Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1852 (1824). The Hunt
The waters of Lake Lienia were still rippling, causing the bottoms of fishing boats to make a soft but muffled thud against the fragments of fallen rocks.

The message from the cone-shaped crystal in Lan En's hand was from the magical device he had previously given to the velvet ball.

Lan En was puzzled about the location from which the velvet ball sent the message, but since he had already received the message, he couldn't possibly not go.

He immediately tightened the fishing boat rope attached to the relief sculpture in the ruins. He rubbed his fingers against the brass ring on his hand.
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"Get behind me, all of you! Hurry!" The fluffy ball bared its two little fangs, shouting at the top of its lungs, then its cute little head flashed a fierce look. "I'll blow you up, meow! You bastards! Take my [Cat's Big Bomb]!"

A string of four or five round alchemical bombs had been pre-bundled together by the velvet balls.

At this moment, it was pulled out of its space expansion pack, which was printed with a cat paw pattern, like a chain of bullets, with a flash of sparks, and thrown far away.

When the kitten threw the bomb, its whole body jumped up, and its tail tightened, showing that it was putting in a lot of effort.

The cluster bomb was shimmering with a light red halo, indicating that it was imbued with battle aura.

"boom!"

There was an explosion!
Thanks to the plush ball's excellent dexterity and the companion cat training it received at the New World Survey, the detonation points of these alchemical bombs, after being clustered and modified, were virtually flawless.

The combined effect of the explosions was maximized!
The [Advanced Foehn Bomb] created a cloud of fire almost out of thin air! Suddenly illuminating the dark surroundings.

Currently, the velvet ball is located on the southwest shore of Lake Lienia.

Here, the topographical differences in Lienia are even more pronounced.

The lake shore is directly adjacent to a towering, protruding cliff face. The shape of this cliff is also quite peculiar.

As it protrudes from the ground, the cross-section of the cliff is not complete; a large section is recessed horizontally in the middle, forming a huge hollow fault within the cliff.

In general, the mass of a cliff would cause it to collapse spontaneously, but in this part of Lienia, a certain mechanical balance seems to have been achieved, so the cliff stands there.

The velvet ball was now shrouded in the hollow fault of the cliff. Although it was broad daylight, the rock wall above blocked most of the sunlight, making the place dark and damp.

On the typical shoreline of Lake Lienia, once you walk a dozen meters inland, the ground becomes hardened soil.

The terrain here, due to the long-term lack of sunlight, resembles a swamp, with mud everywhere.

Furthermore, because the damp and shady environment seems ideal for the breeding and growth of poisonous creatures, there are many poisonous flowers and plants here. After growing and withering, they blend into the mud over countless years, making the entire land poisonous as well.

The mud wasn't the normal black lake mud; it had turned into a murky yellow.

Meanwhile, a group of Platinum Children, dressed in tattered clothes and wielding broken weapons, resembling silver humanoid frogs, were running frantically and trembling toward the calico Palico.

Their emotions are mainly revealed through their actions.

They were trembling all over, their legs were so weak when they ran that they almost fell flat on their faces, and the weapons they were holding almost hurt them when they swayed as they ran.

However, their faces remained completely devoid of any emotion.

These frog-like Platinum Children are inherently incapable of making expressions or uttering sounds.

The extremely panicked movements, coupled with the large head that is expressionless and silent, create an eerie contrast.

The Platinum Children, heeding the call of the plush ball, ran to run behind it.

But these laymen had only run halfway when they heard the sound of crystals shattering.

"Crackling!"

Several palm-sized, bluish-green pyroxene stones were thrown out from the still-burning fire cloud.

Rhododendron pyroxene

These brilliance stones shattered as they flew through the air, and then the magic power within them condensed into several blue-green specks of light, leaving trails as they flew toward the Platinum Children.

The sons of platinum were so shaky in their escape that how could they possibly care about what was behind them?

The plush ball cried out, "Get out of the way, meow!"

But there was nothing else they could do; they could only watch as the trailing ball of radiant magic energy pierced through the two Platinum Sons' chubby bodies like a crossbow bolt.

Their bodies, still carrying the momentum of their escape, immediately tumbled and rolled on the ground in the poisonous mud.

In the murky yellow mud, two pools of silvery white, like traces of liquid metal, spread out.

Such traces are already quite numerous on this site today.

The reason why the velvet ball could not react even though it had realized what was happening was because there were already seven or eight Platinum Sons standing behind it.

It simply cannot be separated.

The boomerang, glowing with a pale red aura, was flung out by the velvet ball, but it was only enough to shatter the clusters of radiant magic energy that were attacking its own area.

“It’s pointless,” a muffled voice wearing a helmet came from within the black smoke as the fire clouds of the [Higher Foehn Wind] gradually dissipated. “It’s really pointless.”

The figure of the Cuckoo Knight emerged from the gradually dissipating fiery clouds.

Only the two at the front of the group raised their large shields, which completely blocked the string of alchemical bombs from before.

A layer of cyan-blue light, belonging to the magic of the sapphire, lingered on their great shields.

The two shield-bearing knights at the front of the line did not hold weapons in their right hands, but rather two staves.

