C253 - Vehicles
The Stal in the trench started to come out again after the tank attacked the soldiers behind the enemy lines, but bullets fell on them before they could reach Khan. The allies on the other side of the battlefield had targeted them had soon as they left their cover.
The help from the other platoon didn't improve Khan's situation. The Stal had gone back to the relentless but safe offensive iconic of the trench war, blocking one of the possible escape paths.
Khan found himself in a pickle. The two armored trucks were faster than him, and they could reach him before he arrived on the enemy trench. The battlefield had bullets flying everywhere, and the Stal in the channel had already started to point their rifles at him.
Khan was stuck between difficult choices. He could do his best to reach the allied barrier and hope to deal with the armored trucks along the way, or he could return inside the enemy trench and see if he could cause a mess again.
Both options sounded bad. Khan didn't want to face the trucks right next to the battlefield, and jumping back in the enemy trench would put him in front of second-level warriors. The presence of the tank didn't help either since it theoretically turned every empty area into a danger zone.
The special mindset that Khan achieved during battles couldn't help him there. His sensitivity to mana could only tell him where the danger lurked, and he sensed it all around him. Even standing still wouldn't prevent him from facing a threat.
'The allies will never be able to advance with a tank on the scene,' Khan eventually thought as he slowly bent toward the incoming vehicles.
A single tank had almost made the humans lose their trench on his first day on Ecoruta. Khan knew how that battle would go if he didn't do anything. The escape would fail, and the other platoon would retreat. The humans falling prey to that offensive would die or become prisoners for the anti-mana project.
The selfish option could save Khan a lot of trouble if it succeeded, which would mean forsaking his companions. He didn't really care about them, but Delia had been good to him, and he wanted to help her. Since he would need to face threats anyway, he decided to take the path that could save everyone.
Khan stared at the incoming armored trucks while the mana on the battlefield played a symphony inside his mind. He sensed the Stal behind him getting their rifles ready and the many bullets flying around. He even felt a few projectiles arriving from his companions, indicating that some had survived the tank.
'It's only two vehicles,' Khan thought as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 'I didn't survive for so long only to lose to two damned vehicles.'
Khan didn't forget the powerlessness felt when the Stal had ambushed his platoon. The situation was different now. He had fewer enemies, and he was strong enough to deal with them. After everything he had gone through, that was more than enough to fill his mind with confidence and determination.
When Khan opened his eyes, the trucks were only a few seconds from him. He could see their spiked wheels, their compact rectangular shapes, and the multiple metal protections on their corners, and the small dark windows that hid its insides.
They were nothing more than fast and big chunks of metal with high resistance to mana. A frontal hit could kill even second-level warriors, and they probably had bombs or other weapons at their disposal. However, their riders were known as a stupid species, so Khan could guess that they wouldn't be able to use all the functions of the vehicles.
Khan was slower than the trucks, but that only when it came to running in a straight line. He was faster in the initial phases of a sprint, and his agility was in a superior realm.
The first truck filled his view in no time, but Khan moved to his right before a frontal crash could happen. His shoulder felt warm when it passed next to the vehicle's side, but he didn't dare to let it touch the metal. Instead, he lowered his knife and covered it with sharp mana before stabbing it on the wheels.
A normal weapon would have allowed the truck to fling Khan away, but his knife empowered by the Divine Reaper didn't make him feel the slightest hindrance. He barely noticed that the blade crossed the rear wheel and almost cut it in half, uncaring of the metal protections and spikes that stood in its way.
Khan maintained the technique active until the knife came out of the other side of the metal wheel. He wasn't sprinting, and he had no intention of doing that. The second truck soon filled his view, and he repeated his swift dodge accompanied by a slash.
The second truck had tried to turn to its left after seeing what Khan had done to the first vehicle. It couldn't follow his movements, but it made the rear wheel escape from his range. His knife's tip only touched it and left a shallow mark that didn't affect its functions.
Both trucks turned, drifting on the barren ground as they tried to align their front with Khan's position. Yet, the damaged wheel of the first vehicle broke during the intense action and made its back hit the terrain.
The momentum accumulated during the turn made the vehicle dig the ground and come to a stop before it could point at Khan. It even tilted to its left due to the lack of a wheel and the hole. Yet, the Stal inside it still tried to accelerate.
