Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 2104, page 2076: Model Launched
How can one describe the horror and disbelief that Malenia felt at that moment?
Because of her speed advantage, she could see all of Lan En's movements clearly and was able to handle them with ease.

This gave her an almost detached, outsider-like feeling when fighting.

However, when a person in a 'slow-motion video,' when a 'worm frozen in amber'... he sees where you are going and does things even before you do them.

Who wouldn't feel a sense of... trepidation?
Marlenia was no exception; in fact, because her previous actions were a betrayal of her entire life, her mental state was still particularly unstable.

In her panic, without thinking, she swung her knife again, aiming at Lan En!
However, before taking action, she deliberately moved one step to the side from the original position.

After moving one step to the side, the overall positional relationship between her and Lan En completely changed.

However, the position of Lan En's blade still hindered Marlenia's sword swing during his movements.

So the Valkyrie had to turn her prosthetic sword around in a tiny arc, which didn't take long at all.

But... "Clang!"

Sparks flew, briefly illuminating the faces of both Lann and Marlene, even amidst the light emanating from Michaela.

Even with Lan En's reaction speed being a fraction slower than the other's, it was clear that Marlenia was practically stunned.

But Lann and Mentos didn't!
"Both collisions were as expected, and the accuracy of our motion model predictions is estimated at 97.5%, sir."

The orderly voice of the bio-engineered AI flashed in Lan En's mind.

On the edge of his retina, a model of Marlenia's body was rapidly changing postures, twitching, resetting, and then making another movement in a bizarre manner.

In the preceding few dozen seconds, Mentos's computing power couldn't keep up with the pace of the battle, which had been pulled into the ultra-high-speed realm by Marlenia. Even Lan En himself mostly had to rely on his martial arts experience and physical instincts to cope.

The bio-brain is a biological component composed of Lan En's own brain cells arranged and compiled. Mentos obtains information from the outside world through Lan En's senses.

It wants to interfere with external matter, and at this stage, it can only do so through Lan En.

If Lan En's body couldn't react in time, then of course it couldn't either.

However, just as 'experience is imprinted in the muscles, not just data residue in the brain'.

In the previous tens of seconds of ultra-high-speed combat, Mentos was not used, but Lann did not intend to let its massive computing power remain idle from beginning to end.

It couldn't keep up with Marlene's speed, but at least it could keep a record.

Record the location of Lann's attack, the frequency of the attack, and the positional relationship between the two when the attack occurred...

Furthermore, it had been recording Lan En's own physical reactions, those honed through martial arts and experience, which allowed him to make some adjustments even without seeing Marlenia's movements.

In the intense exchange lasting several tens of seconds, Mentos accumulated an ever-growing amount of data every second.

Lan En pushed his sensory abilities to the limit, while also paying close attention to any sudden shivers that arose within him.

All of these things became Mentos' data sources.

At first, Mentos could only recreate the scene in his mind after Lann was attacked, and even then, it was very slow.

This allows the unprepared party to at least know what happened beforehand.

But gradually, Mentos's replay of the scene became more and more timely, and more and more... close to the moment when Malenia actually took action.

Finally, after Lann and Messermo worked together to destroy her prosthetic leg, Marlenia's speed was greatly reduced.

—In the following few moments, due to the changes in Malenia's prosthetic limb, Mentos's scene replay became slightly distorted and inaccurate. However, after only a few parameters were slightly modified... Lann's brain knew, even before the external reality, where he would be slashed.

This explains why Lan En went from being passively attacked at the beginning to being able to inexplicably suppress Marlenia for five seconds in the middle, and now, even after she unleashed Crimson Corruption, he is still able to go toe-to-toe with her.

At the start of the battle, after Mentos and Lane both realized they couldn't keep up with Malenia's speed at all, this plan was naturally proposed.

After all, seeing through the enemy and then achieving victory with a higher perspective and more advanced technology is also a characteristic of Lan En's fighting style.

However, before Mentos began execution, Lann made only some limited adjustments to the task.

He asked Mentos not to try to fully understand or analyze Malenia's swordsmanship.

This sword technique, which looks like flowing water and is very similar to Lan En's own sword philosophy, should theoretically be easy to analyze quickly and not difficult.

But in Lan En's view, this was actually a time trap. Based on his experience and insight, he judged that the true depth of this swordsmanship was probably immeasurable, and if Mentos were to put his computing power into it, it might take hours or even days to achieve the same result.

However, there is definitely not that much room for maneuver in the battle against Marlenia.

Therefore, Lann only allowed Mentos to analyze those 'surface phenomena,' that is, Malenia's physical manifestations during movement, abandoning the idea of ​​delving deeper into the intrinsic nature of Malenia's swordsmanship.

