PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Two assailants, armed, Yulei did not recognize the exact model of the pistols they were carrying but still managed to deduce that they were caliber 22. The guns showed clear signs of deterioration, and from how the assailants held their weapons, it was probable that they did have no training.

Both assailants didn’t hear her due to the noise generated by the gunshots, but as soon as Yulei finished analyzing the situation, she heaved a sigh of relief and muttered something to herself. “The 22 caliber won’t do it.”

Lowering her center of gravity with both arms covering her facial area in a boxing stance, Yulei minimized the visible area of ??her body to reduce the chance of being hit by a bullet before moving forward at full speed.

Due to her change in posture, the vast majority of the bullets passed well above her head, with only three shots finding their way to Yulei’s body, only to be deflected by the Kevlar armor she wore.

Although Yulei’s suit seemed inconspicuous and more suited to stealth than combat, the bulletproof capability of the Kevlar materials used in it was more than enough to block shots from a .22-caliber handgun.

Yulei’s face under her mask winced slightly as the bullets hit her, but her body, reinforced by aura, managed to withstand the impact firmly enough to allow her to continue advancing.

Due to the nervousness and suddenness, both traffickers continued to shoot blindly until the magazines in their guns were empty. Still, when their eyes readjusted, they did not see a corpse full of bullets as they had expected.

Arriving in front of one of the two dealers, Yulei lashed out with a flurry of close-range strikes that disabled her opponent in mere seconds. Keeping a calm mind, Yulei confronted the last dealer, who produced a second pistol from the back of its jacket.

.....

Due to the close range, no matter how blindly the man fired, more than six bullets hit Yulei’s torso, causing the girl significant pain. Still, between the kevlar and aura protecting her body, it was likely that Yulei just suffered from a couple of bruises later.

Clenching her teeth to keep from letting out a groan of pain, Yulei covered the distance, her right hand reaching just in time in front of her face to block the last shot at point-blank range, catching the bullet in her hand with the help of her aura gauntlet.

Yulei showed great willpower by not succumbing to the pain, and without any pause in her movements, her left fist slammed into the dealer’s hand at an upward angle, ripping the weapon from its grip.

Giving a long exhalation, Yulei picked up the pace; she shook her right hand, launching the bullet in it, her fists cracking with tension, and soon a flurry of punches rained down on the last dealer.

Scattered illusory images accompanied each of the blows, one of the main characteristics of Yulei’s ability. Still, it hardly mattered against the dealer, who could not mount any kind of defense.

Now surrounded by two unconscious smugglers and one dead, Yulei wearily stomped out of place. Yulei followed Sara’s proposed plan, pulling out a disposable cell phone and making a call as she left the warehouse behind her.

“Officer Trevstone? I got your phone number from an acquaintance. She said you were trustworthy.”

“Who speaks?”

“I would like to report a violent incident.”

Yulei ignored Silvia’s constant questions on the phone and just reported the warehouse’s address. She didn’t bother to listen to the other party’s answer before hanging up the phone and disposing it in a random dumpster.

Yulei soon reached a pre-arranged rest point in another abandoned building, where she removed her combat suit, hood, gloves, and mask, before changing into a more standard set of clothing.

Yulei took out a different cell phone than before and made a call as she made her way out of the slums.

“Mission complete.”

The one who answered on the other end of the call was none other than Sara, who acted as Yulei’s intelligence operator.

“Perfect. Any setbacks?”

“Just a few bruises, nothing a good meal won’t take away.”

“I see. I will now connect to the tracking device. What about the army?”

“I contacted Silvia Trevstone as you suggested. The information was correct; she is a stubborn girl but too curious for her own good.”

“Not surprisingly, it seems that she had some small incidents in the past related to that curiosity of hers but nothing too serious. That girl can consider herself lucky to be on good terms with the master, it may be true that we used her, but she will benefit a lot from this.”

“Do you need me to go back home or continue tracking the target?”

“You took less time than expected. I think you still have time to continue with your daily routine and maintain an alibi. Don’t worry; I’ll take care of keeping an eye on the target myself.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am; after all, I will only watch from a distance. I don’t plan to get involved in any combat situation.”

“Be careful.”

“I will do it. For now, good job Jasmine.”

Soon the pretty and always calm Yulei was seen going about her usual routine, delivering food to the repair work areas near the north wall, and although the food was a bit colder than normal, no one paid much attention.

On the other hand, Silvia had a headache, she didn’t know where that call had come from, but she was sure that the other party was lying to some extent. Unfortunately, Silvia couldn’t just ignore the call’s content, so she gathered some of her squad members who were still present in the barracks and headed to the location mentioned in the call.

In command of four members of the squad, Silvia arrived at the scene five minutes later, finding the three traffickers on the ground and the twenty kilos of drugs in the trunk of the car.

“Silvia, it seems that we won the lottery; these subjects are in the database as wanted persons.”

“I think the same. There are almost twenty kilos of drugs here; this will give us a lot of military credits.”

Silvia stood in the middle of the room, carefully observing the scene before her, while the other squad members processed the scene, making occasional comments.

Silvia was not happy, not even a little, it was evident that someone had served them this on a silver platter, but the other party’s intentions remained unknown to Silvia, which bothered her a lot.

The carefree attitude of her comrades only served to irritate Silvia further, who started giving orders to prevent the people around her from being lazy.

“Collins, go treat the wounded; we want prisoners, not corpses. Morales removes that idiotic face and begins to catalog the evidence. The rest, set up a security perimeter around the crime scene; I want this place scanned from top to bottom when forensics arrive.”

A scent of medicinal herbs soon spread through the warehouse with Melissa as the epicenter, her hands encased in a sphere of what looked like a viscous liquid. She used the small amount of medical experience she had gained in the last few weeks and her ability to heal the injuries of the two live dealers.

Silvia did not wait a moment, and as soon as she saw the traffickers awake, she ran in their direction, hoping to interrogate them to find out what had happened. One can imagine Silvia’s surprise and exasperation when she heard both traffickers say they did not remember anything.

Silvia could never have predicted or known that one of the secondary effects of Yulei’s ability was related to memory and illusions. Although Yulei’s skill didn’t give her overwhelming combat power compared to other Aura users, her ability made her very difficult to deal with since she tended to play with her opponent’s mind a lot.

In turn, Yulei’s ability made it virtually impossible for people defeated by her to retaliate even if left alive, as once overwhelmed by Yulei, her blows would begin to more severely affect the mind and body of her opponents. In this way, people defeated by her will not only not remember precisely how they were defeated, but in more extreme cases, they might not even remember that the match happened in the first place.

In this way, Yulei’s combat style focuses not on strength but on speed and the unpredictability of her movements due to the illusory effects generated by her Aura gloves; hence Desmond teaches her an unorthodox technique of boxing that matches her ability.

But none of that was relevant or even known to Silvia, who had to wait until the forensic team arrived and then wait for a couple more hours, all only to leave empty-handed as the forensic team failed to find a single significant piece of evidence.