章 62: Guard duty

Khan and the others remained speechless in front of George's ability. They had understood what the boy had done, but the event was still too surprising to put into words.

George had activated a spell. His mana had taken the shape of a small dark-silver knife. The weapon had clear ethereal features, but none of the bystanders dared to underestimate its power.

"Don't look at me like this," George exclaimed as a weak smile appeared on his face. "I need complete calm and entire minutes to cast this simple knife. My mana capacity doesn't even allow me to materialize it more than three times a day, so it hardly feels like an achievement."

George's words didn't manage to suppress the others' amazement. He had been a recruit for as long as them, but he could already cast spells.

"What element are you?" Khan asked as evident curiosity filled his mind.

"Spirit," George revealed before deciding to explain a bit more when he saw that the answer didn't seem to satisfy his companion. "It's pretty rare, but also rather plain. It's one of the most flexible elements, but that feature depends on the user. I've trained with swords during my life, so this is the only shape that I can create."

Khan remained surprised at how different the elements could be. Lieutenant Dyester's words made more sense in his mind after hearing George's explanation. Only someone who shared the same type of mana could know how to use it. The behavior of that energy could simply vary too much.

"It's stable now," George suddenly continued while grabbing the knife. "You should probably find something to cauterize her forearm before I cut her hand."

Khan looked around the crash site. Everything was drenched due to the incessant heavy rain. He knew how to start a fire with random tools, but he couldn't find anything to burn.

Dorian and Cora seemed completely useless in that situation. They imitated Khan, but they didn't come up with anything to help in the matter.

"You can use the almost intact engine to heat a slab," Ethel explained while suppressing the waves of pain running through her body. "Just tear it apart and bring it here. I'll tell you what to do."

Khan immediately stood up and moved toward the wreckage. The left engine had lost its external circular layer, but the wires in its insides appeared in one piece.

'I should probably tear the whole thing from its base,' Khan concluded since he didn't know what parts he had to preserve.

Mana flowed into his legs as his body crouched. Khan delivered a few kicks at the bent base of the troop carrier and continued until his foot pierced the metal. He didn't always manage to activate the techniques correctly, but his success rate was above eighty percent.

Khan repeated the process until the whole engine hung from a small piece of metal. He pulled the entire thing at that point while tilting the device on both sides until the slab gave in.

Khan then brought the entire engine back to his group and dropped it among them. He had initially failed to notice their astonished expressions, but they became impossible to miss after getting rid of the large machine.

"What is it?" Khan asked.

"Did you just dig a hole in a troop carrier with your legs?" Dorian asked.

"I used mana," Khan honestly replied. "It has even taken a while."

"That's what they are sayin-!" Ethel explained before her pain interrupted her line. "Perfect executions should be quite rare, but you have a high success rate. Also, you don't look tired at all after performing so many techniques."

"My attunement with mana is pretty high," Khan tried to play it humble. "That wasn't even a battle, so I could focus easily."

"What about the Tainted bear?" Cora asked.

"Luck," Khan promptly explained before changing the topic. "What now?"

"There should be a circular piece," Ethel explained. "You have to rotate it when I say so. Hopefully I can redirect all the involved wires outside and don't activate the flying device."

Ethel bent forward and frowned whenever her hand moved. She used her left arm to tinker with the various wires of the engine and took most of them outside. Then, she ordered to get a suitable metal slab.

'The teams appear very balanced,' Khan thought when he inspected Ethel and George.

The two recruits had initially been in the opposing team. They both had talents that shone in that difficult situation, and their mindset was also generally mature.

Instead, Dorian and Cora didn't seem to have any special talent or favorite subject. Khan had yet to see them fight, but George could literally cast a spell. They couldn't be better than him.

'The Global Army has probably put weaker recruits in my team to balance me,' Khan thought while Ethel continued to give orders, and Dorian executed them. 'The other team must have had stronger recruits for the same reason. It's a pity that one of them has suffered a major injury.'

Dorian began to rotate the circular piece of metal. Energy accumulated on the device and flowed toward the wires at that point. Sparks came out of those cables, and Cora placed a metal slab over them.

