Disclaimer: I've reworked most of the due to repetitions and odd paragraphs. The content itself didn't change, but you can give it a second read if you wish to.
I apologize for the inconvenience. It's my bad.
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Everything happened at a far slower speed in Khan's mind. His execution had been perfect. He had taken the mutated Thilku by surprise, exploiting the window created by the Wave spell. Yet, that wasn't enough against such a strong opponent.
The mutated Thilku didn't only withstand the deadly slash. The alien also brushed the injury off, reacting as soon as it felt pain and deploying enough speed to leave Khan helpless.
The huge six-fingered hand closed on Khan's wrist before he had the chance to do anything about it. Strength also flowed into it, ready to snap Khan's forearm into two parts.
Khan's thoughts ran quickly. Time almost froze in his eyes as he reviewed countermeasures he had already considered before descending toward the mutated Thilku.
The Nele arts could create a short distraction and destabilize the mutated Thilku. Yet, nothing would remove its hand from Khan's wrist. He would only fall with it.
An explosion of mana could offer some protection, but the mutated Thilku was a fourth-level warrior. Its skin and flesh would endure the chaos element long enough to shatter Khan's arm.
The [Blood Shield] could improve the limb's toughness and resilience. However, Khan didn't kid himself. Nothing in his arsenal could save his arm.
Many soldiers would fall prey to despair in that situation, but Khan was a different kind of killing machine. His arm was already gone in his mind, but he wouldn't let the mutated Thilku seize it for free. The alien had to pay the price for hurting him.
Khan didn't deploy any defensive technique and moved his full attention to his left arm. The symphony listened to his desires while his knife lit up. Swings would be too slow, so he lifted his weapon to lunge it at the Thilku's head.
A chicken game started. The mutated Thilku saw the incoming knife and even sensed its effects on the symphony. The tip was only the beginning of the blade, and the air past it gained its sharpness while aiming for the center of its wrinkled forehead.
Breaking Khan's arm wouldn't take long. The mutated Thilku only had to apply a fraction of its strength to shatter those frail human bones. Still, that time could be enough for the sharp symphony to pierce its skull.
Years of battle experience and the simple mindset of a being who had lost its mind generated an instinctive response. The mutated Thilku could avoid the extreme approach and opt for a milder one, which would inflict injuries without suffering any.
Khan lunged his knife forward, but an unstoppable and unfathomable pulling force began to fling him toward the lake. The mutated Thilku had decided to destabilize his attack, and its grip tightened in the meantime.
Performing the Divine Reaper while under the Thilku's pull was impossible, but Khan had managed to be one step ahead there. He had sensed the alien gathering strength into its right arm, allowing him to predict the next attack and react accordingly.
The mutated Thilku forgot about the lunge and focused on slamming Khan into the water. However, something continued to fly toward its head, forcing it to half-bend forward.
The timing had been even better than before, and the short distance finally put Khan above the mutated Thilku. The alien had reacted wisely, but Khan's aim had been perfect. Khan had thrown his knife in that desperate moment, stabbing the Thilku's neck.
The blade still carried the Divine Reaper's properties, and the same went for the air before its tip. The knife had basically been on a unique path that aided its sharpness, and the Thilku's powerful flesh couldn't do anything against it.
The knife disappeared inside the left side of Thilku's neck, leaving only its handle outside. A thirty-centimeters-long blade had dug through that vital spot, but the alien didn't falter.
Nevertheless, the effort made to dodge the blade created a window Khan didn't hesitate to exploit. His figure became the source of an expanding purple-red barrier, which enveloped the alien's arm before reaching its body.
The mutated Thilku fought against the Wave spell while its skin and flesh shattered. Its grip tightened, but the chaos element pushed its fingers away, creating enough room for Khan to slip out of it.
Khan retreated at full speed, putting as much distance from the lake as possible. He returned to the ceiling, and his eyes darted left and right to summarize the situation before ending on his right arm.
