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.