PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Tiny tendrils of darkness flickered constantly along with the creature’s fur as if it were in a constant state of alert as its aggressive feline eyes glared murderously at the highest-ranking human in the area.

Immediately the creature pounced with terrifying speed on the human in an attempt to destroy him before he managed to react, claws ahead and jaws wide open; the blood of its previous victim still dripped from the creature’s razor-sharp limbs.

But contrary to what the beast expected, its claws failed to reach their target and instead were blocked by the human in front of it.

“Physically strong, but you seem to focus more on speed and stealth.” The man who turned out to be none other than Desmond commented as he parried the creature’s attack with some effort.

The bipedal panther certainly didn’t expect a human to react so quickly to its attack but its reaction wasn’t slow at all as its left leg shot out hitting Desmond square in the chest.

Forced to take two steps back, Desmond raised an eyebrow and looked more seriously at the creature in front of him, it wasn’t just the panther’s unexpected reaction that made Desmond raise his guard, but the beast in front of him was showing some kind of primitive fighting skill or technique; showing how fast the brainpower of humanoid mutant beasts was evolving.

Staring at his opponent Desmond felt a small pull in his shadow pointing at his back and reacting with speed Desmond’s right leg shot out like a spear and struck a second bipedal panther that had just emerged from a shadow near Desmond in the center of the abdomen.

Quickly the first panther tried to attack Desmond from behind when he was distracted by its companion but it was received by an elbow blow to the temple that left the beast stunned.

.....

Not wanting to waste time, Desmond took the beretta out of the holster on his leg and emptied the entire magazine into the first panther’s chest, the bullets turned out to be slightly less effective than expected showing that the panther had a robust physique but after receiving twelve bullets to the chest at point-blank range the beast still collapsed.

Stepping forward as he changed the cartridge in his gun, Desmond stepped on the panther’s body and commented, “I didn’t see this coming.”

Bang*

Putting one last bullet into the panther’s head, Desmond spun ever so slightly and used his left hand to grab the fur of the panther as it tried to pounce on him, and with a full spin Desmond delivered a shoulder throw slamming the creature to the ground with tremendous force.

The beast tried to lift its wounded body but with Desmond’s boot on its chest keeping it on the ground, the panther only managed a low growl before Desmond emptied the beretta cartridge into its face, shattering the creature’s skull on the ground.

Having finished off the second panther Desmond turned around and watched as his squad managed to kill the third panther on their own.

This had happened while Desmond was ambushed by the second panther, a third panther who had tried to rip Morales’s head off. Morales was saved by Claire who used her telekinesis to get him out of the way.

Not wanting to let go of its prey, the panther kept aiming at Morales who almost lost his life a second time only to be saved by an ice blade that came out of Silvia’s hands who responded quickly.

Having lost the element of surprise followed by twice missing its attack, the panther fell into a passive stance as it was heavily suppressed by Claire’s telekinetic abilities and Silvia’s ice abilities.

The bullets quickly began to hit the panther and it quickly began to lose its ability to resist Silvia and Claire’s abilities but it was none other than Morales who killed the beast.

Furious at nearly dying twice, Morales took a second to focus and activate his esper ability, soon a translucent revolver with a rippling colored glow materialized in his hand.

There was a moment where Morales seemed to be concentrating energy into the weapon before a compressed sonic wave shot out of the weapon accompanied by a guitar note that was apparently part of his ability.

Musical effects aside, the shockwave almost completely shattered the panther’s ribcage causing it to fly almost five meters before hitting the ground and never getting up again as blood and pieces of organs came out of its jaws.

“Lethal... and loud as always, good shot Morales,” Desmond commented with a hint of sarcasm.

Morales responded with a bitter smile. It was clear that he already knew that although his ability was quite powerful and was why Desmond selected him as part of his squad, Desmond wasn’t too fond of the ability’s sound effect.

Ignoring the helpless Morales, Desmond glanced around his squad briefly to make sure they were all safe and didn’t forget to commend their efforts: “Lynwood and Trevstone good reactions, without you the idiot Morales would be dead already, the rest good gunfire coverage; I thank the god’s none of you were foolish enough to fight those beasts up close or I’d be picking your corpses off the ground now.”

Already accustomed to the flattery that seems like insults from their lieutenant, the squad did not think too seriously about it except for Morales who looked gratefully at Silvia and Claire who saved his life.

Meanwhile, the squad paid close attention to Desmond’s comment about not fighting the panthers in close combat. They knew how ridiculously strong Desmond was in close combat and saw him easily crush the panthers. But they still understood that if Desmond advised not to fight against them in that way it was because even he found it complicated which was already a great warning for them.

“Desmond, more are coming.” Revna’s whisper came once more putting Desmond on high alert as his keen senses detected at least half a dozen disturbances in the surrounding shadows.

“Shit, all defensive formation, Morales loads that damn revolver, Trevstone and Lynwood ready to defend; the rest weapons ready.” With barely time to give orders, Desmond didn’t bother to hide the full extent of his physical prowess as he activated causing high-frequency mana pulses to flood every one of his muscle fibers amplifying the force of his strength in several folds.

The first panther had barely half of its body out of the shadow when it felt as if a pair of steel pincers grabbed its skull and yanked it out of the shadows before it was thrown like a punching bag hitting a second panther.

Without even looking back, Desmond aimed the beretta behind his back and unloaded another clip on a third panther, severely injuring its legs while using his left arm to block the bite of a fourth panther.

Feeling the fourth panther’s fangs tightening ever tighter, threatening to pierce the Kevlar before breaking his arm, Desmond used all his strength to slam his left arm knocking the panther off the balance before his right leg hit like a sledgehammer the skull of the said panther.

Having its entire skull shattered by Desmond’s kick was enough for the fourth panther to release the grip on its mouth, followed by Desmond’s right hand grabbing onto the panther’s face before hitting the ground with it ending its life.

By this time the first and second panthers had recovered from their little crash incident but were still several feet from Desmond who turned his attention to the third panther who was crawling on the ground with both legs mangled.

With a bloody grin on his face, Desmond took a couple of steps to gain momentum before leaping, the third panther soon feeling its spine snap in two as Desmond used all of his strength and weight to give it a brutal stomp.

Blood gushed from the panther under Desmond’s military boots as the other two panthers glared at him with infinite fury as these ran on all fours towards him.

But to the dismay and further anger of both panthers, Desmond just looked at them as he reloaded his gun, and without even taking his eyes off Desmond emptied his beretta for the fourth time, this time on the back of one of the panthers who were trying to besiege his squadron.

This panther did not die directly from the shots since these did not hit any vital organ nor were fired at point-blank range as in the previous cases, but the panther was still severely wounded, causing it to be unable to react in time before Morales blew its head off with his sonic revolver.

Then fear gleamed in the eyes of the two panthers as they realized that they were simply no match for Desmond who was completely slaughtering them but the idea of ??escape was not even fully conceived in their minds before they saw Desmond reaching for the assault rifle strapped to his back as he discards the beretta.

And with a smile that wasn’t a smile, Desmond exclaimed, “I’ve been trying to get to this for a while now but you guys just haven’t given me a chance, now; Who likes tungsten?