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6.2% Chaos' Heir / Chapter 64: Exploration

Chương 64: Exploration

'I have been too confident in my ability,' Khan quickly concluded in his mind when he realized that he had failed to execute his technique.

The Tainted bear didn't give him much time to think. The animal recovered from its surprise and raised its paws to launch an attack toward its opponent.

However, Khan's emotions were still in a separate part of his brain. His surprise and disappointment in front of the failed technique didn't slow down his body. His leg was already in the air, and his shinbone was even pointing at the bear's side.

Mana flowed through Khan's body according to the teachings of the Lightning-demon style. The bear's paws were getting closer to his head, but his eyes barely registered them. His mind could only think at the instructions that he had reviewed and practiced countless times already.

The bear's paws filled Khan's vision. The sharp claws descended until they were at a mere inch from his face, but the whole creature disappeared when he completed his technique.

A loud noise spread through the area as the bear slid on the ground and created a long hole before slamming on the nearest tree. The plant shook to no end as the beast crouched on its trunk, and a cloud of blue leaves fell after the impact.

The Tainted wolf returned to its feet and fixed its angry eyes on Khan. Its nose still hurt, but taking care of its opponent had the priority.

The creature gave voice to a loud howl before charging ahead. Khan prepared for the imminent impact, but a battle cry suddenly resounded in the area before Dorian ran past him to face the wolf.

Dorian's posture was clearly off, and sweat already covered his body. He wasn't trying to perform any special technique. His assault was a reckless charge driven by fear and panic, but those emotions didn't make him forget his task.

The wolf quickly changed its target and leapt toward Dorian. Its teeth stabbed the boy's shoulder, but they didn't dig his skin too deeply due to the pain that spread through its mouth after the attack.

Dorian barely felt pain in his frenzied state. His mind only registered that the one-and-a-half-meter tall wolf was on him before his fists started to slam on its figure.

Khan almost felt bad about Dorian's Master after seeing those pitiful attacks, but the boy completed his role with his messy approach. The two Tainted animals couldn't work together anymore.

The Tainted bear roared as Khan turned toward the creature. It seemed that the tinge of intelligence from before had disappeared. The huge animal fell prey to its aggression and went on its four legs to charge toward Khan.

Blood flowed out of the creature's mouth. The previous technique had hurt its insides in ways that normal animals and humans couldn't endure. Yet, the mana flowing through its body allowed it to launch a reckless offensive that Khan welcomed with calm eyes.

'I got too cocky before,' Khan thought as the bear's charge slowed down in his eyes. 'Mastery doesn't come after a few good days of perfect executions. My proficiency will increase only after these techniques won't require me to concentrate anymore.'

Khan took a deep breath and let the bear get close. The huge creature leapt toward him once he entered its range, but its claws didn't manage to hit anything.

The bear grew confused even in its frenzied state. Khan's figure vanished as its body pierced it. The boy had moved so quickly that its eyes still saw his afterimage.

A faint pressure then appeared on its head. The bear couldn't see what was happening there, but the trio in the distance witnessed the entire scene.

Khan seemed to have teleported on top of the bear's head. The tip of his left foot touched the creature's forehead as he stood above it.

Khan felt weightless. His body seemed able to use the very air as footholds with his faint steps, but even mana couldn't make him ignore gravity. Still, he had no intention to remain in that state forever.

The mana in Khan's body suddenly fell and converged toward the tip of his foot. The bear sensed an immense force pushing it down and slamming its head on the ground.

The attack was so sudden that the head dug the ground before the rest of the body could follow it. A cracking sound eventually resounded in the area when the bear's belly landed on the terrain, but Khan's foot continued to pierce downward.

A wet sensation enveloped Khan's foot when the ground managed to stop his attack. He took his leg out of the hole and noticed that a dark-red liquid and other slimy materials had covered everything under his ankle.

The Tainted bear didn't move anymore. The attack had crushed its skull after giving birth to a spectacular scene.

'The other now,' Khan turned and shot toward Dorian without bothering to inspect the situation behind him beforehand.

Vague images appeared in his vision, but they didn't stop Khan from focusing on his target. The Tainted wolf and Dorian were still stuck in a messy grapple that didn't seem to lead anywhere, and their situation made it hard for Khan to intervene.

