C202 - Mana Control
Khan found it hard to describe what he was experiencing. He wasn't thinking too much about his mental state, but he could feel intense emotions creating a chilling and calm mindset.
Khan felt his survival instincts which naturally came from the dangerousness of the situation. However, there was something more intense there. He was experiencing the emotion that he had been scared to feel but that he couldn't suppress now.
Living among the Niqols and his relationship with Liiza had expanded his emotional spectrum. He didn't feel like the humans anymore. His love could touch levels of intensity that no other member of his species had ever experienced, but the same applied to the very opposite emotion. Actually, his cracked mindset allowed him to go far deeper into that mental state.
Khan had survived the Second Impact, Istrone's rebellion, and many ugly scenes on Nitis. His mind had long since stopped belonging to a boy, and his many experiences had allowed it to reach dark areas that stable humans couldn't even consider.
.
That feature worsened against the servant. Those Niqols were putting his life, his relationship, and his girlfriend in danger. They had also killed many humans in a vile and sudden act of betrayal. No amount of self-restraint could stop Khan from falling into the dark depths of his mind, which gave birth to a clear and calm killing instinct.
The Lightning-demon style fused with the sheer power of a first-level warrior made Khan's sudden attack impossible to notice. He didn't even bend his body at that time. He simply disappeared from his spot to dive into the enemy lines.
The servants weren't living beings in his eyes anymore. Khan saw heads, necks, and chests. He was treating everything as a target for his deadly glowing knife.
The Niqols next to Zura lost her head, a hole opened in the man behind her, a deep cut appeared on the woman's neck further behind, and similar scenes followed. Everything happened so quickly that the servants located Khan only after he had crossed the entirety of the enemy group.
Zura and the other Niqols revealed surprised and worried expressions as they inspected the gap that had appeared among their group. Their gazes eventually converged on the bent figure at the end of that path. Khan slowly turned his head, and his cold azure eyes seemed to glow with a chilling light under the radiance of the sunlight.
The path treaded by Khan had some corpses and an injured Niqols. It started with the headless woman and continued with a dead man, a woman who was desperately holding her bleeding neck, a body with a gory hole at the center of his forehead, and another headless corpse.
The path ended with Khan standing on the crushed head of a Niqols. The deadliness of the sudden attack left both allies and enemies speechless. Even Khan's closest friends had never seen him performing his martial arts with such blatant perfection.
The sheer power of Khan's assault didn't come from his expertise in the martial arts but from his ability to fuse his techniques. The Divine Reaper gained the Lightning-demon style's speed, adding a level of deadliness that his sprints couldn't typically have.
Khan had also been wise in his attacks. He had yet to reach the competent proficiency level with the Divine Reaper, so his knife failed to express its intended deadliness at times. Still, he had focused vital spots that even his sheer physical strength could pierce. Even the injured woman eventually died due to how deep the cut on her neck was.
Paul, Ryan, and Felicia were familiar with the difference in power between a regular recruit and a first-level warrior. They knew that the sheer might deployed by Khan couldn't possibly belong to the former category, but the situation didn't give them time to ponder about the issue.
Ilman voiced a battle cry that made both groups snap back to reality and charge forward. Khan found a series of glowing eyes converging on him. Only part of the Niqols turned toward the humans and students. Almost half of the servants decided to take care of him first.
Khan didn't dare to remain in his position. He jumped back before shooting to his left side. A young-looking Niqols had predicted his movements and had stretched her curved fingers to block his path, but he didn't hesitate to duck and rotate on himself to deliver a powerful roundhouse kick at her side.
The backlines had weaker Niqols. The girl's ribs shattered and her lung collapsed as Khan's kick sent her flying toward the servants behind her. He could have opened a hole in her torso, but that attack would have stopped his momentum, so he had limited his power.
The servant quickly proved themselves worthy of their superior battle experience. Khan saw a tall male Niqols jumping on his path and crossing his hands in front of his chest.
The Niqols had used the time lost during Khan's attack to locate him and interrupt his movements. The alien planned to use his body to stop him, and he didn't hold back from deploying a technique that darkened his skin.
Khan's sensitivity to mana told him that his opponent was a first-level warrior and that the amount of energy summoned to darken his skin was massive. The alien was deploying a spell.
The Niqols' timing had been quite good. Khan didn't have much room to dodge the alien, but he could still avoid a direct impact if he jumped to his side and rolled. Still, that would leave him on the ground. Moreover, a tough wall wasn't something that he had to fear.
A failure in the execution of the Divine Reaper would force Khan to slam on the Niqols' chest, which would lead to injuries. He couldn't risk that, so he put everything he had on leaping and rotating mid-air to maximize the amount of power gathered on his descending heel.
A thudding noise followed the impact between Khan's heel and the top of the Niqols' head. The alien's mouth opened as he gritted his teeth to endure the power discharged during the impact.
A few teeth broke and flew out of the alien's mouth, and a line of pale-red blood descended over his forehead, but he managed to endure the attack. The skin on his arms and shoulders regained its natural color as he tried to grab Khan's leg, but the latter promptly used his free foot to kick himself away from that situation.
Khan flew above the servants that had hurried to catch him. He was almost six meters from the ground, so the aliens had the time to prepare for his landing.
