Bear School Astartes

”Indeed! You must have guessed it, Dragon Slayer Lann!”

Zhao Ge Luyin let out a wolf howl to the sky, and a storm carrying sand and rocks immediately surged up! Charging towards Lann!

The wide-open wolf’s jaws still bit into nothingness.

But when the Demon Hunter appeared around the Demon Wolf’s body like a wisp of smoke, Zhao Ge Luyin simply swung its claw towards the surrounding ground.

Huge chunks of earth and stone were directly lifted by the Demon Wolf!

Its claws and teeth seemed completely unimpeded, able to make unusually smooth cuts on the surface of matter.

The ground was first cut open by its claws, then immediately lifted up.

Such a large area was lifted altogether, even with Lann’s reflexes, he could only quickly withdraw, moving backward to leave the area.

The ground shattered, and the massive stones, as they flew into the air, couldn’t support their own weight due to their shape and structural strength, so they shattered into various sized fragments in mid-air.

Carried by Zhao Ge Luyin’s power, they flew out.

These fragments even flew across to the main battlefield on the wasteland! Plowing many noticeable bloody paths through the crowded fighting masses!

This direction was where the Beastmen had surged out from the tunnels to launch their attack, so there was mostly the black blood of Beastmen, along with their dying screams.

The Beastmen’s screams were insignificant to Zhao Ge Luyin’s ears, for evil inherently does not care about ’unity’ or ’alliances’.

It simply reveled in the evil nature joy brought by the pain within these screams.

And just as the scene was dust-filled and chaotic...

”Ding!”

A moment of pale red light suddenly flared up amidst the grey dust!

Then, the activated fighting spirit, stimulated by external pressure, activated on its own!

The scattered flying stones, within a time window, were all sensed by the heightened fighting spirit, prompting the body to dodge.

[Tachi Technique·Severing Slash]!

Zhao Ge Luyin was clearly startled, but its four paws were very agile.

After dodging, the latter part of the automatic counterattack of [Severing Slash] was blocked by one of its hind paws.

Then the entire massive wolf body smoothly spun, completing a full circle.

After its hind paw blocked the automatic counterattack, bursting into a series of glaring sparks, its forepaw was just in a position to block again.

From above, after [Severing Slash] naturally followed Lann’s [Air Blade Grand Spin], both he and Zhao Ge Luyin spun out two large and small circles simultaneously on the chaotic ground.

The Demon Wolf’s quick reactions ensured it didn’t expose other parts of itself to the Lady of the Lake’s Sword’s blade, and Lann’s skill kept him unharmed.

But after [Air Blade Grand Spin] clashed with the Demon Wolf’s claws, a faint layer of pale white light naturally illuminated the blade.

[Blade Elevation·White Blade State]!

The activated fighting spirit broke through a threshold via [Air Blade Grand Spin], allowing it to temporarily dwell on the blade, enhancing its cutting and slashing capabilities.

Without any pause, Lann sheathed the Lady of the Lake’s Sword once more.

Near the opening of the scabbard at Lann’s waist, a high-pressure air current began to gather unusually.

[Heartless Style: Dragon Flash]!

Suddenly drawing the sword in a downward slash! The blade, through extraordinary technique within the scabbard, accumulated even more power.

These surging forces manipulated a massive amount of surrounding air currents, extending an air flow blade over thirty meters long!

The high-density air flow blade even became visible due to light refraction!

With a ’sizzle’, the air flow blade spanned the distance between the Demon Wolf and the Demon Hunter, tearing through the ground and the dust raised by debris.

Earlier, Zhao Ge Luyin had spun around, deftly using its nimble limbs and paws to block Lann’s two blade attacks before taking advantage of its spinning force to leap backward.

Yet, due to its immense body and power, this leap covered several dozen meters.

It thought this was a safe distance, but in the next moment, an air flow blade came slashing down from across!

The air flow blade carried a hint of the blade’s force, emitting a glowing light, and Zhao Ge Luyin dared not underestimate it just because it was an air flow blade.

However... it actually didn’t need to worry much.

”Awooo!!!”

Facing the approaching air flow blade, the azure Demon Wolf howled to the sky.

Then, the shadow from the sky suddenly loomed down!

A massive, heavy object pressed the air, bearing down from above!

The tail of an Earth-Swallowing Giant Worm was swung over, directly blocking the trajectory of Lann’s air flow blade!

The sharp air flow blade made a grating sound on the thick insect body, like a saw cutting through flesh.

The continuously circulating high-pressure air currents cut the thick body of the Earth-Swallowing Giant Worm to pieces.

The air flow blade, extending over thirty meters, cut into the cylindrical body of the Earth-Swallowing Giant Worm by half!

The insect body, capable of crushing rocks and made entirely of muscle, was cut over three meters deep!

The blood and flesh puree carried out by the high-speed swirling air streams exploded from the upper and lower ends of the cut!

The Earth-Swallowing Giant Worm had no vocal organs, but its violent body convulsions indicated its current agony.

