PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Just a hint of order that maintained the appearance of a society of intelligent creatures, mixed with a decadence and madness Desmond had never seen before. It was like watching a darker and bloodier version of Sodom and Gomorrah.

While trying to blend into the city, Desmond witnessed at least half a dozen homicides and nearly twice as many rapes. Drug abuse, vandalism, and arsenicism were the order of the day. A dystopian hell that Desmond would rather escape.

Then a swift shadow swooped down from an alley, taking Desmond by surprise. Searing pain and a sense of pressure assailed Desmond as the shadow dug its claws into his stomach before dragging him out into the alley. Desmond’s red eyes soon reflected his attacker, a beautiful white-haired woman with six red insectoid eyes decorating his forehead and the lower half of a spider.

Having the perfect excuse to let the anger out of him, Desmond attacked as soon as he got the chance. The spider woman was about to declare her intentions when Desmond’s elbow collided with a downward blow dislocating her arm.

Desmond felt the woman’s claws come out from inside him, but he was too angry to think about it. As soon as his feet touched the ground, Desmond used every ounce of strength he had available to pounce on the spider-woman. Given the proportions, it looked like a typical David vs. Goliath scene, one that ended with the same result.

Despite the disparity between their sizes, Desmond pushed the spider woman easily, the blood in his body giving him more than enough power to accomplish such a simple feat. Barely suppressing the instinct to use mana, Desmond relied exclusively on the physical power of his new bloodline and the strange Aura that his blood produced naturally.

The spider woman screamed in pain as Desmond slammed her into a building, a scream that was definitely heard by more than one soul, not that it made much of a difference. Desmond knew that no one would come to interfere with the fight or save the woman in front of him, and that somehow made him feel more riotous than usual.

Desmond’s bloodline had given him an extremely powerful physique, and he was definitely enjoying the feeling. With a straight hook to the spider-woman’s stomach, Desmond knocked all the air out of her lungs, and with a blow to the chin, Desmond knocked out her ability to think.

.....

But Desmond was not the only one with a robust physique; almost all the dark races had two things to spare: physical strength and tremendous vitality. Like a barrage of black spears, the spider legs nearly impaled Desmond as he tried to follow through with his attacks.

After quickly retreating, Desmond became more cautious. Instead of continuing to attack, this time, he stopped to look carefully at the spider woman. Recovering from her daze, the spider-woman snapped her jaw back to its original position and looked at Desmond with... lust?

As if the lethal confrontation a moment ago hadn’t happened, the woman made a suggestion that almost made Desmond question his own sanity. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been treated so rudely, and to think I thought you were just easy food walking around naively. What do you think, boy? Do you want to satisfy this lady in bed?”

Resisting the urge to swear, Desmond kept quiet. He really didn’t know how to deal with the people of this world who were clearly fucking crazy. Desmond had no doubt that this woman in front of him would be eating him, and not in a sexy way if he had turned out to be weaker than her.

Now that Desmond was clearly a threat, the woman changed her focus. She even opened a rather intense invitation to him as if she hadn’t tried to kill him a few moments ago. Desmond understood the logic of abusing the weak and fearing the strong, but the people of this world simply took it too far, in his opinion.

Sensing that Desmond had probably been silent for too long and fearing that he still wanted to fight, the woman added. “Look, kid, this lady is so sorry she attacked you. I didn’t know you were of noble blood. How about I let you drink my blood to make up for the offense? To tell the truth, I’ve never met a vampire; I’m curious to know how it feels.”

Desmond caught a few key points from the woman’s words, but he couldn’t ask too many questions without giving himself away. The last thing Desmond wanted was for anyone to find out he didn’t belong there. The next thing Desmond would know, Lilith and Nicolai’s enemies were coming for his head.

When hunger struck him again, Desmond was about to deny the woman’s request. Having gone through his transformation a short time ago, Desmond’s body was still in a state where he needed large amounts of blood. The blood he had been deprived of due to Desmond’s fear of hurting the girls at home.

Now, faced with such a tempting offer, Desmond was torn. He had to say that Spider-Woman was strangely beautiful, which didn’t help Desmond’s situation.

The spider part aside, the white-haired woman had a narrow human waist and a tremendous set of plump breasts that she barely covered with some clothing. Although her skin was supernaturally pale, the woman was certainly attractive, the deep red lipstick she wore only exacerbating her sex appeal.

A few minutes later, a spider-woman could be seen emerging from a dark alley with flushed cheeks and her eight legs wobbly as she adjusted the light layer of clothing she was wearing so that it covered her breasts again.

Meanwhile, Desmond was experiencing a healthy dose of helplessness and self-reproach. The way he simply gave in to temptation made him feel pathetic enough, but that sweet taste that went down his throat with every swallow of her drowned his guilt. Feeling the spider-woman’s blood brimming with power that his heart soon began to digest, Desmond pushed unnecessary thoughts from his head.

In the short time Desmond had been in this world, it had become obvious that this place was rotten in more ways than one. It really was too ridiculous of him to worry about such minor moral issues, given his circumstances.

Since the woman had offered to give him some of her blood, there was no point in feeling guilty about drinking from it. It wasn’t as if Desmond had forced himself on her or drained her to death.

In any case, Desmond would spend a lot of time in this world trying to make up for Nicolai’s mistakes. It was unrealistic of him to believe that he could go that long without eating. Besides, Desmond would need every last ounce of strength he could muster in case he ran into the former enemies of Nicolai and Lilith.

Looking at things on the bright side, Desmond could consider himself lucky to have met that spider woman, Araksia. The woman belonged to one of the few noble families in the city. Given the interest she continued to show in him, Desmond believed she would be a good way to introduce himself to this macabre society.

“I’m not ready to take that step yet; that girl seems to descend from one of Nicolai’s enemies. First, I must find out if her ancestors are still alive; otherwise, it would be too risky.”

Considering Nicolai’s enemies’ power and their bloodlines, it was assumed that his descendants would also be part of the city’s nobility. Desmond had to be very careful with his movements in a city that might be under the control of people who would do anything to get their hands on his blood.

“At least now I know that there are still members of Lilith’s bloodline in the city, and they apparently retain their peerage status. They would be the first to be suspected of having Lilith’s prison.”

Thinking of all the possible variables, suspects, and challenges that awaited him, Desmond was beginning to regret coming to this place a little. Still, a part of him welcomed the challenge. Not to mention that having seen Nicolai’s memories, Desmond wasn’t about to sit idly by and do nothing for the only victim in that story, Lilith.

“Damn, I wish I had spent more time with the girls. I barely saw them after returning from my last mission.”

While Desmond was missing the girls, he ended up suffering another mugging while passing through one of the city’s many dark alleys. With no patience for any of his assailant’s bullshit, Desmond brought a bloody and deadly end to that encounter, but that still didn’t take away the bad taste in his mouth. “This place is full of madpeople.” Desmond muttered in exasperation as he tossed the werewolf corpse to the ground.

What Desmond didn’t know was that while he was missing the girls back home, a certain angel of love was paying a surprise visit to those same girls to take them on an adventure in the name of love, according to her, of course.

Unfortunately, among the things Desmond didn’t know about was the appearance of a shadowy figure in the decaying forest that Desmond appeared in when he arrived.

The shadowy figure with green fire for eyes looked askance for a moment before a gruff, macabre voice came from what one could only assume was his lips. “Nicolai’s blood... It’s back.”