C174 - Daylight
Time passed no matter how the students and the recruits tried not to keep track of it. A complicated smile, the anxious rebuke from a professor, the parties that lasted long enough to coincide with the lessons, and the general carelessness toward the already slight decorum hinted at the arrival of the daylight.
Even the most serious recruits started to fall prey to their anxiety and resort to the Niqols' habits to handle it. Khan once even saw Brandon and Kelly kissing during his usual march toward the mountains.
The Niqols had a planet to defend, but the eight recruits simply happened to be there. Some humans had developed affection toward Nitis and established meaningful relationships, but that wasn't their home. The Niqols were only a mission, but the Global Army had left them in the frontlines anyway.
The recruits would have to put their lives on the line for an alien planet and a different species. In their minds, the mission felt noble, even rightful when considering what they recalled the village near the lake. Still, a different version of the story saw them as nothing more than pawns who had to be there for political reasons. George and the others simply decided not to focus on the second view.
Khan was the only recruit who shared the same determination as the Niqols. Nitis had brought him a peace that seemed impossible to achieve after Istrone. That cold and dark planet had given him love, new friends, power, and overall happiness. He would go all-out to defend it. His twisted mental state even made him more driven than some aliens.
Everyone's days were so packed with lessons, parties, and intimate relationships that they almost failed to connect the azure shades that began to spread in the sky to the crisis when they first noticed them. Recruits and Niqols had given so much importance to that event that it almost felt unreal when it actually started.
The students had started to imagine the arrival of the daylight as a loud apocalyptic event, but it turned out to be a silent and dazzling moment. Lunch hour had yet to arrive, and the week before the estimated beginning of the crisis had just begun, but calculations couldn't be perfect when the humans had no scanners or tools in the actual solar system.
The Global Army's math came from data gathered through a telescope outside of Nitis' solar system, so those calculations involved delays and errors. Moreover, its conclusions had never been precise. They had always involved a relatively short period, including that week.
Khan was attending the usual lesson with Professor Bikatu, the professor in charge of improving the recruits' sensitivity to mana, when he noticed that some of the Niqols in the squares around him were gazing at the sky.
The trees in the academy had a large empty spot that the professors had used to set up squares that had specific purposes. Seeing the area from the sky was impossible due to the membranes that hid the academy, but the students' view had no obstruction from the ground. Khan eventually saw the azure shades piercing the darkness, and his reaction made his companions notice the event.
"Prepare for battle!" Professor Bikatu shouted, and her words made everyone in the square snap back to reality.
Similar cries resounded throughout the academy ground. Professors and students echoed that alarm and made everyone aware that the time had come. The daylight had arrived.
Khan expected panic to spread, but the Niqols left him pleasantly surprised. No one spoke for more than a few seconds. The professors had come up with a plan and had forced the students to memorize it, so everyone knew what role to play. They only delayed their march toward their positions to exchange a few goodbyes, kisses, and promises.
"Don't you dare to die on me," George announced while poking Khan's chest with the side of his fist.
George's mindset had improved a lot after abandoning himself to the Niqols' lifestyle. Professor Supyan's lessons had also helped him accept his trauma and fuse it with his character. He was wearing a resolute smile when he saluted Khan, and that was his real face even if his mind was ready for war.
"Don't let me do all the work again," Khan mocked by imitating his friend and jabbing at his chest softly.
"Good luck to everyone," Kelly stated before turning to leave a quick kiss on Brandon's lips and hurrying toward her position.
The gesture left every recruit except Khan speechless. Brandon and Kelly had been quite secretive about their relationship. Khan had noticed them out of sheer luck.
"Let's show everyone what humans are capable of," Brandon announced before turning to reach his position too.
"Khan, our areas are pretty close," Rodney reminded while winking at Khan. "Come to help once you clean everything up."
"Khan has to oversee a crowded area," Veronica complained as her bright smile lifted everyone's morale. "Don't be lazy."
"And you don't defend him too much," Gabriela teased.
