PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

My instincts were screaming at me, asking me incessantly not to let that asshole go away. My common sense, on the other hand, although aware that Erigard’s presence was worrying, I still thought that finding Kyuru was more critical.

Now that I was closer to the tower, I had no problem seeing the damage to the building. Following the smoke trail all the way back to its source, I could see what appeared to be the remains of an explosion on one of the intermediate floors; plus, some minor structural damage didn’t seem like a big deal.

The front doors no longer had their elegant appearance of the past; it was expected considering that both doors were on the ground, having been knocked down and torn from their place.

According to what the soldiers told us at the entrance, the attack was brief and did not escalate, which I could verify from outside the tower; since the faint traces of destruction and external damage only reached as far as where the explosion occurred.

After all, though sturdy, Cecilia’s tower still couldn’t fully withstand the stress of combat between knight-class mana users.

Although unfortunate for the poor building, this provided a small modicum of comfort for Cecilia and me, as our loved ones should have been on the upper floors, far from where the battle occurred.

At least, that’s how it should have been, but I didn’t feel so calm; there was something that kept bothering me, something that didn’t add up. The problem was obvious, Erigard, who had no reason to come to prevent an attack on Cecilia’s tower from happening but still came to support; something smelled fishy.

If there were two things in the world that I trusted, those would be my family and my instincts, so don’t take my bad feeling lightly; on the contrary, I was impatient to find Kyuru and check her safety.

.....

Both Cecilia and I entered the tower, quickly being greeted by the mess inside; it seemed that the invaders had some extra energy that they dropped on the decoration and real estate of the tower.

It’s not like I’m some kind of interior decorating expert or related hobby, but I still felt it was a shame that so much precious furniture and decorations would end up in little pieces.

Concentrate, Desmond; you have more important things to do. Perhaps it was fatigue and lack of rest, but I could already feel how my mind was beginning to operate strangely and inefficiently; my senses also seemed duller.

It would happen at long intervals, my vision would blur at times, I would have blips of hearing loss, and sometimes I couldn’t feel my feet touching the ground; I was much more exhausted than I thought at first.

This was the biggest disadvantage of my fighting style; mana consumption and stamina. My combat power was nothing short of overwhelming, but that explosive power came with a high drain that wasn’t sustainable in prolonged combat; this was even when I tried not to use all of my abilities.

Part of the problem was that none of my skills were low-power; even my movement skill, which was the least demanding, was something I could only do a couple of dozen times.

With my recent increase in strength, my mana pools expanded, and my consumption rate did in turn, but the growth was not proportional, favoring my mana pools more, which gave me a bit of a respite over the past few hours.

My body was a different story; as a mana user, my physique was meant to not be my most significant asset, and there wasn’t much improvement in it even after I progressed. It seemed that I would have to rely on precious resources to strengthen my body.

I reinforced that thought once more when Cecilia and I climbed the tower stairs; every step I took, every stair I climbed, was a challenge. I guess the blood loss didn’t help either; all the exhaustion and combat had taken a toll on my body; being honest, I’m already very close to my limit.

I must admit I didn’t expect this to happen, and I’m not talking about the whole city invasion thing, although that also took me by surprise. To be honest, not a single one of the opponents I’ve had so far could be considered strong, they were dangerous enough to hurt me at best, but they were far from what I considered a challenge.

Perhaps, I was complacent; I never thought that the strength of numbers could tip the balance so much in favor of the weak, an experience that was not pleasant, I must add. It was frustrating; attacks were raining down from all sides, the amount of information my mind had to process was almost overwhelming, and it was complicated to find weak points to exploit.

Until now, the most potent enemies I had faced were Keneth the Lightning Wolf and Erigard the Holy Knight, the former being slightly stronger than the latter; the frustrating thing, however, was that the fights in the city were almost as brutal as facing any of them.

That made me think about my fighting style and shortcomings; maybe I should develop more skills suitable for fighting multiple enemies, things like area damage, or something like that; according to Elaisa, this is how elementalists are supposed to fight.

I knew that my fighting style had been much closer to an Aura user and hadn’t been taking advantage of mana strengths properly. It wasn’t until recently that my style started to change, gradually becoming a hybrid style between martial arts and elemental control, which was my original goal. However, it seemed like I still had a lot to work on; I can’t believe my progress was so slow.

“Looks like it was an intense battle.”

Cecilia’s warm voice brought me out of my thoughts. I couldn’t believe that I was distracted like that; it seemed that my mind was more cloudy than I thought. I looked around and understood what Cecilia was talking about.

We were right on the middle floors of the tower, in the area where the main confrontation happened, and from here, we could see the small missing segment of a wall in the background where the explosion occurred.

The destruction on this floor was on a different level; it almost seemed as if a damn hurricane had passed through the center aisle, that is, if hurricanes were walking around carrying swords and corpses.

Nearly a dozen foreign soldiers were taking their final rest, scattered around the room, where traces of sword cuts and elemental attacks occurred.

In all likelihood, the most vital member of the invading unit was a fire user, as marks of fire and ash surrounded the single corpse in knight armor. It didn’t make much difference; it seemed like Erigard got severe and quickly finished the fight, judging by how little the fire damage spread.

That damn idiot knight, for a second, I thought the explosion occurred at the hands of these invaders, but from the massive trail on the ground, it seemed like Erigard’s sword strike was to blame for most of the damage done to the tower.

I was upset, but we had more important things to do. Neither Cecilia nor I rushed for this; no, We were both looking for someone.

“Come on, we don’t have time to waste.”

“Don’t you notice something strange?”

“You mean we haven’t coincidentally found a single corpse that didn’t belong to these idiots from Kormat?”

“Then you noticed.”

“How could I not? Don’t think about it too much, Cecilia. I know it can be annoying to hear, but no one in this tower has enough loyalty to you to stay here, ignoring the hell out there.”

“Nana is here.”

The steel couldn’t be as firm as Cecilia’s response; she had not even the slightest doubt that Nana was still in the tower. In the same way that I had no doubt when Claire or Sasha told me they loved me, Cecilia had an absolute certainty in her words. It makes me wonder; is it her trust in Nana’s loyalty, or does she know the kind of feelings her maid has for her.

“You don’t have to tell me; if it wasn’t for her, you wouldn’t be so desperate to come back. God knows that even if I had refused to accompany you, you would still have come, no matter the danger.”

Cecilia’s face clearly showed the embarrassment she felt. “Thank you for accepting to bring me here; I know it was not easy for you. I am also sorry for how useless I have been until now. If not for you, I would never have been able to get here.”

It seems that Cecilia is more aware of her shortcomings than I thought; at least, it appears that this was on her mind all this time.

“Forget it; even if you didn’t want to come, I would have done it independently. I remind you that you are not the only one who is looking for someone, do not take this the wrong way, but I would have dragged you with me if necessary.

“Is Kyuru that important to you?”

“You have no idea. Kyuru is irreplaceable; as childish and capricious as she may seem, she is a great girl... I owe her too much.”

Mentioning my dear fairy companion and my self-proclaimed personal therapist made me impatient to find that little cutie with butterfly wings. For some reason, I couldn’t get this feeling off my chest; I just hoped it was nothing more than my paranoia.