Bear School Astartes

Lann accepted the Goddess’s request in a daze, to go to the other side of the celestial convergence rift and deliver greetings to her friend.

Thanks to his extensive experience walking between worlds, Lann wasn’t shocked or incredulous.

The Lady of the Lake’s power and position within this world were already notably high.

In a world where celestial convergence phenomena are frequent, it is normal to encounter, combat powerful beings from beyond the world, or to have once traveled beyond the world itself.

It’s not surprising to make friends.

However, Lann did feel it was quite a coincidence, considering the number of worlds is beyond count, and the connections between them are unstable, yet they still managed to connect.

Lann rode on the back of the Qilin, with Rong Buqiu clinging to his back.

The warrior spirit of the cat, energized by the journey to a new world and the upcoming challenge, was very lively.

Now, like a caterpillar, it wriggled excitedly on Lann’s back, purring contentedly.

The Qilin’s hoof gracefully stepped over the spatial rift, which mirrored glass breaking, and ventured inside.

It was a sensation Lann had grown somewhat familiar with.

Before long, the feeling beneath the Qilin’s hoof shifted from elusive to tangible ground.

The muffled sound of hooves hitting the grass resounded with a ’thump thump’.

Lann, the Qilin, and Rong Buqiu had crossed celestial convergences more than once before.

Thus, their adaptability had steadily improved, as the Qilin adjusted its balance by stepping forward and backward after emerging.

On its back, Lann frowned, covering his forehead, while Rong Buqiu, disoriented with dizziness, lost its grip and slid onto the Qilin’s saddle.

This state shouldn’t last long; they’d usually return to normal in a few minutes.

But this time... it wasn’t normal.

”Neigh?”

The Qilin whinnied, tinged with confusion and a hint of panic.

’Wait a minute! Why am I still swaying?’

The majestic and beautiful Ancient Dragon, adorned with luxurious gear.

The wide, elegantly draped white rune cloth fluttered in waves as the Qilin swayed.

Upon entering this world and stepping on the ground, the Qilin’s movements grew more erratic in seconds.

Its body heaved with such intensity from the disordered steps that even Lann struggled to remain seated atop it.

”Meow~” Rong Buqiu echoed, its small cat voice carrying traces of bewilderment. ”What is this...? Singing?”

Along with Rong Buqiu’s puzzlement, a melody indeed drifted from an unknown source.

Lann too heard the singing.

The voice was aged yet kind, reminiscent of an elderly person enjoying the leisure of post-retirement farm life.

This song fit well with their current setting.

After arriving in this world, Lann and company had first stepped onto a vast expanse of fresh green grass. This grass spread along the banks of a clear stream.

The river murmured softly, carrying a fresh mist, while the grass was nourished by the water, exuding an earthy fragrance that invited one to breathe deeply.

Sunlight filtered through the forest canopy, blending with the stream’s shimmering reflections, spreading into a field of warm, swaying light patterns.

There stood a giant, ancient willow of unknown age on the grassland.

A sunlit riverbank meadow.

——This was the scene that Lann and his companions first encountered.

Yet what should have been a pleasant and serene beauty inexplicably intensified their dizziness.

”Neigh!”

The Qilin’s steps were too disorderly, nearly causing it to stumble.

It veered sideways, sending Lann and Rong Buqiu aloft.

Despite the increasing dizziness, Lann’s resilient spirit allowed him to quickly respond.

Mid-air, he reached back, pulling the equally dizzy Rong Buqiu into his arms.

Then, he engaged his core muscles, adjusting his posture in an instant and landing steadily on the ground.

Something’s wrong.

The leisurely and kind singing continued from an unknown direction, but Lann’s mind began to operate.

In his dizzy state, he started to swiftly communicate with Mentos in his mind.

’Analyzing air quality... Analyzing light...’

Using Lann’s body as a receptor, his biological processor rapidly established various environmental indicators.

Lann didn’t idle either; after landing, he half-crouched on the soft, fresh grass.

His amber-colored cat eyes turned deep.

[Spiritual Vision]!

Along with the activation of [Spiritual Vision], Mentos’s alert reached Lann’s brain.

’Sir! Something is amiss! The air quality does not match what you perceive! This is...’

”An illusion.”

Lann softly finished Mentos’s unspoken words, his elegant eyebrows slightly furrowed.

[Spiritual Vision] pierced through the misleading façade, reaching the truth.

The reflective, sunlit, flowing water vanished, replaced by a bubbling mire.

The ground beneath my feet was no longer lush greenery imbued with the pleasant scents of grass and earth. Instead, it was a rugged, barren stretch of black soil.

