Bear School Astartes

In the process of using the [Tachi Techniques], Lann had already pushed his Combat Qi Activation to its limit via [Qi Blade Ascension]—that part was indeed correct.

But the New Continent Hunters’ techniques are anything but rigid—or rather, when they’re facing those terrifying monsters born of nature itself, being rigid would just get them killed.

His Combat Qi Activation was already maxed out, true—but that didn’t mean he couldn’t use [Severing Slash] anymore.

The true core of the New Continent Expedition Team’s fourteen weapon arts, and of the [Tachi Techniques] in particular, is to feel external pressure and respond sharply while keeping every move flowing together, smooth and fully under control.

A pale crimson Fighting Spirit Light Flame flashed across his blade.

The raging energy gathered on Ludwig’s Moonlight Greatsword never even brushed Lann’s body, snuffed out by his razor-sharp qi reaction.

And the enemy’s strongest strike had just passed—this was the moment when his defenses were at their thinnest!

Along the chive-leaf-shaped, ice-blue edge, a layer of pale crimson Combat Qi surged and flowed without rest!

[Moonlight Torrent]!

”Vmm!”

Because Lann was deliberately controlling his output, the light-stream was far smaller in scale than Ludwig’s earlier strike, but at the same time much faster—it flashed out in an instant!

The surging, instantaneous stream of light slammed in from Ludwig’s flank!

Ludwig was still in the brief, hollow stiffness that followed after he’d swung that blow overflowing with energy.

He didn’t even have time to stagger, and took the hit full-on.

And it wasn’t over yet.

After a short period of acclimation and practice, Lann had managed to reduce the output of [Moonlight Torrent] to squeeze out more time—not just for that first strike!

”Shing!”

Right behind the light-stream came the ice-blue blade itself, its outer edge sheathed in a solid pale crimson layer of Combat Qi!

[Qi Blade Thrust]!

The translucent, chive-leaf-shaped edge drove in right after the reduced-output [Moonlight Torrent], the Combat Qi along the blade shaking the air with a sharp vibration as it plunged into Ludwig’s side abdomen!

This time, even a [Church’s First Hunter] beastified to such a grotesque degree couldn’t hold back—the mouth warped by the beastification disease let out a muffled scream!

”Aah!”

The sound was somewhere between a bray and a whinny—no longer something a human throat could produce.

Even if the moonlight had helped him reclaim his will, the physical distortions still remained, objectively and brutally.

But Lann’s expression did not waver.

His assault was not finished yet; [Qi Blade Thrust] was merely the setup for the next phase.

And the next phase was...

Two hard ”thud-thud” steps! Power-packed muscles drove flesh and armor alike, boots finding purchase on the jagged contours of Ludwig’s beastified bulk; in a sprinting, stomping motion, Lann vaulted up to the height of Ludwig’s head!

As he came down, his body opened like a great bow, then snapped back tight, squaring the edge—and he brought the blade cleaving down!

[Water Form Sword - Ascending Dragon Sword]!

The blade bit in at the eye-mouth on the side of Ludwig’s neck, chopping straight down! The crystalline ice-blue edge whipped up a filthy wave of blood and hacked its way out beside one of the malformed horse legs jutting from his right lower abdomen!

A ripping ”skrrrt” sounded; blood fountained out as the air around the wound accelerated into a rush.

”Tch” *7!

The highly active Combat Qi, coursing back and forth along the blade like a row of serrated teeth, was compressed into this single strike and detonated inside the enemy’s wound seven times in succession!

His Combat Qi Activation dropped down to [Yellow Blade].

But in truth, there was barely any need for even [Yellow Blade] anymore.

Because it was already over.

Seven consecutive detonations of qi inside the wound turned the already hideous gash into utter ruin.

And then, driven like a drawn tide, high-pressure air surged wildly into the wound, leaving Ludwig’s massive frame locked rigid.

The hole carved by that strike was simply too large.

And as Ludwig’s stiffened body rocked under the battering of the high-pressure airflow, the gash continued to tear wider!

Meanwhile, in Lann’s hands, a second [Moonlight Torrent] was already primed.

”Vmm!”

The pure, bright stream of light flared once more—this time unleashed at close range, full power!

Inside the crystalline blade, intricate spellwork blazed with ice-blue luminance.

”Aaaah!!!”

Ludwig let out an uncontrolled scream, layered with the harsh snorting of a horse—or a mule.

The stream of light drove through the massive wound, spearing deep into the beastified torso.

And this time Lann clamped down on the hilt, dragging it sideways in a brutal sweep!

A tearing ”skrrrt”!

Ludwig’s now fully horse-shaped head, along with half a shoulder, sheared away from his body and fell.

It hit the wet ground with a heavy thud.

Earlier, his earth-rending strike had split the floor, sending the blood in the pool draining into the cracks.

His misshapen, colossal weight went down as well—in a chaos of flailing horse hooves and neurotic spasms, his body crashed to the ground.

