Khan's breathing began to show signs of growing ragged. He still had mana available inside his body, but his muscles were starting to give in to the immense stress.
Instead, the Kred appeared at his peak condition. He had a few bruises on his body, and intense anger filled his face, but he stood straight and without showing the slightest trace of exhaustion.
Khan gulped and tried to steady his breath while the alien turned to face him. The Kred was livid, but he had abandoned his recklessness. He raised his arms and bent his legs before sliding on the terrain and approaching his opponent through short movements that didn't reveal any opening.
The Kred was using the forms of simple martial arts, but he didn't seem too confident in those techniques. His steps were slow, and his eyes often fell on his limbs to ensure they were in the correct position.
Khan had learnt a bit about martial arts during his intense training on Onia. His knowledge still had many blank gaps, especially when it came to styles that had earned many points. Yet, he had started to develop a faint battle instinct, which told him that the Kred didn't train much in those techniques.
Khan had also noticed that during the previous exchanges. The Kred's fighting style was messy and wild. It mainly relied on his physical superiority and natural features, but it didn't deploy mana to empower specific techniques.
'Do Kred outside of the Global Army even use martial arts?' Khan wondered as the alien closed on his position.
The lack of knowledge about that alien species was annoying. Khan ignored most of their customs and abilities, so his evaluation had many uncertainties.
However, it didn't make sense for the Kred to hold back, especially after Khan started to hit him often. Something was definitely off, and it seemed to benefit Khan.
'Maybe he only knows a few techniques,' Khan wondered as his figure bent to prepare for the imminent exchange. 'He might even be bad at them. Still, a martial art deployed by a first-level warrior should completely destroy me. I can't risk getting hit.'
The change in the Kred's behavior didn't affect his approach. Khan only had one valuable tactic in that situation. He had to wear the alien down with quick and safe attacks without ever exposing himself since a single hit from his opponent could put an end to the battle.
Khan waited until the Kred entered his range before launching his attack. His body turned to the side while his leg flew toward the alien's head.
The alien didn't care about the incoming attack. His arms moved forward as his muscles bulged. He appeared ready to endure the kick, and Khan didn't hesitate to put strength in his rear foot to jump backward.
The Kred's arms stretched before descending toward the ground. His claws stabbed the terrain and dug it until his hands disappeared among the roots of the glowing plants.
Cracks spread through the ground after the attack ended, and a slight tremor even reached Khan's feet once he landed. His eyes inevitably widened when he realized how powerful that technique was. He didn't know if his body would remain in one piece after getting hit by that blow.
"How far can you run?" The Kred snorted while retracting his arms and resuming his battle stance. "The jungle benefits my species, and you can't move as much as you want inside this cave. You have no chance to survive the rebellion."
Khan hated to admit that the Kred was right. He could always escape back into the forest, but that wasn't even close to being a solution. Also, the cave wasn't small, but it still restrained Khan's movements, which inevitably affected his high mobile martial art.
The new technique revealed by the Kred limited Khan's options since the attack could turn frontal blows and attempts to attack his sides into deadly situations. Khan could only attack his back now, but that made him predictable.
A solution eventually reached his mind as the Kred started to approach him again. Khan blinked before focusing on the incoming alien and waited for his opponent to launch his offensive before moving.
The Kred didn't fear Khan's blows, so he could deploy all his energies on attacking. It didn't matter if his techniques landed or not. Khan would still exhaust himself before him.
The alien launched his arms forward, and his claws pierced Khan's figure. Yet, the latter turned out to be nothing more than an afterimage.
The Kred managed to follow Khan's movements, but that knowledge didn't change his approach. He continued to perform his technique until his hands stabbed the terrain and caused a slight tremor to spread through the ground.
Khan ran around the alien and delivered his kick after his opponent completely bent. He wasn't trying to damage him too much in that situation. His priority was to push the Kred forward.
The Kred's feet left the ground after the impact. The alien flew for a few meters and turned as soon as he stepped back on the terrain, but the sole of a foot suddenly filled his vision.
Khan delivered a kick to the alien's face and ducked to avoid the incoming slashing arms. He had successfully disrupted the Kred's pace, but his plan didn't end there.
Khan rotated after crouching and swept the Kred's legs to make him fall on his back. The alien was incredibly steady, but his body had already bent backward after the kick, so the attack separated him from the ground.
A heel eventually landed on the Kred's groin before slamming him on the ground. Khan had connected three techniques in a row and had performed them with mana, but the alien tried to straighten his position as soon as his back hit the terrain.
That resilience left Khan speechless. He was doing his best. He had never fought so well in his entire life. However, the Kred was too strong.
Still, his plan wasn't to defeat the Kred alone. He didn't pay attention to the environment at all, but he recalled how big the second hall was.
The first attack had pushed the Kred among the recruits. They were still dealing with one of their opponents, but some of them noticed the arrival of the new alien and didn't hesitate to turn their offensive toward him.
George and Luke had dealt with their opponent and had begun to help their companions with the stronger Kred, but they suddenly noticed Khan throwing another alien among them.
The two boys immediately turned to help Khan since they valued him far more than the other recruits. George pointed his enhanced branch toward the Kred's chest while Luke threw a kick aimed at the alien's head.
The alien couldn't dodge the incoming attacks. He had been too caught in the battle to notice the crowd next to him. Also, his focus had been on standing up, so he didn't see the two boys.
George's branch pierced the right side of his chest and made him grunt in pain. Then, Luke's kick arrived and broke some of the already damaged teeth.
Khan attacked again at that point. His figure became weightless as he stepped on the alien's abdomen and deployed his technique. The entirety of his bodyweight converged on the tip of his foot and fell on the Kred.
George tilted his branch while making sure not to lose control of the mana inside it. The Kred instinctively grabbed that weapon and squeezed it until it broke, but the event only worsened his situation.
George didn't lose his balance when the branch broke. Instead, he continued to make mana flow in its insides while he crouched to stab it on another side of the furry chest.
The Kred raised his other hand to stop the boy, but Luke kicked him again and made him lose sight of the incoming attack. George successfully stabbed the alien, and Khan's attack followed.
The three boys unleashed a relentless offensive that didn't let the Kred stand up. Luke and Khan's attacks didn't do much since the alien's sheer resilience could make him endure those blows, but George was deadly with his branch.
Even that strong body couldn't do much against a proper weapon. George's branch ignored the thick layers of muscles and pierced everything on its path. The Kred couldn't help but suffer severe injuries during those exchanges, but the boys never let him regain his breath.
The beating continued even after the Kred stopped moving. George and Luke were in a frenzy, and they had to wait for Khan's orders to understand that the battle was already over.
"He's dead!" Khan shouted before turning toward the last standing Kred, but he halted his steps when the images of the other battle unfolded in his eyes.
Dorian, Ethel, Cora, Abel, and Jill were standing around the corpse of the last Kred. Most of the alien's face had turned into a meat paste, and Khan didn't fail to notice the blood falling from the recruits' hands.
****
Author's notes: Friendly warning about this novel going premium. I publish before China time, so chapters 75 and 76 will remain free for some hours. You might find them unlocked if you read them near release.