Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1188 1170. 'Natural Disaster'

"Do you think I am someone who cares about what other people think of me?"

Lan En tilted his head and asked in silence, while Triss shrugged with laughter on horseback.

Her sense of humor always made Lan En feel unpredictable, but it was undeniable that the sorceress's charm made Triss a little more adorable.

The sorceress dismounted and without looking back handed her mare to a soldier passing by.

Although the road to the floating port is rugged and difficult to travel, it at least passes by the edge of the Mahakam Mountains, so there is still a road.

But if you want to go deep into the mountains to check out the real situation, people can cover much more ground than horses.

Triss did not report or inform anyone else.

Her identity as a sorceress was already resisted in the Duke of Elland's team, and few people wanted to contact her because everyone knew Seaward's position.

But she was indeed a magic consultant sent by Foltest, and based on political considerations, she had to be treated accordingly.

So she is actually in an awkward position in the team now.

Triss and Lan dismounted and stood together. They stopped and were soon left behind by the advancing convoy.

Seeing the team moving further away, Lan En raised his hand and rubbed the magic ring on it.

Triss's brows raised in joy, because she was the one who made the ring.

At the same time, a rustling sound of tree branches and leaves came from the high place on the nearby rock. A huge, pale-maned feline head and an Elu cat on its head poked out from the bushes growing high up.

"Hello, meow!"

"唏伦~"

It's a unicorn and a flannel ball.

Lan used his hook to help Triss climb up and sit on the Qilin's sturdy back.

"Has this horn been trimmed?" Triss, who was sitting beside Lan En, touched the broken horn of the Qilin curiously. "What a neat knife job."

Qilin snorted unhappily, shook his head, and turned to look at Lan En, but the electric arc did not appear.

The growth rate of its broken horn is now much faster than last time. As of today, only one-third of the tip has not yet grown back.

The ability to control thunder has also become much more stable.

"You point the direction." Lan En stuffed a piece of special rations into the Qilin's mouth, and then pulled its mane to make it turn. He said to Triss.

"Where is the incident area?"

"We have to go south first to reach the depths of the Mahakam Mountains." Triss seemed to have a plan in mind and made arrangements skillfully.

At the same time, she closed her eyes, and the strange feeling of chaotic magic began to spread out.

The necklace on the witcher's chest began to dance.

This is her releasing her perception of the chaotic magic.

Lan En nodded, patted Qilin's neck again, and prepared to set off.

"We have to go at least 30 kilometers into the mountains. Although the anomaly is spreading, it is still..."

Triss closed her eyes and supplemented Lan with what she had sensed earlier.

But before she could finish her words, the sorceress's eyes, which had been calmly closed, suddenly opened!

"Um?!"

The suspicious tone and look made Lan En feel nervous.

But his tone remained calm and steady. The more abnormal the situation was, the more rational one had to be.

"Did you sense what happened?"

".Twenty kilometers."

"what?"

Triss herself blinked and spoke blankly.

"That area expanded ten kilometers overnight in the direction of the Pontar River Valley!"

"." The demon hunter's expression became a little serious. "Triss, open a shield in front of us first."

"When the Qilin runs, the soft branches and leaves in these mountains will become whips with thorns at the speed. My [Quen Seal] can't last for 20 kilometers."

"oh oh!"

The sorceress also became completely serious at this time. After a brief spell, a magic shield appeared in front of Qilin's horse's back.

And Gu Long immediately started running at Lan En's signal.

The white horse with pale blue lightning patterns, even though it had reduced its speed to a level that could carry a person, instantly turned into a flash of lightning in the vast Mahakam Mountains!
The ancient dragon's powerful body did not dodge or evade. No matter whether it was fragile shrubs or century-old trees blocking the way, they were just a handful of debris in front of the Qilin's head-lowering charge.

These debris are insignificant to the ancient dragon's body, but for an ordinary person, they are enough to scrape off a layer of flesh.

Immediately afterwards, the flying debris hit the magic shield, causing an insignificant ripple.

In order to overcome inertia, the fluffy ball clenched its little fangs and clung to Lan's shoulders with its little claws.

The Qilin began to move at high speed in the mountains.

When traveling in the mountains, it is considered outstanding if you can move five kilometers in a straight line in a day.

Twenty kilometers away from the outer edge of the mountain range is indeed considered to be in the "deep mountains".

But a distance that expanded by ten kilometers overnight could not be considered a "safety buffer" at all.

"Isn't this expansion speed abnormal?" There was no need to worry about the Kirin's running ability. Lan En asked Triss while indicating the direction, "Or has it been expanding like this for a while?" "How is it possible?!" Triss stretched her hand forward to maintain the protective shield of chaos magic. At the same time, there was still a sense of doubt in her tone.

