Bear School Astartes

Chapter 929 - 911: Power of Soul

If we only talk about physical strength, Lann feels that Heroic Gudah is even stronger than Ausloes’s Scaleless White Dragon body.

And it’s not just physical strength, being battle-hardened, becoming a hero as a warrior, and even being chosen as a Lord of Cinder today.

Heroic Gudah’s combat ability is beyond question.

Although Ausloes is a powerful Divine Race who has lived for thousands of years, in terms of combat skills, he probably can’t match Heroic Gudah.

The Lords of Cinder are all formidable beings who can support the world’s order with their own souls.

In every era, they are the most elite individuals.

Although Heroic Gudah isn’t called a "Lord of Cinder" yet, what he’s lacking is merely the power of the First Flame.

But from Lann’s perspective, he still prefers to engage with enemies like Heroic Gudah.

After all, Ausloes’s top-tier magic abilities are really nauseating to him.

And a pure warrior... fighting them is both exhilarating and thrilling!

Feeling the tremor in his wrist muscles, the tearing pain in his tiger’s mouth. Yet, the corner of Lann’s mouth involuntarily curls up into a smile.

He’s starting to enjoy it.

A spiraling wind wrapped around his legs, from Yan’an’s Old Hunter’s "Acceleration Technique"!

Lann vanished like wisps of smoke in a flash, and then reappeared beside Gudah’s robust body.

At the same time, there was a ’squelch’ sound.

The skin and flesh on Heroic Gudah’s flank suddenly split open with a knife wound, and blood eagerly sprayed out from the thin knife opening.

According to Lann’s mastery of the "Qi Flow Blade" technique, this slash should outrageously spill a rain of blood, causing significant blood loss to the enemy.

But unexpectedly, Gudah seemed not to mind such an injury at all.

On his flank, the incision in his armor and flesh made by Lann showed almost no hesitation.

Pain and bleeding didn’t slow his movements in the slightest.

The war halberd, with a handle as thick as an adult’s calf, drew a perfect semicircular arc on the ground, sweeping towards his side!

Dirt splattered as the shattering sound of the rock beneath echoed incessantly.

Heroic Gudah just swung his war halberd, scraping the ground, and shattered tens of tons of rock along the way!

If hit by this, even after strengthening surgeries, the body of an ordinary Interstellar Warrior probably could only remain at the level of ’not being broken into two’.

But Lann is not ’ordinary’.

His cat eyes slanted, accurately capturing the trajectory of the war halberd through his silver hair at the eye corner.

The Demon Hunter made a gentle leap, and the war halberd blade that could easily crush tens of tons of rock scraped past the bottom of his boots.

Immediately, Gudah also used the inertia of swinging the halberd, sidestepping two or three meters, to distance himself from Lann.

Surprisingly, even in his own heart, Gudah felt a surge of disbelief—before his opponent... his first thought was to ’keep distance’!

He is a heroic warrior, a warrior who can be temporarily chosen as a Lord of Cinder in emergencies!

Yet even such a warrior... actually hesitates to close in on enemies during battle!?

The opponent’s movements are too swift.

Gudah thought silently in his heart.

This warrior only a head shorter than himself, almost every move he makes, can achieve a speed akin to his own explosive start or dash.

He’s a master.

And opposite Gudah, Lann was actually also watching the knife wound under the opponent’s ribs, slightly narrowing his eyes in a ponderous manner.

A slash that should have caused massive bleeding through the "Qi Flow Blade" technique, now in the case of such a significant motion from the opponent, didn’t shed a single drop of blood.

Only a few blood droplets slowly dripped down from the wound.

Lann knew what this was—

The Power of Soul.

The fundamental strength of the warriors in this world.

If techniques were only carved onto weapons, warriors in this world could not stand on equal footing with clerics and mages.

Moreover, the Knight Order they form has become the most common violent unit in this world.

Part of it is because warriors can concurrently learn miracles and magic. But more importantly, it’s the Power of Soul.

This power not only allows warriors to engrave "battle skills" into weapons but also maintain their own state.

As long as their own Power of Soul isn’t exhausted, even in the second before imminent death, warriors can still maintain their peak state by consuming the Power of Soul.

Even if pierced through by a long blade from chest to back, warriors whose Power of Soul isn’t depleted can stand up, with their sword force and foot speed unaffected by their injuries.

It doesn’t hinder their combat performance in the slightest.

And those wounds themselves are also prevented from worsening by the Power of Soul.

Until their Power of Soul can’t hold, only then will their body succumb to death.

