Star Rank Hunter

Original and most up to date translations are posted at volaretranslations.

Translator's Notes: There'll only be 2 chapters this week, but only because they're ridiculously long. For example this part of the chapter is twice the length of a standard one.

Chapter 216: Death of the Lone Wolf [Part 2]

Unlike the parasites that preferred to cling onto a living host, these parasites preferred dead bodies over living organisms. Therefore, they would kill the living host after they’d selected it in order to absorb the substances that would enable their growth from the dead host’s body. This substance would only appear when the host was rotting.

The giant lizards also possessed some of these substances, but if they went there they would be competing against the vines for nutrients. That was why Oksulos was the most attractive host in this area.

Compared to viruses, a parasite’s strength lay on its independent thinking.

This parasite was among the samples Barthus had gifted him earlier. Cillin then created them after he made some minor adjustments to their genes.

The poison secreted by these parasites could swiftly lower the host’s blood pressure and prevent blood from coagulating. An average host - even one with rank A genes - would black out immediately before they had a chance to struggle. After that, the host would continue to bleed out for several hours until death arrives. A normal wound wouldn’t have had such an unnatural reaction. A normal wound would’ve stopped bleeding very quickly.

By now Oskulos could sense clearly that his concentration wasn’t as strong as it was before. That one wound Cillin had inflicted on his body hadn’t healed immediately as well. It was still bleeding even now.

The vines surrounded Oskulos once more.

Cillin didn’t dare to move far away from this place because it had everything he relied on. There were no other regions that sported such an amazing amount of vines and excellent vine growing environment.

Oskulos must be wishing really badly that Cillin would leave this place right now, so he mustn’t fulfill his wish.

Cillin moved between the vines and used both them and the giant lizards as cover for himself. The moment he found an opportunity, he would shoot fiber needles at Oskulos and create trouble for him.

Oskulos found the vines’ attention very strange: why had they ignored Cillin and attacked him only? He was absolutely certain that this abnormal focus had something to do with Cillin.

Cillin himself was very impressed by Oskulos’ constitution. He didn’t think there existed a constitution that could resist the parasite’s toxin for so long.

Oskulos continued to block all of the fiber needles Cillin had shot at him, but he was under great pressure as more and more parasites flew towards his direction, and more and more toxin entered his body. There were a few times he almost managed to hit Cillin, but the slippery boy was able to dodge out of the way somehow.

As for why the vines kept chasing after Oskulos, the answer was something that Oskulos would never figure out on his own.

The fiber needles Cillin shot at Oskulos didn’t just contain a highly corrosive substance, but also an agent that caused both the vines and the parasites to grow excited. Just like how Udoze’s blood had caused the vines to go into a frenzy, the medicine had stimulated both the vines and this particular breed of parasite into a frenzy as well. Not even the blood that was flowing out of the lizards’ bodies had attracted them as much.

Cillin himself couldn’t tell how much effort and brain cells he spent to create this agent. He even experimented the toxin on himself and found that it was incredibly difficult to defend against even with his unique constitution. He even had to spend some time just to remove the toxin from his body. That was why he dared to use this parasite against Oskulos.

With preparation comes confidence, and with confidence comes opportunity.

Oskulos had been blocking the needles with his blade all this time, so naturally the scent of the agent had clung onto his blade. As long as his blade remained intact, the scent wouldn’t go away.

Oskulos disliked using guns because he couldn’t kill all of his trophies with the same bullet. Oskulos liked his blade a lot because he could use it to reap his trophies’ lives and have their blood brush past its surface. It felt like his trophy’s very life was dripping off the blade.

That was why Oskulos never laid down his blade easily nor washed his blade. He would never imagine that the vines and parasites’ unusual actions were all caused by his blade.

Right now, Oskulos had to focus on doing three different things at once: One, he had to get away from the vines; two, he had to stop the parasites from entering his internal organs and brain; and three, he needed to stop Cillin’s occasional attacks!

Oskulos was a person who hated dodging out of the way of his troubles. That was why his first reaction cut apart the vines when he encountered them. But now, he was pushed so far that he actually had no choice but to dodge out of the way.

It had been a long time since Oskulos had felt this angry. Right now, Oskulos’ entire body was enveloped in a thick murderous aura that would have repelled the average people like a magnet already. Unfortunately for him, two out of the three living beings he was currently fighting weren’t human at all! Even the one guy that was a human was an oddball among his own species!

Cillin only had one objective in his head, and that was to drag out this battle as much as he could!

