W

C249 - Path

The long and tiring escape culminated into a tense break. The stress and exhaustion accumulated after spending seven days in the cells and running for entire hours almost made the soldiers faint now that they had the chance to relax.

Khan hated the idea of sleeping, but he had remained awake for too long. A short nap wouldn't allow him to recover completely, but it wouldn't hurt either, especially since his hands also needed some attention.

The slightly damp environment felt welcoming while Khan walked among the trees and found an isolated spot close to the main group. Sitting on the layer of red-brown leaves that covered the ground was almost natural for him. Falling asleep turned out to be easy now that he didn't have to be in a cramped warm room.

The nightmare was as punctual as ever, but the arrival of a foreign presence awakened Khan before the solar system could fill his view. He quickly opened his eyes and turned to his left, but he relaxed at the sight of Delia's surprised face.

"Talking about a light sleeper," Delia joked.

"How long did I sleep?" Khan asked as he scratched the corner of his eyes before glancing at the few sunrays that had started to seep through the crowns.

"Less than an hour," Delia replied while crouching next to him. "You can rest a bit longer. The others won't be ready to leave anytime soon."

"Why aren't you resting?" Khan asked while taking out his phone and throwing it into one of the bright patches in front of him.

"I slept a lot inside my cell," Delia explained before pointing at Khan's hands and revealing a faint smile. "Also, someone had to change your bandages."

"You don't need to worry about me so much," Khan sighed while ripping away his sleeve and giving it to Delia. "I'm resilient."

"We would have turned into materials for the Guko's project if it weren't for you," Delia replied while turning the torn sleeve into bandages and taking Khan's hands carefully. "Let us help."

Khan didn't say anything else and focused on his condition. His left hand was mostly fine since it had never suffered severe injuries. It didn't even feel weak anymore, but Delia decided to reinforce it anyway.

The right hand was still a mess. A single day wasn't nearly enough to heal broken bones, and the pain that they radiated when Delia removed the piece of armor to handle the bandages only proved how bad the situation was.

Still, Khan rejoiced in front of the slight improvements. His right hand had long since stopped bleeding, and its superficial injuries had also healed. It would take a while and proper medical attention to fix everything, but he felt that everything would eventually be okay.

"Did you use this to escape?" Delia asked after picking the large ring and inserting it in Khan's fingers carefully before applying bandages over it.

"I wonder if I should throw it away," Khan admitted. "I think it's a simple key, but you can never be too sure."

"I bet you'll get something good if you manage to bring it back to the space station," Delia responded. "Keep it. The Stal will learn about our position anyway. No point worrying so much when our situation is already quite bad."

Khan nodded and let Delia complete the bandages before testing them out through a few quick gestures. She was right. The Guko working with the Stal wouldn't take long to figure out where his group had escaped, especially since they had left a trail of corpses behind them. The point in the escape was to be faster than their pursuers so that they couldn't catch up even if they learnt their position.

"You never take it easy, do you?" Delia commented when she saw that Khan closed his eyes to enter a meditative state.

"We'll share a drink once we get back," Khan promised.

"I want to smoke so badly," Delia complained before sitting next to him and placing her back on the trunk to rest.

Khan knew that meditating would only worsen his hunger, but he felt the need to take care of his hand. The influence that his mana applied to his body intensified as he focused on his training, and a faint pain spread in his mind as that energy tried to fix everything wrong with him.

Those short hours couldn't heal much, but they allowed Khan to put his hand on the correct path. It was incredible how deeply his mana knew his body. He wasn't a doctor, but he could see that his energy tried to align bones and muscles.

The faint shouts and orders that resounded from the main group forced Khan to come out of his meditative state. Delia had hugged her legs and had placed her head on her knees during her nap, but the trunk was too small, so she had ended up partially lying on him.

Khan took her shoulder and shook her lightly. Delia appeared lost for a few seconds when she reopened her eyes, but the shouts that reached their position soon reminded her about her situation.

The two stood up and walked back to the main group after Khan's retrieved his phone. It turned out that all the soldiers had used the illuminated spots on the layer of leaves to charge their devices. Tired faces had gathered around Lieutenant Pouille as they waited for him to complete studying the map on his screen to find a suitable path.

The Lieutenant didn't have it easy. The battle plans on his phone were clear, but some of them might have become unreliable after the escape. He didn't know whether the Stal had decided to close on them or had continued with their initial tactics.

Moreover, the environment in that region didn't help the soldiers. The forest was one of the few natural covers in the otherwise flat area. All the possible paths back to the allied territories would force them to march in the open.

Lieutenant Pouille knew that the chances of ending up in another encirclement would only increase if his group spent too long in the open. Stealing vehicles and making their way directly toward allied areas was their best bet, but that only created another problem.

The Stal were advancing now that they had defeated part of their enemies. Most of their vehicles were near the frontlines. The settlements in Lieutenant Pouille's area would probably lack those assets, which made his decision even harder.

"We don't have safe paths," The Lieutenant eventually announced. "We can try to take a long road around the trenches to reunite with other platoons of the thirty-seventh battalion, but that would stretch our travel by several days."

