Bear School Astartes

”War beasts! Let them move out!”

On Crow Ridge, Azog bellowed orders while surveying the situation.

Behind him, two large banners and a horn coordinated to broadcast his command.

The previously silent burrows suddenly echoed with a rumbling noise.

From each burrow emerged a terrifying creature.

These creatures resembled Ogres, but each stood at least ten meters tall.

The tunnels excavated by the Earth-Swallowing Giant Worm had diameters of over ten meters, but these creatures essentially filled them as they emerged.

On the war beasts’ backs were mounted catapults, operated by a few Beastmen standing on platforms behind the beasts.

With the mechanical grinding of ’Kara La’, the war beasts lowered their bodies, limbs braced against the ground.

Then, with a ”boom”, the catapult hurled a massive stone weighing several tons into the distance.

The Dwarves had initially organized a Shield Wall defense, but hordes of Beastmen charged at it, like eggs against a wall, shattering upon impact.

Due to their height, the Dwarves’ Shield Wall was set fairly low, making it difficult for attackers to exert force. Moreover, the spears held behind the Shield Wall were all impeccably crafted by Dwarven artisans.

Several armored Beastmen bodies hung from them without so much as a bend, let alone breaking.

However, against the giant stones hurled by the catapults, the Dwarves’ Shield Wall crumbled like tofu.

Several war beasts were also deployed here at the ruins of River Valley City.

”Shoo~ Boom!”

Massive stones arced through the sky, crashing into the dilapidated outer walls and buildings of River Valley City.

Many stones that had long been loosely cemented came crashing down with a clatter.

These stones rained down but were largely blocked by a golden barrier of light.

Lann withdrew the Quen Rune that upheld the protective shield, shouting amidst the chaos.

”Is anyone injured?”

”My leg is broken! Help me!”

”And me, my arm!”

The range and force of the debris were too extensive, and Lann could not stop them all.

”Evacuate the wounded for care!”

After giving the order, Lann immediately rode his Qilin down to the city. If the enemy’s actions weren’t curtailed, the number of wounded would only continue to grow.

Under the suppression of catapult fire, vast numbers of Beastmen abandoned the long bridge leading into River Valley City, opting instead to approach the city walls from the dry riverbed.

Lann’s position was precisely the target for this group of Beastmen.

And behind the masses of Beastmen, on the slightly higher slope above the city walls, were the catapult-bearing war beasts, bracing themselves.

”Charge through, slaughter them!”

Lann gently tugged on the Qilin’s mane, and the Ancient Dragon from the New Continent immediately understood his intent.

Though the Qilin’s horn had yet to grow, making its control over lightning erratic, its physical capabilities had adapted and matched its normal state.

”Neigh!”

With a powerful whinny, strong hooves pounded the ground, and the majestic and elegant horse’s body, draped in flowing silken rune cloth, billowed in the wind.

It was like a streak of blue and white lightning!

The instantaneous surge pinned Lann back, his muscles tensing involuntarily.

He held a massive, heavy Greatsword at his side.

The fierce sword’s tip barely grazed the ground, sending up a trail of sparks.

The Beastmen, with their grotesque faces and deformities, couldn’t even grasp what was happening.

”Boom!!!”

A deep and resonant echo, like the toll of a cathedral bell, reverberated across the entire city wall!

It was the sound of multiple impacts, compressed into a single unidentifiable note by the Qilin’s divine speed!

The nearly three-meter-long broad sword traced a bloody arc beside Lann.

Smashing, crushing, tearing... the special wounds of the Muddy Stream·Destruction attack accomplished in an instant of contact.

The Beastmen struck were cleaved apart in a manner entirely different from ordinary sword cuts... a chunk of them shattered from the wound!

Their bodies were missing a piece entirely!

The Beastmen that had lined up to cross the dry riverbed were like ants crushed after gathering.

After Lann passed through, only a sea of dark remnants scattered about remained.

Severed limbs and flesh flew through the air, completely aligning with the ferocity and brutality of the Greatsword.

No fewer than thirty to forty Beastmen had their blood strewn about by the enormous blade, leaving behind a vile, black-red arc.

The technique of Qi Flow Blade in the Iwami Style not only harnesses the air to expand its destructive power, but when it envelops a denser liquid, the destructive power is even greater!

However, considering the difference in energy consumption between controlling air and controlling liquid, Iwami Yixin might be able to do it, but it’s not worth the effort.

He’s quite old now, and even if he were young, expending such effort on the battlefield would be unwise.

