Bear School Astartes

And the bad news doesn’t stop there.

The selected rock formations were already severely weathered and structurally unstable to begin with, for the purpose of blasting them with explosives.

The distance between several rock formations was not very far, as the plan was to hit the Molten Mountain Dragon hard in one go. It’s definitely better for all to collapse at once rather than one by one.

On the rock formation that was accidentally detonated by the Extinct Dragon’s spiked ”stray bullets”,

a massive amount of explosives, in an instant, formed a semi-transparent spherical shape in the air, centered at the point of detonation.

This was an optical anomaly caused by the rapid compression of air.

Inside the sphere were fragments of rock flying outward, flames, thick smoke, and scattered ash...

These debris quickly turned the breaking point of the rock formation into a mass of earth-colored smoke.

The spreading pressure and energy, though it didn’t ignite the explosives attached to the adjacent rock formation, caused it to tilt and crack with a series of ’cracking’ sounds.

The accumulated explosives and bomb barrels that originally wound around the rock formation fell off due to the tilt and impact.

Crashing down hundreds of meters and exploding near the Molten Mountain Dragon’s feet, they created small sparks that didn’t even catch its attention.

Everyone’s expressions became even graver.

One target rock formation was accidentally blown up, and the explosives on another were scattered by the shockwave!

Watching as the second rock formation had already cracked halfway and was on the verge of collapse,

but without explosives, who knows how long this seemingly fragile rock formation can hang on the mountain? Days? Years? Hundreds of years?

And the Molten Mountain Dragon was less than three hundred meters away—just twenty to thirty steps from reaching the specified location!

The sound of claws scraping against volcanic rock came from behind Lann.

However, the Extinct Dragon, having stood up again, didn’t immediately attack the Demon Hunter who had cut off one of its horns.

Instead, it also looked gravely at the rock formation in mid-air after breaking apart.

With the ancient dragon’s wisdom, it might not understand how these small creatures caused the rock formation to explode and break, but it perhaps had an inkling of what the Hunters were trying to do.

”Let’s settle our matters later, what do you say?”

Lann turned around, looking up at the Extinct Dragon’s eyes above him.

With a ’clang’, [Murk · Extinguish] was thrust into the ground in front of him; his right hand held the sword hilt in reverse, presenting the largest face of the broad and menacing sword to the Extinct Dragon to increase its intimidation.

The hot winds from the Molten Mountain Dragon’s back made the Extinct Dragon’s dragon hide around the hilt flutter sideways.

Seeing the sword and the little figure holding it, the Extinct Dragon’s lips twitched fiercely, emitting a threatening growl from its throat, akin to a feline preparing to pounce.

But then, it glanced at the distant rock formations and the Molten Mountain Dragon forging ahead...

”Hiss~”

Ultimately, the Extinct Dragon lowered its gaze to Lann, exhaling a breath of hot air from its damp nostrils, and, begrudgingly grinding its teeth,

suddenly unfolded its winged, spine-ridden wings, stirring up a gust, and flew towards the sky.

Only when the sky above the valley was free of that demon-like black dot did Lann slouch his shoulders, letting out a huge sigh of relief.

Though he knew ancient dragons were intelligent, standing so close to such a powerful dragon with such a non-combative stance... even he felt it was a bit too thrilling.

”Negotiating, although a fight had to come first. Quite clever, if only it was possible to communicate; it would surely save a lot of trouble...”

Lann muttered, putting the large sword back into the alchemy pouch at his waist.

He vaguely remembered Aibo once saying there were people in this world known as Knights, who could tame monsters and communicate with them. Didn’t know what the technique was, or if it could be learned.

But those are considerations for the future.

The most urgent task at hand is to make that piece of the rock formation fall again after the Molten Mountain Dragon takes the remaining twenty to thirty steps!

”Mentos, inventory check.”

The mission established, the biological intelligence brain immediately began working.

Mentos helpfully displayed the contents of Lann’s alchemy pouch on his retina in a format similar to a game inventory with item slots.

”The explosive barrels and bombs within the investigation team are nearly depleted. Even if collected from various cannon points, there’s not enough time.”

Mentos steadily described the situation to Lann, helping his host organize his thoughts.

Simultaneously, the item slots projected on Lann’s retina flashed on and off quickly as Mentos simulated and matched the performance of various items to the current situation.

”However, you might have explosives on hand that can be effective after a simple modification.”

Still with that British accent Lann set.

No other, it’s just stylish.

The biological intelligence brain gave Lann a plan.

At present, he could assemble a set of explosive shock-combining alchemy bombs.

As long as there is a suitable closed space, the multiplied explosive shockwave has a 76% chance of dislodging the teetering rock formation.

As for the required closed space, Mentos has already provided a solution.

On this battlefield, the investigation team utilized almost all resources, including many large pieces of monster hide.

The so-called ”simple modification” is to use these durable monster hides to briefly seal the fracture point of the rock formation, creating a small closed space.

At least in Mentos’ calculations, its plan is sufficient to pass.

”Well done.”

On Lann’s retina, the computational logic and process of Mentos’ plan were streaming down like a waterfall.

The Demon Hunter quickly filtered out several key nodes and, confirming there were no mistakes, approved the plan.

Immediately, his retina detached from the computational mode and restored to its original view.

The Demon Hunter first retrieved the Lady of the Lake’s Sword that had been blown away from the lava, while taking out various alchemy bombs from the alchemy pouch that were part of the plan, and ran towards the nearest Hunter on the Molten Mountain Dragon’s back, hoping to use his winged drake for quick mobility.

”Damn... I wish I could fly too.”

Lann grumbled in his heart as he met with the nearest Hunter.

The plan went smoothly, as the Hunter quickly summoned his winged drake without a word.

Struggling under the significantly overweight load, it flew for a dozen seconds before other Hunters riding winged drakes appeared in the sky to help.

During the flight, Lann briefly described his plan.

These Hunters had also come from the Old World and were seasoned veterans in the New World.

They immediately understood the feasibility of this plan.

Moreover, one of the Hunters carried a large roll of monster hide on him, originally used for repairing the walkways at the battle points in the valley.

This was more convenient, saving more than half a minute.

Seeing the Molten Mountain Dragon about to reach the designated position, Lann didn’t even wait for the Hunters to lower him gently before letting go himself.

He leaped off the winged drake onto the top of the cliff.

In his hand was a set of pre-wrapped explosives prepared during the flight, just waiting to be stuffed into the crack and detonated.

But before he could make a move, suddenly...

On the originally earth-colored, barren, and dry cliff top, the ground began to move abnormally.

Deeper soil and rocks seemed to bulge as if forced open.

Then, dozens to hundreds of large, moist tree roots emerged from the towering, dry cliff!

Like living things, they wound around the cracks in the teetering rock formation one by one!