PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Desmond also used most of his earnings to get resources for the girls back home; there wasn’t much left after that. To add insult to injury, Desmond lost his beloved armor and a couple of accessories on his last mission. With the number of strange acid-spitting creatures he encountered back then, it was already a miracle Desmond didn’t lose a leg or two over it.

The main reason why Desmond even came to the world of Veritas was strongly related to the huge payment for the mission he was given and the abundance of resources there. In other words, Desmond came to plunder everything in his path in order to put himself out of his misery.

Desmond was poor; there was no doubt about that. Still, he resented it when a random alley cat (Rekna) tried to slap wealth on him. Although it might seem childish on his part, at the end of the day, Desmond had just turned twenty. Desmond’s mettle and mental toughness were already an exceptional rarity for a human his age, but he still had flaws.

Having flaws was one thing; dying for them was another. Desmond would always try to keep his flaws from getting in his way. However, her whims and his goals aligned perfectly on this particular occasion.

Watching as Rekna was prepared for a finishing attack as he let these strange spherical constructs overwhelm him. Desmond did some calculations in his mind before pulling something out of the hunter’s book.

On the surface, the item in Desmond’s hands appeared to be his longbow. But its appearance seemed to have changed too much for this to be considered the same item.

The entire bow’s body changed from its previous jet-black color and now was filled with red lines, extending from the bow’s central body to the blades. Once these red lines born in the center of the bow spread outwards, they became more and more defined and thick, filling the blades of the bow with patterns of red vines with thorns. At the end of both bow blades, connected with the string, the black lotuses had changed to a crimson red. The lotus shrunk from the size of a fist to the size of a ping-pong ball.

In terms of appearance alone, the bow seemed more exquisite, albeit a bit solemn, giving off an air of danger and bloodlust around it. However, the truly terrifying thing about the weapon was its energy fluctuations; this weapon had long ago broken through the one-star class limit.

.....

Leaving aside the new bow design, which was very much to his liking, Desmond was more than pleased with the results of using the red gem on his bow. In all honesty, Desmond wasn’t expecting much from the experiment. He just didn’t think it was a bad idea since his bow could, in theory, be considered a living plant, so it should be able to be parasitized by the blood power in the gem.

In the end, it turned out that Desmond was right, and his arc received a heavy update, and while it came with a few minor side effects, Desmond was still pretty happy with how things turned out.

Whatever the case, at this point, Desmond couldn’t fully use the powers of his new bow since he didn’t have the mana reserves to do so.

Added to that because close-quarters combat wasn’t this weapon’s specialty. However, Desmond had pulled out the bow, even knowing that precisely because he wasn’t planning on using it as a weapon. He simply pulled it out to activate his ult before putting it away again.

Desmond stood tall as a mountain, holding his bow in an iron grip as his right hand came up to level with his chest before taking hold of the bowstring and pulling it back. Tens of times more tension than before resisted the pull of Desmond’s fingers gripping the bowstring.

“It seems that without using , I can’t even pull the bowstring.” Desmond commented to himself; simultaneously, the muscle fibers throughout his body received the blessing and nourishment of the mana that flowed steadily from his heart.

Desmond pulled on the bowstring, and metallic-black energy fibers streaming from the bow’s wood began to converge on his fingertips. At the same time, the red patterns on the arc began to pulsate intermittently, almost like a heartbeat of some sort. Red energy strands flowed through the patterns on the bow before trailing across the bowstring and merging with the black energy strands.

Although it was a long process to describe, the whole thing didn’t take more than half a second. By the time it was over, a sinister-looking arrow made of pure energy could be seen at the tips of Desmond’s fingers. At the tip of the arrow, you could see a miniature version of the idiot tiger with tills were some of the core materials of the bow came from.

Although it all happened so fast, Desmond actually barely managed to activate his bow ult in time, had it taken half a second longer, those metal demolition spheres would probably have decorated the floor with their flattened remains by now.

Knowing that he no longer had any wiggle room, Desmond just took aim at the point he mediated between the metal spheres and released the bowstring. The whistle of the arrow streaking through the air was too short. By the time it was over, all that could be seen was a huge explosion of night-black energy with occasional flashes of bloody red.

The red patterns on the bow lost most of their tint, becoming almost indistinguishable after Desmond released the bowstring. That shot seemed to have consumed something in the bow besides energy. However, Desmond paid no attention to this detail, just as he paid no attention to the now-destroyed spherical constructors. The horrible Aura fluctuations emitted by Rekna did not allow such a thing.

Rekna didn’t care at all that one of his prized artifacts was destroyed. Attracting enemy firepower and buying time was precisely the role they were meant to play. Rekna was actually very pleased with the results, especially after seeing how Desmond wasted that strange, ominous-looking arrow. Even Rekna was a bit intimidated by its destructive power and the sinister vibe it gave off.

Of course, there was no longer any need for Rekna to be worried. Now that he had finished gathering and condensing his Aura, his next move would surely kill Desmond.

“It’s my turn.” Rekna exclaimed, her expression so twisted with arrogance and bloodlust that it was downright grotesque. Unfortunately, Rekna had every right to be arrogant. Desmond felt shivers run up his spine as he saw the Aura sphere suddenly spring from Rekna’s gaping jaws.

To begin with, the Aura was never a type of energy very suitable for external manifestation. Still, when a certain degree of control, condensation, and adequate quantity is achieved, the change goes from quantitative to qualitative. Desmond saw such a phenomenon when Mei Fei Long and Miao Xiauyue used their ultimate martial arts. They were both manifestation types and were strong as fuck.

The sphere in Rekna’s mouth gave Desmond the same feeling as those ultimate martial arts, making him uneasy. That thing wasn’t something he could take head-on, not if he wanted to keep his life at least.

“Bastard.” Desmond’s countenance only worsened when he saw where Rekna’s bastard was suddenly pointing. Rekna had already realized that Desmond was not the kind of idiot who would recklessly take such an attack head-on. So he took an approach where he would force Desmond to do just such a thing.

Suicidal moves were never in Desmond’s manual of how to fight a battle, but even he had to grit his teeth and bite the bullet when he saw Rekna aim that Aura sphere at Aisha.

“Go and die, little bitch.” Rekna screamed viciously before letting out a huge roar and firing what essentially looked like a sand-colored laser beam from his mouth.

Everything was happening too fast for Aisha, who couldn’t keep up with the battle. By the time she realized that she was being attacked, it was already too late. Desmond didn’t even wait to see whether or not Aisha could deal with such an attack. Given her past performance and her injuries, it didn’t take anything more complex than calculating two plus two to know the answer.

Though his mouth spewed insults, Desmond had yet to acknowledge that Rekna was, in fact, incredibly cunning and ruthless. The way things were going, Desmond had only two options: try to take the job head-on and die, or not move at all and let that attack kill Aisha.

Desmond’s mind automatically filtered such scenarios, and he concluded that he didn’t like either option. And, being Desmond, the one we were talking about, since he didn’t like those options, then he would create one.

Fortunately, Aisha was very close to Desmond, so it wasn’t too difficult to get in front of her to defend her. Rekna was probably counting on that. What Rekna didn’t count on was that Desmond would take a soft approach to fight the tough.

Sometimes, no matter how powerful an attack was, if it was too simple and unrefined, dealing with it became very similar to taming a wild beast. For such things, a smooth-as-water approach could be unexpectedly effective.