Bear School Astartes

Yennefer felt she was reaching her limit.

The courage and determination she had when she first stepped onto the battlefield had been worn away by the repeated close encounters with death.

Among the warlock community, she was considered young, after all, she was only about eighty to ninety years old.

However, her career as a warlock had never involved engaging in such large-scale, high-intensity combat.

At most, she would get into skirmishes with small groups of mercenaries, or cast magic during adventures.

Hemingway said: Before people first step onto the battlefield, they always have the illusion that they won’t die. But this illusion vanishes without a trace after their first serious injury.

Yennefer was now in this situation.

Initially, she responded to Viggo Fortez’s call, fighting against Niflgaard for the future of the North.

But soon after, as arrows and magic spells skimmed past her dark, glossy waves, fear and panic filled her heart.

Lately, like a lost fly, she wanted to bury herself in some safe place or simply open a portal and leave.

Return to her magic cosmetics shop in Wenger Castle, where there was no greatness or justice, but safety.

But the overwhelming large-scale magic and the endless onslaught from the southerners prevented her from doing so.

Subsequently, like most newcomers to the battlefield, Yennefer, unable to retreat, had to bury herself in the melee with the enemy.

In fact, on this battlefield, the mindset transition for the majority of warlocks was the same.

Furinjira Veges had been entangled with Yennefer in this mountainous area for quite some time.

The northern warlocks couldn’t retreat, and the southern warlocks didn’t dare to.

Their entire lives were within the Empire’s borders, unless they didn’t care about anything anymore and were utterly alone, otherwise, wouldn’t they still have to live within the Empire for the rest of their lives?

If they ran now, the emperor would not show mercy to them.

Standing on a slightly higher rock, Yennefer’s violet eyes were filled with the ethereal light of magic, and her black long hair, styled in big waves, flowed in the air due to the magic power.

Below her on the slope, Furinjira and a warlock friend of hers were collaborating to cast spells, aiming to take out Yennefer first.

Furinjira was originally a mage not inferior to Yennefer, and although her friend wasn’t very talented, they were at least an aid.

Therefore, they were relatively confident.

”Use fire arrows first to force her to interrupt her spellcasting, then I’ll land the final blow.”

Furinjira was about to take advantage by having more numbers.

Her friend nodded, the flame in his hand lengthened and took shape, carving a bright trajectory in the smoke-laden air.

The fire arrow, woven with magic power, not only retained the high temperature burn of flames but also had the penetrating power of an arrow.

By this point in the battle, Furinjira believed that even if Yennefer started fully equipped with magical items, she should have run out by now.

Facing this fire arrow, she would either retaliate with magic or quickly interrupt her spellcasting and relocate.

Meanwhile, the negative energy erosion spell Furinjira had been preparing would be launched during Yennefer’s lapse.

Yet, as the fire arrow in mid-air got closer to Yennefer, Furinjira noticed that the northern female warlock didn’t seem intent on countering the attack.

A sense of foreboding crept in, because she knew that those still persisting at this point wouldn’t wait for death!

Sure enough, a coquettish female voice rang out from not far above the hillside.

The spell was short yet powerful, and the chaotic energy it induced was much greater than that of the fire arrow!

A fireball descended from the diffused, drifting black smoke, effortlessly extinguishing the fire arrow.

That was Triss’ magical support.

And during that time, the one who completed her spell preparation first was instead Yennefer!

Pointing her chaos magic glowing finger toward the location of the two southern warlocks.

The stretch of hillside started boiling like water, churning as though trying to engulf the entities above into the earth.

Furinjira’s friend was instantly engulfed by the earth on the hillside, and Furinjira herself couldn’t react in time, watching helplessly as it all unfolded.

Her own feet were being twisted and dragged downward by the ground as well.

But maybe it was a surge of fierceness, or perhaps the anger of her friend dying before her eyes.

Ultimately, before the overwhelming pain of her foot bones being crushed by the earth, Furinjira unleashed her prepared magic.

The murky negative energy erosion, spreading in a fan shape like a mist, was draping over Yennefer.

Yennefer’s face turned pale because she was currently in the downtime post-casting, unable to do anything.

But fortunately, Yennefer’s friend was still beside her and was much more skilled than Furinjira’s friend.

Triss jumped straight down the hillside, the rubble sending her into a disheveled state, tumbling down.

In a rush, the spell shield Triss deployed showed noticeable abnormality in her complexion.

”Ah!!! My eyes!”

A sudden anguish and terrified wail erupted from Yennefer beside Triss.

Her eyes seemed necrotic, shriveled, and pale.

”Quiet, Yennefer! It’s just blindness caused by negative energy erosion! It can be healed!”

Triss was striving to pull Yennefer back to sanity from the panic and pain of sudden blindness, but it was undoubtedly a tall order.

Behind the spell shield, as a result of this abrupt blindness, Yennefer lost her sense of balance and fell to the ground.

Her once stunning face got smeared with blood and mud, and the black-and-white elegant attire and carefully groomed long wavy hair were ruined.

The ground was scattered with corpses, disjointed armor pieces, and bladed weapons, the touch of which made Yennefer keep screaming and rolling on the ground, as if something was hurting her.

Not only did it fail to assist Triss who was holding the spell shield, but it also obstructed her.

Triss’s condition subsequently worsened.

The spell shield’s glow was getting increasingly dim in the wave of negative energy smoke.

Despair even appeared in Triss’s eyes.

The sensation of being eroded by negative energy was like being made into jerky alive.

And just as the glow of the spell shield was about to vanish...

A tall figure dashed past Triss’s spell shield with a whoosh.

And in the hand of that figure, there was a weapon shimmering with warm golden light.

Lann cleared the way with the Lady of the Lake’s Sword; the thick smoke-like negative energy was first dissipated by the sword’s light.

This didn’t even require Lann to use [Spiritual Vision], purely the Divine Power of the Lady of the Lake’s Sword in effect.

After Lann used [Spiritual Vision] to discern the structure and magic flow of the spell, his long sword shimmered twice in the smoke, leaving golden trails.

Thus, the negative energy black smoke rapidly thinned and then vanished, just like mist meeting the sunlight.