The wolf had its teeth stuck inside Dorian's shoulder. An abrupt attack could worsen the boy's injuries. Khan even risked hurting his companion if he delivered a proper kick to the creature, so his approach couldn't follow his usual style.

Luckily for Khan, Lieutenant Dyester had gone all-out to pick an excellent martial art. The Lightning-demon style had earned seventy-eight points, so it featured techniques useful in every situation.

Khan stopped when he reached Dorian. His body seemed to move slowly in the boy's vision, but he soon linked that impression to the effects of a technique.

Khan was moving slower than usual, but he was still quite fast. That apparent slow-motion came from the peculiar flow of the mana inside his body. The energy wasn't accompanying his rising leg. It was actually trying to push it in the opposite direction.

Air slowly flowed out of Khan's mouth as he placed his foot on the wolf's head. He didn't put any power into that move, but a loud noise still followed that action.

Dorian's eyes widened when blood started to flow out of the wolf's face. The creature even went limp and hung from his shoulder after the attack. The boy quickly grabbed its head to throw it to the ground, but pure disgust filled him when he sensed that the creature's skull had gained the same texture as a jelly.

The wolf's corpse fell on the ground as Dorian let go of its head. The boy held his hand as his breath grew ragged, but Khan promptly squeezed his arm to make him focus on something else.

"It gets easier," Khan explained before turning to the three companions that had just come out of the trees. "I've never seen such calm Tainted animals."

"They probably are the result of some experiment," George suggested. "The Kred might even be involved. I've read that their connection with nature can unlock fields unknown to humans."

George managed to suppress his amazement after exchanging a glance with Khan, but the two girls couldn't do the same. Ethel stared at him with wide eyes before shaking her head and regaining her concentration, but Cora appeared completely in a daze.

"Wake up," Ethel suddenly whispered while lightly hitting Cora's side with her elbow. "We have to move."

Cora snapped back to reality at that point, and an evident blush appeared on her cheeks. Khan pretended not to see that event and shot a glance at Dorian's shoulder before ordering to resume the march.

The group walked for all the hours with the sunlight, but they had to stop once heavy rain arrived and blocked their only source of illumination. They had managed to march for almost a quarter of a day before Istrone decided to hinder their vision, and Khan could only order to stop at that point.

A few training sessions and the guard duty made the group go through the night quickly. They didn't speak much due to the unsettling hunger accumulating in their minds. Sleeping was the only approach that temporarily suppressed that feeling.

The rain was still falling the next morning, but it wasn't as heavy as the previous day. The clouds past the trees weren't even completely dark either, so the recruits could see the path ahead and resume their march.

An uneventful day went by, but the group got lucky at that time. The weather never worsened, so they could walk for thirteen hours straight without taking any break.

The effort pushed their bodies to their limits. Exhaustion wasn't a problem, but their intensifying hunger was dulling their senses and slowing down their movements.

Only Khan appeared unaffected. He filled his stomach with the falling water and endured his hunger perfectly even after almost three days of complete starvation. Yet, it was clear that his teammates needed a solution to that issue.

None of them knew much about Istrone's vegetation, so they could only test the plants blindly. The recruits chose to use Dorian as a guinea pig and feed him different roots after removing their most hideous parts.

Most of the tests didn't go well. The human body rejected most of those plants, but some didn't cause any reaction.

The group took note of the harmless plants and started gathering their roots before feasting. Ethel became the official supplies carrier of the team since her condition wouldn't allow her to fight for a few more days, but there was a limit to how many resources she could hold with a single hand and the lack of a bag.

Dorian skipped the guard duty that night since his body had yet to expel all the toxins eaten during the tests. Nothing serious happened to him. He only experienced severe diarrhea that his mana managed to fix in a few hours.

The next day featured some illumination again, but rain still fell. The group felt better after taking care of their hunger, so they marched at a good pace through the jungle, hoping that they could return to the plain without meeting any danger.

Yet, Khan had to stop his companions after marching for a few hours. A strange sensation that he couldn't completely describe had suddenly reached his mind and had alerted his senses.

"How are you feeling, George?" Khan whispered while trying to understand what was happening among the trees.

The strange sensation told Khan that the danger didn't come from Tainted animals. He needed another reliable fighter in that unknown situation, and Dorian didn't fit those requirements.

