C376 Scorching
A fuming crater stood mere meters from Khan, and melted metal encircled it. Corpses and debris occupied the floor, and a few Orlats too injured to move rested in corners or behind makeshift covers.
The ground zero of the chaos spear provided an exact representation of its destructive power, but Khan couldn't admire it. Even the few survivors couldn't claim his attention. His eyes solely existed to look at the Orlats standing at the edges of the hidden passage above him.
The Orlats' appearance was quite plain compared to how eccentric those aliens could look. The third-level warrior had piercings on his eyebrows, but his ears and nose were clear. His clothes were also rather ordinary. He was only wearing a tight black tracksuit that didn't express any elegance or status.
That wasn't in line with what Khan had seen in the rest of Milia 222, but it showed how special the dock was. Still, his attention only skimmed over those details before going back to the mana at full power.
The reactions of the synthetic mana allowed Khan to confirm that the six piercings were scorching hot. The same went for everything behind the Orlats, but the alien endured the heat easily. He didn't even seem bothered by it as he kept his arms crossed behind his back.
The tracksuit's intact condition and the state of the synthetic mana flowing over it revealed some of its properties. No amount of heat seemed able to affect it, which hinted at special features made precisely for the Orlats' element.
The piercings were different since they felt like regular jewels with no unique purpose, but Khan didn't waste time coming up with hypotheses about them. They weren't magic items, so they didn't affect the calculations happening in Khan's mind.
Regular soldiers wouldn't even think about fighting higher-level warriors, but Khan was an elite with vast combat experience. He had already killed stronger opponents by relying on his deadly techniques and understanding of the battlefield.
Moreover, the Orlats were weaker than humans even before the evolution. Khan couldn't hope to overpower the third-level warrior or use his speed to take him by surprise, but he believed that the physical gap couldn't be too big.
The problems came at that point. A shallower gap still put Khan at a disadvantage, especially in that open area. His opponent had the higher ground and virtually no obstruction in his line of sight. Also, the alien had already proven himself able to launch broad attacks.
Fighting sounded stupid, but retreating wasn't easy either. The passage to the previous area was on the intermediate floor, and the Orlats had destroyed the street connected to it. Khan could still reach that opening through a jump, but the action would leave him exposed.
Retreating would also bring the problem to the Nele. Piran and the others were probably already aware of the presence of a third-level warrior, and Jenna was bound to lead them to him since Khan was there. The whole group would soon join that battle, so Khan made up his mind accordingly.
'I might be unable to beat him,' Khan thought as he tensed and relaxed his back to check his state, 'But hurting him should be possible.'
The adrenaline running through Khan's brain spared him from part of the pain spreading from his back. He could feel injuries expanding whenever he flexed his limbs or moved in general. He shouldn't fight, but he had already decided otherwise.
The Orlats snorted when he saw the lack of fear on Khan's face. He raised a hand, and blue flames came out of his four fingers to spin in his palm. A fiery vortex formed and amassed mana before the alien threw it at Khan.
The vortex expanded while it flew through the area. Its rotation grew violent, and tongues of flames left its structure to shoot toward different parts of the floor. Its width surpassed four square meters when only a few seconds separated it from crashing on Khan, but that was enough for him.
The spell wasn't fast. Its size was annoying, and the heat it radiated was a problem. The random flames that detached themselves from the main structure were also quite troublesome, but all of that wasn't enough to corner Khan.
Khan's attention had never left the Orlats, so he had studied every passage in the creation of the spell. The flames were powerful but unstable. They were different from the seamless mass of mana that his chaos spear usually released.
The mana inside the flames revealed structural flaws. Some areas were weaker than others, especially when it came to the spell's edges. Running around it was doable with Khan's speed, but he had other plans. He had to bring the battle in his favor, and only a psychological blow could help him in that situation.
Khan's knife lit up as he shot toward the incoming spell. The temperature increased rapidly and forced his eyes to close. His face burnt, but the scene depicted by the mana remained clear in his mind.
The knife rose before performing a sharp downward slash. Khan saw a long gap opening in the scarlet mass perceived by his senses, and he didn't hesitate to jump through it.
Scarlet shades covered his body during the process and expanded even after he crossed the spell. The vortex exploded behind Khan and unleashed fiery flares in random directions. Some flew toward him, but he remained calm and prepared his mana before stomping his foot.
A purple-red membrane seeped out of Khan's skin and took a spherical shape that expanded around him. The initial version of the Wave spell grew for a few meters, destroying metal, debris, and incoming flames.
The scarlet shades on Khan vanished, and the same went for the incoming flares. The floor still featured many examples of that color, but he ignored them as he opened his eyes. New burns had appeared on his body, and pain spread through them, but his cold gaze remained fixed on the Orlats.
