PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Desmond pulled out a couple of feathers stuck in his hair, dusted himself off, and looked at his ripped clothes before sighing wearily and bitterly. This was always the result of visiting the overzealous and overly energetic Athena. So Desmond was used to it by now, so much so that he just held out his hand, waiting for Revna to hand him another coat.

Revna also understood Desmond’s difficulties, as she was always his shadow; it’s just that Athena had become a little hyperactive since the beginning of spring.

Whatever the case, Athena had saved Desmond’s life in the final battle over the winter, so she had earned the right to be spoiled. However, this time, Desmond had things to do, so he left Kyuru to entertain the harpy after playing with her a bit.

Thus, Revna and Desmond began to go deeper into the forest. The terrain was uneven as it soon turned into a vast mountain range.

Due to the unevenness of the terrain, it was not long before it was impossible to see any signs of civilization. Not that such a thing will affect either Desmond or Revna, they were both strong enough to survive in this place. While it was true that the mutated beasts had significantly evolved, it wasn’t as if there was a Keneth under every bush.

This was one of the few times Desmond went this far into this area. Looking at the scenery, Desmond subconsciously compared it to Serefia’s forest and found a difference; there were no signs of unique vegetation of any kind.

That made a lot of sense; it hadn’t been long since the earth was irradiated by the meteorite’s energy. Unlike other worlds, which had been nourished by mana, aura, and arcana for millennia, the earth had only been in this state for a few years. Thus, any unique plant was a single mutation rather than a long-standing species.

In fact, Desmond had a theory that such energies had always existed on earth. Perhaps these energies were very scarce on earth, and life forms had no way of taking advantage of them; things changed with the meteorite. Unfortunately, Desmond had no way to prove his theory. However, when Desmond asked Elaisa about it, she said it was possible.

.....

“Master, I feel that something is approaching.”

Revna’s warning snapped Desmond out of his thoughts. However, he didn’t take a fighting stance; this was an excellent chance to see Revna’s progress, and Desmond didn’t want to let it go.

Desmond was the kind of man who would instead attack than being attacked, so his lack of preparation struck Revna as odd. “Master?”

Desmond focused his senses for a brief moment, taking a reading on the beast before it arrived. Desmond more or less understood the beautiful redhead that accompanied him, so he didn’t hesitate to give her a hint and a slight incentive. “From the energy fluctuations, I’d say it’s a strong mutant beast. How about a little demonstration, my dear Revna?”

It was as if a switch had been flipped within Revna, her entire presence filled with an air of madness and silent devotion. If Revna was usually a seductive kitty, Desmond’s last words turned the redhead girl into a bloody panther on steroids.

Some go to heaven unexpectedly, and others enter hell alone; that phrase perfectly describes the poor mutant beast that arrived at the place. The enormous bear, almost three meters tall, had no idea how unlucky he was.

This was the first time Desmond had seen such a bear. In addition to the large size, there seemed to be some vines and flowers growing on the bear’s brown fur. To some extent, the bear didn’t look particularly dangerous compared to other mutated beasts. That was, of course, if one ignored the intense energy fluctuations.

“Be careful, Revna. That thing uses aura; his body is his best weapon.”

Revna just nodded; she had always been a woman of few words. Even after spending so much time at Desmond’s side, she only spoke when he asked, with few exceptions.

GROW*

The bear roared in a fury at the apparent challenge in Revna’s stances and Desmond’s lack of reaction. Although the bear did not seem to have a highly developed intellect, he still had some predatory drive that drove him to incite fear in his prey.

Revna responded by covering her fingertips in shadow before swinging her hands in front of her, launching two inky-black blades. Without waiting to see the effect of her attack, Revna melted into the shadows.

Desmond reacted faster than both parties. When Revna attacked, he had already reached the top of a tree from where he had planned to watch. From there, Desmond could see Revna use her as an opening attack.

