The atmosphere in the area went from relaxed to chaotic. Only a few seconds had passed between the appearance of the new opponents and the avalanches. Still, that time had been enough to make everyone in the valley understand that the situation had changed drastically.
The danger carried by the incoming avalanches paled in front of the primordial aura radiated by the giant creature inside the mountain. The valley was big, and the students were quite distant from the palace, but they felt that suffocating pressure as if it were right on them.
The Chiefs, the Lieutenants, and the other soldiers finally had the chance to show their power since Yeza and Captain Erbair turned toward the new threat to show their surprise. The two leaders had also believed to be almost over with that crisis, but the world was ready to throw far more at them.
Khan didn't know how to react to the giant mutated Lysixi coming out of the mountain. He had almost grown used to sensing monsters, but the new creature made a chill run down his spine.
The giant creature seemed to be far stronger than its peers. It even appeared to control the large pack of Lysixi. Khan felt almost sure that the new threat couldn't be a simple monster.
Khan glanced at the Niqols before moving his eyes on the squad leaders, but his inspection left him disappointed. Everyone was as stunned as him, which revealed how his companions were also unaware of the nature of that new threat.
Only the higher-ups could have answers to his doubts, but they were too busy to gaze at their underlings. They didn't take long to vanquish the monsters already around them, but they couldn't divert their attention when the sea of lizards was about to descend toward them.
"[Ilman]?" Khan shouted during that desperate moment since he was the only Niqols who could react quick enough to the scene.
"[I don't know]," Ilman replied as he kept his wide eyes on the giant creature coming out of the mountain.
Khan tightened his grip on Liiza's back and lifted her a bit. He was ready to run away at full speed if the situation turned out to be too much, even for the higher-ups. He also had to decide what to do quickly since the avalanches were about to submerge everyone.
Remaining in the valley wasn't an option. Khan could run away, but he didn't know where. He had memorized the path crossed during the flight, but that only confirmed how lost he was.
An azure halo suddenly shone among the group. The sudden radiance startled the students awake and made them pick the cubes in their robes. Khan's device had also lit up, and he didn't hesitate to touch it to establish the mental connection.
"[Go here without us]," Yeza's voice resounded in Khan's head, and a detailed map accompanied it.
The map described many areas and had far more details than any other mental image Khan had ever received. He could even zoom in a specific location to inspect its general environment.
A distant location had a mark that made it stand out from the rest of the areas. Khan could vaguely guess that it would take the group half a day to fly there, but getting on the Aduns was impossible in that situation.
Still, Yeza's orders were clear. The students had to leave the higher-ups in the valley and reach the safe location on their own. It seemed that the new threat was too much even for the leaders.
"[Hop on my back]," Khan whispered while relaxing his grip on Liiza's back.
Liiza didn't complain. She quickly went behind Khan and jumped on his back. Similar scenes happened among the other Niqols as Doku announced the contents of the mental message. The students knew each other's abilities quite well, so they didn't hesitate to rely on the fastest among the group if their speed weren't good enough for the task.
"Let us be in the lead with you," Felicia interrupted the Niqols and Khan, who had already turned toward the direction of the safe location. "We can handle snow."
A fireball appeared on Felicia's palm, and that simple gesture convinced the Niqols. Khan, Ilman, Doku, and the four squad leaders stepped in front of the group before gazing at the glowing avalanches ready to sweep them.
The group was on the right side of the gorge. They only had to run past the avalanches to reach a safe spot where to wait for their Aduns, but the glowing dark-grey snow carried an ominous aura as it approached the group.
Only a few seconds separated the group from the snow. Khan prepared himself to deploy everything he had achieved with the Lightning-demon style to run over the avalanche, but he didn't feel too confident in the task.
Khan was strong and fast, but he was in front of a tall wall of snow under the control of a monster that even the leaders had to take seriously. He could jump and rely on light steps, but his opponent remained a natural calamity that didn't give him many options.
"We'll open a path," Felicia announced. "The priority is to remain on the plain. Don't fall."
