PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

Upon a closer look, one would realize that the phenomenon was not lightning or anything like that, it was a peacock with beautiful black and white plumage being ridden by a handsome-looking man with blue eyes. It was due to its excessive speed that it was hard to make out the peacock’s appearance; on top of that, there were occasional times when both the creature and its rider turned into flashes of light. Still, it didn’t seem like they could do that for more than a few seconds.

For Desmond, the experience of riding Zero was both satisfying and somewhat intimidating. Truth be told, even Desmond found his mount’s speed a bit too exaggerated. That speed had gotten to the point where he had to trust Zero’s instincts and judgment, as his reaction speed couldn’t keep up with Zero’s speed.

However, feeling the wind caress his cheeks as he mounted Zero was a feeling that Desmond immensely enjoyed. The overwhelming speed and an enormous sense of freedom made Desmond want to bask in the feeling for at least a couple of hours.

Unsurprisingly, with Desmond’s luck, there was no way the universe would just sit there watching him enjoy a moment of peace and joy. As if to show that Desmond was not allowed to indulge in such things while he set foot in foreign lands, a creature in the sky took a predatory interest in Desmond.

With Desmond’s keen instincts, there was no way he wouldn’t notice something lurking. For a moment, Desmond considered ignoring his pursuer. Still, with a second thought, Desmond was also tempted to meet the beast face to face.

Truth be told, Desmond had been longing for a real battle for a long time. With the recent events and the low development on earth, there weren’t many people that could be a real challenge for Desmond. At least, there weren’t people that he could easily seek out.

To give an example, Commander Rundert could have been a good opponent. Still, due to his position as a military man and other factors to consider, Desmond couldn’t have an open battle against him; in the end, Rundert died a miserable death as a result of karma.

On the other hand, that crazy lightning-using mercenary put much pressure on Desmond. But due to how things proceeded, what happened was not a battle but rather unjust oppression in which Desmond ran around miserably until the opportunity came to turn things around.

.....

All in all, Desmond had long craved a satisfying battle, something to test his abilities. Judging by the beast’s enormous wingspan in the sky and its mana fluctuations, that thing should meet Desmond’s standards.

Speaking of the beast, this was the first time Desmond had seen anything like it. Obviously, because he was constantly traveling between worlds, Desmond was destined to encounter new and strange species, but this was the first time he had seen a giant flying dolphin.

To be more exact, the beast resembled a fifty-foot-long flying dolphin with four pairs of gigantic flippers, kept aloft in the air by unknown means. Complicated blue patterns could be seen on its fins and tail; a closer look would reveal that they were made from a blue crystal that grew from the beast’s flesh.

For some reason, those blue crystal patterns reminded Desmond of the first magical beast he’d ever faced, the stupid and reckless rabbit Aqua. In addition to their adorable appearance and unreasonably aggressive behavior, the Aqua Rabbits were characterized by having a sea-blue horn made from crystallized water mana.

As if trying to prove Desmond’s theories, the beast in the sky gave a strange song before a hail of water bullets rained down at high speed. Still on his mount, Desmond didn’t have to do anything; Zero turned into a flash of light and was out of attack range before he even hit the ground.

Gazing at the beast in the sky, Desmond fought the urge to use the hunter’s book to analyze it, a deep-buried feeling of mistrust telling him to try to rely as little as possible on the comforts offered by the association. This might sound weird, given that Desmond’s recent trip was thanks to the association’s existence. However, Desmond didn’t care; his instincts were never wrong.

Leaving aside whether or not to become too reliant on certain tools, Desmond still planned to hunt the beast in the sky; the rest were just details. As such, Desmond focused on his current task and left all unnecessary thoughts for later.

Provoked by the ease with which Desmond dodged his last attack, the flying beast again emitted a strange song. This time, instead of a hail of bullets, what hit Desmond was a sonic attack imbued with aquatic mana.

