Rodney was out of his depth. He couldn't follow the conversation, and standing before Raymond took the entirety of his courage. He wouldn't even be able to pull that off without Khan. After all, Raymond had the power to destroy his hopes for political redemption with a single phone call.
As for Khan, he struggled to accept Raymond's words, but he had to admit that they made some sense. He had confirmed that he shared far more than azure shades with the Nak, and those similarities might make him able to replicate the hand's annoying ability.
Khan glanced at the Nak's hand before bringing his eyes back to Raymond. His level of control over the mana probably made that plan feasible, but he couldn't accomplish it from far away. He would need to be as close as possible to hope to succeed, and the sizzling barrier remained an issue.
The last discharge of lightning bolts gave Khan the time to think about the situation, but it wouldn't be long before the hand decided to move again. He had to devise a plan quickly, but distractions continued to arrive.
The second ship had Bruce, Master Ivor, and Monica sitting on its roof. It had even gotten closer to the staircases after Raymond's landing, so everyone above and inside could see that Khan had no intention of escaping.
Bruce and Master Ivor already had experience in disasters, so they kept their cool while waiting for the situation in the square to evolve. Yet, that was Monica's first time in the middle of a tragedy, and seeing the poor state of Khan's arms made her move before she could even realize what she was doing.
Monica's landing attracted the trio's attention, but only Khan noticed the surprised expression that flashed on her face for less than a second. Monica couldn't believe that she had thrown herself into the square, but she hid her confusion when she began to approach Khan and the others.
Monica was the last person Khan wanted to see in the square since the area had turned into a dangerous, bloody battlefield. He wouldn't have the power to protect or even check up on her while he fought, but it was too late to worry now.
"You shouldn't be here, Miss Solodrey," Raymond was the first to speak when Monica reached the group. "The situation is quite unstable."
"That's why I've come down to help," Monica politely responded. "I wouldn't be worthy of my family name if I just ran away."
"Mister Raymond is right," Khan added. "We barely know what we are up against."
"More firepower won't hurt," Monica stated while smiling casually to hide her glare at Khan.
"Miss Solodrey, you might get in the way," Khan declared, hoping that his rude words could get through Monica's stubbornness.
"I am the proud descendant of the Solodrey family, Lieutenant Khan," Monica responded without hiding the faint annoyance seeping into her voice. "I'm afraid you don't have the authority to tell me where I should be."
"I was talking from a purely strategic perspective," Khan explained.
"Which sounded like an insult to my training and status," Monica rebuked.
"You know I didn't mean that," Khan exclaimed.
"And what did you mean?" Monica asked. "Besides, you have a better chance of becoming a hindrance since your arms are about to fall off."
"I'm fine," Khan reassured while stretching his arms. "I've fought in worse conditions."
"And with less battle experience," Monica continued. "So, how come I shouldn't get the chance to defend Milia 222?"
Monica knew exactly what Khan wanted to say, even if he never voiced those words. He simply couldn't in Rodney and Raymond's presence. He could only hold his tongue and accept that Monica was now part of the battlefield.
Rodney and Raymond could smell the awkwardness in the air. The Nak's hand was still at the center of the square, ready to make its next move, but Khan and Monica had chosen to waste time bickering.
Moreover, as much as Khan and Monica had tried to hide it, their conversation had still revealed something. The two didn't say anything specific, but they sounded too used to bickering.
"Where do you even find the time?" Rodney commented when a vague idea formed in his mind.
"Lieutenant Khan, your profile doesn't do you any justice," Raymond chuckled.
Khan and Monica ignored those comments while their exchange of glances continued. They wanted to say far more, but their conversation would have to wait. Milia 222 might lose an asteroid if they wasted even more time.
"Mister Raymond," Khan called when he diverted his gaze to look at the floating hand again, "Will you help us?"
"What do you have in mind?" Raymond voiced.
"Brute force," Khan announced, "And your last suggestion."
"It will take more than me to pull that off," Raymond uttered while looking at the hand. "Its shield seems quite strong."