"Can I take a look?" Khan asked, and the Lieutenant handed him the phone.

Khan could immediately see what the Lieutenant wanted to propose. One of the trenches was relatively close to their position. It would take the group less than a day to reach it, but that meant fighting in the open against a force that outnumbered them.

"Is there a fight here?" Khan asked while pointing at the nearest trench depicted on the screen.

"Probably," Lieutenant Pouille revealed before taking his phone back. "We can theoretically take the trench by surprise, but the settlement nearby would be able to send reinforcements. We can't even seize it before approaching the frontlines due to the secret elevators."

"Can we even bet on our allies?" Khan questioned.

The Stal had probably set up a trench to defend against human forces, meaning that the soldiers would have access to reinforcements as long as they managed to notify their allies. However, Khan had seen how unwilling the Lieutenant had been to leave his position back then, so he could guess that the other higher-ups would share the same mindset.

"We can always split and send a team past the trench," Khan suggested.

"Someone would have to be a decoy without knowing whether reinforcements would ever arrive," Lieutenant Pouille sighed.

"I'm fast," Khan exclaimed.

"You are also one of the best warriors we have," Lieutenant Pouille declared.

"I'm no different than a below-average marksman if the battle turns into trench warfare," Khan responded.

"How do you even plan on convincing the allied forces to advance on your own?" Lieutenant Pouille asked. "Leave it. The rest of the battalion wouldn't even trust my words without a proper briefing. We must take the long path."

That conclusion didn't leave room for complaints, and Khan couldn't say much either. The Lieutenant knew how the higher-ups thought better than his underlings, so he had to trust his words, even if the other plan had fewer variables.

"We should still have some form of surprise effect if we play it smart," Lieutenant Pouille explained. "Our priority right now is to vanish so that the Stal won't be able to encircle us. Prepare yourselves. We have a long road ahead of us."

The soldiers suppressed their complaints and followed after the Lieutenant as he resumed the march across the forest. The area featured a few animals, but the group didn't have time to hunt them. They were also too loud for that task.

Nevertheless, the Lieutenant and a few soldiers had a general understanding of Ecoruta's flora, so they managed to seize edible roots along the way. The group never stopped for more than a few minutes, but they couldn't ignore the few sources of food and water that they found.

The forest quickly ended, and a seemingly endless barren plain expanded from that position, but the Lieutenant quickly picked a direction and led the group forward. Their return in the open brought rekindled the tension that the rest had slightly appeased, but the hurried pace forced the soldiers to remain focused on saving energy.

Ecoruta's sun was hot, and the constant march across its barren areas only worsened the soldiers' condition. Even the first-level warriors among them ended up slowing down after tense hours went by.

The rifles turned into anchors that tried to fix their feet on the ground, and their uniforms transformed into damp tissues that irritated their skin. Their shoes also started to burn, but the Lieutenant didn't allow any break.

Khan's eyes darted left and right as he made sure to pay attention to his surroundings. Still, his sensitivity to mana couldn't do much in that situation since the plain expanded past its range. He would probably see eventual opponents before sensing them.

Everyone expected Stal to appear in the distance sooner or later. Their group wasn't large, but they were still running right in the middle of the enemy territory. Lieutenant Pouille was keeping them away from the settlements, but the risk of being discovered existed and was even relatively strong.

The morning went by, but no Stal appeared in sight. The soldiers didn't know if the aliens had disregarded their escape or had been too busy in the trenches. Still, the barren environment that surrounded them couldn't provide answers.

A change happened when the group found an abandoned trench on their way. According to the battle plans on Lieutenant Pouille's phone, the Stal had long since left that area to advance, so he decided to use the area as a temporary resting spot.

The soldiers entered the trench and quickly set up a guard duty before taking naps or removing their sweaty uniforms to let them dry. No one cared about privacy in that situation, and many even ignored the alluring half-naked companions resting near them. They could barely muster the strength to think when their hunger and thirst had seized control of most of their brains.

Khan didn't sleep, but he didn't volunteer for the guard duty either. He paid attention to his surroundings on his own, but only whenever he forced himself to come out of his meditative state.

Nothing came in their direction, but that didn't reassure the group too much. If a battle had to happen, they preferred to have it in their current advantageous position. Yet, Lieutenant Pouille summoned everyone after a mere hour and forced them to resume the march.

Khan ended up waking up Delia again, and she quickly ran after him after donning back her uniform. Many imitated her due to the confidence that Khan radiated in that unclear situation. He had actually gained a decent number of loyal followers during the escape.

Of course, Khan didn't bother to pay attention to those soldiers. Even Delia's half-naked sleeping figure couldn't distract him.

When the night approached, the group saw the scenery in front of them changing again. Relatively short buildings appeared in the distance and forced everyone to crouch as Gloria began to inspect the area through her rifle's scope.

"They seem calm," Gloria commented.

"How far are we from our elevator?" Khan asked.

"Not far enough," Lieutenant Pouille revealed. "We must get past this settlement to be relatively safe, but there is a trench nearby and a large camp on the other side. Let's lie down and wait until it's deep into the night before moving."

