C113 - Cubes
The monster was too busy dealing with its flames to see that something was up. Bula and Azni quickly brought a metal flask containing the half-transparent ointment toward Khan and helped him smearing it on the fabric covering his legs.
Azni's back was in a poor state. Khan could catch glimpses of her scarred back, but she didn't use the ointment for herself. All the lotion in the flask eventually ended up on Khan's legs, leaving her no chance to tend her injuries.
Khan and Azni exchanged a meaningful glance before the girl nodded. They two didn't have to say anything to understand what their gazes meant.
"Those flames are scary," The male Niqols exclaimed when Bula and Azni left Khan and rejoined the encirclement.
"I've seen scarier," Khan whispered before bending forward.
The Niqols' expression became grave when they saw the scene. Khan's words could sound like a simple arrogant announcement meant to boost his resolve, but they didn't give off that vibe.
The azure scar on his chest, his resolute expression, his steady guard, and his fearless eyes that reflected the flickering flames created a heroic scene that almost made the Niqols forget about the monster among them.
The monster's flames were scary, but Khan knew that they would need time to burn past the fabric covered in ointment and reach his skin. The heat was an issue, but his techniques mainly focused on speed. He had developed a high resistance to friction with the air and similar issues.
Khan felt perfect for the role, but he had to fight flawlessly if he wanted his plan to succeed. Still, he had already ended up in similar situations. Those high requirements felt almost normal now.
"Do you need us to do anything?" The male Niqols asked when he saw that Khan's concentration was reaching its peak.
"Don't catch the monster if you see it flying toward you," Khan ordered, and his figure bent even more when he saw the monster's feathers standing up.
The creature launched a fireball toward Bula, but the male Niqols dodged it easily. The attack even landed far away from his position, so the flames didn't manage to touch him.
Bula instinctively turned toward Khan when he straightened his position, but his eyes widened when he noticed that the human had disappeared. A painful screech reached his ears at that point, and his surprise increased after he gazed at the monster.
Khan had materialized in front of the monster. His left leg was in the air and laid perfectly on his torso. The creature was in the air above his left foot. The upward kick had separated the beast from the ground and had created a trail of flames that threatened to reach him.
Khan took a step back to let the flames disperse in front of him. The monster soon started to fall, but a roundhouse kick landed on its beak before it could touch the ground.
The monster flew backward for a few meters and threatened to end up on one of the Niqols in the encirclement, but the alien promptly dodged to his right.
The creature landed on the ground next to the Niqols, which scared her when she saw its flames burning near her. Yet, a shadow soon crossed her vision.
Khan stomped his right foot on the monster's head, but he quickly used it as a foothold to jump and kick the creature away. He couldn't execute too many techniques in a row in that situation. His legs already felt hot, so he needed to give them a break between each attack.
The monster appeared unable to react to the relentless offensive. Khan executed a couple of attacks before pushing his opponent away and chasing after it to repeat his techniques. The creature didn't have the same physical prowess as his past opponent, so he could play with it as long as he wanted.
The feathers tried to stand up to amass power and generated another fireball, but Khan always reached the monster before it could complete its attack. His offensive was ruthless and didn't feature any useless movement. He didn't commit mistakes either. Each kick successfully landed on the creature's head, making cracking noises seep past the layer of flames.
The fire that covered the creature grew unstable as the offensive continued. Fiery flares started to come out of the monster as it lost control of its ability. Even the feathers began to burn, and Khan couldn't help but interrupt his sprint when he saw that he was running toward a ticking bomb.
Khan performed a sharp turn when the burning halo around the monster expanded. He started to escape from the creature instead of running toward it, but a scorching force still managed to hit his bare back after an explosion resounded.
Khan flew by two meters before landing on his feet and turning toward his opponent. The bleeding and scorched whimpering figure of the monster unfolded in his vision and revealed how poor its condition was. The creature lay on the ground as its small wings flapped in a desperate attempt to restore part of its balance.
Khan didn't let that chance go. The flames had finally disappeared from the creature. It was the perfect time to deliver a killing blow.
The world in his vision became unclear as he sprinted toward the monster again. The skin on his face and chest started to burn, but he barely noticed that pain.
A few flames appeared on the creature's charred body when it noticed that Khan was coming, but it didn't manage to protect itself before the arrival of the attack. An unstoppable force landed on its head and wholly crushed its skull, putting an end to its life.
Khan quickly jumped off the corpse since a few flames were still burning on its charred skin. He had put some distance from the Niqols after kicking the monster away multiple times, but the aliens could still inspect the scene when he turned to face them.
Faint trails of grey smoke came out of Khan's feet as he glanced at the corpse and started walking toward the group of aliens. A few red spots had appeared on his chest and face, but they didn't seem anything serious. The ointment on his legs had almost completely dried up, but the clothes under it were mostly fine. The trousers covered by torn rags only featured a few burns.
