PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

266 Chapter 266 Hunting Scorpions and Snakes

“Unholy beast tests my ” An enraged scream came from the already hoarse throat of the scorpion group leader after he used some of the larger rocks in the place as a platform to leap up and deliver an attack directly to the already wounded throat of the serpent.

Already in the air, currents of a red Ki swirled around the scorpion leader’s right arm, solidifying at the end, forming a kind of curved blade similar to the tail of a scorpion. The formidable appearance of the skill aside, a more experienced person will notice the more sinister aspect of it; The ki.

The bloody scorpion sect was known and feared precisely for the way they cultivated to increase their Ki and the particularities that their Ki developed, broadly speaking, the members of this sect cultivated by absorbing the energetic essence in the blood of other living beings, including magic beast and human beings.

That alone was enough for them to be considered a diabolical sect but what really made them fearsome was the nature of the Ki they developed, since their Ki besides having a sickly appearance and consistency like blood; this Ki had an extremely corrosive effect against other types of Ki.

Therefore, when other people fought against a member of the Bloody Scorpion Sect, they had to be careful not only of the physical injuries but of the corrosive effect that consumed their Ki at an accelerated rate.

It was probably due to this peculiarity that members of this sect tended to use their numbers to overwhelm and exhaust more powerful opponents who would normally be extremely difficult to face.

And now it was the mountain-eating serpent’s turn to taste a strong dose of this corrosive Ki. Depending on its acute bestial instincts the snake felt the enormous threat posed to it by the sinister-looking sting in the hands of the little ant that attacked it but as soon as it wanted to evade or counterattack; Several disciples stepped forward and bombarded the snake with all kinds of martial movements preventing it from responding to the threat in the air.

A vicious smile appeared on the leader’s face as soon as he felt that familiar sensation transmitted by his sting as he pierced the juicy flesh of his victim and not wanting to miss the hard-won opportunity; the leader began pumping out massive amounts of bloody Ki without caring about how much Ki was left in his reserves.

Then it was the serpent’s turn to roar in agony and pain, his body violently shaking, wounding with its sharp stone blades a pair of disciples who failed to dodge in time.

.....

The poor snake truly tasted pain when the corrosive Ki invaded in large quantities throughout her body devouring and degrading the innate Ki within it at the same time causing all kinds of internal damage.

But anyone used to hunting beasts in the wild knows that the more cornered a beast is the more dangerous it becomes and the mountain-eating serpent was the perfect example.

The body of the snake stopped from one moment to another as if all the pain that it had felt a few moments ago was just a lie and then it began to tremble, first it was very light, almost imperceptible, but as the trembling intensified, so did the shriek caused by the friction of the stone spikes distributed around his body.

Having a bad feeling all the members of the scorpion group tried to get away but it was too late, in a split second a high-frequency sonic screech directly incapacitated almost everyone in the place.

Only the group leader and two other individuals managed to get away in time, in a sense they could consider themselves lucky that the skill used by the snake was close range or they would be truly screwed.

One only had to look at the state of his companions to get an idea of ??the consequences of receiving such an attack, even the people who did not receive the attack at point-blank range still had their eyes bleeding and their eardrums burst to leave them almost instantly crippled.

While the people who had the full force of the sonic attack directly collapsed on the ground with their eyeballs popped and their five orifices bleeding, one could imagine that the kind of internal damage they received had most likely turned all of their internal organs to jelly.

But such use of such a powerful attack seemed to have been the last desperate cry of the mountain-eating serpent as its body collapsed helplessly causing a great rumble as it hit the ground.

Seeing that now the snake was breathing heavily while trying to move in vain, the leader of the group barely managed to get a smile at this unexpected pyrrhic victory; it was a pity that his victory was fleeting.

Hidden behind foliage nearly two hundred meters away, Desmond, who had been waiting for a window of opportunity, braced himself with bow and arrow in hand as soon as he saw the snake collapse.

Taking advantage of the fact that he had a few moments to prepare his shot, Desmond poured an absurd amount of mana into the bow activating the hidden ability in it causing small vines of highly concentrated mana to run down the string towards the arrow and finally condensed in the arrowhead.

