Out of the four armored trucks, two of them were moving side by side toward Khan, while the others were slowing down as they approached the area behind his cover.
The two trucks would only need a few seconds to hit Khan, and he was in no condition to control his body properly. He wasn't even standing, but he couldn't fall prey to a frontal crash.
The vehicles seemed to have every intention to run Khan over. Their rectangular shape didn't even reveal footholds that he could use to his advantage. He could only tilt himself to his right, bend his legs, and kick the ground in the hope that he could push himself past the incoming trucks.
Khan didn't manage to go airborne, but he still pushed himself toward the space between the trucks and his cover. His right arm slid on the ground as huge metal figures filled his view. He felt that the end was near, but the vehicle's side eventually appeared in his eyes and confirmed that he had dodged the attack.
The Stal instinctively turned the truck to the left, but it didn't think about Khan's previous cover. The vehicle slammed on the overturned car and started drifting. The abrupt and violent maneuver made its back end on the second truck, which forced the aliens inside it to spend some time regaining its control.
Khan felt temporarily safe, but that feeling vanished sooner than he expected. The first truck partially stabilized after hitting the second and began to push the overturned vehicle. The Stal behind that cover had to run away, while Khan saw the tall metal structure closing in on him.
Khan didn't have the time to stand up, so he could only kick the ground again to push himself away from the truck's path. The vehicle continued to turn as it moved the cover, but it couldn't run over Khan due to its inability to perform sharp turns. It ended up completing a half-circle around him before moving a bit in the distance to adjust its position.
The second and the other two trucks entered the battlefield before turning to point at Khan. The bullets that fell on their dark surfaces didn't affect them at all. They were resistant to mana, so simple rifles couldn't take them down.
The first truck also managed to turn after getting close to the Stal's trench. Khan finally had the time to stand up, but he only saw four vehicles getting close to his position by then.
The trucks were approaching Khan slowly, but he felt unable to outrun them anyway. He was out of breath, drained, and on the verge of fainting. His vision also wavered, and his senses barely stretched past his figure.
Khan found himself glancing at the area while the trucks stopped around him and created a natural cover against the human trench. No bullet had flown toward him, and the Stal's barrier seemed silent. He couldn't confirm it, but he guessed that the plan had been a success.
The only Stal that continued to show their presence on the battlefield were the ones getting out of the trucks around him. Khan could hear the whooshing noises of the bullets, and a few azure lights even flashed behind the vehicles, but nothing reached his position. The four cars had created a cover that allowed the aliens to disregard their proximity to the battlefield.
Each truck had three Stal. Eleven of them were first-level warriors, while the last to appear in the open was a second-level warrior. They wielded enough power to be a small platoon, and they even had rifles with them. Meanwhile, Khan could barely remain awake. He felt trapped in a body that didn't react to his orders.
Messy thoughts surged in Khan's mind while the second-level warrior growled to order its underlings around. He didn't know the Stal's language, but he felt able to read their intentions from their gestures and approach.
The aliens didn't bother to lift their rifles. Part of the group glanced at the area behind their trench and gave simple answers before pointing at Khan and exchanging other growls. They felt very human in their gestures, something that the Guko couldn't express due to their pragmatism.
Khan felt that the Stal had given up on saving the trench. He guessed that they were preparing themselves to imprison the humans inside their territory and leave the area. The leader seemed relatively bright for a Stal, so it could change tactics in the middle of a battle, even if it had to explain its decision multiple times to make its underlings understand its reasons.
'Maybe I'm just imagining everything,' Khan mocked himself as a weak smile appeared on his face.
Khan realized that his mental state wasn't ideal for analyzing the situation. He still had mana, but his body had reached its structural limit. He could see his torn bandages and his injuries after lowering his eyes. Khan struggled to believe that he could still stand in such a sorry state.
One of the first-level warriors approached Khan, and he tried to raise his knife, but his left arm trembled and never reached his chest. Still, the alien didn't like that gesture and delivered two punches with its left limbs.
Khan didn't even dare to activate the [Blood Shield]. A punch hit his face while the other landed on his right shoulder. The Stal was a first-level warrior like him, but the simple attack slammed him on the ground and made his bones release a worrying noise.
A violent cough retook control of Khan's lungs. The right side of his face felt warm and almost made him unable to sense that he was leaving the ground. The Stal had picked him up and had started to carry him to a truck.
