C390 Risk
"Don't forget the goods," Rodney announced as he hurried through the corridor, "And try not to damage Khan's box."
Rodney's voice echoed through the corridor while his presence grew distant. Khan had the urge to chase after him, but the second-level warriors tightened the encirclement as soon as he began to turn.
Khan's eyes darted left and right while his sensitivity to mana worked overtime. He had been on deadly battlefields. That situation was far from hopeless, but the threat of the windows shattered any idea connected to reckless behaviors.
The crew waited until Rodney became a faint presence in Khan's sensitivity before splitting into two groups. The second-level warriors carrying boxes also left to walk into deeper parts of the corridor and follow Rodney.
Soon, only seven second-level warriors, Khan, and his box remained in that turning point of the corridor. The crew's numbers had fallen drastically, but the situation didn't change too much. Those men still had the ability to stop Khan and force his hand.
Khan's calm generated some tension among the crew. Milia 222's smugglers weren't inexperienced soldiers who fell prey to fear easily. Still, even with the situation clearly in the second-level warriors' favor, Khan showed no fear at all. He actually appeared quite cool about everything, and that worried his opponents.
'Seven second-level warriors are a bit too much without spells,' Khan thought as he casually approached the transparent surface on his right.
Khan's movements intensified the overall tension, but his opponents didn't dare to move. They were also worried about the window, and that feeling became impossible to hide when Khan placed his free hand on it.
A tiny, incredible minute whiff of mana left Khan's forefinger. He summoned the entirety of his control to release the smallest amount of energy possible and make it hover above the transparent surface.
Gasps resounded among the remaining crew, but Khan ignored them as he kept his focus on the window. His eyes didn't reveal anything, but the symphony made him aware of tremors spreading through that surface.
Khan's lack of expertise in the field prevented him from reaching any definitive answer. He didn't know whether the tremors were the result of structural brittleness or intrinsic properties of that transparent material. Both explanations could be accurate, but one of them would lead to his death if ignored.
'I can't try my luck,' Khan accepted as he glanced at the other transparent surface behind the crew. 'This area should even be one of the most fragile in the hidden passage.'
"What are you doing?!" One of the men from the crew asked since Khan had yet to leave the window.
"I'm doing some tests," Khan honestly explained. "You don't expect me to trust Rodney right away, do you?"
"Your tests can kill all of us!" The man shouted.
"What?" Khan laughed while turning toward the second-level warrior. "Did you expect me to accept my death and make it easy for you?"
Khan shook his head and turned toward the window. His inspection had ended, but not looking at the men made some of them believe that he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings.
The synthetic mana was incredibly light. A mere gesture, sharp movement, or even intense thought could alter that energy. Khan's sensitivity was quite incredible, so he didn't miss the coldness that began to echo from one of the men behind him.
Khan promptly turned to glare at the man, and the gesture made the latter widen his eyes in surprise. Khan kept his cold face until some fear enveloped the second-level warrior before revealing a mocking smile and going back to the window.
The symphony changed again as the second-level warriors exchanged worried and meaningful glances. Many believed that their silence would protect them, but others began to fear Khan's alien abilities too much to join that process.
Khan doubled down on those worries whenever he saw fit. His face remained on the transparent surface, but his eyes moved to inspect those who expressed more confidence. Those men also happened to be the ones more direct in their silent gestures, so his actions appeared far from random in his opponents' minds.
That understanding brought new waves of fear. The crew's men had seen enough of Milia 222 to know that strange techniques and arts existed, but they had never seen a human wielding them so skillfully.
The worry that would typically appear only in the presence of a Nele or other unique species spread among the crew because of Khan. He seemed to have eyes on the back of his head, and his calm behavior hinted at more unknown and mysterious powers.
'They should respect me enough to hear my words now,' Khan thought once the symphony carried more fear than tension.
"Alright," Khan casually announced while turning to face the crew. "Rodney was right. This window will shatter if I summon too much mana."
Khan obviously couldn't be sure of that, but the same went for his opponents. Yet, his previous actions had created a situation where the second-level warriors would believe any word he said.
"Let's see," Khan continued while moving his eyes across his seven opponents. "Which one of you knows me?"
The question surprised the men, but Khan continued before they could answer. "I'm not talking about Milia 222. I want to understand if you know my profile."
The exchange of gazes that followed the question provided an answer. The crew didn't know about Khan, or, rather, didn't know anything about his achievements and fame.
"Rodney really tricked you," Khan joked. "How much is he paying for this suicide mission? I can offer double or even triple the amount if I feel generous."
Khan wasn't lying. A peaceful solution would solve all his problems and even advance his investigation. As for the money, he was sure that Luke could cover it.