Another adult servant stepped among his allies and moved them away to point his hands at Khan. His fingers followed the human's fall, and the air in front of them suddenly ignited.
Khan saw a trail of fire flying toward him. The flames followed his descent. They even seemed to morph into a snake's mouth, but he had to stop looking at them to cover his face with his arms.
A scorching sensation filled Khan as the attack detonated on his arms. The explosion flung him away and made him slam on the ground.
The Niqols who had cast the spell started to turn at the sight of his fuming target, but his eyes widened in disbelief when he saw him jumping back to his feet. The alien couldn't contain his surprise when he saw Khan tearing away his charred sleeves and revealing that his arms were still in one piece. They featured many charred spots, but those injuries weren't even close to being severe.
"[He has a defensive spell]!" The Niqols promptly shouted, and Khan used that instant to run away.
The warning only reached the servants who had turned to deal with Khan. The students and humans had started to fight, and the battlefield's chaos forced them to focus on their surroundings.
The servants had remained close together, and that didn't change after the arrival of their opponents. The battlefield was relatively small. Ryan and Felicia rarely found the chance to launch their mighty spells, but the students managed to open them a path from time to time.
Blood had spilled as soon as the two groups clashed. Paul, Ilman, and the squad leaders had tried to limit the superior power of the servants, but they couldn't prevent some of them from slashing their fingers at their companions. Khan had managed to kill two first-level warriors with his surprise attack, and he had even attracted the attention of other powerful Niqols, but that wasn't enough to prevent casualties on his side.
The outcome of the clash between first-level warriors and weaker troops was obvious. No amount of care, strategy, or diversions could save the students and recruits who ended up in the range of the powerful servants.
The human side had fewer first-level warriors but more troops, so they could focus on overwhelming their opponents. They would have to pay those small victories with blood and sacrifices, but both students and recruits showed no hesitation in their charge ahead.
The scene would have been far different before the arrival of the sunlight, especially when it came to the recruits. Most of them would have been too scared to charge ahead before experiencing the cruelty of the crisis. Instead, they approached their enemies fearlessly now, even if some were blinded by anger.
Khan swept the battlefield quickly. George, Doku, Azni, Ilman, and Liiza were doing fine. They had instinctively decided to fight together and protect Liiza since they knew how powerful her ice was.
Something similar was happening with Felicia and Ryan. Their spells were powerful, so both students and recruits were doing their best to fend their opponents off and give them enough space. Each attack defeated a servant, so protecting those powerful assets was a priority even if the situation forced them to be near the frontlines.
Paul ended up having a crucial role in protecting the other two squad leaders. The servants had initially approached him carelessly, and they had remained stunned when their chests or heads exploded after a short contact with the human. The event quickly told the Niqols that Paul was dangerous, so everyone tried to avoid fighting him.
Khan only wasted a few seconds inspecting the battlefield before diving back into it. The few members were the servants' greatest weakness, so he proceeded to take care of those busy fighting to worsen that feature.
An old-looking woman was waving her nimble fingers in the air. Those body parts were sharp knives capable of severing everything they met, and the Niqols in front of her couldn't help but retreat as she stepped forward.
The woman wore a confident smirk, but her expression froze when a hole opened at the side of her neck. She had to use a hand to check the actual injury since Khan's movements had been too quick and smooth. The Niqols didn't even notice his passage, but her opponents didn't hesitate to exploit that opportunity and overwhelm her with palm strikes.
Another woman with a far younger complexion was giving Paul a hard time. She used strands of her long hair as whips that managed to keep the squad leader distant and block Ryan and Felicia's view at the same time.
The two squad leaders never had a clear shot in that situation, but a hole suddenly opened at the center of her throat as a knife pierced her from behind. Khan's technique had failed, but he had still shoved his weapon all the way through the neck until it came out of the other side.
Khan obviously had to waste a second to draw his weapon out of the woman's neck, but the servants around him didn't manage to catch him since he kicked his dead enemy toward the incoming Niqols. The window created by that gesture allowed him to disappear again.
The servants would shout something whenever Khan reappeared on the battlefield, but their efforts to keep track of his movements were pointless. He could run around the crowd and reap lives whenever he found a suitable chance.
The servants couldn't even focus on Khan since some of their opponents were quite dangerous. They were losing ground, and that trend quickened as the number of their members continued to fall.
"[Behind me]!" Zura suddenly shouted, and the servants quickly took a few steps back to stand behind their leader.
Twelve servants had remained, and only six of them were first-level warriors. Instead, the enemy group was still quite numerous, even if corpses lay among them.
"[Show them the power of the old ways]!" Zura ordered as he pointed his hand toward Paul.
Paul instinctively crossed his arms in front of his face to prepare for a ranged ability, but nothing came out of Zura's fingers. The squad leader started to lower his guard, but a surprised expression soon took over his confused face.
Paul grabbed his left forearm and tightened his grip, but nothing seemed able to stop the ability. His veins bulged as worm-like waves of energy ran under his skin until they tore it apart.
Khan jumped backward and stopped running toward his target when he saw most of the skin on Paul's left forearm exploding. He knew a technique that could cause those effects. Zura had deployed the [Mana Control].
To be continued