One of Oskulos’ flaw was that he was too set on those he labeled as his prey. Moreover, he was currently enraged and looking like he would never stop unless Cillin was dead.

It was exactly the kind of reaction Cillin wanted from Oskulos.

A person's mind would always be affected by their anger.

He had to admit that Oskulos’ attacks when he was enraged were fearsome though; the man had turned a giant lizard’s corpse into smithereens with a single strike. Cillin had his own quick movements and the lizard cover to thank, or he would’ve been crushed to bits already.

Cillin took out a gun from the leaf patterned ring while he was dodging another one of Oskulos’ attacks. On the surface, it looked no different from the gun he used earlier. The bullets contained inside the chamber were different, however.

Oskulos was feeling a bit of regret right now. Since when did the parasites start invading his body?

Yes, it was during that time. When the boy made noises while he was plugging bullets into his gun, he had done it on purpose. That was why he was became alert and put more attention on the bullets rather than the parasites flying towards him at the time!

The toxin secreted by these parasites was just too damn powerful even with his constitution. He understood that he would die if he allowed the toxin to keep deepening like this, and that he would have to leave temporarily if he couldn’t take out that boy in two minutes. He was unwilling to give up like this, however. If those bastards in the military learned that he, a Star Rank Hunter was forced to such a state by an unknown boy like this, if they saw the state that he was in right now, he would absolutely become their laughing stock!

While Oskulos was thinking, Cillin hid between those vines and fired his gun at him once more.

Eight bullets flew towards Oskulos from eight different directions. They almost had the man surrounded.

Forcing me to back off, are you?

I refuse!

It was at this moment that Oskulos' obsession caused him to make the worst decision of his life.

Cillin hadn’t fired eight times in a row when he used his gun earlier, but Oskulos wasn’t thinking as much right now. He didn’t stop to think if these eight bullets might have been different from the ones that were fired at him earlier, and he swung his blade to block all of them.

However, the bullets exploded when they made contact with his blade. Although the explosions were pretty small and happened within five meters of Oskulos, the close impact still affected him pretty badly. Wounds cracked open on his body as blood bled out of every one of them, and because the parasite’s toxin had enlarged his blood vessels and suppressed the hemostasis process, Oskulos lost a lot of blood even though the wounds were tiny at best.

Oskulos’ blood stimulated the vines even more as they surged towards him.

Oksulos was still just a man and not a metal beast. His wounds worsened, Oskulos knew very well exactly where his final limit lay. The new wounds caused the toxin to spread even further than it was before, so he needed time to nurse himself and force out the toxin inside his body. The amount of blood loss he suffered was also starting to cause hypoxia, so his movements were a lot slower than it was before.

After Oskulos destroyed a vine that pounced towards him with a single slash, he saw Cillin standing amidst the lively vines and corpses of giant lizards. It was a sight that chilled a person even more than icy environment of polar regions.

Cillin also noticed the look in Oskulos’ eyes and knew that the man had decided to retreat temporarily, but didn’t let down his guard. He constantly moved around and gave Oskulos no chance to take advantage of.

The devil is in the details, and Oskulos was a devil that Cillin couldn’t afford to be careless around for even an instant.

Oskulos’ spaceplane flew over. The man turned around and jumped up to his vehicle.

Oskulos disliked retreating, which was why he turned around and showed his back to Cillin as he departed this place. He wasn’t afraid that Cillin might attack him from behind; it was hard to determine if Oskulos was overly confident or conceited.

Whatever it might be, Cillin ultimately didn’t attack Oskulos. His own body was about to reach its limit, and he had injected himself with three of Rikulab’s excitation agents in order to maintain a state of high alert while dodging away from Oskulos’ attacks. Rikulab told him that three was the theoretical limit a human being could endure, and people like Cary could endure two injections at best. Anymore and it would exceed the user’s limit and cause them to explode.

Oskulos leaped off a treetop and entered the door just as it opened.

With Oskulos’ temperament, he wouldn’t use the weapons system of the spaceplane to attack Cillin. The more Oskulos hated someone, the more he wanted to kill them with his own hands.

Cillin spat out the mouthful of blood he was holding as he watched the spaceplane flying up to the sky. Cillin’s blood didn’t excite the vines because he had injected himself with a vaccine. The vaccine was currently still operating inside his blood, and he had sprayed some agents around his body too. That was why neither the vines nor the parasites were attracted to Cillin.

After Oskulos had left, the vines and the parasites switched targets to the dead giant lizards.

