Bear School Astartes

The claw still carried the blood freshly torn from the Hunter’s body!

The dense scent of blood mingled with the foul stench of the beast, or perhaps... they had always been one and the same!

Yan’an’s Hunters are ruthless and decisive. Even after being injured while urgently dodging backward, their first instinct is aggressively to close the distance again, seizing the lull after the enemy’s attack to launch their own assault.

This might be an attempt by the Hunters to bring the pace of the battle into their control, but it could also be... a reflection of the Hunters’ inner craving for the spilling of blood.

Patients of beast transformation lust for the sensation of tearing flesh and bleeding, yet... aren’t Yan’an Hunters the same?

Sometimes, the distinction between the two is truly difficult to discern.

At this moment, the choices made by Hunters and beast transformation patients practically mirror each other.

Both, after sustaining injuries, become even more aggressive and close to the enemy, continuing to attack incessantly despite their wounds.

It’s as if they believe they could reclaim the blood lost through injury by inflicting harm on the enemy, recovering what they have lost.

Such obsession, such longing, such... impatience.

But ultimately, the Hunter faltered.

The deeply transformed patient showed no regard for his paw severed completely by the saw blade [Transformation Slash], instead, he let out excited breaths with a ’huulo hullo’ sound in his throat.

And that foul, black-haired, blood-stained paw was about to claw at the Hunter’s face!

The Hunter still couldn’t see clearly, but he could feel the fierce gust from the savage claw threatening his delicate eyes.

At least, this beast strikes accurately.

After initially experiencing terror upon realizing his swing had missed its mark, the Hunter mused inexplicably.

A single claw across the cheek should dig out the front part of my skull, ensuring a swift death.

This time, I was too hasty.

Nothing more can be said; that’s the nature of Yan’an Hunters. Perhaps one night, he’ll die in some lightless sewer.

Because he must hide from the citizens conducting covert hunts, even such minor matters as a major artery being severed can lead only to death when the [Blood Vial] runs dry and is shattered.

As most hunts occur in secluded places.

Come to think of it, it’s quite intriguing.

Everyone in Yan’an knows what the Hunters do under the cloak of night.

The Hunters know the citizens are aware.

Yet as long as they remain unseen in the deep night, everyone acts as if nothing occurs. Life goes on as usual the next day.

Only on the Night of the Hunt can Hunters freely roam the streets without care.

The Night of the Hunt? How long has it been since the last one?

No, in today’s Yan’an, beast transformation disease is no longer the city’s most troublesome and dangerous issue.

Currently, what people fear most is... the Grey Blood disease.

Though the devastation from it isn’t as explosive as the beast transformation disease, the death toll is staggeringly higher.

Seems like some kind of ’film reel’ just before dying?

As the beast patient’s claw neared his cheek, the Hunter’s thoughts grew hyperactive, uncontrollably bursting into leaps of thought.

He even felt like the beast’s movements had slowed, condemning him to long tortures of fear before dying.

Yet the Yan’an Hunter soon realized that it wasn’t his near-death hyperactivity of thinking that subjectively perceived the sluggishness of the beast patient’s actions.

But rather, in reality... they had truly slowed!

A ring of runes, emitting supernaturally purple light, appeared on the ground out of thin air, encircling the beast patient.

The patient inside the circle seemed tossed into water from the air, their entire body momentum slowed tremendously due to resistance!

What the hell?!

The Yan’an Hunter stared, bewildered, his eyes widened uncertainly before seizing the opportunity to swiftly retreat once again, putting himself out of the beast patient’s claw reach.

He prided himself on his breadth of experience, yet had never seen anything like this.

Is this some newly developed [Arcana]?

But what shocked him more was yet to unfold.

By now, the Hunter had rapidly retreated out of the alley, standing on the border between the moonlight and shadows, as a result of his swift backward move.

In his blurry vision, he only glimpsed under the supernatural purple glow, a figure even taller than the beast patient! Sturdy and robust.

Entirely different from the bizarrely elongated physique of the beast patient.

A silent, yet overwhelming shadow appeared behind the beast patient!

The pair of amber-colored, slightly luminous beast eyes calmly gazed down at the filthy beast.

Following this, a hand armored with bone-white and heavy gauntlets, utterly dissimilar to Yan’an Hunters, directly stretched into the purple runic circle confining the beast.

”Crunch”.

Lann’s hand slashed swiftly like a shadow, suddenly seizing the deformed claw still mid-swing.

The broad palm behaved like a hydraulic press, as it gripped fiercely, instantly overpowering and shattering the diseased bones.