Lann had anticipated Heroic Gudah’s Power of Soul to be strong, but didn’t expect it to be this potent.

His "Qi Flow Blade" was unable to draw out much blood from the breach in Gudah’s body under the suppression of the Power of Soul!

The admiration the two had for each other lasted just for a moment.

Immediately after, Heroic Gudah was the first to strike again.

He was a hero who grew up dominating the battlefield.

Having faced many enemies who were stronger than him in certain aspects, he could immediately understand how to deal with such people upon contact.

Now, he was preparing to deal with Lann in this way.

The opponent’s speed was very fast, but he must not be intimidated by such agility and keep his distance.

He had to press forward! Using continuous and seamless actions to suppress and entangle him, rendering his speed useless!

"Huff~"

A sound like air flowing through a crevice between high mountains echoed from beneath Gudah’s unique helmet.

He was a silent warrior who wouldn’t let out a battle cry even when injured or excited.

His breathing was solely for a better combat rhythm and execution of techniques.

However, this fierce breathing rhythm, combined with the ventilation structure of that unique helmet, turned into an intense exhalation.

Gudah held the massive halberd at his waist, then lowered his center of gravity and charged forward, like a knight advancing with a lance!

The expert standing at the arched doorway, peering inside, widened his eyes slightly.

Apparently, he didn’t expect that the warrior who had casually chatted with him could make Heroic Gudah become serious so quickly.

Originally, Heroic Gudah seemed to conserve energy and reserves; if the enemy wasn’t very strong, he wouldn’t be too earnest.

But once an opponent exceeded a certain level, this hero would go all out.

This famed move, [Heroic Assault], was the hallmark of when this hero got serious.

And Lann, who was facing this attack head-on, had an even deeper understanding of this move.

"On the surface, it looks like a straight thrust, but every step is a small thrust... Crafty fellow!"

Lann sneered inwardly and cursed.

If one foolishly faced Heroic Gudah’s attack with a fine shield, thinking themselves safe after withstanding a wave of impact, they’d surely be pierced through in the next moment!

Every step in this move was a small thrust!

Using a shield was useless; with Heroic Gudah’s physical strength, even an equally strong opponent could only withstand the initial three or four steps of the assault with a shield.

Then, even if the arm holding the shield wasn’t immediately crippled by the impact, it would inevitably lose strength.

Consequently, the shield at the front would be easily flicked away, and the person behind it would become a ’rag doll’ hanging on the halberd’s blade.

But in front of Lann, these disguised tricks were not very effective.

The Demon Hunter’s pair of amber cat eyes suddenly deepened significantly.

[Spiritual Vision] activated.

Heroic Gudah was unlike Ausloes who made Lann have many concerns out of nowhere.

At that time, he dared not use [Spiritual Vision] to look at the Scaleless White Dragon, fearing that delving too deep into the sight would trigger those Demon Kings’ powerful and profound forces accumulated over millennia.

But Heroic Gudah, being a pure warrior, seemed far more ’benign’.

Within a deeper view, Lann could clearly see the flow of Power of Soul within this warrior hero, and the movement of his physical strength.

This direct insight into the essence was equivalent to laying bare Heroic Gudah’s techniques in front of Lann.

The Lady of the Lake’s Sword in his hand drew a brilliant arc, positioned by Lann in front of him.

The Demon Hunter’s gaze remained calm. He still needed to block the opponent’s advance, but not in the conventional way of ’blocking’.

The hero, head lowered, charged straight at him.

Following that, "Clang clang clang" *N!

Each step of Heroic Gudah’s charge caused a noticeable ring of sparks to erupt between the tip of his halberd blade and the beautifully arced Long Blade!

The Long Blade’s slight sway under pressure was like a carp leaping up a waterfall, rising fluidly, wagging its tail, and descending.

[Iwami Style: Climbing Carp].

"...?!"

Heroic Gudah had obviously never seen such a response.

At this time, the technique of [Climbing Carp] had, through rapid successive weapon collisions, fully exerted its effect on Gudah.

He began to feel his movements becoming sluggish, and the process of mobilizing muscles for expected actions became clumsy and difficult.

Battle-worn Gudah speculated this to be some kind of combat technique using precise defense to cause disorder in the opponent’s actions.

He had full confidence in his horizon and experience.

But... how could [Combat Technique] be executed so densely?!

In Gudah’s impression, not to mention properly releasing [Combat Technique], even ordinary slashes and stabs couldn’t match the action density of his [Heroic Assault] within a short time!

This was each step being a thrust!

How could Lann possibly match every precise defense!?

Yet Lann managed to keep up.