"We need the help of the entire square," Khan revealed before turning toward Rodney. "I need you to convince the various factions to attack simultaneously."
"They just did," Rodney pointed out. "Adding people might not change anything."
"That's why we need to keep the assault going for a while," Khan explained. "That thing must have limits, especially when its flesh lacks mana."
"Flesh?" Raymond repeated. "Can you sense its state from down here?"
Khan glanced a Raymond before heaving a sigh and voicing a vague answer. "It's hard to miss it."
Raymond's smile widened, but he didn't add anything. He appeared proud, but Khan couldn't confirm that due to the bottomless darkness radiated by his emotions. Reading him was impossible, so Khan could only hope for the best.
"The square is a bit too big for me," Rodney admitted.
"You'll take care of the human factions," Khan ordered before turning toward Monica. "You dealt with Awiza. See if you can convince her and the Orlats to stick around."
"I believe you'll take care of the Nele," Monica stated, wearing a fake smile that Khan did his best to ignore.
"I'll take care of protecting them," Khan revealed, "At least until I find my chance to dive in."
"Dive in?" Monica promptly questioned, but Khan had already turned again to sprint toward the second ship.
"Lieutenant Khan," Master Ivor called once Khan arrived under the ship, "It's not safe down there."
"Can you contact the Fuveall for me?" Khan asked. "I need them to join the offensive."
"You know my priorities," Master Ivor declared.
"You can drop the others in a safe area before sending the ship here," Khan suggested. "I just need someone to deliver the message."
One of the windows on the ship's side went down, and Luke peeked past it before announcing his stance. "Khan, just tell me what you need."
"I need you to go somewhere safe," Khan declared. "The same goes for the other first-level warriors. They'd be dead meat if that thing shoots more lightning bolts."
"Alright," Luke quickly accepted, "But I'm sending the ship back to contact the Fuveall."
"Make it fly low," Khan warned. "It might save it from an unexpected crash."
Luke nodded, and the ship took off to reach the streets on the first floor. Meanwhile, Khan returned to his companions on the ground to deliver one last order. "Hurry up before that thing does something."
"Well, it can't be worse than flying with you," Rodney announced before turning to run toward the closest human team.
"Don't do anything reckless, Lieutenant Khan," Monica said as her voice gained teasing tones. "You insulted my pride. You need to be alive to make up for it."
"Hey, be careful," Khan voiced.
"Right back at you," Monica smiled before leaving in the direction of the Orlats.
Khan stared at Monica's departing figure before looking at Raymond again. The latter had smiled during the entire process, and he seemed to have no intention of adding anything to the plan.
"That's it?" Khan felt forced to ask. "You must have spent a fortune to purchase and fix this prototype. Are you really okay with us shooting it down?"
"It's too crowded to throw such accusations," Raymond exclaimed. "Also, every scientist knows that field tests always become necessary at some point."
"So, will you take this loss?" Khan wondered.
"There is no loss," Raymond joked. "You should know why."
Khan didn't answer. Raymond wanted to see what would happen after Khan absorbed the hand, and that didn't deserve a reply. Actually, it was better to cut the conversation short before his pride became too big to swallow.
"We will need your support during the offensive," Khan warned before looking at the purple areas. The Nele were on the other side of the square, and Khan planned to take the shortest route to them.
The square had debris, corpses, and crumbled ships, but Khan could overcome all of that with his agility. The hand was the only real danger in that shorter route, but he felt ready to face it to reach the Nele.
It felt strange to run in an environment so devoid of mana. The various people in the square and the vehicles' broken tanks were slowly leaking energy, but that was still far from what Khan had grown used to.
The environment appeared somewhat dead without its energy, but the many people on the staircases kept the symphony alive. Sadly for Khan, he wasn't the only one able to sense them.
The hand had completed its inspection long ago, but it had remained silent and still anyway. The remaining mana in its flesh flowed without showing specific patterns, so predicting its next move was impossible.
Those movements didn't cause any reaction in the outside world. Khan could run past the hand without sensing anything odd, and the faces immersed in the purple halo slowly grew bigger in his vision.