Khan promptly took Cora's hands and pulled them closer. The girl jumped again at that sudden physical contact, and her face became red when she saw Khan ripping off part of his trousers.

However, everything became clear when Khan took her hands from the slab and covered them with the fabric. Cora had forgotten to protect herself while heating the piece of metal.

Ethel, George, Dorian, and Khan pretended not to notice Cora's evident blush, especially since they were about to cut off one of their companion's hands. The situation was tragic. Some of them even cursed in their minds when they saw that Cora could waste time thinking about that stuff.

Khan glanced at George. It was time to amputate Ethel's hand, but the two boys reached a silent understanding when their eyes met. It was clear that they were the strongest of their group, so it was up to them to return to the plain.

"It's better if you bite something," Khan said while tearing a piece of Ethel's robe and folding it.

The girl didn't show any shyness when Khan uncovered even more of her body. She even opened her mouth when he neared the piece of fabric to her face. Her mind was elsewhere. She was doing her best to muster her courage before the procedure.

"Ready?" George eventually asked when he saw that the metal slab in Cora's hand had begun to change color under the relentless attack of the sparks.

Ethel nodded before stretching her arm. George grabbed her forearm and placed his dark-silver knife right above her wrist. Then, he pushed the weapon down, and the blade severed Ethel's arm without meeting any resistance.

'Powerful!' Khan commented in his mind.

Cutting a human arm was hard, even with sharp blades. Yet, George had barely needed to put strength in his movement to sever Ethel's hand.

Ethel gave voice to a grunt, and tears quickly followed. She continued to scream while her teeth bit hard on the piece of folded fabric and her left hand covered her mouth to suppress her noise.

The magic knife dispersed as George grabbed Ethel's injured arm and forced it closer to the scorching slab. The girl wasn't in control of her actions, and she opposed the body with kicks and pulls.

Cora's hands trembled when she saw the bleeding arm. The girl froze and found herself unable to push the scorching metal forward, but Khan promptly grabbed one of her wrists to help her.

Khan also grabbed the bleeding arm and helped George getting Ethel closer to the scorching slab. The two eventually met, and a sizzling noise resounded among the heavy rain.

Cora almost puked when that noise and Ethel's suppressed screams reached her ears. She had to close her eyes and let Khan guide her through the process.

"You can drop it now," Khan eventually whispered, and Cora saw that her arms pointed inside the engine among the recruits now.

The girl gave voice to a short cry when she sensed heat going past the protection on her hands. She instantly dropped the metal slab, and she instinctively hid her face on Khan's side. Her fingers also tried to stab his abdomen and back as she clung to him.

Khan almost lost his composure, but a helpless expression appeared on his face when he heard Cora's sobs. The last part had been too much for her. She had tried to suppress her emotions until now, but she was only a seventeen-year-old girl whose world had turned upside-down.

"You can't fall apart yet," Khan sighed while gently patting the back of Cora's head. "We have a long way to cross, and dangers might be waiting for us. Put your emotions on hold until we get past this."

Cora began to calm down under Khan's caresses. The girl eventually left his side and sniffed one last time before nodding.

"Thank you," Cora whispered while closing her eyes and moving on her side to try to sleep.

George dragged Ethel next to her and let her sleep by her side. The girl had fainted after the procedure, and only a long night of rest could help her with the trauma of losing her hand.

"Should we establish guard duty?" George asked while turning toward Khan.

Khan took out his phone, and a few calculations happened in his mind. The device had synchronized with Istrone's time after the teleport, so its hour was still accurate. Khan didn't know how long its battery would last, but the group could use the alarms for now.

"Let's wake everyone up before dawn," Khan ordered. "I want Ethel to spend a few hours meditating before starting the march. Walking at night is out of the question, so we have to use every hour with the sun to get closer to the plain."

"Who wants the first round?" Dorian asked before glancing at his two companions and heaving a helpless sigh. "I'll take it, but my phone is broken."

"Don't worry," Khan replied while setting the alarm and placing his phone among them. "I'll meditate a bit more before sleeping. Shout if you see something off."

"I'll do the same," George announced before nodding toward Khan when the latter shot a worried glance at him. "I still need to recover, and we need power more than ever now."