Gulps and deep breaths resounded as the rumbling noises of the incoming snow intensified. The clash was a few seconds away, but everyone remained still.
Then, Felicia and Ryan launched their spells. A large fireball and a large gale shot forward and clashed with the glowing avalanche. The two attacks pierced the snow and created a conical opening in that calamity, but those two attacks only opened a path where the group could jump.
Liiza hid her face on Khan's back when she sensed that his body tensed up. What followed was too intense for her to feel it clearly. A heavy pressure fell on her arms and legs since she had wrapped them around Khan's neck and waist, and her gown broke in many spots due to the friction generated with the air.
Khan flew. He mustered the entirety of his strength to jump forward and use the opening created by the squad leaders to gain some ground over the overwhelming avalanche. He did his best to remain in the air as long as possible, but he eventually fell on the glowing snow and used his quick steps to fight against the force pushing him toward the gorge.
The rest of the group couldn't even come close to performing as well as Khan. Ilman and those capable of surpassing the tall avalanche jumped on that glowing snow but ended up falling prey to its raging momentum.
Other students and recruits exploited the opening created by the squad leaders to run inside the avalanche for a while, but the snow eventually trapped them in its unstoppable grip.
The avalanche pushed almost everyone backward, and someone inevitably fell inside the gorge. Khan was barely maintaining his balance on that slippery and unstable surface, so he couldn't keep track of what was happening behind him. Yet, Liiza could look behind her now that his speed had fallen, and she saw many familiar faces disappearing among the glowing snow.
The avalanche appeared never-ending. Khan continued to leap forward, but the snow under his feet moved in the opposite direction, so he ended up losing ground instead of gaining it. Still, he did his best to limit that trend, and a deep sigh escaped his mouth when everything around him stopped flowing toward the gorge.
"[Khan]," Liiza pleaded as she released her grasp to jump off him, but Khan promptly bent forward to make her remain on his back.
Liiza shot a confused glance toward him, but her expression darkened when he saw his cold expression. The couple didn't need words to express their intentions in that situation. Khan was telling her how he wouldn't let her go until they were in a safe area.
Liiza couldn't complain, but she felt better when Khan turned to help the survivors. The squad leaders, Ilman, and a few Niqols had managed to remain on the new surface, but everyone else was under that thick layer of snow.
The avalanche had turned the valley into a dark-grey glowing spectacle. The gorge was large enough to remain visible, and the bridges had also survived the calamity, but almost everything else had ended up submerged by the snow.
The castle was too tall to fall prey to the calamity, and a relatively large area around the higher-ups had remained untouched by the snow. However, none of those strong warriors dared to divert their eyes from the many lizards approaching them.
The giant leader had even disappeared inside the snow. The suffocating pressure that had filled the valley had vanished after the creature used the glowing material under its control to hide its presence.
Khan only allowed himself to perform a quick inspection of the area before focusing on his group. The snow made it hard for him to sense the students and recruits hidden under the surface, but he helped everyone he could and even spent some time digging in the spots where he felt something.
Many had ended up surviving the calamity, and Khan could only rejoice at that sight. He heaved a relieved sigh whenever a familiar face came out of the snow, but his anxiety intensified as time passed.
The giant leader didn't come out even if the higher-ups had started fighting the horde of lizards. Khan didn't know whether the creature was waiting for an opening or was misleading everyone. Still, he didn't want to remain in the area long enough to find out.
Some recruits and students remained missing no matter how deeply those who had reached the surface dug. Khan and those who had some experience with tragedies inevitably exchanged understanding gazes after they spent a whole minute without finding anyone else.
The situation was still tense, so many failed to understand how tragic everything was. The Niqols didn't have problems accepting what had happened, but the recruits struggled to accept that some of their friends were still missing.
Someone had to force them to move. Doku, Ilman, Azni, and the other Niqols naturally glanced at Khan in the hope that he could handle that issue, but he had no power over those recruits. A few of them probably respected him enough to follow his directives right away, but he didn't have the time or the authority to command the others.
