PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

634 Chapter 634 Where You Go, Do What You See.

About to leave the scene, Desmond remembered that there was still one last witness to get rid of, the werewolf brought by Mathias as prey for his hunt.

“Well, that settles it, I suppose.” Desmond commented when he saw the charred corpse a few meters from Mathias. Only then did Desmond remember that this werewolf had been right next to Mathias when he had thrown the first grenades into his face.

Putting the matter in the back of his mind, Desmond left the scene and headed for his next objective, the Licht clan’s ancestral residence. Half an hour later, Desmond frowned in front of the vast gothic-looking mansion. Unlike what he had seen before during his surveillance of the place, the estate seemed packed with security.

Seeing the seemingly inexplicable increase in the security of the place, Desmond couldn’t help but think about that incident that occurred on his first day in this world. According to what Desmond had discovered so far, there was practically no person who would still remember Lilith or the old era. The only exception to this was that old monster from the Licht clan who had tried to find Desmond the day he arrived.

Since nothing else had happened since that day, Desmond had forgotten the matter, which had been his mistake. Seeing the security, Desmond couldn’t help but mutter. “It seems that I was not as discreet as I thought. I don’t know if that old monster already noticed my obtaining the other four keys. Still, he certainly knows that I will eventually come for his.”

Suddenly, Desmond realized that time was even more pressing than before. If that old monster had already increased the security of the place just because of the suspicion of his eventual visit, only the devil knew what that man from the Licht clan would do if he found out that Desmond already possessed the other four keys.

Suddenly, the previous plan to take a stealthy approach to break into the Licht mansion and grab the key without anyone knowing went out the window. Desmond already had a headache from that alone since it was only a matter of time, probably a couple of hours, before someone noticed the deaths of Elvar Tremor and Mathias Lupan. Once the cat was out of the bag, Desmond might as well end up fighting all the experts from all five clans together, and well, that wasn’t going to work out in his favor.

For a moment, Desmond racked his brains, trying to come up with an ingenious and perfect way to obtain the last Licht clan key but ended up coming to a rather disappointing conclusion. With the time and resources at his disposal, such a scenario was just a fool’s dream.

Ironically, when all the clever and elaborate solutions disappeared, Desmond realized a relatively simple fact: such niceties weren’t necessary for his current situation.

.....

Roughly speaking, the easiest and fastest way to get the fifth key was to break in with guns blazing and perform a simple smash-and-grab operation. With only brute strength and absurd battle prowess, Desmond could pave his way to the key and walk out of place, leaving nothing but burning ruins behind him.

Of course, there was the possibility that the old monster from the Licht clan was at home, which increased the task’s difficulty, or the key had been misplaced. Yet, such things were beyond Desmond’s control, not to mention that he wouldn’t know anything for sure until he entered the place.

Having reached that conclusion, Desmond smiled wryly. Having spent so much time planning every step of his plan, this last part would be pretty disappointing strategically. However, given how wild and violent this particular world was, Desmond’s means didn’t seem entirely inadequate.

Not feeling the need to delay any longer, Desmond emerged from his hiding place and headed for the gate of the Licht clan’s ancestral residence. As expected, a group of guards approached Desmond to stop him, but he no longer had a reason even to fake a fancy entrance.

As soon as the guards entered a five-meter area around him, Desmond boiled the blood power within him and charged at the guards. Before they even knew what was happening, Desmond drew his silver pistols. He placed them on the temples of two guards before pulling the trigger.

As the skulls of the first two guards were smashed to pieces, Desmond used <Phantom Step> to appear behind the other pair of guards, both weapons pointed at the back of their heads. Leaving two other corpses with their skulls smashed into a thousand pieces, Desmond put both pistols away and continued to the mansion door.

Out of nowhere, Desmond drew his bow, <Vampiric Thorn>. With two quick shots, where every muscle in his body could be seen tensing to the max, two red flashes flew into the sky, hitting two guards who tried to ambush Desmond by falling from the mansion’s roof.

A couple of steps later, Desmond came to a halt, assuming an extremely tense fighting stance before exploding with two short blows of immense compressed power that struck the pair of guards in the chest as they fell from the ceiling to pass right next to him. All the power a two-star class Aura user would have was harnessed to the full in those two strikes, concentrating every bit of kinetic energy and exploding it masterfully.

The sound of two ribcages collapsing into a grotesque mess was all that was left behind as Desmond resumed his steps toward the Licht clan gate. Despite reaching the door, Desmond had already taken a low stance and built up tension. The next instant, with a shoulder slam, the doors were blown to pieces.

Seeing the destructive power he could unleash with his new physique in combination with the Bajiquan he was already used to; Desmond couldn’t help but smile. Although the consumption of blood was a significant drawback to maintaining this state for a long, Desmond had to admit that the benefits were still substantial. The only thing that still bothered him were those dark urges he kept getting from time to time.

The sudden appearance of two jets of green flame snapped Desmond out of his thoughts. Leaping out of the way, Desmond caught a glimpse of the pair of Licht Clansmen using their wrath fire. Desmond barely blinked at the fiery spectacle; he had long since studied the general abilities of the Licht clansmen.

“That fire of yours is dangerous, but it’s of little use if you can’t reach me.” Desmond commented mockingly after using his <Phantom Step> to appear behind both Licht clansmen without them detecting him.

Before the two Licht clansmen could react, Desmond placed both hands on their heads and slammed them to the ground using all of his weight and momentum. As soon as he rose from the ground, Desmond finished off both Licht Clansmen with a stomp, scattering his brain matter onto the broken floor.

Quickly, Desmond drew his silver pistols again and opened fire on the line of Licht clan experts who were positioning themselves on the lobby’s second floor to rain green fire on him.

Unlike Mathias, an existence in the middle of the two-star class who boasted rather absurd stamina and vitality, the experts of the Licht clan could not tolerate the firepower of Desmond’s silver pistols after being upgraded.

The bullets, imbued with dense metallic mana, traveled at the speed of sound, rapidly finding their way to the Licht clansmen before ripping apart their flesh and bones.

Desmond quickly mowed down the core members of the formation, opening a route he did not leave untapped. While continuing to fire at the rest of the scattered members, Desmond jumped to the second floor, stepping through the gap he created in the wall of green fire covering the lobby’s entire lower floor.

Suddenly, the Licht clansmen found themselves in a very precarious situation. Their lack of close combat power left them alone with a monster like Desmond right in the middle of their formation.

Although they tried to defend themselves with their bone transformation and manipulation abilities, little made their efforts to keep them alive when Desmond drew his sword, < Sky’s End>. Having to prioritize speed over anything else, Desmond had to abuse his weapons a bit, but it was worth it.

“I don’t have time to play with you. Shatter them, <Astryd swordplay – Undying Storm>.” Removing the mana consumption restrictions on the sword, a serpentine storm of wind blades instantly devoured all of the Licht clan’s experts, turning them into mincemeat a mere second later.

Without a second to breathe, Desmond sheathed his sword and prepared a draw stance, aiming down the corridor to his right. Gritting his teeth, Desmond risked allowing the corrupted essence of this world to touch his elemental seed as he let metallic mana flood the blade. Doing his best to endure the unholy sensation that invaded his being, Desmond attacked the squad heading in his direction. “<Astryd swordplay – Howling at the Stars>.”

The extreme-compressed metallic mana blade left a scar in the air and the mansion that ran all the way down the hall, leaving nothing more than a dozen bisected corpses. Desmond hardly paused after that; this had been nothing more than the welcome reception, and he still had a long way to go.