Khan couldn't change George's mind, and the trio soon created a simple schedule for the guard duty. Dorian then started his task while Khan and George began to meditate. Still, the duo exchanged a few words when their companion jumped on the vehicle to gain a complete view of the crash site.

"How strong are you?" George asked without opening his eyes.

"I'm strong," Khan replied.

"Some of us won't make it," George added.

"I know," Khan whispered. "I'm no stranger to death."

"But can you leave someone behind if the situation requires it?" George continued.

Khan didn't answer anymore at that point. He didn't want to let others die, but he wouldn't lose his life to play hero either. Still, revealing that information to George could lead to adverse situations, so he preferred to leave the boy in the dark.

コメント 14のコメント

投票

ギフトを贈る

章 63: Failure

The group went through an uneventful night, and Khan woke everyone up a few hours before dawn. His phone had lasted for the entire guard duty, and he had taken the last shift to make sure that the others wouldn't lose track of time even if his device turned off.

The recruits' condition was far better after a long night of sleep and multiple meditations. Dorian and Cora almost appeared at their peak when the sun rose, and George also felt far better. His left side was still a mess, but it didn't seem to hinder his movements.

Ethel was Khan's main concern, but the girl's complexion had improved after removing her wounded hand. Her mana didn't have to slow down the gangrene anymore, so it could focus all its efforts on healing her body. She was far from ok, but she could stand and walk without slowing down her teammates.

"We have to move now," Khan ordered while pointing toward the direction that he had committed to memory after the crash. "The plain is in that direction."

The recruits followed Khan's hand, but they didn't see anything peculiar when they looked at the jungle. The traces of the crash had disappeared under the trees' stretched branches and thick vegetation born due to the mana flowing through the ground.

"Are you sure about that?" Dorian asked. "Everything looks the same for me."

"I memorized the spot before taking you out of the troop carrier," Khan revealed. "That's the right direction. Not getting lost is up to us."

"Some of our phones are still working," Cora said while keeping her voice down. "The compass should be active since the devices aligned with Istrone's magnetic field."

Cora felt awkward due to her previous actions. She had completely lost it after cauterizing Ethel's arms, and her mind had yet to recover. Also, she had basically exposed her feelings, which made her shy toward her teammates.

"For how long can we rely on them?" Khan asked when he noticed that Cora seemed to know a bit about those devices.

"The battery won't be a problem," Cora explained with the same tone as before. "Our phones only need one day under the sun to fully charge, and they can last for a bit more than a week if used correctly. The sparse rays that pierce the crowns should prevent problems."

Khan and the others instinctively lifted their heads. The trees' crowns were thick and left almost no room for the sunlight, but some ray still managed to reach the ground.

'What if it rains all the time?' Khan wondered.

The rain had stopped after the long night, but Istrone seemed to experience that bad weather often. The thick vegetation couldn't only come from the mana in the end.

'We must hurry,' Khan concluded before tinkering with the phone and finding the compass.

His new knowledge about the devices didn't change the team's situation. They had to regroup with the Global Army as soon as possible since the forest might hide dangers that they couldn't face. Spending time in the wilderness only increased their chances of dying.

Khan didn't know much about compasses, but he soon understood that using them wasn't too hard in his situation. He didn't have to learn Istrone's cardinal directions. He only needed to make sure that the arrow on the screen remained in the same spot while traversing the jungle.

The group quickly began to move through the wilderness. Khan and Dorian took the lead of the team while George remained at its end. The two girls were in the middle since they had yet to become combat-ready.

Everything looked the same in Khan's eyes. The plants and trees seemed to repeat themselves in his vision. The only proof of his correct direction was the compass depicted on his phone.

Istrone appeared empty. Khan had never been in an environment full of vegetation before, but he had heard about it from documentaries and other shows. He knew that a forest on Earth would normally have many animals, but the alien planet didn't respect that rule.

'Even the Slums had cockroaches and rats,' Khan cursed in his mind. 'How can this planet have nothing at all?'

