Khan had given up on estimating how many Thilku Cegnore had, but the Empire was solving his doubts now. Admittedly, he didn't know if that was the entirety of the alien force, but something told him that it had to come quite close to that.
Thousands of tall, burly figures stood on a relatively small patch of ground, threatening its stability with their weight. A sea of scarlet capes had covered the brown surface, creating a force that could challenge entire cities.
To Khan's surprise, the majority of those soldiers were third-level warriors. Some of the Empire's best troops had occupied the battlefield and were ready to give their everything. Onp wasn't there for reasons the Thilku had yet to explain completely, but that didn't make the army any less imposing.
That massive deployment also shocked many Thilku, but Khan's thoughts couldn't linger on that emotion. Countless figures pointed their feet on the ground and lifted their heads to catch sight of him. Everyone was there because of Khan, so they wanted to study him at least.
The humans' shorter size helped in that situation. Khan wasn't only at the utmost front. His companions also partially hid his figure, making it impossible for the over three thousand troops to spot him. Still, everyone knew he was there, and Naoo soon gave the inevitable order.
"[Do your thing]," Naoo ordered, using a far calmer and softer tone than her usual harsh and annoyed voice. That deployment had gotten to her head, too, but she didn't forget her role.
Naoo's order filled Khan's surroundings with curiosity. Every Thilku who heard her words peeked at him to steal a glance at the famous shaman arts. The weight of expectations fell on Khan, which he found almost ironic considering what his technique actually involved.
'It would be funny if nothing happened,' Khan mocked himself before bringing his right palm to his mouth.
Theoretically, Khan could make the technique more scenic to reassure the alien troops, but his mood didn't allow pretenses that day. A barely noticeable tinge of mana accumulated on his palm, and he blew on it while mimicking past thoughts.
'Come and get me,' Khan thought, watching his mana disperse into the natural energy and creating gales that stretched in the distance.
Khan followed the effects of his request with his eyes, and the Thilku in his surroundings tried to imitate him. Still, they couldn't sense the symphony, so confusion and snorts unfolded when they saw nothing more than empty air.
Many alien eyes darted between Khan and the areas ahead, wondering whether anything had happened at all. A few saw that event as a proper scam, and murmurs spread. Restlessness built up to the point that Naoo herself became worried.
"[Is that it]?" Naoo questioned, half-worried and half-angry.
"[That's it]," Khan confirmed, sighing as he sat on the ground. "[We can only wait for them to answer now]."
Khan displayed the same distracted and uncaring behavior as the previous days, which the unfamiliar Thilku disliked. Sitting in the middle of the battlefield while everyone else was standing appeared beyond insulting, and Khan doubled down on that by closing his eyes and meditating.
Of course, Khan didn't isolate himself from the outside world. He sensed the growing tension. He heard the distrustful and mocking comments flying in his direction or among the army. Khan felt no right to blame the Thilku but also avoided addressing the matter.
The tension and general distrust intensified as the minutes passed. Wild theories began to fly among the army too. Some considered the possibility that Khan was using his shaman arts as an excuse to make the Empire show its hand, and that wasn't the end of it.
Khan had openly revealed his connection with the monsters. That had happened in the privacy of a feast, but the Thilku talked and spread gossip almost faster than humans. The entire army knew about that, giving birth to crazier theories.
According to a few loud soldiers, Khan belonged to the other side. That massive deployment was a trap staged to remove the Thilku from Cegnore. The claim was obviously insane, but the atmosphere was fertile ground for unfounded fears.
Things only worsened as the minutes turned into hours. A less experienced army would have already snapped, and the Thilku were getting there due to the growing tension. Khan was actually lucky to be among serious and collected soldiers, but even they were losing their cool.
It didn't help that the night was slowly approaching. Many hours still separated the army from the sunset, but each passing hour brought it closer. That wasn't the only position the Thilku had to defend, so they worried their deployment could hurt the other trench.
An ordinary soldier with Khan's senses would have gone crazy under that not-so-silent pressure. The weight of expectations would have crushed many experienced warriors or leaders. That was the kind of blunder that could destroy careers, but Khan didn't make mistakes, and the world eventually proved him right.
It was unclear how many hours had passed since the call, but Khan suddenly opened his eyes and jumped to his feet. His abrupt awakening silenced most murmurs and generated new ones, but his senses cut out that noise to focus on the horizon ahead.
The corpses and holes ahead tried to hide the horizon, but Cegnore's star still shone, granting an almost clear view. Most Thilku followed Khan's gaze but found nothing at all. No matter how far they looked, the plain was empty.
That lack of events made most of the army disregard Khan's sudden reaction, rekindling the many murmurs and adding louder voices. Even his companions didn't know what to say to that emptiness, but Khan saw a different scenery.
"[We should get ready]," Khan whispered, keeping his eyes on the horizon, "[Before they do]."
Naoo was about to question Khan's claim but trusted him one last time. She looked at the horizon and crossed her arms, challenging the world to do something. Cegnore initially didn't care about her stance, but something eventually appeared.
It all began with a faint, distant cloud. The phenomenon was so vague and far away that many failed to notice it. Still, it grew closer, eventually becoming impossible to miss.