This approach—treating the Water Bird Sword Technique as a 'black box whose working principle is unclear but truly exists,' ignoring it and instead analyzing the phenomena directly manifested outside the 'black box'—allowed Mentos to progress extremely quickly!

Even now, Malenia sees Lan En as someone in a 'slow-motion video'. And Lan En sees Malenia... no, he doesn't actually look at Malenia's physical body at all.

He was looking at what the Valkyrie would do in the next second in his mind!
“The prediction bias is within acceptable limits,” Mentos asked cautiously. “Should we go live with the Valkyrie motion prediction model, sir?”

The motion model, after two validations, achieved an accuracy rate of 97.5%. Although there's still a 2.5% chance of failure, that's a significant probability, especially when facing top-tier warriors who are used to surviving near-death experiences.

Nobody knows if these people can seize this 2.5% chance.

At least Lan En was confident that if there was such a 'big' opportunity, he couldn't possibly miss it.

But now, facing a woman who has just betrayed all the principles she upheld in the first half of her life, Marlenia feels a sense of helplessness as she flies through the sky.
The Witcher's eyes narrowed: "Confirmed, go live!"

Instantly, the constantly changing Marlenia character model on the edge of Lan En's retina was completely fixed!

And it was at the very moment the motion model was determined...

"Oh!"

Having gained a glimpse into Marlenia's movements, Lann needs to increase his power!

In that instant, a pale red aura of battle qi exploded from the demon hunter's entire body!

[Smaug] The edges and gaps of his menacing armor plates were filled with a particularly concentrated aura of fighting spirit that outlined his features!
[Power Unleashed - Ultimate]!
Using the methods of the New World Survey Team, the spirit of the Fog Nest Lord, the Deviljho, that was suppressed on this armor was suddenly activated!
In a daze, one could even hear the roar filled with a frantic hunger!
This made the entire suit of armor appear even more terrifying and frightening!
Beneath the bone-white armor plates, the lining and connecting straps made of the thick black hide of a Deviljho creaked and tightened, as if trying to devour the contents of the armor alive!
But it can't eat Lann; it will only enhance the Witcher's power!
Lan En, whose entire body was continuously engulfed in light red battle aura flames and the power of his guardian spirit, had positioned his longsword at an angle that seemed to be completely out of reach of anything.

But, just a moment later!

The prosthetic blade, which was slashing towards Lan En with a sharp whooshing sound, stopped abruptly midway, and then veered off course before continuing its attack!
It was precisely because of this abrupt pause and turn that, even though Marlenia's speed far surpassed Lann's, her subsequent strike was still blocked by the Witcher.

This scenario, under slow conditions, is commonly seen in instructional matches between coaches and students.

The students thought they had mastered every move, but when the coach actually took them into a real sparring session, they forgot half of their techniques.

Afterwards, the coach became familiar with the student's moves, so he would seize the gaps between the moves and insert himself. He didn't even need to actually strike; he would just position himself in the middle of the student's movement trajectory. The student would immediately freeze in place, as if a gear had been stuck and wouldn't move.

Because he simply didn't know how to handle the obstacles and unexpected events that suddenly appeared in what should have been a smooth and fluid movement.

My mind went blank for a moment because I couldn't think straight.

Marlenia's level is certainly not that of a trainee, but she is currently mentally unstable, and in addition, she has been turned into a motion model by Lann and Mentos.

So when a real fight broke out, this is the result!
Marlenia's movements were still very fast, but the inevitable jamming and forced changes of direction each time completely wasted her speed advantage!

"when!"

A crisp, loud bang rang out, but this time it was different from before.

Along with the sparks appeared a light red burst of battle aura and a tremendous force that burst out from Marlenia's back, as if she had been blasted out of her body by some kind of impact!

【Water-shaped Sword - Reverse Wave】!
With exquisite skill and fleeting opportunity, Lann, who could predict Malenia's movements, placed his Lake Maiden's Sword in an appropriate position.

Then Marlenia herself slashed at him, and from behind her, a vast swarm of decaying butterflies flew out like scattered, beautiful petals.

Looking up from the bottom of the Spiral Tower, you can see the Corruption Butterflies flying out like a giant jet of water on the circular God's Gate Plaza.

The Corruption Butterfly, glowing with a scarlet light, took away Marlenia's power.

The Valkyrie herself, whose body was suspended in mid-air by her wings, staggered and fell downwards.

"Pfft!"

A knife tip pierced her exposed abdomen, slanting upwards into her back.

(End of this chapter)