Bear School Astartes

"Bang!"

Ludwig’s Church Workshop–custom firearm roared again!

Pulling back to open distance and then wearing the enemy down with gunfire—this was a solid, reliable combat habit.

To highlight the advantage of this habit, Ludwig’s firearm had been specially reinforced for both range and stopping power.

And with how proficient Ludwig’s body was at using the Acceleration Technique, he could basically always maintain the upper hand in controlling distance.

When Lann surged forward, he could use the Acceleration Technique to retreat in sync.

Retreating was slower than advancing, true, but he could keep firing to delay the Demon Hunter’s approach.

If you want to dodge bullets, you always have to add at least one lateral move—that extra wasted step was the foundation of Ludwig’s ability to preserve his distance advantage.

Even with this body no longer driven by a brain, the Old Hunter could, relying purely on bodily instinct, recreate the tactical movements he’d used in the past.

Back then, this kind of tactic must have helped him breeze through many hunts.

Against this pattern, you either bull ahead and ignore the quicksilver bullets entirely, or you respond in kind with your own ranged attacks.

But those beasts that just bull-rushed him had never once defeated Ludwig.

Even if the enemy was also a Hunter, there probably weren’t many in all of Yan’an who dared trade shots with Ludwig.

Leaving aside the advantages of a Church Workshop–custom firearm, how many Hunters in all of Yan’an even had blood quality superior to Ludwig’s?

For Hunters who used quicksilver bullets infused with their own blood as their primary killing method, the quality of that blood directly determined how much damage they could inflict.

When Ludwig fired, an ordinary Hunter—even with blood vials on hand—would basically have to sacrifice half their life.

But when someone else shot at Ludwig... he might just roll his shoulder and think, "Huh, that kind of stings."

Today, though, facing Lann, this tactic just wasn’t as effective as before.

Ludwig’s habitual strategy always managed to push his enemies into a miserable corner.

But facing Lann... the Demon Hunter, the moment Ludwig used the Acceleration Technique to retreat and fired his second shot, immediately grasped the intent behind the man’s tactic.

Right after that, the biocomputer in his brain began instant rapid calculations based on his intent.

It quickly arrived at a favorable conclusion—

"Firearm impact power loading into model. Smaug armor integrity, Quen Rune loading into model... sir."

The biocomputer’s voice was as brisk and precise as ever.

"Stripping away the supposed ’blood quality’ on those quicksilver bullets, I don’t believe his gun can pose any trouble to your full heavy armor."

The calculation finished in a split second, and with Mentos’s precise report, Lann had already made his tactical decision based on the result.

—Did you really think I’m one of those braindead, unarmored beasts from Yan’an?!

"Bang bang!"

The bullets slammed into a target that neither dodged nor flinched, bull-rushing straight in, but only triggered a burst of explosive clangs—metal slugs crashing against a hardened bulwark—while the charging silhouette continued forward, utterly unfazed!

Lann’s left hand was raised in front of his face, fingers pinched into the hand sign of the Quen Rune, while sparks exploded off his vambrace as the bullets were knocked away.

The quicksilver bullets punched through the Quen Rune first, then crashed into Smaug’s Dragon Scale plates, and only the bullets themselves warped under the pressure of their own kinetic energy.

That energy transferred in cascading layers into the armor, but thanks to Smaug’s outstanding design as a full set, and the sheer strength of its material—

Even quicksilver bullets hitting ribs from tricky angles were sent ricocheting away by this thick, brutish armor!

The impact then seeped through the tightly arranged scales and acted upon Lann’s body.

A normal body might still suffer internal organ damage from such force.

But Lann now had a steel cable mesh layered over his muscles, reinforced musculature, reinforced bones...

Layer after layer of energy absorption, layer after layer of dampening.

The shock of the bullets slamming into his thoroughly tensed frame felt to him like less than clipping his nails.

A chorus of metallic ringing—ding ding dang dang—erupted!

Yet in front of Ludwig’s custom firearm, Lann was like a giant bear running headlong into a light breeze!

Barreling straight through! No reaction at all!

Ludwig’s tactic relied on using gunfire to hinder his foe, thereby buying himself margin for distance control so he could fight at his leisure.

But when faced with an opponent in full heavy armor, whose tolerance for impact was terrifying, charging straight in... this method was completely useless if it couldn’t make Lann even bother to worry about getting hurt!

Within that circular maw, countless eyeballs were spinning in panic.

But they were not Ludwig himself. When this habitual combat pattern of the body failed, they had absolutely no idea what strategy to adopt.

The maw writhed, panting outward, exuding a nauseating stench of viscera.

Judging by the size and position of that maw, it really could be Ludwig’s thoracic organs housed inside.

That wild, towering body charged straight into Ludwig’s reach!

This time, a streak of silver flash swept out from Lann’s right hand!

"Screech!"

Aron Dite’s blade was razor-sharp!

