Bear School Astartes

Gremman’s voice, laced with a faint hint of temptation and coaxing, was still speaking in that unhurried rhythm.

He even spread his arms wide, laying his whole front bare and unobstructed before Lann.

”Perhaps... just one glance?”

He suggested, clearly entertained.

”With just one glance, you’ll see through what’s wrong with me, then cut me down with a single stroke, won’t you?”

”Why not take a look? Just like in all those fights you’ve had before: see through the enemy, then take them apart calmly, step by step.”

Lann’s hand, which was unconsciously spinning the blade-flower with the Lady of the Lake’s Sword, faltered by a fraction of a heartbeat.

Fortunately, Gremman didn’t notice; in fact, even Lann himself barely registered it.

The Demon Hunter merely let the curve of his lips widen a little further after Gremman’s last line.

”You mean Spiritual Vision.”

Lann laid it bare without ceremony.

But then, the young man’s tone shifted.

”Trouble is, Master Gremman... I did open the door to Spiritual Vision, but sadly, these eyes don’t see all that much.”

”The state you’re in right now, to me...” The young man snorted and shook his head. ”It’s the same whether I open it or not.”

”You went to William.” After a sudden flash of sparks, the scythe head of the Funeral Blade was once again mounted onto the long haft and open grip. The Old Hunter spoke with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. ”He didn’t train you properly?”

At that point, the strange smile on Lann’s face grew even more pronounced.

”Train? What ’training’? I’m... very properly self-taught, you know.”

”Clang!!!”

The instant the words fell, steel crashed against steel with explosive sparks and an ear-splitting shriek!

Lann’s hand, back facing outward, was braced beside his own neck!

And the suddenly appearing scythe, curved like a crescent moon, seemed to skip frames as it materialized right outside the back of his hand.

The Dragon Scale plates on his hand armor did stop the scythe, but Lann was still half a beat slower than his opponent.

At a glance, it looked blocked, yet the distance between the scythe and his skin was already razor-thin.

The closest segment of that curved blade to Lann’s body had quietly shaved off a few fine hairs on his neck.

But dangerous as it was, the fact that Lann only used one hand to block meant he still had leeway!

”Swoosh!”

The clear arc of blade-light carried an Air Blade so high in pressure that even the light itself refracted; the extending swing remained perfectly parallel to the ground, yet the wind it kicked up was enough to send the white blossoms swirling into a flurry of petals.

But Gremman’s speed was outrageous. The bluish flames around him, burning like a frozen blaze, were the mark of his Acceleration Technique output.

By the time Lann’s counter-cut came out, the airflow Gremman had dragged from the roots of that giant tree had only just barely caught up to his body.

And the moment Lann’s blade finished its arc, Gremman shifted position at once.

The crescent scythe in his hand pressed against the back of Lann’s hand, rotating with a tooth-aching shriek of metal cutting against metal.

From the look of it, he meant to use that circling footwork to have the scythe’s curve trace a full circle around Lann’s neck.

How much can one palm really cover?

A neck is a full ring.

Relying on his superior speed, Gremman’s murky eyes beneath the brim of his hat watched, calm and steady, as the Demon Hunter—whose reactions were only keeping up thanks to High-level Blizzard—had his eyeballs tracking him while his body lagged behind.

But just as Gremman was spinning the scythe, about to unleash that cruel hunting technique...

In that originally tranquil and bright space, where moonlight from above and the sea of flowers below painted everything in white, a single point of blood-red light flared to life.

The glow was abrupt and jarring, something that simply did not belong here.

Yet it not only appeared, it surged stronger in an instant.

Lann did not recognize this radiance... but Gremman did.

There was no time left to keep circling the scythe around the Demon Hunter’s neck. Gremman had never really believed that the Hunter across from him wouldn’t be able to handle this move of his.

So he didn’t drag it out—he pulled the scythe away and slipped back at godlike speed.

A second earlier, the back of Lann’s hand was still pressed by the scythe’s keen edge, their clash spitting furious sparks.

The next second, those furious sparks suddenly became... harmless.

Because a blood-red trail of flaming blade-mark unfurled in an instant like a curtain!

Compared to that, the tiny sparks born from mere steel-on-steel friction were far too tame.

The blood-red flame did not bring the usual stench of burning, but a thick reek of blood.

This was a technique pioneered by the Blood Nobility of Cainhurst, based on their own mastery over the power of blood.

And at this very moment, there was, in truth, only one person who could be wielding it.

Brushing past the curtain-like cascade of flaming blade light, Lann’s expression did not waver in the slightest.

Even though his student had already walked to the garden gate, now quietly approaching him, carrying the split form of the dual blades [Falling Leaves].

