Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1945, 1917. The Cat's Prediction!

"Don't even think about going there, meow!"

As Lann sped toward Grek, whom he had kicked away, the demigods' guards naturally wanted to stop him immediately.

But the plush balls had already approached them long before their owner was discovered.

Grek disguised himself as a woman to secretly leave the city, and he brought with him seven or eight guards.

These guards were all knights in combat, but they were not wearing their equipment in order to complement Grek's disguise.

They wore no insignia of their respective knightly orders, and even their armor had been changed to sergeant-level. They wore cotton armor and chainmail, with a very common outer garment: a cylindrical tunic depicting a golden tree pattern.

It's impossible to tell where they came from.

However, when it comes to actual combat, their skills and techniques are truly undeniable.

A guard wielding a sword and shield paused briefly, assuming a short stance, before a gust of wind began to rise from the blade of his sword.

The wind was spinning very fast, resulting in a significant pressure difference that left a distinct white trail of air in the air.

【Battle Ash - Stormblade】!
Throw the storm swirling around your sword forward; this rapidly surging storm will greatly extend the warrior's attack range.

The tall and majestic tree guards are about the same height as ordinary demigods, even without riding a horse.

Standing in front of the crowd, isolating the battlefield and blocking the enemy, their expressions remained calm beneath their helmets.

The Storm's Ash is a household name in the Borderlands. Everyone knows that it originated from the Nymgford region, from the war ash of the former Storm King's forces.

Now, these war ash are most commonly found in the Gough army, which has inherited the rule of the Nymgford region.

Although Grek was a hostage who had lived in Rodel for a long time, the Golden Family had always been very harmonious before so many major events happened, thanks to the undisputed prince, Godwin.

Given his respect for Griffia, it's not surprising that Griffia was able to bring a group of Nymgford knights as his bodyguards.

"Whoo~"

A massive, golden shield, as thick as a city wall, was placed before the tree guardian. Tree roots coiled around its circular surface.

The Tree Guardians are a high-level combat unit of the Golden Dynasty, and are closely related to the power of the Golden Tree.

Their entire set of equipment had been blessed and consecrated.

Therefore, when the Tree Guardian held the shield in front of him, a golden tree emblem, gleaming with light, suddenly spread out from the shield and hovered outside the shield, slightly larger than the giant shield itself.

Because the Golden Tree emblem itself is a regular circle, it looks like a large shield of light wrapped around a physical golden shield.

The storm slash unleashed by 【Battle Ash - Storm Blade】 struck the hovering golden tree emblem directly.

next moment.

"Wow~"

The sound of surging light then rang out!
The pressure of the storm blade striking the golden tree emblem seemed to trigger some kind of counterattack mechanism, causing the golden tree emblem to shine brightly!

And in an instant, the light gathered together and condensed into a thick golden spear, which returned towards the attacker!

This is the [Battle Ash - Golden Return] equipped on the golden shields of the Great Tree Guardians.

The knights from Nymgford are not a problem for the Tree Guardians.

After all, Nymgfu was the conquered, while the Golden Dynasty was the conqueror. They were merely defeated opponents.

However, among Grek's guards, there were only four knights displaying the Storm series' battle ash.

And the other few people...

At the same moment that the golden spear, almost a "golden return," was thrown at them, the other knights simultaneously lowered their center of gravity.

It looks like a sprint is about to begin.

The tree guards, who had just deflected the power of the storm blades without even a hint of surprise, widened their eyes in astonishment upon seeing the knights' stance!
The weapons held by those knights were not uniform and were not particularly rare.

Basically, they are longswords and short-handled battle axes.

But at that instant, fine golden electricity burst forth from their bodies.

And in the blink of an eye, their bodies seemed to transform into golden lightning!
Only a blinding afterimage remained on the retinas of all the onlookers; the person had vanished from the spot.

This method of short-distance movement, which transforms into lightning, is terrifyingly fast!
In reality, even the Qilin's "Lightning Flash" is just using lightning to stimulate its already powerful New World Ancient Dragon body, thus gaining an instant boost.

The ancient dragons of the New World are based on science... albeit the science of the New World. In any case, the Qilin can't actually transform itself into lightning to move.

However, in this border region where gods and ghosts roam freely, this is merely a combat technique.

【Battle Ashes - Instant Lightning】!
The tree guardians were not unfamiliar with this kind of battle ash, but what surprised them was not the instantaneous speed it brought.