A big, gory mark had appeared on Khan's wrist, stretching past half of his forearm. The skin there had vanished, revealing the live flesh under it. Blood also flowed, falling toward the lake, but the bones remained Khan's main concern.
Khan began to flex his wrist, and sharp pain instantly arrived. He also performed the check-up technique, revealing what he had already understood. Something had fractured, making his right hand partially useless.
However, the mutated Thilku wasn't any better. The injury on its back was deep, and the knife stabbed in its neck didn't help. The Wave spell had also made a mess of its arm, chest, and half of its face. The technique didn't go too deep but still added wounds.
A third-level warrior would have already died with those injuries. An average fourth-level warrior would have probably suffered from a similar fate. However, the mutated Thilku didn't seem to notice how hurt it was. It stood proudly and undefeated, with its unflinching eyes fixed on Khan.
'What is this monster?' Khan couldn't help but wonder.
Khan could understand a mutated creature in the fourth level to have insane resilience. Yet, the lack of effects of the injuries was scary. Even the Thilku's mana flowed normally. The alien was completely unaffected by wounds that would usually kill its peers.
That wasn't Khan's first time facing a stronger opponent, but the situation felt hopeless. He had managed to defeat the Orlats by surprising him with his seemingly bottomless mana reserves, but those tricks wouldn't work now. The Thilku looked virtually immortal and too conscious about his power to be distracted.
'Anything dies if I cut its head off,' Khan snorted, closing his eyes to connect his mind to the parts of the symphony he had affected.
Multiple purple-red masses appeared around Khan, filling the rocky ceiling and shining on the areas below. Tens of needles featuring occasional spears formed outside the Thilku's reach, threatening to turn into a destructive and unavoidable offensive.
The elder noticed the threat and acted accordingly. She commanded the lake to release another soundwave, which reached the ceiling and destabilized the newly-formed spells.
The many needles and spears instantly dispersed without detonating. Their mana expanded, creating a purple-red cloud that grew paler with each passing second. Khan's energy eventually disappeared, and the same went for the influence he had spread through the symphony.
That annoying outcome made Khan snort loudly. He glared at the lake before spreading his arms. He descended a bit, putting a few meters from the ceiling while opening his mouth to voice a clicking growl.
Violent mana flares expanded from Khan's figure, creating blinding rivers that stretched everywhere. Some hit the ceiling, but most filled his surroundings, giving birth to a smaller version of the lake below.
Khan continued to shout while closing his eyes. The soundwave had cleansed the symphony, but his surroundings only conveyed himself now. His mana created a separate world that belonged solely to him, a world the lake couldn't reset.
Multiple spots among the expanding waves of mana grew brighter, giving birth to the same array of spells generated before. The higher mana density also allowed Khan to create more spears, and he pressed on until he ran out of space.
The lake sent another soundwave, but Khan's mana devoured it. Something so faint couldn't survive his violent flares, which protected the spells in their insides.
While inspecting the scene, the mutated Thilku showed no emotions, and the blue aliens shared its calm. The elder didn't do anything, but her mana was ready to command the lake again. She couldn't disperse spells inside the mana flares, but they wouldn't remain there forever.
Khan was aware of that detail, but his idea had never involved anything similar. To the elder's surprise, Khan let the spells stabilize before opening his eyes and pointing his left hand at the ceiling.
The spells instantly shot upward, exploding on the already destabilized rocks and opening vast cracks that threatened to make everything crumble. Boulders quickly began to fall, with some even bigger than the mutated Thilku, and everything eventually escalated until a proper rain formed.
An earthquake invaded the area as more boulders fell. The air between the ceiling and the lake soon became full of those rocks, creating a chaotic environment too dangerous to traverse. A single misstep could kill, but that was exactly was Khan wanted.
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Author's notes: Thanks Payne_Humphries for the Magic Castle! I wish to thank all the others giving gifts, too. Thank you for supporting the story!
