Bear School Astartes

Outside the Castle Town's Ranger Group's longhouse, a group of bandits still maintaining basic organization held torches and oil, encircling the longhouse tightly.

It had started to drizzle in the night, but this amount of rain was nowhere near enough to prevent an intentional fire.

The only reason the bandits hadn't thrown the oil and torches yet was that they didn't want to burn the valuables of the ronin inside the longhouse.

In the eyes of the bandits, ronin were generally wealthier than ordinary peasants.

But even so, the bandits' already limited patience was about to run out.

The wall around the longhouse was thin, but at least it served as a barrier.

In cold weapon combat, even a small hill could be considered an advantage.

The ones above had a longer attack range, a broader target, and greater weapon strength. The ones below had to waste time on one motion of raising their legs before even swinging a weapon.

So, although the ronin group in the longhouse had no leader, a group of people who made money by licking blood from the tip of the knife managed, relying on their bloodthirsty courage and fierceness, to hold onto this place.

"Hold the line! Keep going!"

The ronin shouted encouragement to each other, swinging their Samurai Swords and spears by the wall to check that they were all alive and that their defense sectors hadn't been breached.

"The bandits won't spare us alive! Even just to survive, we have to hold them off!"

At the main gate of the longhouse courtyard, a thin wooden door had already been hacked and smashed into a shaky state, and several large holes could be seen in the door panels.

Two ronin with some spear skills poked their long spears through the holes, the shaking metallic blades like snakes, keeping the bandits at the main gate wary and not daring to approach.

The two spear-wielding ronin encouraged each other, checking for any gaps. But even so, they knew in their hearts that the situation was getting worse.

Such a long time had passed, but reinforcements from the Hirate family had yet to arrive. Meanwhile, the bandits' momentum grew larger, and the screams and cries outside grew quieter.

The people of the Castle Town were almost all killed!

What they were doing now was just the last desperate struggle of cornered beasts.

At that moment, the bandits, restrained from approaching by the spears at the door, seemed to come up with a good plan.

Their faces smeared with a layer of black grease, they smiled in the firelight and drizzle.

"That monk!" A bandit holding a torch waved the light source into the distance, shouting.

"The monk with the Ten-Character Spear! Aren't you known as the 'Ninja Slayer'? Come help us break the courtyard gate, and you'll get a share of what's inside! This is the courtyard where those ronin live!"

The two spear-wielding ronin guarding the main gate exchanged glances, and in the dark far beyond the courtyard, the gleaming tip of a spear was the first to appear.

The head of the spear was half a meter long, and the entire spear was at least three and a half meters!

Their own simple spears were at most only two meters. Even if their bodies were impaled by someone else's spearhead, their own spearheads wouldn't even touch the other!

"Did he just say... 'Monk'?"

Suddenly, one of the spear-wielding ronin stammered out.

The combination of a spear and a monk brought to mind a well-known image among the ronin.

—Mi Mountain Institute!

A group cloaked in the guise of Buddhist monks, conducting mercenary work and using the temple's secret spear techniques, 'monks'!

They called themselves monks merely because the temple's organizational structure was more convenient.

Sure enough, when the man holding the great spear emerged completely from the darkness, he was dressed like a traveling monk from East Japan.

Straw sandals, black clothing with white pants, a white headscarf wrapped around the head, and several strings of Buddhist Beads hanging on the chest.

But what came from his mouth contained no semblance of 'compassion'.

"A ronin wielding a spear? This humble monk will gladly accept such a gain."

It seemed as if killing all the people inside was not a matter of concern.

The ronin at the door watched as the Mi Mountain Institute monk came forward and poised with his great spear.

His muscles tightened inch by inch, the spear butt set at the side of his abdomen, the spearhead angled downward. His posture primed for a forceful charge.

After adopting this stance, he ignored the spearheads protruding from the wooden door, as if they were not iron weapons capable of piercing flesh, blood, and bone but mere children's toys.

His back foot pushed off the ground, splashing mud as it went. In the eyes of the ronin behind the wooden door, filled with terror and despair, the Ten-Character Spear held by the Mi Mountain Institute monk conjured a spiral airflow despite not spinning at all!

The density of that airflow was so high, it was visible to the naked eye as white streams!

This was the application of [Mi Mountain Institute Spear Techniques]'s [Vigor].

Even by sensory evaluation alone, this thrust could pierce through not just the thin wooden door but even a half-meter-thick earthen wall!

The wooden door and the two ronin behind it were no different than rag dolls in the face of this thrust.

"I am Mi Mountain Institute Yuanzhen; these legacies of yours will be gladly received by this humble monk! Haha!"

The bandits behind Mi Mountain Institute Yuanzhen also showed expectant expressions under the power of this thrust. After all, not long after, they would be able to rush in and loot freely.

But just as the spear-wielding monk relied on the thrust's power to leap and charge towards his target,

a muffled sound suddenly arose from outside the bandits' encirclement.

The air tore apart, and a specially made bullet, flying faster than sound, precisely tracked Mi Mountain Institute Yuanzhen's movement trajectory.

Suspended in mid-air, with the great spear swirling like a descending Vajra, the left side of his waist suddenly burst with a small spray of blood.

Underneath the covering of the headscarf, eyes that were once filled with confidence and murderous intent suddenly widened.

It wasn't normal widening, but rather a reaction where the eyelids were forced to their limits by pain!

His organs reduced to pulp, the specially made bullet rolled within his abdominal cavity, and when it finally burst from his right waist, it tore a sea bowl-sized gash in his flesh!

"Urgh!"

The white headscarf, stained red by the suddenly expelled blood.

The core power group of his waist and abdomen damaged, his spear technique fell into disarray in an instant.

The metal blade, having gathered massive energy, turned from a direct stab into a haphazard sweep.

And from the darkness, a tall and muscular figure charged out at just the right moment.

He leaned his shoulder sideways, his wide body and armor directly shoving four or five bandits into the chaotic weapon's range.

Although the spear technique was disrupted, the energized iron blade still cleanly severed the bodies of these bandits.

Behind Lann, Kotaro led a noticeably larger group, swarming towards the bandits.

"Kill! They're scattered too thin! Fear not!"

Lann himself, meanwhile, still feeling uneasy, rushed directly towards Mi Mountain Institute Yuanzhen, who had lost hold of his spear.

The bandits in his path could not even halt his steps, getting knocked away easily.

The heavily injured monk didn't even have a chance for his body to go limp before a large hand grabbed his face.

Then in one swift motion, that hand slammed his head against the ground with force.

"Bang!"

Brain matter, blood, and mud mixed together, forming a grotesque puddle.

Lann slowly rose, shaking off his rain-dampened silver hair, and calmly looked at the still-convulsing 'chunk of flesh' on the ground.

This person's 'Air Spear Blade' was quite impressive.

However, it's a pity the adaptability of this spear technique in combat was not very strong.

The Demon Hunter shook his head and walked toward the longhouse courtyard, where the battle was already decided.

In summary... it's an imperfect spear technique.