An upward slash from below, rising in a vicious arc, first sheared Ludwig’s firearm into two mismatched pieces; the exposed metal of the break was so smooth and clean it could catch the light and serve as a mirror.

The firearm was hacked askew into two uneven pieces, and the hand gripping it suffered the same fate.

The elegant blade seemed to pass through nothing but air as it cut through Ludwig’s body, dragging out great swathes of viscous, foul-smelling blood.

Starting from the upper arm near the armpit, that withered, misshapen gun arm parted from the body together with the severed gun barrel!

Yet after cleanly chopping off one of his enemy’s arms, Lann did not immediately press the attack.

On the contrary, spiraling wind coiled around his legs.

Acceleration Technique!

He burst sideways in a flash, not covering much distance.

Not even two meters.

But right as Lann dodged aside, the circular maw that had grown from Ludwig’s neck let out a retching "gurgle."

Then, with a sudden "wah"—

A liquid, somewhere between black and deep green, spewed violently from that mouth whose inner walls were studded with eyeballs.

It spat down exactly where Lann had been standing moments before.

The blood pool boiled, and even the rock beneath it hissed as it was corroded.

From within the corrosive sound, a hazy, stinking vapor rose.

Lann might be in heavy armor, but this set of plate didn’t yet have any resistance against toxins.

Demon Hunters do have strong resistance to poison, but that’s in the normal world.

Here in Yan’an, Lann didn’t even dare let Muddy Stream·Destruction come out to "eat" a couple of bites, let alone test this poison with his own body.

So he avoided it decisively.

However, even after that sidestep, Lann did not relax.

Because severing Ludwig’s gun-wielding left hand had, instead, simplified the man’s tactical options.

In Ludwig’s right hand, the hand-and-a-half sword performed an almost "whipping" upward slash along that grotesquely uncoordinated arm, which, precisely because it was so loose and boneless, could swing to its full extent!

Lann tilted his head back, calmly watching the sword tip—already fast enough to almost leave a white trace in the air—graze past in front of his chin.

By rights, the opening after an opponent’s sword swing is usually a good moment to attack.

But Lann still refrained from any rash movement.

For one thing, Ludwig, this Church’s First Hunter, wielded as his main right-hand weapon a completely ordinary hand-and-a-half sword. That alone was deeply suspicious.

For another, that metal greatsword scabbard on his back... no matter how you looked at it, it did not seem like a "mere" sheath.

As expected.

With a "clack," the distinctive mechanical bite-and-release of Yan’an’s transformable weapons rang out.

Under the Demon Hunter’s calm, composed gaze, Ludwig slid the hand-and-a-half sword in his grasp smoothly and precisely into the broad metal scabbard on his back!

And from that sheathing motion—almost identical to Lann’s own habit of drawing from the back—he swung that massive metal scabbard along with the blade in a single-handed thrust straight forward!

In this configuration, it was no longer a simple hand-and-a-half sword, but a greatsword roughly comparable to Muddy Stream before Extinct Dragon materials were added!

The broad metal scabbard was shaped like a leek leaf, its face etched with the Healing Church’s religious motifs, similar to the patterns on the hanging cloth bands down a member of the clergy’s back.

As another Church weapon, its mechanism was similar to the Church Stone Hammer; the hand-and-a-half sword Ludwig had been wielding was essentially serving as the "grip."

Once it was returned to the scabbard and locked into the mechanism, the sword’s hilt became the hilt of this greatsword!

Ludwig twisted his body into a grotesque contortion, driving the greatsword from his back forward in a single-handed thrust as he turned.

The degree of contortion was such that whoever controlled this body clearly was not accustomed to human movement at all, but rather to that of fish, worms, or similar creatures.

Yet although the posture was uncoordinated, it was precisely this that endowed the attack with suddenness and unpredictability.

Even Lann could only determine whether the motion was a thrust or a chop once Ludwig’s movement was already halfway through.

Still, the trouble it caused Lann ended there.

An attack whose pattern has already been read has no meaning.

A sharp metallic scraping sounded with a ripping "screech," accompanied by a violent spray of sparks.

The noise did not come from a clash between the Lady of the Lake’s Sword and the greatsword in Ludwig’s hands.

The flare of metal-on-metal came from within the crook of Lann’s elbow.

The Demon Hunter’s expression remained neutral. Trusting in his solid armor, he simply shifted his torso slightly to the side.

He opened up the space between torso and arm, letting that greatsword drive straight in!

Then his elbow, forearm, and torso worked together, locking it in place!

The metal blade of the greatsword scraped and slammed against the Smaug Scale Armor plating of his cuirass. In the end, though, it was completely immobilized by Lann.

Skill breeds boldness, and there was also that unquestioned sense of entitlement of someone in heavy armor abusing his foe.

"You really have..." Ignoring the desperate wrenching of the greatsword at his elbow and armpit, as the friction and strain between metal and Dragon Scale armor shrieked in his ears, Lann cocked his head and said, "never fought anyone in heavy plate before, have you?"

"Screech!"

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