The group went through an uneventful night, and Khan woke everyone up a few hours before dawn. His phone had lasted for the entire guard duty, and he had taken the last shift to make sure that the others wouldn't lose track of time even if his device turned off.
The recruits' condition was far better after a long night of sleep and multiple meditations. Dorian and Cora almost appeared at their peak when the sun rose, and George also felt far better. His left side was still a mess, but it didn't seem to hinder his movements.
Ethel was Khan's main concern, but the girl's complexion had improved after removing her wounded hand. Her mana didn't have to slow down the gangrene anymore, so it could focus all its efforts on healing her body. She was far from ok, but she could stand and walk without slowing down her teammates.
"We have to move now," Khan ordered while pointing toward the direction that he had committed to memory after the crash. "The plain is in that direction."
The recruits followed Khan's hand, but they didn't see anything peculiar when they looked at the jungle. The traces of the crash had disappeared under the trees' stretched branches and thick vegetation born due to the mana flowing through the ground.
"Are you sure about that?" Dorian asked. "Everything looks the same for me."
"I memorized the spot before taking you out of the troop carrier," Khan revealed. "That's the right direction. Not getting lost is up to us."
"Some of our phones are still working," Cora said while keeping her voice down. "The compass should be active since the devices aligned with Istrone's magnetic field."
Cora felt awkward due to her previous actions. She had completely lost it after cauterizing Ethel's arms, and her mind had yet to recover. Also, she had basically exposed her feelings, which made her shy toward her teammates.
"For how long can we rely on them?" Khan asked when he noticed that Cora seemed to know a bit about those devices.
"The battery won't be a problem," Cora explained with the same tone as before. "Our phones only need one day under the sun to fully charge, and they can last for a bit more than a week if used correctly. The sparse rays that pierce the crowns should prevent problems."
Khan and the others instinctively lifted their heads. The trees' crowns were thick and left almost no room for the sunlight, but some ray still managed to reach the ground.
'What if it rains all the time?' Khan wondered.
The rain had stopped after the long night, but Istrone seemed to experience that bad weather often. The thick vegetation couldn't only come from the mana in the end.
'We must hurry,' Khan concluded before tinkering with the phone and finding the compass.
His new knowledge about the devices didn't change the team's situation. They had to regroup with the Global Army as soon as possible since the forest might hide dangers that they couldn't face. Spending time in the wilderness only increased their chances of dying.
Khan didn't know much about compasses, but he soon understood that using them wasn't too hard in his situation. He didn't have to learn Istrone's cardinal directions. He only needed to make sure that the arrow on the screen remained in the same spot while traversing the jungle.
The group quickly began to move through the wilderness. Khan and Dorian took the lead of the team while George remained at its end. The two girls were in the middle since they had yet to become combat-ready.
Everything looked the same in Khan's eyes. The plants and trees seemed to repeat themselves in his vision. The only proof of his correct direction was the compass depicted on his phone.
Istrone appeared empty. Khan had never been in an environment full of vegetation before, but he had heard about it from documentaries and other shows. He knew that a forest on Earth would normally have many animals, but the alien planet didn't respect that rule.
'Even the Slums had cockroaches and rats,' Khan cursed in his mind. 'How can this planet have nothing at all?'
The foreign environment didn't make sense in his mind, but he didn't dare to share his thoughts with his teammates. The group had silently decided to limit their noise to avoid attracting threats, and the lack of the heavy rain made them even more careful about that approach.
The jungle was silent, and only the cracking noise of the roots breaking under the recruits' feet resounded in the air. The vegetation was too thick to allow wind in its insides, so the group couldn't even hear the fluttering of the leaves and plants around them.
The complete silence was deafening. Khan and the others had only doubts in their minds, and the lack of noises made them louder. It was impossible to avoid thinking about the countless things that could go wrong in their journey, but they had to suppress them anyway to pay attention to the environment.
The recruits only knew that their direction was on point. Everything else was a mystery, starting from the most worrisome features of the whole situation. There was a chance that the rebels had captured the Global Army's headquarters, which would leave Khan and the others without a destination.
"Stop," Khan whispered, and his word reached even George in the back of the group due to the complete silence around them.
Khan had sensed something while moving through the jungle. It was a familiar sensation by then. Two masses of wild mana were moving among the trees ahead, but they had stopped when the recruits halted their steps.
'They know we are here,' Khan quickly concluded before turning toward Dorian.
Khan didn't know how strong the boy was, but it was better to learn about his prowess now that he could handle the threat on his own. Making plans would become far easier afterward, and the experience might even benefit Dorian.
"There are two Tainted animals ahead," Khan whispered while lowering his body. "They know we are here, but they are hesitating. The mutations must have worked pretty well for them."
Tainted animals usually fell prey to their aggression, but the two creatures in front of the group were showing signs of intelligence. That behavior broke the pattern and led Khan to believe that their mutations had led to stable forms.
"What should we do?" Dorian asked while imitating Khan.
The boy's martial art was completely different, but he instinctively imitated Khan's actions due to his anxiety.
"I'll quickly take one out," Khan explained. "You take care of keeping the other busy until I arrive. Of course, kill it if you can."
Dorian gulped, but he forced himself to nod. A real battle was finally in front of him, so he had to deploy all the teachings that his Master had forced him to memorize.
"I'll give the order," Khan continued. "Be sure to keep up with me."
Dorian nodded, and the tension in the air intensified as Khan started a countdown. Even the three recruits behind him felt anxious about the imminent battle.
The countdown eventually hit zero, and Khan shot ahead. Dorian quickly imitated him, but disbelief appeared in his eyes when he stopped seeing his companion.
Khan was too fast, and that feature became even more evident during a fight. His sprints were one of the Lighting-demon style's core aspects, and his speed reached insane levels during those techniques.
Khan's skin burnt due to the friction with the stale air. His body could barely endure the incredible acceleration gained during the sprint. Still, he had to keep his eyes open to avoid all the roots and hindrances on the uneven terrain.
Two large figures quickly unfolded in his vision. A Tainted bear and a Tainted wolf-like creature were standing in a spot that didn't feature many trees. It seemed that they had chosen a battlefield that would benefit their size, but Khan was going too fast to let those thoughts enter his mind.
Khan didn't have much time to choose his target. It would take him less than an instant to land on the two Tainted animals, and he had to use part of that time to complete his technique.
His eyes and body quickly turned toward the strange wolf. The creature had two rows of teeth on both sides of its mouth and a forked tail, but it appeared frailer than the bear.
Taking out one Tainted animal with a single blow would significantly simplify the battle, and Khan didn't hesitate to pursue that approach.
Khan planted his right foot on the ground when he arrived in front of the two Tainted animals. His leg dug the terrain as his body spun and deployed a roundhouse kick aimed at the wolf's head.
The attack landed on the creature before it could do anything about that sudden threat. Even the bear remained still when Khan's figure materialized in its vision. Both animals had only seen a shadow even if they had prepared for the incoming opponents.
'Dammit!' Khan cursed in his mind when he saw the wolf flying away and releasing a trail of blood from its nose.
Khan had become aware of something tragic after completing the technique. He had executed everything perfectly, but he had lost control of his mana at the last instant.
The wolf had flown away due to the momentum accumulated during the inhuman sprint, but his technique didn't express its full power. The animal's head would have exploded otherwise.
