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C254 - Cough

Khan sprinted to his right, leaving the spot targeted by the Stal before curving toward the truck that had turned upside-down. The first-level warriors among the aliens could follow him with their eyes, but they never tried to predict his movements, so the bullets ended up flying behind him.

The situation became more dangerous as Khan grew closer to the truck since he couldn't be as flexible as before. Sidestepping a couple of bullets while running in a straight line wasn't a problem, but the action would force him to slow down for a few seconds, leaving him vulnerable to other attacks.

Moreover, the first truck had three Stal, but Khan didn't find other options. He charged at them, diving deep into his special mindset to make his movements as smooth as possible.

A bullet aimed for his head, but he bent to his left before kicking the ground to minimize the loss of speed. Another tried to fly toward his chest, but he spun on himself, prolonging and stretching the rotation to make sure that nothing touched him. Still, Khan suddenly noticed that the third mass of mana was basically on him, so he ducked and slid on the ground.

The rotation had forced Khan to slow down, so he couldn't slide for long, and the Stal didn't wait for him to stand up. Two bullets flew toward him and prevented any attempt to straighten his position. He had to kick the ground to move to his right, but he saw a third mass of mana moving toward him as soon as he managed to jump back to his feet.

Khan jumped to his left and kicked the ground with his right leg to resume sprinting forward, but he had to duck when he saw another bullet flying toward him. A second projectile tried to hit him while he was still sliding on the ground and forced him to throw himself to his right.

Khan hit the ground with his right shoulder, but another bullet arrived. He could only turn and kick with both legs to push himself outside of the attack's trajectory. Other projectiles tried to follow his movements, so he flung himself away and slid until he surpassed the cover of the truck.

The Stal behind the second truck immediately tried to fire at Khan, so he had to continue kicking the ground until he arrived behind the front of the first vehicle. No projectiles could reach him there, but the situation was far from ideal.

Khan straightened his position and laid his back on the truck. Three Stal were at the side of the vehicles. Two stood behind the second cover, while others were inside the trench. He would expose himself to two groups if he moved to his right and only one if he started sprinting to his left. However, he would have the chance to use his knife in the first option.

The new reinforcements grew closer as Khan continued to wait behind his cover. He had decided to turn the corner to his right and jump among the three Stal, but bullets were still flying toward him, and he could sense the three aliens keeping their rifles ready.

When Khan found an opening, he sensed that one of the Stal decided to turn the corner on its own. He didn't hesitate to crouch and imitate its movements. The alien jumped forward and pulled its arms back to attack as soon as it found its opponent, but it couldn't find Khan right away due to its tall size.

Two thick legs appeared in Khan's vision, but he barely paid attention to his eyes in that situation. As soon as he sensed the Stal standing before him, he jumped and slashed with his knife.

The Stal found Khan only when it saw him filling its view. Yet, everything suddenly felt dizzy, and its balance broke as it began to fall backward.

Khan made the mana in his body fall toward the tip of his left foot to fall faster than his opponent. His hand reached for the Stal's robe as soon as he touched the ground, and he forced the alien to act as a cover while he understood what its two companions were doing.

The other two Stal didn't move, so Khan decided to act. He kicked the alien to his right before turning the corner. The two Stal couldn't see him when the huge body of their companion flew toward them, so the first of them couldn't stop the shadow that moved right under it.

Khan ducked under the flying body before planting his left leg on the ground, bending forward, and throwing his right foot upward. His kick appeared in front of the unaware alien busy inspecting its flying companion, but the latter didn't recognize the nature of the attack since most of Khan remained hidden.

The kick landed at the center of the Stal's torso. The latter wasn't a first-level warrior, so something inside him exploded as Khan pushed it. The body fell on him at that point, but he put strength on his left leg and slipped out of that situation before anything could trap his right foot.

The second alien made it impossible for the third to fire at Khan, but he had gotten away from them to get out of the falling body. The Stal in the trench didn't miss that opportunity. They peeked out of the barrier and fired at him as soon as they saw him in the open.

Khan jumped back while rotating on himself. Bullets flew behind him, but nothing could disrupt his concentration. He pushed himself forward when his feet touched the ground. The second alien had begun to bend forward to puke the blood that had accumulated in its mouth, while the third started to move its rifle when it saw the shadow appearing in its vision.

Khan tilted his head to his left, and a bullet passed next to his ear. He felt hot for an instant, but his knife still rose as he converged toward the third alien. He couldn't jump due to the hindrance it would inflict on his sprint, and the Stal's current stance didn't leave many openings, so he stabbed his weapon at the center of its waist and let it cut everything on its path.

The alien began to turn, but the movement revealed the harshness of its injury. A torrent of blood fell as half of its waist opened. It had to use one of its hands to stop the organs trying to come out of the wound, and Khan left its range during that window.

