PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

The impact sound reverberated strongly, causing the trees to tremble. Desmond and Cecilia, who was in his arms, could see how the leaves fell from the tops of the trees.

As for why Desmond was carrying Cecilia in his arms? Well, that was because Cecilia didn’t have the physical prowess to climb to the top of the trees fast enough to escape the disaster that was taking place below.

Battles were quite common in this forest. The magical beasts constantly fought for survival, killing each other to consume the loser or obtain some precious resource. This was common, but the trio did not expect a battle of this caliber to find its way to them.

The six-limbed reptilian beast fought desperately against what Desmond could only describe as a gorilla lion on steroids. The lizard was quite menacing in appearance, with scales and sharp horns that were golden in color with black streaks. While the gorilla had a body full of bulging muscles covered in wood-colored fur.

Both beasts were gigantic, easily covering the space of a two-story house. On the other hand, their strength was the most worrying thing; both beasts were in the middle stage of the two-star class.

<Adamant Scale Drakis. Two-star class, medium level.

Elemental Affinity: Metal.

Materials: Its meat and bones are considered useless due to the refining difficulty and the quality of the final product. Its scales are precious, possess incredibly high metallic mana conductivity, and high affinity for channeling defensive abilities.>

.....

<Forest rampaging gorilla. Two-star class, medium level.

Elemental Affinity: Wood.

Materials: So far, no use has been found for his body other than to be made into an exceptional fertilizer to grow low-level magical herbs.>

As always, the hunter’s book only provided limited information, mainly focused on the potential gains from hunting said beasts. Desmond already expected something like this, so he had no complaints. Seeing the beast fight was enough to tell Desmond what the book didn’t mention.

The gigantic six-limbed lizard was a bit slow, but its attacks were merciless. The lizard only used its claws to fight and did not involve its jaws, so one could assume that the latter was not too lethal. On the other hand, its claws were absurdly sharp; when they hit the ground, they left clean cuts instead of destroying the earth directly like the ape’s attacks did.

The ape was quite simple; it struck incessantly with savagery. The ape’s fists were massive, and the shockwaves they left in their wake spoke volumes about their destructive power.

“Can you put me down?”

As Desmond surveyed the battle almost forty meters below him, Cecilia had grown uncomfortable being in her embrace. So in a voice fainter than the wing of a mosquito, she asked to be lowered.

Desmond lowered the awkward Cecilia to find enough room on the branch he was standing on. For her part, Kyuru remained perched on Desmond’s left shoulder, kicking her pretty feet energetically as she watched the fight below with amusement.

Seeing that Desmond was still focused on the beasts fighting below. Cecilia asked. “What are we going to do?”

That was a bit of a difficult question to answer. Under other circumstances, Desmond’s response would have been simple enough. Still, given his injuries, it wasn’t that easy to come to a conclusion.

Desmond was a cold thinker in these cases; he knew that fighting wasn’t the only option. In a way, fighting was actually the worst option in this case. Perhaps if Desmond hadn’t used the hunter’s book to read the information about the beasts, his response would have been that they should run away.

Now that Desmond had seen the description of the adamantine Drakis, the temptation was too great. In his battle in the plaza, Desmond had not only suffered due to the disparity in strength. He had also fallen victim to the power of a well-equipped adversary.

Now that a beast like the adamantine Drakis had shown up, Desmond couldn’t help but imagine what kind of defensive artifact he could pull out of it. Of course, the condition was to be able to kill said beast.

Thinking so far, Desmond’s smile grew a bit treacherous. Killing the adamantine Drakis was undoubtedly the most straightforward option, but stealing its corpse from the victor was another way of going about it.

With a rudimentary plan in mind, Desmond answered Cecilia. “We will wait to see what happens. If the lizard wins, then we go without a fight. With that thing’s defense, nothing in my arsenal can kill it. On the other hand, if the gorilla wins, depending on how hurt he is, I’ll try to kill him.”

Cecilia was unaware of Desmond’s entire thought process, so she didn’t understand his decision. However, Cecilia did not ask any questions or comments and only nodded. She didn’t understand Desmond’s motives, but she didn’t need to; Cecilia trusted Desmond, so there was no reason to question him.

