The sight of the different mutations didn't surprise Khan. His focus remained on the fact that the big leech was dead and didn't show external injuries. Its murky dark blood had flowed out of its mouth, which hinted at the presence of internal damage.
Those signs made Khan almost certain that a Niqols had killed the monster. The absence of external injuries matched the aliens' fighting style, and he couldn't find other explanations for its death in that unique environment. Of course, stronger predators could exist, but that felt unlikely due to how crowded the underground area was with leeches.
Descending through the hole felt inevitable now, but Khan didn't want to get down without ensuring a path back to the previous area. The current tunnel had yet to show passages to the surface, but the group didn't explore all of it. Moreover, keeping an escape path open was never a bad option.
Khan showed a complicated expression when he turned toward the two girls. They were already wearing only their underwear, and he wasn't better off. The group lacked the materials needed to build a rope, and the backpack alone could only cover one or two meters of the five that separated the hole from the floor under it.
Khan could get creative to stretch the length covered by the backpack once he tore it apart to create a rope, but that would affect its durability. That weakness wasn't ideal when he had to jump to reach it, but he could only add his torn clothes now.
"Stay here for a bit," Khan ordered while diverting his gaze. "I'm going to get something to make a rope."
Khan left before the girls could understand or complain about his decision. He literally sprinted toward the entrance of the passage and ran toward the narrow cavity that contained Elbek's corpse.
It took Khan less than ten minutes to reach that area. A few leeches were sucking the stale blood from the Niqols' corpse, but he didn't disturb them. Elbek had lost most of his robe after the fall and the monster's melting saliva, but its lower part was still relatively intact. His underwear was also in a good state, and Khan cursed in his mind when he seized them.
It was time for Liiza to see one of Khan's ugly sides. His life in the Slums and Istrone's crisis had made him unable to forsake resources that could help him survive. Yet, he didn't know if his girlfriend could see past his unpleasant act and evaluate it with a cynical mind.
Khan sprinted back to the path where he had left the two Niqols, but he struggled to continue at his fastest pace when the rocky entrance drew near. His mind even allowed him to sense the two girls, and that only slowed down his steps.
The hesitation eventually lost to the gravity of the situation. Khan forced himself to step inside the cave while carrying Elbek's torn clothes in his hands.
The two Niqols had prepared themselves to fight when they heard the faint steps resounding in the tunnel, but they relaxed when they saw Khan crossing the entrance. Yet, their expressions quickly darkened when they noticed the clothes in his hands. Their reaction only worsened at the sight of the black underwear on top of the white fabric.
Khan didn't stay still under their unclear gazes. He reached the two girls and crouched before starting to work with Elbek's clothes. He even removed the few rags that still covered his underwear during the process, and a seemingly firm rope eventually took form.
Khan's hands moved quickly but precisely. He didn't want to remain under the girls' judging eyes longer than necessary, but he couldn't fail to build a decent rope either. Still, a cold sensation suddenly spread from his bare shoulder, and Khan almost jumped back on his feet due to that unexpected event.
His surprise transformed into warmth when he noticed that Liiza had crouched and had placed her hand on his shoulder. She was even wearing an understanding smile to express her support.
"You are good at this," Liiza exclaimed in a desperate attempt to lighten the mood and make Khan feel better.
Khan couldn't express how intense his affection toward Liiza became. She had vanquished his fears in a mere instant. His situation was awful, and he had just pillaged his companion's corpse, but he felt that moment to be the happiest in his life. Even his first time couldn't compare to the complete acceptance that Liiza showed toward his ugly sides.
"You can find many fainted drunkards in the Slums every Sunday morning," Khan revealed while his gaze returned on the torn clothes and a faint smile appeared on his face. "Food was a priority back then, but clothes were pretty useful too. They served as blankets, pillows, curtains, and covers for the cold tiles, but I always had to cut and patch something up after stealing them from the drunkard. I also had to handle my father, so I became good quickly."
