Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1318 1290. Weird
Although Maria had not witnessed the battle between Lan and Ludwig, she was also an old hunter who had made a name for herself in Yharnam.

The beasts of Yharnam are strange and dangerous.

Anyone who is a hunter should know why hunters adhere to the fast and swift fighting style until today.

Because facing those beasts that have been deformed into various shapes, being exposed to any of their attacks is an unknown risk.

After all, no one knows what these disaster beasts have in their bodies or what powers they possess.

No one dared to take a chance on Ludwig, who had degenerated into a beast.

Maria reappeared like a puff of smoke, already in front of Ludwig.

The [First Hunter of the Church] has become a deformed beast, and the spray from the circular mouthparts on its neck can continue for a period of time.

As it shakes its head, the liquid it sprays can basically cover a fan-shaped area in front of it.

Under the tricorn hat with swan feathers, Maria's blood-red eyes were calm and cautious.

The trajectory of the spit was chasing Lan En. It seemed that in the brief battle before, this outsider had indeed made Ludwig suffer.

In other words, Ludwig's beastly body suffered.

Although Maria was already on the battlefield, she still didn't want to believe that the glorious hunter had become like this.

In Maria's eyes, Ludwig's glorious spirit had gone away, and what remained were only the remnants that had sunk into the beast disease.

"Crack!"

[Falling Leaves] On the long sword, amidst a burst of sparks from the mechanism, the double-headed sword decomposed into two swords, one long and one short.

Maria's smooth and swift movements caused the one-shoulder cape on her back to flutter in the splashing blood and the sound of the wind.

The blood-red lining of the one-shoulder cape complements the blood, which is enchanting and sad.

There was a soft "whoosh" sound.

Maria's [Acceleration Technique] appears lighter and more graceful than Lan's.

[Falling Leaves], two knives, one long and one short, dance precisely in both hands.

Maria had already put away the firearms that Cainhurst had carefully crafted. Facing Ludwig's body, even a blood noble like her did not think she had much advantage in blood quality.

Without the advantage of blood quality, the effect of firearms would be too weak against the beasts of Yharnam.

"Stab!"

The slender, dark-colored long knife and the sharp, tough short knife both slashed at the deformed body covered with black hair.

Maria has good physical strength, and combined with her speed, this knife should be able to cut even rock slabs!

But facing Ludwig's beastly body.
She did cut open a part of it, but the result was not ideal.

“Ahhh!!!”

From the head that still had the outline of a human face, Ludwig let out a painful neigh like the hoarse voice of a wounded horse.

But the eyeballs and mouthparts that actually control the body did not move at all.

In Maria's hand, the blade of [Falling Leaf] cut a very long wound from the upper abdomen of Ludwig's deformed horse-like body to the outside of his thigh!
Although Ludwig's body looks skinny and weird due to the influence of the beast disease, it is actually many times tougher and stronger than in human state.

Maria's knife was long enough to cut rock slabs, but the wound it left on it was only half a meter deep.

The half-meter-deep blade could easily cut a normal-sized person in half from the thickest part of the torso.

But at this moment, Ludwig's internal organs had not even been exposed!
Even an experienced hunter like Maria couldn't help but shrink her blood-red eyes when she saw the scar she had caused after she slashed with the sword.

The large gap from the upper abdomen to the lower abdomen should be where the intestines and internal organs are concentrated.

There was indeed a sticky and foul smell coming from the gaping wound that belonged to her internal organs.

But apart from the smell, there is no internal organ in the wound!
"Huaji~"

A dense and sticky sliding sound came from the cut that Maria had just made.

The Blood Noble's expression tightened, and the spiral wind wrapped around her legs immediately took her to a slightly farther location.

——Because inside that frighteningly long incision, beneath the muscles cut by the blade, there were densely packed eyeballs!

Just like the inner lining of the mouthparts on Ludwig's neck!
They seemed to be buried deep in the muscles, and finally saw the light of day because of Maria's knife, and they all looked at her.

But at the same time, the sticky and smelly blood from the cut opened up and stretched into threads on both sides of the wound.

The wound closed quickly like being sutured, making the sound of muscle juice being squeezed out.

Until the last moment when the wound was closing quickly, Maria could still see the inside of the wound, with densely packed eyeballs rolling and looking at her in the gradually closing shadow.

Very weird and disgusting.

But it still couldn't scare an old hunter from Yharnam.

"Oh!"

Maria's knife attracted the attention originally directed at Lan En.

The seven or eight horse legs that grew randomly on the back half of Ludwig's horse-like body began to kick and struggle wildly.

Each horse hoof originally looked limp and hanging on Ludwig's body, like a piece of flesh that only looked like a horse hoof.

But when they started kicking, the force of each horse hoof shook the air. Even if they didn't kick hard in mid-air, they could still make a dull and violent "bang bang" sound.

