PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

659 Chapter 659 The First Sincere Smile In A Long Time.

Increasingly accustomed to intruding on new environments, it took Desmond only a few minutes to realize most of the details about the event currently taking place in the arena.

Contrary to what Desmond initially believed, there was no tournament taking place, at least not at the moment. What he was seeing now was something similar to an arena open to challenges and demonstrations by the public.

Unlike the tournament that the Eternal War Maiden Sect held a few days ago, this event was for experts rather than aspiring martial artists, and it was an open event without many rules and no rankings.

From the surrounding conversations, Desmond also picked up some other details, for example, that Mei Fei Long and Miao Xiauyue were in this city and their participation in this event had been announced in advance due to how influential both girls were. Needless to mention, Desmond was surprised to realize that he would be meeting up with old friends, but that wasn’t the only surprise Desmond got.

Apparently, Claire, Sasha, Cecilia, and Revna had already entered the arena to fight a couple of times, displaying great battle prowess and beauty that drew the attention of the public and new opponents. Asking about it, it seemed that the girls hadn’t faced strong enough opponents yet so they had taken it easy, dominating their rivals but always showing the necessary mercy.

To tell the truth, Desmond was a bit surprised maybe even incredulous about it. When all was said and done, of the four, only Revna had shown Desmond her fighting prowess. Sure, Sasha had the raw power, but she had always spent more time on alchemy than training, so her battle style relied more on raw power and her almost absolute affinity for fire.

As for Claire and Cecilia, things got complicated from there. Claire had experience on the battlefield, but she had always dealt with normal people, mutant beasts, or low-level espers, she had never had a real fight to the death with a true expert. Cecilia was even worse; despite her powerful defensive abilities, her dislike for hurting others made her very vulnerable in combat.

However, everything Desmond had heard so far contradicted those preconceptions. “Desmond, relax, it’s okay to take a moment to breathe.” Kyuru’s voice snapped Desmond out of his thoughts.

Although he didn’t want to accept it, Desmond was absolutely exhausted in every sense of the word. With all the time enduring hundreds of horrible scenarios, the tricks, the deceit, the fights, the release of Lilith, and what happened next, Desmond hadn’t had a single second to rest since it all started.

.....

Even if the last things that had happened weren’t bad, Desmond’s mind was simply at its limit, so instead of continuing to try to process information, and formulate conjectures and plans about it; Desmond chose for once to be just a bystander.

Taking a deep breath, Desmond nuzzled his face against Kyuru’s and sat watching the battles, placing his trust in the girls, finding rest at last. Not even trying to hide her intentions, Kyuru used her spiritual connection to Desmond to quell his stress and dark emotions, giving her beloved guardian’s heart the peace he deserved. “I will bring you peace.” That was the promise the fairy made to Desmond long ago, and she intended to keep it.

Little by little, the part of Desmond that loved martial arts and combat began to enjoy the show, although a part of him was disappointed that none of the girls had fought until now. Once again, Desmond had to admit that this world had many experts and that their martial arts were by far the most advanced combat system he had seen so far in his travels, which suited the mindset that governed the martial sovereign world.

Although entertained by watching the fights, and learning a bit about different fighting styles and some pretty powerful martial skills, Desmond still wanted to see what the women he loved were capable of, luckily, he didn’t have to wait too long.

First to pass was Revna, and Desmond was shocked to see his self-appointed secretary wearing a beautiful set of black robes with a single blood-red lotus on the back, not to mention the exquisite hairpin with which she had arranged her hair.

It was strange for Desmond to see Revna like this since she had always refused to show off her beauty when she wasn’t alone with him. However, the indifferent expression on Revna’s face even as she heard others praise her beauty told Desmond that she hadn’t changed at all.

“The other girls probably insisted that she wear something nice until she relented. Claire has a bad habit of treating others like dolls to dress up, though I figured she just likes all kinds of pretty clothes and she enjoys seeing other girls wearing them.” Kyuru commented reading the doubt on Desmond’s face.

