Chapter 217: Explosions

The army assembled into a battle formation as it advanced through the thin pale-grey fog. Khan, Ilman, and a few others were on the left side of the main group and let the latter approach the castle before them.

The fog slightly hindered everyone's vision, but it never fully hid the area. The castle remained visible, even if only in the form of a vague shadow that featured no details.

Khan drew his knife and wielded it firmly with his left hand. His expression grew colder as he followed the two soldiers and the adult Niqols in charge of his team. He was right between those leaders and the other students, and Ilman made sure to remain near his side.

The two soldiers were strong and relatively young, but they didn't gain any battle merit throughout their lives. Casper, the bald, short man with an unkempt beard, had two stars on his right shoulder and none on his left. Instead, Lorna, the slender woman with short blonde hair and dark eyes, was a second-level warrior and a first-level mage.

Their level was enough to award them with a promotion, but they remained simple soldiers. Khan still didn't understand how the ranks in the army worked, and Nitis' state had never given him a chance or the time to gather intel about that topic. Yet, he could guess that the issue had something to do with their background or actual achievements.

As for the adult Niqols, Khan had never managed to learn her name. She was one of the aliens he had met in the palace, but they had never interacted due to their different position and duties. Still, Khan could sense how her power seemed to be slightly below Casper.

The students behind Khan were Niqols specialized in quick attacks, but their power felt underwhelming. Except for Ilman, none of them would have the chance to kill Niqols with power similar to first-level warriors or above unless they worked together or found a lucky opening.

Many thoughts about the situation and the power of the team tried to rise inside Khan, but he silenced them. He couldn't lose his concentration. He had to give his everything on his sprints and maximize the number of perfect executions of the Divine Reaper.

The many traps triggered by Yeza had turned the area into a mess of holes, fuming patches, dangerous puddles, and broken weapons. The fog also carried an acrid smell that the three Niqols didn't manage to remove when they blew the toxic cloud away. The odor forced many eyes to release tears, but only when it came to weak students.

Khan had to pay attention to his path, but his sensitivity to mana helped in the task. Luckily for him, each dangerous or annoying spot resulted from traps, which left behind mana that he could sense. His eyes were partially unreliable when it came to distant areas, but he could compensate for that easily.

The army trod through the fog and approached the castle slowly. The air didn't move, and the river had stopped flowing in that area, so the battlefield was utterly silent except for the few steps heavy enough to echo among the rocky walls. Niqols and humans also voiced surprised gasps whenever they walked on some broken weapons or puddles, but those noises vanished quickly among the fog.

A scarlet light suddenly flashed on the castle before vanishing among the fog. A whooshing noise followed and grew louder until Yeza's deafening shout resounded throughout the battlefield. "[Shield]!"

Yeza's order made a few Niqols jump next to her and point their hands toward the ground. A wall grew in front of the central team before an explosion resounded on the other side. The structure partially broke as flames spread on its surface, but the aliens dispersed them by making that chunk of terrain fold on itself.

"[Charge]!" Yeza shouted once the path ahead reappeared, and everyone started to run.

Battle cries echoed on the battlefield as the army dropped its silent approach. The Niqols and humans didn't abandon their position, but each team advanced far faster than before.

Three lights flashed on the castle, and the whooshing noise returned, but multiple sources caused it now. The fog didn't allow the army to understand the trajectory of those projectiles, so each team leader gave different orders.

"[Shield]!" Yeza shouted, and a thick wall rose from the ground. Her team hid behind it and waited for the explosion to unfold.

"[Halt]!" The Niqols in charge of the backlines ordered to make everyone stop.

"[Take cover]!" Lieutenant Kintea, who was in charge of the team on the right, shouted, and those behind him jumped on the rocky wall to hide.

"[Disperse]!" Lorna ordered, and her team members sprinted in different directions that still brought them closer to the castle.

Khan went on his left and made sure to keep the rocky wall close. The whooshing noise grew louder, but it crossed his position and culminated in an explosion behind him.

Two more explosions resounded on the battlefield. One of them happened on the wall in front of Yeza's team and the other on the area that divided her from Lieutenant Kintea's group.

Flames filled those three spots, but the wall fell forward to fuse with the ground and suppress them. As for the two other fiery areas, the army let them go to resume the charge forward.

It didn't take much for the red flashes to reappear. The whooshing noises returned, but a series of painful cries resounded after the detonations happened. Khan had sensed another projectile crossing his position before exploding somewhere behind him and taking the lives of two students who had decided to run together.

Those scenes repeated themselves in a relentless cycle that eventually added scarlet shades to the fog due to the many fires that the army left behind. A scorching smell filled the area, but no one noticed that change with the tension that filled their minds.