The mental image created by Khan's sensitivity to mana changed when he opened his eyes. The scarlet shades turned blue, and the air bent in multiple places due to the intense heat. Yet, he left all that in his peripheral vision as he tried to express defiance with his gaze.
"To think that the Nele would use a human for their dirty job," The Orlats grunted as he pointed his hand back on Khan.
Khan summoned the entirety of his acting skills to wear a mocking smile. He did his best to express contempt toward the Orlats' gesture and add blows to that mental warfare.
The Orlats were masters in social interactions. The third-level warrior knew that he had to ignore Khan's obvious taunt, but that gesture gained more value due to the recent exchange.
Mana had started to flow through the Orlats' arm, but Khan's reaction interrupted it for a second. Khan saw that as an opportunity. He had found an opening and didn't hesitate to exploit it.
"Another long-range attack?" Khan chuckled. "Go ahead."
The Orlats only needed to push his mana past his fingers to summon another fiery vortex, but the second taunt stopped him. Khan had already proven that he could dodge that spell, and failing to kill him again would only hurt the alien's pride.
The third-level warrior retracted his mana before bringing his hands to his chest. His fingers created a circular shape that welcomed the arrival of new energy and condensed it between them.
A tiny blue flame materialized between the hands. Its size and overall appearance didn't hint at anything powerful, but Khan didn't let those features trick him. He knew how much mana the Orlats was deploying. He would die if he underestimated the attack.
No warning preceded the activation of the spell. The tiny flame suddenly became too unstable and exploded into a series of fiery waves. Part of the blue fire engulfed the Orlats, but most of it fell into the theatre area to create a scorching waterfall.
Khan recognized the attack. It was the same spell that had destroyed the wall and the staircase in the hidden passage. He couldn't let those flames touch him, but that was impossible in his situation.
Part of the flames ran through the wall, while others bounced forward to reach deeper areas of the first floor. Due to its density, the spell behaved like proper water, and Khan instinctively retreated before its incoming might.
The theatre area wasn't big but remained too vast for a single spell. The flames had only filled the hidden passage and part of the streets before, so Khan aimed to escape their range.
However, the Orlats had changed his approach for a reason, and Khan soon understood it. The third-level warrior had become impossible to see due to all the flames flowing out of the passage, and the mana they contained also hid his presence, but Khan sensed how more energy flowed inside them.
'He can extend its duration,' Khan concluded as he kept running until the wall in the back of the area blocked his path.
The passage back to the previous area was on Khan's right. He only had to jump to reach it, but the flames would probably catch up with him during the process. He would survive them, but that had never been the point.
The third-level warrior released enough mana to make his spell cover the entire theatre area. Khan didn't need to turn to see the incoming fiery sea. Its raging waves caught up quickly, and he closed his eyes to immerse himself in their majestic power.
The scene seen through Khan's sensitivity was truly spectacular. Scarlet shades altered the various colors and replaced them. The synthetic mana didn't belong to the environment anymore. The Orlats had turned it into an extension of his power.
Khan couldn't help but be in awe at the might that a single person could express. He had already seen higher-level warriors in action, but his improved sensitivity and the closed environment allowed him to appreciate that power in its entirety.
Strange urges made their way through Khan's silent thoughts. His mana reacted to his respect toward the Orlats' power and filled him with an instinctive desire.
The Orlats' mana was expressing its most fundamental nature, and Khan wanted to do the same. Patters became clear among the fiery waves, creating a picture that Khan could partially predict. His urge intensified when the spell was about to crash on him and gave birth to a single clear thought.
'Flow,' Khan heard through his own voice as he jumped backward without bothering to turn.
Flames engulfed Khan's previous position and clashed with the wall. Pillars surged through the air while he performed a backflip. The spell had turned any remaining safe spot into a scorching hell, but footholds existed for those willing to challenge the fire.
The [Blood Shield] could save Khan for a few seconds, but the drawbacks would arrive before he could do anything with that. Retreating was still possible, but he would lose his feet in the process. Remaining among the flames was also foolish, but that was precisely what Khan had in mind.
Khan sensed the arrival of a pillar even before the spell generated it. Waves crashed somewhere under him, forcing a series of flames to surge until they occupied a spot behind him.
The main body of the spell carried most of its scorching power. The flames that left it lost heat and mana but remained strong enough to burn Khan on the spot. Yet, they also gave him a window that he could use.
Khan bent his legs as his backflip was about to end. The mid-air rotation would bring him to the center of the new pillar, but he didn't plan to crash on it.
Khan's legs seemed to lose their weight as he stretched them toward the fiery pillar. Their movement felt incredibly slow, and Khan doubled down on that. His usual faint steps couldn't save him from the flames, so he went beyond that.
Speed and lightness fused with the flame's rhythm while Khan fully stretched his legs. A burning sensation enveloped his feet, but something somewhat solid eventually appeared in their range.
