C474 Racial Trait
Khan was faster than the weaker specimens converging on the turrets. Their flying speed wasn't even in the same realm, so he reached an area quite below the pillars before any Radola could get close.
The symphony and the team on the ship kept sending updates. The turrets had fallen for six minutes now, but more Tainted animals had entered the cleared area. The incoming Radola had become six, and only a few had chosen Khan as their target.
'The turrets are just too big,' Khan cursed as his eyes darted left and right while he let his body fall.
The turrets were faster than Khan due to the engines, so they would eventually catch up with him. Yet, that event would mark their entrance into the battlefield, putting them in danger. If possible, Khan wanted to keep them away and safe until their landing became imminent.
Still, the Radola didn't have Khan's interests in mind. They were aggressive beasts that attacked the first foreign figure they noticed. Khan could only try to attract their attention by playing on their instincts.
Half a minute had to pass before the incoming Radola got close enough to Khan's ideal reach. He couldn't fly too far away from the turrets, but that distance granted him some room.
The Radola's arrangement was the only issue. Three were East, two were North, and one South. Moreover, only two from the East and one from the North were diving toward Khan. The others were targeting the turrets and would reach them if Khan ignored them.
Khan tried to find an ideal attack plan, but the situation didn't look good. Flying toward the turrets would give him a better chance to defend those valuable goods, but it would also lock him in that position for the rest of the mission.
A few more seconds passed while Khan made up his mind. That delay allowed the Radola to get closer to their targets, but that worked in Khan's favor. He joined his palms while softly tapping the air to slow his descent, and a purple-red spear soon shone in that blue environment.
The appearance of the chaos spear made the Radola diving toward Khan angrier but didn't affect the others. So, Khan launched his spell, making sure that it would explode exactly where he desired.
The turrets were state-of-the-art equipment, obviously featuring chaos-resistant materials. They were also sturdy enough to survive many attacks from weak creatures, but design flaws existed.
The engines on the turrets' tops were weak spots that ordinary Tainted animals could affect. Their arrangement for the landing area also required troublesome precision, making attacks that could put them off route quite dangerous.
However, Khan was still decently distant from the turrets, and they were showing their bases to him, so he launched the spear toward their center. The spell exploded before reaching them, creating a bright pillar that the Radola couldn't ignore.
The explosion didn't affect the turrets. When they reached the purple-red light, Khan's mana had already started to disperse. They crossed that energy without altering their course or suffering any damage, but the Radola couldn't ignore the event.
The Radola spread their wings to halt their reckless descent when the chaos element expanded in their view. Then, when the explosion dispersed, they found another source of purple-red light. Khan was releasing his mana freely, and all the Tainted animals in the area decided to target him.
'Good,' Khan thought when he saw the other three Radola changing their course to dive toward him. 'Now, hurry.'
The three Radola that had targeted Khan from the very beginning converged toward his position only to lose track of his figure. They couldn't follow his movements, and one of them lost its head while they were still confused.
Khan flew toward the Radola on his right and severed its neck with a swift slash. It was easy to deliver those deadly blows when the Tainted animals had no idea about his position, which wasn't hard to achieve against weak opponents.
A series of screams filled the area when the two headless Radola bumped into each other and started freefalling. Purple-red light also shone on their previous spot, revealing Khan's position to the remaining Tainted animals. He made sure to have all the eyes on himself before sprinting toward the nearest opponent.
The last Radola that had targeted Khan from the beginning was a hunter, but no cloaking technique covered it. The Tainted animal didn't feel the need to hide after Khan disappeared, so everyone could see a purple-red flash running through its open beak and reaching its head.
Khan landed on the Radola's back while the severed half of its head slid off. The unfolded wings kept the beast afloat, and Khan's weight didn't affect its flight. He could stand on that feathered bed and glance at the other enemies above him without using a tinge of mana.
"Seven minutes!" Seth shouted, forcing Khan to peek past the Radola's wings. The island was getting closer, and the same went for the new Tainted animals that had entered the perimeter.
The peek only lasted a few seconds. Khan jumped without looking above him, and his gesture ruined the corpse's balance, making it fall. Meanwhile, three Radola converged toward his back, but their target disappeared before they could get a chance to reach him.
