PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

“That’s probably the most disgusting smile I’ve ever seen.” Without realizing when it happened, the words of the man in front of me had brought back some pleasant memories of how much fun I had had with my old toys.

“You seem to know quite a bit, I guess this is the part where you tell me who Ai Zulei is, let me guess, a lover of yours?” Trying to push away that chilling excitement that ran through my body as I remembered the incessant screams of my playmates, I asked my own question trying to understand why this man was here.

But to my surprise it was not anger or something similar that I saw in the man’s expression, no, what I saw was disdain, looking at me as if I were the biggest idiot in the world; The man replied: “Not even a clue when you hear the name? Doesn’t the name of the woman you are currently trying to woo seem strangely familiar to you? ”

As upset as I was, I couldn’t deny that it was my mistake not to notice something so obvious, but leaving my carelessness behind, as soon as that connection was made in my mind, a bad feeling began to form in my heart.

“It seems that you finally understand, look at trying to woo the cousin of one of your first victims, which would not bring you too much trouble if she doesn’t find out about it; But what if she did? I wonder what a vengeful woman could do to you who also happens to be an alchemist and the person who has been treating you for your wounds in recent weeks... just the thought of it gives me chills “Mockery, a naked mockery was what flooded the man’s voice while pointing out a fact that made me realize how bad my situation was.

Everything made sense now, so long trying to woo that woman and out of nowhere she decided to reciprocate my advances while she carried out my treatment, but there was something that did not make sense; if that were the case it would be impossible for me not to realize if she was doing some kind of damage to my body.

“You know, from where I come from it is very common that in stories of heroes and villains, it is always the villain who gives long unnecessary speeches giving the hero the opportunity to make a miraculous return and defeat him; I always found it quite ridiculous. “The man commented, changing the subject again in a whimsical way, making my anger difficult to control.

Completely ignoring my anger, the man continued: “But I guess they just didn’t know how to properly use a monologue, for example, suppose I am the villain in this story. If I were the villain, I would never give an unnecessarily long monologue unless I had a good reason for it, maybe I’m waiting for something to happen, let’s say something like ... wait for the poisonous incense that fills the room to take effect on my enemy, I would use the chat to keep my enemy distracted, maybe even try to provoke him in some way, keep him in a constant state of alert; so that your breathing and rapid heart rate transport the poison faster through his blood system”

.....

“What the hell are you talking about? Cough * Cough * “I tried to respond to this jerk’s clear taunts as I prepared to attack but felt something strange creep down my throat forcing me to cough.

Looking down I could see in disbelief the black stained blood that had just flowed from my throat as I struggled to squeeze out a question: “How?”

The man seemingly anticipating that question answered as he shrugged, “How did you not notice? Well, maybe someone replaced the herbs in your medicinal bath with something a little stronger, never expect you to fall straight asleep, no one is that stupid, but I hoped those sedative herbs were enough to numb your senses preventing you from feeling the poison. ”

This bastard, how long had he been planning this? How did he know so much about me? He replace my incense knowing that I couldn’t tell the difference given my illness and then replace the medicated ingredients I use every day when I get home knowing that I wouldn’t bother to check them; Not to mention that he knew about my secret activities and knew how to provoke me with them.

“Who are you? Cough * “spitting out another mouthful of dark blood, I tried to ask a question that I had in mind while trying to buy time to use my Ki to resist the effects of the poison; only to realize that I was having a hard time controlling my Ki.

Not only that, as soon as I tried to use my Ki, overwhelming pain flooded all my nerve endings, so much pain... that I can barely... maintain consciousness.

“I suppose you feel it now, tyrant bee venom, it has some pretty interesting effects, normally it wouldn’t be enough to deal with someone as strong as you but Ai Zuling took care to keep you as weak as possible.” The man continued to speak calmly as his cold gaze rested on me.

I tried to answer but the pain was so intense, the blood would not stop emanating from my mouth causing me to choke when trying to speak; my situation did not seem very promising.

“An interesting detail is that this poison is known to instantly enter the bloodstream before attacking the nervous system, inhibiting the victim’s ability to manipulate Ki and try to resist its effects. But when I thought about your condition and your ridiculous defensive abilities I chose to add a couple of poisonous ingredients to the mix and turn it into incense, that’s where it gets interesting, I guess you can already feel it ... your already sick lungs melting from the poison, tearing from within, causing blood to flood them, that’s why you can’t breathe; that’s why you can’t stop vomiting blood ”

“Shut up” With the most violent roar I was able to produce, I screamed resisting the burning pain in my chest as I forced the burning Ki within me to mobilize even if it only worsened the damage I was suffering; I had no choice if I wanted to survive.

But the man didn’t seem surprised at all by my ability to use Ki despite the poison, instead, his smile just widened: “It wouldn’t be fun if you didn’t put up some fighting, would it?”

Unable to tolerate his arrogance any longer, I used every drop of Ki within my dying body to lash out at him, hoping to end his life before I lost all ability to defend myself.

One can imagine my surprise to see how this man supposedly weaker than me managed to dodge my blow with a speed not inferior to mine and because I did not expect this, I had no defense ready for his counterattack.

I could only observe how by bending his body to evade my blow a stream of blue energy receded like a tide along with him before it returned with even greater intensity when he used that same blue energy to give me a brutal blow to the side.

But the pain was little, with the armor that I always wear protecting me, a blow like that barely managed to penetrate my defenses to cause a little damage. Taking advantage of my opponent’s awkward posture when attacking me, I tried to condense a Ki blade in my right arm to cut off his head with a backhand strike just to see how he used his other hand to perform a palm strike that hit me in the back of the elbow of the right arm completely breaking the momentum of my attack.

Taking advantage of the small window of opportunity, the man twisted his posture slightly as he used every bit of force available to muster the necessary stability to let his right knee shoot out like a direct cannon to the same spot on my side that he attacked earlier.

The pain was a little more intense than the previous time but it was still not enough to make me back up, the pain was something I was used to, this was nothing, taking advantage of his current position where he had neither a stable center of gravity nor Just enough grip to correct his posture, I used my left hand to deliver a thunderous blow with every drop of Ki I had in hand.

He was not expecting it, I could see it in his eyes, the way his pupils were dilated, he was carried away by his predatory instincts trying to bend me but he failed and now it was his survival instincts that filled his mind with the feeling of imminent death and I smiled; But when I was about to say a few words I heard the man speak again.

“I have you ... that’s what you thought isn’t it” And at that precise moment my vision became blurred as an inhuman pain saturated my thoughts, the only thing I saw afterward was a faint golden glow filling the man’s armor before my blow will hit his chest.

Cough * Cough *

I heard him cough, heard the sound of blood spilling onto the ground, and heard his armor-clad knee hit the ground, but I didn’t see it, I couldn’t see it... I couldn’t see anything... my eyes... my mind... it felt so...

“Thank god that worked and to think that you could still hit that hard, one cannot underestimate someone in the mid-stage two stars, but I guess hitting your kidneys twice to release all the hidden poison in them thanks to the efforts of Ai Zuling took effect ... I wonder if you can still hear me, I wonder if you are still conscious ... I wonder if you feel fear, I hope so ... I hope you feel despair as your senses slowly die, while pain melts your mind ... I hope suffer as much as they suffered ... do you hear me? ... Feng ... Sho ... I guess not ”

The man kept talking and I kept listening, but I could not answer, I could not move, I could do nothing but listen as my mind plunged into darkness ... I am afraid ... I am very afraid ... why? ... why what’s wrong with me? ... Is this how despair feels? ... Did I die?