PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

642 Chapter 642 Willing To Use Life As A Bet.

Usually, Desmond liked to have a plan B; he wanted to be prepared and have options, preferably always keeping an ace up his sleeve. Unfortunately, reality and ideals could be very different, and in this case, Desmond had no plan B or Ace up his sleeve; all he had was a long shot where his life was at stake.

Even for a moment before making his move, Desmond kept thinking about every possible outcome, every variable, trying to find the most optimal route to get away with it.

Despite his situation, Desmond wasn’t having flashbacks of all the beautiful moments in his life, or desperately longing for his loved ones, drawing some kind of unquantifiable strength from it; no, Desmond was devoting every fiber of his being to surviving this encounter, anything else was irrelevant.

The world was simply too cruel to care about the feelings of little individuals; Desmond knew that. He had learned that many years ago with the death of his parents.

The ground trembled as the giant necrotic beast sprang into action when Desmond chose to make his move. Desmond strutted around the beast with almost ghostly speed, taking advantage of the lack of reaction speed characteristic of giant beasts.

A second later, Desmond faced an almost omnipresent barrage of bone spears and rotting flesh. Barely keeping up, Desmond used every little space he could exploit to keep himself intact. However, Desmond soon realized that he was being pushed more and more.

Rather than give up, Desmond kept pushing his limits, squeezing the little wind mana inside him to accelerate even more. While dodging at full speed, Desmond did not forget to take out his bow, <Bloody Thorn>, and poured all his overproduced blood energy into it.

For a second, Desmond’s bow glowed almost as bright as the red moon that decorated this world’s night sky, except it felt even more ominous and deadly. Risking a full-on attack, Desmond adjusted his stance in midair and aimed an arrow at the beast’s head.

A second later, Desmond was brutally struck and sent flying, but not before managing to fire the arrow in his possession. Accompanied by Desmond leaving another bloodstain on Lilith’s mural, the necrotic beast howled in pain.

.....

Desmond’s blood arrow had nearly blown the unholy beast’s head off, but that wasn’t the best part. In addition to being injured, the beast was furious, or so Desmond believed, given the creature’s wild and violent reaction.

Barely staying on his feet after having his interior rearranged, Desmond used his little strength to crawl to the center of the mural and activate the Licht Clan key. Accompanied by an enraged roar whose sonic waves nearly ruptured Desmond’s eardrums, green fire shot from the beast’s half-regenerated head, rapidly filling the entire catacomb.

On the one hand, Desmond wanted to jump for joy, feeling that his plan to activate the Licht clan’s mechanism was a complete success. However, he still had to go through an entire death camp made of spectral fire, and that task was pretty daunting on its own.

Luckily Desmond still had something to use, at least for defensive purposes. Although Desmond’s mana reserves were almost dry, he still had the ring created by Aisha, <Fate Star>.

Expending all the mana reserves within the ring, Desmond summoned <Jormungand > twice and <Yamata No Orochi> once. Instead of using those abilities for offensive purposes, Desmond used them to protect himself against the sea of green fire that threatened to engulf her body.

Although protected by two snakes of titanic proportions and eight considerably smaller snakes, Desmond felt he needed more. Still, he had no more cards to play in his favor. At that point, Desmond could only do his least favorite thing, pray that things turned out in his favor.

Sensing its host’s immediate danger, the energetic lifeform currently taking up residence in Desmond’s heart threw all precautions to the wind, sending a tsunami of lightning through Desmond’s body straight into his defensive measures.

Immediately, Desmond’s small army of snakes was simultaneously devoured by a sea of green fire and a sea of golden lightning. Under the stress of being under the yoke of a highly corrosive fiery force and a highly purifying electrical force, Desmond’s defenses lasted a few seconds. Yet, they managed to blunt most of the necrotic beast’s onslaught, a miracle considering the sheer disparity between their forces.

