C218 - Fast Blows
An awkward exchange of gazes happened. Khan was alone on the left side of the battlefield, with the army of rebels to his right and the enemy team of assassins ahead. His companions were behind him in different locations, so he ended up staring at the Niqols who had tried to use the fog to hide.
The enemy group of assassins only had five members, and they were all adults. He sensed that the man in the lead was at the same level as Casper, but the others were weaker, which meant that he could face them. Yet, he remained still since the dispersion of the fog had made the battlefield end in a silent stalemate.
Khan tightened his grip on the knife as he waited for something to happen. He didn't dare to be the first to move when both sides had warriors far stronger than him. It was also against his role to attract attention to him.
His opponents seemed to share his intentions. The enemy Niqols remained still as they inspected the rest of Khan's team. It wasn't hard to notice the other assassins, especially since they had recognized the imminent threat.. The two groups were sharing the same part of the battlefield, and Khan's side had the numerical advantage. However, his companions were quite distant, except for the adult alien.
The silence felt deafening, but a series of lights soon shone on the battlefield and attracted everyone's attention. Lieutenant Kintea was in charge of the team featuring a series of experts with ranged abilities, and he didn't hesitate to give a silent order during that stalemate.
A fireball, a fiery serpent, a series of arrows, a glowing spear, a sharp gale, and a blue mass flew above Yeza's group and crashed on the enemy army. Only a few rebels managed to react to the wave of destruction unleashed by those attacks. Many died in a single exchange, and the event marked the beginning of an angry charge accompanied by battle cries.
The assassins in the rebel army moved their attention away from the two armies when they saw that the battle had started, but a peculiar scene soon unfolded in their vision. They saw their leader pushing Khan's arm away with a bloody line spilling out of his cheek.
Khan had exploited that distraction to attack the man in charge of the enemy team, but the latter had managed to react to his abrupt offensive. He had lunged his knife forward to aim for the Niqols' head, but the alien had managed to raise his arm and deviate the blow. The weapon only managed to graze his cheek, where it left a long cut that almost reached the ear.
The Niqols was still surprised, and his balance wasn't ideal, so Khan decided to press on. He twisted his wrist to slash his blade at the alien's forearm, but the latter reacted at an unfathomable speed.
Time seemed to slow down in Khan's eyes. His knife glowed with an azure light as it approached the alien's forearm pushing his wrist, but the Niqols also attacked. The fingers of his left hand curved and released mana that took the shape of long claws as he swung them toward Khan's waist.
Khan didn't have time to think. He had to trust the instincts developed throughout his battle to decide how to deal with that situation. He could give up on his attack and retreat, but he opted for another path.
The Niqols' attack was faster. The glowing claws traced an ascending slash that aimed to rip Khan's entire torso to shred, but they found themselves unable to rise after they landed on his side. The alien's eyes widened as he cut part of the robe and uncovered the array of clotted blood vessels that had stopped his technique from digging into Khan's skin.
The glowing claws began to slide across the patch of abdomen protected by the [Blood Shield]. They left superficial cuts that didn't release any blood as they tried to reach the part of the skin not affected by the defensive technique, but they stopped moving when a sharp pain spread in the Niqols' mind.
Khan had continued his attack after deploying the [Blood Shield]. He had twisted his wrist to make his knife fall on the alien's forearm, which severed it with a clean cut. The Niqols couldn't help but stop his offensive, and Khan used that chance to run toward the other enemy assassins.
The Niqols shouted in anger when he saw Khan running away, but he couldn't follow after him since another opponent arrived. The adult alien in Khan's team had charged ahead and had decided to take care of that injured enemy.
Khan felt off after deactivating the [Blood Shield]. He gritted his teeth as his mind grew lighter and his heart transformed into a hammer that attacked his rib cage. The second checkpoint of the Niqols' technique was a bit too much to endure at his current level, but he could continue to run after using it, so he didn't mind those side effects.
Khan didn't fail to understand what had actually happened. He realized how impressive his previous feat had been. He had exchanged blows with a Niqols who felt as strong as Casper, a second-level warrior, and he had won.
