PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

GAAARRRGH!

It was uncertain if the corrupted beasts still possessed any degree of consciousness, but at least it seemed to have been successfully triggered by the hunter in front of her, unable to restrain his murderous impulses the corrupted beast lunged at Desmond with ferocity; But, since when Desmond was the kind of man who would stand still while a gigantic, stupid beast tried to tear him apart?

′′ Full-Drive. ′′

After saying just one sentence, Desmond’s speed reached a new level, but contrary to logic Desmond did not choose to get out of the beast’s path, but instead, Desmond rushed in the direction of his enemy while gathering a large amount of metallic mana in his right hand.

Seeing his prey rush in his direction the corrupted beast opened its jaws full of sharp teeth and tried to bite Desmond apart, unfortunately for the poor undead creature Desmond was significantly outpacing her; So before the beast even managed to draw its necrotic venom-filled fangs in the direction of its prey, Desmond had already positioned himself in front of the beast’s exposed belly and delivered a blow of devastating force.

It had to be mentioned that, unlike mana burst which was not suitable for continuous use in combat, Full-Drive was able on a completely different level; This was an extended reinforcement ability that allowed the user to increase his physical capabilities for extended periods.

The advantages of this ability could be appreciated when seeing the amount of damage that Desmond had done in a single hit to a beast that surpassed him in level if Desmond had wanted he could have killed the corrupted beast with that blow if he had used the main characteristic of the steel claw which is its ability to penetrate instead of delivering a forceful blow with it, But Desmond was not only fighting to kill his enemy but he was trying to get better acquainted with his new ability.

Desmond’s blow still managed to smash the corrupted beast’s rib cage and knock it down a couple of feet away, which was already unbelievable given its weight; the beast tried to get up as if it felt no pain and that was likely the case, but with the amount of damage he received right now he was unable to muster the strength to get up.

.....

′′ They are truly more fragile than a normal magical beast, well I suppose they make up for that with the necrotic poison and their pack tactics; but if you only face one there is not too much problem.′′ Desmond made a small comment judging his prey, but he didn’t seem too happy that he had won the battle.

It was normal, it was obvious that Desmond was looking for something more than just training at the moment, the truth is that Desmond had accumulated a lot of stress and lust in recent days, especially with the events of this morning so he was looking for something to vent; Killing corrupted beasts turned out to be a good option.

That also explained why he went from wanting to hunt them quietly and discreetly with his bow to fighting directly with them in close combat.

Now looking at the motionless creature Desmond shrugged before drawing a bow and arrow, after testing his limits using Full-Drive to pull the bowstring; Desmond ended the beast’s misery with a single shot.

GAAAAUUUURG!

The beast let out one last roar of agony before perishing, which was somewhat strange to Desmond who was aware that these beasts were inherently incapable of feeling pain or agony.

But after hearing a multitude of answering roars, Desmond realized what was happening, it didn’t take to be Sherlock Holmes to realize that the beast had called in reinforcements.

But instead of worrying about it, Desmond seemed excited instead, one could assume that Desmond was happy to have more training goals and to be able to vent a little more.

Soon three corrupt beasts surrounded Desmond and without stopping for even a second on their way they immediately lunged at Desmond trying to tear the young hunter apart and enjoy his delicious meat.

Desmond seeing his current situation went back into Full-Drive, but this time he increased the intensity and frequency of the mana waves that traveled through his body; thus increasing his overall strength even more.

Desmond used his enhanced abilities to perform a quick jump, rising a couple of meters from where the three beasts were and performing a couple of somersaults in the air, Desmond fell silent delivering a powerful guillotine kick reinforced with metallic mana to the back of one of the corrupt beasts.

CRACK!

After hearing and feeling the beast’s spine break, Desmond used it as a pivot to perform a Backflip and dodge the beast that was trying to impale him from behind with its poisoned bone spines.

As he passed the rear of the beast in midair, Desmond channeled a significant amount of wind mana into his palm and delivered a thunderous blow to the beast followed by a blast of wind that sent it flying.

POOM!

This time due to the posture and the amount of mana Desmond was able to muster, the blow was not powerful enough to seriously wound the corrupted beast but still served its purpose of separating it from the remaining beast.

As soon as Desmond’s feet touched the ground again, he was able to smell the corpse stench coming from the jaws of the beast that was only inches from being able to swallow his flesh, this time Desmond was forced to Dodge in a hurry to avoid losing half of your right shoulder.

After performing a quick leaning side dodge to the left, Desmond supported his full weight forward and rushed with great momentum in the direction of the beast that had attacked him, as soon as he managed to get close to the beast he had to perform a sweep while leaning to dodge the bone spike of the beast that it counterattacks with a backhand blow.

At that moment Desmond felt the call of the grim reaper, he knew that the venom of these beasts was incredibly lethal and he was not willing to test if Sasha’s antidotes were capable of curing him.

Having successfully dodged the counterattack of the corrupted beast Desmond prepared a double blow of the storm palm and delivered it right into the belly of the beast, after a powerful blast of wind the beast flew at least a couple of meters before hitting a gigantic tree.

′′ Shit, that was close ′′

Now seeing the corrupted beast trying to get up unsuccessfully due to the limbs that broke during the impact with the tree, Desmond focused his attention on the last corrupted beast that could still fight, the one that had attacked with a storm palm while the two of them were meeting in the air.

This beast was in much better condition than his companions, but that was of little relevance now that it was facing Desmond alone.

Seeing his last rival Desmond made his knuckles crackle as he approached with a vicious smile to start combat again, from one moment to another Desmond used his ridiculous speed to place himself on the side of the beast and hit it with another storm palm.

At this point, Desmond looked like a cat playing with a mouse as he beat the poor corrupt beast back and forth. Eventually, the beast died and was soon followed by his companions. Desmond, seeing the corpses around him, couldn’t help saying something quite sinister: ′′ Well I finished sharpening my claws, it’s time to hunt for real. ′′