PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Thousands of tiny gems like grains of sand combined to form Desmond’s ultimate defense, . Realizing Valentine’s terrifying attack, Desmond poured four times the usual amount of mana into the shield. He overloaded the ability hoping it would be enough to stop Valentine’s mad rush.

Valentine lashed out with a devastating attack with all the power a person in the two-star class could muster. The lightning fired by Valentine was almost as thick as a car, bringing with it pure destruction. To the surprise of Valentine, who poured a great deal of power into his attack, when his lightning collided with Desmond’s shield, the latter did not collapse.

For the arrogant Valentine, this was the first time someone managed to block one of his attacks after he turned serious. Valentine didn’t think much of Desmond at first, even though he had been informed of his existence when he was tasked with attacking Green Seed. From the list of targets of importance, Valentine only remembered the commander in charge of the city; after all, a gravity user of that level was quite dangerous.

In a way, Valentine had the right to despise others, his strength gave him that right, but he made a mistake in underestimating Desmond. Although Valentine had been playing with Desmond during the first minutes of the chase, as it dragged on, Valentine lost patience and increased the power of his offense. Valentine didn’t expect that Desmond would not only save his life but also successfully fend off one of his most potent attacks.

With Valentine’s twisted and arrogant personality, there was no way he would put up with someone he thought of as an ant standing confidently after surviving his attacks. Highly confident in his abilities, Valentine descended from the sky to meet Desmond face to face; his expression was so self-centered that Desmond wished he could rip his face off.

“Wow, I didn’t expect to meet such an interesting little insect like you. Since you’ve survived so far, I guess I can give you the honor of telling me your name. You should hurry up; I didn’t think you’d be alive in a few seconds.”

Though uninjured, Desmond felt an overwhelming urge to vomit blood upon hearing what Valentine had to say. The difference in power was noticeable, but it was by no means insurmountable; when all was said and done, Valentine was not invincible, which made his words nothing more than ridiculous arrogance.

Desmond couldn’t beat Valentine’s speed, but he had means other than speed. It seemed that Desmond was about to respond to Valentine for a moment. Still, in that precise moment, where Valentine’s attention was focused on his words, Desmond disappeared in that micro lapse of break within Valentine’s conscious guard.

.....

Pushing his physical capabilities beyond the limit, Desmond felt the muscles in his legs tear and his bones creak, but that didn’t stop him. Keeping his existence out of Valentine’s senses, Desmond used his to appear behind the arrogant mercenary.

Valentine might be a jerk, but he was still in the two-star class, and his sensitivity to mana could not be underestimated. At the last second, before Desmond appeared, Valentine felt a faint ripple of mana behind him. Valentine reacted quickly, trying to cover his body with lightning, but the defense was not his specialty, and soon his face felt the impact of Desmond’s fist.

Pouring all the physical strength he had at his disposal, Desmond almost snapped Valentine’s neck. Seeing how Valentine used his speed and lightning to mitigate part of the impact, Desmond sighed with weariness and disappointment. That last attack was all Desmond had; he didn’t even have any mana left to wield any of his most potent abilities, his blue gloves filled with ocean essence and leviathans had long since collapsed.

While it was true that Valentine had managed to survive Desmond’s sneak attack, the mercenary was not at all satisfied with his achievement. It didn’t matter if that was the last Ace up Desmond’s sleeve; it was a complete humiliation for Valentine to have someone punch him in the face.

Desmond watched bitterly as the most gigantic bolts of lightning rained down on Valentine, who, in his fury, had decided to give it all in one attack to annihilate Desmond. Valentine, lost in anger, neglected to defend himself entirely, something Desmond watched with a complicated expression.

If he had more mana in his reserves, Desmond would have one or two means of killing careless Valentine, which included the sword sheathed at his waist. Still, with his current mana reserves being almost non-existent, nothing that Desmond could do would break through the lightning that covered Valentine.

As Valentine charged himself with a steady barrage of lightning, Desmond racked his brains desperately, looking for anything that could turn the tables.