There are also obvious white air waves formed when the air is driven and compressed.

Maria's leather boots bounced neatly in the pool of blood, and her blood-red eyes under the tricorn hat calmly watched the horse's hooves ravage the place where she had just stood. On the other hand, when Ludwig swung his horse-like hindquarters and kicked Maria who was hurting him.

However, after dodging in an orderly manner, the female hunter who was born into a blood noble family suddenly heard an even more shrill scream from Ludwig's mouth.

"Ang!!!"

As Ludwig roared like a wounded mad horse, Maria saw that his front half of body, which was originally supported on the ground by his two claws, and his back half of body, which was kicking around, suddenly collapsed.

It was as if its front paws that were supporting the ground were suddenly cut short, causing it to lose balance.

Under the influence of the beast disease, his body suddenly became countless times heavier, and even made a dull "boom" sound when he fell into the pool of blood!
This should be the impact caused by Lan En during the short period of time when he attracted attention.

Maria thought calmly and carefully in her heart.

Although they have not been working together for a long time, both of them recognize and affirm the other's level as a fighter.

They all believed that as long as they created a gap, the other side would be able to seize the opportunity.

And the current situation also proves that their mutual recognition is correct.

After Ludwig fell, half of the beast's claw fell from mid-air into the pool of blood with a "snap" sound.

However, when half of Ludwig's claw hit the blood pool, it caused a big wave.

However, when its entire body fell so heavily into the pool of blood, it was very abnormal that no blood splashed up high.

It was as if the blood that should have been slapped away and splashed was suppressed by some invisible thing.

Maria originally wanted to take advantage of Ludwig's fall to close the distance and attack him.

At this moment, she felt her breathing stagnate, and then she subconsciously stopped her movements and immediately retreated at high speed!

Amid the rustling sound of the one-shoulder cape, the blood-red eyes looked at the area in doubt and surprise.

"This air pressure is too heavy! Is it some kind of [arcane]?"

Maria made her guess based on her local Yharnam perspective and experience.

But this perspective and experience is too limited.

This is not [Arcane], but [Swordsmanship]!
The witcher right in front of Ludwig was half-crouching in a low position.

The gauntlet with dragon scales on it was sheathing the last inch of Aarondette's blade.

Under the heavy air pressure, the leaf spring in the scabbard made a crisp "click" sound.

The small noise seemed quite abrupt at this moment, and it was like the sound of a switch.

After this small crisp sound
"Ci La La!"*N
The sound of dense blade cutting suddenly exploded! And it moved back and forth in the limited area!

Sharp white lines formed by dense airflow crisscrossed and cut through the entire space!

[Secret: One Mind]!
These large numbers of high-pressure air blades even caused a cliff-like unstable air pressure in the entire area. The air refracted light in an irregular manner like glass or water.

"Ang!!!"

Ludwig, with half of his face pressed into the pool, let out a piercing scream.

Dense and bloody mist burst out on its deformed body!
It looked as if it was drowned by the blood bursting out from the inside out.

Maria looked seriously at the area cut out by the sword technique not far away.

She was amazed at the witcher's swordsmanship that was as exquisite as [arcane], but at the same time, she also knew clearly from her previous attack experience that this attack might not be very effective.

really.

The next moment, Ludwig, who had fallen to the ground, swung his claws while lying on the ground before he could stand up.

Its claws swung close to the ground, bringing up a bloody rain like a wave.

There was a muffled sound of "bang".

The claw, which was almost as big as Lan En himself, slapped him away!

The direction is exactly towards Maria.

The Blood Noble was about to help, but he immediately saw that although the stranger was knocked away, he seemed to be prepared to be hit immediately at the moment of being hit.

The heavy armor all over his body and the reasonable force-bearing posture made Lan En look like he was "pushed" instead of "hit".

Amid the sound of armor plates opening and closing, Lan En stepped on the bottom of the blood pool beside Maria, causing a wave of blood to stop.

The left hand he used to block Ludwig's claw was originally blocking the side of his head.

Now slowly put it down, clenching and unclenching with the sound of the gauntlets opening and closing, and after relaxing for a while, it will be as if nothing happened.

But Maria thought he was a little strange.

Since she was not injured after being blown from such a long distance, she could temporarily understand it as an advantage of wearing heavy armor.

But now Lan's eyes and expression showed neither the distress and anxiety of ineffective attacks, nor the urgency of facing a dangerous enemy. He didn't even glance at Ludwig who was getting up.

He just looked at the long sword with a graceful curve in his hand with a thoughtful look.

"Can't use the [Light of the Twin Sacred Trees]?"

Maria heard the witcher muttering something to himself, and then he refuted it himself.

"Isn't it that I subconsciously don't use it?"

(End of this chapter)