Khan found himself in the open again. The enemy trench was to his left, but he sprinted to his right to reach the second truck. He performed the same large path to avoid sprinting in a straight line, but his approach to the vehicle didn't go as expected.

Khan had to proceed in a straight line during the last part of his sprint. He was ready to dodge the incoming bullets that would inevitably fly in his direction, but they ended up flying in an odd trajectory.

Two bullets flew next to each other toward Khan's torso. He didn't know if the Stal had done that on purpose or if both of them had terrible aims, but that caused problems for him. The projectiles were occupying a larger space now, and Khan couldn't pass between them. A simple sidestep was out of the question too, and he wasn't close enough to the truck to jump behind its hidden side.

Khan could only duck to slide on the ground or perform an evasive maneuver to his left. Yet, both options would slow him down, so he had to decide which risk to face.

Khan ended up jumping to his left dodge the bullets before kicking the ground to restore his speed. However, a mass of mana dangerously approached, and his senses told him that he wouldn't be able to dodge it.

The [Blood Shield] covered Khan's left arm as he laid it to his side. The bullet hit the spot right below the shoulder and slightly pushed him away. Moreover, some soreness filled his limb. That was already his second time deploying the Niqols' technique to protect himself from a projectile.

The jump and the following sprint brought Khan closer to the two Stal behind the truck. He only had to make a few steps to reach the aliens, but his experience told him that he wouldn't be able to perform the Divine Reaper in that condition.

It had been a long time since his last failed execution of the Divine Reaper. Khan felt quite sure that his special mindset had brought him infinitely close to the competent proficiency level and maybe even past it. Yet, his left arm was suffering from the drawbacks of the [Blood Shield], and it had even endured two bullets, so he couldn't control his mana properly in that area.

Between the two Stal behind the truck, the first was a first-level warrior, while the second was only close to that level. Khan couldn't retreat due to the bullets flying toward his previous positions, and he didn't have enough space to cut to his right to reach the trunk. He could endure another projectile with the [Blood Shield], but it was clear that his body was approaching its limit.

Khan pressed forward. The first alien fired at him, but the projectile missed him without the need for evasive maneuvers. It turned out that the Stal really had terrible aim, but Khan didn't have the time to curse in that situation.

Khan ignored the first alien and converged toward the second. The latter fired its rifle, and an azure flash filled his vision, but he performed a long jump helped by two airborne rotations. The second Stal had initially felt happy for its accurate shot, but its vision went dark when a heel dug its left head.

The airborne kicks allowed Khan to add his weight and multiple rotations to his momentum. They were the strongest techniques of the Lightning-demon style in terms of sheer physical power, and a Stal that had yet to become a first-level warrior couldn't endure them. Even their superior physique couldn't save their lives against those attacks.

Khan found himself in the air, almost three meters from the ground, and his right foot was inside the alien's head. He had never been so in the open before, but that was a calculated risk. He pushed his right leg across the squashed body part and flung himself downward as soon as his toe touched the truck.

A series of bullets crossed Khan's vision as he fell at high speed. His back hit the ground when the projectiles pierced the injured Stal. He felt unable to breathe for an instant, but that didn't stop him from rotating on himself to straighten his position.

The first alien found it hard to follow Khan's movements due to the falling body of its companions and the projectiles that had flown before its eyes. Still, it fired anyway, even if it had to hit the corpse in the process.

The bullet pierced the corpse and continued to fly on its path. Khan almost couldn't believe his senses when he felt the mass of mana approaching the center of his back. He was still standing up, so he had no chance to dodge it when it was already so close to his position.

The [Blood Shield] manifested itself right before the bullet fell on Khan's back. He immediately felt dizzy. He could hear his heart hammering his eardrums, his chest became heavy, and cold sweat started to come out from every corner of his skin.

Khan forced himself to stand up and sprint around the vehicle. The effort almost made him faint, and he ended up crashing on the ground when he reached the other side of the truck. His action prolonged the critical state caused by the [Blood Shield], and it took him a few seconds before he could resume breathing decently.

Remaining deep inside the special mindset was almost impossible. That condition directly cut Khan away from his senses from time to time, but he still did his best to keep track of the last Stal on the other side of the truck. The alien couldn't chase him since that would expose it to the human trench, so it remained in its position and waited for the arrival of the reinforcements.

Khan felt partially reassured, but he soon fell prey to a violent cough. The need to puke filled his mind, but his stomach didn't have anything. He didn't eat or drink anything since the forest, and that had been a small meal. He even accumulated less than five hours of sleep since the beginning of his imprisonment. His body was a mess, and he could experience how bad his condition was during that fierce reaction.

Khan tried to suppress his cough to stand up, but his body didn't listen to him. He risked falling outside of his cover during the process, so he gave up on the matter for now and sat to let his condition stabilize.. Yet, Khan lost track of the passage of time during the process, and his eyes widened when he saw that the trucks were basically on him.

To be continued