Bear School Astartes

Lann was sent flying more than three meters backward by the strike of the tongue.

He rolled on the ground and did a somersault before managing to stop himself.

”Damn it!”

He then stood up, clutching his chest, and spat out the curse that he had swallowed earlier.

An entire six-meter-long monster, with habits and appearance resembling a bird, Lann really didn’t expect its tongue to have such ability.

The tongue of this creature had shot out to a length twice the length of its entire body!

In battle, control over distance and range is a crucial factor.

The attack speed and range of the Poisonous Demon Bird’s tongue completely exceeded Lann’s expectations, which is why he was sent flying in an instant.

But the Poisonous Demon Bird wasn’t doing well either.

The stinky ball that Lann shot from his projector exploded into a cloud of dust near its head.

This tormented its keen senses greatly.

The Poisonous Demon Bird was desperately flapping its wings against its face, trying to rid itself of that ’unhealthy stench’.

The actions were no different from an ordinary bird.

However, the hunters’ stinky powder was very adhesive, making this self-cleaning act ineffective in dissipating the smell; instead, it spread the stench all over its body.

Eventually, unable to endure it any longer, the Poisonous Demon Bird straightened its body and let out a loud roar.

”Screech!!!”

The monstrous lung capacity allowed the roar to become almost tangible sound waves in the air!

Lann, who had just gotten up, had to bend over and cover his ears, feeling like his eardrums were about to burst.

Even Wende, who was focused on the Fierce Jackal Dragon, had the same reaction.

But that final roar was more a signal of frustration and retreat, as after the screech, the Poisonous Demon Bird immediately flapped its wings and flew away.

”Meow! Lann, are you okay, meow!?”

Gaffi ran over on all fours, meowing anxiously as it circled around Lann, checking if he was all right.

”Injured? Not really... However, the first thing I’m going to do when I get back is thoroughly go through the monster manual here!”

Lann waved his finger, revealing the golden Chaos Magic Shield on his body, which was already cracked.

The Quen Rune was activated by Lann before the battle began.

Although being struck to fly over three meters looked terrifying, he actually didn’t suffer much damage.

With his bones and muscles fortified to this extent, Lann’s reservoir of Magic Power and the strength of the Magic Seal showed significant growth.

The great advantage of the Quen Rune is that even when facing an overwhelming attack that surpasses its limit,

the Magic Seal can burst with a bidirectional force when shattering.

On one hand, the outward force can slightly deflect the attack, and on the other, the force on the Demon Hunter allows them to distance themselves from danger.

His sudden backward flight was also related to the self-triggering of the Quen Rune.

”Eh? What’s this, meow?”

Gaffi’s little paw wanted to touch the protective shield, but Lann promptly dispelled the Quen Rune that had begun to dissipate Chaos Magic Power due to its rupture.

The uncontrolled free Chaos Magic Power could distort life itself. Though life forms here appear incredibly resilient, Lann didn’t want to take that risk.

”It’s a defensive technique from where I come from, something you can’t learn.”

Lann spoke calmly.

Gaffi seemed to lose interest quickly, as it was merely curiosity at work.

On Wende’s side, despite clutching his ears and feeling dazed from the Poisonous Demon Bird’s parting roar,

the near-death Fierce Jackal Dragon clearly couldn’t seize this chance to escape from the brink of death.

Finally, in a fervent strike, Wende transformed the Shield Axe and smashed down with the three-meter-long axe single-handedly.

Shouting ”Watch me slay you!”, he unleashed a series of five bursts of golden energy lightning, after which the Fierce Jackal Dragon ceased moving.

Lann and Gaffi walked over from the side, with Lann clicking his tongue in amazement.

He observed the Fierce Jackal Dragon’s now tattered body.

In normal creatures, an almost severed tail would be enough to render most creatures half-dead.

When severed, the tail had spurted a monstrous amount of blood, thanks to Lann’s technique.

