Bear School Astartes

Within seven steps of the short person with mouse-gray hair, a long-shaped creature was continuously approaching, causing the wild grass and lichens it passed to rustle from the friction.

The creature’s body color was dark brown, and it was about four to five meters long, making it look like a snake at first glance.

However, Lann squinted his eyes slightly; he didn’t believe it was a snake, because he had dealt with something similar shortly before.

It was all too familiar now.

”That’s a giant centipede!”

Bryan immediately half-knelt on the ground, pulling two arrows from the quiver behind her, one nocked on the string, the other clenched sideways in her mouth.

She spoke unclearly, ”It’s Yogon!”

At this moment, Geralt and Vesemir finally saw the full appearance of the monster.

The creature had two rows of yellow legs with barbed hooks; its slender body was segmented by chitin armor... it was far more dangerous than a snake!

The short person with mouse-gray hair retreated to the root of a large tree, leaning against it and screaming piteously.

And the bloodless and tearless arthropod continuously emitted the sound of shell friction, ”sss-rustle”...

It raised its head from the grass, using its unique organs to probe the air for temperature, humidity, and pheromones emitted by prey.

”That kid! Don’t move!”

Geralt yelled roughly, suddenly leaping up and down, hoping to attract the monster’s attention with the vibrations from the ground.

Vesemir’s bulbous nose wrinkled; he reached out to hold Bryan, who wanted to shoot directly.

In the incomprehensible gaze of the tree spirit, the old man shook his head, ”Its chitin shell cannot withstand steel, but the natural smoothness and curvature of the shell at this distance are enough to deflect your arrow. Facing stray arrows, that little guy has neither the insect’s shell nor the tree spirit’s agility!”

The gigantic centipede had no intention of paying attention to matters above ten meters on the soil platform; it was a cold and pragmatic monster. In its eyes, the meat beside its mouth, even if small, was more valuable than meat ten meters away.

Its antennae waved in the air, gathering information, completing positioning in just a moment.

The little guy was too panicked; their body temperature rose in fear, exhaling moist heat and sweat laden with ’fear’... it was too conspicuous.

The insect monster named Yogon by the tree spirit curled its body into a ball, the next moment shooting out like a spring full of force!

The many bright yellow appendages reflected the light from the biological shell, rhythmically moving like rows of oars.

Geralt stood on the high soil platform, looking down, his heart anxious like ants on a hot pot.

This anxiety came inexplicably.

A dead person, even if it’s a short guy, is just an unlucky one dead in the monster’s mouth.

Geralt had seen it often, even grown tired of it.

Yet today, he felt inexplicably panicked, as if that short guy down there was of immense importance to him.

”It’s too high... there isn’t even a buffer platform!”

Geralt retreated from the edge of the soil platform, ready to take a detour, searching for another way to jump down quickly.

A ten-meter-high platform! Even forcing himself, simultaneous use of ”Quen” and ”Alder” would break two legs!

At that time, let alone saving that little guy, he himself would die.

But before the panicked Geralt could turn and run away, a big hand directly pushed him aside.

”Out of the way, don’t obstruct.”

It was Lann.

The youngest Demon Hunter present at that moment was drawing an elegantly curved, beautifully bladed Elf Long Blade from his waist, creating a pleasing metallic friction sound.

He walked straight to the edge of the soil platform.

”Don’t be foolish! This platform has at least a ten-meter height difference!”

The pushed-aside Geralt didn’t even have time to get angry; he loudly warned the young man not to lose his composure out of urgency while preparing to run to find a buffer platform to jump down.

Even while this anxious, he didn’t forget to remind Lann to be careful.

But in the next moment... that young Demon Hunter jumped straight off the ten-meter-high, no-buffer soil platform without a hint of hesitation!

”Lann!”

”Child!”

Vesemir and Geralt shouted simultaneously, then rushed to the edge of the soil platform to look down.

This type of person, always clothed in armor, knew all too well that even a heavily armored warrior could be fatal from losing footing on a platform barely one meter high!

With that Bear School’s standard armor worn, jumping straight down ten meters... even a Demon Hunter’s internal organs would be shocked into failure!

When the two from Wolf School squeezed to the edge to look down, Vesemir even pulled a bottle of ”Pure White Rafad” from his bag, ready to hang this reckless young man’s life first.

But when their view was no longer blocked by the edge, allowing them to see beneath the platform...

”What the hell?!”

”Plague above!”

The two experienced Demon Hunters thought they had seen every scene there was to see throughout their lives?

Today they realized... they truly hadn’t seen this scene!

Lann’s graceful motion while descending completely did not match his self-weight!

And when he landed, it was completely unlike Vesemir and Geralt’s expectation of someone in heavy armor slamming onto the ground, raising a cloud of dust.

Instead, when Lann’s feet once again touched the ground, from a fully extended posture he simply shifted to a deep squat, the extremely simple force-discounting posture making his landing seem more like a hollow log rather than a heavily armored body.

This motion completely overturned Geralt and Vesemir’s understanding.

Instinctively, they both simultaneously grasped the wolf-head pendants on their collars. Yet they were surprised to find the equipment capable of detecting traces of magic was quiet as if it were a fake.

Having used ”Light Body Skill” to withstand the ten-meter fall directly, Lann had no time to dwell on the astonishment of the two Demon Hunters above.

The antennae of the Yogon were close to touching the little guy’s hair!

With a swish, the soles of the boots made fierce yet brief friction sounds with the turf.

Just landed, Lann transitioned directly from the deep squat force-discounting posture to advance!

The unevenly grown grass on the ground was sharply sheared into a sloped surface by the Lady of the Lake’s Sword held sidelong at Lann’s side as he flew through.

This time, Yogon couldn’t ignore the movement other than the meat beside its mouth.

Because this movement didn’t signify new meat far away, but a threat approaching!

It foolishly turned itself, facing the charging Lann head-on.

This movement undoubtedly increased its area of force exposure.

”Alder!”

”Boom!”

An invisible shockwave, with uniformly spreading force, appropriately blasted the giant centipede away, away from that short person.

The chitin-shelled body slammed against a tree trunk, the elastic shell meant to quickly rebound after hitting the tree, minimizing the imbalance time.

But not before the chitin shell bounced two centimeters off the tree trunk...

”Squelch!”

Almost immediately following the impact, the twisted, winding body was pinned to the wood by a clear, bright blade!

Relentlessly, before Yogon could bite the attacker along the blade.

The blade, piercing its body, had already relentlessly started cutting upwards!

Shells, appendages, even the tree trunk behind... all were swiftly and decisively sliced in two with a ripping sound!

In the little observer’s eyes, the blood and flesh of the gigantic centipede sprayed out far more than normal for some reason.

Nearly turning into a regional ’rain.’