Trusting another person like that, directly putting your destiny and safety in his hands without even questioning his actions, was something that not many could do. Still, Cecilia found it quite natural to trust Desmond. Since Desmond had come out alive from a war against the church and taken her from the royal knights’ hands, there was no reason to doubt him.

That was how the trio spent almost half an hour watching the brutal battle between the two beasts. Whether it was luck or fate, despite the chaos and destruction caused during the match, both beasts fought relatively far from the tree where the trio was. So they didn’t have to worry about their tree being felled.

At first, it was the Adamantine Drakis who took the lead. With its impenetrable defense and sharp claws, the giant lizard put its opponent in check. But this ended up changing over time. The Drakis could not lethally strike the giant ape, and over time, the Drakis’s stamina was unable to keep up.

Now that he was facing an exhausted opponent, the ape exploded with his whole force, going into a berserk state where he relentlessly rained his fists down on the Drakis.

In the end, the Drakis died from internal damage even with its scales intact. This gave way to a somewhat strange scene where a seemingly unharmed beast lay dead on the ground while another beast covered in blood and wounds stood victorious.

This was only possible in a world filled with strange beasts and mana. The forest-ravaging gorilla used its wood-type mana to keep its stamina at max and contain its injuries. While the Drakis used its metallic mana to make its attacks more lethal and strengthen its scales.

Unfortunately for the Adamantine Drakis, no matter how strong its defense was, these couldn’t nullify all incoming damage. The gorilla only had to endure until its opponent’s stamina was exhausted, and that was when things were decided.

Now that the battle was over, the ape stopped channeling his now nearly non-existent mana. Not before letting out a mighty roar of victory at the full force as it pounded on its chest endlessly.

The echo of its enraged and victorious roars was enough to shake the trees and their leaves tens of meters away. You could even see some birds escaping from their nests in the distance. The general fear and oppression caused by its roar brought great satisfaction to the exhausted ape.

Little did the proud beast know that a hunter was lurking in the shadows. A hunter who understood two principles very well. The first is that the moment of victory is when one’s guard gets lower, and the second is that it is always best to hide a dagger amongst the chaos.

The moment the gorilla emerged victorious was the moment Desmond nocked an arrow on his bowstring. The gorilla’s roar signaled Desmond to pour an endless torrent of mana into the arrow. Seeking certain death, Desmond also activated the bow’s innate ability, generating an incredibly deadly arrow filled with metallic essence.

Usually, due to the roar that comes out of the bow every time Desmond uses this ability, it shouldn’t be possible to use it in an ambush. Still, compared to the gorilla’s roar, the noise made by the bow was no different than the sound of a feather falling into the air.

Opening his firing stance, Desmond’s face contorted slightly as pain signals flooded through him. Desmond barely managed to control his breathing due to his injured lung. Then Desmond poured as much wind mana as he could into a spiral into the arrow as he released the bowstring.

Kyuru saw all of Desmond’s efforts and difficulties. Feeling annoyed at her helplessness, Kyuru coquettishly blew, further strengthening and condensing the wind mana as the arrow left the bowstring.

The gorilla was still in mid-roar of victory when a bolt of green light hit him in the back of the neck. A gigantic hole was opened in the gorilla’s neck with a shock wave and a surge of wind blades. The massive beast could not understand what had happened, but its instincts led it to try to hold its neck to prevent it from bleeding to death. A useless instinct common enough in all sorts of creatures, Desmond had seen it many times after slitting someone’s throat.

It took almost a minute for the gorilla to die, after which the trio climbed down from their tree. What followed was the tedious work of collecting. Fortunately, the chaos caused by both beasts drove away all living creatures nearby, so the trio could have a quiet moment for a few minutes. Surprisingly, Cecilia decided to help with the bloody work despite her frail appearance.

In the end, after getting through a headache while trying to rip the scales off the Adamantine Drakis, the trio had to leave in a hurry when the smell of blood began attracting other ancient beasts. Desmond was somewhat disappointed that he had only been able to collect a couple dozen scales from the Drakis and a dozen liters of gorilla blood. Still, he decided not to be greedy and be content with what he had.

So, as another fierce battle of epic proportions began behind them, the trio continued on their way to Kyuru’s home. According to the adorable fairy, they were only a couple more hours away, so unless something else happened, they should be able to be there soon.