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C178 - Grasshoppers

The woman didn't even look at the ground after retracting her technique. She shot in the distance to go after Kakhir and handle the monsters that had separated from the main pack. Khan, Edil, and Elita limited themselves to follow her departing figure with their astonished gazes.

It was rare to see strong soldiers in action. Khan had seen something similar on Istrone when Captain Foxnor had taken out many Kred with his lightning, but that event didn't make him grow used to that power. He had surpassed the human limits long ago, but that was a completely different realm. He couldn't find words to describe it.

Edil and Elita felt a similar surprise. They had remained amazed at Khan's battle prowess, but the woman had shown them what levels mana could make them reach. It was inspiring and scary learning that a single person could wield so much power.

Their amazement didn't make them forget about the crisis. The light filling the environment was a constant reminder that Nitis was turning upside-down. Its rich fauna was transforming and expanding, stretching into areas that had typically been safe.

Khan, Edil, and Elita returned to the ground and waited for other monsters to come out of the mountain chain. Kakhir soon returned while wearing an amazed expression that made his companions realize how stunning it had been for him to see the woman in action. The group could continue their task, but nothing interesting happened even after hours passed.

A few solitary monsters came out of the canyons at random intervals, but the group took care of them easily. Those creatures had probably remained hidden while the large pack had gone to the plain, which said a lot about their power. One of them ended up having a strange ability that gave it a pinkish halo, but Khan killed it before learning what it did.

The three Niqols didn't let Khan fight on his own anymore, but those solitary opponents couldn't make them sweat, especially with him in the frontlines. The three aliens wanted to improve, but the knife would eventually pierce the creatures' heads and put an end to that training.

The situation had stabilized to a level that the four students could handle, and the same happened in many other areas as the stronger soldiers completed their first round of help.

The Niqols seemed to handle the crisis well, but the truth was far different. The aliens left a large part of Nitis on its own to focus on regions featuring habitations or other structures. They didn't have enough forces to inspect those places either since all the strong soldiers had to help with the various battlefields.

"Khan, they are asking about you," Edil said at some point while the cube glowed in his hand.

Khan had sat on the ground to meditate since monsters had stopped coming, and a frown appeared on his face when he heard Edil. It didn't make any sense for someone to want to talk with him directly.

Khan picked his cube and contacted Edil to join the connection that he had set, and the unfamiliar male voice of a Niqols resounded in his mind as soon as the alien boy put his device away. 'There has been a problem with Rodney. Your area has calmed down, so we need you to reach his group.'

'What happened?' Khan asked.

'It's better if you go there yourself,' The Niqols said before sending a map with precise instructions on how to reach the current position of Rodney's group.

Those words were basically orders, so Khan didn't hesitate to stand up and summon his Aduns. A quick exchange of salutes happened before he jumped on Snow and left the plain.

Rodney's group was only an hour away. They handled a relatively barren area that featured small animals, but Khan didn't know too much about them since each briefing had happened separately. What he knew came from his friend's complaints and Asyat, who happened to be with him.

The sky had become completely clear by then. The night had arrived according to his phone, but the sun seemed on the verge of rising. Khan actually didn't know if he would see it, but his thoughts didn't linger on that topic for too long.

The faint secrecy of the Niqols handling the communication had made Khan curious and worried. Rodney had always been quite easygoing about everything, but he was by no means stupid. Khan even believed that his companion understood the politics behind their situation better than everyone else.

Asyat was also a good friend. She had continued to hit on Khan even after Liiza had started to join the parties, but she wasn't as clingy as the other girls who flirted with him. He respected that part of her.

A rocky, barren area unfolded in Khan's vision as he reached the spot marked by the map in the cube. Hills and short mountains created an uneven terrain filled with cavities, narrow caves, and a few valleys. It had the potential to generate many lairs, but it was too poor for big animals.

Khan found a Niqols sitting on the ground, and Snow didn't hesitate to dive toward him. The boy's name was Mikail. He revealed a broad smile when Khan landed next to him, but his expression returned sad when he recalled what had happened to his group.

"[Where are the others]?" Khan immediately asked.

Mikail pointed at a descending path a few hundred meters in the distance. Two hills with odd shapes created a tunnel that led under the surface, but Khan couldn't see anything from his position.

"[We were doing fine]," Mikail explained, "[But a monster with hypnotic abilities appeared, and everything fell apart. The skill isn't even too strong, but it's hard to break out of it once it takes control of your actions]."

"[Couldn't you help the others]?" Khan questioned.

"[I regained control of my body only after they left]," Mikail responded. "[I think the monster can't control four of us at the same time, so I remained here and became able to move again only when I exited its range. The higher-ups told me to let you handle the situation when I notified them]."

"[Why is that]?" Khan asked in a confused tone.

"[I'm not sure]," Mikail answered. "[Maybe they are scared of political repercussions. We are still talking about a hypnotized human. Who knows what the monster is making him do]?"

Khan suddenly realized how things could get complicated in that situation. The monster couldn't have good intentions, so Rodney and the others probably were up to something terrible. That could lead to troublesome political issues if the Niqols were to handle everything poorly.

Instead, the responsibility would fall on the humans if Khan were to mess things up. That was a simple political game that had to happen between the two species. Khan simply hated it because it involved lives.