"No wonder you run so fast," Liiza chuckled while laying her head on his shoulder and watching him work.
"Please," Khan scoffed. "I hid in corners or roofs and let the other kids go first to study the situation. I shouted something to scare them off if everything looked good."
"Oh my," Liiza giggled. "My boyfriend is a scoundrel."
"A lucky one," Khan added while shooting an intense glance toward Liiza.
The couple almost fell in a daze when their eyes met. They forgot that Khan was working with their dead friend's clothes and that Azni was standing next to them. Still, the latter cleared her throat to remind the two of her presence.
Khan snapped back to reality and finished that part of the rope. His gaze went toward Azni at that point, and his hand also stretched toward her. The girl initially frowned when she thought that he wanted her sports bra, but he promptly pointed at her backpack.
"No Niqols would hold a grudge against you for this," Azni sighed while sitting in front of Khan and handing him the backpack. "Well, others might see you as a cynical human, but I know that you don't care about our differences."
Azni glanced at Liiza before nodding to show her sincere support, and the latter's smile brightened at that gesture. She instinctively took Azni's hand. Liiza felt strange after being alone for so long, but it seemed that a friend had eventually appeared in her life.
Khan was the reason behind that sudden friendship, so her feelings for him intensified during those moments. Liiza started caressing his back while he emptied the backpack and undid the knots to rip it apart. Both girls wanted to help him, but they didn't say anything in front of his evident superiority in the task.
"I'm sorry for Elbek," Khan whispered. "He-."
"Not now," Azni interrupted him while suppressing a sob. "We'll talk about it once we get out."
The conversation ended there, and no one dared to mention the topic anymore.
The complete rope took a few more minutes to appear. Khan pulled both sides of each important knot a few times to make sure that everything held strong and that the overall item was stable enough to endure a person's weight. The Niqols were a bit lighter than humans, so he didn't have to worry about the tallest in the group that he hoped to find.
The rocky surfaces in the passage didn't have viable handholds near the hole's edges, so the group had to get creative. Liiza had great control over her mana, so she hit the ground a few times to destabilize its insides. Khan could break it with a simple kick at that point, and a suitable spot for their rope eventually appeared.
After a few tests, the group decided to throw the rope inside the hole. Khan jumped inside it first since he was the only one who could reach the girls' stretched arms with a jump if the tool ended up not working, but his tests went well. They had a way back to the passage, so everyone got to the new area.
A large underground hall unfolded in the group's eyes. Khan checked the big leech's corpse once he made sure that nothing came after them, and his inspection confirmed his initial guess. The creature had clearly died due to internal injuries, so some Niqols had to be on that floor.
Two passages opened from that large area, but the group recognized pink marks on both of them. Azni and Liiza could easily translate them into actual messages and understand where their companions had gone.
The three moved quickly. Azni and Liiza even found more marks on the various cavities and passages that appeared on their way, but they became useless once the sounds of heavy steps and grunts echoed through the area.
Khan glanced at Liiza, and the latter didn't hesitate to nod. He bent forward and accelerated after that gesture. The path ahead transformed into a circular scenery surrounded by faint images as his speed reached inhuman levels, and a battle eventually unfolded in his vision.
Doku and Asyat were against a wall, fighting against four big leeches that had encircled them. Zeliha was behind them, but her condition appeared poor. Her left shoulder and arm featured ugly patches of melted skin, and her eyes struggled to remain open even when her two companions were doing their best to protect her.
Khan's thoughts ran quickly. He had seen Doku's battle prowess, so the four leeches clearly had special abilities that made them tough opponents for that strong Niqols. Asyat couldn't be bad either since the professors had picked her for the mission.
Nevertheless, Khan arrived behind the first big leech before his reasoning could end, and his leg instinctively rose to deliver a powerful kick. He had already gained a clear understanding of the monsters' texture, so he knew exactly how much strength he required to cleave them in half.