Only the squad leaders were in the position to force the recruits to move, but they didn't get the chance to use their authority since a massive figure suddenly came out of the snow. The suffocating pressure returned as a giant reptilian mouth pierced the surface and ate two recruits who had been busy searching for their missing companions.
Khan almost remained frozen in fear as the monster revealed its giant body while gulping the two humans. It didn't manage to make the second recruit enter its mouth completely, but its teeth severed the girls' right leg and made it fall on the snow.
Everyone panicked. The giant monster had appeared among the group, and its glowing eyes revealed how the two recruits didn't satisfy its hunger. Those reptilian organs inspected its potential targets coldly and noticed that some of them had already started running away.
Khan and the Niqols knew where they had to go, so they didn't hesitate to run toward the mountains. The squad leaders, and envoys, and some other humans who managed to overcome their fears chased after them, but the monster didn't remain still either.
The glow radiated by the snow intensified as its texture changed. Khan was relying on his faint steps, but his feet fell inside the surface after the monster changed it to trap the group inside its hunting area.
The snow went from incredibly soft to solid in an instant. Khan saw his right foot digging the surface before remaining stuck inside it. No amount of strength allowed him to break free of that prison. He couldn't leave the area, and his thoughts immediately went on the girl on his back when he accepted that he had no power over his situation.
"[I'm going to throw you]," Khan announced while taking Liiza's wrists and forcing her to break the grip on his neck.
"[What]?" Liiza asked in surprise.
Liiza had yet to realize how desperate the situation was, but Khan's announcement made her understand that everyone who had touched the snow was dead. Even Felicia's fireballs appeared unable to melt the surface that was keeping her feet locked in an unbreakable grip.
"[No, no]!" Liiza complained. "[Don't you dare to throw me]!"
Khan pretended to be deaf to Liiza's complaints. Truth be told, his physical strength wasn't something that she could match. He could force her legs to leave his waist easily, and his girlfriend soon appeared in his arms.
Khan was ready to use that time to give Liiza a chance to survive. Almost nothing could make him stop, but his girlfriend knew him too well by then. Liiza took Khan's face in her hands and fixed her glowing eyes on him before voicing a simple request in a firm voice. "[Khan, let me die with you]."
Almost nothing could stop Khan, but those words made his determination waver. He was suppressing his fear of death to prioritize Liiza's well-being, but she shared his feelings. She didn't want to lose her Aduns and her boyfriend on the same day.
"[Liiza]," Khan said in a begging tone, but she promptly shook her head.
"[We have been incredibly lucky]," Liiza smiled as faint tears appeared on the corners of her eyes. "[Don't add pain to my love]."
Khan wanted to ignore her request, but even the mental barrier failed to remain in its place in front of Liiza loving expression. He could only heave a helpless sigh before pulling her mouth closer to his lips. In his mind, death couldn't be too bad if it arrived after sharing a long kiss with his girlfriend.
"[Stop wasting time]," Yeza's voice suddenly resounded in the area, and everyone snapped out of their desperation to turn toward the giant monster.
An azure halo had created a cubical prison around the monster. The cage had come out of the plain hidden by the snow and had trapped the giant lizard, but its glowing surfaces weren't strong enough to survive the creature's physical strength.
Cracks opened on the azure prison whenever the giant lizard slammed its head and claws on those shining surfaces. It was clear that the cage wouldn't last long, but it still gained enough time for Yeza and a few higher-ups to reach that area.
"[Move, move]!" Yeza shouted, and the group suddenly discovered that the snow wasn't trapping their feet anymore.
Khan didn't hesitate to hold Liiza tightly and shot forward. The same went for the other students and recruits who finally found a chance to escape. Everyone left the area quickly, but Yeza made sure to shout one last announcement before they got too far away. "[Khan, take care of my daughter]."
****
Author's notes: I bet some of you thought I had fallen asleep. Four more. Anyway, I hope you like the new cover.