PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Her body, as tall and imposing as the tower of babel, exuded a sense of invincibility. A calm expression that conveyed to everyone a feeling of unwavering stoicism.

Desmond narrowed his eyes at the posture of the woman known as Camila Stonesoul. To many, it might seem like Camila was washing her hands, and she was just watching the show while Desmond was slaughtered.

But the reality was that without her intervention, things would be much easier for Desmond. Xavier was dangerous; Desmond had no doubts about that, but the man was still far from as tricky as Camila. Also, although it might seem that Camila had captured Cecilia by standing next to her like a sentinel, Camila didn’t make any further moves against Cecilia.

From the surface, it seemed as if Camila had completed her mission, and now she would be watching Desmond being subdued. But, from Desmond’s point of view, Camila was helping to protect and guard Cecilia while keeping her out of the way.

From the woman’s attitude thus far, Desmond had a strong feeling that Camila might not necessarily be helping. Still, she didn’t seem to be genuinely hell-bent on catching him and Cecilia.

Sure, even with minimal effort, Camila had come close to killing Desmond on several occasions, but that was a different matter. After all, if she’d even gone the extra mile, Desmond would be dead; her lack of enthusiasm in completing her task spoke volumes about her attitude.

Xavier took Camila’s stance as explicit permission and immediately took action. The light around him seemed to almost crystallize as he gathered in his arms before firing two beams of light in Desmond’s direction.

No matter how fast it was out, such a direct attack wasn’t going to hit Desmond that easily. He barely saw Xavier extend his arms in his direction; Desmond used to get out of the way.

.....

As expected, although Desmond dodged the beams of light, William was already clinging to his back. Sensing William’s presence behind him, Desmond knew there was no way to avoid what was coming; William’s speed exceeded him by too significant a margin.

Desmond tried to turn and use his sword to parry William’s attack, but his opponent’s momentum was too heavy. Desmond’s back was practically buried in the stone floor, the breath nearly leaving his lungs, but he clung to his sword with an iron grip.

William continued to press Desmond to the ground, slowly causing Desmond’s defense to give way to the pressure. Still, he was forced to make an emergency retreat when Xavier fired two beams of light in his direction.

William wanted to curse Xavier for being a jerk. Even when the attacks were directed not at him but at Desmond, he would still be caught by the collateral damage. William couldn’t afford such luxury, given the power in those beams of light.

Desmond tensed every muscle in his back and hips to propel himself off the ground. Standing on his hands in an instant before leaping out of the path of the beams of light. That maneuverability was to be envied and hated simultaneously. Camila watched the entire scene as if she was analyzing every little event.

In a battle of this caliber, jumping without sufficient aerial maneuverability was no different from suicide. Xavier understood this point well and fired a barrage of less powerful bolts of light in Desmond’s direction to overwhelm his defenses and hurt him.

As if he knew something the others didn’t, Desmond just reached out to his side and, from the hunter’s book, took out his bow already with an arrow attached to the string. As Desmond pulled the bowstring with absolute concentration, the beams of light fired by Xavier were effortlessly repelled by a shield of light in the shape of a four-pointed star.

Like raindrops crashing against a window, the light beams could only trickle along the shield’s surface before drifting off to the horizon.

Despite the shield and the beams of light, Desmond focused his gaze on Frederick. The latter was preparing another full-scale attack like the fire basilisk earlier. A primordial roar reverberated throughout the plaza as a set of golden antlers crystallized on the bow’s prow.

Desmond directly activated the bow’s hidden ability in his hands, letting streams of metallic mana flow from his hands to the arrow’s tip. William was already approaching at top speed, but Desmond continued to ignore him. As soon as Desmond’s fingers released the bowstring, all the tension poured into the arrow, which shot out in a blur that instantly hit Frederick.

Frederick had to swallow his pride and pour all the mana gathered so far into a defensive measure. Desmond’s arrow crashed into a wall of fire erected in front of Frederick.

A hidden nuance of wood-type mana within the arrow caused a chain reaction upon touching the fiery wall, creating an intense explosion.

Because the explosion originated from within the wall of fire, there was a brief implosion before the destruction wave spread. Frederick was hit by the shock wave. Although the tongues of fire caressed his skin, the red-haired knight suffered more as he crashed into a stone building a couple of meters away.

As the explosion occurred, William had already caught up with Desmond in the air. Learning from his mistakes, William didn’t go for a physical attack; Desmond had already shown his ridiculous responsiveness and superior reflexes. It was the first time Desmond experienced what it felt like to be hit by a tornado.

With a spherical wind vortex in his hands, William unleashed the full power of storms on Desmond, unleashing a wind mana cannon at Desmond at point-blank range.

Even when offensive power wasn’t the wind element’s most significant advantage. That amount of damage was much more than Desmond’s armor could protect him from receiving that amount of mana compressed to such a degree at point-blank range.

The armor’s magic circuits were already beginning to show signs of overheating, and the armor’s physical components showed a large amount of accumulated damage.

Despite the tornado shooting at him from behind, Desmond could only try to resist with all the metallic mana he could muster. He was shot like a cannonball into a three-story commercial building.

Cecilia had wanted to interfere, but Camila extended her gray mana-covered right hand towards her. In her trance state, Cecilia’s star shield automatically protected her from what seemed like an act of hostility.

Camila felt the resistance of the shield of golden light. But even as the sparks generated by the clash between different types of mana grew more intense, she watched with interest as if testing a theory.

It was unknown how much Camila knew until now. Still, she had to be credited for noticing that Cecilia didn’t seem to be using her senses to perceive her surroundings at the moment.

Through some sort of connection with Desmond, Cecilia had been able to coordinate her star shield to protect him. However, this was not entirely intentional but rather a compulsion or reflex that Priestess had in her trance state. The same applied when self-preservation reflexes forced Cecilia to defend herself against Camila, leaving Desmond unprotected.

Back at the battle, William in the sky was not happy with the results of his attack. He could feel that Desmond’s defenses were unexpectedly solid. William could have sworn he saw something strange shine in the eyes of the raven-haired young man he was facing.

Frederick spat out some blood, got up from the ground, put his sword away, and touched a switch on his armor, causing the mana circuits within the armor to glow orange.

William saw Frederick’s actions and understood his intentions. He didn’t entirely agree that this was the best course of action. However, he did acknowledge that overwhelming Desmond with brute force and numbers might be the best solution.

Xavier was unaware of the actions and intentions of both men, not that he would have cared in any case. Impatient and eager to see Desmond dead without a burial, Xavier sped toward the half-collapsed building where Desmond was standing.

The entire third floor collapsed from the impact, and only the first and second floors remained standing, although quite damaged. Given the cloud of dust billowing from the busted windows, it was safe to assume that Desmond had fallen to the lowest level of the building.

Neither William nor Frederick dared to enter the building. Both were sure that Desmond was not dead, so they distrusted him for staying a couple of extra seconds inside the building.

Both knights were cautious, not without reason. Inside the building, Desmond took advantage of those brief seconds to breathe. Also, Desmond had dropped some things on the rubble-strewn floor.

Covered in an adamantine light, Xavier was like a moving beacon, and Desmond would have to be blind not to see it coming. With a bloodthirsty smile overflowing with killing intent, hidden by the cloud of dust, Desmond couldn’t help but think that some people aren’t afraid of a snake even after being bitten.