The ability was meant to have a weapon as a catalyst, so without it, it was significantly less efficient, but given the rate of fire and range, it was a good opening move. That was especially the case now, as Revna used it to attack the bear’s face, thus blocking the beast’s view and allowing Revna to easily slip into the shadows.

As expected, the bear’s thick fur resisted the shadow blades with barely a scratch, but the beast had lost track of Revna. From there, Desmond already knew ??how the fight would end.

Revna swooped like a panther from the shadows. Her hands were covered in dense traces of shadow, sharp as steel. This was Revna’s , a sneak attack that used dense concentrations of darkness mana as a blade.

Revna was fast, too fast for the poor bear. Before the beast reacted in time, Revna had already slashed twice on one of its hind legs. Out of nowhere, one of the vines on the bear lashed out at Revna with a whiplash.

The vine, full of sharp thorns, almost seemed to decapitate Revna but caught no more than a trail of dark smoke. Desmond didn’t seem surprised; he had seen that ability before.

It was a movement ability that allowed Revna to cast shadows over her body for a brief moment. Covered in hundreds of tendrils of shadow, Revna pulled herself in some direction to move even faster.

As soon as Revna dodged, the shadows surrounding her converged on one of her hands; then, she fired another blade. The shadow blade was much more effective this time, as Revna aimed at the injured area on the bear’s hind leg.

The bear possessed a robust physique and tremendous strength, but its speed became the beast’s downfall. Facing an assassin as brutal as Revna, being unable to keep up with her speed was the same as being dead unless it had an invulnerable defense.

From the moment Revna was able to break through the bear’s defense, the fight was over. While it was confirmed that beasts with aura on them were physically superior to those with mana, these beasts rarely had too varied abilities.

Revna danced around the bear, throwing blades of shadow from a distance, chipping away at the beast’s stamina before lashing out with melee attacks whenever the opportunity arose.

Within minutes, Revna had left the poor bear in a bloody mess. The wounded beast kept putting up a fight, but it was only a matter of time before the beast died.

However, Revna wasn’t happy with her results; she wanted to impress Desmond and felt she hadn’t since it took too long to deal with this stupid bear.

Revna didn’t know that Desmond was so shocked that he was speechless. He knew that Revna was strong and had a lot of natural talent, plus she worked hard; still, he never expected that she would already be so fucking strong.

Strictly speaking, that bear Revna was beating up should be the one winning the fight. After all, that bear was a one-star class intermediate-level beast.

Revna was also in the intermediate level one-star class, one level above the rest of the Garden girls. However, Desmond knew that beasts tended to be innately stronger than humans. On top of that, that bear was an aura beast, its physical prowess insane.

The only thing more absurd than that bear getting beat up by Revna is that she wasn’t pleased about it.

“Why don’t you die once and for all?” Revna yelled angrily at the bear. It was the first time she had spoken since the fight started.

The bear obviously didn’t understand Revna’s cry but tried to roar in response. Before the tired and injured bear could roar, its body was covered in more than a dozen shadowy tentacles.

Seeing that Revna had used her and was gathering mana on the tip of her right hand, Desmond got an idea of ??what was coming next.

“So she’s going to use . I wonder if she’s interested in Nordic mythology or just copying my style for naming things.”

It took only an instant for the bear to shake off the shadows that bound him, an instant, and yet it was too late. As soon as the bear broke free, Revna’s right ring finger had already penetrated the center of her forehead. The darkness mana spread out from her finger, forming dozens of tendrils of shadow that ripped through everything in their path.

was Revna’s ultimate killing move; it made sense that it would be this brutal and lethal. To be fair, Revna’s entire fighting style was cruel and deadly, but mostly it was highly sneaky.

Only now did Desmond understand why she was the only one in Garden who didn’t adopt a code name based on a flower. Revna was very similar to her Master when she fought, although she was not exactly like him. Therefore, it made perfect sense for her to give herself the code name: Wolf Schatten, the wolf’s shadow.