The truck quickly brought itself outside the hole, but it remained tilted, and the Stal weren't smart enough to attempt to balance it by moving their huge bodies on the other side. Instead, they went along with that new angle, which ultimately made the vehicle fall on its left side.
The crash made the truck dig the ground again and rise a cloud of dirt. The spikes of its intact wheel managed to touch the ground, and it carried enough power to keep the vehicle moving. However, it slowly began to spin inside that pit since it was unable to turn or find other footholds.
The Stal didn't understand what was happening, but the aliens inside the second truck felt interested in the sudden event. Yet, they soon recalled about their targets, but they couldn't find him in his previous position.
Khan sprinted at full speed toward the tank. He didn't imagine that the first truck would actually end up in that poor position, but he soon became unable to sense it due to the distance.
The tank had moved in a different direction since it wanted to target soldiers behind the enemy lines. Yet, the Stal in the second truck eventually noticed him, and they didn't hesitate to accelerate toward him. Their vehicle was so fast that it caught up with him before he could get close to the four-legged weapon.
Khan sensed the truck moving in his direction but acted as if everything was normal. He continued to sprint forward until the vehicle was about to run him over before jumping to his right.
The currents generated by the truck almost flung Khan away when it passed next to him. Yet, they only managed to push him a bit. He could land safely and jump forward to reach the rear wheel before it left his range.
The glowing knife left a diagonal cut through the wheel. Khan ended up falling on the ground since he had basically thrown himself forward, but he didn't fail to raise his head and inspect the truck turning to its left to point at him.
The immense pressure that fell on the damaged wheel broke it. All the weight of the truck ended up on that spot as it touched the ground and tilted. Its lack of balance and momentum made it fall to its right side and rotate until it turned upside-down.
Khan felt lucky that the Stal had decided to turn the truck to the left, but he didn't waste time enjoying the moment. He jumped back to his feet in an instant and resumed his sprint toward the tank.
The four-legged weapon had fired two more large bullets toward his companions while he was busy dealing with the two vehicles, but he didn't turn to check their conditions. Khan moved quickly and eventually reached the tall tank.
Khan had already dealt with one of those vehicles. His knife glowed as he passed among its legs. The blade pierced the joints of two legs as he turned to prepare for the inevitable fall.
The two legs bent under the tank's weight and made it fall on the ground. The cabin behind the long barrel released a whooshing noise as it opened and revealed a Stal struggling to come out of that cramped area. The alien was a second-level warrior, but it couldn't do anything against the incoming attack since Khan had darted forward before its arms could leave the small space.
Khan didn't have the time to rejoice in front of the beheaded second-level warrior since a series of bullets flew in his direction. He crouched to hide behind the fallen tank and peeked past it as soon as his senses told him that the area was safe.
The Stal inside the trucks had come out. Each vehicle contained four of them, but one had died due to a bullet before managing to hide behind the dark metal. Instead, the others had placed a knee on the ground and had their rifles pointed toward him.
A few more bullets flew in Khan's direction and forced him to hide behind the truck again. The second wave of attacks had come from the enemy trench since it still had Stal focused on him. Those aliens didn't sound happy about his feat. Their growls reached his ears even if he was relatively far away.
Khan saw some familiar figures once the smoke created by the tank's large bullets dispersed. There had once been eleven soldiers there, but he could only make out four or five of them now. He couldn't understand what had happened to the others, but he didn't allow himself to think about that.
'It's only a few bullets,' Khan thought as he prepared himself to go back to the battlefield.
The path back to the trenches wasn't as messy as the actual battlefield, but it had a few Stal focused entirety on Khan. He wouldn't mind spending more time behind his cover, but the aliens wouldn't take long to understand what had happened, and he was the closest soldier to the settlement right now.
A curse interrupted the small break that Khan had decided to take. He suddenly sensed the familiar noises of the trucks coming from behind him. When he turned, he saw that four more armored vehicles had appeared in the distance and were converging toward his position.
There seemed to be no end to the number of reinforcements that the settlement was ready to deploy, but Khan accepted that outcome quickly. He took a deep breath and focused on his surroundings. He studied the barrage of bullets before darting out of his cover as soon as he found an opening.
To be continued