Jenna had wanted to leave her team ever since Khan's theatrical entrance, but multiple issues had forced her to remain. The lightning bolts and the sudden disappearance of mana had put her in a difficult spot, and Maban had chosen to restrain her when her emotions risked taking over her actions.
However, Jenna calmed down when she saw Khan running toward her. She was about to reunite with him, and the seriousness on his face told her that she didn't have to abandon her post.
Jenna revealed a stunning smile, but a frown soon took control of her expression. She didn't feel anything specific, but her gaze instinctively rose toward the hand. She could almost predict that something would happen, and Khan didn't miss that meaningful gesture.
Khan turned to look at the hand above him only to be interrupted by an abrupt pulling force. The technique lasted for a fraction of a second but was far stronger than before, and the darkening scenery revealed its new features.
The various buildings around the square went dark, and the same went for the street lamps, vehicles, and roads. Even the illuminated areas of the sidewalks lost their light.
Khan was looking at the hand, so he could inspect the street on the first floor, and his mind almost froze when he saw it going dark. The pulling force had now affected a far wider area, and it didn't stop at the mana in the air. It had sucked dry any structure or machine relying on that energy.
A helpless shout tried to enter Khan's mind but found no available room. He felt only coldness and surprise seeing a large portion of Lower Level 1 losing its light. The Nak's hand had gotten stronger, and it wasn't clear if it would ever stop improving.
Nevertheless, Khan noticed something strange. The Nak's hand would typically store all that synthetic mana inside its flesh, but Khan found it lingering outside its skin. That huge mass of energy had created a vast, spherical area that spread faint azure light.
At first, Khan believed that the improved technique featured limitations, but that thought crumbled when he sensed an almost clear voice echoing through the synthetic mana. He even recognized it. Someone had made a powerful request, preventing that energy from entering the hand.
Khan only had to turn toward the group of Nele to find the source of that request. Caja stood on the dark staircase with an arm lifted into the air and eyes closed shut to achieve complete focus.
The Nak's hand released a deep noise that resembled an angry scream. The synthetic mana was right there, but the alien body part couldn't absorb it as long as Caja's spell remained active.
Khan accelerated as much as possible since the square had turned into a danger zone, but things didn't go as planned. He had hoped to achieve complete cooperation among the species, but someone fired a gun once the scream ended, and many shots followed.
The first bullet pierced through the synthetic mana and landed on the hand, which remained unaffected due to the sizzling shield. The second shot achieved similar results and the thirty that followed also failed to put a scratch on the barrier.
The Nak's hand even locked those bullets in their place before generating the circular sparks meant to absorb the mana inside them. Still, more attacks arrived, which rendered Caja's efforts useless.
The synthetic mana stuck around the hand carried Caja's request, and the attacks that flew through it disturbed its flow. That energy began to disperse and shoot in every direction, which ultimately made Caja's spell too weak to affect that vast area.
Mana flowed and expanded through the square, overwhelming the staircases and stretching behind them. Lower Level 1 regained its usual environment, but Khan didn't take any joy in that, especially since the hand was still trapping many attacks on its surfaces.
Khan ran as fast as possible, but the hand reacted before he could reach the Nele. All the attacks and bullets stuck in its circular sparks suddenly disappeared, and new ones quickly took their place, but it was too late now. The alien body part had refilled its mana reserves.
Countless masses of mana gathered around the hand while attacks continued to land on it. Some managed to interrupt the process, but many didn't, so a storm of lightning bolts eventually shot out.
Khan liked that he could rely on his sensitivity again, but the scene it depicted was far from happy. A rain of fast flares shot in every direction, forcing him to zig-zag through the square while explosions reached his ears. Screams soon followed, but he found some comfort in the fact that the Nele had mana to use.
The offensive filled the square and staircases with smoke and holes. Seeing clearly became impossible, but Khan could move comfortably as long as the environment had mana. He eventually reached his destination, and a warm figure fell into his arms before he could open his eyes.