The moonlit, blue-green Moonlight Greatsword, knocked from his grasp, plunged into the floor once more, then steadily shrank, lost its glow, and reverted back into the cloth-wrapped hand-and-a-half sword it had once been.

”...”

In the coursing of the blood pool, in the faint tremor of that colossal body, Lann first fell silent for a while. He raised his own Moonlight Greatsword, slipping out of the taut stance of battle.

”If you had still retained a human form, you would have fought better than you just did.”

After the silence, the Demon Hunter walked closer to the freshly severed head, lowered his gaze, and spoke with regret and pity.

Ludwig’s head had already been warped too far toward the likeness of a horse; once it was hewn off, only one side of his face could turn upward to the sky, the other lay pressed against the ground.

Black hair, matted with blood, hung in stray clumps plastered messily across his face.

And the skin of that face too had been stretched into a twisted shape by the deformed skull beneath.

On the side turned upward, the facial skin had even been split open by the bone, leaving only writhing, distorted muscle exposed.

”But if I still had only a human body, how would I ever face your moonlight?”

The eyes on Ludwig’s severed head did not look at Lann.

He was the Church’s First Hunter. He had endured far too many Blood Healings; the quality of his blood was far too elevated.

After beastification, even with only a head left, he could not die in peace.

...That morbid life force seemed desperate to behold him in this agonized, twisted state, endlessly prolonging his existence.

In truth, his eyes were not fixed on anything at all; they were vacantly unfocused, his pupils not converging on any point.

”You wield moonlight as well, so you must have seen it, haven’t you? That light like drifting, slender threads?”

”As fine as strands of hair, fleeting and vanishing—but I was surrounded by it while steeped in blood-filth and beast stench, and in that moment, I seized it.”

Lann drove his Moonlight Greatsword into the ground before him, folding both hands atop the counterweight orb at the end of the hilt, listening quietly to this honored Hunter.

This was the final murmur after the death-duel, after sinking into beastification and then reclaiming himself.

The Demon Hunter’s expression was solemn, the edges of his armor jagged and imposing, heavy with authority.

”I never wished to seek its true form.”

”Truly, I never did.”

”So long as it continued to guide me, to stay by my side, that was enough... wholly enough.”

By the end, it was as though the beast-plague still refused to release him.

Even with only a head remaining, the vestiges of muscle still spasmed, and from his mouth came involuntary, shrill noises—half horse’s neigh, half donkey’s bray.

Lann listened in silence to these grating sounds, until Ludwig’s head at last quieted on its own.

When the neighing-braying finally ceased, there followed a short interval filled only with his labored breaths.

”...O kind Hunter,” Ludwig’s head suddenly spoke again, ”in the days to come, will my Church Hunters be the glorious Fighters I had hoped for?”

Lann lifted his eyes slightly. ”You’re lucid?”

This ”lucid” did not refer to emerging from the frenzy of beastification, but to what Ludwig had called ”the days to come.”

If he had not realized that he now stood within a nightmare dredged up from the past, while true time had already flowed onward, Ludwig would have had no reason to ask Lann such a question.

Thus Lann’s use of ”lucid” meant the same clarity as that of the Crow Hunter Erin and of Simon—lucidity unbewitched by the distorted time of the Dream Realm.

”Only this once... only now that I have looked upon the pure moonlight once more...”

”My final strike slew Kos’s child. The sin is too grave, and the curse... too heavy.”

So the last blow that killed the divine child was struck by you?

Lann lowered his gaze to Ludwig’s head, lying numb and drowsy upon the ground.

Then indeed, such an act must bear the crushing curse of a god’s offspring.

”Your Church Hunters...”

Here, Lann pressed his lips together.

In the ”future” Yan’an, he had in truth only met a single Hunter wearing the vestments of a Church Hunter, who claimed to be one of the Executioners.

He recalled Alfred, on that night of the hunt, in a city seized by mad bloodlust, still offering him a stack of Fire Paper as a greeting gift.

The Fire Paper itself was not precious; what was precious was a hand extended in aid, even on the hunt night.

”Yes.” Lann answered earnestly. ”I have received a Church Hunter’s help.”

”Ahh... how good,” Ludwig’s head let out a long breath, as though a heavy burden had been lifted from his heart. ”I am at ease.”

”To know this, even though I bear such a curse and have done such cruel deeds, means it was not utterly without meaning.”

”Thank you, kind Hunter.”

”Now I can rest. And my moonlight, I bequeath to you.”

”Even in the darkest night, I can still... see the moonlight...”

Ludwig’s voice grew ever fainter, at last dwindling to something close to a dream’s mutter.

Yet on his exposed side, those naked muscles still twitched on their own.

Blood Healing and beastification still refused to let him die.

After a long, silent moment, Lann shook his head.

In the end, he had not told Ludwig the truth of the Healing Church.

The man was simply too weary, too tormented... The nightmare should end.

And those trapped within the nightmare deserved rest.

Lann turned away, and as he went, he pulled free Ludwig’s Moonlight Greatsword.