The foreign environment didn't make sense in his mind, but he didn't dare to share his thoughts with his teammates. The group had silently decided to limit their noise to avoid attracting threats, and the lack of the heavy rain made them even more careful about that approach.

The jungle was silent, and only the cracking noise of the roots breaking under the recruits' feet resounded in the air. The vegetation was too thick to allow wind in its insides, so the group couldn't even hear the fluttering of the leaves and plants around them.

The complete silence was deafening. Khan and the others had only doubts in their minds, and the lack of noises made them louder. It was impossible to avoid thinking about the countless things that could go wrong in their journey, but they had to suppress them anyway to pay attention to the environment.

The recruits only knew that their direction was on point. Everything else was a mystery, starting from the most worrisome features of the whole situation. There was a chance that the rebels had captured the Global Army's headquarters, which would leave Khan and the others without a destination.

"Stop," Khan whispered, and his word reached even George in the back of the group due to the complete silence around them.

Khan had sensed something while moving through the jungle. It was a familiar sensation by then. Two masses of wild mana were moving among the trees ahead, but they had stopped when the recruits halted their steps.

'They know we are here,' Khan quickly concluded before turning toward Dorian.

Khan didn't know how strong the boy was, but it was better to learn about his prowess now that he could handle the threat on his own. Making plans would become far easier afterward, and the experience might even benefit Dorian.

"There are two Tainted animals ahead," Khan whispered while lowering his body. "They know we are here, but they are hesitating. The mutations must have worked pretty well for them."

Tainted animals usually fell prey to their aggression, but the two creatures in front of the group were showing signs of intelligence. That behavior broke the pattern and led Khan to believe that their mutations had led to stable forms.

"What should we do?" Dorian asked while imitating Khan.

The boy's martial art was completely different, but he instinctively imitated Khan's actions due to his anxiety.

"I'll quickly take one out," Khan explained. "You take care of keeping the other busy until I arrive. Of course, kill it if you can."

Dorian gulped, but he forced himself to nod. A real battle was finally in front of him, so he had to deploy all the teachings that his Master had forced him to memorize.

"I'll give the order," Khan continued. "Be sure to keep up with me."

Dorian nodded, and the tension in the air intensified as Khan started a countdown. Even the three recruits behind him felt anxious about the imminent battle.

The countdown eventually hit zero, and Khan shot ahead. Dorian quickly imitated him, but disbelief appeared in his eyes when he stopped seeing his companion.

Khan was too fast, and that feature became even more evident during a fight. His sprints were one of the Lighting-demon style's core aspects, and his speed reached insane levels during those techniques.

Khan's skin burnt due to the friction with the stale air. His body could barely endure the incredible acceleration gained during the sprint. Still, he had to keep his eyes open to avoid all the roots and hindrances on the uneven terrain.

Two large figures quickly unfolded in his vision. A Tainted bear and a Tainted wolf-like creature were standing in a spot that didn't feature many trees. It seemed that they had chosen a battlefield that would benefit their size, but Khan was going too fast to let those thoughts enter his mind.

Khan didn't have much time to choose his target. It would take him less than an instant to land on the two Tainted animals, and he had to use part of that time to complete his technique.

His eyes and body quickly turned toward the strange wolf. The creature had two rows of teeth on both sides of its mouth and a forked tail, but it appeared frailer than the bear.

Taking out one Tainted animal with a single blow would significantly simplify the battle, and Khan didn't hesitate to pursue that approach.

Khan planted his right foot on the ground when he arrived in front of the two Tainted animals. His leg dug the terrain as his body spun and deployed a roundhouse kick aimed at the wolf's head.

The attack landed on the creature before it could do anything about that sudden threat. Even the bear remained still when Khan's figure materialized in its vision. Both animals had only seen a shadow even if they had prepared for the incoming opponents.

'Dammit!' Khan cursed in his mind when he saw the wolf flying away and releasing a trail of blood from its nose.

Khan had become aware of something tragic after completing the technique. He had executed everything perfectly, but he had lost control of his mana at the last instant.

The wolf had flown away due to the momentum accumulated during the inhuman sprint, but his technique didn't express its full power. The animal's head would have exploded otherwise.

コメント 9のコメント

投票

ギフトを贈る