Emerging sporadically from the ground were bizarre, winding roots and branches.

The Qilin struggled to maintain its footing, as its hooves weren’t treading on flat land but were caught on a tangled mass of protruding roots!

Moreover, those roots... were closing in on the Qilin’s hooves!

”Hold on tight, Rong Buqiu!”

In the blink of an eye, the situation became clear in Lann’s view.

He tossed the Elu Cat, which he had been holding in his arms, towards the Qilin. Despite feeling dizzy from the overlapping effects of the celestial spheres and Illusion Technique, Rong Buqiu, as a warrior, could at least manage to ’hold tight’.

”I-I did it, meow!”

The little cat shouted, being thrown back onto the Qilin’s back, claws gripping tightly onto the saddle.

At this moment, Lann wasn’t comfortable letting the little cat be placed elsewhere.

Then... ”Shing!”

A sharp, swift sliding of a blade cut through the air, interrupting the continuous, inexplicable singing.

Bright silver light flowed out like mercury from the scabbard at Lann’s waist.

The technique of [Dragon Flash] was the very first [Iwami Mushin Style] move Lann had mastered.

Nowadays, he could use it with ease.

With the sacred power of the Lady of the Lake’s Sword behind it, the fierce Air Blade emanated from the blade.

It skimmed along the ground towards the cluster of roots entwining the Qilin’s hooves.

The withered roots cracked like brittle clay, breaking apart with a ’crack-crack’ sound.

”Ah!!!”

The previously leisurely, soothing singing voice suddenly burst into a cry filled with pained rage!

The voice lost its benevolence, becoming instead dull and sinister!

Without turning his head, Lann seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, striking a [Dragon Flash] Qi Blade with the drawing stance.

In his fluid dance, Aron Dite left a clear crescent silver shadow in the air, poised above the back of Lann’s neck.

This wasn’t having eyes in the back of his head, but rather a combination of battle experience, acuity, and the computational power of his bio-intelligence brain coming into play.

Just as Lann positioned his weapon, a hefty willow branch suddenly lashed towards the back of his neck as if coordinating with his movement.

The thick, moist, and resilient willow branch lashed out like a whip weighing dozens of kilograms!

A common person spinning a whip could make its tip crack the air. This immense mass whipping about could gouge a rock!

But to Lann, once he had ’seen clearly’, these things weren’t difficult to handle.

With a sharp ”screech”, both the hand wielding Aron Dite and the blade itself ignited with a faint red halo.

[Tachi Technique·Qi Blade Slash]!

The Lady of the Lake’s Sword wasn’t in place for defense but to strike the weak point of the enemy’s attack first!

Just like performing a standard sword flourish, Lann withdrew his arm from his neck.

In this movement, the extended blade just caught the incoming willow branch in mid-swing.

This powerful ’whip’, reinforced with Qi Blade Slash, was precisely severed in front of the returning long blade.

The severed ’whip-head’ passed by Lann’s neck with a sonic boom.

Even the slightest graze could flay skin, exposing the tendon coil in the muscle at the back of his neck.

But it didn’t touch him.

Just a tiny margin, but it was one Lann had already calculated.

”Wow ah ah!”

The sinister, evil scream grew louder as the severed willow branches sprayed sap like biological tentacles.

In the next moment, several more willow branches whipped at Lann from different directions.

But Lann, who had turned around within that brief lapse, swept his eyes around in an instant.

Aron Dite left bright, chilling silver afterimages in the air.

”Shing” *N

Amidst the sputtering sap and cries, these willow branches were all severed at once!

Using his eyes to track attack trajectories, Mentos was tasked with finding angles and charting the most efficient attack paths.

The seemingly synchronous attacks were all severed in coordination.

The severed willow branches hadn’t yet hit the ground, their sap still sprayed mid-air.

Clearing the dense assault before him, Lann finally saw the first creature he encountered in this world.

—The old willow tree.

Now, this willow tree, in contrast to the Illusion Technique where it danced leisurely with its branches swaying in golden glittering waves, seemed lively yet serene, was completely different.

Its trunk, with gnarled wooden nodes and crisscrossed cracked bark, formed an ancient human face.

That face, instead of looking kind due to its age, appeared gloomy and sinister.

With Lann’s attack silencing its song, the Qilin and Rong Buqiu regained their normal state quickly.

”Are you a Tree-man?” Lann first glanced with his peripheral vision, noticing his companions’ state before addressing the creature in front of him.

”Not very friendly, are you?”