Chaos' Heir

Lieutenant Dyester wanted to curse. Except for Bruno, he was the only one who understood Khan's silent gesture. The idea was mental, but most of what Khan did was anyway. Also, Khan had the last word there, so Lieutenant Dyester couldn't oppose him even if he wanted to.

"[Hold]!" Lieutenant Dyester cried, and some team leaders among the Scalqa echoed his order.

The aliens initially didn't understand what was happening, but Khan eventually advanced enough for everyone to see him. At that point, understanding dawned upon the army, and heavy, rhythmic steps resounded, acting as war drums to elevate the spectacle about to unfold.

Moses, Roger, and Prince Richard made their way through the army while the Scalqa started beating their chests. Those imposing figures created destabilizing noises that didn't clear even after reaching the frontline. Yet, the rhythm got to their heads once they laid their eyes on Khan, making them forget about the dangerous situation.

Khan sensed everything happening behind him, but his brain dismissed those sensations. A feeling of unbound freedom invaded him as he stared at the approaching pack. His calm and seemingly identical steps gradually crossed more distance, and his aura invaded that alien symphony, echoing his feelings.

Soon, Khan became too distant for the army to spot every detail. The few humans and two thousand Scalqa only saw his glow and the fluttering heavy cape. The barren plain had no wind, but Khan didn't need it. He was the eye of the storm.

"Master Carl," Prince Richard called, noticing that the pack was almost upon Khan. "Shouldn't we support the Prince?"

The three young warriors stood behind the Lieutenant and Bruno, and the rhythmic war drums almost suppressed Prince Richard's words. Yet, Lieutenant Dyester heard them, and a helpless sigh escaped his mouth.

"It's those beasts that need support," Lieutenant Dyester commented.

As if answering Lieutenant Dyester's distant comment, a purple-red radiance suddenly replaced the sky's grayness. Multiple spheres of mana gathered above Khan, following his advance. Those orbs gradually multiplied, becoming thirty and eventually forty.

Once hitting forty, the orbs started to change, condensing and transforming. They grew brighter while their mana increased, eventually creating a vast array of spears pointed at the incoming pack.

'Finally,' Khan thought, the incoming creatures' details reaching his heightened eyes.

The monsters were identical to what Khan had seen during the meeting with Lord Exr. They were big, standing almost two and a half meters from the ground. Their four legs were thick, but their bodies were lean. Their dog-like faces had two sets of eyes, one above the other, and their maws had two rows of curved razor-sharp teeth.

The white spikes from the creatures' heads to their tails were also sharp but straight and strangely long. They resembled additional teeth, and their paleness contrasted with their dark red fur.

Those details gave away much of the monsters' abilities. They were nimble and heavily offensive-oriented. One of their bites was bound to tear away a good chunk of flesh or keep them attached to their prey forever, and Khan suspected their spikes had some use, too.

The creatures' reckless, hunger-driven assault almost felt suicidal. They didn't care about suffering injuries. They didn't care about dying. They only wanted to feed on the newly appeared pieces of meat. That made them extremely dangerous, but Khan only felt happiness.

The pack was almost upon Khan, and its disorderly arrangement theoretically prevented him from halting its advance. He could also see how many monsters had disregarded the small figure directly before them and focused on the army in the distance. One tiny human couldn't satisfy their hunger, so the Scalqa became their target.

Khan had no plans to let the monsters reach his army. The spears above him tilted sideways, aiming at the pack edges before shooting forward. The spells quickly crossed the closing distance between Khan and the creatures, hitting those in the frontline and exploding into violent purple-red flares.

The wild mana spread in every direction before surging upward, creating blinding pillars that rose into the sky. Painful and angry cries resounded among the pack, and the stench of charred flesh soon invaded the area. Many monsters died in that initial assault, but killing had never been its purpose.

The pillars halted part of the pack's advance, creating a bright barrier with a central opening. Khan had left one available path for the monsters, which was directly in front of him. Every creature had to charge past him to reach the army, eliminating his reach issue.