Desmond considered using potions to heal his wounds and restore his mana, but those things would take too long to kick in. The bombs and weapons at his disposal couldn’t get through the lightning covering Valentine, so Desmond also ruled them out. With Valentine’s ridiculous range and the current state of Desmond’s body, escape wasn’t an option either.

As much as Desmond tried to think of a countermeasure, the situation and the odds were stacked against him. Despite everything, Desmond would not sit and wait for his death. His life with Claire, Sasha, Revna, and Cecilia was too comfortable; it brought him too much peace and happiness to let it escape.

Desmond had always despised those who fell into despair; he hated them and saw them as the worst of the scum, a feeling born from that year he spent in the shelter with Claire after the death of their parents. As such, Desmond could do anything but lose himself in fear. Unknown if it was simply stubbornness or true force of will, Desmond used every fiber of his being to find a way to escape his fate.

Then a flash of inspiration, a memory, flashed through Desmond’s mind. A memory about a rather strange object that was given to him by Titania. Titania hadn’t explained much about the odd thing she gave him, but Katya had told Desmond something rather curious about it.

Desmond couldn’t remember the exact words, but the essence was still there: if you ever have problems with lightning or the like, take out that object.

Although Katya and Titania were quite strange in their respective personalities, and their true ones remained to be seen, Desmond was at least confident that neither of them harbored any intention of harming him.

Clenching his teeth and determined to take the risk, Desmond pulled the strange piece of burned wood from the storage of his hunter’s book. The piece of wood was still the same, its state of petrification and burn marks had not changed, but there was one thing that was not there before; a small sign of static charge.

“Filthy piece of trash, how dare you to touch me. I wanted to play with you some more, but I’ve changed my mind. Now, DIE!”

If not for the stress of the situation, Desmond would have wanted to comment on how much Valentine sounded like a second-rate villain; however, with the sight of a world covered by lightning, Desmond was more concerned with other things. As expected, Valentine’s last attack was not only more powerful but also faster than anything he had used so far, and Desmond was forced to admit that even at his peak, he would not have been able to defend against this.

A deadly sensation washed over Desmond’s body thoroughly, and everything around him seemed to pale before the impending tide of lightning. However, Desmond was still as stubborn as ever, and his eyes did not show the slightest fear of death. At the last moment, as Valentine’s face filled with a look of maddened satisfaction, the burned piece of wood in Desmond’s hands reacted.

Desmond might not be an Aura user, but his physical strength was still pretty incredible; Despite this, the burnt piece of wood managed to slip out of his grasp and leap on his own into the path of the incoming attack.

To Desmond’s disbelief, the piece of wood did something utterly absurd and, without warning, simply began devouring all of Valentine’s bolts of lightning.

Despite his battle mentality being as solid as steel, Desmond still had a rather stupid expression on his face, full of shock and disbelief. Valentine’s devastating lightning cannon made no dent in the broken piece of wood; moreover, it didn’t even make a sound or gesture as it was greedily devoured. Valentine’s lightning faded into nothing, like a drop of water becoming one with the ocean.

On the other side of the attack, Valentine felt something vaguely strange, but due to his anger, he overlooked the source of this strangeness until he tried to finish his lightning barrage to see what was Desmond’s corpse. Valentine tried to cut off the flow of mana, but, to his surprise, he couldn’t. Believing it was due to his lack of concentration, Valentine calmed his mind and tried again, only to fail a second time.

Fear of the unknown soon took root in Valentine’s mind, as he felt his energy reserves continue to be rapidly drained. Time and time again, Valentine tried to cut off the mana supply by force, but it was useless; it was as if someone or something had taken control of his mana.

Unknown to both Desmond and Valentine, the crude-looking piece of wood had extended its siphon intent, and following the lightning to its source, it had pierced into Valentine’s mana reserves.

In what can only be described as a bizarre sight, the piece of wood devoured Valentine’s final attack and, unsatisfied, began to drain Valentine himself.

For seconds, Desmond watched as a thread of electrical mana maintained the connection between Valentine and the piece of wood, and, as time passed, Valentine’s appearance worsened. It was like watching a person be drained of life his essence by some supernatural force, and by the time the process was over, all that was left of Valentine was a thin, limp body with his skin clinging to his bones.