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C236 - Tall

The Stal's trench was large, and it lacked the steps next to the barrier since those aliens were tall enough to peek without needing them.

Khan couldn't remain on the other side of the barrier since he had no cover there, so he jumped inside the trench. The Stal in front and behind him fired their rifles, but he sprinted forward to hide behind the aliens.

Dark blood spurted inside the trench as the bullets hit the aliens, and a loud growl followed the event. The Stal lowered their rifles after that order, and Khan used that chance to slash his knife at the alien that blocked his way.

The trench was barely enough to contain the Stal. They were too big, and they could prevent Khan from sprinting past them if they stretched their arms. However, he could duck or jump between their limbs while swinging his knife to carve a path.

The alien in front of Khan saw a deep injury opening at its side while he ducked to sneak between its left leg and arm. That wasn't enough to stop the Stal, but Khan stabbed his knife at the center of its back after crossing it.

That injury also failed to kill the Stal, but it lost control of its leg and arms after Khan retracted his knife. His attack had severed its spine, putting an end to its battle.

'They are too tall,' Khan cursed in his mind while he turned to kick an alien charging at him.

Khan had grown in the last year, but most of the Stal were three meters tall. He would have to jump to reach their heads, but that would make him waste too much time. Khan couldn't allow himself to have that weakness when he was behind the enemy lines, so he aimed his attacks at other vital points. The Stal's anatomy was different from the humans, but they had a few areas in common, especially their spines and joints.

The kick landed on the Stal's waist, but it didn't budge. Khan widened his eyes in surprise when he saw the alien closing its four arms on his raised leg, but he quickly retrieved it.

Realization immediately dawned upon his mind. Khan had miscalculated how strong those aliens actually were. Their physical prowess was insane due to their peculiar features. The Stal in front of him was a first-level warrior, but it counted as two of them thanks to its odd body.

That delay gave enough time for a Stal to approach Khan from behind. He found himself trapped between two aliens. Eight arms stretched toward him and left no path open.

Khan jumped forward and stepped on one of the upper arms. The alien tried to move its other limbs toward him, but a deep vertical cut opened on its right head as he shot ahead.

The alien felt dizzy for a few seconds, but it soon fell forward, hindering the Stal that had tried to approach Khan from behind. The injured Stal tried to restore its balance, but it felt unable to control its huge body with only one head. Its battle and life inside that society were over.

Khan found four arms flying in his direction as soon as he landed. He didn't have enough time to dodge them, but he could reduce the amount of power that would fall on his figure.

Khan sidestepped the right arms before covering his right side with the [Blood Sheild]. The blood vessels on his limb and face clotted before two punches landed on them. An immense force followed the event, but Khan mustered the entirety of his physical strength to remain in his position. His feet ended up digging the ground, but he managed to avoid flying away.

The Stal showed a surprised expression when it saw Khan remaining in one piece after its attack. Its free arms tried to swing toward its opponent, but Khan slipped past its limbs to reach its chest and stab his knife.

The weapon pierced the rough brown skin, but that injury didn't stop the Stal. The alien tried to close its arms to trap Khan in a violent embrace, but he jumped while preserving the sharp mana around his knife. The technique ended before he could reach the space between the two heads, but a massive amount of blood spurted on his figure nonetheless.

The alien fell backward, giving Khan the chance to extract the knife and shoot forward. The trench seemed immense, and dozens of Stal occupied it. He had countless opponents to deal with, but his senses suddenly noticed something surprising.

A series of battle cries reached the enemy trench as humans peeked past the barrier and fired at the unaware aliens. Khan had created a disturbance that had claimed most of the Stal's attention, making them unable to notice the arrival of their opponents. Many of them didn't even have the chance to raise their rifles before bullets pierced their chests and heads.

The Stal didn't retreat after that event. Khan saw an alien charging at him, but a precise bullet suddenly pierced its chest and killed it. Khan turned to see that the young soldier saved previously had his rifle pointed at the enemies trying to charge toward him. The man didn't hesitate to fire whenever he had a clear shot.

Khan found himself without anything to do. The entirety of his platoon had reached the enemy trench, and the surprise effect created with his actions had given his allies the upper hand. Even the stronger Stal couldn't do anything when a series of bullets landed on their bodies before they could try to reach their rifles. A slaughter unfolded and ended quickly under his cold gaze.

"Don't stop here!" Lieutenant Pouille shouted. "Cross the trench and reach the damned anti-aircraft gun!"

Khan immediately jumped outside the trench and searched for the weapon mentioned by the Lieutenant. His gaze eventually converged on a tall cannon that had its barrel pointed at the sky. A series of Stal were protecting it, but they began to take steps back as more soldiers climbed out of the trench.

Mana started to cover Khan's knife as he prepared himself to sprint forward. He could reach the cannon far faster than his companions, but Lieutenant Pouille's voice shattered his plans before he even started to deploy them. "Nitis guy, we need that cannon! Don't make it end like the tank!"

Khan wanted to shoot a questioning glance at the Lieutenant, but the Stal next to the cannon started to run away to escape from that battlefield. The soldiers began to cheer at that sight, but an explosion suddenly engulfed the weapon and turned it into nothing more than scraps and fuming metal shards. The aliens had decided to destroy the tall gun instead of leaving it to their opponents.

The event put an end to the cheers, but the soldiers remained rather happy about that outcome anyway. They had turned a potential defeat into an incredible victory, and Khan was the reason behind that success. Their eyes converged on their new companion, but their expressions froze after inspecting his state.

