PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

The man in his fifties only gave a light salute in response and began giving some details to the dueling participants who would be Desmond and his opponent whose name Desmond didn’t even bother to learn.

Without much pause, Desmond and his opponent climbed into the arena and took up their respective positions, waiting for the person in charge to give the order to begin.

“Ready to die?” Desmond’s adversary exclaimed seemingly out of nowhere.

Too lazy to reply Desmond didn’t even show a change in his expression at such a childish threat, are you kidding me? Desmond refused to participate in this kind of exchange of insults, from his point of view, what was the use of insulting someone like that? Would that kill your enemy? the answer was no, so Desmond would rather spend his time figuring out how to break or tear the vital points of his enemy.

But who would know that the person in front of Desmond would misinterpret his silence and continue his absurd threats?

“That happens when you are close to the wrong people, now important people are upset with garbage like you, I just hope you don’t take it personally; They asked me to kill you as slowly as possible ”

Hearing such nonsense Desmond had the sudden desire to rip out the tongue of the person in front of him and force him to swallow it but still under the influence of what Kyuru had done to him; Desmond wouldn’t lose his temper so easily.

Not to mention that even if Desmond had the ability to beat his opponent, he couldn’t just jump straight forward, that would not serve his plans, for his plans to be successful Desmond had to put together a good act one that will raise expectations. from his enemies before wiping out any hope of success; That alone would successfully provoke his hidden enemies.

.....

So it was time to put the best actor skills on stage, Desmond put on a fearful expression that he quickly covered with a mask of bravery giving the impression to his adversary that he was nothing more than a weakling trying not to die a coward.

Seeing Desmond’s act, Mei couldn’t help but have a strange expression on her face without understanding what the hell her friend was up to while Miao Xiauyue from her side rolled her eyes and muttered to herself: “such a sadic man ”

Of course, Xiauyue referred to Desmond as sadistic because she found it cruel to give false hope to an adversary when you had already planned his death and even how you would exploit his death for your benefit; furthermore she as sharp as she was she had also noticed the very subtle and well-hidden cynical smile hidden in Desmond’s current expression.

To be honest, Xiauyue didn’t like Desmond, or rather she didn’t feel comfortable around him, for no other reason than the fact that she found him dangerous. The way Desmond lies and subtly manipulates the people around him was something she found disturbing, but what bothered her the most was how good Desmond was at it.

The fact that Desmond managed to infiltrate the sect based on lies and even obtained the friendship of a person as shrewd as Mei made Desmond a threat that few people would tolerate if they knew of his existence.

The only reason Xiauyue tolerated Desmond’s existence, was because she needed allies, people who would fly off the radar of her enemies, with no backgrounds or relatives that could be used against him and Desmond met those requirements.

No, Desmond exceeded those requirements, as smart as he was, she had noticed that Desmond was much more skilled than he showed, and not only in terms of combat strength, only his ability to manipulate others made him a great asset; besides she also knew that Desmond had a calculating and insidious mind ... Having such a person as an enemy was a complete nightmare but as an ally, one could not ask for anything better.

And from her conversations with Desmond, she had learned that he truly valued his friendship with Mei beyond the benefit he had derived from it, which was evident when Desmond approached her to discuss their plans for today.

Plans that started with the sound of a bell! CLING!

As soon as the bell sounded, Desmond watched as his adversary lunged at him, unleashing a powerful martial skill.

“Tiger’s paw” Desmond’s adversary shouted with enthusiasm as the Ki condensed in his fist vaguely forming the translucent outline of a tiger’s claw, just by the degree of materialization of Ki that this person reached one could say that it was not weak at all but not a heaven-defying genius either; At best he was an average inner disciple but that didn’t make him any less lethal.

But would Desmond stare like an idiot as someone tried to assassinate him with a flashy, ridiculous move? The answer was a resounding no, if not even the dark-edged creeper tiger, a real physical entity full of overwhelming power, could kill Desmond; How could this idiot do it?

Mimicking Mei’s defensive posture, Desmond covered his left hand with a thin layer of mana, and with a simple blow with the back of his hand he deflected the striking movement of his opponent, with philosophy and movement very similar to the teachings of Tai chi, Desmond mounted a defense that used softness to fight toughness; and without even being aware of it the person in front of Desmond had already lost control over the flow of his movements.

Of course, Desmond did not leave it there, true to his role he pretended to have had a lot of trouble defending himself against such an attack even going back a couple of steps in the process.

Unlike Mei who didn’t understand Desmond′s behavior and Xiauyue who cursed him for his theatricality, Desmond’s opponent had a little problem understanding how the piece of trash in front of him managed to stay alive; but watching Desmond take several steps back from his blow, he concluded that it was probably a stroke of luck or something.

Not convinced of Desmond’s ability, his opponent had the nerve to execute exactly the same movement expecting a different result, with a shout that he thought sounded heroic, he pronounced the name of his technique proudly and took a great leap while striking with his tiger claw forward.

Such a showy move combined with the arrogant smile of victory on his face, caused Desmond to almost have a nervous breakdown from having to resist his homicidal impulses directed at the idiot in front of him.

Desmond even had trouble trying to pretend that he was blocking such movement with difficulty as it take him a couple of fractions of a second for him to finish processing his opponent’s stupidity.

Unfortunately, Desmond had to keep up the act for a few more moments, so he used the defensive stance he learned from Mei which she called flow interruption to keep up his lucky survival act as long as possible.

Meanwhile, Xiauyue was playing her role, she was watching, of course, it was not the fight that she was watching, on the contrary, what she was watching was the public looking for certain people that she hoped were in this place.

Soon the first minutes of the fight passed and people began to get impatient hoping that the bloodshed will start soon, among those people were Xiauyue’s targets.

Seeing that the actors from the next act had arrived on the scene, Xiauyue turned to the stage and gave a subtle signal to Desmond who had been on the lookout all this time.

Knowing that his time had come, Desmond immediately strengthened the mana vibrations occurring within his body, pushing Full-Drive to the limit.

In the next instant, as a wave Desmond snapped back from his receding defensive stance and lunged forward, using his own slightly more aggressive and forceful version of the flow interruption of Mei Fei Long, Desmond broke his opponent’s defensive stance in three moves.

And then... Then it was too late for anyone to have a chance to intervene, Desmond first struck with a powerful short straight punch to the chest before twisting his torso and performing an elbow strike to the temple.

The faint sound of bone fracturing was followed by an upward elbow strike to the chin, Desmond’s opponent’s brain rattled so hard twice in a row that he was now nothing more than a helpless practice dummy.

After feeling the last successful impact Desmond slightly retracted his left elbow to the center of his chest before performing a powerful shoulder blow to the center of the chest of the man in front of him, due to the force and angle implemented in such blow the feet of his victim lifted slightly from the ground before he took almost five steps back.

Five steps didn’t seem like much but it was enough for Desmond to build momentum by covering that distance and deliver a crushing strike to his opponent’s already injured sternum followed by a spinning kick just to the side of the kneecap.

Dizzy, out of breath, and incapacitated, the man slumped to his knees, helpless at Desmond’s mercy.

Everything had happened too fast, so much so that the spectators had no idea how to react and the only ones who tried to do so did not have time.

The sound of a couple of people yelling “Stop” echoed through the arena but Desmond ignored them, now facing his kneeling opponent Desmond would finish the job.