Chaos Heir

Chapter 1268: Speed

Muhsin was sure he didn’t lose track of his surroundings for a single second. His awareness had been at its peak. Actually, it had been beyond that since Khan had warned the Kros about the imminent attack.

Khan couldn’t possibly know it, but there was far more to Muhsin’s skills. Khan had been right about the automatic functions and processing power, but the alien’s abilities stretched far beyond them.

All the abilities displayed by Muhsin’s technology were merely enhanced versions of functions the alien could perform on his own. He didn’t need metal or machines to scan the area or process data. He could even fire beams without rifles. Everything was always passively active and available.

However, all of Muhsin’s preparations had been for naught.

The Kros couldn’t help but linger in his surprise for a second, struggling to realize what had just happened. Khan didn’t move or launch attacks. He didn’t even release a more powerful version of his destructive influence, but the nine spheres had shattered anyway.

That was scientifically impossible, which fueled Muhsin’s shock. As unrealistic as it sounded, something had to have happened. He had simply failed to see or capture it.

The spheres were destroyed but not lost. Some of their metal had vanished forever, but the connection still existed, so Muhsin manipulated the debris to rebuild them.

Yet, the new spheres weren’t only smaller. Muhsin had made them partially hollow, with their concave sides pointed at Khan to activate multiple functions simultaneously.

Nevertheless, something distracted the Kros from his attentive study of his sparring partner. A cold sensation spread on his reptilian head, and bringing his thin, long fingers to its source revealed some wetness.

Muhsin retracted his hand only to see that a lime-green liquid had tainted his dark-green fingers. He was bleeding, and an instantaneous self-inspection made him aware of the cut on his head.

“I apologize for that,” Khan announced, pointing at the shallow cut. “I only planned on breaking your machines, but I can’t control myself very well at that speed, so I almost bumped into you.”

The revelation was multilayered and no less shocking than the previous exchange. Khan had truly attacked, but that wasn’t all. The exchange had been physical, with Khan flying near Muhsin’s head, but the alien didn’t notice anything at all.

“Prince Khan of the Nognes family,” Muhsin called once he managed to recover, relying on political pleasantries again. “May I see that attack again?”

Khan arched his eyebrows in surprise. The Kros seemed to have forgotten about the whole reason behind that spar. He only looked entranced in that technique he couldn’t understand, adding evident curiosity to his presence.

“Do you wish to prepare first?” Khan wondered, agreeing to the request.

The Kros didn’t reply, but his machines changed once again. The transformation also affected his metal chair, which lost its back and more, leaving the alien sitting on nothing more than a rectangular black slab.

Three spheres hovered forward, refilling their hollow parts before stopping right before Khan. Meanwhile, all the other available metals rearranged themselves to create a vast array of scanner-like machines, each featuring unique details.

Some scanners were nothing more than cylindrical items with glass at their tips. Holographic screens surrounded others, while a few had antennas that captured data Khan could only imagine.

Muhsin seemed intent on not missing anything at all, and Khan didn’t feel like pouring cold water on his excitement. His glowing eyes moved on the three spheres, illuminating them while mana moved inside his legs.

The Transcendent Step’s advanced forms truly were a masterpiece harnessed from the culmination of humankind’s study of mana. Yet, as such, they had steep requirements that most warriors wouldn’t be able to approach, let alone meet.

Exceptional warriors could manage to master the Transcendent Step’s foundation form, but only the elites among them could hope to learn one of the advanced ones. The training and conditioning were too harsh, often requiring decades to complete.

However, Khan was a unique being in an even more unique situation. The Transcendent Step’s advanced forms had hefty requirements in the manipulation field, but he had learned the Niqols’ ways directly on Nitis and had never stopped training with them.

Also, obtaining the Great Old One’s bloodline had transformed Khan’s body, removing any necessity for specific conditioning aided by Baoway’s toxic substance. Khan’s legs didn’t only endure that toll. They also had room for more.

After inheriting the Great Old One’s bloodline, Khan’s main challenge had been in adapting the Transcendent Step to his new physique. The conditioning requirement was no more, and the manipulation only required training. What was left was to make the technique worthy of his cells’ power.

Countless strands of mana crashed on each other inside Khan’s legs, generating unfathomable energy that threatened to blow up his very flesh. Yet, his skin, tendons, muscles, and bones held strong, unfazed by that internal pressure.

When the accumulated energy became too much for Khan’s legs, his cells came to life, reinforcing their structural integrity and making them able to endure additional mana.

Some of Khan’s cells also joined the generated energy, aiding its flow while empowering it, ultimately unleashing a burst of speed even he struggled to contain or control.

Muhsin had devolved the entirety of his power, attention, and machines to study the event, so he finally saw something. Except he struggled to believe it.

The Kros finally saw Khan shooting at the rightmost sphere, accumulating unfathomable momentum to slam his knee on the item, destroying it. Yet, that wasn’t the real Khan, or rather, it was only one of two of them.

Khan had rushed toward the rightmost sphere, but he had also remained in his position before the floating items. The area now featured two of him, one standing still and another attacking, and the technique didn’t end there.

A third Khan separated from the second to head toward the central sphere, instantly destroying it with a roundhouse kick. A fourth even split from that one, immediately delivering a descending attack on the leftmost machine.

A total of four Khans were now in the area, motionlessly frozen in their final positions, only for the fourth to return to the first, fusing with him. The other copies disappeared, leaving only the destroyed spheres and the Khan standing in the original position.

Actually, the spheres weren’t exactly destroyed. The attacks had broken them, but their fractured fabric had yet to fall. That wasn’t due to Khan’s attack. Muhsin’s scanners had to employ the most powerful slow motion in their possession to capture the event.

It turned out Khan didn’t split himself. His speed had created afterimages, and his attack had ended before the world could react to the damage he had inflicted.