"I can fight," George replied in a firm tone before drawing a thick and long branch from a hole in his trousers.

The boy had picked that branch in the past days, and no one had questioned him about that action. Everyone could understand that it had something to do with his martial art.

"Dorian?" Khan asked.

"I'm ready," Dorian answered while trying to imitate George's tone.

"Cora?" Khan continued to question his group.

"I'll follow you closely but remain hidden," Cora said with a slight tremor in her voice. "I'll jump out and support you if the situation goes out of hand."

Khan nodded even if curses resounded in his mind. Cora's role was quite important, but he didn't know if the girl would freeze in a real battle. She could do the same during her task, but she wouldn't be in the way at least.

"Follow me," Khan eventually whispered before crouching and moving through the trees.

A few figures soon appeared behind some large trunks. Khan recognized two bear-shaped Kred standing around three fainted humans. His eyes couldn't help but widen at that point. Luke was among that group.


next chapter

Chương 65: Surprise

The Kred exchanged growls that Khan couldn't understand. Those noises were perfectly clear due to the deafening stillness of the jungle, but the aliens weren't using words. They sounded like animals exchanging a deep and complicated conversation.

'They didn't notice us,' Khan thought even if the event left him surprised.

That jungle was the Kred's native environment. It felt strange that Khan had managed to sense the two aliens and get that close without alerting their senses. After all, no one in his group knew how to move silently, and they had stopped at only ten meters from them.

Khan wanted to believe that his group had gotten lucky, but the nature of the situation didn't make him feel like that. Luke and the other two recruits didn't feature heavy injuries, but flexible roots tied their hands and legs.

The three recruits were prisoners, which put Khan into an annoying situation. He had to decide whether to attempt to save those three or avoid the issue altogether.

The Kred seemed unaware of Khan's group, so running away was an option that he didn't dare to disregard. The aliens' prowess was an unclear variable that he couldn't underestimate.

Doubts filled Khan's mind while his companions remained silent. They were waiting for his orders, and tension inevitably built among them.

Only George could consider all the available options like Khan. The other recruits in their group had immediately thought that a rescue mission would start once their leader came up with a plan.

'Kred have better bodies but struggle to increase their attunement with mana,' Khan reminded himself while inspecting the area. 'The Ef'i are a stronger species, and I've defeated them, but they look like adults.'

It was hard for Khan to judge the actual age of the Kred. Their inhuman features didn't show marks that he could recognize, but their aura lacked any childish vibe.

The Kred appeared mature, determined, and driven. Their inhuman eyes carried no mercy when they stared at the fainted recruits under them. They didn't waver as they coldly inspected the young prisoners.

'Facing them is madness,' Khan eventually concluded in his mind.

His opponents could have years, if not decades, of training more than him. They might be experienced soldiers who had already gone through many deadly battles. The two bear-shaped Kred might be as strong as Lieutenant Dyester, which would leave Khan no chance to succeed in an eventual rescue mission.

"Let's leav-," Khan turned and began to give his order, but his eyes widened when he saw that a third bear-shaped Kred was silently approaching his group from behind.

Khan and the alien looked at each other for less than a second, but that moment felt like an eternity. The two went over countless ideas in the span of an instant before reacting to the surprising event.

The Kred began to roar. Its hairy mouth opened and started to give voice to a low cry, but Khan put everything he had in his bent legs and reached the alien one second after its warning spread into the environment.

Dorian, George, Cora, and Ethel divided Khan from the Kred, but his faint steps barely affected them when he walked on their shoulders and heads.

Khan flew after walking over his companions. His airborne figure appeared in front of the alien with a knee pointed toward its open mouth. He had taken only one second to complete the technique. His mana was already in the right place. The sudden danger had allowed him to complete his fastest execution yet.

The Kred's eyes widened as its body bent backward, but it didn't seem to have the power to dodge Khan's attack. His knee hit the alien's nose and made it cave in until it reached its forehead. A cracking noise even resounded from its skull, but Khan didn't hear it due to the grunt that followed the interruption of the warning cry.

Khan directly flowed into another technique. His attack had pushed the Kred backward, but his knee was still attached to its face. He took a deep breath as mana gathered in his torso before falling toward the tip of his joint when he exhaled.

