PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

The lack of mana in the environment didn′t help either, as it prevented his body from taking advantage of the energy provided by the mana to heal more quickly.

Xiauyue noticed her partner’s condition so she helped Desmond by letting him lean on her shoulder as they ran but when she saw Desmond continue to get worse she dragged him into a desolate alley out of sight of the guards rushing to the place where the explosion came from.

At this point, Desmond’s consciousness had started to blur a bit but he still felt the change of scenery and heard Xiauyue speak to him: “Desmond, you are losing too much blood, why don’t you use Ki to close the wound or slow the bleeding?”

If he had been able, Desmond would have responded sarcastically but beyond a bitter smile he didn′t want to waste what little energy he had left, so he pointed with his almost paralyzed right hand in the direction of the small briefcase that hung on the right side of his belt and he said: “Open the briefcase, take two flasks containing a reddish liquid, pour the contents of one into the wound on my shoulder and help me drink the other; will help with my wounds ”

Sincerely concerned about Desmond’s current state, Xiauyue wasted no time and immediately followed Desmond’s instructions even when she had hundreds of doubts about it.

As soon as the contents of one of the potions fell on the wound a small boiling sound came out of it and Desmond felt a rush of pain that was almost immediately numb.

Seeing that the bleeding stopped, Xiauyue became more confident when she poured the second potion into Desmond’s mouth who drank it greedily, quickly the anesthetizing effect of the potion allowed Desmond to feel much better, and very slowly his wounds began to improve.

But knowing that they didn’t have too much time to waste especially if they wanted to return to the sect before dawn to remain unseen, Desmond used his right hand that had just regained some mobility to take a resistance potion from his belt and drink it.

.....

Xiauyue just observed, she knew of the existence of all kinds of potions and pills to treat wounds and so on, but the potions that Desmond used were not only unknown to her but the energy that emanated from them did not seem to be Ki at all.

She hadn’t noticed it before because it was very subtle but when she held them in her hands she had probed them with Ki on purpose to try to determine their nature mainly out of curiosity; she did not expect that she didn′t feel any kind of Ki in the potions but something else.

Another detail that caught Xiauyue’s attention was that while helping Desmond to run, she felt that Desmond weighed very little, one must know that as a martial artist refines his body by strengthening his physique, his body tends to gain weight even when it retains its original appearance and although the increase isn′t drastic it was still very evident to her that Desmond’s weight was too light for a martial artist.

If possible she would love to question Desmond about it but she didn′t feel that it was the time and place, nor was she in a hurry as she only wanted to satisfy her curiosity and all animosity for Desmond had been left behind after he save her life at the cost of being severely injured.

She just wanted to know more, she was very curious about the man next to her, not for a romantic reason or anything like that, he was simply quite mysterious, also if she felt some kind of affection after today this would be more something related to friendship; of course, she would never accept that for a moment she was content like a little girl being praised by her father when he recognized her effort a few moments ago.

She could die of shame if Desmond were to learn that even for a brief moment she saw him as a father figure, for even when her animosity for him was gone she would still fight to the death if Desmond made fun of her about it.

Poor Desmond had no idea of ??the utter chaos that was his mate’s mind as they made their way back to the sect; though one had to wonder if he was truly lucky not to know.

Running at full speed, they both reached the edge of the grove that adjoins the sect wall through which they came out, the moon had already made almost all its way through the starry sky but with still an hour or two to spare, no it would be no problem infiltrating back into the sect.

As expected they did not go through any setbacks as they used the rope left behind by Desmond to scale the wall, upon reaching the top Desmond quickly retrieved the rope and used it to secure their descent from the other side of the wall.

Once down Desmond used all the strength of his left arm to cause a whip effect on the rope causing it to come loose from the top of the wall and fall in his direction.

The noise generated caught the attention of one of the guards who was doing his routine perimeter check but by the time he reached the scene, Desmond and Xiauyue had already vanished into a nearby alley and had moved a considerable distance away so the guard at not finding anything just forgot the matter and continued his patrol.

They both made their way quickly to Mei Fei Long’s house where they had previously agreed to spend the night, upon arrival they immediately saw Mei waiting for them with hot tea ready and a tired and worried expression on her face.

Only Mei knew how frustrated she had been when she was told that she could not participate in the mission because she was not good enough at stealth and because someone needed to stay behind to give the other two an alibi in case of something happened; she had been up all night and god knows how many times she had made a new round of tea hoping to give her two friends a cup of warmth when they returned.

Desmond and Xiauyue could consider themselves lucky that Mei didn’t know how the mission ended, otherwise she would certainly have beaten them both for leaving her behind for not being very stealthy when they blew the whole damn building to pieces.

Not knowing what they had been saved from, Desmond and Xiauyue greeted Mei with heartfelt but exhausted joy as they accepted the cup of tea and slowly drank.

At Mei’s insistence, they both proceeded to give her a rough description of how the mission had gone, though it had mainly been Xiauyue enthusiastically telling Mei the parts that sounded great while Desmond was silent and looked at the girl couple in amusement.

At some point in the conversation, Xiauyue mentioned how Desmond had saved her life after which Mei got up from her seat and walked to face Desmond and leaned towards him while saying: “Thank you for saving Xiauyue, I am sincerely grateful to you; don’t hesitate to ask me for anything... Xiauyue, what are you waiting for? thank Desmond ”

Xiauyue was very embarrassed by Mei’s attitude as it has some quite intimate implications, Mei almost seemed to be thanking someone for saving her wife, but she still got up and thanked Desmond.

Desmond who was not used to this kind of attitude or gratitude quickly responded with some mockery as he waved his hands in denial: “You don’t have to be so serious girls, Xiauyue you definitely owe me, but Mei you don’t owe me anything; I was not going to let them hurt Xiauyue, I would feel bad if you became a widow so young ”

Mei completely blushed at Desmond’s comment and Xiauyue even forgot to fight him over his favoritism when the implied meaning of his words made her blush as much or more than Mei.

Looking at the pair of blushing girls in front of him who kept casting discreet glances at each other, Desmond almost felt the need to push them together and make them kiss the hell out of it; but he think it would be in very bad taste of him to intervene so directly, he should let them live their romance in their way.

Thinking of romance made Desmond end up missing the girls he left at home, not only did he miss the always upbeat and sexually active Claire, but he also missed the conversations about alchemy and the occasional little intimate moments he had with Sasha; Desmond even missed Kyuru and Athena’s pair of spoiled girls.

Lost in longing Desmond didn′t realize that both Mei and Xiauyue had left their brief moment of shyness behind and continued to talk about what had happened during the mission.

By the time Xiauyue finished telling the story to Mei, they both had thoughtful expressions on their faces and with rather cute coordination they turned to Desmond and asked in unison: “Desmond, who are you?”