Barely holding on to control of the arrow, Desmond sharpened his intention and reaffirmed his grip on the mana under his control by steadying his weapon, whereupon he channeled every last ounce of his newly enhanced and amplified physical strength by to pull the bowstring.

The amount of tension generated was unimaginable, his muscles began to ache and his bones began to crack from the pressure but Desmond refused to let go of the bowstring; he knew he would only have one chance and he had to seize it.

It was fortunate that the bowstring could maintain this level of tension for extended periods as it was refined from the tendons in the coiled tail of the idiot tiger that nearly killed Desmond long ago.

On the other hand, without the increase in his physical strength given in recent weeks and the use of Desmond would never be able to draw his bow so much after the improvements made to him by Sasha.

Leaving all the details aside, Desmond kept waiting, watching his target ... his prey, waiting for it to lower its guard, to be vulnerable, he was looking for that precise moment when the tension and the state of the battle of his prey he relaxed leaving a brief moment in which fatigue overwhelmed his senses making him unable to respond to a new threat.

And the moment came, Desmond saw it in his body language and in the expression on his face, that precise moment when a sigh of relief threatened to escape his lips and Desmond knew it was time. It was not even a well-trained art or exact science, Desmond was allowing himself to be guided only by the most primitive instincts that told him that now was the time to reveal his fangs, to emerge from the shadows to feast on the blood of his prey and claim your prize.

It was then that Desmond loosened his grip on the bowstring and let the arrow take flight, due to the degree of tension and momentum generated at the time it was not even possible to see the arrow leaving the bow; there was only a low hum of the string ripping the wind as it returned to its original position with a slight reverberation generated by the vibration of the string.

Now he just had to wait, just an instant, the next fractions of a second will decide if Desmond made the right decision in choosing to fight these individuals, but Desmond had no regrets; Being a hunter was precisely this defining moment.

At the other end of this confrontation, the leader of the scorpions let out a sigh of relief when he saw that the stone serpent stopped fighting but as soon as his mind released the alert state he was under; His deep-seated survival instincts warned him of a new threat.

With no time to even determine where this new threat was coming from, the leader proved what it means to be a prodigal son when he immediately began activating various protective treasures in the hope that they would be enough to save his life.

Barely the first Ki barrier emitted by a medallion finished condensing, the leader witnessed a flash of gold with the speed of lightning and the force of thunder crashing into his defensive barrier, tearing it apart with ease.

Desmond’s arrow was barely slowed down by said barrier but that seemed to be enough for more Ki barriers to start emerging from various artifacts hidden in the body of his prey.

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But the momentum of the arrow was too fierce and his destructive power too arrogant to be stopped by these insignificant barriers, no matter how many barriers kept blocking his path; the arrow did not stop.

Until there were no more barriers to cross and the only thing in his way was his prey, the young scorpion, feeling the cold touch of death caress his heart, invoked a small and last defensive barrier on his body, channeling all the Ki he could; It wasn’t until he felt the arrow tear through his belly and pierce his intestines that he realized how close he had come to dying.

But the goddess of fortune seemed to smile at him one last time as this sneak attack had not been enough to kill him and without even a moment’s hesitation, the young genius of the bloody scorpion sect took out a flare and shot it into the sky hoping it would be enough to attract some reinforcement.

Desmond had of course seen all of this but he didn’t seem too upset about it and even came out of hiding with a bow in hand and cheekily approached the now tiny group of scorpions.

The young leader of the group even felt the urge to scoff at how naive Desmond had been in showing himself but the physical pain caused by the arrow reminded him that his opponent was by no means easy prey; It was when that thought crossed his mind that the young man realized that something was wrong with the person in front of him.

Desmond was smiling, not only did he not seem bothered to see him call reinforcements and his state was beyond calm, but what bothered the young core disciple of the bloody scorpion sect the most was that he recognized the kind of smile Desmond was giving him. It was a smile that he had had many times throughout his sinful life, it was the smile that he had when he saw a naive person who did not yet know that his death was already a fact.