Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1873, 1845. The Cuckoo Follows
The dense pillars of fire that shot into the sky dissipated completely, and Lan En's figure emerged from the scorched earth and the distorted heat of the air.

His right hand was still holding Arondette, but his left hand, still attached to the bright red hood, was holding Aganty's head, which was no longer on his neck.

With a 'thud,' his head fell to the ground, letting go of his grip.

The Witcher habitually flicked non-existent blood off his longsword.

"Clap clap."

Lan En patted the still faintly burning bright red flames on his body.

The Giant Flame was originally an inextinguishable flame, but its origin was defeated by the Golden Dynasty and sealed in a cauldron on the snowy mountain.

Although Argonde was the head of the Watchers and he himself devoutly studied the prayers of the giants' flames, in the end he could only be considered to have reproduced a portion of the power of the [Ashes Flame].

After all, the original power of fire is still sealed.

The faint red light emanating from Lan En's body is a prayer developed by the warriors of the Golden Tree during the Giant Wars to specifically counter the flames of the giants: "May the flames protect you."

This meant that Aganti's prayer, which had just unleashed a pillar of fire, was less likely to ignite on him.

This belongs to a specific form of restraint.

If Lan En had simply used his more proficient [Spell: Profuse Sweating] to increase his resistance to fire, the effect might not have been so good.

On the shattered, scorched earth, Lan En could only smell the scorching earth.

The [Troll's Roar] and [Flames, Devour Everything!] that Ya Gang just mentioned are both large-scale killing methods.

Although the three-person battle did not last long, the area of ​​damage they caused on the land was already the size of two or three roadblock camps.

However, Aganti's attack was skewed towards the direction outside the camp, so the battle scar looked like a large, charred scar on the ground, connected to the original road-blocking camp.

The high temperature on the ground evaporated the rain from the sky before it even hit the ground.

The moisture became increasingly dense, and the fog here grew thicker and thicker, a vast expanse of white as far as the eye could see, like being in a sauna.

Lann took the Hound Rider's Hound Fangs machete and Argenti's spiked club.

If Lan En remembers correctly, this kind of spiked club is actually standard equipment for fire-based martial arts cultivators, called the [Martial Arts Cultivator Fire Pattern Hammer].

But what it's called doesn't matter; Lan En is still only very interested in the war ash on it.

"Boss!" came the fuzzy white mist and steam. "Boss, where are you, meow?"

Lan En's hair and eyebrows were already damp from the rain, but the high temperature caused by Aganti earlier, while not seriously damaging him, had almost dried his hair.

The Witcher scratched his head and put the two weapons into the alchemical pouch at his back. Then he walked towards the direction from which the velvet ball had made the sound.

"I am coming."

Lan En emerged from the white mist and spoke.

At first glance, the original roadblock camp was littered with the corpses of fire-wielding martial arts cultivators and blood-robed men.

Some had short but sharp sword marks on their bodies, while others were simply piles of charred remains.

Apart from the two catapults protected by magic, the entire camp was also completely destroyed.

But in any case, the battlefield environment is better than Lann's... The three of them, especially Aganti's wide-range attacks, looked like they were going to shatter this land into Lake Lienia.

"It's all taken care of, meow!" The plush ball trotted over to Lan En's side. "Shall we keep going, boss?"

The sky over Lienia remained overcast, while in the distance, the towering buildings of the Realucaria Academy were enveloped in azure-blue radiant stone magic, flowing through the buildings like a gentle breeze.

Legend has it that it is a super-large-scale magic unique to the magic academy, called the "Realm of Magic".

The foundational magic circle is engraved on the clock tower at the highest point of the academy, and its power covers the entire academy.

Under the influence of this magic circle, the mages in the academy experience a kind of instantaneous inspiration when learning from the brilliant successes of their predecessors.

This makes training magicians easier and relatively faster.

“No,” Lann said, looking away from the towering buildings in the distance, “it’s not over yet, velvet ball.”

The Witcher turned his gaze to his back, or rather, to the area behind the roadblock camp.

It's closer to the Decos Grand Lift there, and Pelum Avenue is more complete.

This is in stark contrast to the land in front of the roadblock camp, which has been ravaged by battle.

The heavy wheels rolling over the stone slabs, along with the gentle sounds of horses' hooves and footsteps, all came from that direction.

A group of cuckoo knights, and the old man's flaming chariot with a ferocious and terrifying face.

"Meow?" The fluffy ball looked at the corpses lying haphazardly in the camp, some of which belonged to the Cuckoo Knights.

But now it seems that this group of Cuckoo Knights coming from the right is the military force that should be stationed in this roadblock camp.