Against the attack, the beast unleashed; defending or escaping was no longer a matter of speed. The beast seemed to understand that trying to hit Desmond with a single attack would not work, so it resorted to omnidirectional means.

Though surprised at the wisdom displayed by the beast, Desmond wasn’t too hurt. To begin with, an omnidirectional attack was bound to be weaker than a concentrated single-point attack. Furthermore, Desmond strongly resisted this kind of attack due to his affinity with aquatic mana and his mastery of a similar attack.

Feeling the waves of the energy reverberating through his body in an attempt to slowly destroy him, Desmond attempted to counter the effects by vibrating his own mana at the same frequency, and it worked. Despite the small mana consumption and initial pain, Desmond suffered almost no loss from that attack, yet he learned a valuable lesson; the beasts were not underestimated.

While Desmond was not injured, the strange nature of the attack and the flying beast’s wisdom still left a deep impression on Desmond. Seeing that the flying beast didn’t seem to notice that its attack wasn’t working, Desmond decided to take advantage of the opportunity.

With a flash of black light, Desmond and Zero disappeared, startling the huge flying dolphin. A second later, Desmond appeared a hundred yards away as if by magic. However, a closer look would have seen his body and mount materialize from shadow.

Zero flapped his wings with herculean force without pausing and flew towards the dolphin in the sky. From the sudden change in position, it took the flying dolphin a moment to realize the impending attack. To make matters worse, when it tried to attack with water shots, Zero responded with tremendous agility, dodging each bullet with ease.

The flying dolphin didn’t want this strange creature to get close, so he once again rained down a barrage of water bullets, trying to cover the sky in Zero’s direction. Unfortunately for the intelligent creature that wanted to block all possible flight paths, Zero did not stop. Instead, Zero and Desmond turned back into a flash of light that passed right through the hail of Water bullets.

Zero proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that whether it was the ground or the sky, as a mount, it was second to none. As a bestial soul, the coordination between rider and beast was something an ordinary mount could not achieve. Both Desmond and Zero swept across the battlefield with unbeatable grace and agility.

Zero’s performance left Desmond completely satisfied, but his desire for battle was still far from satisfied. Desmond’s normally cold and merciless blue eyes gleamed with the lust of battle; as soon as the distance was adequate, Desmond didn’t hesitate to jump off Zero’s back.

Obeying the will of its master, the metallic blue mana condensed into a river of thin threads that soon intertwined, quickly forming a pair of long blue gloves that covered Desmond’s arms from fingertips to elbows.

The ocean patterns on the gloves had more than one hidden aquatic beast in their design, each brimming with vitality and killing intent. And as Desmond prepared to throw a punch with all his might, the figure of a leviathan roared arrogantly before hurtling towards Desmond’s fist.

Compared to his prey, Desmond was tiny, but there was neither fear nor doubt in his eyes. With a roar filled with wild emotion, Desmond unleashed a cannon of blue shockwaves, similar to the sonic attack the dolphin attempted to use against him.

“”

The pure blue mana passed within Desmond with each beat of his heart fueled this display of strength and dominance, drawing the surrounding mana into the same element to unleash a devastating attack.

Desmond was sure that, at his current level, this attack was capable of clashing with Mei Fei Long’s , though victory was hard to determine. The problem was that Desmond had not yet taken the step up to the two-star class, something he had delayed for a long time under Kyuru’s advice. Suppose one were to add to the special bloodline of Mei Fei Long that gave the woman a colossal draconic power. In that case, the truth is that even now, it is difficult to compete.

However, Desmond was not upset or dissatisfied; he knew that Mei Fei Long was an amazingly talented woman who had spent years of arduous martial training and life and death situations to attain the strength she possessed.

Desmond wouldn’t be so immature as to feel inferior or envy her strength. Power wasn’t something to be achieved in a day, plus Desmond was sure his strength would make an explosive leap when he advanced to the two-star class. Perhaps then, Desmond would consider getting a bloodline to increase his raw power and options, something he had previously discussed with Elaisa.