Bear School Astartes

It was a commotion coming from the edge of Long Lake Town.

Most of the houses in Long Lake Town are wooden, with tiled rooftops.

The commotion was the clattering and grinding noise of interlocking tiles being pressed together by external force.

Currently, most of the people in Long Lake Town had been gathered at the square by the mayor’s bell. The remaining areas of the town only echoed with the sparse sounds of ice colliding in the waterways beneath the waves.

It was very quiet.

And these footsteps on the tiles suddenly stood out...for the Demon Hunter.

Lann halted his long legs that were about to step over a pile of woven baskets and instead stepped onto a nearby stool.

Adjusting his breath, making his body light and agile.

Just stepping on a low stool used by the town women for work, he leaped onto the roof of a relatively short house.

Lann’s bracers and the armor plates on the back of his hands slightly clattered; he grasped his way onto the roof.

At the same time, he clearly saw what was making the noise on the roof!

Those wearing strangely shaped and crudely made armor, with body shapes also of various deformities, and cruel almond yellow pupils, appeared cold yet excited in the night and reflected light.

——They were Beastmen!

Lann’s face darkened, and simultaneously, his hand rested on the hilt of his sword at his waist.

And the Beastmen also simultaneously spotted the Demon Hunter!

Such a large humanoid creature leaping onto the roof with a lightness that did not match its size and weight... it was hard to ignore the scene.

The one-eyed Beastman holding a Page Hammer waved his hand forward.

”Kill him! Don’t waste time!”

At once, five or six beastmen from the group on the roof broke off, stepping on the creaking tiles as they approached Lann.

Their weapons were sharp and rough, but the thrill of impending bloodshed and sadism was visibly evident on their deformed faces.

Beastmen obey orders due to their leader’s brutality and strength, but it doesn’t stop them from satisfying the cruelty and darkness inherent in their nature during a mission.

This race was originally designed this way when they were modified by the Great Dark Enemy Morgoth in ancient times.

But if cruelty could represent combat power, then this world would be too rotten.

So when the Beastmen roared with their vague deformed voices, excitedly baring their black and yellow decayed teeth, and rapidly closed in on the lone Lann...

Five or six beastmen rushed forward, but before they could reach Lann, that tall, extraordinary figure suddenly disappeared then reappeared in their eyes.

Leaving only a wisp of green smoke in place.

[Acceleration Technique]

The Hunter technique from Yan’an allows Demon Hunters to explosively and briefly enhance their movement, making their footsteps light and breezy.

The leading Beastman charging forward almost felt like he slammed into some solid rock wall!

The rush of speed and weight was of no use.

And the even scarier part was... this ”rock wall” jabbed out a sword!

”Pfft~”*2

Lann casually thrust the blade of Aron Dite forward and then stood there.

Then, the leading Beastman’s own momentum made the blade pierce through the armor and body like stabbing tofu, into his chest.

His momentum even made him halt abruptly as he collided with the guard of the Lady of the Lake’s Sword, while his lower body swayed forward due to inertia.

He resembled a ragdoll.

The Lady of the Lake’s Sword is suited to Lann’s size, with a length comparable to a typical two-handed greatsword. This allowed it to pierce through one Beastman’s chest at the front and skewer another’s stomach like a candied skewer at the back.

Lann’s expression remained calm.

The muscles on his sword-wielding arm slightly bulged with aesthetic form.

The steel cable mesh beneath his skin slightly tightened.

With a harsh and terrifying ”snap” sound.

It was like tearing two pieces of paper! The Lady of the Lake’s Sword was pulled horizontally from the bodies of the two Beastmen!

A vast amount of putrid, dark blood sprayed from the rooftop into the town’s waterways below.

The enormous gash from chest and stomach to side brought forth not only a huge amount of blood but also falling internal organs with a splattering sound.

The Beastmen’s previously excited and malevolent battle cry was stuck in their throats like a duck with its neck squeezed.

As Lann’s tall and robust figure stood before them, they seemed to just wake up... how dare they have charged at such a being?

Even with the Beastmen’s ferocious nature, such an explosive death stunned and shocked them.

The two Beastmen on the right, sprayed with blood, still bore cruel smiles on their mouths, but their small eyes expressed no emotion, being struck with fear.

”Crack!”

A crisp sound of bone snapping decisively.

It was Lann’s left hand, not wielding the sword, gripping a Beastman’s head beside him!

An ugly, deformed head caved in with an imprint matching Lann’s palm size the instant his large hand squeezed it.

The Beastmen’s body size, not much different from ordinary people, was like a large ragdoll in his hands.

Grasping the crushed skull of a Beastman’s head, Lann effortlessly lifted it in front of him.

Next moment... ’whoosh whoosh whoosh’!

The Beastmen’s black arrows, almost merging with the dark night, came swarming with near-imperceptible whistling sounds from the distant rooftop.

But even this faint whistling noise was enough for Mentos to calculate with.

These crude archery techniques allowed Lann to see through the trajectory of these arrows earlier than the archers themselves.

The Beastman’s corpse in his hand lightly shifted a few times in front of him, and all the arrows ’ding ding dang dang’ either bounced off the Beastman’s armor or, given the right angle, pierced into the armor.

Some arrows, on penetrating the Beastman’s crude armor, lodged into the exposed body inside, with the arrowheads barely protruding a finger’s length.

But without a doubt, all these arrows were encompassed by Mentos’s calculations.

While blocking the arrows, Lann also side-kicked, sending the remaining two Beastmen next to him off the rooftop.

He didn’t exert much force because the aim was to have the two Beastmen fall parabolically into the waterways from the rooftop.

Their armor, coupled with the current water temperature, would keep them from resurfacing.

If the force was greater, it might have directly kicked them along the parabola into the houses across the waterways.

The Beastmen on the distant rooftop shouted at each other with crude and wicked languages.

It was the Beastmen’s Black Speech, seemingly relaying messages and adjusting tactics.

Meanwhile, after the first wave of arrows, Lann pulled out an Alchemy Bomb from his Alchemy Pouch at his back waist.

With a twist of his fingers, he lit the fuse.

A few seconds later, the metal-shelled orb worth dozens of Oren Coins was flung directly into the air.

And it exploded precisely at its highest point.

”Pop!”

The sound wasn’t very loud because, in the open air, there was nothing to gather the sound. Similarly, it caused little damage.

But it was never intended for damage.

The principles of alchemy instilled the explosion with bright light and a loud bang, and in the dim night, the chemical energy’s strong light effect made everything around lose color for a brief moment, turning pure black and white.

This strong light illuminated the entire Long Lake Town, though only for an instant, but there was nothing more eye-catching as a warning and alert.

If the guards already held some basic vigilance at the mayor’s request, then Lann’s [Dancing Star] would have served its purpose.

”Aoooo!!!”*N

Unlike the Demon Hunter who personally threw the Alchemy Bomb, the Beastmen suddenly witnessing the bright light in the dark night covering their eyes issued frantic and helpless howls.

Because of losing their sight temporarily, several Beastmen stumbled off the rooftops.

The leading one-eyed Beastman, however, was even more furious, yet mixed with a bit of excitement.

”It’s the Wizard!”

He shouted from his mouth.

”The Wizard! There must be Dwarves too! They’re together! Kill! Kill them all!”

”Doo~~~”

After shouting to the nearest subordinate, he pulled the horn from his waist and blew a sound.