"Khan, did you send that message for me?" Helen asked in a hesitant tone.
Helen had started to date the Niqols met during the meeting with Ambassador Yeza, but she couldn't communicate with him. She had eventually asked Khan to act as the middleman, and he couldn't reject her request since her situation reminded him about his relationship.
Khan had ended up conveying awkward and overly-sweet messages, but the situation had never been too troublesome since his packed schedule had allowed him to help the couple only once or twice a day.
"He said that he will tell you those words face to face," Khan said while revealing a genuine happy smile.
Helen gasped happily, and she couldn't hold back from hugging Khan. The latter laughed while patting her back. She had been the recruit to change the most inside the academy. She had initially been part of the faction believing in human superiority, but a few months had been enough to change her mind, and Khan could only marvel at how much the Niqols had been able to do in such a short time.
Helen eventually left Khan and nodded at him before departing to reach her position. Gabriela did the same, and Khan wished the remaining recruits good luck once more before leaving.
The Niqols had divided the surrounding areas into quadrants and had assigned different teams to all of them. The higher-ups had tried to balance each group, and they had even split the recruits for various reasons, so Khan had ended up with weak companions.
Khan felt stronger than ever after training with the [Blood Vortex] for a bit more than a month. His body appeared near a turning point that he obviously connected to the checkpoint that divided first-level warriors from other soldiers. He didn't know what that achievement would involve, but he knew it was happening.
His sprint across the forest was flawless. His feet barely released noises when they hit the ground, leaves, or roots on his path, and his vision was clearer than ever during his acceleration.
The entrance of the underground habitation soon appeared in his eyes. The daylight had surprised everyone, so Khan only had his null-grade sharp knife with him. The dull one had broken in the last month, so he had replaced it, but the crisis required his most valuable asset.
His locker opened and allowed Khan to wear his first-grade knife in no time. His sensitivity to mana made him aware of the faint pressure that had appeared on his side. He could feel the magic item hidden inside the sheath, and even caressing that leather gave him an idea of its power.
Khan didn't store the null-grade knife inside the locker. He moved its sheath to his right side before leaving the underground habitation in a hurry. It didn't hurt to have an additional weapon at hand in case something happened to his magic item. Also, he didn't know if the crisis could affect the academy, so it felt pointless to leave anything valuable there.
Khan had to group up with his teammates in an area past one of the mountains. His team was one of the only ones without Niqols in the second year, which stated how much the aliens trusted his battle prowess. No one dared to say it out loud, but many believed him to be one of the stronger students in the academy, if not the strongest.
Messages flowed from both sides of the mental connection as Khan crossed the familiar forest and reached the mountain in no time. He had already contacted Snow, and the two were exchanging emotions to understand how close they were to each other.
'Luckily Aduns resist the radiation quite well,' Khan found himself thinking while speeding toward his destination. 'Maybe that's the reason why the ancestors of the Niqols had originally taken them as sacred animals.'
The screeches of the Aduns filled the sky. The students and professors of the academy were moving outside the forest and past the mountains to reach landing areas large enough to contain many eagles.
Khan was one of the first to cross the mountain. The sky had cleared even more during the short hour he had required to reach one of the plains that expanded past the academy ground. Dark shades still tried to hide the nature of the event, but any human would understand that a star was about to rise on the horizon.
Nitis' unique atmosphere wouldn't even have dark areas once the star shone directly on the planet. The sky would spread its light everywhere and fill the surface with its radiation.
Snow landed next to Khan a few minutes after his arrival in the plain. The eagle laid its head on top of him as he ruffled the feathers on its neck. They had to wait for the other Niqols in their team to arrive before departing, and the situation was too serious to play around. Even the Aduns understood that the world was going through something strange.
Multiple Niqols arrived in the plain and took similar positions. Khan exchanged nods or friendly salutes with all of them before fixing his gaze on the mountain again. He had learnt to know almost everyone in the academy during that period. They were all acquaintances or friends who had been part of drunken jokes, chants, or group laughs during the parties. Yet, they were wearing serious expressions now that the apocalypse had come.
