Bear School Astartes

Chapter 455. Hunting the Blood Demon

"Are you ready?"

Lann asked Ged for confirmation.

It was nighttime, with a bright moon hanging high in the sky. Thanks to the high altitude of the Amel Mountains, there were no clouds, and the moonlight was brighter than on the plains.

Moonlight spilled over the snow, turning the snowy mountains silver-white. The ice and snow reflected the moonlight, giving excellent visibility here.

Ged held a clay pot, weighing it up and down.

"Don’t worry, the blood I’ve prepared—no vampire can resist its scent."

He seemed very confident in his handiwork.

"That Blood Demon would come over just by catching a whiff, even if it’s on the other mountain peak!"

"That’s just perfect then."

Lann dragged over a deer and stabbed its thigh.

Ged then scattered a lot of his specially prepared blood around this area.

This blood was specifically designed to cater to the taste of vampire-like monsters, more tempting to them than the blood of ordinary creatures.

Due to the cold weather, the scent was not easy to spread, so Ged deliberately ran further and scattered a bit more.

When he finished spreading a whole pot of bait, he returned to see Lann acting like a veterinarian, pouring Potion into the deer’s mouth.

The poor deer swung its jaws left and right, trying to avoid drinking the strange substance. Puffs of warm mist sprayed from its mouth during the process.

Yet Lann held the deer’s head tightly with one hand, and although it resisted, frothing at the mouth, the Potion was still irresistibly administered into its body.

"You really are wasteful..."

Ged couldn’t help but comment as he watched from the side.

"[Black Blood] is quite expensive."

[Black Blood] is a magic potion developed by Demon Hunters against blood-sucking creatures, turning the hunter’s blood into a toxin against such creatures. When attacked and blood-sucked by these creatures, they receive no supplementation and benefits from the blood, but instead are eroded by the toxins.

"After drinking it, you have to let the monster take a hard shot at you for it to work."

Lann continued pouring the Potion into the deer while shaking his head.

"I usually prefer a perfect solution in battle, why let the enemy touch you? It’s too foolish; I’d rather let the deer drink it."

The Potion bottle was small, as it was intended for human use.

After finishing with the deer, Lann threw the empty bottle far away into the thick snow.

Under the toxicity of the Magic Potion, the deer began to spasm, twitch, pupils dilating, while thick white foam flowed from its mouth.

Gradually, the wound on its thigh that Lann had stabbed began to leak black blood, and upon contact with the snow, it produced a ’hissing’ corrosive sound.

The two Demon Hunters were now kneeling under a pine tree high on the slope, and after exchanging a glance, they simultaneously closed their eyes.

The meditative state allows Demon Hunters to get full rest while greatly enhancing perceptive abilities.

Thus, when the monster arrives, they can detect it at first opportunity.

The work of a Demon Hunter often follows this process: Understand the monster, set the trap, patiently wait...

In the perceptive state of the two meditating Demon Hunters, they could hear the ’creaking’ of branches from the pine tree being pressed by snow.

The sound of snow sliding off the branches with a ’shushing’ noise, the slow breathing of the companion beside them as if in suspended animation...

Finally, they heard the light, secretive sound of footsteps on the snow.

Ged suddenly opened his eyes but found that Lann beside him had already changed from kneeling to a half-squat.

A bottle of [Vampire Oil] was being applied to the elegant longsword.

"Here."

Lann didn’t need to look to know Ged had also awakened, passing him the remaining half bottle of sword oil.

"Let’s act after it’s finished eating."

Ged silently accepted the sword oil, gently unsheathed the silver sword from his back, and began applying it.

Near the freshly deceased corpse of the deer, a figure approximately two meters tall was crouching.

With tight, gaunt limbs and torso, gigantic bat-like head, and a beard as gray as an elder’s hanging to its chest, this was the Blood Demon.

Its claws, sharp like several daggers, easily tore the deer’s corpse apart, splashing still warm blood over the snow with steam rising from it.

It eagerly began licking the blood off the ground.

"’There’s nothing to fear, a Blood Demon is just an oversized bat.’ ... A city guard once told me this."

Ged whispered, watching the bloody scene unfolding at the bottom of the slope.

"He should really see this deer."

"Where is he now?"

Lann’s gaze didn’t waver as he asked, not turning his head.

"That remark was his last words."

"Well, that’s quite fitting."

As they conversed, the Blood Demon below had already licked away all the splattered blood.

It crawled over the chaotic snowy ground, breathing deeply with satisfaction, while the warm mist from its mouth was carried away and stretched by the wind on the mountain under the moonlight.

Suddenly, the Blood Demon’s body went stiff, and it began to emit a painful wailing sound.

[Black Blood] took effect.

Now, its pale skin, besides the blood-stained hands, rapidly showed black spots caused by toxic accumulation.

Lann clearly witnessed this process, tapped Ged’s shoulder, and the two Demon Hunters shot out from under the pine tree.

Snow scattered underfoot as they slid swiftly downhill.

"Click," a mechanism activated, as Lann triggered the mechanism on his left arm armor while sliding down.

A silver bullet was loaded into the bore.

"[Alder]!"

"Bang!"

Compressed to a tiny range, the impact force granted the silver bullet an ultrasonic speed.

Following a muffled sound from the barrel, the lean and terrifying figure of the monster at the bottom of the slope seemed punched out of nowhere.

Its left shoulder exploded with a splash of blood, jerking backward.

Then the entire left arm dangled onto the snow.

The bullet hole on the left shoulder showed burn marks.

Silver weapons have a greater restraining effect on blood-sucking creatures than normal monsters.

Lann continued to pull the mechanism with his left hand to load the arm armor’s mechanical structure.

But when he fired a second shot, that terrifying vampire monster had turned into a blurred shadow, disappearing in a flash.

The supersonic bullet missed, making a small, unnoticed hole in the snow, with no further results.

The Blood Demon reappeared a meter away.

These creatures have the capability for instantaneous movement over short distances.

Firing twice caused Lann to lag behind Ged in sliding speed.

The moment the Blood Demon reappeared, the Bear School’s burly man roared and charged toward it.

The longsword in his hand, gleaming with oil and silver light, tore through the air simultaneously.