PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Silvia was more or less used to Desmond’s violent means; however, on this occasion, Silvia required all her willpower not to vomit. Pale and disgusted, Silvia turned to her friend Claire for help. To Silvia’s surprise, Claire seemed quite indifferent to the display of violence and gore, something quite strange considering how Claire had reacted after the massacre she carried out.

Unbeknownst to Silvia, Claire was, in a way, just as crazy as Revna. Claire might feel guilt, remorse, and disgust for her actions, but when it came to Desmond, her moral compass took a hundred and eighty-degree turn.

Sensing mana exhaustion and overdraft, Desmond withdrew the eight water snakes that were now quite red after absorbing the blood of all the people who had just died.

The homicidal maniac without conscience or mercy vanished in a breath, and only concern and affection remained in Desmond. He again took Claire and Silvia in his arms and headed back to the city.

The walk back was somewhat awkward for Silvia, as she had to be carried by Desmond as she watched him and Claire lightly flirt. Luckily for Silvia, Desmond was still considerably fast, so his torture was brief.

Due to the state of things, Desmond and his squad went to give their report to the command center, only leaving Morales behind, who went to the infirmary. It should be mentioned that as Morales was being carried out to the medical bay, Desmond said some pretty significant things to him. “Go and try to recover. I’m sure two cute nurses will be very interested in taking care of you.”

Morales blushed quite a bit but kept silent; his relationship with Melissa and another of the nurses was already a reasonably well-known topic in the squad, and it was part of the reason that Silvia now despised Morales a little. As for the other nurse? Desmond knew she was Paulina, but knowing there was no point in bringing up things from the past, he never said or did anything about it.

Back at the command center, the place was in chaos. It must be remembered that only six years had passed since the day of awakening. Back then, military losses were as high as civilian ones, and most people in the room did not have the experience or maturity to handle a full-fledged war.

.....

Fortunately, if such a thing can be considered good luck, this was not a full-fledged war; it was currently just a first contact between two military forces. The bad news was that the lack of experienced officers and well-trained soldiers was a problem that was not easy to solve, even with the harsh recruitment, training, and education policies.

Being in the command center was almost deafening; communications and intelligence officers were running and screaming everywhere while the few officers with command experience were trying to get things organized.

Desmond’s squad gave advance notice of his withdrawal due to the losses they had suffered, so their appearance at the barracks drew attention as his squad was the one that had engaged the most in combat with the enemy forces.

As the highest-ranking officers in the squad, Desmond and Silvia left the rest behind and approached the central area to deliver a preliminary report. As expected, the commander was somewhat surprised that Desmond was still alive, but he seemed to put that matter aside; he was more interested in humiliating Desmond for his defeat on the battlefield.

Desmond could see the commander’s intentions from miles away, finding such an attitude quite ridiculous and stupid given the circumstances. The commander demonstrated once again how closed-minded he was, prioritizing his personal grudges over the big picture.

The commander didn’t know how lucky he was that Desmond didn’t have the patience to deal with him and publicly humiliate him. Desmond didn’t wait for Commander Rundert to open his mouth but instead extended a hand in which he was holding something wrapped in a large piece of cloth and dropped it onto the desk.

The sound was very similar to a pile of coins clicking against each other, but instead of money, what was on the piece of cloth was dozens of military insignia. When the fabric was unwrapped, everyone who saw its contents groaned in surprise and disbelief.

Commander Rundert’s reaction was not significantly different from the rest. Even the officer supervising him was having trouble analyzing the situation. One had to remember that while someone like Rundert was more than capable of going on a killing spree and coming back with all those military insignia, people like the commander were the ultimate weapons within each nation.

According to the information that intelligence had on Desmond, he should be far from reaching the level of a commander, but his file also pointed out how monstrously strong he was in combat. In other words, if what intelligence had was accurate, Desmond relies on skill and intellect to accomplish such a feat rather than sheer power.

Ironically, even though intelligence was utterly wrong, the reality was that Desmond had earned half of those military badges by relying solely on his prowess with military-grade weapons, which made his achievement still something pretty unique.

Of course, the commander would rather die than give Desmond a single compliment. Still, before he opened his mouth to point out any fundamental or false flaws in Desmond, the central-sent supervisor spoke first.

“Would you mind explaining the situation, Lieutenant Colonel Desmond Astryd?”

With a straight posture and a firm salute, exuding a military air filled with loyalty and patriotism, Desmond began reporting on him. Silvia could only thank the gods for giving her such a cold and neutral facial expression; otherwise, she would be unable to hide her reaction to all the lies Desmond was telling with a straight face.

Forget the lies; Desmond’s whole act was worthy of some kind of best actor award in Silvia’s opinion, although, of course, from another point of view, the way Desmond lied without blinking was quite disturbing.

There were a couple of inconsistencies in Desmond’s story from Sylvia’s point of view, mainly in the chronology, but the changes were so subtle it was hard to tell. Silvia didn’t know Desmond’s intention in making such changes. Still, since it would be virtually impossible for anyone besides her or Claire to find such inconsistencies, Silvia decided to keep quiet.

On the side of Commander Rundert and the supervisor sent by headquarters, their expressions were admired, especially when Desmond described how he had single-handedly decimated the enemy command center.

The story seemed impossible, but since Desmond was famous for his ridiculous shooting skills and his fondness for explosives, everyone was inclined to believe his story. There was also a mention of the phenomenon of a water snake crossing the sky. Still, Desmond mentioned that he couldn’t pay too much attention at the time because he was returning from his attack on the command center, and that’s when he found his squad suffering from another ambush.

This was one of the most significant inconsistencies in Desmond’s story that Silvia could spot, and the mention of a water snake immediately caused her to add one plus one; the only thing she couldn’t understand was what Desmond was trying to hide.

The mention of the ambushes Desmond’s squad suffered caused everyone’s attention to focus on Silvia, the main combatant, and witness. In addition to adding some changes so that her story agreed with Desmond’s, Silvia narrated things as they happened, something that caused the supervisor to raise a suspicious eyebrow.

As expected of someone with a genuinely lengthy military record behind him, the supervisor tracked down the problem with such ambushes in an instant and within minutes came to the same conclusion as Desmond, that someone had let those enemy forces through.

Later, the incident would be classified as a case of incompetence and cowardice. The people in charge of guarding such a sector decided not to fight for fear of death and let the enemy forces pass through their territory. However, that was a story for another day.

The description of the deaths of her companions caused a somber air to fill the command center; both junior and experienced officers gulped at the thought of meeting such an end. Being behind the defense line, just processing information and passing orders, it was easy to get lost and not feel the seriousness of the situation; only now did the people in the command center feel the weight and the price that the war could have.

To avoid ending the conversation on a bitter pill, Desmond handed the supervisor an electronic storage device he always carried with him. When Desmond revealed that he had hacked into the computers at the enemy command center and stolen all the information it had available, the supervisor nearly dropped his jaw to the floor.

Desmond’s performance was that of a super soldier and spy. It was hard not to be surprised; needless to say, Desmond would get a lot of prestige for his day achievements.

It was a day of profit and loss, life and death, the night was still far away, but this was the end of the day for Desmond’s squad. The supervisor didn’t bother to consult with the commander and directly gave Desmond’s unit a month of time off to recover from their losses and injuries.