Cillin never thought that he could kill Oskulos in one go when he made his plan in the first place. Oskulos might be a twisted person who obeyed only his own laws, but he was also a Star Rank Hunter. His individual prowess was there for all to see. Cillin had a clear recognition of the gap between him and a Star Rank Hunter after today’s bout.

Cillin sat down next to a giant lizard and exhaled once. Suddenly, he looked up to the sky and broke into an involuntary smile.

Your luck today is absolutely rotten, Oskulos!

Oskulos set the spaceplane to autopilot mode after he entered the spaceplane. Then, he started the process of self recovery. Oskulos disliked using medicines because his body would automatically build up its own resistance every time he successfully endured a certain kind of drug or toxin, thus perfecting his constitution even more. He liked this feeling a lot.

Just as Oskulos calmed down and got ready to eject the toxin from his body, he abruptly opened his eyes and spread his psychokinetic field wide. It wrapped around his entire spaceplane.

If Oskulos was in his normal condition, he would’ve been able to guarantee his own safety absolutely. However, at his current state he was just a tad too weak to prevent the powerful system hack that was spreading from small areas to large areas; thrusters to control panels!

Oskulos stared rigidly at a particular direction where a spaceplane suddenly burst out of the clouds. It was none other than the gray cat and Czedow’s spaceplane.

Right now Oksulos had to defend his spaceplane from two master hackers. The second the gray cat and Czedow broke through his defenses, he would lose control of his spaceplane over to those two enemies.

The gray cat attacked Oskulos’ spaceplane as green, glowing characters flashed across its eyes, and Czedow worked just as hard his appearance wasn’t as flashy. The task wasn’t easy because Oskulos’ psychokinetic field had disrupted the magnetic field around the spaceplane that in turn obstructed their work.

On the ground surface, Cillin held up a hand held micro electromagnetic cannon and aimed it at Oskulos. He had never thought of using this weapon against Oskulos until now because it could never lock onto someone of Oskulos’ ability. But now the opportunity to do so had arrived.

If Oskulos moved out of the way of the electromagnetic cannon, he wouldn’t have the spare energy to continue defending himself against Czedow and the gray cat. Just the same, if Oskulos continued to hold the gray cat and Czedow at bay, he would have to risk the bombardment.

What will you choose then, Oskulos? At your current state, you can only make one of the two choices!

A white beam flew straight towards Oskulos’ spaceplane. In the end, Oskulos chose to avoid the attack.

Unfortunately for him, the gray cat destroyed the spaceplane’s energy system before he could wrap his psychokinetic field around his transport right after he moved it out of the cannon strike’s trajectory.

Boom——

The explosion that ensued was so bright it overshadowed even the natural sunlight. It shocked the animals on the ground and caused them to scurry everywhere.

Cillin had to say that Czedow and the gray cat’s timing of arrival was just too perfect, giving Oskulos no time to recover at all. If Oskulos could recover even a bit of his strength, he would have had the chance to escape from this place, but the god of luck was obviously not on his side this time.

Cillin remembered Jiada. Did he tell him that because he had already predicted this outcome?

Cillin ran towards the predicted crash site as the exploding remains of the spaceplane fell from the sky. He couldn’t relax unless he confirmed that Oskulos was truly dead.

The spaceplane crashed into the forest while burning. The small downpour from before did little to alleviate the fire that continued to burn the trees and evaporate all water within range.

A figure pushed aside the uneven steel plate above his head and stumbled out of the fire. Both his skin and his clothes were scorched black, but blood continued to bleed unnaturally out of his wounds despite this. This sudden turn of event had caused the toxin to seep even deeper into his body, and his blood vessels had expanded to the point where it critically threatened his life. His wounds hadn’t clotted much either.

It would be an understatement to say that Oskulos cut a sorry figure right now. No one would believe that this person was the Lone Wolf Oskulos who struck terror in any person who knew his name.

Although there wasn’t a single part of his body that was unhurt, Oskulos continued to hold his cold, gleaming blade. The explosion did nothing to change this in the slightest.

Oskulos turned his head a little stiffly down a particular direction and began walking towards it. His footsteps grew faster before he broke into a run, tearing his wounds wider with every step he took. Logically speaking, what he needed to do right now was to find a quiet place to recuperate ASAP. He absolutely shouldn’t be moving as he was doing right now.

But his own life did not fall within Oskulos’ concern. When he sensed that that cunning prey was approaching closer towards him, the only thought left in his mind was that that prey must die!

Cillin immediately turned around and ran the second he noticed Oskulos’ activity. He seriously couldn’t imagine how Oskulos was able to run as quickly as he did at his current condition!