Sadly enough, the second-level warriors didn't show the reactions Khan expected. They were worried, and doubts had filled their minds after the recent questions, but nothing on their faces pointed where Khan wanted. He actually saw some confidence returning in those expressions.
'I misinterpreted something,' Khan understood.
"Drop the box," One of the men eventually said. "We'll give you the chance to fight fairly."
"Fairly, you say," Khan chuckled. "You just don't want to damage the goods."
The taunt was on point, but Khan took no pleasure in that. The seven second-level warriors appeared truly set on pursuing that potentially suicidal mission. Money couldn't buy that determination, so Khan gave up on achieving a peaceful outcome.
Khan had done more than keep track of his surroundings during the past minutes. He had gone over his imminent battle, and a strategy had even formed in his mind.
Rodney had reassured his companions about the windows, but it was very likely that the second-level warriors would hold back from using spells. Their determination couldn't overcome their fear so easily. Khan believed that they would resort to dangerous attacks only if their lives were at risk.
Khan could exploit that edge, but the place still featured second-level warriors. He felt confident in his martial arts, but the relatively cramped area would inevitably make his opponents overwhelm him.
Using spells to survive sounded mandatory, and Khan had something that might avoid the destruction of the windows. His accuracy was an issue, but he could ignore it as long as he acted carefully.
'If only I had a few more weeks of training,' Khan sighed in his mind before voicing a silent request. 'Protect the window.'
A tinge of purple-red mana came out of the top of Khan's head and dispersed into the corridor. The atmosphere was so tense that the entire crew noticed the event, but no one had the ability to sense what happened to the synthetic mana.
The synthetic mana shook under Khan's request before flowing toward the window. An uneven and messy membrane covered the transparent surface and created a weak shield meant to block incoming tremors.
Khan didn't feel too satisfied with the barrier. Ideally, he would have gone for something specific for his element. He would have also chosen to deflect instead of block, but his skill still didn't allow that.
The size of the barrier was also a problem. The corridor wasn't tall, but the synthetic mana only stretched for a few meters and even left many open spots near the floor and ceiling.
The execution was far from perfect, but Khan couldn't linger too long in those thoughts. The distraction created by his release of mana was his chance to seize the initiative, and he didn't miss it.
Khan threw the metal box on his left before reaching for his knife and summoning mana. His right hand closed into a fist as energy gathered among his fingers.
Images appeared in his vision. Khan recalled the bird-like monster met in the valley on Nitis. He saw its bright feathers falling toward the ground and cutting anything in their path.
Meanwhile, a sharp pain invaded his mind. Khan used the sorrow that surged inside him whenever he glanced at his tattoo to fuel those memories and give shape to his new spell.
Three needles began to grow among Khan's fingers, and the process didn't stop even after they became longer than his hand. Their brightness also intensified as their surface shook due to the instabilities caused by their size.
The needles seemed ready to explode, but Khan waved his hand to throw them toward the men near the metal wall. The action matched the crash of the metal box on the second-level warrior, and Khan even added a sprint to that offensive.
The second-level warriors were two steps too late. The launch of the metal box had added another distraction that made them miss the creation of the needles. By the time they noticed them, they had already flown through half of the corridor.
Moreover, the location pushed the crew to abandon its experience and run away. Those men recognized the needles as a spell, so they expected the window to shatter.
Khan exploited every second of that chaos. The second-level warrior on his left had instinctively raised his arms to block the metal box, so Khan slashed at his exposed abdomen during his sprint.
Executing the Divine Reaper didn't slow down Khan at all, so he reached his second opponent while he was still in the middle of turning to run away. The man noticed Khan and raised his arms, but the knife cut through them and reached his neck.
The three needles reached the crew while Khan was busy cutting his second opponent's arms. He didn't have great control over his throw game, so the spell only managed to target two men, and one of them quickly ducked away from it.
The man still on the spell's trajectory tried his best, but he only managed to dodge one of the two needles flying toward him. The other hit his right cheek and pierced it without meeting any resistance.
The two needles that missed their targets landed on the metal wall and began to dig through it, but everything exploded at that point. The three bright weapons became too unstable to retain their shape and released their wild mana to create small, spherical versions of the Wave spell.
The needle stuck in the man's cheek ended up destroying three-quarters of his head during the explosion. The second weapon created a half-spherical hole in the metal wall, while the third turned out to be close enough to its target to touch him.
The second-level warrior who had dodged the needle was still trying to make a point of the situation when something exploded above him. The purple-red sphere touched his head and dug through his skull, destroying a part of his brain.
Khan didn't turn. He sprinted through the opening he created while listening to the symphony. Everything had turned messy due to his offensive, but he only cared about the sounds caused by his mana.
Deep and wild noises echoed through the symphony, creating bright shades that flew through the synthetic mana and expanded in the passage. Some reached the membrane on the transparent surface and pierced it quite easily.
