Bear School Astartes

There were no surprises, nor any dangers.

What appeared before Lann’s eyes was like a terrifying photograph.

A woman’s body was enveloped in vines, not only externally, but even beneath her skin, one could see the wooden bulges pushing up.

The vines had grown into her flesh.

And even after two years, the Chaos Magic Power in these plants had kept the corpse from decaying.

”Truly... cruel and twisted scum.”

Lann furrowed his brows, drawing the Lady of the Lake’s Sword from his waist to slice through the entangled vines as he cursed under his breath.

”That guy who twisted grievance into a curse just made a toy, got bored with it, and left it here... Do you really have no problem living in the same forest as this piece of shit?”

Lann cursed under his breath, with only the eerie forest behind him.

But in the blink of an eye, Bryan stepped out from the shadows behind him.

”Even cats will display the prey they’ve tormented to death together. Compared to cats, how long does this guy go between whims that take a life?”

The voice of the tree spirit, like leaves in the wind, brushed past Lann’s ears like a refreshing whisper.

The Demon Hunter shook his head.

He understood Bryan’s meaning; to him, the lives of intelligent beings were precious. But in the eyes of the tree spirit, humans were no different from ordinary animals in the food chain.

With a few swipes, Aron Dite’s unparalleled blade effortlessly severed the well-hydrated and resilient vines.

The woman’s corpse, stretched beyond recognition by the rampant vines inside her, was slung over Lann’s shoulder.

He felt as if he was carrying not a flesh-and-blood body, but more like a sheet of leather wrapped around wood.

The woman’s head knocked against Lann’s back with each jolt.

Yet, being a Demon Hunter, such intimate contact with a strange corpse no longer frightened the young man.

Lann walked towards the edge of the forest, and behind him came a woman’s voice speaking a strange language.

Then, Bryan spoke in a common tongue.

”Good luck, Demon Hunter.”

The voice echoed through the dense woods, finally becoming melodious and profound.

Lann waved his hand without looking back, as if saying goodbye.

And may you, the wise beings of this forest, live long, for... merely living in this world is a hardship in itself.

In his encounters with tree spirits, Lann always felt as if he had stepped into the western frontier of the United States, watching the natives there trampled by time for holding onto tradition.

Racial tension... racial tension...

Along the way, Lann had met many people, some of questionable character, but also those who tried to live without harming others.

And there were quite a few of them.

But the virtue of individuals always seemed insignificant when elevated to the scale of races, so fleeting that it was easily overlooked.

-----------------

The moon had risen, the night shrouded the earth.

Lann placed the woman’s corpse on a ridge, covering her face with a handkerchief given to her by Sir Fist.

The Demon Hunter, kneeling in meditation, took out a bottle of dwarf spirit from the alchemy pouch at his back and poured it onto the corpse before him.

”[Igni].”

He snapped his fingers, and the magic spark ignited the high-proof liquor, turning the human-shaped ”torch” into a blazing flame in the dim night.

Lann slowly closed his eyes and entered meditation, adjusting his body’s state.

Meditation would enhance perception but would blur the sense of time.

By the time Lann opened his eyes again, the silver pendant on his chest was clinking and clattering.

On his retina, the timing function provided by the bio-computer had already marked ten minutes.

Behind him, a green flame pushed the shadows toward the front.

It was the flame that appeared and vanished with the Demon Spirit.

The Demon Hunter calmly drew his sword from his waist, stood up, and turned to face the rotting soul missing its lower jaw, floating in mid-air.

Compared to the daytime, the heatwave it brought was greatly diminished.

”Old friend, there’s no need to be formal.”

The Demon Hunter’s cat eyes met the Demon Spirit’s empty dark sockets.

In a twist of his wrist, the long blade in his right hand spun beautifully. His idle left hand reached for the ground, forming a seal.

[Yarden Magic Seal].

”Time to move on, madam.”

The incongruous, painting-like hues under the [Yarden Magic Seal] were forcibly transformed into substance.

The Day Demon Spirit sensed the change, lifted its head to unleash a damaging sonic boom.

But for Lann, that move was far from novel.

”[Igni]!”

”Boom!” Fierce flames gushed out from the magic seal, under the aid of the [Magic Seal Auxiliary Function], the fiery stream was compressed into a scorching lance!

It thrust directly into the Day Demon Spirit’s throat!

The screams were choked by the flames.

Immediately, Lann adjusted his balance for a sudden shift, standing before the Demon Spirit, holding his sword with both hands in an extraordinarily upright stance.

[Iwami Style: One-Stroke Slash: Double]!

Violent sword wind propelled by the iron-solid entity, the blade, upon contact with the materialized skeletal structure of the Demon Spirit, emitted a fierce acidic corrosion sound.

The blade was coated with [Evil Spirit Oil] targeting the Soul Body, the technique of the Qi Flow Blade brought out a fine mist from the blade, with the Qi Blade appearing like a vapor.

So, although the Air Blade lacked exorcism abilities, wrapped in it was vapor-form [Evil Spirit Oil], inflicting significant corrosive harm to the Day Demon Spirit.

The micro-sized sword oil caused more extensive corrosive damage than merely hacking with the blade. Its reaction rate was faster, with a larger contact area.

Under the tri-fold pressure of the Qi Blade technique, [Evil Spirit Oil], and [Yarden Magic Seal], Lann didn’t even see the reputed ”most dangerous state of the Day Demon Spirit” from the lore.

——It would summon its own phantoms and start siphoning the target’s life force.

The ultimate result would be turning the target into a desiccated corpse like the unfortunate one in the field.

”Ugh!!!”

Finally, the Day Demon Spirit let out a mournful wail. Lann’s [One-Stroke Slash: Double] crushed all the ribs on its left side, and the [Evil Spirit Oil] left its chest cavity pitch black.

The ghostly green flame reignited, and this time, Lann was certain it was over.

Cold air beyond the ridge surged in, the convection heat even stirring a breeze in the small field.

Fortunately, with Mentos’s prior warning, Lann had anticipated this scene, immediately upon the Day Demon Spirit’s demise, he retrieved a thick felt cloth to cover the scattered Ghost Spirit Dust on the ground.

As the wind subsided, the field temperature returned to the normal winter night’s chill.

Lann uncovered the fabric, gathering the not-insignificant pile of Ghost Spirit Dust, which included a green gemstone dropped from the Day Demon Spirit’s dissipating form.

In alchemical terms, the Demon Spirit’s dispersal indeed initiated a process that could [generate a gemstone]. So in the worldview of mysticism, eliminating a Demon Spirit was like completing a small alchemical transaction, which, with a bit of luck, yielded a flawless green gemstone.

Besides Ghost Spirit Dust and the green gemstone, the head of the Day Demon Spirit was also preserved in materialized form.

Lann believed if he could hang this on his horse’s saddle, future commissions could demand a hefty premium. At least 5% more!

But after deliberating, he still chose to bury the thing.

If it had been a griffin or wyvern’s head, he’d have left it hanging proudly.

But having completed the investigation of the Day Demon Spirit, he knew this lingering malevolence originated from a woman’s distorted curse... Keeping it would have been too disturbing.

After collecting his trophies, Lann poured the last bit of the dwarf spirit from the bottle onto the body that had lain unclaimed for two years.

The [Igni Magic Seal] flickered, and this dehydrated corpse was engulfed in flames.

The Demon Hunter watched calmly as the body burned to ashes; only then did he consider his first [Hunting Demon Spirit] quest in life complete.

Subsequently, Lann headed towards the nearby village.

The ghost matter was done, now... it was time to deal with the living.