The fashionable hunter before him had a threaded cane that appeared elegant and slender, but that didn’t mean it was weak in destructive power.
When the cane split into a steel whip consisting of twenty-one segments, it left horrifying and effective scars with each lash.
This was merely using it with human force. If it were used with a technique like Henrik’s Transformation Slash, coupled with a mechanical recoil during the swing...
Even if you extended an ordinary modern steel measuring tape and let it freely retract, the thin metal strip would still create a sense of threat as if it could cut the skin during movement.
Not to mention how terrifying the retraction of a steel whip designed for hunting beasthood patients would look.
The floor, which had already started to utilize concrete technology, was deeply scarred by the steel whip’s swings. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel✶fire.net
If it were flesh and blood, once the twenty-one sharp steel segments scraped over a body, even the hard bones wouldn’t remain intact.
A gunshot accompanied by firelight.
The beasthood hunter was still skilled, as a hunter using a soft weapon for whipping. He even retained a good sense of distance with those already chaotic beasthood eyes!
Lann’s advancing route was blocked by mercury bullets; he had to change direction or push forward.
Yet no matter if he could use the blade to block the firearm’s ammunition, the pause was unavoidable.
The fashionable hunter took a backward step simultaneously as he fired.
Once more bringing Lann into the ideal striking range of the steel whip.
Normally, the fashionable hunter’s combat system was relatively well-rounded.
With the cane closed, the Hunter’s Pistol was for long-range attacks, the cane for close combat.
With the cane open, the Hunter’s Pistol stops the target, while the steel whip lashes.
However, the problem is, the ’prey’ it wants to target today... isn’t exactly ’normal’ in itself.
"Swing trajectory locked, steel whip segment spacing measured... final data synthesis complete."
A Demon Hunter, forced to stop by mercury bullets, maintained a calm gaze as the biochemical intellect in his mind aggregated the combat data from the brief contact, allowing the main body to apply it.
Thus, it seemed as if Lann had truly become the target of the fashionable hunter’s combat system, stopping within the zone of maximum steel whip destruction, raising the Lady of the Lake’s Sword in his hand.
Even the hunter who had undergone beasthood revealed a mocking sneer with his distorted lips.
A mere dagger... this simple, primitive weapon, what use could it possibly have in Yan’an?
As the end of the steel whip poised for its greatest destructive force approached the blade Lann used to block, it was even ready to enjoy the scene as blood from the body splattered forth.
Seven consecutive sounds! Each crisp clash of steel exploded with circular sparks!
The ’simple and crude weapon’ precisely encountered every segment of the impacting steel whip! The series of sparks igniting appeared dazzling!
And standing from afar, holding the whip’s handle, the fashionable hunter appeared as if suddenly shoved fiercely. The previously powerful swinging posture was abruptly interrupted, making the whole person seem somewhat unstable!
Lann calmly observed the opponent’s loss of balance, the originally guarded arms around his chest and neck wide open.
On the steel whip, each segment’s spacing was fixed, which means when the whip lashes, the attack frequency is also fixed.
To use an attack in a discerned fixed frequency against someone proficient in [Iwami Style] and [Unmind Style] techniques...
It really was inviting disaster upon itself!
Seven perfect deflections with [Leap Carp], directly collapsing the whole posture through the soft whip of the fashionable hunter!
With sturdy leather boot bottom stepping on the steel whip sagging dead-like, and across a distance of four to five meters, Lann raised his left hand towards the fashionable hunter.
Fingers hooked, mechanically cocked, the fingers of the left hand already formed a Magic Seal.
So, you all have guns, is it?!
Driven by Magic Power to supersonic speeds, the projectile in the explosive sound tore off the fashionable hunter’s head, conveniently opening a hole in his extravagant, stylish tall top hat, sending it flying.
The beasthood malady granted it a sick vitality, causing its body to convulse nervously still, but without a head alongside half a brain, it ultimately couldn’t stand.
Once Lann reached close, he merely stomped fiercely with his boot to shatter the remaining half of its head, then didn’t look at it anymore.
The Demon Hunter retrieved the Hunter’s Pistol from its hand, as well as the threaded cane lying on the ground.
The hunters in Yan’an, possibly driven subconsciously by blood lust, often spilt copious blood during their battles.
Thus, most of the hunters’ weapons were wrapped with strips for anti-slip and moisture resistance.
Over time, these strips would become unruly and dirty, giving the hunters’ weapons an aged and weathered look.
Much like an old general still venturing into battle with bandaged wounds.
This was the first time Lann had obtained Yan’an’s hunting weapon; he quickly got used to handling it, but mastering its use was far from reach. Neither did he intend to adopt this combat style; this acquisition was merely for collection.
Collecting weapons is a hobby for every combatant; Lann was no exception.
"It’s indeed a crafted design."
Lann washed the cane in the Fountain Square basin.
The thick beast blood, despite appearing scant, stained the whole small pool.
Lann packed the freshly cleaned threaded cane into the Alchemy Pouch, followed by the Hunter’s Pistol.
This firearm’s technology was roughly akin to the latter half of the eighteenth century of his home world, yet its power wasn’t inherent in the gun that ignited the gunpowder.
But rather within those special mercury bullets.
Mercury bullets hold a strong local style of Yan’an, mixed with the user’s blood. The quality of the user’s blood is the greatest source of the bullet’s power.
As for how to evaluate this ’quality’... Lann believed it should be closer to the ’Holy Blood’ standard of the Healing Church; the better the quality assumedly became.
"The firearms themselves are purely mechanical structures, without infusion of the strange blood arts here... I can bring this back to Rita."
After observing it carefully for a while, Lann stored the Hunter’s Pistol in the Alchemy Pouch too.
He didn’t intend to equip this gun on himself, because these firearms’ ammunition, though fired, still had initial speeds below the speed of sound, classified as low-speed rounds.
So, to bring this technology back to the Magic World?
That was even less possible.
As a history enthusiast of literate background, Lann knew well.
Before firearms undermined the knight class, bows and crossbows already enabled peasants to kill knights. What truly fulfilled firearms’ historical role was the massively updated industrial system, turning firearms’ production into large-scale manufacturing.
If this new type of weapon were introduced into the Magic World, it would inevitably trigger a military update, subsequently fostering an industrial revolution.
And among the industrial revolution, the greatest benefactors aren’t the origin of the industry but rather places with a more robust industrial base and richer human resources to extensively spread the new technology.
In other words... various countries.
And having walked through Brokilon, Lann truly didn’t wish this technology to fall into the hands of ’uncivilized countries.’
He could already imagine the faces of those convoluted and intertwined royal families once mastering such technology.
Such thoughts genuinely nauseated Lann, hence this firearm was, at most, for Rita’s personal use, forget widespread distribution.