The event filled Khan with panic and made him shout a desperate request that he didn't bother to keep in his mind. "Help my legs!"
Mana left Khan's body and fused with the synthetic energy, which moved toward his legs. He was ready to give his best attempt at Maban's technique, but he halted his steps when he sensed the reaction of the window.
The bright shades had lost some power during the clash with the membrane. Some had even changed direction, but something had definitely fallen on the window.
Still, the transparent surface endured the clash without suffering any damage. It trembled a bit, but it soon retrieved its stability.
Khan turned to check that his sensitivity wasn't lying to him before sprinting back toward his enemies. The window had been more than able to endure the aftermath of his small spell, so his approach to the situation instantly changed.
One second-level warrior was on the floor with his intestine coming out of the long cut on his abdomen. Another was trying to cover his open throat, but his maimed arms couldn't stop the bleeding.
Two corpses stood a mere meter from those men. One had so little of his face left that no one could recognize him, while the other had a gory hole on the top of his head.
The remaining three second-level warriors had run in the opposite direction of Khan but for the same reasons, and their panic took longer to disappear due to their weaker senses.
Khan could reach the box while his opponents were still making sure that the window was intact. They weren't distracted, but they weren't completely ready to fight either. Still, he decided not to pursue them.
"You can say that you killed me," Khan exclaimed as he placed his left foot on the head of the man with the wounded neck, "But I suggest you hide afterward."
"You-!" One of the men tried to say, but a cracking noise reached his ears and made him interrupt his line. His eyes inevitably went on Khan's left foot. His companion's head had turned into a gory puddle.
"Hurry up," Khan ordered. "Leave already."
The three men were stunned. The complete coldness behind Khan's actions froze their thoughts. He had crushed their companion's head without showing any emotion. The sheer lack of humanity in the gesture turned Khan into a fearsome monster in their vision.
Khan could see that the three men were on the verge of running away, but their eyes revealed the source of their lingering hesitation. His opponents glanced at the metal box before focusing on him again.
"This one stays with me," Khan continued. "You can say that it fell in space if you need, but I won't give it to you."
Something powerful had pushed the crew to accept that dangerous task, but Khan had destroyed that resolve with his actions. Defeating more than half of the group in a single offensive and his last chilling gesture had turned him into an alternative that the surviving men wanted to avoid at all costs.
The synthetic mana gave an answer before the three men could act. Khan kept his cold face on his opponents and watched them leave in a hurry. He didn't move even after they left his vision and waited until they disappeared from his senses' range before lowering his gaze.
Khan was no stranger to death and bloodbaths. He had seen far worse, but something in that scene made him pensive. He didn't know if Jonathan had survived, but that didn't matter anymore. He had undoubtedly taken human lives.
The situation was still far from ideal, so Khan pushed those thoughts to the back of his head as he lifted the box and threw it toward the metal wall. The man under it was still alive, and coughs came out of his bleeding mouth.
Khan ignored the man for now. His attention went to the box, and his knife lit up before digging a tiny hole in that tough metal. That dark material actually resisted the Divine Reaper for a bit, but it eventually pierced through.
Khan withdrew the knife and focused on his sensitivity. No energy came out of the hole, and nothing strange happened when the synthetic mana entered the box.
Those results gave Khan the confidence to open the box. His knife dug a square opening that fell off with a simple pull and revealed its insides. A few layers of insulating material hindered Khan's inspection but removing them granted a clear view of the actual goods.
Khan saw a stack of dark-green fabric tied to the box's sides. He could count nine sheets of that material, but something else attracted his attention, and touching it almost confirmed his guess.
'Dammit,' Khan cursed in his mind while pulling out one of the sheets, uncaring that his gesture could tear it.
The fabric turned out to be quite flexible. It stretched until the pressure reached the critical point and made it separate from the box. Khan ended up with the intact material in his hands, and his guess began to turn into certainty when he sniffed and licked it.
Khan had only used his methods on the final product of a long and thorough alteration. He had never gotten the chance to do the same on the original material.
However, the fabric in his hands matched what Luke had shown and explained. Moreover, Khan felt a vague and distant resemblance with the material studied in the factory. It really seemed that he had found the alien chameleon's skin, which put Rodney in the criminal organization in charge of purchasing it.
'This can't be a coincidence,' Khan thought as he rolled the fabric and stored it under his loose jumper. 'Still, I might have nothing to do with this. A member of a wealthy family is a perfect middle-man in this situation.'
A chilling feeling invaded Khan's mind as he adjusted his position and left the box alone. His gaze turned on the coughing man busy keeping his bowel inside his body. The resilience of a second-level warrior was preserving his life, but that didn't play to his advantage.
To be continued