PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

155 Chapter 155 The steel is ruthless

The day Desmond had gone through the elemental epiphany had greatly increased his understanding and affinity for four elements: Wind, Fire, Water, and Metal.

Actually, given his innate talents coupled with Kyuru’s blessing, Desmond could theoretically use any element of mana with proper practice but it was common sense to specialize in those elements with whom he had the greatest affinity.

And of the four elements, Desmond had a greater affinity for metal followed by wind and then water, leaving fire as the element with which he had the least affinity.

The elemental affinities were something that depended on the talent and personality of a person and although Desmond didn′t know the elemental affinities could also, in turn, affect the personality of a person.

In any case, because of this Desmond was able to gain mastery of the storm palm so easily and even infuse the ability into an arrow increasing his destructive power; now Desmond was proving once again what kind of monster he was.

As Sasha dealt with the corrupted beasts her movements were subtle and filled with captivating grace, she was similar to a dancing artist as her fiery ribbon added a fiery and destructive allure to her beauty.

Desmond was the opposite, he was a butcher, death incarnate as he brutally destroyed corrupt beasts; he was unstoppable, ruthless, and unpredictable.

It was as if death selflessly beat his scythe killing any life that dared to cross the edge of his soul harvester tool, Desmond rocked back and forth in a bloody frenzy that seemed almost out of control.

In fact, Desmond had not been lost his mind in the blood and violence, but for the first time in his life, he stopped thinking about things like the guilt he felt when killing or what others would think of him when they looked at him bathed in blood.

.....

At this moment Desmond was letting out the beast that carried within him and letting go of the bestial instincts that he had always repressed in the past, hence even his posture looked somehow abnormal; where Desmond had always been very strict with his fighting stance right now there was not a single hint of discipline in his movements and he looked like just a hungry wolf pouncing on his prey.

Even Sasha who kept destroying corrupted beasts occasionally with her whip seemed somehow surprised to see Desmond in that state, as observant as she was she had noticed that Desmond hadn’t gone mad or anything like that, but she still felt a little bit intimidated for the carnage the young hunter was carrying out.

′′ Not yet, not yet, it needs to be more focused, sharper, more. . . more ruthless. ′′ Desmond stopped the slaughter for a few moments while he stopped and muttered a few words to himself; he ponder for just a second before resuming his hunt.

Little by little his movements became more controlled, although they still gave that same wild feeling, it seemed somehow more contained; as Desmond’s behavior changed the beasts began to fall faster than before.

Where before there were horrible lacerations that tore the beasts almost completely, now the cuts were deeper and more concentrated; and instead of aiming to attack in an unbridled way, the attacks were now concentrating on killing their prey more and more efficiently.

Soon there weren’t enough corrupted beasts for the two to kill together so Sasha went on to just watch Desmond fight half a dozen corrupted beasts alone; As for why she didn’t step in or help? well, she had noticed a long time ago that Desmond seemed to be using this fight to try to understand a new skill or improve the one he was currently using.

And the young fiery beauty really couldn’t be more right, Desmond left behind the unbridled and bestial ferocity, giving way to a new style that is precise, ruthless, but still wild in nature.

It was the difference between a rabid beast that had lost itself in bloodlust and a natural predator that was completely focused on taking down its prey in the most efficient way possible.

Desmond could ignore it, but in reality, the metallic type mana used to focus on two aspects in particular: defense and attack, when used in defense it was solid and stoic but when used for an attack it was sharp and ruthless.

In reality, any elemental user with years of experience would have understood that emotions and mood could influence their domain over the elements, it was in a sense another type of affinity with the element in question.

And at this precise moment, Desmond had reached an emotional state with perfect affinity with the metal element, after all, metal had always been the best material to create weapons, and what was the purpose of a weapon? Wasn’t it simply taking down the enemy most efficiently and directly possible?

It was this state of mind that allowed Desmond to increase his mastery of the Steel Claw at an overwhelming rate, in fact, if Desmond could see his status now he would see the skill bar showing the Steel Claw skill going all the way from medium mastery to maximum mastery until it showed a term familiar to him: Unknown.

That’s right, Desmond with his talent that was simply too ridiculous to even be considered normal among hunters, had completely mastered a skill during battle and was in the process of creating a new skill.

By the time only one of the corrupted beasts was left still alive, the battlefield was completely covered in blood and ash, Desmond now facing the beast had a contemplative expression as he continued to gaze at his hands.

His hands were now covered with multiple overlapping layers of highly condensed metallic mana, reaching the point where his actual hands were now completely invisible, and all that was seen as a type of metallic gauntlet that covered from the incredibly sharp tip of his fingers/claws all the way up to the elbow.

Said gauntlet did not appear to have a stable structure and became somehow fuzzy at times, but Desmond had already stopped looking at his hands at this point and was now fully concentrating on the beast in front of him.

The poor creature did not have the slightest chance, much less now that it had lost one of its limbs Desmond′s hands and was trying to limp in Desmond’s direction to make one last attempt to end the hunter’s life.

Desmond on the other hand was in no rush and Sasha didn’t want to interfere either so this scenario lasted for a few seconds before Desmond spoke again.

′′ What do heroes say in moments like this? Oh sure, things like: succumb to the steel of my sword unholy beast. . . truly ridiculous, as if their steel swords were full of justice; when throughout history there has never been material as ruthless as steel. ′′

In the precise instant that Desmond said the phrase “Ruthless as steel” the bloodthirsty presence emitted by the golden glow of the metallic mana in his hands seemed to change in nature, the brilliant golden color turned a somewhat dull metallic gray, and the gauntlets previously diffuse and unstable seemed to solidify completely.

Desmond remained indifferent to the change in his ability and simply vanished from the corrupted beast’s dormant senses before appearing on top of it and beheading it in one move with a slash from his right hand.

Desmond and the beast’s head fell to the ground at the same time in a frankly bizarre sense of timing, only then did Desmond look again at the appearance of his skill.

And for the first time since the battle began Desmond stopped giving off that dangerous and lethal feeling, now he seemed quite happy with the development of his new ability, it’s just that when he turned around to look at Sasha he stayed a little bit stunned to see her.

Sasha at this moment was still holding the fire whip in her hand as she toyed with it a bit out of boredom, at this moment Desmond had to admit that Sasha’s affinity with fire was so deep that even her beauty increased in the presence of that fiery and uncontrollable element.

Ironically the change in Desmond’s mood due to Sasha’s beauty caused him to lose control over his new ability and this vanished into thin air, seeing such a phenomenon Desmond only shake his head bitterly; it was obvious that he still lacked mastery with this ability and for now he depended on maintaining a certain state of mind to use it.

But Desmond knew that this would not last long, as soon as he acquired a low mastery of this ability he would be able to use it with a lot more freedom, he supposed it was like when he had trained his first mana abilities where on the status page it would show the term: No domain.