The Kred's vision had grown blurry after the first attack, but it could sense that a massive weight had suddenly appeared on its face. Still, everything was happening too quickly. The alien tried to raise its clawed arms, but the back of its head hit the ground before it could even attempt to touch Khan.

The ground shattered as Khan slammed the tall alien down and forced the entirety of his bodyweight to converge on his knee. His leg dug the terrain as he continued to push the Kred downward. The crash made a lot of noise, but Khan could only think about defeating that opponent now.

The noise alerted the other two Kred and forced the four recruits to turn. Everything had happened too quickly for them too. They realized the nature of the threat only when the tall body of the alien appeared in their vision.

'Can I really defeat them?' Khan wondered while rolling on his back to exit the hole created by his attack and turn toward his astonished companions.

The Kred didn't move anymore. Khan had clearly beaten it, but he didn't know if he could accomplish the same feat without taking the aliens by surprise. Still, another issue appeared in his mind when he realized that escaping would cause other problems now.

'We can't lose our path,' Khan understood in his mind when he saw two tall figures moving quickly among the trees.

Escaping when two natives were on his tracks was hard, but Khan could pull it off with his speed. However, he risked getting lost in the process, and no compass could help him if he walked out of his path.

Fighting seemed the only chance at that point, but his companions had yet to understand what had happened. Khan's sudden actions had made them turn toward him and show their back to the other aliens. They didn't know that the Kred were already on the move.

"Behind you!" Khan eventually decided to shout.

The four recruits turned and noticed the two tall bear-shaped Kred hurrying toward their position. Their size didn't seem to be a hindrance in that thick vegetation.

George was the first to react to that threat. He was already wielding his branch, and his mind had been ready to fight since the group found the Kred.

George took a deep breath as mana flowed out of his body and entered the branch. The greenish weapon began to radiate a faint light while the boy sat on his knees and acted as if he was sheathing a sword on his side.

Dorian quickly stood up and prepared himself for the imminent impact, and Cora imitated him while using her body to hide Ethel.

Khan made sure to reinforce the mental barriers on his emotions before shooting ahead. He circled the group and prepared himself to support George since he had the highest chances of delivering a proper attack to the Kred. Yet, he slowed down on purpose to make the two aliens clash on the group.

One of the Kred quickly approached George and waved both its arms toward his head. However, the alien promptly retracted them when the boy drew the branch by his side and swung it in the air.

The Kred's reaction had been almost immediate, but the tip of George's branch had managed to hit its targets anyway. Two superficial cuts opened on the alien's forearms, and red blood started to flow out of them.

Dorian charged ahead once the second Kred became too close. His palms slammed on the alien's chest to push it, but the latter didn't budge. Instead, it delivered a swift attack with its left arm that flung the boy away and opened four deep cuts on his side.

Khan arrived at that point. The injured Kred shot an angry glance toward George, but a kick landed on its side and forced its body to bend unnaturally.

George didn't miss that chance. His branch promptly slashed at the Kred's head, and a long injury opened on its face. The weapon even cut part of its exposed hairy chest and made dark-red patches spread from those spots.

Khan jumped to rotate his body mid-air and slam his heel on the back of the Kred's head. The impact made the alien fall forward and gave George the chance to launch another attack. However, the boy lost his concentration, and his branch broke when its tip touched his opponent's chest.

Khan prepared himself to launch another attack, but he stopped when he noticed that the Kred had fainted. His eyes moved toward the other alien at that point, and he found it waving its arms toward Cora.

The girl seemed to panic when the two massive clawed arms swung toward her, but her body instinctively moved to accompany the alien's attack.

The claws stabbed her side, but they didn't dig too deeply. She imitated their movements and rotated behind the Kred once it completed its attack.

The Kred felt surprised in front of that strange technique, but Cora shared its emotions. Her breath became ragged, and pure fear appeared on her face when the creature turned toward her.

However, a figure suddenly materialized above the Kred's head. Cora saw Khan rotating in the air before slamming his heel on the alien's forehead.

The attack stunned the Kred and allowed George to reach its position. He still wielded his broken branch, but the weapon didn't fail to pierce the side of the alien's chest at that time.

The alien spat blood, and Khan's shinbone suddenly slammed on the side of its head. Its jaw broke after the technique, and the alien fell to the ground. It was still awake, but it seemed unable to stand up.


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