Khan's rotating kick resembled an ax that swung at the center of the leech's straightened body. The monster was standing on a small part of its lower figure as it prepared to throw itself at its prey, but it suddenly fell to the ground. Its limited mind didn't allow it to notice that its mouth and tail didn't have flesh connecting them anymore.
The event had been so sudden that both Niqols and leeches failed to notice Khan's arrival. One of the monsters even completed its offensive while its companions died. It leapt toward Asyat, but its head exploded into a gory mess of flesh and dark blood.
The girl required an entire second to realize that someone had killed the leech before it could reach her, but she still failed to focus on her savior since Khan shot directly toward the other monsters.
Doku fended off one of the leeches with a precise rising palm strike that made the creature spit a mouthful of blood and saliva. The exchange forced him to take a step back to dodge the incoming corrosive fluid. The last monster was even flying toward the almost-fainted Zeliha, so he hoped to push it off track with a messy shoulder-bash.
Still, a shadow hit the flying leech before Doku could reach it. The Niqols saw the monster losing half of its body and interrupting its charge. It could only fall on the ground after it became nothing more than a scaled mouth attacked to a small chunk of bleeding flesh.
Doku became aware of his helper when the third leech's fall suddenly accelerated. The creature's head exploded when it crashed on the ground, and his eyes finally become used to the sudden change in the images in front of him. Doku saw Khan flicking his left leg to remove the corrosive saliva that had fallen on his shoe, and he also heard the silent curse escaping his mouth when his foot remained bare.
"Khan!" Doku happily exclaimed, and his voice attracted the attention of the two girls with him.
Asyat showed pure happiness when she saw Khan. She didn't know him too much, but his feats in the battle were enough to make her ecstatic. Zeliha also opened her tired eyes, and a faint smile appeared on her face when she inspected the outcome of the fight.
Doku wanted to add something, but the sound of loud steps attracted his attention and made him glance at the path that his group had just crossed. His smile broadened when he saw Liiza, and his figure shot ahead when Azni's face peeked past the entrance.
Azni showed a happy smile too. She jumped in Doku's arms, and the two exchanged an intense hug before kissing. Liiza walked past them and ignored Khan while inspecting the four dead monsters and the two Niqols near the wall.
"What happened to her?" Khan asked while crouching next to Zeliha and inspecting her injured shoulder.
"One of the monsters almost ate her," Asyat explained. "These things can hide from our senses. She can't use her talent here."
"I noticed," Khan sighed while avoiding touching her injuries.
Zeliha's arm was quite bad, but Khan couldn't do anything for her. The pink shades around her mouth told him that she had already tried to quell her pain, but her condition appeared unable to improve without proper medications.
Khan's expression darkened when he noticed the familiar short sword hung on Zeliha's back. His voice softened as he questioned Asyat about something that felt quite obvious at that scene. "Did you find Bashir?"
"We did," Asyat revealed while lowering her gaze. "What remained of him at least."
"Elbek is also dead," Liiza announced to join the conversation. "Did you find a way back to the surface?"
"We cleared the other path," Doku explained after separating from Azni. "We checked every corner and cave behind us, but nothing useful came out. Where did you even come from?"
"We used a hole in the ground," Azni whispered as she held Doku's face and turned it toward her. "We didn't explore the entire upper floor, but the situation didn't look great. Also, we wanted to find you all."
Doku ended up leaving a kiss on Azni's lips again, and she laid her head on his chest when they separated. Yet, a wave of sadness filled her eyes when she saw how Liiza and Khan had resumed ignoring themselves. She couldn't even imagine how hard it was to keep their relationship a secret in such a dire situation, especially when she could enjoy her man's embrace so easily.
****
Author's notes: Thank you IndraDeus and Kane_jay_85 for the castles! I also want to take this chance to all those who send gifts. They don't go unnoticed, and I greatly appreciate them.