The distant cloud grew bigger and showed more of its colors. It was yellowish-brown and as tall as a six-story building, but its size was worrying. It expanded left and right until it covered most of the visible horizon.
The event resembled a proper sandstorm, but Cegnore didn't have that type of weather. Moreover, the immense cloud was too slow to be powered by violent winds. Something on the surface was causing it, and its size seemed to match the Thilku army.
The murmurs vanished. The Thilku army went silent, and sternness replaced the previous distrust. A battle was arriving, and the following earthquake told the aliens how tough it would be.
Tremors took control of the ground. The holes past the frontlines expanded, absorbing the corpses lingering on them. The very surface gave in, unable to endure the arrival of the new army, which shattered and reformed into a lower, uneven, and stabler plain.
Naoo didn't follow Khan's suggestion, so he fell silent and drew his knife. He couldn't give orders to the Thilku, so he gave up on the matter altogether. He had tried to save lives, but that time had passed. Now, he had to take them.
The cloud grew closer and closer, eventually sending smoke and dust toward the Thilku army. The event tried to hinder the aliens' vision, but no one dared to cover their eyes. They couldn't in front of that massive and unforeseen development.
The arrival of the dust tried to make a few soldiers lose their cool, but the earthquake stopped, hinting at a similar behavior from the opposing army. The cloud started to disperse, and the sternness intensified once everything became visible.
The enemy army had stopped a few hundred meters from the Thilku, just behind the vast gorge opened by the earthquake. Low growls had also begun to resound in the area, but the aliens couldn't hear them. They were too shocked about their opponents' numbers to care about those details.
A blue sea had appeared in the brown environment. Thousands of Tainted animals between the first and third levels occupied the front, creating a river of fur, saliva, and hunger. Those creatures were arranged into different teams, turning the first two lines into an impenetrable wall.
Except for its sheer size, that sight wasn't anything new for the Thilku. They already fought a few hundred monsters every night, at times simultaneously. There were simply almost four thousand now.
Those numbers weren't a big deal since the Thilku had deployed enough troops to match them. Yet, the specimens past the two lines of monsters created a worrying sight. Twenty humanoid wolves stood behind the various packs, and their paws had already stabbed the ground.
The Thilku knew what that position meant, and Naoo connected the dots. She suddenly realized that Khan wanted the army to charge ahead to prevent the humanoid wolves from getting into a firing position. Still, it was too late now.
All things considered, the situation wasn't too bad. A bloody battle was waiting for both armies, but the Thilku were no strangers to them. The fight would merely be bigger.
Nevertheless, the monsters' army hid something else behind its lines of monsters and humanoid wolves. A four-meter-tall figure towered above those creatures, and the presence of dark-red shades revealed its species. An oddly huge Thilku was commanding the enemy army, putting fire in every alien's heart.
Khan was no exception. Spotting the Thilku dispersed his apparent distraction and overloaded his senses. He had finally found something that went beyond humanoid wolves, and the seemingly stable mutations in the alien filled him with hope.
The two armies didn't utter any sound. The silence that usually preceded a battle fell on the area, but that break was short-lived. The mutated Thilku suddenly lifted its right arm, shouting a cry that triggered thousands of howls.
The joint cries from the enemy army almost created a sound attack that reached the Thilku, but more worrying events followed. The humanoid wolves accumulated mana, and bullets soon shot out of their mouths.
Khan didn't dare to move without official orders, but they didn't take long to arrive. As soon as the huge purple-red bullets appeared in the sky, Naoo and the other team leaders launched hoarse cries, making the entire army charge ahead.
The bullets descended quickly, landing among the army and killing multiple Thilku on the spot. The humanoid wolves even fired again, sending more attacks into the sky.
The Thilku army had to the gorge to cross, but the monsters didn't leave it be. The Tainted animals also advanced, forcing the aliens to stop in that massive hole and exposing them to the falling bullets. Countless casualties happened on both sides, but one figure remained outside that chaos.
Khan didn't even consider entering the gorge. He also ignored any idea that involved the humanoid wolves. His target was clear, and he was the only soldier who could aim for it right away.
Khan flew at full speed through the sky, crossing the gorge and the hordes of monsters jumping into it. He was so fast that the humanoid wolves didn't even try to target him, and more mana flowed toward his legs when he dived in a straight line toward the mutated Thilku.
The descent was so fast that Khan's skin hurt under the friction force with the air. He was going beyond his limits from his first attack, and his knife glowed while pointing at the mutated Thilku's right shoulder. He wanted to sever that limb in one move, but his hopes immediately shattered.
Khan struggled to believe his eyes. Even his senses failed to keep up with that. His assault had been flawless but had failed nonetheless.
The mutated Thilku had taken Khan by surprise by jumping past him, dodging his attack, and grabbing his left ankle. He had fallen prey to the alien in a single move.
Khan looked at the mutated Thilku, and the latter imitated him. Still, disappointment filled the alien's expression, and surprising words came out of its mouth. "[A weak host]."
Khan realized that the alien had spoken the Thilku language before his senses fell into chaos. The alien flung him downward, slamming him on the ground and making his insides scream in pain.