But Lann, who slashed out with the [Dragon Flash], had a gloomy expression.

”What power and skill you have in that strike, Dragon Slayer!”

Zhao Ge Luyin easily jumped onto the twisting Earth-Swallowing Giant Worm, speaking from above.

The voice was sinister.

He only mentioned the power and skill of Lann’s strike, but did not bring up the sacred light of the Lake Lady’s Sword that had alarmed him earlier.

Lann understood what Zhao Ge Luyin meant now.

He knew from the start, which was why he only unleashed a [White Blade] and kept pressing the attack.

...Because the threat of that light had already faded away.

The Qi Flow Blade held some of Aron Dite’s power, which still restrained evil beings effectively.

But... these Earth-Swallowing Giant Worms were not evil beings!

The effectiveness on the Earth-Swallowing Giant Worms was merely Lann’s own amalgamation of power and technique in his strikes.

These four Earth-Swallowing Giant Worms were the ’meat shield’ Zhao Ge Luyin found against the Lake Lady’s Sword!

He himself only had claws and fangs to clash with the Lake Lady’s Sword without being burned by the sacred light.

But these Earth-Swallowing Giant Worms could be touched anywhere.

”I corroded their simple minds, but didn’t activate it at first, nor did I spread the corrosion to their bodies, precisely for this moment!”

The Demon Wolf walked on the winding giant worm’s body, but his eyes kept looking at the Demon Hunter below.

The murky yellow eyes were now glowing with a nauseating yellow light, possibly due to controlling the Earth-Swallowing Giant Worm.

The wolf’s paw casually scratched the worm’s body, creating several shallow yet smooth wounds.

”Look, durable and reliable.”

The Demon Wolf’s face showed a mix of mockery and flaunting.

The Earth-Swallowing Giant Worm, which recently bored through a hill, opened and closed its octopus-like jaws slowly, facing Lann below.

This was only one worm; the other three, like gigantic trains, were still rolling across the battlefield, heading toward him.

”In the earlier situation, either of us could have been severely wounded by the other, but now... I have a meat shield, Dragon Slayer.”

”What do you have?! Roar!!!”

In the end, standing on the Earth-Swallowing Giant Worm, Zhao Ge Luyin roared towards the sky.

The power in this evil creature surged unprecedentedly.

The worms moved even faster, and in the sky, corresponding to the burgeoning dark power, a gloomy cloud rapidly spread, occupying the otherwise still morning sky.

The gloomy, dark atmosphere was spreading with the Demon Wolf’s power.

The heavy, oppressive feeling weighed on the hearts of every Elf, Dwarf, and human.

This is the nature of this world, where power brings atmospheric and emotional changes to the surroundings.

Justice and evil ebb and flow.

And having fought to this point, the situation on the main battlefield in the wasteland had also undergone many changes.

Thanks to Gandalf’s timely entry into River Valley City to take charge of the situation, and this wizard, who usually exhibited only the flash technique, displayed unusually strong mana today, directly shattering a solid bridge at the city gate.

So River Valley City had not yet fallen, only in some chaos.

The Elves, under Thranduil’s command, regrouped with River Valley City at their backs, reducing the number of directions from which they could be attacked by a great margin.

Bard was among them, directing Long Lake Town’s militia on the city wall, using River Valley City’s ranged equipment to aid the Elves backed by the city wall in battle.

People stood their ground against what seemed like an endless tide of Beastmen, much better than when they had been almost scattered into a heap of stragglers at the onset of the battle.

The Elves and humans originally wanted to bring over Ironfoot Dain’s Dwarf army, reforming the ranks to form a united frontline.

But the stubborn Dwarves seemed more inclined to believe in the Lonely Mountain Kingdom, their ancient homeland.

They did not move closer to River Valley City, instead forming up again in front of the Lonely Mountain’s gate, using it as a stronghold.

”Sorlin!”

Dain’s helmet had been knocked off at some point, and this stubborn, irritable Dwarf was using his own flesh-covered head to head-butt the steel-helmeted Beastmen.

”Where’s Sorlin! We need him!”

As Dain’s head ’bang bang bang’ kept echoing, he actually won every clash!

The Beastmen’s steel helmets were dented before his cranium.

But considering Sorlin had once taken a hammer blow meant for a Warg Rider on his head and was only dazed for half an hour, such endurance seemed normal.

Yet, under the waves of Beastmen’s attack, the Dwarves, painfully holding the line, whether due to fatigue or extreme mental tension’s oversight.

They didn’t notice, within what they perceived as their ’stronghold,’ inside the Lonely Mountain, a faint trace of dragon stench emerging from the piles of gold, growing increasingly intense.

Reflecting on the Dwarf soldiers, they felt their usually considered ordinary clothes, now the stiff steel armor hindering their movements.

The Dwarves’ proud bushy beards seemed to be obstructing their breathing and stamina recovery.

Everyone felt heavy-hearted and uncertain.

Everything was too bad.