Painful cries, orders, and shouts mixed with the mess that had descended on the battlefield. Everyone tried to remain close to their team leaders in the hope of increasing their chances of survival, but Khan's group was an exception.

Khan ran as if his life depended on it. He tried his best to sense the arrival of those exploding projectiles whenever the whooshing noise reached his ears, but he failed to feel them until they came close to his position. 

Khan changed direction whenever the red lights flashed on the castle. Those devices mostly focused on Yeza's team since it contained the highest number of troops, but projectiles still flew on the other groups. They were so fast that Khan never managed to understand their form, but he didn't care too much about that. He had a goal shared by all his companions.

In theory, a frontal attack against such a big castle would have little chance to succeed. The structure had many defenses in places, and it could even rely on the rebels in its insides.

However, the army's firepower wasn't weak. Yeza, Captain Erbair, and even the weaker first-level mages could unleash an overwhelming power with their spells. Moreover, the attackers' main goal was to bring their leaders close enough to affect the structure's functions.

The rebels practiced arts belonging to the same time as the castle, but Niqols had adapted its functions to the new ways throughout the years. Yeza and other experts in the manipulation of mana had a high chance to take control of the various symbols now tainted with red shades.

The battle would be over once the castle fell, and the rebels knew that far too well. They assaulted the army with their defenses, but their enemies also knew what they had to face. The projectiles managed to kill a few Niqols who didn't stick to their leaders' orders, but their group mostly survived that barrage of attacks.

Khan felt lost from time to time. He often remained alone among the fog only to run into some of his companions whenever the castle launched another attack. The structure slowly grew bigger in his eyes as he continued to advance. The army was about to reach their destination, but the rebels didn't hesitate to give their everything during that last part.

The usual red lights flashed on the castle, but they didn't stop at that time. Khan almost stopped running when he saw that the red radiance continued to shine for nearly half a minute.

Panic immediately filled his mind. Khan sprinted forward without bothering to change direction. He rushed his way toward the side of the castle as multiple whooshing noises filled the fog. His senses soon became able to locate many threats, but that only made him accelerate.

Only a few seconds had to pass before explosions began to fill the battlefield. The orders shouted by the leaders mixed with painful cries and rumbling noises. The entire valley shook as the temperature rose due to the appearance of countless fires. The foggy area transformed into a red hell that didn't seem to know the end to its chaos.

Khan sensed projectiles flying above his head and exploding behind him until one of them exploded relatively close to his position and flung him away with the heatwave that it created. He flew for a few meters, but he didn't lose control of his movements.

After the landing, Khan rolled on the ground before jumping to his feet and resuming his sprint. The explosions finally ended, but he couldn't see much. A single drop of sweat fell from his forehead as he tried to understand the true nature of the shadows that the flickering flames created among the fog, but he failed in the task.

A ringing noise had taken control of his right ear after the close explosion, but that issue didn't last long. It ended when Khan realized that the shadowy shape of the castle had spread high above him. He had basically reached his destination, but a series of dark figures suddenly appeared on his path.

Khan immediately sprinted to the side, but he didn't forget to keep track of those figures. The latter advanced for a few steps before amassing in front of the castle. In Khan's vision, they were nothing more than a vague black area in the middle of the scarlet fog, but his sensitivity to mana allowed him to recognize them as Niqols.

Yeza's voice resounded throughout the fog as another mass of dark figures advanced toward the castle. "[This castle belongs to true Niqols. Traitors who can't respect a global crisis aren't worthy of what our ancestors left behind]!"

"[You and your generation have ripped away from our species what made us Niqols]!" A rough voice resounded from the black figures near the castle. "[Our ancestors built these structures for us. You can ask the humans for new ones since you like them so much]."

Khan stopped retreating and half-crouched. Those words told him how the situation had progressed. The rebels had finally left the castle to prevent the army from reaching the red symbols. The battle was about to enter its critical phase, so he had to remain nearby to fulfill his role.

Winds suddenly blew toward the castle. Khan's hair had gotten quite long during his time on Nitis. It reached the halfway mark of his neck, so it fluttered as those gales pushed the fog behind the structure and cleared the battlefield.

Khan finally became able to see the many fires and the two armies. Many had survived the explosive barrage. It even seemed that Yeza's group was better off compared to the other teams.

Ilman was near Yeza's group, while Casper and Lorna stood close to the rocky wall. The adult Niqols was right behind Khan, while the other Niqols were farther away from the castle.

Khan had ended up on the frontlines of his team, but he didn't have the chance to think about his position since a series of presences became clear in his mind as the fog continued to leave the area. 

A small team of Niqols appeared on his side of the battlefield. Khan diverted his attention from the two armies and turned to see a group of aliens that had tried to use the fog to hide their presence. It seemed that his enemies also had a team of assassins ready to take out troublesome targets.

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Author's notes: I need a few hours for the second chapter.