Bear School Astartes

Lann’s left hand rested on the hilt of his sword at his waist as he pushed open the dilapidated door of the small inn.

With a creak, white cold air immediately surged into the opened doorway.

Boots with external steel plates stepped from the wooden floor, and the feel on the ground was completely different from half an hour ago.

No longer was it the mud, dirty water, and soft, sinking sensation of a dirt road drenched by heavy rain.

Instead, it had already hardened from the cold.

This was very unnatural.

Because even if the sudden drop in temperature was triggered by magic, the cooling process could not be ignored.

And now, to be honest, the temperature wasn’t particularly unbearable, yet the texture of the soil had already hardened... this was too fast.

This cold air was abnormal.

Lann was the first to realize this.

This cold air seemed incredibly permeable, able to simultaneously lower the temperature of both the inside and outside of objects without any time lag.

This permeability reminded Lann of the Elf Beacon he carried.

The air he breathed out liquefied from the sudden cold, forming a white mist drifting from the corners of Lann’s mouth and nostrils into the outside world.

Raindrops frozen into ice beads clattered ’ding-dong’ on the Demon Hunter’s armor.

And as the young Demon Hunter stepped through the wooden door, past that frosty white cold air, the silhouette of the [Wild Hunt] emerged before him.

It was indeed a group of ghostly cavalry.

Riding skeletal horses, wearing decayed, rusted armor fashioned into skeletal forms, cloaked in tattered capes were Ghost Knights, with ashen skin under gray masks, their eyes burning with ghostly fire, like the dead.

They were noticeably taller than ordinary humans, with some even matching Lann’s stature.

Such a group of cavalry loomed in and out of sight within the white cold air, calmly staring at the small inn ahead.

”******”

In that deep frosty white cold air, even sounds seemed to become profound and distant.

Not only did it make the noisy sound of ice beads hitting armor plates echo hollowly, but even the voices of the Wild Hunt carried the same echo.

It was a tongue-twisting language, Ancient Tongue.

Lann once heard Vesemir conversing with tree spirits in such a language in the Brook Leon Forest.

Later, he specifically found Ancient Tongue textbooks in Airetusa’s library.

With the learning mode of the bio-computer, he took three days to learn this language in his spare time.

The meaning of what the Wild Hunt Knight said just now was: Have you seen a woman with mouse-gray hair and a scar on her face? If you reveal her whereabouts, you can live.

This instantly piqued Lann’s curiosity.

After all, he had always regarded the Wild Hunt as a magical phenomenon before.

And now, clear logic, definite purpose, and clear... deception.

These are intelligent beings.

Lann quickly grasped this point.

So, words in precise Ancient Tongue began to spill from Lann’s mouth.

”Are you truly the Wild Hunt?”

Lann spoke as he approached them.

”No, we haven’t seen the woman you’re talking about. Could it be that you’re looking in the wrong place?”

The hooves of the skeletal horses scraped on the already frozen ground, snorting out air from their nostrils.

The Wild Huntsmen on horseback also uttered low, rustling whispers.

”He’s deceiving us.”

”Kill him, then continue chasing the Ancient Blood.”

”The Navigator’s senses don’t lie, the Ancient Blood’s location is around here, at this time.”

”We’ve already found her, stop dawdling!”

The voices of the Wild Hunt echoed in the frosty white cold air, like a dense murmur of Demon Spirits.

It chilled the heart and sent shivers down one’s spine.

Their actions were also very decisive.

Just as they reached their decision, several cold white portals suddenly opened beside Lann!

With a ’bang’, the pressure difference caused by the portals exploded loudly.

Immediately after, the scraping of claws against the ground, mixed with low growls from throats, was heard from within the portals.

Almost simultaneously with this vicious sound, several monstrous figures sprang from the portals, lunging at the Demon Hunter to bite and slay!

Lann’s eyeballs moved swiftly in his sockets, and Mentos had already organized and dealt with the surrounding situation.

These things that leapt out were the Wild Hunt’s hounds, with rigid bodies resembling ghouls covered in thick ice shells.

Cold white light emanated from their eyes, and cold air drifted out from their mouths.

These were not creatures or monsters.

With just one glance, Mentos made the judgment.

These were construct creatures, just like the warlocks’ golems.

It seemed the Wild Hunt not only consisted of intelligent beings but were also high-level intelligent beings of civilization.

Four portals suddenly opened, seemingly with the assumption that four Wild Hunt hounds were enough to slaughter all humans nearby.

But Lann didn’t think so.

”Do you eliminate the surroundings simply when you act?”

”No wonder you’ve become a legend.”

The Wild Huntsmen, originally urging their skeletal horses to hasten departure, had already turned their horses around, but the lead Wild Hunt seemed to immediately realize something was amiss when the Demon Hunter’s voice emanated from the white cold air.

In his hand, he held a steel magic staff topped with a crystal ball.

He was just about to swing the staff.

But then came a ’zing’ from the nearby white cold air.

The bright sword edge executed four effective slashes in an instant, activating the runes on the blade.

The accumulated power transformed into golden glow on the sword edge, occupying half the length of the blade like a progress bar.

Even in this mysterious white cold air, the golden glow was still dazzling and conspicuous.

The four construct creatures imbued with mysterious cold air were indeed formidable.

After all, the craftsmanship and materials converted to this world would be worth at least nearly a thousand Oren Coins.

This was power measurable by money.

Not to mention the characteristics of this mysterious cold air.

Even if they just roamed nearby for half an hour, the escaping cold air could freeze the inn’s occupants into ice shards.

Cold air capable of synchronously cooling the interior and exterior of objects without time lag within its range has immense destructive power on living beings.

But today, they hit a hard wall.

According to the basic training of the Bear School, when facing this never-before-seen enemy like the Wild Hunt, Lann earnestly equipped himself with the [Quen Rune].

Magic power had some resistance to this cold air but consumed quickly.

If it were an ordinary Demon Hunter, the [Quen Rune]’s shield would shatter from magic power depletion as soon as it activated.

But Lann was different.

His body’s strength now allowed his magic power reserve to compare favorably with more skilled warlock apprentices.

While this amount of magic power could only let the [Quen Rune] endure half a minute longer under the cold air, for him... half a minute was already enough to accomplish a lot.