PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

If there was one thing Desmond hated almost as much as paperwork, that would be having to clean up the battlefield after leaving everything in pieces and ruins, dead bodies included.

Due to his need for military credits, Desmond spent more than a few minutes collecting badges from the dead officers and any pieces of intelligence he could find in the command center.

The findings were mixed, at least, regarding military credits; Desmond was quite pleased. With just the number of dead officer badges on his hands, Desmond was pretty sure he could get a head start on his quest for further promotion, not to mention everything else Desmond found in the command center.

Even for someone like Desmond, who was quite used to corpses, the smell of iron and burning meat was still a lingering nuisance. Needless to say, Desmond did not enjoy the process of removing the dead colonel’s brains from a military insignia.

Desmond didn’t even have the luxury of being able to blame anyone else for the inconvenience he was going through. As cruel and cold as Desmond could be at times, he wasn’t cynical enough to complain about such a small thing while strolling through a valley of corpses.

“Shit, this fucking idiot messed with his brains half of the stuff on the desk.” Proving that he could reach the highest levels of cynicism, Desmond didn’t hesitate to curse the dead colonel when he saw its brains scattered over a pile of documents on a desk near the corpse.

While he was busy collecting what he could, a comm signal reached his visor. Although the central part of the reward Desmond got from one of his missions was the visor he was wearing, Desmond still acquired a couple of valuable things, among which was an intelligence interface placed in the Garden barracks, which was where the message originated.

Simply responding with a mental signal, the visor recognized Desmond’s intent and opened the comm signal; a second later, Desmond could see an image of Sara in his viewfinder.

.....

“Did something important happen, Sara?”

Back at Garden headquarters, in front of what looked like a holographic interface, Sara answered. “I’m afraid so. Our vengeful canary sent a message, warning us that there was suspicious activity on the side of a certain commander; she saw Graham hurry out of the commander’s office. I tried sending Yulei to follow Graham, but she lost him once they got out of town.”

Desmond’s face immediately turned serious. “Yulei is pretty good at tracking; how did she lose Graham?”

Desmond could see quite clearly the helplessness on Sara’s face; it seemed that even she was not expecting the current outcome.

“As you know, Graham is a powerful user of fire, his prowess in battle is quite well known. We didn’t know that man could use fire as a propellant to fly at high speeds. As soon as Graham reached the outside, he took off at full speed and headed east.”

By the time the conversation took place, Desmond had already started to leave the area. With the current situation, it was impossible to tell what Graham’s objective would be, and Desmond was worried about Claire.

Sara was not at all happy that she had failed in her tasks. Still, the harsh reality forced her to recognize that not everything was in her control and that even with her superior intellect, it was impossible to accurately predict Graham’s goal.

“I’m sorry, Master, I have no way of finding Graham.”

As sincere as Sara’s apology was, Desmond didn’t pay attention or respond, not because he didn’t want to, but because both Sara’s apology and his own concern had been pretty useless.

“That’s quite an interesting look. Tell me, Desmond, where does an ungrateful dog get the strength to destroy this place.”

Even without Desmond’s response, the voice that reached Sara over the comm link was enough for her to realize what was happening. With a tired but grateful sigh, Sara only said a single thing before ending the communications. “Have fun, Master.”

Sara’s comment only served to increase the size of the smile Desmond had at the moment. It couldn’t be helped, he had been worrying about Graham’s possible intentions, but the source of his worries had presented itself in front of him.

“Graham, you have no idea how glad I am to see you.”

Desmond’s words sounded sincere, but the expression on his face and the immense sadistic pleasure that overflowed from his entire being sent a shiver up Graham’s spine.

Graham took a second to respond, clenching his teeth against the inexplicable fear that filled his being. “I can’t say the pleasure is mutual. After all, it seems you’ve been keeping a lot of things from us, hasn’t it, Desmond Astryd?”

Looking at the nearly one hundred butchered soldiers around him, Desmond shrugged and responded with great nonchalance. “It can’t be helped; you work for a filthy pig. Wouldn’t it be too stupid of me to let people like you or your boss know too much about me?”

With Desmond’s words basically confirming some of Graham’s suspicions, the course of action became pretty straightforward. Graham’s response came in the form of a gigantic torrent of flame; it was evident that the lieutenant colonel had had enough of Desmond.

“You are too arrogant a man. You have just been promoted in rank. Do you really think someone like you has the strength to face me?”

Although Graham was still talking as he released the torrent of flames, in his opinion, there was no way he would get an answer; Desmond had no chance of surviving his attack.

“I’m arrogant because I have a right to be. In your case, you’re just a reckless idiot.”

With a burst of blue light and steam, the torrent of flames split in two, almost instantly dissipating; simultaneously, a whip of water run through the middle, eventually hitting Graham in the chest.

For Graham, it was like being hit by a truck; unable to offer any resistance, his body was thrown into the distance, eventually falling to the ground covered in dirt.

Picking up his muddy face from the ground, Graham expressed disbelief. Seeing Desmond display abilities, he shouldn’t possess left Graham stunned. Interestingly, Graham’s more reckless and temperamental side allowed him to react based on anger rather than freeze like an idiot.

“How dare you? You are just an insolent bastard. If not for you taking me by surprise, you would never have been able to hit me.”

There was a moment when Desmond seemed genuinely curious, trying to fathom the existence of an idiot Graham’s size. Still, after a second, Desmond concluded that trying to fathom Graham might damage his brain.

Motivated by the more sadistic and cruel side of him, Desmond asked a question with a mischievous smile. “Are you paying attention now?”

On impulse, Graham responded. “Of course, I’m paying attention.”

In that split second it took for Desmond’s next attack to hit his target in the face, Graham came to a sad realization, but being able to understand and react were two entirely different things.

This time, the blow Graham received was not as decisive as the previous one, understandable since Desmond wasn’t planning on killing him yet. Still, the humiliation Graham suffered was, perhaps, worse than the physical pain.

Enraged, Graham unleashed a sea of ??flames in Desmond’s direction, pouring every ounce of his energy into his attack. In a stunning display of destructive power, Graham’s fire wave changed the landscape instantly, turning a peaceful forest filled with natural greenery into a blazing inferno.

As pathetic as Desmond found Graham, the power of someone on the verge of advancing to the two-star class couldn’t be underestimated. However, if there was someone who should not be overstated, that was Desmond Astryd.

Although Desmond and Graham were theoretically on the same level in terms of actual power, the difference was like comparing the performance of a family car to a high-performance sports car just because they both had fuel tanks of the same size.

Showing an even more advanced version of the fighting style that Desmond had been developing since his last trip to Serefia, where he met Cecilia, Desmond used his own body as a means of focus. Through smooth martial arts movements, the water mana formed different streams that eventually converged to one point before creating a pillar of water that instantly broke through the sea of ??fire.

In terms of mana control, purity, and concentration, Graham was nothing more than an ignorant trying to show off in front of an expert; his sea of ??fire offered no margin of resistance against Desmond.

It was brief, but Graham got a chance to see Desmond from across the now-broken sea of ??fire, and as he waited for the pillar of water to hit him, a thought entered Graham’s mind, one he muttered under his breath just before being thrown to the ground like a broken doll. “I shouldn’t have come here.”