But the Yan Nan Hunter outside the alley could only see up to this point.

Because in the next moment, Lann directly yanked the beast-transformed patient away from the rune circle of the [Yarden Magic Seal].

Like lifting a skinny, malnourished large dog.

The purple glow of the rune circle could not reach the two shadows, hidden in darkness.

With one hand gripping the paw, the Demon Hunter’s other hand was already forming a fist.

The beast-transformed patient had abruptly slowed down due to the rune circle of the [Yarden Magic Seal], and when dragged out, its speed suddenly recovered, making its body unsteady.

And then its paw was tugged by Lann.

Immediately, the entire body fell to one side.

And just when it completely lost control of its body weight, the fist donned with dragon scale armor gloves perfectly slammed into its head from the side!

”Boom!!!”

A loud explosion echoed in the flat ground!

The mutated skull had lost skin in many places, with beast’s black fur directly growing from the bone.

But this alien skull, when touched by Lann’s iron fist enhanced by Interstellar Warrior modifications, made a ’Kara La’ cracking sound.

When the fist pressed it against the alley wall from the side, the force was firmly unleashed.

The upper half of the beast-transformed patient’s head was completely shattered!

Only a lonely lower jaw was left, twisting and dangling, clad in strands of black hair hanging by the neck bone.

The Yan Nan Hunter outside felt as if an entire wall in the alley was trembling!

Many households on the street quickly extinguished their lights.

After the explosion, the alley returned to a deathly silence.

The Yan Nan Hunter standing outside the alley, his blood dripped from his leather gloves ’plip plop’ onto the stone pavement, but he stood still, tightly staring into the deep darkness.

Until...

With a few soft thuds, the already limp corpse of the beast-transformed patient rolled out pressing against the shattered wooden crate pieces from the alley.

The rune circle of [Yarden Magic Seal] had long vanished, with only heavy but steady footsteps approaching from the darkness.

The hunter’s eyes, sandwiched between the brim of a triangular hat and a face mask, calmly locked onto the glowing amber feline eyes in the dark.

”...Don’t you need to inject yourself with a [Blood Vial]?”

As Lann’s deliberately loud footsteps echoed, the Yan Nan Hunter cautiously retreated, maintaining distance.

He seemed to have learned a lesson from his earlier rashness.

As Lann completely emerged from the darkness, he casually shook the hand he had punched out, letting some of the sticky blood drip off while lifting his eyes to look at the opponent, speaking nonchalantly.

Watching Lann step into the moonlight, crossing the boundary line from the darkness, the Yan Nan Hunter initially seemed a bit dazed.

It was unclear whether it was because of the Demon Hunter’s physique or the moonlit face and molten silver hair.

But soon, he silently shook his head.

”You’re not a beast-transformed patient.” he raspily stated, and with a flick of his coat hem, drew out a [Blood Vial] and injected it into his thigh without even looking.

”The scent of blood on you is also quite singular, you even know about [Blood Vials]... Are you an outsider seeking cure in Yan’an? For those eyes?”

Lann’s normal appearance and speech at least prevented him from being mistaken for a beast-transformed patient.

This allowed the hunter to lower his guard to a certain extent and administer a [Blood Vial] to himself.

The [Blood Vial] during Old Yan’an had already little difference from what Lann had seen in the ’future’.

The glass bottle with a needle contained a liquid resembling turbid serum.

After a single injection, even with a mask and triangular hat, the hunter visibly showed a trace of pleasure.

He blissfully tilted his head back, involuntarily inhaling and making a ’hissing’ sound.

This expression of gratification through injection made Lann unconsciously frown.

His severely injured left hand, with the wrist swinging in mid-air, was gushing blood and trembling—any bones in the arm had been clawed apart, leaving only a thin layer of skin and flesh hanging together.

But after one injection, the flesh seemed to come alive, instinctively intertwining, merging, and making the dangling severed hand shake even more violently.

Finally, amidst the hunter’s sigh of satisfaction, he tentatively clenched his fist and found his hand completely healed.

This was the exaggerated regenerative power of the [Blood Healing].

Which was also the reason Yan’an attracted countless outsiders.

”To cure... Essentially, yes.”

Seeing the other party already recovered, Lann gave his response.

At the same time, a curious smile emerged on his face.

”You know? I happen to have an acquaintance here who asked me the same thing initially.”

”I’m not interested in other people’s business.” The Yan Nan Hunter stated coldly, forming a stereotypical impression in Lann’s mind about this profession.

”But I still appreciate your earlier assistance, allow me to express my gratitude, dear...?”