"Can you notify your superiors?" Khan asked while staring at his device. "My phone can't connect to the network from here."
The male Niqols glanced at Bula, and the latter picked a cube from the insides of his tracksuit. Azure symbols glowed on each side of the item, and their radiance intensified when the Niqols closed his eyes.
"Doku, we have two more nearby," Azni said after checking her cube and turning toward the male Niqols. "The higher-ups are handling the other side, and the rest of the teams are near the city. We are on our own here."
Doku turned toward Khan. The latter was playing with his phone, but the device was unresponsive since the interactive map couldn't connect to the network. Khan could still see the location of the other monsters, but the information wouldn't update. He couldn't check if other teams had already taken care of some monsters or where the new ones had appeared in that condition.
"Do you want to tag along?" Doku eventually asked. "You are on your own anyway, right?"
"I'm the only one with an Aduns," Khan laughed as a white figure crossed the sky above him and turned to land at his side.
Khan had called Snow as soon as he confirmed the death of the monster, but it seemed that the group of Niqols had done the same. Multiple dark figures flew across the sky and landed next to the aliens while giving voice to screeches.
"The higher-ups have tasked us with this area," Doku continued. "What orders do you have?"
"Help where the others can't arrive in time," Khan revealed. "Same as yours, apparently."
"Let's go then," Doku ordered. "The entire planet has gone crazy. We have never faced such a dangerous situation."
"Do you know what caused it?" Khan asked while jumping on Snow and preparing himself for the flight.
"I'm afraid that's classified," Doku revealed a complicated smile while his companions jumped on their respective Aduns.
Khan limited himself to nod, but thoughts inevitably filled his mind while he watched Doku climbing on his Aduns and setting off. Snow and the other eagles didn't hesitate to follow him, and Khan used that time to review the group and the situation.
The Niqols' level seemed to be slightly higher than his companions. They were on par with George, if not a bit stronger. However, they probably trained in the techniques that inflicted internal damage seen during the first hunt.
Khan had only learnt Doku, Bula, and Azni's names, so his inspection focused on them. The three had the iconic features of the Niqols, with their long white hair, dark-blue skin, and glowing white eyes. Yet, their figures were slightly different.
Doku was slender and tall. A noble aura covered him, but it appeared different from the spoiled recruits that Khan had seen on Earth. He behaved as an honorable leader who didn't care about the difference between species.
Bula was one of the rare muscular Niqols. He wasn't as tall as Doku, but he made up for that with his thick figure. His hair was even shorter compared to his companions, but it still crossed his shoulders.
Azni was quite stunning. She had a round gentle face that compensated for her cold and detached expressions. She had a curvaceous figure that was the exact opposite of Liiza's slender body, but she didn't appear fat at all.
The group made room for Khan during the flight. Snow could fly in the backline together with the other Aduns. The Niqols had basically accepted him into their group, but Khan couldn't feel too happy about that.
Doku had been in the first hunt. He was part of the Niqols that ostracized Liiza, and Khan couldn't feel good about him even if he didn't appear as a bad character.
The matter about the classified information didn't affect his judgment about the Niqols' character. Khan felt almost sure that the arrival of the daylight was to blame about that event, and his fears about the event inevitably increased. After all, Nitis was still in the dark. Its first morning after two thousand years of night would take a few months to arrive.
'What will happen once the daylight shines on the planet?' Khan wondered as the group crossed a fuming empty spot in the middle of a small forest.
The flying group saw a team of Niqols standing around a fuming corpse when they inspected the forest. The aliens on the ground noticed the eagles and picked their cubes before pointing at the crater among them. They quickly confirmed their kill and let the Aduns fly toward the next location.
Doku led the group toward the next location and happily noticed that another team had cleared that area. Khan kept track of the monster killed on his phone even if his map didn't react, and helplessness began to fill his mind as the travel continued.
The group reached two more locations with defeated monsters. Those clearly were good news, but Khan could only see the negative aspect of the situation since three of them didn't appear on his map. Those creatures had shown their presence only after he set off.
'How many of them do we even have to fight?' Khan wondered as his reasoning reached other topics.
The first monster had taken two classes of Niqols and humans to complete the hunt, but the creatures appearing during the current crisis were dying rather quickly. There was a high chance that all of them were unstable like the fiery feathered beast faced previously.
That was a positive aspect that Khan couldn't ignore, but his mind went blank when Snow started to dive toward the ground to follow the rest of the Aduns. His eyes had fallen on the side of a hill after the sharp change of direction, and he couldn't avoid seeing Liiza fighting alone against a giant toad.
To be continued