PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Morales wasn’t too affected, just like Claire. In Morales’ case, his ability had much more nasty and brutal results when he managed to hit a person with it. In Claire’s case, the violence she had seen in her life had made her quite desensitized to this sort of thing.

Silvia, the person in charge of the frozen body show, could barely stand up. For Silvia, unleashing an ability like the previous one was too stressful. As talented as she was, Silvia lacked the technical knowledge, training, and control to use her powers well.

Due to this combination of factors, Silvia, who should theoretically be as strong as Revna, was significantly weaker in combat, and her performance was less durable.

Seeing her friend on the verge of collapse, Claire rushed to her aid. Holding Silvia by her waist, Claire led her friend to an area where she could rest. The rest of the squad took advantage of the short break and hurried to rest. Without Silvia being able to give orders or think correctly, this was the second rookie mistake Desmond’s squad had made.

Confident in their proximity to the inner edge of the forest and in their recent victory, Desmond’s squad dropped their guard almost wholly. They couldn’t be blamed either; they had no reason to believe that other enemy forces could be in the area. The bandit/soldier squad was already an exception to the rule.

Strictly speaking, the sloppy logic of the people involved was not entirely wrong; Unfortunately, the world was not that simple, and sometimes, what had no reason to be, was.

The only person who saw what would happen next was Revna. Still, because Claire was not the primary target, she remained silent, preparing and gathering her darkness mana in case she needed to protect Claire in an emergency.

Completely unaware that there was someone who could have saved his life but chose not to, Thomas, one of the less prominent members of the squad, was shot in the head, followed by a volley of bullets hitting his torso.

.....

The sudden gunshots caught everyone off guard; most could only watch as Thomas had his brains blown out before his body was turned into a honeycomb.

Thomas’s death was brutal; the young boy, retiring but gentle, didn’t even get a chance to say a word before his life was taken; but that was not the end.

Because they were resting carelessly, most of the squad members weren’t in a position to react quickly, much less have a place to quickly seek cover.

Some reacted quicker than others, using their abilities to set up whatever defense they could muster as they tried to find cover; unfortunately, the slower ones were shot down immediately.

Lana was struck by lightning from somewhere in the bushes, frozen on the spot, her eyes filled with horror before she succumbed to a blast of lead.

Morales was also one of the slowest to react, quickly being hit by a couple of bullets that hit him in the legs, causing him to collapse.

Before his life was taken, Morales showed good judgment by using his sonic revolver to shoot the ground and the shockwave to get out of the way. Wounded but not killed, Morales took advantage of the foliage to crawl until he found some cover.

Out of the three remaining members, the aura user was directly blown to pieces by a grenade launcher. Still, between the chaos caused by that explosion and the mess created by Morales’ sonic revolver, the other two managed to get to cover with only a few injuries.

In a scenario Desmond could never have seen coming, Claire found herself in the worst possible situation even with Revna’s assistance.

The problem was that Claire was with Silvia when everything started, and Silvia could barely move in her current state. When the assault began, Claire reacted immediately by erecting a telekinetic barrier around her, protecting herself and Silvia, but leaving them both sitting ducks to continue being targeted by enemy fire.

Revna was a great assassin, there was no doubt about that, but her protection skills weren’t the best. In the current situation, there wasn’t much she could do without getting away from Claire and risking her being in danger.

Claire’s amethyst energy shield quickly drew attention, and the enemy forces soon turned their attention to it, concentrating fire on the barrier to bring it down.

Claire was having a hard time; there were between six or eight people focusing their shots on her shield, and her protection would not last forever with the firepower they had.

Although exhausted, Silvia was not ignorant of her surroundings and the situation she found herself in. Seeing Claire sweating profusely with a pale face, all to protect her, something moved but also hurt Silvia.

“Claire, leave me behind, find cover and fight back; at this rate, you will run out of strength.”

Silvia’s pitifully weak voice barely cut through the noise of combat and gunfire, but Claire could still hear her; however, Silvia did not get an answer to her plea.

A second voice found its way to Claire’s ears; this time, it was Revna whispering from the shadows. “Young lady, please listen to Silvia. Even I won’t be able to do anything if the situation continues for too long.”

Revna also didn’t get a response from Claire, who seemed one hundred percent focused on keeping her barrier. Hearing nothing from Claire, Revna wanted to intervene but quickly changed her mind when she saw the current expression on Claire’s face.

The idea that Claire and Desmond were more alike than might appear at first glance had already crossed Revna’s mind in the past; seeing Claire’s current expression, that idea became even stronger.

Hidden from the attackers’ view by the purple shield, Claire looked not the least bit desperate; on the contrary, there was a rather aggressive smile on her face, one tinged with thick bloodlust.

Claire’s always cheerful and jovial voice was nowhere to be seen; all that remained was a wild instinct for survival and protection and some pride. “You should both keep quiet, stand aside and see how I deal with this. Do you really think I’m just a pretty face? My last name may be Lynwood, but I’m part of the Astryd family, and being prepared for anything is kind of a creed in my family.”

After speaking, Claire reached out and took out two small accessories from a side pouch on her belt. The accessories that Claire took out were an intricately designed hair clip and a ring filled with runes, but both artifacts had one thing in common: a precious purple gem set in them.

As Claire placed the barrette in her hair, it let out an intense burst of purple energy that reinforced and reshaped Claire’s defensive barrier. The simple shield of telekinetic power was shaped by the intricate spell etched into the brooch, creating what looked like a translucent purple crystal castle around Claire and Silvia.

Silvia, watching in utter disbelief, overheard Claire mutter a few words as the new barrier formed. “.”

The new barrier was like an immovable mountain for the other party’s offense, even grenades and esper skills didn’t seem to have the slightest effect on it.

But Claire was just starting; whoever had attacked them had killed more than one of her friends and almost killed Silvia. Any kindness or warmth that Claire used to have had gone out the window; in essence, she had gone Berserk.

Inside the purple crystal barrier, Claire extended a hand in front of her; as she did so, the purple crystal on the ring she was wearing; projected a kind of spectral hand around Claire’s hand.

Once again, Silvia heard Claire murmur a few words to herself. “”

All the shooting and combat ceased in the next instant. After waiting a couple of seconds, a group of almost twenty individuals dressed in Country C’s military uniform appeared, slowly floating in the air towards Claire.

If one looked more closely, one would notice that all of these people had hands of purple energy holding them by the neck in a death grip. It didn’t take an expert to know that all of these people were desperately struggling to get out of the grasp of these purple hands as they suffocated, but no matter how hard they struggled, it didn’t make a difference.

A couple of wise individuals realized that Claire was the source of this strange but brutal attack. Still, no matter if they responded with bullets, lightning, or some other type of esper ability, the shield around Claire was undeterred.

As the C Country soldiers desperately fought not to succumb to suffocation and the remaining members of Desmond’s squad watched in silence, Claire’s beautiful but now chilling voice broke the silence. “”

The sound of twenty necks snapping in unison was much more than many could bear. Aside from Morales and Silvia, the rest of the survivors vomited immediately. Revna, on the other hand, seemed unable to recognize Claire.

It was as if all sound in the world was gone, and only deathly silence was left in this place that now reeked of death. The silence lasted for almost thirty seconds until a familiar male voice interrupted. “I see; I’m late.”