The team on the ship could see the entirety of the battle due to the powerful scanners, and those images left everyone stunned. Even Lieutenant Clayman didn't dare to blink in front of such a spectacular performance.
"Is he a human or a bird?" Manuel couldn't help but gasp.
"Gunners, don't get distracted!" Lieutenant Clayman scolded.
"Are we even needed?" Manuel wondered without moving his eyes from the cannon's scanners.
"Manuel, the Captain landed on the turrets," Leona commented.
"I know, I know," Manuel cursed while pressing on the device in his right ear. "Boss, you have inbounds from every direction. The scanners show eight of them."
"First shot on me," Leona reminded.
"I won't use this thing, will I?" Manuel sighed.
"Eight minutes!" Seth shouted, bringing that conversation to an end.
Khan couldn't stay away from the turrets anymore after dealing with the last Radola. Even sprinting toward the island below wouldn't put any distance from that equipment. The pillars were falling faster than him, and the air under them had also turned red, highlighting their incredible speed.
After killing the last three Radola, Khan let himself freefall until the turrets caught up with him. Quick and precise movements followed, placing Khan on a pillar's side with his body almost laid on that metal surface. He could keep up only if he used the equipment as footholds, but that would become troublesome soon.
Warnings reached Khan's ear as his companions updated him on the situation. The turrets only needed two minutes to land, but more enemies had appeared, and he had already been aware of them for quite some time.
Eight Radola approached the turrets from every direction, and Khan couldn't hope to intercept all of them. Some were already below him, which forced him to wait for the right opportunity to strike.
A Radola misjudged the turrets' speed and missed its opportunity to attack, but another flew directly toward one of them, seemingly aiming to pierce it with its beak.
Khan was on the opposite turret, but that wasn't an issue. He activated the barrier and forced his figure to stand horizontally to use the metal surface as a foothold. A single jump was enough to cross the distance between the other pillar, and a few quick steps followed to put him on the other side.
The Radola was almost about to hit the turret when a violent kick landed on its beak, shattering it in the process. The impact even pushed the Tainted animal away, forcing it to adjust its balance. The beast was still alive, but that delay put the pillars out of its reach.
Khan's palm slid on the metal surface for a few meters before he managed to restore his balance. Multiple momentums were at work there, and kicking wasn't ideal due to the rebounding force that would hit him. Yet, the Radola was about to crash on the turret, so he had to push it away.
Two more Radola rose to reach the turret to Khan's right, and he moved accordingly. He got closer to the pillar's base before jumping to end up in a similar position and summon a chaos spear.
Khan threw the spell at the incoming Radola, but the latter dodged the attack. Still, the explosion that followed engulfed one of them and pushed the other off course. The Tainted animal missed the turret by less than a meter but remained in Khan's range.
A torrent of blood fell on Khan. He had only needed to stretch his arm to make his glowing knife pierce the Radola's belly. The Tainted animal had continued to fly upward, but its insides didn't follow it.
That small victory didn't give Khan any chance to rest. The high speed also hindered his vision, but he forced himself to glance at the turrets before performing another jump.
The metal surface welcomed Khan in time to make him perform a straight kick. His foot crushed the beak of a Radola in a collision course to the turret, and the head behind it suffered a similar fate. However, the rest of its body bumped into the turret, which held strong due to the momentum Khan had dispersed.
Khan had to jump again in the next second since another Radola was in a collision course with a turret. The Tainted animal was aiming directly for the pillar's base, which forced Khan to run downward and cross the scorching area to intercept it.
Burns appeared on Khan's body, but he ignored them while spinning mid-air. He eventually stretched his leg, and his heel fell on the incoming Radola, crushing its head in the impact. The attack also pushed it away, making it cross the empty area among the turrets.
The pillar's scorching base ended on Khan's back right after the attack, but tapping on the air allowed him to push himself away and return to a safe surface.
The last two Radola were targeting different turrets, and Khan knew that his normal speed wouldn't be enough to deal with them. A whisper left his mouth, and mana gathered around his legs to grant him an acceleration that surpassed his limits.
Khan almost teleported near another turret, and his knee landed on a Radola's wing. The violent impact pushed the bird away, but Khan managed to kick its back with his free leg to fling himself onto the metal surface. He even prepared another sprint empowered with Maban's technique, but an azure flash unfolded before he could move.
