PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Four pressurized water snakes tried to pierce Desmond’s body. Still, in terms of control and density, that small amount of mana, gathered in such a simple technique, was far from being able to penetrate Desmond’s defenses.

In what can only be considered an act of contempt, Desmond basically slapped the four water snakes with the back of his left hand, scattering the ability; without even paying attention to it.

Similarly, as both knights’ swords fell, Desmond deflected the trajectory of the slashes by hitting the flat sides of the blades. Both the water knight and the fire knight were left in disbelief; one had to know that their weapons were imbued with vast amounts of mana from their respective elements, and even with the use of armor, it shouldn’t be possible to crash into them using just your hands.

The trained minds of these knights quickly came up with an answer, but it did not relieve their tension at all. On the palm and back of both Desmond’s hands, small plates of hyper-condensed metallic mana function as shock absorbers in synergy with the armor’s defensive capabilities, helping Desmond deflect incoming attacks.

This discovery didn’t relax the knights because none of them could control mana to that level, nor did they have the combat prowess to use that skill.

Ignorant of the thoughts of both knights, Desmond lowered his stance avoiding the attacks of two soldiers, before another long trail of steam left his lips. The exponential increase in strength and speed allowed Desmond to go right behind the two soldiers who attacked him.

However, Desmond began to experience drawbacks in fighting the numbers against him. While he was about to extinguish the people’s lives, a small group of four soldiers completely ignored the ongoing battle drawing their swords at the defensive wall that protected Cecilia and the children.

This forced Desmond to keep using longer than planned. The two soldiers facing Desmond felt their bodies go light and their world spiral before pain-filled them completely.

.....

As absurd as it seemed, Desmond had just used two human beings as cannonballs, targeting the group heading for the barrier. This little improvised move was adequate, but it came at a price.

The water knight had learned his lesson and condensed all of his mana into a single water snake; this seemed more realistic and dangerous than the previous one. Even though its dimensions did not appear very different, it was a matter of density. Showing an extra level of mana condensation and concentration, this snake almost broke Desmond’s ribs when it hit.

Desmond gave up trying to withstand the impact and instead used the blow he received to change his own path of movement and accelerate. Following a double somersault that he used to disperse the rest of his momentum, Desmond positioned himself right in the middle of the squad that had previously intended to attack the barrier.

Hundreds of metallic blue mana threads entwined around it, writhing like snakes before merging into a corporeal entity around Desmond’s right arm.

Wanting to reduce enemy numbers, Desmond was ready to go big and use to decimate the soldiers on the ground; that was Desmond’s second mistake.

It was common not to give the opponent time to gather their forces and use complex abilities in battles between mana users. Unlike aura users, who could instantly explode with their full power, Elementalist skills used to have long cast times.

Desmond, who hadn’t fought many orthodox elemental users, had no such notion, but his enemies were anything like him. As soon as Desmond began to focus on his ability, three of the soldiers staying out of the battle charged him with ranged attacks, disrupting Desmond’s mana channel and leaving the latter in a challenging position.

As if that wasn’t enough, a colossal mana signature, like a moving mountain, appeared from the rubble of a collapsed building a short distance away.

After that, Desmond fell into a highly passive position; with the soldiers having learned their lesson, Desmond suffered from a lot of pressure from his ranged attacks that occasionally hit the barrier, while the three knights maintained a coordinated tactic against him, cornering Desmond on several occasions.

Attacks were coming from all directions, with three high-level enemies and a group of people to protect. This was a little more than Desmond could take without resorting to drastic measures.

The main problem was that Desmond had to use a part of his consciousness and his mana pool to keep the barrier around the children; this significantly increased the time it took him to use other abilities.

Even so, Desmond had managed to make his opponents suffer. As the earth knight swung his massive sword again, Desmond resorted to an unorthodox move by leaning back enough to place his hands on the ground as the blade passed over him. Using his hands for support, Desmond channeled the intense burning mana back into him, and with a full-power kick to the flat rear axis of the blade, Desmond redirected the cut.

The water knight only caught a glimpse of Desmond striking a strange pose on top of his hands before his partner’s sword split him in half, shattering the entire midsection of his torso and scattering his intestines on the floor.

Desmond’s long trail of steam, exhaled as a result of his sudden rise in internal temperature, had not yet dissipated when blood rained down on his face, but Desmond’s pace not only didn’t stop but sped up.

Desmond had not only used his kick to redirect the sword slash, but he had also used it as a pivot to get into another stance in record time. Desmond’s muscular frame tensed to the limit with both hands and feet on the ground, again imitating a particular feline movement he had learned from Mei Fei Long.

Resisting the pain generated by the constant use of , Desmond lets the blood inside his body boil and his muscles rip before combining all the physical power generated with .

The cold touch of death shook the spine of a group of three soldiers, who were joining forces to bring down Desmond’s barrier. Like a hound straight from the gates of hell, the creator of said barrier appeared before them covered in a thin layer of vapor giving off a searing sensation of aggression.

The first to return to his creator was the soldier closest to the barrier, a flash in the form of a silver thread wove in a fraction of a second, aiming at the soldier’s throat, and a second later, his blood was raining down.

The first soldier was still making a desperate attempt to stay on the plane of the living, but he couldn’t help but choke on his own blood, slowly losing the light in his eyes. However, no one felt sorry for his death, or rather, no one could afford that luxury, not when Desmond was still in a killing frenzy.

Having slit the first soldier’s throat using nothing more than a metallic mana blade around his index finger which he used as a weapon, Desmond was still withdrawing his right hand when his left hand latched onto the back of a man’s neck behind him.

Jumping back, Desmond kept his left hand on one side of the soldier’s neck while his right hand gripped the opposite side, and using every one of his overexcited muscle fibers, Desmond performed a pirouette with a sudden twist.

The macabre sound of vertebrae snapping was followed by the nauseating tearing of flesh and blood spilling out like water from a broken dam. With a horrified-looking head in his hands, Desmond landed on the other side just as a decapitated body crumpled to the ground behind him.

It was grotesque, bloodthirsty to excess, yet the expression on Desmond’s face always remained the same, cold and ruthless. That faint sadistic smile seemed to be less pronounced than usual, but the predatory intent deep within his blue eyes remained unperturbed.

This took too long to narrate, but it had only been three seconds since the water knight died, and no one had had a chance to mount any kind of resistance after Desmond threw all his worries to the wind and fully activated .

Desmond was a man of many talents, intelligent, methodical, and always thought a couple of steps ahead. Although he had made a couple of mistakes in this battle, only now had Desmond shown what he had to offer.

After all, it wasn’t his strength or speed, adaptability, or combat prowess that made Desmond terrifying; no, what made him so dangerous was how ridiculously high his lethality was.

The third soldier didn’t stand a chance; Desmond was ruthless to the extreme with him. The horrible deaths of his companions were still being processed when Desmond used the head like a baseball ball against the third soldier.

Without the mana flowing naturally within it, the dead soldier’s skull was significantly less resistant than the third soldier’s head, so the skull shattered into pieces at the moment of impact.

Blood and chunks of gray matter erupted everywhere, but worst of all was the skull fragments, which stuck like bone shrapnel into the third soldier’s face.

The only relief the third soldier got, who found himself in a world of pain and misery, was the sweet numbness that came with death.