PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

398 Chapter 398 Short Break

“I hate to admit it, Your Holiness, but the situation in the city couldn’t be worse; we need to evacuate you as soon as possible.”

“I will not leave these children alone.”

Cecilia’s response was instantaneous; she didn’t leave any room for discussion either. The expression on her face said: I’ll die rather than back down. In other circumstances, Xolei couldn’t be happier to let this reckless woman meet her death. Still, the situation around him kept changing, so he couldn’t afford to ignore both Cecilia and the others.

One had to know that the church was never privy to the details of the attack; the Kormat empire did not share much with them. However, the church always worked under the premise that the scale of the attack would not be too grand and would primarily target some assassination attempts on important figures during the chaos.

Given the scale of the current attack and the civilian death toll thus far, it was clear that was not the case at all, and the church could no longer afford to remain passive, or they would risk being exposed as collaborators with the invading army.

Not even the mighty church could recover from a blow like that; one had to know that since the incident in the battle against the beast known as Skaylos the Stormbringer, where only the members of the church survived; the royal family had not been feeling very comfortable with the presence of the church.

That was especially the case after the enormous losses the kingdom’s army suffered in that incident, with cases where royal families were destroyed in their moment of weakness being abundant in the past, some cases even occurring at the hands of the church. Needless to say, the royal family had their guard up against the church and its growth ambition.

In the first instance, matters related to the church’s corruption were not unknown to the royals; the growing greed and thirst for power of the higher-ups of the church had failed to remain hidden. Even some high-level members of the nobility stopped feeling comfortable close to the church for fear of getting into the bad books of the royal family.

Due to these and other factors, the political situation within Serith had become complicated, to say the least; in a way, Cecilia was just one of many victims in this eternal game for power.

.....

Xolei was aware of all this, as one of the holy knights who protected and served one of the church’s highest ranks, so he pushed his anger aside and patiently responded to Cecilia.

“Your Holiness, since you wish to protect these children, it is my duty as a holy knight to assist you in this honorable task; Please allow me to be of assistance to you and escort you and these children to the nearest shelter.”

Both Desmond and Cecilia had reasons to be suspicious of Xolei’s intentions. Still, to the latter’s surprise, Desmond accepted the holy knight’s offer, despite his apparent dislike for the man.

Desmond had his reasons for doing this; if these had to be summed up, it would be that Desmond didn’t think Xolei had the guts to do anything against him when the situation in the city seemed to have spiraled out of control.

Although inferior to his father, Desmond still had a strong insight when reading others, though such an ability was somewhat unnecessary for someone with body language as open as Xolei’s.

It was evident that the holy knight was nervous; he constantly looked around, not only checking his men but also for possible threats, unlike Desmond, who did it instinctively; Xolei seemed to fear for his life at every step he took.

This was not strange at all; no matter how strong Xolei was or how many soldiers accompanied him, falling on the battlefield was not impossible. In fact, based on Desmond’s understanding of holy knights and their strength, to take a sacred knight to his grave; would only take a slightly larger group than the one he defeated earlier.

People with status and privilege usually fear losing their lives the most; that didn’t change even if said people had high combat ability. That was the case with Xolei, and it was because of this, that Desmond was sure the man wouldn’t dare stab them in the back.

“Holy Knight Xolei, since the two of us are the strongest fighting force in the group, why don’t we let your men escort the children while we go to the forefront protecting the holy priestess?”

Blatantly taking advantage of Xolei’s extended offer, Desmond went so far as to basically start barking around without caring about the chain of command at all.

As Desmond expected, Xolei did not interfere, as expected; not only was Desmond’s suggestion reasonable, but it also put Xolei in a relatively safe and advantageous position.

After all, Desmond wouldn’t dare make a sudden move against Xolei when the latter had Cecilia at hand, whom he could use as a hostage. This way, Xolei could feel safer with Desmond’s presence, and his cooperation could naturally flow.

Desmond had expected this, and he was grateful to Xolei for taking the bait. Little did the holy knight know that while Desmond might be strong, his combat performance was at the expense of his stamina and mana reserves; after a single brief battle, Desmond was already at the end of his forces.

Of course, it wasn’t like Desmond was a fish on the cutting board either, as his mana recovery rate was high to the point of being unreasonable. Desmond was already planning on consuming one of Sasha’s new potions as far as his physical stamina was concerned.

Desmond regretted the tiny amount of potions he carried with him; he couldn’t help it; these potions were the result of Sasha’s latest advances, and Desmond could already consider himself lucky enough to have a small amount of each.

Following a reverse logic with the use of materials of opposite properties, Sasha had managed to create a potion focused on slow healing and stamina recovery, a potion meant to be used after intense battles to heal internal damage.

Thus, Desmond took advantage of the time the Xolei soldiers had to secure the area to take a short break as he extracted two devices from his hunter’s book.

The first was a small bottle apparently designed to apply its contents as an aerosol, while the second was an injection device with interchangeable cartridges.

Desmond sprayed on the more superficial wounds, applying on these the reddish potion inside the spray. These minor wounds began to heal at a frankly alarming rate as a burning sensation filled each of them.

Desmond could almost feel the potion using his vitality and mana as fuel to heal his wounds, a sensation he had grown accustomed to after developing , which followed a very similar logic.

But this particular potion wasn’t very good at treating internal injuries, and that was what the injection device in Desmond’s right hand was for, and he placed a glass vial with a viscous light blue liquid inside.

This was the same treatment Desmond had used in the past when that asshole Erigard had broken much of his right arm, direct injection of a more specialized healing potion into the injured area.

This potion was designed to treat severe internal injuries carefully, using the soothing properties of water, the nourishing properties of wood, and the regenerative nature of vitality-type mana.

Desmond applied the injection to the left side of his torso, where he received one of the worst hits in the fight when he was met by the heavy energy around the earth knight’s sword.

Although it seemed as if Desmond hadn’t taken much damage from that blow, only he knew how hurt he was inside and the pain he was feeling all this time.

The few minutes he got to rest were vital for Desmond to regain as much combat power as possible. While Desmond took the brief break, Cecilia, who had already come out of her strange trance state, comforted the children, keeping them as calm as possible.

Xolei, on the other hand, also seemed to be meditating to regain his strength while some of his soldiers rested and others kept watch. Desmond had already noticed it when they met; both Xolei and his men showed some weariness and marks of combat engagement. This was one of many things that reinforced Desmond’s assumptions about the current state of affairs in the city.

“We will leave in five minutes. Get ready; it will be a difficult road.”

Although the morale of Xolei’s men did not seem the highest in the world, their training and loyalty to the holy knight became evident when they followed his orders without even a single complaint or show of discontent.

Desmond even earned Xolei a tiny shred of respect, as the holy knight might be a coward and a supremacist, but at least he had some ability to train his men.

“Cecilia, you have to be ready for what will come; It won’t be pretty.”

Desmond tried to warn Priestess, hoping that she could keep her calm, thus avoiding further trouble, but what he doesn’t know is that after seeing the massacre that Desmond carried out, there would be few things that could stun Cecilia again.