A bullet had crashed on the last Radola before it could touch the tower. Leona had decided to fire since Khan seemed unable to reach the Tainted animal. She was wrong, but Khan was to blame since he didn't share detailed explanations about his strength.
"Nine minutes!" Seth shouted in Khan's ear.
Khan raised his hand to show his thumb while glancing at the island below. A violent landing was about to unfold, but he had to hold the fort a bit longer.
More Radola had entered the perimeter. There were at least forty of them, but only a handful had a chance to reach the turrets before their landing, and Khan made sure to deal with them.
The gunners shot two more bullets during those seconds but stopped firing once twenty seconds remained before the landing. No Radola could reach the turrets in that window, and Khan would be more than enough afterward.
Khan put the entirety of his strength into an upward jump once the time was right. He dispersed most of the turrets' momentum while they crossed the last meters that divided them from the surface. Many Radola were above him, diving after the pillars, but a loud noise arrived before they could meet.
Smoke and crumbling noises filled the area when the turrets touched the ground. The violence unleashed during the landing seemed able to make the very air tremble, and the event forced the Radola's dive to a stop.
A few weak specimens lost control of their bodies during the chaos, and the smoke that enveloped them worsened their situation. Instead, the others flew upward to escape the grey cloud and wait for everything to calm down.
Khan had to perform a few more jumps in the air to disperse the entirety of the turrets' momentum, but the grey cloud eventually turned into his perfect hunting ground. He could see perfectly in that environment, so he cleared it as soon as he regained complete control of his movements.
The winds were stronger on the surface, so the grey cloud didn't last long. The four turrets eventually appeared in all their magnificence, marking the corners of a perfect square, with Khan performing short jumps above them.
"One and a half minutes for the turrets to go online," Seth updated while Khan stared at his imminent opponents.
The absence of speed-related problems would make things easier for Khan, but the Radola also had advantages. More than ten minutes had passed since the missile. Many Tainted animals had entered the cleared area, and a considerable number of them could reach the turrets before their activation.
Khan was mentally ready to fight an entire swarm. He was perfect for the job, but Lauter's fauna surprised him. Many screams filled the sky, but a louder screech pierced them and enforced an eerie silence.
On the ship, the team was at a loss for words. Khan's performance had surpassed their wildest expectations. Even the most unbelievable rumors about him didn't do him justice. Yet, the scanners eventually warned them about something dangerous.
"Boss, you have something big coming your way," Manuel warned before leaving the rest of the details to his superior.
"Sir, the scanners put this Radola near fourth-level warriors," Lieutenant Clayman said through the device in his ear. "Correction, it's a match for fourth-level warriors."
"Beginning descent-!" Tyler shouted since he thought Khan needed air support.
"Remove manual control!" Lieutenant Clayman declared before Tyler could perform any maneuver.
The ship's robotic voice informed Lieutenant Clayaman that his requests had been approved, and the autopilot took over. The vehicle didn't move and stuck to the parameters set by Khan in the past few days.
"Captain, do you need air support?" Lieutenant Clayman questioned once everything on the ship was in order.
Khan could have a better view of the scene from his position. The symphony had already warned him about that powerful presence, so seeing it cross the Radola gathered above him didn't bring any surprise. Instead, the weaker specimens' behavior managed to stir Khan's interest.
There were mostly weak Radola above Khan. They were part of the initial scouts sent after the missile, and their strongest specimen barely came close to second-level warriors.
Still, all those creatures didn't dare to move when a Radola far stronger than them gave the order. They only flapped their wings and let that superior specimen fly past them.
'They don't belong to the same pack,' Khan thought. 'Is it a racial trait? Does it want to be the only one hunting me?'
Khan couldn't find explanations for that odd behavior. Even Professor Nickton's notes didn't describe anything similar. However, Khan felt intrigued by that apparent challenge. If the powerful Radola wanted a one versus one, Khan would at least think about it.
'I know,' Khan thought when Lieutenant Clayman's evaluation echoed in his ear. 'It contains as much mana as a fourth-level warrior, but is it as strong as one?'
"Captain, do you need air support?" Lieutenant Clayman's question eventually reached Khan, and his mana clarified his inner desires. Khan felt a need to test himself against that powerful opponent.
"Negative," Khan stated while tapping the air to take a step toward his new opponent. "Stay where you are and stop updating me. I want to focus."
To be continued