"[How can I even protect myself from hypnotic abilities]?" Khan questioned.

Mikail was talking about the hypnotic ability as nothing irrelevant, but that was Khan's main concern since he had no idea how to handle it.

"[Right]," Mikail exclaimed when he recalled that Khan's training probably had never touched those topics. "[You need to create a barrier around your head, something similar to a shield. Can you do it]?"

Khan limited himself to nod. The mental barrier activated, but it didn't push away his emotion. It created a protective membrane around his brain that hindered his sensitivity to mana but also blocked external influences.

"[Good luck, Khan]," Mikail announced when he saw that Khan turned toward the tunnel. "[I wish our species weren't so wary of each other]."

"[It's fine]," Khan revealed a comforting smile after turning toward the boy. "[I'll come back in no time]."

Mikail wore a smile too, but Khan only looked at it for a second before moving toward the tunnel. The light in the environment managed to illuminate the passage since the two rocky structures that made the ceiling left multiple openings. Still, he couldn't see much anyway due to the various turns and narrow spots.

Khan checked his cube before entering the tunnel. A simple call to Mikail revealed the nature of the species that lived in the area. The monster resembled a grasshopper, but it didn't look too threatening. Its hypnotic ability was its only problematic feature, but that wouldn't be an issue for Khan since he had prepared the barrier beforehand.

Khan didn't draw his knife. The biggest animal confirmed in that area resembled a small rat, so his kicks would be more than enough to handle every threat. The many narrow corners and turns of the tunnels didn't suit the Lightning-demon style, but he didn't want to risk committing mistakes in that situation.

The mental shield reduced the range of Khan's sensitivity to mana, but he could still check his surroundings with it. He even approached every corner carefully to avoid falling prey to an ambush in areas that hindered his kicks. Still, nothing seemed to live in the initial parts of the tunnel.

Khan advanced slowly but steadily. His careful steps would make rocks roll at times, and the echo of their noises made him understand how deep that underground structure actually was.

Describing it as underground felt incorrect after Khan saw the tunnel opening into a relatively large area. The sunlight shone from above him and highlighted the spots where the two hills failed to meet. He felt inside a long and intricate hole rather than in an actual cave, but the path kept descending, and some darkness eventually appeared in his vision.

'How far did they go?' Khan wondered after he spent more than twenty minutes descending through that structure.

Khan crossed tunnels, narrow cracks, and relatively large rooms. The areas where the sunlight managed to arrive grew scarcer as he continued to descend, but he felt worried when he saw the complete lack of lifeforms. A few tracks and footsteps appeared on his path, but they only confirmed that he was heading on the correct way.

A worrying thought filled Khan's mind, and he felt pretty sure that Mikail shared it. The two didn't speak about that matter in detail, but they knew that the Tainted animals weren't too intelligent, especially those as small as grasshoppers.

The monster's orders would mainly involve food, which only gave an ominous aura to the matter in such a barren area. Khan didn't want to think about the situation, but ideas inevitably appeared in his mind, and fears built up.

A buzzing noise eventually began to fill the underground areas that Khan was crossing. That intense sound seemed able to make the rocky walls tremble and the terrain shake. It intensified as Khan moved forward, and it almost gained deafening properties when the structure opened into a dark gorge.

Khan found himself on a narrow path that bordered a deep gorge. The area was relatively ample, and he could even notice a few holes connected to the surface on the ceiling about one hundred meters above him.

The buzzing noise came from the darkness of the crack, but Khan couldn't inspect it properly with his restrained sensitivity. He had to take his cube out and activate one of its functions to study the area properly.

The azure symbols on the cube lit up and transformed into a torch that Khan didn't hesitate to point at the crack. The buzzing noise suddenly went silent when that light shone on the rocky walls, and Khan couldn't help but gulp when he saw the many black grasshoppers hanging there. They basically filled the entire canyon, but they were nothing more than Tainted animals.

'Where is the monster?' Khan questioned himself before moving deeper along the narrow path.

The grasshoppers stopped releasing their noises as soon as the azure glow of the cube shone on them, but none of them dared to attack. Khan had plenty of room to perform his kicks there, so he didn't feel any fear. He only worried about his companions.

A thudding noise eventually reached his ears. That sound spread from the depts of the area, which seemed to mark the end of the underground structure. A cavity appeared on his left as he pressed forward, and he didn't hesitate to inspect it since the thuds came from there.

The cavity wasn't big. It barely stretched for eight meters, but Khan froze when the azure glow of the cube illuminated its contents. Multiple grasshoppers filled the walls and the ceiling of the small cave, but different figures occupied its floor.

Something had crushed those figures. They were nothing more than bloody pulps that of fur, flesh, and bones. Khan struggled to recognize them, especially since some grasshoppers were feasting on the floor. Yet, he couldn't fail to notice Rodney sitting on one of the largest corpses.

The thudding noise had stopped, but Khan quickly connected it to the bloody rock that Rodney wielded between his hands. He had clearly it to squash the various victims of the monster's hypnotic ability. His last one was a headless corpse who had already lost most of its features, but its white hair and dark-blue skin remained impossible to ignore even in that state.

To be continued