Bear School Astartes

Facing the final slap of the Extinct Dragon, Lann’s concentration was extremely focused.

The body of this ancient dragon was already terrifyingly strong, and now it was posing as if it were ready to smash its target directly into the ground.

If he were to take this hit head-on, Lann estimated he might actually get shattered.

This slap, infused with the muscle power and weight of the Extinct Dragon itself, exerted at least hundreds of tons of pressure!

Lann didn’t even want to get grazed by it.

The Demon Hunter’s eyes were fixed on the ancient dragon’s body, charged and ready, observing every muscle twitch.

Because every twitch of these muscles could be a prelude to the opponent’s fully charged move, just waiting to strike down.

Suddenly, in those suspenseful moments where even the air and noise seemed to freeze, the Extinct Dragon slightly moved its two hind legs forward.

It looked very much like the final adjustment of position just before an attack.

Lann’s muscles tightened immensely in response to this subtly threatening gesture.

But he still restrained the impulse in his body, his cat-like eyes locked in a stare with the reptilian slit eyes of the Extinct Dragon.

As expected!

After that little move from the Extinct Dragon, it didn’t strike immediately. Instead, it let out an angry low growl and finally couldn’t contain the power accumulated in its muscles, its entire right forepaw slapping down!

The Extinct Dragon’s small steps were intended to intimidate Lann, forcing him to make feint evasive moves!

In close-quarters combat, capturing the instability between the enemy’s movements is an exceptionally professional and extremely difficult skill.

Only the most experienced warriors can slightly sense this short ’instability period’ during engagement with the enemy.

Moreover, the benefit this ability can bring in battle is directly proportional to its difficulty and is truly extraordinary.

In the gap between two actions, one cannot defend, move, or attack.

Because these tactical plans always need to be executed in the next action to achieve effectiveness.

And a warrior, just after completing one action, before having a chance to stabilize or adjust, naturally cannot perform the next action.

Thus, even with tactics and strategies as clear as a mirror, in the window between moves, it’s impossible to act.

Yet this seemingly brutal, irrational ancient dragon wasn’t even trying to ’capture’ Lann’s movement gap earlier.

Instead, it used its momentum to ’pressure’ Lann into evading or moving.

Then, at the moment he completed the evasion, during the gap, it slapped down!

No block, no dodge! You’d have to take it full on!

’Ancient dragons possess intelligence equal to or surpassing that of humans’...

Lann experienced, truly firsthand, this point that the director of the ecology research station often murmured about.

This guy, who superficially seemed like a no-brain battle maniac covered in spikes, was actually quite cunning in combat.

The Extinct Dragon finally saw that it couldn’t push Lann into moving, but still had to bring down this slap in the end.

Firstly, with so much power accumulated, its body pulled back like a fully drawn bow. If the Extinct Dragon wanted to retract all that muscle power, the resulting gap might be longer than if it unleashed it. Better to just bring it down directly.

Secondly... Aiden’s pair of [Sharp Spiked Swords] had released too much anesthetic gas, already absorbed excessively by it.

It focused all its attention on Lann, giving too much room to the other two.

Although Aiden couldn’t match Wende, he was still an elite hunter from the Old World.

Facing a monster completely ignoring him, his attack frequency was extremely high.

Besides, Wende was constantly at the side with his shield axe like a perpetual motion machine, smashing [Ultra Solutions] repeatedly onto the Extinct Dragon.

This greatly weakened the Extinct Dragon’s vitality, and thus lowered its resistance to the anesthetic gas.

So indeed, this should be the last attack the Extinct Dragon could make.

And in the face of this slap with at least hundreds of tons of pressure, Lann finally moved.

In fact, when this slap was most formidable, it was precisely when the Extinct Dragon raised it above its head, as if ready to smash down at any moment.

Yet when the slap was indeed about to come down, Lann instead felt quite relieved.

”Ding!”

Faced with a move already determined, Lann’s [Foresight] unsurprisingly did not fail him.

The active battle aura matched perfectly with the Extinct Dragon’s attack within an extremely short window period.

Thus, the Demon Hunter, like a drifting feather, was pushed to a safe spot by the ancient dragon’s palm pressure.

After [Foresight], Lann didn’t follow up with [Air Blade Grand Spin].

Instead, he pulled back [Flow], positioning it at his waist. After retracting and storing energy, he thrust fiercely forward!

[Qi Blade Thrust]!

The sword blade, tinged with a glowing red light, emitted a bright ’zing’ under the power of the battle aura.

The arm of the Extinct Dragon, which had just slapped down, was pierced, shattering and scattering large splinters of bone.

And Lann immediately stepped on these jagged bone splinters, leaping straight onto the Extinct Dragon’s head!

”Feels good chasing me for so long, doesn’t it!”

”[Dragon Ascending Sword]!”

...Lann had watched Divine Dragon Warriors when he was young.

Stepping on a dragon to ascend, then delivering a clean, vertical chop to cleave it in two... what [Air Blade Cut]? Clearly, it’s the [Dragon Ascending Sword]!

Pale red battle aura flames left a straight, thin, sharp sword mark in mid-air.

Then, the internal explosion, compressed with an entire segment of Qi Blade battle aura, burst from the Extinct Dragon’s right shoulder, all the way to the right chest.

A sound like ”pff, pff” rang seven times in succession.

The Ancient Dragon’s Blood splattered out, hot and pungently sweet.

Lann’s strike with the [Dragon Ascending Sword] targeted the spot seen through his [Spiritual Vision], where life energy was most abundant.

Whether it struck a special part inside the Extinct Dragon’s body wasn’t clear, but afterwards, it appeared more enervated than when its hind legs were hit by ten or more of Wende’s [Ultra Solutions].

However, after Lann’s [Dragon Ascending Sword] landed, his eyes suddenly widened.

”Holy sh...”

The instinctive expletive wasn’t finished.

The Extinct Dragon, from its right shoulder to the right chest, where Lann hacked out a large gouge deep into the bones, suddenly had fragments of bone burst out towards him, just like the black bone spikes it ejects from its surface.

Because this area was the place Lann had selected, where life energy inside the Extinct Dragon’s body was most abundant, its manipulation of its own body was instead concealed under the brilliance of vitality.

Causing a slight delay in Lann’s [Spiritual Vision].

The wind and current raised by these bone fragments were just as fierce as those black spikes capable of piercing the Molten Mountain Dragon’s back shell.

Lann could only manage to form a Magic Seal, then used the sword surface of [Flow] to shield his head and face, and had no more time left.

After several clanging noises, the Demon Hunter was sent skidding several times across the ground, finally crashing into a protruding rock on the Molten Mountain Dragon’s back, kicking up a cloud of black smoke.