The twin blades in Maria’s hands were no longer that delicate yet gloomy dark iron.

At this moment, there were two obvious slashes on the chest and abdomen of her coat, seemingly soaked by some kind of liquid, giving it a damp, clammy feel.

Yan Nan Hunters are very fond of leather, dark-colored coats.

Because such coats make it easy to clean off blood, whether theirs or someone else’s, and it doesn’t stand out.

Clearly, this time after entering straight from the spatial cut Lann had left behind and heading for the battlefield, Maria—

She had almost no hesitation, immediately, in an act of self-punishment, splitting the Long Blade form of [Falling Leaves] and plunging it into her own body.

The high-quality blood of the Blood Nobility was drawn forth by Secret Technique, clinging to the blades, then igniting into a great blaze!

Even the short blade was sheathed in blood, extending out to nearly two meters.

Scarlet flames would further stretch along the dancing blade edges.

In terms of pure attack range, Maria’s blades at this moment were almost half the reach of Lann’s Qi Flow Blade.

This is the Hunter named Maria in her prime, at full power.

That beautiful single-shoulder cape, and the white ponytail beneath her tricorn hat, all streamed and fluttered in the wave of heat from the flames.

”This posture really is... nostalgic.”

Under the shadow of his brim, the Old Hunter murmured softly, expressionless.

”Nostalgic?” But Maria, advancing with her twin blades spread like a crane’s wings, spoke in a voice cold and low. ”You did all of this, and then afterwards you made that doll in my image...”

”I truly don’t know whether that’s nostalgia, or an insult, teacher.”

”But one thing is beyond doubt... This will be the last time I call you teacher.”

Lann’s mouth moved, but for some reason he did not respond to Maria; in the end he only gave a silent, bitter smile.

Then he vanished at once!

”Shing!”

The sound of a body tearing through the air at extreme speed was enough to chill the blood!

Lann’s speed is unrivaled among Yan Nan Hunters! Maria knows this all too well.

And she also knows just how outrageous the killing efficiency becomes when that speed is paired with the Funeral Blade.

So back when she asked Henrik for blood vials, she had already made a certain mental preparation.

Whether from guilt or the collapse of her worldview, in any case, after leaving Oton Chapel, Maria felt that nothing mattered anymore, including her own life.

That is why, here and now, she opened with the Blood Nobility technique. In the past she had only activated it at crucial moments, due to the excessive cost.

But facing her teacher, Maria understood clearly: she might only have a few fleeting instants.

If she failed to maneuver within those instants, that Funeral Blade would simply cut her cleanly in half, neat and decisive.

Speed paired with a killing edge—Lann’s power and efficiency in the hunt are well-known throughout Yan’an.

So, since Maria came here, she did so prepared either to die within a few exchanges, or seize a chance to kill Lann, and only then did she step out of Oton Chapel.

Yet Lann’s strength... is limited to this special region of Yan’an.

”Crackle~”

In the instant the Old Hunter vanished like a phantom, a streak of violet lightning burst from beneath Lann’s feet, writhing and twisting through midair as it chased a certain target, then in a shower of electric snaps struck true!

The Old Hunter, who had been lunging for Maria with such speed he was nearly invisible, was knocked out of his charge by a single tracking blast of Chaos Magic Power lightning!

[Yarden Rune], advanced!

The Magic Trap that could only mark a slowing, revealing field on the ground now had a further, hidden state within Wolf School lore.

Leave a Yarden Rune Magic Seal on the ground, glowing violet, and this Magic Rune will automatically track nearby enemies, rhythmically releasing Magic Lightning in attack.

The attack power of this Magic Lightning isn’t high, so Lann had never expected those bolts to truly have much effect in the battlefields he’d fought through.

Take the Fog Nest Master Terror Tyrannosaurus, for example, weak to thunder. Hitting it with this stuff might hurt it less than its own hunger and the brutal swelling of its muscle growth.

So Lann had only practiced it as knowledge and skill reserve.

But now, he didn’t need damage or lethality. What he needed was the auto-tracking function of the advanced [Yarden Rune] Magic Lightning!

[High-grade Petri Magic Potion] had strengthened the intensity of the Seal.

As long as it could disrupt Lann’s charge, so fast it was almost illusory, he’d supply the damage himself!

And not only was the Old Hunter tagged mid-sprint by a blast of not-very-strong Magic Lightning—

”Whoosh!”

A tidal wave of flame-edged steel seized the opening with razor instinct as the Old Hunter faltered. The fire roared and detonated, rolling over the air!

The extended blades and surging fire swallowed up most of Lann’s body in a straight, devouring sweep!