Khan recalled those sensations. He had felt them when the Stal had taken him prisoner. Another weak smile appeared on his face when he realized that he had guessed the alien's behavior correctly.
'I might be really good at this alien stuff,' Khan joked in his mind. 'I would have become a great ambassador.'
Khan didn't delude himself. His mana was trying to disperse the weariness of his body, but even a long meditative session couldn't solve his problems. He needed food, water, and sleep to give his body what it needed to recover.
His state made a second escape impossible. Khan was in no condition to raise his knife, let alone defeating another jailer and getting out of the underground structure again. His fate would be sealed if he entered the truck.
'I can buy myself some time if it finally works,' Khan thought as he placed his broken hand on the Stal's waist.
The images of the Second Impact appeared in his mind, and they fused with the other tragedies in his life. He recalled the missiles blowing up the troop carriers on Istrone and that damned village near the lake on Nitis. His idea of destruction reached incredible levels of purity as the mental barrier appeared to cut away his emotions and mana gathered on his right palm before gaining red-purple shades.
The bandages that kept his hand still seemed to tremble while the mana began to express its power, but everything suddenly went dark. Khan didn't know why, but the Wave spell failed again.
The Stal didn't miss that sudden glow, especially the one carrying Khan. The alien voiced a loud growl as it raised him in front of its head and held the rifle with only one hand to deliver a punch to his stomach.
Khan spat saliva and blood. His world turned upside-down, but he managed to remain awake. Still, everything felt vague. He couldn't see the Stal clearly, but he noticed that it raised its free arm again and prepared it for another punch.
The growl of the second-level warrior resounded before the Stal could complete the attack. Khan's jailer hesitated a bit, but it eventually lowered its arm before putting him back at its side.
The walk back to the truck resumed, but it felt endless for Khan. Every heavy step of the Stal seemed to last an eternity. He could review his entire life in those infinite seconds. He wasn't even eighteen, but he had experienced a lot, maybe too much for a single person.
Khan didn't recall anything of his time inside Ylaco. His memories basically started on the cursed day of the Second Impact, and its scenes had haunted him since then.
His life in the Slums had been harsh, especially with his father being a drunk mess, but he had never found it hard. Stealing, working, enduring his hunger, and being worried about his safety was nothing compared to the horrifying scenes of the Second Impact.
Then, Ylaco's training camp arrived and changed his life forever. Except for the four bullies' incident, Khan had found a fantastic friend, a good master, and a path toward a world that went beyond human limits. He had learnt the wonders of mana, and he still felt amazed at how incredible that energy could be.
Onia had been a fun trip. Seeing an alien species for the first time outside his nightmares had been incredible, and his talent had even become public domain there. Khan had shown how a strict master and his relentless training could make him shine among recruits who had yet to receive synthetic mana.
Everything had fallen apart on Istrone. The blood, the losses, and the killing had changed Khan in ways that he had been unable to accept until Nitis, until Liiza taught him how to see past all that pain.
Everything had felt easier after Khan had experienced her cold touch. Many would see what he had gone through on Nitis as a hellish experience, but he could only smile when he thought about that cold planet.
'Why does it hurt so much?' Khan cursed in his mind. 'I've lived for twelve years with the same terrible nightmare, death seems to follow me, and I've become unable to trust my own father. Why does everything feel like nothing compared to losing you?'
Khan could only mock himself. He had to be truly broken to put a relationship that had lasted for less than a year above everything experienced in his life. Still, he couldn't control how he felt, and his eyes grew teary as the scenes of his last day with Liiza reappeared in his mind.
The Stal were about to put Khan into a cell again and use him as a guinea pig for the anti-mana project, but he could only think about his lost happiness. Dying felt easy compared to living with so much pain. Yet, it also felt unfair after everything he had survived.
'I guess I have nothing else to lose now,' Khan sighed. 'Blowing up is still better than becoming a guinea pig.'
Khan let mana flow inside his broken hand as the Stal placed a foot on the truck's entrance. The other aliens stepped toward the vehicle to check that everything went well, and the azure glow that started to come out of his palm only made them growl angrily again.
An exchange of growls happened before Khan's Stal raised him in front of its heads and prepared another punch. The alien tried to threaten him before attacking, and that gave him the chance to mutter something.
"[Feel my desperation]," Khan whispered in the Niqols' language before the mana on his palm transformed into a bright red-purple glow that engulfed the entire group.