The other swordsmen in Iwami Country don’t even dare to imagine it.

But today, the power needed for this technique stands as a ’routine’ for Lann.

The ’swish’ sound wasn’t only the movement of Muddy Stream·Destruction slicing through the air.

It was also the sound of the Blood Blade enveloping the sword, slicing through enemy bodies.

The blade of the Greatsword is nearly three meters long, but the width of this orc lineup is seven to eight meters, leaving half of it beyond the sword’s reach.

However, from the moment the first orc’s body was shredded, the foul blood within was skilfully extracted by the sword blade using a vacuum suction method.

The blood gathered to extend the sword blade, continuing to shred the second person, the third person...

The killing power of the liquid blade cannot match the material form of Muddy Stream·Destruction, but it’s more than enough to deal with the orcs.

The blood-red fan leaves a trail in the air, with the orcs outside the blade’s range appearing slightly better... at least the cut is clean.

The sweeping blood-red fan across the entire orc formation even left black-red blood trails on the other side of the dried riverbank.

Those traces penetrated into the riverbank stones.

After Lann’s sweep, the moat, dried like a stream in winter, suddenly dyed a large section of its flow red.

Normal bodies take at least ten minutes to bleed out in water, but this strike from the Demon Hunter drained the blood from dozens of orcs in one go, staining the water red.

The water body also needs time for self-purification.

”Take my big bomb, meow!”

Rong Buqiu wasn’t idle either, standing on the neck of Lann’s Qilin, with small paws holding one Alchemy Bomb of High Hive in each hand.

He was diligently throwing them at another orc formation crossing the riverbank.

Two ”boom boom” sounds of explosion, regardless of how many orcs died, the formation was shattered.

Immediately, the Long Lake Town militia on the city wall began shooting arrows down, despite their poor training and quality. However, with the advantage of the city walls and the enemy’s broken formation, they managed to push the orcs back to the other side of the shallow bank.

”Ahead, jump!”

Rong Buqiu’s support for the side battlefield did not affect Lann’s objective.

He tightened his legs on the sides of the Qilin’s belly, and at the right moment, the Ancient Dragon made a powerful leap.

The leap took them directly to the hilltop where the war beast was stationed on the opposite side!

The war beast, with limbs braced and ready for the heavy load, just waiting for the trebuchet gears on its back to be in place, found itself facing a tall horse and an impressive rider!

Lann clutched the hilt of the over-three-meter heavy Greatsword under his arm, mimicking the Knight’s Lance charge.

As he and the Qilin appeared in the vision of the war beast in the next second...”clang~slash!”

”Roar!!!”

The momentum of the Ancient Dragon and the power of the Demon Hunter made the wide heavy Greatsword pierce straight through the war beast’s shoulder hollow like a knife through tofu!

The width of Muddy Stream·Destruction along with the destructive Dragon Attribute Energy on the blade was impossible to ignore.

So much so that the sword, mimicking a lance charge, first squeezed into the rock-like skin of the war beast.

Then engulfing, eroding, slicing through flesh and bone.

The blade stabbed into the shoulder hollow, or rather ’cut’ into it due to the width of Muddy Stream·Destruction!

First slicing through skin, then muscle, and then crashing within the body, with the blade pushing and bursting open the scapula.

Amid the war beast’s screams, from its shoulder to the same side of its ribs, it was nearly impaled!

As the Qilin landed, it made a light shift of direction, and Lann withdrew the massive sword without hesitation.

In theory, the stab wound left by Muddy Stream·Destruction was enough to fit half a person.

But after Lann withdrew the sword, only a layer of black mist with red arcs remained, continuously eroding the flesh.

The war beast’s stance of supporting with all fours was instantly shattered by the bone on nearly one side of the upper body, causing it to collapse towards the wound side, unable to hold on.

On its back, the orcs operating the mechanical platform of the simple trebuchet had no time to react, screaming as they fell down.

But the outcome was fortunate.

Because the gears of the trebuchet were already in position before.

In the instant the war beast toppled, the ’boom’ of a blast rang out, and its already tilted body was shaken, unable to resist the back pressure, sending a wave of flesh.

And the similarly tilted trebuchet catapulted the rock in another direction.

The rock, only a short distance from the ground, rolled away with the momentum from the trebuchet.

It crushed several orcs along the way, before finally stopping after crashing into the rear legs of another giant war beast with tough skin and thick flesh.

In a teeth-grinding ’crack’ of bone fracture, the leg of the other war beast was nearly smashed into a ninety-degree angle!