The blue-green pattern on the staff, inlaid with brilliance and symbolizing the Academy of Realucalia, depicting 'two staffs intersecting on an exquisite throne,' had just faded.

This is the magic developed and taught by the academy and the Cuckoo Knights as the price for their contract: the [Magic Shield]. And whether they are Cuckoo Knights or knights of the Kalia royal family, in the magically prosperous land of Lienia, it is perfectly natural for warriors to carry a staff in addition to their weapons.

Two magically enhanced shields blocked the cluster alchemical bombs from the velvet ball.

Immediately afterwards, one of the shield-wielding knights suddenly turned around.

"Clang clang clang!"

Three arrows, shimmering with a bluish-green light, struck his shield lightly in succession.

Although the arrows fly with a light and agile feel, the impact force after they hit the ground is terrifyingly large!

With a "whoosh!" the Cuckoo Knight displayed solid technique, his shield-holding movement as steady as a mountain.

But precisely because of this, he remained in a defensive posture, and the impact of the arrow sent him crashing into the mud, creating a massive, explosive mud blast! He was also thrown two meters backward!

With this kind of kinetic energy, even if a normal person blocked the attack with a shield, they would still be killed by the impact!
But the Cuckoo Knight simply pulled his leg out of the mud, shook his shield hand slightly as if to relax it, and that was all.

In the distance, a woman riding a large wolf, wearing a chainmail hood and with skin as white as inorganic matter, was gritting her teeth, gripping her bow, and glaring fiercely at the Cuckoo Knights.

"The unknown cat, and the Platinum Son's magic archer, Letina." Among the group of cuckoo knights, the tallest one, with the most fluffy and ornate red and blue bird feather ornaments on his helmet, spoke.

"Excuse my bluntness, but you're doing something pointless. We're just here to hunt for some materials, and we'll leave once we have enough. Why bother arguing here?"

The surrounding Cuckoo Knights remained calm and indifferent, while this Cuckoo Knight, who was probably a knight commander or something similar, lifted his foot to look at it amidst the slippery sound of squeezing through the mud.

The exquisite and beautiful boots were inevitably covered with filthy yellow toxic mud.

"Tsk, this place is as filthy as Son of Platinum. I mean..."

The knight commander raised his helmet.

"You Platinum Children always appear around here, surely there isn't a settlement of yours here?"

At the scene, the sons of platinum, who resembled frogs, were speechless and expressionless.

However, Lettina is the kind of Platinum Child who will lose her legs when she gets old. She looks no different from a human, except that she is very white and appears to be unable to walk.

Letina revealed the information to the other party without showing any expression.

She simply patted the neck of the large wolf beneath her, her voice calm and even, completely at odds with the ferocity in her eyes.

"Run, Rob. Cover the cat's movements."

"Ouch!"

The gray wolf growled and began to run around.

It seems that the Platinum Son, who has lost the ability to walk, is trying to compensate for his mobility in other ways.

Meanwhile, Letina, perched on the wolf's back, steadily drew her bow and nocked an arrow.

But at the very same moment that the wolf started running.

"Oh!"

A burst of yellow, toxic sludge erupted!
The Cuckoo Knight who had just blocked the three arrows and been pushed aside suddenly started moving forward while remaining silent!
With his magical shield on, he moved through the mud at a speed comparable to that of a wolf, leaving afterimages in the eyes of ordinary people!

It was clear that they would have to focus their defense on the opposing magic archer alone.

The two raced, turned, and circled rapidly through the mud, yet remained locked in a fierce struggle.

After all, as the defender, the Cuckoo Knight's running distance is much shorter than that of the Big Wolf on the outer edge.

The remaining Cuckoo Knights dispersed in silence.

They picked up the bodies of the Son of Platinum, who had died scattered in the mud, as if they were rag dolls.

Regardless of whether the body is still alive or trembling.

They simply 'plop'ed it into a spot with dense blood vessels, causing the liquid, metallic blood to splatter out, which they then collected in a container underneath.

It looked like some kind of slaughtering operation was underway.

"Run! Don't look back!" The plush ball chased away the surviving Platinum Children without turning its head, while blocking the way for the Cuckoo Knights, its fur bristling with anger. "You call this a hunting cat?!"

"Of course it's hunting. After all, the main purpose is to gather materials." The Cuckoo Knight Commander was also pulling a Platinum Child's corpse out of the mud and stabbing it to bleed it.

Even amidst the dripping sound of blood being drawn, he still lifted the seemingly weightless corpse in his hand towards the velvet ball.

"Look closely, cat. How filthy this blood is. How can something like this be considered a normal life?"

"Hunting... is for survival! For advancement! It's an act of relentless struggle against the environment!" The plush ball looked furious. "You're insulting that word, meow!"

The kitten drew the short sword from its back and pointed it at the cuckoo knight's waist.

There hung a hood there, a hood that looked exactly like the frog-shaped head of the Son of Platinum.

The broken edge of the hood had a skin-like texture.

And in the mud not far from here, on the corpses of several Sons of Platinum who had already been bled out... their heads had been skinned.

(End of this chapter)