PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

And although Desmond and Xiauyue had wanted to continue the indiscriminate slaughter, three seconds was all they got. Desmond originally thought that they would have at least four to five seconds of advantage before their enemies fully recovered from the effects of the stun grenades but it seemed that he had underestimated the endurance of the martial artists of this world.

Not that he was going to complain about it, for of the fifteen killers in the room, only six were left alive.

But soon Desmond and Xiauyue began to feel the pressure, unlike their previous enemies, these assassins not only had a pretty decent amount of strength but they had great teamwork.

Due to their training, these assassins knew how to use their companions as tools to distract their enemies, thus dividing their attention to perform sneak attacks or to have a better chance of avoiding an attack.

Where earlier Xiauyue would defeat an enemy in two or three moves, she had already exchanged at least a dozen moves with the four surrounding assassins and had only managed to lightly injure a few of them.

Desmond on his side was having trouble finding windows of opportunity to hit a ranged attack at his enemies, as they were well trained to use their surroundings to protect themselves and to gain an advantageous position to counterattack.

As a result, Desmond was forced to stay on the defensive, barely being able to keep his two opponents occupied from attacking Xiauyue.

In part, this stalemate was due to both Desmond and Xiauyue being reluctant to use their best moves due to still having some mistrust of future ambushes.

.....

And their precaution was well justified since until now none of them had seen Bai Zifeng or someone who seemed to be the leader of this organization, so there were at least two individuals hidden somewhere waiting for them to make a mistake.

The problem was that both of them were unable to eliminate their enemies without resorting to their most powerful abilities so the stalemate continued to drag on, over time both Xiauyue and Desmond had to make a decision.

They had to decide whether to use their most powerful abilities to break the stalemate and eliminate their enemies, saving time, but also risking depleting their best cards and energy reserves for later battles or continuing the stalemate and risking entering an attrition battle

And it was Desmond who made the decision, firing another arrow to force his enemies to take cover, Desmond took the opportunity to change position as he entered the room at the same time that he poured down his throat one of the few mana potions that he brought with him into this world.

As a warm stream of mana coming from the potion began to replenish his nearly depleted mana reserves another pair of throwing knives made their way in the direction of where Desmond would be a second later causing this attack to most likely hit him in the torso.

But feeling the mana fill his body again Desmond hadn’t even waited to be in a dangerous situation and immediately entered again using his new speed to outrun that throwing knife attack.

Not wanting to waste any more time Desmond aimed his bow directly at the thick stone pillar behind which the two ranged assassins were hiding and activated an ability that he had only used once in the past due to the ridiculous mana consumption.

The dark wood of the bow seemed to throb for a brief moment as the vine patterns twisted bizarrely with some sparkles caused by the intense mana pulses occurring within the bow.

All the mana flowed from the center of this where the bony ornaments with which the bow was enhanced were placed and traveled to the ends of the bow before passing through the bowstring pulsing with vitality before condensing into a miniature of the tiger creeper′s head at the tip of the arrow.

The whole process was long to describe but all this happened in less than a second, it was in part that speed of application that made this skill so exhausting to execute because it drains absurd amounts of the user’s mana to create an arrow with devastating power; but its effects were indisputable.

And it was this confidence in the destructive power of this ability that prompted Desmond to use it to break the current balance in battle.

With no time to waste Desmond released the bowstring allowing the arrow to take flight, a low tiger roar reverberating briefly from the bow before the arrow practically teleported to its target.

Having gone through many dangerous situations in the past, the pair of assassins had a highly developed sense of danger so they immediately felt the threat that this arrow was for them; unfortunately, they just weren’t fast enough to getaway.

BOOM!

A thunderous explosion shook the entire room for a couple of seconds taking the rest of the assassins off guard as a cloud of smoke filled the place where their companions used to be.

Xiauyue was not going to miss the opportunity and without a moment’s hesitation, she brandished her sword while continuously pulsing with Ki leaving a strange trail of small blue Ki condensations as if the sword will leave a trail of tiny diamonds in its path.

And without anyone being able to hear what she was saying, Xiauyue muttered: “”

Strangely, Xiauyue’s sword didn′t actually cut any of her opponents but before they felt relieved, they only watched in horror as all those almost translucent Ki crystals left behind shot towards them like shrapnel; turning their bodies rapidly into bleeding drains.

And as their bodies collapsed to the ground, the smoke from where Desmond had fired started vanishing, revealing what was left of Desmond’s enemies; that it was nothing more than two bloody stains on the walls with a few occasional solid pieces from the corpses scattered around.

Just from the above one could tell how dangerous the trump cards of people like Desmond and Xiauyue could be, but from the pallor on both of their faces, one could also understand the kind of price these skills have and why they weren’t commonly used lightly.

Still catching his breath, Desmond began to retreat to Xiauyue’s side as a preventive measure while continuing to look around him, from his attitude one could see that he still did not fully trust their victory.

As demonstrated by the corpse of their enemies, it only took a little moment of carelessness to become a corpse and Desmond did not want to be a victim of that kind of carelessness.

The seconds passed and nothing else happened, the pallor on their faces began to fade and their breaths regained a healthy rhythm; only then did they both dare to breathe a sigh of relief.

Sigh*

But it was at that precise moment that the alarms within Desmond’s mind began to ring like crazy and he remembered something he had read a long time ago about how predators used to let their guard down just at the moment when they believed they were savoring the victory.

And that was exactly their current situation, that thought was then followed by a second thought, something he had noticed even before entering the room but had overlooked until now.

The room was much larger than Desmond had expected, not only in terms of length and width but the room also seemed unnecessary and outrageously tall.

As soon as that idea came to his mind, Desmond managed to see a small and very subtle metallic flash above him just at the edge of his peripheral vision.

Almost like a conditioned reflex Desmond reactivated and pushed the ability to his limit at the same time that he used on top of it; then he immediately lunged at Xiauyue pushing her to the ground and falling on her.

Xiauyue who was taken by surprise was about to yell at Desmond in fury when she heard a huge bang coming from the place where she had been standing.

They both looked back only to notice a man dressed in black and purple standing where they had been just now with a sword in hand and a huge slash mark on the ground.

Just from the size of the cut on the ground and how smooth the cut was one could tell that the individual’s strength was by no means something that could be taken lightly, at least Xiauyue didn’t think so.

Xiauyue immediately wanted to thank Desmond for saving her but when she turned to look at him she noticed how pale he looked and then a warm sensation touched her face as a couple of drops of blood fell on her cheeks.

And as they both rose to face this new enemy, Xiauyue noticed that Desmond’s right shoulder had a deep slash mark; he was not able to completely dodge the attack while he brought her to safety.

The only thing that made Xiauyue’s mood even worse was noticing the appearance of multiple black-clad individuals who kept falling from the ceiling.

Only then did Xiauyue understand that this was the true trap and the above arrangement was not just baiting but a way to exhaust her and Desmond; which made her feel quite powerless and incompetent.

Desmond by his side, although injured, had already planned a course of action and began to gather a small spark of metallic mana in his right hand, just from his expression one could tell that he was not intimidated by his current situation and there was still much fighting left on him; which made the leader of the assassins wonder what kind of card the blue-eyed boy had up his sleeve.