PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Desmond watched the officers waiting for him in the command room with interest, the fervor that boiled in his blood was hard to contain, but even he knew when to be cautious.

Across the room, the officers watched Desmond, hoping to find any gap in his guard. For good measure, the most challenging aura users were positioned closest to the entrance, followed by elementalists and arcanists.

Humanity might not have a deep understanding of the three energy systems. However, they could still use their intellect to infer some essential characteristics and find ways to coordinate them in battle. In this case, the Verimar officers used a standard formation easily seen in RPGs.

Desmond was also quick to recognize the enemy formation based on mana and arcane fluctuations alone. Desmond identified aura users solely by judging their posture and physical build.

Desmond’s first thought when he saw the enemy formation was that things could be much more complicated than he had imagined. Across the room, a commanding-looking gray-haired woman started the conversation.

“For a second I wondered who would be crazy enough to break into our military base and start a massacre, I should have guessed it would be you, Desmond Astryd, the black wolf.”

“I’m surprised that anyone recognizes me. I’m nothing more than a small lieutenant colonel in an unimportant border town.” Desmond responded as he shrugged.

The grey-haired woman never took her gaze from Desmond. Like an eagle focused on her prey, she kept scanning his every move. “Don’t be humble; you and I know you are much more than that. You must know that your reputation precedes you, Desmond Astryd. You are the youngest lieutenant colonel in your country; reports say you are incredibly talented in the military and an absolute beast in combat.”

.....

Desmond was interested in what the woman said. It was too rare that she had some information about him, so there was likely a spy inside Green Seed.

Showing refined manners and a distinctly flirtatious attitude, Desmond responded as he bowed politely. “It seems you know a lot about me, miss; it is a disgrace on my part not to know anything about you; I wondered if you would at least regale me with your name.”

Desmond’s actions caused mixed reactions. Some saw an opportunity and wanted to attack, some just couldn’t believe the effrontery displayed by Desmond, and lastly, some thought it best to drag things out so more reinforcements would arrive.

The gray-haired woman wanted to wait for reinforcements, and since she was the person with the most authority in the room, the rest kept track of her. The woman knew that Desmond was planning something, but she didn’t have many options, she knew how lethal Desmond could be, and she preferred to face him with as many reinforcements as possible.

“My name is Paulett Mykras, although many call me the gray tower. I had heard many things about Country C’s famous black wolf, especially after the bitter winter battle; It Sounds like you had a starring role.”

The expression on Desmond’s face didn’t change a bit, but the gears in his mind were already operating at full speed, analyzing the words of the woman named Paulett and generating a battle plan.

“I wonder what kind of things Miss Mykras heard about me?” Desmond replied with a friendly smile still trying to buy time to consolidate the mana within his body.

Desmond’s language and behavior betrayed nothing of his true personality or demeanor, but Paulett was getting a bad feeling. However, no matter how much Paulett looked at Desmond, he didn’t seem to hide anything.

“Like I said, Mr. Astryd is quite famous. You are said to be one of the most promising rising stars in the military. You are a man of action and results; your activities in the city of Green Seed demonstrate this, and the same applies to the latest military conflict between our countries. Besides that, I only know a few unimportant things, like Mr. Astryd has a fondness for whiskey and beautiful women, I heard you are quite the conqueror.”

Paulett was doing a good job distracting Desmond, who was too focused on finding out what the enemy knew about him; but Paulett made a fatal miscalculation.

All courtesy and chivalrous behavior vanished in an instant, leaving behind only an expression filled with spite and cruelty. “Looks like it’s my lucky day, Paulett, I never thought it would be so easy to find the idiot who sent assassins to my home.”

When Paulett’s expression turned pale, Desmond got the confirmation he was looking for. It was just a tiny, unimportant comment on Paulett’s part, something she said without thinking, but her subconscious betrayed her the moment she said it. As the person who gave the order to kill Desmond and the people living with him, Paulett slightly changed her expression when she mentioned Desmond’s taste for whiskey and women.

In another time, in another place, Desmond might not have noticed the subtle change in expression, but fate was cruel; Desmond’s predatory eyes were fixed on Paulett when she made a mistake.

When Paulett saw the expression change on Desmond’s face, she understood that something had gone wrong; unfortunately, Desmond reacted first. The heavily suppressed mana within Desmond overflowed in an instant, and Desmond charged with a loud bang and a gale.

The speed at which Desmond processed cognitive information had transcended the realm of human beings, a step that every user would eventually take. As such, in just a fraction of a second, Desmond realized one thing: The people in this room could not be underestimated.

Even as the sudden burst of speed caught them off guard, at least three aura users blocked Desmond’s path. Desmond could only accept that an Elementalist would not outmatch an aura user in terms of physical fitness. Things would be different if the level difference was wider, but these were aura users of the same level as Desmond.

Since he couldn’t outrun them in terms of speed, Desmond decided to outrun them in terms of technique. Using just a combination of sidesteps and feints, Desmond managed to penetrate the defenses of the first two users, landing two heavy hits on each of them.

This was the truly terrifying side of Desmond; his combat prowess far surpassed his peers. The problem was that Desmond wasn’t just dealing with people on his level.

Only with his keen instincts did Desmond manage to get out of the way in time to avoid a crushing punch. In his peripheral vision, Desmond saw that one of the aura users was wearing a commander’s uniform.

That was when things started to get complicated for Desmond. Due to the delays in dealing with the first aura users, the rest of the enemy officers in the room had time to react and attack Desmond with their own means.

Alarms of imminent death began to buzz inside Desmond’s mind, and guided only by his instincts, he drew one of his pistols and shot one of the officers furthest from him.

Because he focused entirely on his ability to attack Desmond, the enemy officer lost half of his skull. After that, Desmond had to use every ounce of his dexterity and agility to avoid the barrage of attacks.

Paulett, watching and coordinating the attack, nearly had a heart attack when she saw Desmond’s speed of draw and fire. It had to be known that she was still vulnerable to bullets, just like most people in the room.

On the other hand, Paulett had to wonder how much Desmond knew about Verimar officers, it would be too much of a coincidence if he had shot the previous officer without knowing that he was a specialist in paralyzing the minds of his enemies.

Contrary to what Paulett thought, Desmond had chosen his target purely on instinct. Desmond was not even remotely aware that this person could have caused his death with such ease.

It all happened in just a few seconds, but Desmond had already dodged death at least twice, and as much as the young hunter was reluctant to admit it, it seemed that he had made a miscalculation; he just couldn’t against so many users.

In the first instance, Desmond would already have problems facing any commander-grade user. While Desmond had the confidence to defeat enemies stronger than him, that was still subject to many variables, not the least of which was being able to take them on alone.

But now Desmond had to face three commander-grade users, of which he only knew the abilities of one. Desmond was in a room fighting those three commanders and a dozen lieutenants as if that wasn’t bad enough.

It wasn’t even a matter of strength anymore; Desmond didn’t have the time to fight back. Too many attacks were raining down from all sides, and a single hit will slow Desmond down enough to make him an easy target.

Also, these weren’t just ordinary, ignorant users; these were people with military training and coordination. Desmond was having trouble breaking through the aura users so he could attack the rest of the users.