[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-bear-school-astartes":3,"chapter-bear-school-astartes-bear-school-astartes-chapter-615":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Bear School Astartes",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1620395,2087,"Chapter 615 - 618. As Expected","bear-school-astartes-chapter-615",615,"\u003Cp>\"Don’t think about going down, my lord.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Darkley threw Adal onto the cart platform amidst his disbelief, anger, and fear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Your ankle is broken, going down will only get you trampled to death. It’s better to stay here, at least you can live a few more minutes, right?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No, you can take me with you! You absolutely can, Darkley!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Adal could see Darkley was serious, this lowlife really intended to leave him here, letting the Demon Hunter vent his wrath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Adal suddenly felt a sense of absurdity; after all, he was a Duke of the Niflgaard Empire!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But quickly, the heat of the wildfire, along with the battling and fleeing troops, brought him back to his senses and reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I can disguise like you! There are corpses everywhere here! Just do me a favor, when I return alive to Golden Pagoda City, I swear by the Great Sun you’ll become powerful! Noble!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"As long as you help me change clothes, we can leave together! You can achieve wealth and prestige!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Adal grabbed Darkley’s ankle, looking at him earnestly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A gamble could yield enough capital for a few lifetimes; it certainly sounded appealing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But right now, I don’t want to gamble, my lord.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The duke’s eyes widened in panic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"People like us, working is a gamble. But because of that, once we’ve done enough jobs, we can pretty much tell if we’ll win the gamble.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Darkley smiled as he crouched down, prying open the duke’s fingers one by one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You’ve seen how terrifying that Demon Hunter is... I don’t want to take any risks in front of him.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With that, Darkley nimbly jumped off the platform and merged into the thousands of soldiers who had already scattered in collapse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No... don’t leave me...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only Duke Adal was left on the platform, twitching his broken leg and wailing mournfully.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Darkley! The commander has blended into the crowd! The commander is in the crowd, Demon Hunter! Don’t let him go! Don’t let him go!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The mix of resentment, fear, and anger made the voice sound like the wail of a Demon Spirit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Darkley, already mingling with countless scattered soldiers, pressed down his helmet and smiled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Scream all you want, duke. That’s all you can do at the end.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Laughter-inducing resentment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Darkley swung his wrist, driving the longsword through the chin of a bloodlust-frenzied soldier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he continued running toward the edge of the mountain pass.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Spiritual Master was now focusing on the thought waves of the mass of soldiers; such observation wasn’t detailed, so it wasn’t very taxing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the Spiritual Master could find the positions of those lucky enough to escape the wildfire gaps among these waves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was the path to survival they were seeking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And from a distance, Darkley carefully glanced over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The heat of the wildfire made the ashes float upward, then disappear into the fiery backdrop.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That enormous figure, silently standing with a sword on a small hill, seemed merely to watch the collapse, chaos, and infighting of over two thousand Niflgaard Legion, regaining its strength...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was good.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Darkley thought to himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Demon Hunter needed rest too, and he couldn’t possibly find him in the chaotic mass of thousands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He might not even know he exists, right?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The temperature grew hotter, and sweat was about to drip into Darkley’s eyes from his forehead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He couldn’t help but squeeze his eyelids hard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But after blinking a few times, his actions suddenly froze!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wait... where did the Demon Hunter go!?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the distance on that small hill, amidst the fiery backdrop... nothing!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Clang!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that unique, cathedral bell-like impact sound suddenly appeared behind Darkley!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The feeling of flesh and blood splattering on the back of his armor was so distinctive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It made Darkley almost instinctively raise his left hand to block behind him!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the moment he turned around, all he could see was that the frenzied and chaotic Niflgaard soldiers behind him had suddenly been cleared out!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Blood red filled everything!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, the gauntlet on his left hand erupted with fiery sparks from impact, the force transmitting from the gauntlet to his body, throwing him like a horse-drawn carriage crashing into him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rolling several times in the mud soaked with blood, his armor’s protrusions and seams filled with blood mud, flesh pulp, and fragmented body tissues, Darkley finally rolled to a stop, staggering back two steps before steadying himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On his gauntlet, the runes for Chaos Magic Power glimmered faintly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only now did he understand what it felt like to be struck by that big sword, by the Demon Hunter... though he might have just barely been glanced just now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Goddamn plague and infection... even enchanted gauntlets can’t hold up!?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Darkley trembled as he shakily hid his left hand behind him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And his gaze remained fixed, unmoving, on the Demon Hunter standing not far away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You made your decision a bit faster than I expected, which means your decision-making is rather decisive.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The giant sword was resting on the Demon Hunter’s shoulder, still dripping thick blood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the dim fiery backdrop, those glowing cat eyes quietly watched Darkley.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No, have mercy, my lord! I just want to return alive, I’m just a soldier, I have family at home...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"At this point, pretending any further would be pointless, Commander, wouldn’t it?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lann tilted his head slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Or as the duke called you, should I say Darkley?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, after a brief silence, Darkley’s previously trembling stance stopped shaking and shifted into a poised and ready crouch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His expression under the helmet was quite dire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You just said ’faster than you expected’... what does that mean?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What else could it mean? Do you really think I plan to cut you down one by one? That’s inefficient and slow, and the reliability of the wildfire isn’t that high. Just like now, aren’t you already trying to find a way out through the burning area’s gaps?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lann countered calmly, as if puzzled how he could ask such an inane question.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Of course, it’s for you to kill each other.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I can kill a few hundred, and the wildfire can kill a thousand. But inside this arena made of flames... you yourselves can eliminate the vast majority of the rest.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I only need to intimidate you enough that you forget why you need to slaughter your comrades. After all, in a state of fear and tension, humanity’s fragile minds can naturally do many illogical things... I only need someone among you to start, then everything can begin logically and smoothly.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And as I said... you made your decision sooner than I expected, which really saved me some stamina.\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1106,"2026-06-06T10:40:25.444Z",1,"novelbin.me","644e72524db998d7e8055feb5862e66e8049f4fa97ca9973a01c8b8f1752e0e2","bear-school-astartes-chapter-616","bear-school-astartes-chapter-614",1043,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fbear-school-astartes-cover.jpg"]