Chaos Heir

Chapter 1303: Assault

There was no mistaking it. Khan, Liiza, and even Zalpa realized that point as soon as the taller black figure’s presence seeped through the ships’ open channels. That entity was an evolved warrior.

Nevertheless, the trio noticed something odd about that presence, especially Khan. As powerful and fearsome as it felt, its power didn’t seem to come from energy sources Khan and the others could recognize.

That unmistakable might didn’t come from the mana, or rather, it seemed to originate from something similar but also entirely different. It was a strange aspect that allowed the trio to experience its power without being able to study its nature.

Of course, Khan didn’t let that surprising feature stun him. He didn’t dwell on that mutual inspection. His hands had never left the control desk, and he sealed them on the steering wheel as soon as he acknowledged the newcomer’s power.

Khan couldn’t care about the unexpected event’s implications. The universe, the mana, the Nak, or any other possible problem took the backseat while he focused on the only thing that mattered.

Liiza couldn’t handle space as well as Khan, so he couldn’t let a battle against evolved warriors happen there.

The outpost wouldn’t suffice. It could barely endure Khan’s existence as it was, let alone an actual battle. He had to bring the ship away before considering other courses of action, and the control desk had already provided a viable solution under his request.

That side of the universe was unregulated but not unmapped. Khan’s forces had started that procedure while building the route to the Nak’s home world.

Also, the nearby outpost had better scanners than other checkpoints, so it was aware of its surroundings. The quadrant was mostly empty, but a celestial body was currently orbiting in Khan’s relative direction, and he steered the ship toward it.

Khan ignored everyone and everything, focusing solely on the current task. The control desk did the calculations for him, placing the targeted celestial body at half a day of travel from his position.

That was way too long for a potential chase, but two factors worked in Khan’s favor. The celestial body was getting closer on its own, and the ship’s engines had yet to show their full potential.

The ship had to be nimble and fast to deal with the blue lightning storm. Khan had put limiters on the engines to save fuel while approaching the Nak’s home world, but that couldn’t matter in that situation.

Moreover, Khan could push things even further by overclocking the engines. That would probably fry them, but Khan hardly cared. The technology could be fixed later, but Liiza needed to be brought to safety now.

Zalpa almost fell, her back slamming onto the bridge’s wall as the ship unleashed an abrupt, violent acceleration. The artificial gravity completely failed to compensate for that sudden speed burst, filling the bridge with suffocating pressure.

Liiza grew colder as a layer of transparent ice appeared over her loose hoodie, covering her belly to protect the baby from the pressure. Khan noticed that but skipped the thankful gestures to continue focusing on the control desk.

The ship’s menus began to send all kinds of alarms, but Khan only looked at the holographic screen featuring ongoing calculations. The initial estimate of half a day went down, slipping under the two-hour mark and continuing to decrease.

Khan hoped that the sudden maneuver had taken both allies and potential enemies by surprise, but the ship’s scanners immediately crushed that wishful thinking.

Something violently bumped onto the hull while the ship continued to accelerate, almost threatening to send it off course. The scanners immediately focused on the impact’s origin, finally giving the people on the bridge an idea of who or what they were up against.

The shorter of the two newcomers had somehow caught up with the accelerating ship and was now half-crouched over its hull, clinging to one of its open cavities.

The newcomer was clearly alien but shared many features with humans and Niqols, for that matter. He looked like a man with black skin and even blacker long hair, but his ears were long and pointy, and his broad grin revealed dark, triangular, sharp teeth.

The single, short horn on the left side of the alien’s forehead and his completely black eyes were his most striking features. For some reason, Khan instinctively focused on that dark protuberance and sclera-less organs, but something far more concerning soon captured his attention.

A raging, primitive, almost animalistic aura seeped inside the ship, confirming that the shorter alien was an evolved warrior as well. The latter even raised his free arm, closing his five fingers into a fist, ready to deliver a devastating blow to the hull.

The alien never had the chance to complete his attack since pure, white ice promptly covered his raised arm, expanding toward his shoulder to freeze the rest of his black robe and the body it concealed.

Those black eyes had no pupils or irises Khan and Liiza could track, but they sensed the alien’s gaze moving on his frozen arm. A frown invaded his mostly human face, but his grin quickly broadened even further.

Khan sensed Liiza’s surprise through the mental connection, but her reaction was visible for anyone to see. Her eyes widened when the screen depicting the scanners’ recording showed how gaps opened on the ice around the alien’s arm, expanding to remove the rest of that white mana.

In a matter of seconds, the alien broke free, and his fist began to descend. However, Liiza’s figure grew colder, and her mana resonated with the many red lines littering the ship’s insides, which lit up to enhance her energy.

The alien completed his attack, only to discover that his fist never hit the dark hull. A layer of transparent ice had materialized above that spot, dispersing all the accumulated momentum and completely negating the devastation the impact should have unleashed.

The grin on the alien’s humanoid face grew more excited. He even tilted his head in curiosity, but a red symbol suddenly shone on the ice under him, and tall spikes rose from it, removing his handhold and sending him overboard.

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