PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Unknown to William, as soon as Desmond released Cecilia, Kyuru separated from him as well. Kyuru used Desmond’s body as cover to quickly fly down and reach Cecilia, using the power of the wind to slow her fall. Without the time to summon her wind wings again, this was the best the fairy could do.

Meanwhile, surprise led to carelessness and a drop in William’s concentration, which Desmond was not going to let go of. Anchoring himself in midair with mana, Desmond managed to hold his position for a brief moment; but that was all he needed.

Desmond’s right hand shot out like a claw, grabbing William by the wrist before yanking him up and throwing him over his shoulder. In a never-before-seen display of Aikido in the middle of the sky, Desmond threw William down, but not before fully latching on to him, locking his body with a strong padlock.

Channeling and gathering solid currents of wind to propel them in an endless downward spiral, Desmond and William became a giant sphere surrounded by wind falling towards the ground.

The endless spins made both of them dizzy to the extreme. However, William still tried to fight, only to find that any attempt to use his thrusters to escape ended up increasing his spin rate and falling.

Desmond had calculated this move in advance, showing terrifying analytical ability, making sure to lock William into a position where his thrusters would not help him. This was the downside of relying so heavily on one device for flight; William was subject to the artifact’s limitations, which in this case was the distribution of the propellants.

Still, there was something William didn’t understand, and that was why Desmond would make such a suicidal move. As William was thrown over Desmond’s shoulder, he caught a glimpse of Cecilia falling to safety, protected by a power of wind from an unknown source. Because of that, William understood that Desmond had tricked him with that move; but William only thought Desmond was trying to buy time for Cecilia. William never thought Desmond’s next move would be to launch them both out of the sky at a speed that would turn them both to jam.

Cecilia also watched in terror as Desmond fell to his death in a turbulent spiral. The only reason Cecilia didn’t panic was that Kyuru seemed pretty calm even now.

.....

Feeling Cecilia’s gaze, Kyuru smiled tenderly as she continued to soften her fall and commented on her. “You don’t need to worry about him. Desmond isn’t stupid and values ??his life more than you think; he would never make a move like that if he wasn’t sure he could pull it off.”

As if to prove that Kyuru’s words were valid, a frantic scream reverberated in the surroundings as the sphere of wind that Desmond and William fell into.

“Go and send my regards to the royal family.”

Unlike William, who had no control over the situation, Desmond was always in control. As soon as Desmond felt them both get too close to the ground, he briefly let go of William. Then Desmond channeled all his built-up momentum and added extra power to knock the knight to the ground.

A step faster than Desmond when he fell, due to the movement made by the latter, William could already feel the breath of death caressing the nape of his neck. Showing his vast experience and responsiveness, William was not resigned to his death. Instead, William began condensing extremely dense wind plates beneath him to cushion the impact.

Unable to withstand the full force and momentum of William’s fall, the wind plates burst like balloons; One after another, these wind plates absorbed some of the impact force. Finally, William saved his life by breaking the fifth wind plate before hitting the ground.

With a loud BOOM, William met the ground, almost getting buried in it. Although heavily wounded, William had managed to preserve his life. Unfortunately for the poor royal knight, his nightmare was far from over.

Expanding with a terrifying speed in his field of vision, William could see Desmond falling toward him. With the right arm covered by an aquamarine blue gauntlet, Desmond gave off mana fluctuations and threatening intent, with its predatory gaze fixed on William.

“.”

A mighty roar escaped Desmond’s lips as his sapphire blue eyes glared with overflowing murderous intent at the immobilized William. Desmond’s right arm throbbed from all the pent-up power; the leviathans in the gauntlet writhing in fury as if they were real beasts.

With each use of this ability, Desmond’s mastery of it deepens; the intention and concept are constantly solidified. Accompanied by the increase in his domain, Desmond also gets stronger. The destructive power shown now was far superior to what was established in the past.

The continuous fights and intense training made Desmond’s strength always on the rise. Were it not for the lack of resources, Desmond would be even more potent than he is now.

Unlike the shown with the sword, whose specialty was counter-attack and whose real power had not yet been demonstrated given the circumstances. was a skill entirely focused on destructive power, something that could be told by the naked eye.

Finding himself only a dozen meters off the ground, Desmond threw his pent-up momentum and all of his power behind his right fist. Desmond created a cannon of blue shockwaves that threatened to turn William into a cold corpse.

A blue tower made of many stories, each a wave of smooth destructive power that spreads like ripples on water; soon fell on William, who was still sore and immobile.

William could still feel his internal organs shaking; his vision and thoughts remained fuzzy, but danger alarms still rang in his ears. William tried to gather the power of the wind around him to defend himself. But not only was his mind unable to focus but the mana of the wind had been pushed out of the way by the terrifying cascade of destruction raining down on him.

“I was almost late.”

A brave and impetuous female voice reached William’s ears, and he almost wanted to thank the gods. Although it was not the most beautiful or feminine voice in the world, to William, that voice seemed to come from the most beautiful of fairies at this moment.

Gray hair cascaded to the waist of an imposingly framed woman who stood in front of William, meeting Desmond’s attack with her own. In addition to being taller than most, the female figure also wore visibly more robust armor, plus an absurdly gigantic two-handed sword.

Steady as a mountain and imposing as the vast sky above her head, the woman stood her ground as she swung her gigantic sword in a sideways sweep. As gray as the woman’s hair, solid and heavy energy covered her silver sword, dulling its original shine.

It all happened too fast, and Desmond didn’t have time to change his target or direction. More importantly, Desmond still needed the power of his punch to break his fall, so he could only let all of his power fall on the gray-haired girl.

The harsh reality soon hit Desmond; when his met the girl’s sword, It was like trying to push a mountain. For Desmond, it was no different from crashing head-on into an immovable force, and the consequences were not light.

Though the shockwaves from Desmond’s blow managed to stop his downward momentum, as each of them was torn apart by the grey-haired girl’s heavy sword, Desmond took an intense backlash and some residual waves from his own attack.

By the time the girl’s sword finished cutting through the technique, Desmond had received about ten percent of the power of his own attack back. Feeling his internal organs contort in pain, Desmond could only grit his teeth. Desmond used the last shockwave to back up from his awkward position in the air and away from this new adversary.

Fair skin and eyes as gray as her hair, though she wore some of the most robust armor Desmond had ever seen, it couldn’t hide the female figure beneath it. Although she was a beautiful woman, the expression on the girl’s face was as neutral as possible, something that Desmond had only seen in people with a tremendous temper.

But the girl’s appearance was of no importance or interest to Desmond at the moment; it was her strength that worried Desmond. This woman was easily among the most powerful Desmond had ever met, giving off a dangerous feeling that kept pressing on him.

From the previous engagement alone, it was clear to Desmond that there was a vast gap between their respective forces; moreover, their strengths were not compatible. Desmond reckoned that part of the reason the girl dealt with his attack so easily was that the element the girl used and the nature of her technique countered Desmond’s own ability.

As if that wasn’t enough, Cecilia fell behind him with the help of Kyuru; Desmond had already noticed a third royal knight arriving on the scene. Surrounded by three powerhouses of a higher level than himself and being aware of how dangerous the grey-haired girl in front of him was, Desmond began to feel the pressure.