PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Desmond didn’t answer immediately, he made sure to find the best blind spot to put the metal cylinder in his hands and then fixed it with a strange plastic substance.

Only then did Desmond respond: “A little countermeasure in case something goes wrong.”

And even then the whole process was done in absolute silence in no more than three seconds, one could tell that Desmond was already doing his best to secure some kind of countermeasure while also having a very controlled measure of the time that had passed since the moment they pulled the guards outside and started this little infiltration mission.

According to Desmond’s calculations, it had been around 150 seconds since he shot the guards outside, it had taken them ten seconds to move from the alley adjacent to the site to the lower part of the building and then go up to the terrace on the second floor. It took them about fifteen seconds to move around the place and deal with the guard heading to the terrace.

From there they had both spent about thirty seconds dealing with the little problem they had with the guards in the next hallway, after which they spent another forty-five seconds exploring the second floor while getting rid of the occasional guards they encountered along the way.

At some point in time on this tour Desmond had begun to feel that something was wrong with the place, some kind of strong foreboding or a subconscious idea that he could not identify; not wanting to leave things to chance Desmond prepared a countermeasure.

Although to be honest Desmond hoped not to have to use it, not only because this countermeasure was quite expensive but because once he used it all the stealth he would go out the window.

Of course, thinking about it better, if he was forced to use this countermeasure then it was very likely that his life would be in near danger so stealth will be the last of the problems.

.....

Whatever the case, Desmond had spent an additional thirty-five seconds placing a series of small hidden metal devices at multiple points in the building.

What was its function? well, Sasha would certainly know as she was the one who designed the original device, filled with two highly explosive compounds waiting to mix; These cylinders were nothing more than the improved version of a grenade that Sasha had created.

Although this specific model had been modified by Desmond himself, it turned out that in a conversation he had with the alchemist, Desmond mentioned that although he found these new grenades extremely powerful and useful, the truth was that due to their ridiculous explosive power they were more suitable for being used as an alternative to C4 or other materials for programmed bombs.

The only problem was that Desmond needed to design an activation device, the difficulty was that whatever activation device or mechanism he could think of was not compatible with the specific design of this particular bomb; In the end, he focused his efforts on designing a mechanical device that will activate the original activation mechanism of the bombs.

But even with his superior intellect, Desmond wasn′t an engineer, and his ability to design mechanisms was quite limited, he could improvise some simple mechanisms with enough materials and some technical knowledge but encountered difficulties when he tried to modify the bombs.

And if it weren’t for his stubbornness, Desmond would likely have given up at that point but instead, he looked for other alternatives, in the end, he came up with an extremely simple device that depended entirely on materials.

Broadly speaking, what Desmond did was add a type of magnetic lock to the outside of the bomb, the idea was simple, they were basically two pieces made of a special metal that emits a magnetic force when it was stimulated with metallic mana.

The magnetic poles were arranged to repel each other so that all Desmond had to do to activate these bombs was to emit a short-range metallic mana wave; then the magnetic locks will activate repelling each other activating the torque device on the bombs originally designed by Sasha.

It goes without saying that Desmond’s idea was inspired by the use of radio waves as a means of transmission and activation, but Desmond’s method had two advantages.

The first was that the trigger mechanism was so simple that calling it a mechanism was already a bit inappropriate, and the second was that with Desmond’s method the bombs were unlikely to be activated by accident.

From all, this one could say two things about Desmond’s modus operandi before unexpected situations, the first being that Desmond tended to be quite paranoid and the second being that he also tended to be extremely drastic with his security measures.

Unaware of all the above, Xiauyue did not understand what Desmond was referring to when he said that these strange devices were his security measure but instead of asking the specific details of the devices; she was more interested in why such a security measure was necessary.

“Any reason why we need a security measure?” Xiauyue asked with genuine curiosity.

Desmond paused for a moment as he considered Xiauyue’s question but after a few seconds he realized that he had no real reason to believe that this amount of high-grade explosives was necessary, but he couldn’t shake that feeling of unease inside him.

“Call it a bad feeling, I can’t put it into words but I have a feeling that something is not going to go as planned” Unable to find the right words Desmond ended up describing the vague feeling that was bothering him.

If there was something that bothered Desmond, it was not being in control of a situation where there was a real danger to his life, what made his mood worse was that he had the vague feeling that there was a reason for him to keep his guard up but he couldn’t figure out what it was; It was almost as if you remembered that you forgot something but you don’t remember what it was that you forgot.

A very annoying and ridiculous feeling by definition but that was how Desmond felt, it was precisely this annoying discomfort inside him that led him to take such an extreme measure as filling the whole damn place with explosives in case something went wrong.

Xiauyue did not comment further as she also had a vague feeling that something was being overlooked.

As they advanced they covered the entire second floor and both had reached the staircase that went down to the first floor, but as they went down the stairs Desmond noticed another problem.

And with an incredibly bitter smile, Desmond whispered to Xiauyue: “This is no longer a stealth mission.”

To which Xiauyue replied, “Did they discover us?”

“Not exactly, but there is no way we can get through the first floor without making a fuss, besides two guards right on either side of the foot of the stairs there are at least five more guards gathered right in the main room after the stairs; no matter how good we are, I don’t think we can kill them all silently, “Desmond explained.

Xiauyue hated other people telling her what she could or couldn’t do, having grown up in a strongly sexist martial arts world where women were almost always treated as tools or bargains; she had to do almost the impossible to acquire a status where she was regarded with respect.

But she also understood her limitations, otherwise, she would have died long ago as she tried to stand out and attain the strength that she now possesses.

And with her understanding of her limitations and her understanding of Desmond’s strength, she understood that it was simply impossible for them to kill the seven men in the next room silently.

Even in the best of scenarios they could almost immediately kill four of the seven men and assassinate the rest after a very brief fight, but that brief fight was all that was needed to alert everyone in the building to their presence.

Desmond had come to a similar conclusion so their discussion on the subject was brief, in the end, they both decided they had to make a move, they had gone too far to come back empty-handed; so from now on it would no longer be a stealth and assassination mission but rather an extermination and kidnapping mission.

Since once chaos broke out in the place there was a very high probability that things would get out of control enough to attract the attention of the authorities or enemy reinforcements; Desmond and Xiauyue had to abandon their original plan to interrogate whoever they could on the spot and gather as much written information as they could.

Now their plan was basically to kill every person in their path as quickly as possible before other forces had a chance to arrive and to retreat after having captured Bai Zifeng or another person they found useful.

After which they would leave the place in a hurry and interrogate their prisoner in a secondary location before disposing of him, then they would return to the sect at full speed and use the same method that they used previously to enter the sect without leaving any trace of their presence.

Of course, there were still several unknowns in the plan but given the current circumstances there was not much they could do about it, Desmond even wanted to curse at the low amount of mana in the atmosphere otherwise he could solve all their current problems using a sound barrier of wide-range as he let Xiauyue slaughter everyone in the room without any sound.

In the end, Desmond could only shrug his shoulders and whisper to Xiauyue: “Well, it will be all or nothing I suppose, on the count of three; 3 ... 2 ... 1 ”