The soldiers could only obey. The Lieutenant had calculated that they would reach that area during the dark hours, but they were still in the middle of a plain. No one had noticed them because they were still far away from the settlement, but the Stal would see something if they resumed moving now.

Needless to say, some soldiers fell asleep during the long wait on the ground. Many of them couldn't fight the tiredness and stress accumulated for so long, and every break turned into an opportunity to recover.

Khan and those who remained awake kicked the soldiers that started to snore or make too many noises, but the night eventually reached its darkest hour. Lieutenant Pouille whispered orders at that point, and the group followed him as he resumed the advance.

The soldiers didn't run. They marched while keeping their backs bent forward to avoid exposing themselves to eventual night guards. The Lieutenant even led the group to the settlement's right to avoid getting too close.

Each step felt too loud as it resounded among the silence of the night. No one spoke, and Lieutenant Pouille used hand gestures to give simple orders from time to time. They mostly involved Gloria and her scope, but they also dealt with eventual changes of direction.

The slow, sneaky march turned out to be far more tiring than their previous hurried advance. The tension almost made some soldiers trip and voice gasps at the first unfamiliar noise, but everyone managed to remain as silent as possible.

The tensest moment arrived when the group crossed the settlement. The faint hope that the group could overcome that hindrance without getting noticed tried to take control of their minds, but they suppressed it as they remained focused on their task. Cold drops of sweat fell from the soldiers' foreheads and tried to distract them, but everyone behaved impeccably.

Still, perfection wasn't always enough. A loud growl suddenly resounded from behind the soldiers, and a series of heavy steps began to echo in the night. The group turned to check whether the alarm was for them, but a series of azure flashes filled their vision and forced them to abandon their attempt to remain hidden.

"Run!" Lieutenant Pouille shouted even if everyone had already started darting forward.

The initial bullets missed everyone, but they increased as more and more Stal woke up and started firing at the humans. Still, the soldiers had put enough distance between them and the settlement, and the darkness of the night worked in their favor. The azure projectiles flew in their direction, but they often ended up hitting the ground behind them.

Some bullets successfully fell among the group, and their explosive power managed to hurt or destabilize a few soldiers, but no one stopped to help them.

Khan soon found himself in the lead, next to Lieutenant Pouille. He had already been in a similar situation on Nitis, so his senses worked at full speed to make him dodge any bullet that flew in his direction. He jumped left and right whenever he ended up in the trajectory of those masses of mana.

"Don't stop until you reach the canyon!" Lieutenant Pouille shouted even if no one could see that destination in the darkness of the night.

Some died, but many managed to leave the range of the rifles and survive that sudden attack. The canyon also became visible as the minutes passed. It was nothing more than a narrow passage that led toward underground areas, but that was more than enough for the soldiers. Nothing would be able to fall on them if they reached the depths of that territory.

The passage slowly revealed its true nature. It was a steep slide that led directly to the dark depths of the canyon. Climbing it would require a long time due to its frail structure, but no one cared about that right now. Everyone followed Khan and Lieutenant Pouille without bothering to think too far into the future.

Khan prepared himself to jump inside that long hole that stretched in the distance, but a bright azure light suddenly shone above the group and made many of them lift their heads. Khan's senses warned him about the presence of a dense mass of mana falling in his direction, so he promptly sprinted to his left and activated the [Blood Shield] to cover his right side.

The soldiers behind Khan imitated him, and the same went for Lieutenant Pouille, even if he moved in the opposite direction. Yet, the bright bullet fell faster than everyone expected and ended up crashing right in front of the Lieutenant.

Khan only noticed a chest-sized mass of mana falling on the ground before an explosion flung him away. Something burned, but he disregarded those sensations to focus on restoring his balance.

Khan fell and rolled on the ground before jumping back to his feet. His right side hurt, and his head felt hot, but he quickly focused on his surroundings to understand what had happened.

The last bullet had created a fuming crater, and its explosion had affected some soldiers, including the Lieutenant. Khan could sense his superior lying behind the smoke as his companions continued to hurry toward the canyon.

Khan cursed in his mind as he shot toward the Lieutenant. He reached him in mere seconds, but the scene that unfolded in his eyes after crossing the charred crater left him stunned for a second.

The Lieutenant's left arm had disappeared, and the same went for part of his shoulder and side. Part of his uniform was on fire, and charred skin spread under him. Khan could even see part of his rib cage from behind the torrent of blood flowing out of his body.

"Help me," Lieutenant Pouille weakly said, but an azure light suddenly flashed in the distance and forced Khan to act.

Khan unsheathed his knife and cut the Lieutenant's hand before going for his right pocket. He had long since memorized where the soldier stored the phone, and he performed a full-speed sprint after retrieving the device and the severed body part.

The [Blood Shield] covered his back as another bullet fell right behind him. The mass of mana caused an explosion that flung him away again, but he ended up flying directly inside the passage at that time. Pain spread from different parts of his body as his charred skin slid on the barren ground.

To be continued