Niqols eventually started to gather near Khan. His group had two boys named Edil and Kakhir and a girl called Elita. They all featured the iconic beauty of their species. Their figures were slender, and their hair long. Still, their tense expressions didn't allow them to show those qualities.
"I'll rely on you, Khan," Edil announced after bowing when he arrived in the plain.
"I already feel better," Elita smiled when she arrived and saw Khan's confident gaze.
"We can move right away," Kakhir stated when he arrived in the plain since his Aduns was already waiting in the sky.
The four didn't waste time and set off to reach their destination. They had to take care of a relatively large area at the beginning of a mountain chain famous for a species of Tainted animals called Talelos, which Khan had started to consider as strange bears after receiving the task and going through a simple briefing.
The mountain chain was quite far away from the academy, and it even expanded in unknown areas of Nitis. Khan's group had to fly for almost five hours to reach it, and the four didn't hesitate to land once they saw the dark-grey peaks stretching in the distance.
The sky had almost reached a color that Khan knew far too well. Nitis seemed to fight against the dawn and delay its arrival, but the sky was about to become completely azure. A proper morning was about to arrive, even if it were already afternoon.
The group's task was to take care of the monsters that came out of the mountain chain and tried to expand into the plain that bordered it. The first part of the Niqols' plan was to contain and isolate the effects of the sunlight before proper cleaning operations could start.
Khan inspected his surroundings while patting Snow's neck to sent it away. The area was quite large, but the mountain chain didn't offer many comfortable paths. It had two narrow canyons that could act as entrances, but they were relatively close, so the group could take care of both if they went slightly deeper into the plain.
The three Niqols imitated Khan's movements among those tense moments. The academic year didn't say anything about their battle prowess, but Khan's companions were weak. Liiza had confirmed that after the professors conveyed the plan to everyone.
The Niqols had high standards, so their weak students weren't as bad as the weak recruits. Still, that knowledge didn't reassure Khan too much, especially after seeing the size of the mountain chain with his own eyes. There could be thousands of Tainted animals there. They could overwhelm him even if only one percent of them managed to mutate correctly and leave the canyons.
"[Keep your Aduns close]," Khan ordered.
Everything could potentially go well. The monsters could fight each other before leaving the mountain chain. That would ease the group's work and even eliminate it if they were lucky. However, Khan wanted to prepare for the worse, including abandoning the plain if the situation became too dangerous.
The three Niqols didn't hesitate to nod. They didn't even notice how Khan's accent was quite good for someone who had been on Nitis for only four months. They were too tense to consider others when the two canyons in the rocky barrier in the distance released an ominous feeling.
Khan had made sure to bring the group two kilometers from the mountain chain so that they would have enough time to evaluate the nature of the threat and come up with a plan. The two canyons were only a few hundred meters from each other, so it didn't matter which exit the monsters chose to take.
Khan's eyes flickered when he sensed something off in the area in front of him. A vague solitary figure peeked out of the left canyon and started to drool when it saw the four students in the distance.
The figure shot out of the canyon and charged at full speed toward Khan's group. Exiting the narrow entrance allowed the four students to inspect its features. The creature had long dark-red fur, the massive body of a four meters tall bear, and a skull-like cover on its head.
Khan used the last feature to recognize it as a mutated Talelos. Its body appeared stable. The creature had transformed into a monster. Yet, there seemed to be something off with its aggression and the drool overflowing from its mouth.
"[Do me a favor]," Khan announced while stepping forward. "[Let me fight it alone]."
Khan didn't hesitate to draw his first-grade knife and rotate it in his hand. He appeared quite skilled with that weapon, but his experience didn't go beyond his solitary training.
"[We should fight together]!" Kakhir complained before repeating the same phrase in the human language out of fear that Khan might have misunderstood him.
"[I'm the main asset in this group]," Khan explained calmly while gazing at his three companions. "[I can't fight properly if I don't know how strong I am]."
To be continued