Yet even so, the Fierce Jackal Dragon continued to entangle with Wende for nearly three more minutes, enduring countless slashes from that blade.

After stubbornly enduring two times of Wende’s ”Ultra High Power Attribute Liberation Slash”, it finally breathed its last.

”The vitality is really strong...”

Lann mused as he fiddled with the giant head of the felled Fierce Jackal Dragon.

The key is that this creature is a pure, naturally evolved species, without any traces of artificial interference.

...Lann could only say: It’s truly a miraculous nature.

”You’re alright over there?”

Wende, feeling refreshed after ’solving’ the fight, reverted back to his cheerful demeanor, showing no signs of his foul-mouthed outbursts during the battle.

”Got messed around by that thing’s tongue, but it’s fine, no damage taken.”

Lann patted his chest, indicating he was unhurt.

”I kept telling you.” Wende reattached his Shield Axe to his back and shrugged. ”Never underestimate any star-level mission, huh. Fooled by a Poisonous Demon Bird’s tongue into misjudging distance... Haha!”

Although he tried hard, Wende couldn’t hold back his laughter in the end.

”I think it’s not a matter of taking it seriously or not...”

Lann said through clenched lips, but halfway, he sighed.

In the end, he indeed fell for the monster’s trick.

The pride and obsession with perfection in his heart made him unwilling to defend himself further.

”Forget it, I’ll go back and check the monster manual. Don’t worry, I learn pretty fast.”

”Learning ecological knowledge huh...” Wende pulled out a hunting knife from his waist and moved to the Fierce Jackal Dragon’s corpse to begin extracting materials.

”It’s better to find someone to teach you, there are many scholars from the Dragon-man Race in the research class, you can consult them. Need me to help extract yours too?”

Wende raised the knife at the end, gesturing to Lann if he wanted to personally extract the materials.

Lann waved his hand casually, letting Wende do it on his behalf.

Despite extracting materials, Lann saw Wende looking as joyful as scratching a lottery ticket, enjoying the process.

”I can introduce you, meow! The head chef mentioned to me, the scholars in the research class want to find strong hunters to help transport lots of books and monster samples! But it seems no one wants to do this task, meow, so they even borrowed helper cats from the kitchen chief in the end!”

”Oh, then thank you, Gaffi.”

Lann bent down to rub Elu’s head.

”You’re welcome, meow.”

The short discussion settled the matter.

But at this moment, Aibo, who had been hidden, walked over after the hunt was over, flipping through her large book slung across her shoulder.

Lann sensed Aibo’s unusual mood and his light smile from petting the cat faded.

”What’s wrong, Aibo?”

He asked seriously.

”The Poisonous Demon Bird just now was odd.” Aibo got straight to the point, finally finished reading the information, and hung the big book back on her waist.

”I just confirmed that this is not the Poisonous Demon Bird’s territorial area. That creature didn’t come because it heard our battle sounds in its territory; it charged out of its own territory! But... this shouldn’t be. Poisonous Demon Birds are not courageous, they’re lucky to hold onto their own territory. Why would it dare invade another monster’s territory?”

”Is this very abnormal?”

Lann didn’t know the characteristics of the Poisonous Demon Bird, so he didn’t know how unusual this behavior was.

But Aibo knew.

Thus the investigator nodded with a furrowed brow.

Meanwhile, Wende, who was extracting materials, also made a sound.

”Uh...”

The two people and one cat turned their heads to see Wende blinking, clearly a bit at a loss.

And in his open palm, besides the blood from extracting materials, there were two glowing, irregular gemstones.

”A two-star monster dropped two dragon gems... that’s not normal either, right?”

Looking at Wende’s expression, he seemed a bit frightened.

”I like winning prizes, but I don’t recall my luck ever being this good!”

Aibo, Wende, and Lann exchanged glances, and the joy from completing the task dissipated significantly.

”Let’s return to Starry Sky immediately to report to the Commander-in-Chief.”

Finally, Lann spoke solemnly.