The distance between the two of them shortened constantly even though Cillin had already tried slipping into places with many trees in hopes that they would obstruct Oskulos’ way. But even on the verge of death Oskulos remained unimaginably agile.

He moved like a black ghost whose only proof that he had passed through an area was the blood on the ground.

Right now Oskulos felt like a reaper who had climbed out of the depths of hell itself. The aura surrounding his body was terrifying to say the least.

Oskulos was getting closer and closer. Cillin could already feel his hair standing on their end in fear because of his approach.

He couldn’t escape.

If he couldn’t escape, then…

When Oskulos’ blade slashed down on Cillin, Cillin abruptly turned around and sped towards Oskulos instead. His wrist blade also accelerated to strike Oskulos down.

Pu!

Two kinds of noises overlapped one another. It was impossible to tell to whom the flesh and blood that sprayed everywhere had belonged to.

A wound as deep as ten centimeters and more stretched from Cillin’s left shoulder to his chest area.

Cillin’s wrist blade was stuck on Oskulos’ neck.

Drip, drip…

Big droplets of blood fell off Cillin and Oskulos’ body.

Cillin had wanted to cut off Oskulos’ entire head, but he never imagined that his neck would be so hard that he couldn’t cut through. He only managed to open a wound on Oskulos’ neck, and the blade was even stuck there and wouldn’t budge. The good news was that his neck artery was severed.

The amount of blood that sprayed out of the artery was small. That was how much blood Oskulos had lost to the point where his blood pressure was about to slip down the final line. But even then, he still had the strength to swing his blade once at Cillin!

A huge claw penetrated Oskulos’ heart and went right out of his chest, while two pairs of hands held onto Oskulos’ blade. One of them belonged to Cillin, and the other one Czedow.

If Czedow’s hands weren’t there to hold the blade, Oskulos’ strike would’ve cut Cillin in half already. If the gray cat’s claw hadn’t penetrated his heart, Oskulos would have the strength to swing a second time.

It was a victory that was hung by a thread, where even a single missing factor would’ve resulted in Cillin’s death.

Pu!

The gray cat grabbed Oskulos’ head and crushed it like a watermelon.

Despite losing both his heart and his head, Oskulos continued to stand as straight as a statue. The hands that held the blade trembled once, but never relented. It held onto the weapon tightly as if it would magically come to life and swing at Cillin once more.

Oskulos was a legendary figure. He belonged to no power, and he borrowed strength from no organization. He had walked through all obstacles in his life alone, and more than half of the violent groups and underground organizations that existed in GAL had his shadow behind them. In fact, one could say that Oskulos created them by making them seize power from their elders’ cold, dead bodies and transform into GAL’s special underground organizations.

But Oskulos had never paused his footsteps for anyone during his wake of life. He was the lone wolf who came covered in blood, and went away just the same.

A person like him living in an era like this was fated to end only in tragedy. Even if he didn’t die by Cillin’s hands today, he would’ve perished by the military or the devious politicians’ hands regardless.

The reason Oskulos was allowed to exist was so that the leaders of those underground powers could be controlled. Those people neither feared the military nor the four great Hunter regiments. There was only one person they feared, and that person was Oskulos, but now that Oskulos was gone, every underground powers was soon to fall into chaos. What would happen to GAL when that day arrived?

Cillin lay slumped on the ground. Although Oskulos failed to finish off Cillin with his final strike, he still dealt him a severe blow. If someone else had taken the strike in his place they might have been dead already.

The gray cat kicked the headless Oskulos away and transformed back to his biological form. It then rushed towards Cillin and ran circles around him.

“Are you okay, Cillin? Will you die? Do you need a blood transfusion? Do you want…”

Czedow sprayed some medicine onto Cillin’s wounds. He couldn’t go wrong by stopping the bleeding first.

“It’s okay, just leave me for now. I’ll recover on my own.”

Once he said that, Cillin shut his eyes and looked like he had entered into a slumber.

The gray cat sat next to Cillin before looking at him once. Then, it carefully moved closer to him and listened to Cillin’s pulse and breathing for a little. Its ears drooped right after the inspection: It didn’t look or sound like Cillin was doing okay.

It curled its tail a little dejectedly before it suddenly recalled something. Then, the gray cat quickly ran to the body it just kicked away.

Oskulos was still holding his blade tightly like before.

The sound of tearing flesh could be heard for a moment, followed by some ripples of energy. There was a bang before the gray cat’s frustrated voice rang.

“What on meow is this blade!”