Khan wasn't cheering. His expression remained cold as blood flowed down his face and uniform. The previous alien had covered him in that dense dark liquid, and he didn't bother to wipe it away yet.

The calmness that Khan radiated left the soldiers speechless. Some of them even recalled how unfazed he had been inside the trench. He appeared at ease in that chaotic environment. It seemed that the battlefield was his home.

Those thoughts inevitably saddened some of the most empathetic soldiers. Khan was among the youngest of the platoon. Seeing him so used to the battlefield made many of them wonder about his life. They didn't dare to imagine what he had to go through to reach that mental state.

Even those who had the time to read the reports sent by the team on the space station couldn't imagine how bloody his life had been. Many of those soldiers had only focused on funny aspects like his relationship with Liiza, so they didn't learn about Istrone and the actual battles on Nitis. Yet, they promised to themselves to read everything thoroughly once they found the chance.

"Snap out of it!" Lieutenant Pouille shouted. "Grab their rifles and everything valuable they have left behind. Nitis guy, come with me."

The soldiers immediately diverted their gazes to focus on the trench when Khan turned. They didn't want to meet his cold eyes, but they didn't hesitate to glance at him once he crossed them to reach the Lieutenant.

Lieutenant Pouille had started to walk back toward the allied trench, but Khan reached him quickly. He stepped at his side before adapting to his pace and waiting for words to resound.

Khan had started to learn how the higher-ups thought, and he had even defied a direct order. He expected a scolding to resound soon, but Lieutenant Pouille ended up surprising him.

"What you did was reckless," Lieutenant Pouille stated. "You shouldn't throw away your life just because you have gone through some hard stuff."

"I wasn't in danger, sir," Khan said after dispersing his surprise. "The bullets are faster than me, but I can still dodge them."

"Don't use today to justify your actions," Lieutenant Pouille scolded. "You might not be so lucky the next time, so keep in mind that you aren't alone on the battlefield. You must learn how to trust your companions."

Those words sounded strange when the one speaking them had almost let his entire platoon die to stick to his orders, but Khan didn't disregard them. Still, he didn't need that reminder to know how to behave on the battlefield. He simply couldn't trust strangers so soon.

"Also, try not to break things when you have the chance," Lieutenant Pouille ordered. "The Global Army will spare a lot of synthetic mana if we manage to take weapons directly on Ecoruta instead of receiving them through the teleport."

"Understood," Khan uttered while waiting for more words to come, but the Lieutenant remained silent until the two reached the barrier.

"Stop following me," Lieutenant Pouille scoffed while stepping on the other side of the barrier and jumping inside the trench. "I have official matters to handle. You can join the others. They will show you around."

Khan stopped and watched the Lieutenant approaching a bunker dug in the ground near the end of the trench. His gaze turned on the enemy barrier after the soldier disappeared inside the structure, and he saw many figures crossing the battlefield while carrying multiple rifles.

The soldiers appeared ecstatic to have won the battle. Khan guessed that they were mostly happy about their survival, but his thoughts never went too far in the topic. He only inspected their faces to memorize them. Those men and women would be his companions on Ecoruta in the end.

"Thanks for saving our asses, Nitis guy!" One of the soldiers shouted before throwing three rifles inside the trench.

"They sent a true powerhouse from HQ," Another soldier laughed while also throwing his weapons in the channel past the barrier.

Soldiers slowly gathered around Khan as they launched their weapons and voiced different thanks. They clearly wanted to get to know him, but a patch of golden hair suddenly claimed his attention.

"Hey, you," Khan said, making all the soldiers around him turn toward the woman carrying four rifles. "Thank you for before. That was a nice shot."

The woman appeared in her early twenties. She was short, with a slim figure and a pair of brown eyes. Her uniform had one star on each shoulder, and a long rifle different from the others seen on the battlefield hung from her back through a loose belt.

"You have been dumb to run across the battlefield," The woman said while throwing her weapons into the trench. "We might have gotten the tank and the anti-aircraft gun if you waited for the higher-ups to come up with a solution."

The woman then jumped past the barrier and crossed the trench to walk across the barren plain. Khan stopped looking at her only when he heard that the soldiers around him had started to laugh.

"Don't mind her," The young man that Khan had saved before announced. "Gloria has developed an odd attachment to rulers and orders after her family threw her away."

"What did she do?" Khan asked.

"Nothing much from what I've learnt," The man revealed. "Her family couldn't afford to nurture many descendants, so it sent her here. Honestly, she is the only completely innocent soldier on Ecoruta."

"What do you mean by innocent?" Khan questioned as a frown appeared on his face.

"The mortality rate here is insane for us foot soldiers," The young man explained in a surprised tone. "Only those who have done something wrong would end up in this place."

"What did you even do on Nitis?" Another soldier, a woman, promptly asked. "You should be able to get a nice position in some safe place with your strength."

"I bet it's about the alien girl, right?" A short man exclaimed while voicing a shady laugh. "What did you even do to her to end up in this place?"

Khan noticed that the topic interested the soldiers a lot. Everyone bent forward while waiting for an official statement about that gossip. Khan wanted to lie his way out of that conversation, but he found himself unable to do that when the matter involved Liiza.

"I've loved her," Khan declared in a tone so firm that made the soldiers' faces freeze. Still, he didn't remain on the scene to inspect those expressions.. He turned and crossed the barrier before jumping past the trench and marching in the same direction as the blonde woman.

To be continued