Bear School Astartes-Chapter 584 - 586. Financial resources, courage

Starting from the elbow, right in front of the mixed-blood sorceress, her limb fell down from above her head.

The injury at the elbow looked as if something had first broken it, then forcibly ripped it apart.

It was a special bullet that had a velocity beyond the speed of sound, tearing off the mixed-blood sorceress’s arm after penetrating a layer of the barber’s cart wooden plank!

Suddenly losing an arm during spellcasting was undoubtedly a major disruption.

Thus, the lightning ball she had raised above her head began to emit lightning irregularly and became distorted in shape.

Finally, with a sharp ’zzzz’ of electricity, the branch-like tendrils of the lightning ball connected to the sorceress’s body.

"Aaaaah!"

In a heartrending scream, the mixed-blood sorceress, as the magic initiator, was electrocuted into a charred and brittle state by the chaos magic she had invoked.

Even the blood that flowed to the ground was dried up by the high heat of the current.

Meanwhile, in the distant forest, Lann lowered his left hand, which emitted a sound of mechanical spring retraction.

These people had an intimate knowledge of various crossbow parameters available on the market now, but they hadn’t seen Lann’s mechanical arm armor propelled by Alder’s Rune.

With pointy conical ammunition reaching supersonic initial velocities, the wooden plank provided negligible cover.

As for the issues of trajectory and angle...

If the sorceress hadn’t invoked chaos magic for spellcasting, Lann might have had to move a distance to ensure his line of sight.

But with a large accumulation of chaos magic, it appeared to him, with his "Spirit Vision," like a tangled ball of yarn.

Very conspicuous.

Lann lowered his left hand, which delivered the decisive strike, and moved towards the inn courtyard from the roadside forest.

His figure was too noticeable and conspicuous; to avoid unpredictable reactions from these guys, he used this arrangement.

Ged and Geralt went up to engage in battle, and when the situation became critical or required remote support, Lann could strike.

Ged and Geralt had both seen his modified arm armor and knew the power of its ammunition, so they were very reassured.

As Lann approached, the fight between Geralt and Ged was also nearing its end.

It’s not an exaggeration to say that these people had the capability to kill a Demon Hunter one-on-one.

They were already skilled, experienced, and resolute, plus with these magic equipment on them. If they met a Demon Hunter whose condition wasn’t great or who was initially careless, they could probably take a head within the first ten moves of combat.

A seasoned guy like Belengar, who hadn’t fought in a long time, was essentially a "disadvantaged group" in front of them.

But now, they faced a renowned old Demon Hunter and another not-so-known Demon Hunter in high school attire.

Both of them wielded Valerian Steel Swords.

Generally speaking, people with magic equipment are assumed to have equipment superiority. But in this scenario, it’s hard to say who truly had the equipment advantage.

Ged made a standard rotational move in heavy armor.

With his left toe as the axis, the rotational force extended to the tip of his level-held sword, making his hands swing the longsword like a whip!

With a ’clang,’ the man in the cloth cap’s plan to counterattack by sideways deflection of Ged’s longsword instantly failed.

Along with it, the Valerian Steel Sword blade, like a ripple or smoke, cleanly and crisply severed the opponent’s neck amidst a dull ’snap’ of bone and flesh separation.

The soft cloth cap on top of his head wrapped around the man’s face, and as it rolled a short distance across the muddy ground, it got stuck in a pool of gleaming dark liquid.

That was blood from Blas, who had single-handedly slaughtered a bandit gang, spilling from his crawling body and ever-expanding.

"Tsk." Ged, looking at the headless, nerve-twitching body in the mud, ground his teeth uncomfortably. "Troublesome, I couldn’t hold back against him earlier."

"Normal." Lann, coming from outside the fence, passed by the barber, who was dumbfounded.

"Facing a good swordsman wielding a magic weapon, few can hold back."

Ged used his longsword to lift and identified the magic weapon, wiping the blood and fat from the sword on the corpse. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

He examined the magic longsword in his hand.

"Based on my earlier feeling, this sword seems to have enchantments of a ’paralysis’ type, very practical indeed."

He sheathed the cleaned Valerian Steel Sword behind him and took the magic weapon’s sheath from the corpse, storing it properly.

"What’s the current market price for such a weapon?"

Ged waved the sheathed longsword towards Lann.

"After clashing with your sword, it had no obvious nicks, which means the base material is excellent, and the enchantments are very practical... about seven hundred Oren."

"As you know, the more chaotic the world, the higher the value of weapons, especially top-notch ones."

Lann pondered for a moment and gave an answer.

He had loitered in Airetusa for a long time, where enchantment business was a major income for the academy, so he was somewhat knowledgeable.

This sword is somewhat more expensive than an unenchanted Valerian Steel Sword, but the latter still has room for enchantment improvements.

"And now." Geralt also sheathed his cleaned longsword behind him, producing a pleasing sound of metal friction, and walked over.

"Such a weapon, which should belong in a noble’s collection room or display on a general or commander’s belt, was brought to the battlefield by a thug."

The seasoned Demon Hunter could deduce people’s professions from long-dead corpses.

Because lifestyle habits would leave heavy marks on people’s bodies.

Drug addiction, scars from childhood abuse on the skin, old fighting injuries, large tattoos... these provided Geralt with clues for his deductions.

Having said this, Geralt gestured indicating something with a slight tilt of his head.

"Not stolen nor robbed; this group didn’t hide their use of magic equipment one bit."

Then it seems they truly owned these expensive magic weapons, or at least had legal usage rights.

Although the group included a sorcerer, they were at most rogue sorcerers. In other words—paupers.

They couldn’t buy a sniff of these magic weapons even if they sold themselves.

Lann looked at the corpses scattered on the ground and gave a slight cold chuckle.

"Heh."

"It seems the Niflgaard people are indeed wealthy."

Apart from the currently prominent Southern Empire, one never heard of any king or noble in the north having the courage or financial capability to supply a batch of high-grade magic equipment to frontline soldiers.

"It’s not just richness, the Niflgaard people are wealthy, but if they spent money without thinking, they wouldn’t have so much money."

Geralt spoke calmly, while his scarred eyes observed Lann beside him.

If it weren’t deemed necessary to form such a unit, financial grants wouldn’t be approved.

And considering this group’s readiness to attack once knowing they were Demon Hunters... the objective is pretty clear too.