Taking a look at Claire who was wearing a white robe with purple flowers, she seemed quite pleased with herself seeing how people were praising Revna, so Desmond thought that Kyuru was probably right. “That sounds like something Claire would do, she used to make me dress better too, but she stopped at some point.”

Kyuru simply giggled and answered. “Now you have pretty good taste in clothes, and you’ve become more and more attractive, Claire is too busy drooling when she sees you, she hasn’t had the energy to tell you what to wear.”

Desmond chuckled lightly, that really did sound like Claire, that girl was that lively and honest with her feelings. Seeing Desmond’s first honest smile in a long time, Kyuru breathed a sigh of relief; only she knew how worried she had been since Desmond got back.

Even when Desmond met Aisha and interacted with her a lot, Kyuru could tell that Desmond wasn’t being entirely honest, putting on a forced smile because he cared too much about that girl to worry her.

Probably only Kyuru understood Desmond well enough to know that he had a bad habit of putting his loved ones before himself, which led to quite self-destructive and damaging tendencies, always hiding his pain, fear, and weakness.

Luckily, Desmond had started to break out of this pattern of behavior. Although he was now in the worst shape Kyuru had seen him since the moment they met, the fairy had a good feeling. It seemed that this time Desmond would emerge from the darkness stronger than ever.

Oblivious to the fairy’s thoughts, Desmond kept his gaze fixed on Revna, eager to see how much she had changed since he last saw her, after all, it had been quite a while and according to Myrilla, the girls had been training.

Before the battle began, Revna covered her body in shadows, forming an ominous-looking form of tight-fitting armor. Going into the fight, Revna displayed strength and speed that Desmond had a hard time understanding. “That armor is a booster skill, similar to my <Full-Drive >.” Desmond murmured with interest as he watched Revna move with grace and elegance.

Seeing Revna’s movements, all filled with this strong artistic and rhythmic element as she danced around her rival, how could Desmond not see the root of Revna’s style? “And to think that she mixed soft martial arts with Waltz and other types of dance. She’s playing with the rhythm and momentum of her opponent, I see that she used some of the basics of Aikido. It is a beautiful style that she is developing, it has some unnecessary parts and it lacks refinement, but the potential is there. Also, I get the impression that she just enjoys the artistic and dramatic element.”

Whether he wanted it or not, Desmond was a little martial arts monster, just watching Revna fight told him a lot, and he couldn’t turn that part of himself off. However, his attention was soon drawn to the smirk Revna wore as she fought; she rarely looked this happy.

Furious to see how the woman he was fighting was dancing around him, Revna’s opponent let all caution go to the wind, unleashing a blast of Aura as he drew his massive battle saber.

“I didn’t know we could use weapons here. Are you sure you want to do that?” Revna commented with her face returning to the cool nonchalance she used to show to others.

It was as if Revna had insulted all eighteen generations of ancestors of the man he was fighting, as the man lashed out with a powerful downward slash where he poured out an immense amount of Aura.

Revna rasped scornfully; spinning on her axis, Revna slapped at the incoming saber, a move that seemed incredibly stupid, until a massive battle axe materialized from the shadows in her palm. With her own speed, and the enormous weight of the axe hitting the side of the saber, the incoming attack was brutally rebounded.

Planting both feet hard on the ground, Revna swung upward with her other hand as the axe returned to the shadows. Just a moment before Revna’s hand finished rising, the same axe that had just vanished materialized out of the shadows in that hand, striking the axe flat side into her opponent’s chin.

There were no more surprises or drama; the man in question fell flat on his back like a sack of potatoes when Revna knocked him out with that last axe swing. Desmond looked on in disbelief as the audience applauded and praised Revna’s strength and beauty.

Desmond had trained Revna in the early stages of her development, he knew a lot about her and her powers. So, he knew full well that she still had a lot of cards up her sleeve, which only made it more surprising that she could win so easily while she held back.

With Revna as spearhead, Desmond couldn’t help but wonder. “How strong have they gotten since the last time I saw them?”