds at the Ring Mountain’s gap into nothing.

In the moment battling against Lann, the psychological pressure on these warriors was heavier than the real physical damage.

Rather than saying the ”Muddied Stream” big sword truly killed many, causing all who faced Lann to collapse.

It would be better to say it was such a huge and agile body, wielding an equally massive chunk of iron. This scene and the damage from the big sword utterly terrified the Niflgaard people!

The absolute advantage in agility, even light cavalry undressed from armor couldn’t keep up with Lann’s ”Accelerate Spell”!

Unable to encircle, unable even to mount a siege.

Weak forces would be crushed instantly in front of that person and his massive sword!

And stronger groups, due to the gap in agility, would be peeled like an onion by him, dwindling one round after another.

Ultimately even they would become scant like two or three lost kittens.

No way... They had absolutely no way against this person!

A warrior who surpassed mortals in every way, Niflgaard people had never encountered such an enemy.

By the end, besides the ones scared to madness, crazily running before being devoured by the mountain fire, all remaining Niflgaard soldiers gathered at the gap of the Ring Mountain.

No longer was there the courage or the enthusiasm from slaughtering refugees, no longer was there the arrogance of being the army sweeping Sintra, just like a flock of frightened quails.

They eagerly wished for those behind them to quickly clear an escape route.

But now, this demon hunter was certainly watching them! Whoever made a move would be met with fire.

”There’s no way, boss.”

In the densely packed crowd, Darkley’s head suddenly heard a telepathic message.

This was an elite from his direct leader’s squad, speaking to him through the spiritual master.

”Look at these soldiers, boss. They’re about to be scared mad by that demon hunter! The formation is about to collapse!”

Darkley instinctively refuted, ”We’ve only lost about fifteen hundred soldiers now! At least half were killed by the mountain fire!”

But after refuting, he wanted to slap himself.

A force of three thousand five hundred losing fifteen hundred! What kind of casualty rate was that? Even if they could return to Niflgaard alive, the military court would execute the entire command layer for this battle!

Perhaps only the grand noble, Adal, could escape, yet even then his family would have to pay dearly, succumbing to a feast for others.

No army could maintain its composition under such casualty rates; at least Darkley hadn’t seen one.

As Darkley patted his head, dizzy from heat, looking at the Niflgaard people still able to gather, he found it unbelievable.

And clearly, the reason this group of Niflgaard people could still gather now was the same as why they failed.

Trapped within this ring of mountain fire with no escape, with only one enemy they couldn’t possibly contend against, refusing any notion of surrender.

An unprecedented situation combined with these factors had led to the over two thousand surviving Niflgaard soldiers not daring to disband!

”We must make them disband! Completely break down!”

In the telepathic message, Darkley’s subordinate spoke crisply and cleanly.