Gravity returned. Khan jumped forward and rolled on himself to land with his feet on the wall. His front faced the ceiling, but he kept his eyes closed as he stored his knife and leaped again.
Flames were waiting for Khan once he completed another spin, and his feet took even less to find something solid. He jumped again, and his palms met before his chest as he sent mana between them.
Khan was getting faster and better. His martial art wasn't actually improving. He was only tuning his techniques to his sensitivity and the flames' rhythm.
Nevertheless, the spell remained too strong to face without the [Blood Shield]. Even the flames that escaped the main body could burn Khan's skin in an instant.
Khan's left shoe burnt during his second encounter with the flames. His right one vanished somewhere during the third. His exposed socks didn't survive the scorching air, and the fourth landing forced his feet to endure the fire.
The condition of Khan's skin was terrible, and nothing could prevent another encounter with the flames, but he completed his preparations by the fifth leap. His hands had separated, and a bright spear was floating among them.
The flames hid the third-level warrior, but Khan didn't lose his sense of direction. He could sense the source of the new mana, so he grabbed the chaos spear and spun on himself to throw it in that direction.
Khan's eyes remained closed as he fell back on the flames and used as much strength as possible to push himself upward. Meanwhile, the bright spear flew through the area and reached the source of the fiery waterfall, where an explosion unfolded.
The chaos element had innate advantages when it came to destruction, but the waterfall's source contained all the mana released by a third-level warrior. Khan's spell couldn't pierce that dense barrage of flames, but its explosion destabilized them enough to make the Orlats interrupt his offensive.
Mana stopped flowing toward the flames in the theatre area, which continued to flicker due to the remaining energy inside them. Waves and pillars still surged while Khan rose toward the ceiling, and, according to his predictions, they would remain there by the time he fell.
Khan couldn't take even more damage. He spun backward to plant his injured feet on the ceiling and flung himself toward a street. The spell had melted and destroyed most of the structures on the intermediate floor. Still, some had survived, and Khan shot toward the nearest.
A scorching sensation expanded from Khan's hand as soon as he grabbed the street's handrail. He quickly pulled himself over, only to experience an even stronger burning feeling when his feet landed on the path's floor.
The burning sensation made Khan aware of the poor condition of his feet, but he cut everything away as he remained focused on the battle. The flames started to shrink due to the lack of additional mana, but the area remained crazy hot, and the last pieces of the street eventually gave in.
Khan bent his legs as he fell with the street. The crash of the metal pushed away the weakened flames and created a safe spot where Khan could land. The floor was far from comfortable, but he still joined his palms to summon another chaos spear.
The destruction caused by the clash between the two spells dispersed, and Khan opened his eyes to study the scene. The hidden passage had turned into a melted opening that showed cracks and maimed surfaces. Nothing was flat anymore, but the powerful presence inside it remained clear.
A few steps resounded among the flickering of the flames. The Orlats showed a surprised expression when he peeked past the passage's melted edges and noticed that Khan was still on his feet. The bright spear in his hands even revealed his ability to keep fighting.
The Orlats was honestly shocked. He didn't have exceptional sensitivity to mana, and the flames would have hindered it anyway, so he had kept fueling his spell as long as possible to ensure Khan's death.
However, Khan was still there. His feet had turned dark, and his body showed more burns than intact skin, but he didn't die, and he even had the time to summon another spell.
On the other hand, the Orlats didn't suffer any injury. His piercings were still burning red, but the rest of his body was fine. A single line of sweat had fallen from his bald head, but the heat quickly removed its traces.
"Get down," Khan threatened as he lifted the bright spear above his head and prepared to launch it.
"Why would I-?" The Orlats began to say, but Khan threw the spear before he could finish his sentence.
The lack of flames allowed the spear to fly directly inside the passage, and the Orlats had no other option but to jump. An explosion resounded above the falling alien, but he didn't have the time to inspect it since Khan was running toward him.
The Orlats snorted and waved his hand. Flames came out of his palm and accompanied his gesture. The attack didn't aim at Khan, but it still forced him to interrupt his sprint while pushing its caster away.
The third-level warrior safely landed in an empty area away from Khan, but he didn't relax. He lifted his palm to release flames that gathered into three different blue spheres.
The wall of flames dispersed quickly, but Khan didn't experience any joy when he managed to look at the Orlats again. The alien had three head-sized fiery spheres floating at his sides and above him, and he had even worn a fighting stance. He was ready for the battle, while Khan had barely managed to draw his knife.
"I know we didn't do anything to offend the Nele," The Orlats announced while Khan remained still. "This must be one of the famous hunting seasons."
Khan didn't answer. He bent his knees and raised his knife to prepare for his usual sprint. His back and feet released piercing pain whenever they moved, but he pretended not to feel anything.
"Give up already," The third-level warrior laughed. "I know you don't have enough mana to cast another spell. Your troublesome element can't help you anymore."
To be continued