Despite sparing his life, Desmond wasn’t particularly happy, not when his body was immediately struck by a wave of unholy essence that was left behind as a residue of the beast’s green fire. Being even more corrosive and invasive than in the past, this energy directly created havoc within Desmond’s body, quickly seeking to invade the source of his mana, his elemental seeds.

Desperate for its own survival and that of its host, the small lightning lifeform erected a mana barrier around Desmond’s heart, barely managing to buy the hunter a couple of seconds, for it wouldn’t last much longer.

Vomiting several mouthfuls of putrefied black blood, Desmond made use of the few seconds bought by his new friend. Enduring the pain, Desmond took a small portion of the green fire still burning on the ground. He placed it on top of the Licht clan key, causing it to glow and thus activating the last mechanism of the door to Lilith’s tomb.

At the same time, the huge beast roared as if enraged by Desmond’s actions. Its first reaction was to lash out with all its might and enormous physique to crush Desmond completely before he could enter Lilith’s grave.

Under Desmond’s anxious gaze, the orb held by Lilith on the mural began to sink into it, thus activating the opening mechanism, a process not necessarily slow but one that seemed to take forever in Desmond’s mind.

Sensing the presence of the huge necrotic beast right behind him and seeing the door yet to open, Desmond smiled bitterly. “Of course, luck is not on my side.” He thought before drawing his sword again, ready to put up one last desperate fight.

With barely any trace of mana within his body and even having used his blood and life force as fuel for his latest burst of power against the beast, any fight he tried to mount now seemed rather futile and pointless, but he was not one of those who fell turning their backs on their enemies, Desmond things to live for, people to return to.

It was precise because of situations like this that Desmond had an obsession with control and preparations. Desmond hated depending on luck; he hated feeling helpless and desperate. Nevertheless, above all, Desmond hated feeling that someone else could take away all his happiness and his future.

Unfortunately, the necrotic beast didn’t give a shit about Desmond’s feelings or what he was thinking; the only thing on the creature’s mind was to squash the little insect trying to get into that forbidden place. The creature did not know why this place was forbidden; it did not have a complex enough mind to have its own thoughts.

With a primitive mind that could barely be considered a mind, to begin with, the beast only followed a kind of instinct that was infused into it by the unholy essence that had replaced the blood that ran through its veins.

The huge titan, made of rotting flesh, deformed bones, and pure malevolence, did not hesitate to use all its physical power to crush Desmond like an insect while breathing the green fire of the Licht clan again as if trying to watch the world burn and deteriorate.

Faced with the massive fist and the torrent of green fire that threatened to engulf his body, Desmond stood tall, unwilling to take his attention away, still searching for a way out of this, no matter the cost.

At that moment, the goddess of fortune showed the hunter how wrong he was every time he accused her of not loving him. Although the door’s opening mechanism was too slow compared to the necrotic beast, a tiny gap formed in the mural at the precise moment Desmond was about to be turned into human remains.

The gap wasn’t nearly big enough for Desmond to get through, but there was no foul, and Desmond knew it instinctively. With no time to even finish processing what seemed like a familiar call, Desmond saw and felt a burst of blood energy erupt from the breach.

It was as if a world of blood had seeped from beyond the door, bringing a strong metallic taste and turning Desmond red, but that was the least of it. Unlike Desmond, who remained intact under the tide of bloody energy, the beast seemed to have suffered from a bath of acid.

With a continuous, intense hiss, the beast continued to melt rapidly, its body falling apart under Desmond’s stunned gaze. However, Desmond’s attention had long since left the hideous beast that had made the last few minutes of his life a bloody hell.

Holding his breath, Desmond tried to look past the door behind him, feeling inexplicable that something incredibly precious to him was there. Desmond couldn’t explain the feeling, as it was something he had never felt before, but something inside him gave him the impression that someone was waiting for him there.

Not knowing exactly what to expect, Desmond strode through the door, leaving behind the necrotic beast that was still desperately trying to regenerate.

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