But what puzzled Velvet Ball was: how could the Cuckoo Knights, who had such a force around them, allow the Flame Martial Arts cultivators to directly occupy this roadblock camp?
Therefore, the kitten is now looking at this group of cuckoo riders with a lot of questions in its head.

But Lan En seemed to understand immediately, and he tilted his head and let out a sneer.

"whispering sound."

Lan En stepped forward, using his tall stature and dragon-skin armor to shield the velvet ball from view.

The Qilin was wandering around the smoke-filled ruins of the camp, looking no different from an ordinary horse.

A squad of Cuckoo Knights, dressed in red and blue patchwork armored robes and gleaming, sturdy armor, escorted the central flame chariot and arrived at the rear of the roadblock camp.

Their full-face helmets obscured their expressions, but the Cuckoo Knights remained silent, simply maintaining their ranks on Pirum Avenue.

Among them, a cuckoo knight riding a warhorse, with the red and blue bird feather ornament on his helmet swaying, trotted closer towards Lan En and his group.

Before he could speak, the sound of his horse's hooves had just stopped when Lan En raised a hand, indicating that he had to speak first.

"I must inform you now, Cuckoo Knight."

The Witcher's expression was somewhat complicated, a mixture of speechlessness, headache, and contemplation... but Lan En was still trying his best to explain things clearly.

"The situation is far, far more serious than you imagine!"

"You'd better not do anything messy right now. Whatever plans or schemes you had before, you'd better scrap them all now!"

Lan En informed the other party with utmost sincerity and solemnity.

“I’m warning you, don’t do anything foolish, Cuckoo. Especially at this time.”

“Now, all you need to do is make way for me and let me go back to the Yatan Plateau, and what you want will happen naturally.”

Lan En planted the Lake Maiden's Sword in the ground beside him and stared intently at the other's helmet, which only had a slit for observation.

The other horse's hooves scratched at the damp grass, and the cuckoo rider on horseback remained silent for a while before speaking.

“You seem to think… you know what we’re going to do, Faded One.”

Lan En turned around, looked at the messy roadblock camp, and then shrugged at the other party.

Inside the camp, the corpses of the Flame Watchers and the Cuckoo Knights were mixed together.

Among them were Aganti, the leader of the Watchers, and a hound rider.

What a classic picture of a 'fierce battle for the camp'!

What's even more amazing is that... if you put another corpse of a faded person here, it wouldn't feel out of place at all.

In particular, the traces on the faded corpse were mostly from being burned by flames, and the power of the fire prayer remained.

In fact, Lan En had already sensed something was wrong when he rushed into this roadblock camp that he had passed by before.

Because there seemed to be relatively few corpses of the Cuckoo Knights and Cuckoo Soldiers in the camp. At least when Lan En first arrived in the Lienia region, there were more people in the camp than there were corpses on the ground now.

Furthermore, the Flame Chariot, which the Cuckoo Knights both praised and feared, is no longer in the camp.

The fact that there are few people in the camp can be explained by shift patrols. But can a fire chariot, an item specifically designed to strengthen the camp's defenses, really be moved away so easily and disappear without a trace?
Together with the Flame Watchers, they silently reached the eastern shore of the lake, which was controlled by the Cuckoo Knights, and seized a camp on a key road...

According to Lann, it's highly unlikely that the Cuckoo Knights cooperated with the Flame Watchers. However, it's entirely plausible that the Cuckoo Knights discovered the Flame Watchers' plans beforehand and secretly provided assistance and cooperation to some extent.

After all, if the Flame Watchers really wanted to take action against the Faded Ones who represented the Hall of the Round Table and Two Fingers, they would be happy to see it confirmed as soon as possible.

However, by now, the scale of the battle between Lann and Yaganti has been quite large, and Lann has even defeated his opponent.

So now they've stepped forward to bring the whole thing to a close.

After all, if Lan En were to reach the Yatan Plateau alive, and the Golden Dynasty were to seriously investigate, many of the clues in this camp would not stand up to scrutiny.

But if the faded one simply dies here... then once this major event is brought to light, there will be no time to concern ourselves with many minor matters.

Watching the enemy do something foolish, or even fanning the flames of that foolishness to escalate it completely, and then watching the enemy fall – this is a very common tactic.

but!

However, the self-consistent foundation of this 'everything is' idea lies in the fact that the Cuckoo Knights still believe that the Flame Watchers are merely interfering in their Lienian civil war tradition.

They, the cuckoos who wanted to put the Flame Watchers on the fire, were actually the ones who hadn't realized just how big of a deal this was!
(End of this chapter)