The power of the [Blood Shield] was incredible, and his clever use of the surprise effect had allowed him to leave a severe injury on his opponent. Khan didn't only attack while the two armies distracted everyone. He had also used the seconds of disbelief experienced by the strong Niqols to complete his attack.
Khan also knew that the exchange had been quite lucky. The Niqols' power had even left him speechless since the former had managed to react to his fast surprise attack. It was clear that he couldn't stand his ground in that battle, so he had used the first opportunity he found to move toward other opponents.
The rest of the enemy assassins felt frightened in front of the scene. Khan had won the exchange of blows with their team leader, and he was running toward them now. Yet, they didn't have the chance to escape since he was faster than them.
The first Niqols to appear on Khan's path was a woman who mustered the entirety of her courage to face him directly. Pale-red blood vessels became visible on her neck as she charged ahead to swing her hands at her opponent. She tried to interrupt Khan's momentum, and she partially succeeded, even if most of her feat came from his state.
Khan was still dealing with the drawbacks of the [Blood Shield] when he saw the woman stepping forward. Her hands were blades ready to behead him, so he ducked to slash his knife at her side. He failed to perform the Divine Reaper correctly, but a deep cut opened on his opponent's waist anyway.
Khan's knee slid on the ground before he jumped back to his feet. The quick exchange had cleared part of his dizziness and had made him ready for his next opponent.
A male Niqols had leaped toward him after seeing his glide. It was hard to keep track of Khan's movements even if the other assassins were at his same level, but the previous exchange had forced him to slow down. The alien didn't miss that opportunity and raised his knee to deliver a strong blow aimed at Khan's chest.
The Niqols timing had been exceptional, but he didn't expect Khan's martial art to be so flexible. The latter stomped his right foot on the ground and rotated on himself before going airborne. His left leg helped give more power to the mid-air spin and allowed him to fly over the alien's attack.
Everything had happened in less than a second. Khan spun above the Niqols' raised knee before delivering a powerful kick to his face. The alien's vision went dark as the attack made him fly to the left.
The last two Niqols approached Khan at the same time before he could touch the ground. The woman among the two was wielding a short spearhead that she didn't hesitate to lunge forward. Instead, the male alien deployed a variant of the palm strikes that saw him placing a hand on top of the other and thrusting them forward.
The aliens' timing had been good again. Their attacks would land on Khan before he could touch the ground. The situation seemed to force him to rely on the [Blood Shield] again, but he didn't know its effectiveness against the palm strike.
Khan quickly decided that avoiding the palm strike had the priority. The [Blood Shield] appeared on his right palm as he stretched his hand to grab the spearhead and pull. The woman's stance was firm, so she remained in her spot as Khan used her to flung himself forward.
The two Niqols followed Khan with their eyes as they saw him flying past them to land behind the woman. The latter turned, but the sharp tip of the glowing knife immediately filled her vision before it made it go dark.
The man tried to deploy his palm strike while Khan was busy drawing the knife out of the woman's head, but a foot suddenly appeared on his face and forced him to duck. The Niqols tried to continue his attack by aiming at Khan's unprotected groin, but his leg descended in no time and hit his opponent at the center of his forehead.
Khan couldn't muster much strength from his stance, so the Niqols only felt intense dizziness spreading throughout his mind when he slammed on the ground. Still, he didn't recover fast enough to dodge Khan's next attack. The glowing knife dug a hole in his head and killed him on the spot.
Khan opened and closed his right hand to disperse the tense feeling that had filled it after activating the [Blood Shield]. He turned to see the state of the other assassins, and he was pleased to see that his companions had taken care of them.
Casper, Lorna, Ilman, and adult Niqols, and the other surviving students in his team had gathered behind him, but they didn't hide their surprise in front of his battle prowess. The humans had learnt that Khan had become a first-level warrior, but they didn't expect him to be so strong right after that breakthrough.
Khan didn't waste time dealing with those stares. He gazed at the battlefield and noticed how chaotic the situation had become after only mere minutes. The two armies had fused to create a messy battlefield that featured multiple smaller fights.
Many died every time Khan blinked. The battlefield was merciless, especially to those who happened to suffer from the reckless attacks of the leaders. Finding openings among that mess would be challenging, but Khan was ready to give his everything to reduce the number of losses that his side had to suffer.
To be continued