The spells didn't distract the monster for a single instant. The creature kept charging, crossing the wall of scorching mana to continue their advance. Yet, something appeared before them after a single leap past the barrier, and blood immediately splattered everywhere.

Khan reappeared before the pack, his right foot stabbed in the neck of the first beast that had crossed the blinding wall. The creature had died in a single blow, crushed by his kick's power. Yet, the attack had revealed him, enveloping him in hungry cries.

Three monsters immediately converged on Khan. Two attacked from his sides while one jumped over their dead companion to lunge directly at him. Three sets of curved razor-sharp teeth closed on him from three directions, but his figure simply disappeared.

The creatures had leaped at Khan during their assault but froze mid-air. Something had interrupted their heavy momentum, leaving them prey to Senerth's gravity. However, before they could touch the ground, their heads exploded, only delivering corpses to that brown-red soil.
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Khan reappeared before the new attacking line. Four more monsters had crossed the shining wall but had yet to notice him. Their eyes actually went on their dead companions, almost considering eating them before moving to the distant army. Yet, their vision went dark before they could make that decision.

Precise and deep cuts appeared on those four creatures' heads. Horizontal wounds opened between their two pairs of eyes, cleaving away the upper part of their skulls. Their mangled brains appeared in the open as they crashed dead to the ground.

Khan had reached the bright wall's edge by then. He was outnumbered and alone, but nothing could slow him down. He advanced faster than the pack and now stood right before it.

The frontal sea of beasts noticed Khan's arrival and opted to eat him, but he simply lifted his hand. His palm pointed at that incoming mass of fur, bringing purple-red light to its dark red shades.

The conical version of the Wave spell unfolded forward, burning and destroying anything on its path. Any beast hit by its light saw its fur, skin, and flesh falling apart like disintegrating under a power they couldn't hope to oppose.

The creatures directly before Khan disappeared, while those at the spell's edge lost limbs, heads, or half of their bodies. By the time the purple light retracted, a series of maimed corpses and barely alive monsters divided Khan from the rest of the pack.

Khan didn't stop even once. He reappeared on top of a corpse before him while spears materialized above him. Ten spells took form before shooting in different directions, lifting scorching pillars that sent the pack into complete disarray.

The spells hit different central parts of the pack, exposing Khan to the monsters directly in front of him. Two creatures jumped at him, one descending from above and another closing to his left.

Yet, Khan didn't even look at the monsters. He waved his hands, his gesture as casual as humanly possible, before continuing to walk forward. The beasts didn't slow down but missed him by a few centimeters, crashing into their dead companions.

Once the monsters hit the corpses, vertical cuts opened on their faces, stretching past their necks and almost halfway through their long bodies. Their heads opened, unleashing a torrent of blood and gore to the ground.

Khan kept walking forward, occasionally throwing spells or waving his hands. From the outside, he looked as if he were casually strolling through a park. However, each of his gestures inflicted death on some monsters.

After less than a minute, Khan found himself at the pack's center. Monsters surrounded him, but few had actually noticed his arrival. His steps were too graceful, and his gestures too faint to attract any attention. He barely looked as if he were attacking, but death unfolded anyway.

Nevertheless, one unusually big figure had spotted Khan. A chunkier and seemingly healthier version of those monsters calmly stood at the pack's center, studying that foreign creature. Traces of intelligence sparkled in its dark eyes, preventing him from jumping into a reckless charge.

'The alpha,' Khan thought, stopping a few meters from the bigger creature. The two seemed to exchange looks, but the situation only made the monster crazy. It couldn't bear the reality of that foreign presence, leading it into a mad charge.

The alpha's attack attracted the surrounding monsters' attention. They didn't join the assault but watched curiously, seemingly ready to exploit any weakness their leader revealed. Yet, those opportunities never arrived.

The chunkier monster leaped at Khan, fangs and clawed paws ready to close on him. However, he stepped forward, dodging the creature's legs while lifting his hand. The beast slammed headfirst into his palm, stopping mid-air. Khan had dispersed its momentum through sheer physical strength.