"[I'm not leaving you ever again]," Jenna announced as she tightened the hug on Khan's neck.
"[Jenna, floating hand that shoots lightning bolts]," Khan reminded.
"[Coming here was dangerous]," Maban exclaimed as the smoke on the staircases began to disperse.
"[I wanted to coordinate an attack]," Khan explained as Jenna left his arms and allowed him to turn toward the hand. "[That plan failed]."
The latest lightning bolts had taken many lives, but the entirety of the square had gone to full battle mode afterward. Everyone fired weapons or threw spells at the hand without managing to achieve much.
Someone always followed up with more attacks, so the joint offensive never stopped. In a way, the square was cooperating to take down the hand, but the sizzling barrier held strong.
The never-ending offensive was preventing the hand from absorbing the mana from the city, but the attacks trapped on its surface continued to provide fuel.
Khan joined his palms and poured mana between them as the offensive continued. As expected, the Nak's hand soon released another wave of flares, but he had the chaos spear ready by then, and throwing it forward generated a pillar that blocked many attacks.
Caja focused on sending the synthetic mana away while the rest of the Nele summoned attacks that the environment inevitably weakened. Still, Khan was among them, and he provided as much support as possible.
The battlefield fell into a seemingly inescapable cycle. The people in the square would fire everything they had at the hand, and the sizzling barrier would block it, allowing the circular sparks to absorb that mana.
The absorbed mana fueled lightning-like flares that shot in every direction, and the cycle would restart. As long as the sizzling barrier existed, the Nak's hand could endure any attack and turn it against its source.
Khan focused on defense while continuing to study the situation. He threw chaos spear after chaos spear whenever he knew the hand was about to unleash its power, but that never fixed the initial issue.
The whole offensive would be pointless if the barrier remained up, and Khan scoured his mind to find something that might work. However, he would need to get up close to execute those plans, and the hand was mid-air, surrounded by a barrage of incoming attacks.
Right now, the hand was unapproachable, and the messy state of the battlefield made a cease-fire impossible. Everyone was firing freely, hoping that their bullets would do something different than the previous.
Khan killed his thoughts and immersed his mind in the chaos of the battlefield. He needed a viable path that could lead him to the hand, but he couldn't find anything. There were too many incoming attacks.
That situation obviously couldn't last forever. The lightning bolts always managed to kill someone, and the audience was bound to run out of mana eventually. That offensive wasn't sustainable for too long, so Khan felt that he needed a solution immediately.
Reinforcements arrived at some point. The central structure sent ships that encircled the square and added their firepower to the joint offensive. The hand was literally submerged in a wave of attacks, and its defenses finally started to give in.
Khan was in no condition to rejoice, but new strength filled his body when he saw the offensive pushing the hand toward the floor. That cracked surface broke due to the many explosions, but the attacks kept flowing.
The arrival of the ships made the offensive so intense that the lightning bolts struggled to reach the square. The hand was completely overwhelmed, which forced it to switch tactics.
Khan and some Nele were the first to notice the different behavior. The hand had stopped sending lightning bolts and had focused everything on amassing mana.
The barrier inevitably suffered under that unrestrained assault, and holes opened in it, finally inflicting some damage on the hand. Of course, the area had too much mana and lights to check the alien body part's condition, but the square was doing it. The audience was defeating that threat.
Khan sensed that the hand was accumulating mana, but he couldn't do anything about the situation. He had no influence over the offensive, so he prepared for anything that was about to arrive.
The circular sparks around the hand expanded as more mana flowed into their structure. The number of spells they could trap increased, and the same went for the amount of energy absorbed.
The Nak's hand was optimizing its efficiency and range, and the amount of mana in its insides increased, turning it into a blinding spot in Khan's sensitivity. He managed to sense it even among the barrage of attacks, and all that energy eventually exploded outward.
The explosion resembled a soundwave similar to what the hidden lab had witnessed. Still, the attack also affected the entire barrage of spells. Darkness returned, and an earthquake took control of the city before opening cracks that spread throughout Lower Level 1.