To their surprise, this battle ash... was the exclusive battle ash of the Knights who served the Golden Prince Godwin!
This signifies the identity of these knights!
And this identity, at this critical juncture like a powder keg, might cause an explosion!
Golden lightning streaked across the ground, and before the light spots on people's retinas could fade, the knights had already darted behind the tree guardians.

They crossed the defensive line established by the two tree guardians.

Just as he was about to unleash Battle Ash again, transforming it into golden lightning and hurtling a great distance towards Grik and Lann!

The Tree Guards were typical heavy cavalry, and they simply didn't have time to stop the knights who had already crossed their lines.

But that's it.

"I knew it all along, meow!"

A calico feline that stood upright appeared in one place almost simultaneously with the knights who had been transformed back into human form by the golden lightning!
Spirals of wind swirled around its two furry hind legs, making the cat appear as if it were emerging from a wisp of smoke.

[Acceleration Spell]!
The high-speed movement technology developed by the old hunters of Yharnam may not be as good as [Battle Ash - Instant Thunder] in terms of pure numerical values, but it still has a great advantage in terms of flexibility and activation speed after activation.

At high speed, the velvet ball, which was stopped not far from the knights, was swaying inertia with its fluffy fur all over its body.

But its gaze remained firm and confident.

Since the stats of [Acceleration] are lower than those of [Battle Ash - Lightning Strike], the situation where the velvet ball can stand in the same place as them shouldn't exist in theory.

Because [Acceleration] simply cannot catch up with [Lightning Bolt].

There's only one explanation—the velvet ball activated the [Acceleration Spell] before the knights!

The three-colored Palico used prediction and experience to even out the huge numerical advantage of [War Ash - Lightning Strike]!
Lan En often teases Qilin, saying: "If you don't work hard and are still so lazy, what were you hoping to achieve by following me out of the New World? Even Velvet Ball will be able to take you down in a day!"

The Qilin was naturally resentful that the golden lion had broken off its horn and almost beaten to death. Therefore, it wanted to venture out and gain experience, and team up with Lan En.

But this guy is used to being lazy and has a big playful streak. A moment of anger can only motivate him for a few days, giving him intermittent bursts of ambition, and then it's gone.

However, Qilin didn't care about Lan En's teasing, but the velvet ball had already taken it to heart.

The calico kitten always dreamed of becoming a powerful warrior, and she always demanded and trained herself to achieve that.

To it, Lann's words were like encouragement, telling it that even a Palico like it could hunt Elder Dragons alone in the future!
So, whether intentionally or unintentionally, Rongbuqiu always thinks about what he should do and how far he should go to have a chance if he wants to fight Qilin.

Without a doubt, the Qilin's thunder and speed are important guarantees that its race is among the ancient dragons.

If the plush ball wants to be qualified to fight against the Qilin, it needs to solve these two problems first.

Fortunately, while serving as Lann's companion cat and providing assistance, the plush ball can also share in the novel resources that the Witcher obtains from various worlds.

This includes combat experience in various scenarios, as well as novel combat techniques.

Therefore, using the [Acceleration] spell to enhance one's mobility and using experience to judge the landing point of high-speed enemies is one of the strategies that Velvet Ball has come up with so far.

However, what was unexpected was that this tactic was first applied to Godwin's knights.

"Your instantaneous speed is faster than a Qilin! But! The distance is short! The duration is short too! And you can't change direction at all! Right, meow!"

The fluffy ball of fluff had a serious and focused expression on its face. After appearing like a wisp of smoke with the help of the [Acceleration] spell, it held a cat sword in each of its left and right paws, and its body was also bursting with a layer of light red battle aura!
The two swords on its little claws spun around with its nimble body, like a small, sharp spinning top flying forward!
"Compared to the Qilin, your actions are much easier to predict, meow!"

"Don't even think about it!"

The fighting spirit techniques from the New World were as powerful and heavy as ever. After all, the hunters who developed these techniques were essentially aiming to deal with monsters with absurdly high vitality.

These knights had just emerged from the state of [Lightning Strike], and hadn't even found their footing yet.

The velvet ball, a sharp-edged spinning top, charged straight at them, and none of them dared to use their armor to withstand it.

If they hadn't changed their uniforms, that might have been a possibility, but now they're all equipped with ordinary sergeant-level gear.

Immediately, a series of clanging sounds of swords clashing rang out as the knights struggled to defend themselves.

They were also highly trained knights.

After being blocked by the velvet ball, two people immediately and automatically separated to try to delay and obstruct the velvet ball's pursuit.

The remaining people prepared to activate [Instant Thunder] again and head towards the demigod and the faded one not far away.

(End of this chapter)