PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Valentine seemed to have gone through mummification while he was still alive; anyone who saw him would have a lingering fear. On the other hand, the piece of wood looked pretty much the same as before, except for a faint electric glow from the wood’s burn marks. Although it was vague, Desmond remembered some of what Titania had said about the piece of wood back then. From her words and what Desmond had just witnessed, it was safe to say that there was something inside that piece of wood.

Whatever it was the identity of the thing inside the piece of wood, Desmond was clear on at least two things: that the item was the nemesis of the lightning users and that it was showing him goodwill for some reason. The last part came not so much from what Desmond saw but from what he felt. Even now, while the piece of wood was still lying on the ground, it gave Desmond a rather peculiar vibe; it was like a child asking his father to carry him.

As disconcerting as this was, Desmond trusted his instincts, so despite his better judgment, he reached over and picked up the burned piece of wood. As Desmond expected, nothing happened; the only thing that changed was the feeling the piece of wood gave him.

True to his instincts, Desmond didn’t put the piece of wood back in the hunter’s book but kept it with him. Meanwhile, Desmond began to get a headache trying to figure out how to explain Valentine’s death. One had to know that Desmond would attract unwanted attention if the news got out.

To Desmond’s good luck, Roy Valentine had one of the worst reputations around, so it wasn’t necessarily that hard to come up with a pretext for his disappearance. Since the danger had passed and he was now miles from the city of Verimar, Desmond could afford to rest and think of a plan, but not before checking the situation on Silvia and Claire’s side.

(Minutes before, Verimar city center)

“Sylvia, behind you.”

Showing complete confidence in her friend, Silvia immediately dropped to the ground only to see a barrage of purple daggers pass over her and impale half a dozen soldiers aiming machine guns at her.

.....

As Silvia got up from the ground and prepared to run, Morales emerged from his position under cover and began firing his revolver at the armored vehicles following a couple of blocks away. While Claire and Silvia were scary as deadly, when it came to dealing with enemy vehicles, Morales’ revolver was the best option.

With Morales taking care of the enemy vehicles and Claire basically decimating the rest of the pursuers, Silvia managed to pick up the pace and get to the front, dealing with the threats as these continued to arise.

In the original plan, it was supposed to be Desmond who would draw most of the enemy’s attention while Claire, Silvia, and Morales’ group ambushed from behind. Still, with Valentine’s sudden appearance, the situation completely changed.

Needless to say, without Desmond there to draw most of the enemy firepower, Claire, Silvia, and Morales were having a hard time getting out of town. This was the city of Verimar, one of the largest defensive strongholds in Country C, and the number of troops at its disposal was not few. Even after Desmond’s massacre of officers, there was still a chain of command and someone in charge of the city’s defenses.

The good news was that due to the massacre carried out at Desmond’s hands, half of the strongest espers in the city were dead or busy protecting the rest of the commanding officers, so Claire and Silvia only had to face each other to standard troops.

Using their skills at the most opportune moments, combined with their urban combat techniques and mastery of firearms, Claire and Silvia were killing machines straight out of a Hollywood action movie. Both friends shared great confidence and a keen sense of combat instilled by Desmond, making it easy for them to fight in tandem.

Having emptied the entire magazine of her modified MP5, Silvia began reloading at the same time she took a lateral step. A second later, Claire unleashed a barrage of bullets on the soldiers who wanted to take advantage of the time it took for Silvia to reload.

Silvia quickly scanned the situation as Claire changed the cartridge; without saying a word, Silvia walked up to the side of a building and smashed a window with the butt of her MP5. Showing well-practiced timing, as soon as Silvia broke the window, Claire jumped in through it. It took Morales a second, but eventually, he entered the building with the girls.

Inside the building, Morales was speechless as Claire and Silvia cooperated in setting up a wire trap with a pair of frag grenades before moving into the next room. Upon a closer look, Morales realized that this was an apartment building and that Claire and Silvia were probably planning to use it to lose track of their pursuers momentarily.

Moving into the next room, which turned out to be the kitchen, Morales decided to keep his comments to himself when he saw Silvia open all the gas taps on the stove. It didn’t take a genius to know what would happen when someone activated the grenades right there next to this room. In just ten or twelve seconds, Claire and Silvia had turned an apartment into a death trap; and even then, both girls seemed as calm and cute as ever.

Showing the wisdom of an experienced man, Morales kept silent as he obediently followed the pair of Silvia and Claire; for some reason, both girls were giving the poor boy a terrible feeling. What followed was a rapid advance through the corridors that connect the apartments of the building, and it wasn’t until the trio was walking out the door that pointed to the next block that they heard a loud explosion.

A keen ear would have known that there had been two explosions, one right after the other, but none of that was really important. While the building was still shaking from reverberations of the blast, the trio took advantage of the chaos generated to disappear into the alleys adjoining the building.

Knowing that the break was temporary and that staying in the city was suicidal, the trio continued to escape at full speed, trying to be as discreet as possible. However, it was somewhat tricky due to the weapons in their hands and the military equipment they carried.

As expected, it was a matter of time before Claire, Silvia, and Morales were involved in another shootout. This time the trio was unlucky and ran into many hostile forces, quickly becoming overwhelmed by enemy firepower.

Claire and Silvia kept cover without exchanging words until they finished accumulating arcane and mana. Without warning, Claire stepped out of her position to build a wall of telekinetic energy in front of her and Silvia; At the same time, as if she was sure that Claire would give her cover, Silvia came out of her hiding place to throw two giant ice spears.

On the other side of the firefight, those soldiers taking turns providing cover fire and those trying to take down Claire and Silvia saw their bullets blocked by a wall of purple energy before a girl emerged and hurled two white spears at them.

There was a second of confusion as the enemy soldiers saw the spears hit the ground near them, but that confusion died with them as the spears exploded into icy shrapnel.

Morales exchanged shots with a couple of soldiers who tried to surround them from behind; meanwhile, Claire and Silvia were looting the corpses in search of ammunition.

Since they both used weapons of different calibers, whenever one of them found suitable ammunition for the other, they simply threw the cartridges at each other.

Knowing that the noise they had just made would attract the attention they had lost after their little explosive stunt in the apartment building, the trio had to hurry forward.

To avoid conflict, the trio jumped some fences in a residential area, thus passing through the patios of some houses. Due to how crowded the area was, it would be difficult to search for them, so the trio was able to take a much-needed break.

Although Claire and Silvia didn’t dare let go of the tension, they still sat on the grass in a courtyard and tried to catch their breath while drinking water and consuming energy bars. Poor Morales, who felt somewhat excluded from the atmosphere between Claire and Silvia, was about to say something when, with almost cruel timing, the radio on Silvia’s shoulder began to play.

Not only Claire and Silvia but even Morales were quite happy to learn that Desmond was still alive, although the joy was short-lived as Desmond told them that they should escape on their own since it would take too long for him to get back. Claire and Silvia took it easy, showing a temper that embarrassed Morales, who looked a little pale.