"If it expands ten kilometers overnight, then from the time this anomaly was discovered, we should have crossed the Pontar River Valley and entered the Kestrel Mountains!"

In other words, did the expansion speed suddenly increase, or did the expansion direction change?
Lan's brain was working at a rapid pace, and the Mentos helped him organize his thoughts.

Two possibilities emerged immediately.

I don’t know which one it is, but no matter what, I can’t escape the question: this must have been affected by something.

Otherwise, how could he suddenly become like this?

“The direction has been roughly determined.”

Lan said calmly.

After Triss adjusted the direction and gave directions several times, the Mentos, which had obtained enough data, had established a permanent coordinate position in Lan's brain.

Now he can guide Qilin to its target.

"You are needed for something else right now, Triss."

"Spread out your concentrated perception. There's no need to focus on one place for guidance. I now want to know the approximate area that this thing has passed through."

"I can't do it!" Triss said with difficulty, closing her eyes. "The chaos magic in the Mahakam Mountains is a mess right now!"

"Just a rough outline is fine. I just want an outline."

Lan's calm tone infected Triss, who was originally a little panicked. She took a deep breath and nodded.

She had been here for many days and had an idea of ​​the spread of the abnormal area, which was why she was able to relax before.

Because according to her prediction, it will take some time for this thing to cover the Pontar Valley.

But today, when I opened my eyes again, I was almost at the edge of the Pontar Valley!
Amid the whistling sound of the wind caused by the speed of the Qilin, the biochemical intelligent brain in Lan En's brain was operating at high speed.

The newly completed blood regeneration has filled his blood with a huge amount of nutrients. While supplying super organs throughout the body, it also makes Mentos feel that the blood supply to the brain is like a fish in water.

"Sir, based on the roughness of the trajectory map that Miss Triss may provide, combined with our field investigation, I am confident that I can complete the trajectory calculation within half an hour to an hour."

The demon hunter nodded slightly at the mission report from the biochemical intelligent computer.

"Leave it to you, Mentos."

"Duty, sir."

After some communication, the first location sensed by Triss was already in sight at the speed of Qilin.

Lan En jumped off the horse swiftly, and the flannel ball jumped onto his shoulder, used it as a step to slow down, and then landed on the ground nimbly.

“Triss, you’re outside. If you get within range, the more chaotic magic will make it more difficult for you to sense the trajectory.”

Lan En reached out and helped the sorceress down, then turned and nodded to Qilin.

They have been together for a long time, and most of the time they can understand each other's meaning even without using the variant of the [Yaxi Seal].

The noble horse nodded at Lan En.

With this ancient dragon around, even if it doesn't release the ancient dragon's pressure, the strong static electricity field released unconsciously is enough to keep many poisonous insects and sensitive creatures away under the oppression.

etc.
Pressure away from expulsion. No living thing
A series of associations flashed through Lan En's mind, causing him to frown slightly, and he had a new guess about the matter.

But because there was still too little information, he temporarily kept this speculation to himself.

The demon hunter lowered his head and nodded to his cat companion, and the ball of fluff gave a powerful "meow".

Then he followed closely behind Lan En and walked into the dense forest in the mountains.

The ground was a mixture of rocks, soil and tree roots, making it rough and uneven.

Just walking on it normally requires several times more attention than usual to avoid spraining your ankle and to stand steadily.

This is one of the reasons why mountain climbing can feel very tiring.

Fortunately, Lan En and Flannel Ball are both masters who have achieved some success in practicing the [Light Body Breathing Method], and simple terrain rarely stumps them.

The kitten bounded to follow Lan's long strides.

The dense forests in the mountains should be so thick that no sunlight can be seen.

Especially now it is spring and approaching summer, not autumn or winter when the leaves are falling.

But less than five minutes after Lan and the ball of fluff walked deeper into the ground, a ray of sunlight shone through the interlaced leaves and fell on the faces of Lan and the kitten.

They looked at each other and their faces became serious.

Sure enough, he just walked forward a dozen steps.

"This is.?"

The ball of fluff trotted forward a few steps on all fours and spoke with its mouth open.

The large patch of dense forest in front of me, which was supposed to stretch along the mountain to the far distance, has now become a pile of waste wood!
These tough and long-lived trees were easily broken, and some of the wood was so fine and resilient that it looked like it had been bent to the extreme and then broke.

The tree roots were still there, but the waist-thick trunk had already jumped fifty meters away, crushing another bunch of trees.

Such a large forest has the resilience and ability to consolidate water and soil, and should be able to prevent even small-scale landslides.

But now this huge and ancient forest is like a naughty child sweeping across the area with a stick, breaking off reeds all over the ground.

This doesn't seem like deliberate 'sabotage', it's more like...
"Act of God."

Lan glanced around the flannel ball and uttered the word with a frown on his face.

(End of this chapter)