The azure sky froze before shaking and ultimately crumbling. The rain of bullets that shone on the alien battalion shattered into a bright cloud that expanded through the air.
The scene made no sense. The mana bullets weren't spells but were still dense enough to pierce flesh and bones. Moreover, the sky had accumulated over fifty of them, but a single word from Khan had turned them into bright, ethereal dust.
Both aliens and humans stared at the cloud in shock. That developnt went beyond what their minds could conceive. Even the best military equipnt would struggle to deal with that offensive, especially in such a spectacular fashion, but Khan had used the power of a single word to deal with it.
Of course, Khan's word had far more than his re voice. Even using the Niqols language had rely been an instinctive preference rather than an actual technique.
Khan had spent the night awake, staring at the distant fort and leaking his aura. The air was stuffed with his influence by morning, facilitating and expanding his authority over the symphony.
The two battalions didn't know nor could understand those specifics, so they reached unbelievable conclusions. From their perspective, Khan wielded an alien technique that could render the fort's defensive asures powerless.
The fort's soldiers didn't know what to do, but the Scalqa were quick to react. Ka-Han's na spread through the air as the aliens sang for their leader's glory. Rifles slamd on the tal shields to produce rhythmic thudding noises, sending fear into and past the tal walls.
Khan paid the battalions no heed. His attention was on the bright cloud, and his eyes slowly closed to maximize his perception. His brain reflected the quickly dispersing mass of synthetic mana imrsed in the natural symphony, and a thought carrying a silent order sent a tremor through it.
The human soldiers were shocked, but what followed tried to deprive their legs of strength. The cloud suddenly stopped dispersing and started to condense. Its synthetic mana converged into different spots, changing color and growing brighter.
A series of purple-red spheres took form and hovered in the air, absorbing what remained of the cloud and the natural symphony's energy. Their shape also changed. The ethereal balls thinned and stretched, transforming into spears pointed at the fort.
Khan didn't give any warning nor wasted any ti. As soon as the chaos spears were ready, they shot forward, darting through the sky to slam on the fort's walls.
An invisible mana barrier appeared when the spears reached the fort, hovering before its walls to protect their structural integrity. The spells exploded, giving birth to several horizontal pillars. Violent mana rose from the building's surface, which flickered to no end.
An energy battle unfolded. The mana barrier shook under the pillars' violent assault. The fort had deeper energy reserves, but Khan's spells carried more power, eventually overcoming the invisible shield's limits.
The walls flickered with more intensity before going dark. The mana barrier's generator failed to keep up with the pillar's assault and broke, allowing Khan's spells to hit the black surface.
The pillars had lost a lot of energy to defeat the mana barrier, so their impact on the tal walls only opened superficial cracks and occasional fuming holes. Their light also dispersed, seemingly marking the end of the clash. Khan's spells pierced the shield, but the fort still stood straight.
The human soldiers could finally overco their shock and breathe in relief. As extraordinary as Khan's attack had been, the fort survived it. The shield generator wasn't broken, either, and the structure had spares ready to go online.
Khan's abilities had surpassed the soldiers' expectations, but the situation didn't change. The fort could still rain fire on the powerless alien battalion, and it would only take one mistake on Khan's side to kill dozens of Scalqa.
Nevertheless, as that relief spread, the wall went through another transformation. Its surface released low cries as the superficial cracks expanded and deepened. The fuming holes also gave birth to more profound fissures, bending and shattering the tal around them.
Initially, the soldiers believed the wall was simply suffering temporary instability, gaining more cracks while it adjusted to the damage.
However, it soon beca apparent that the cracks' expansion had nothing to do with structural instability. The damage on the defensive surface almost seed alive, stretching through its fabric like a tal-devouring illness. The low cries grew louder, showing no sign of stopping.
The soldiers couldn't believe their eyes and ears but listened to the order that eventually spread throughout the walls. The troops evacuated, abandoning that protected position to hide in the fort's safety.
During the evacuation, the walls continued to suffer. Their damage spread on its own, unaffected by the distance it crossed. That black tal looked like the most brittle material in the world, eventually crumbling like paper.
The fort's front wall reached the critical point. The accumulated and ever-expanding damage made it unable to bear its weight. The defensive surface caved in from its central, highest point, unleashing an unstoppable chain reaction.
Black shards, tal tiles, and internal floors fell, bringing more intact parts down. Grey smoke rose as multiple pieces of machinery and internal wiring broke. The wall gave in seemingly willingly, tainting the sandy plain with its debris.
The destruction looked slow due to the wall's size, but it took less than a minute to stabilize. A massive V-shaped tear had opened on that defensive surface, filled with grey smoke that hid the fort's insides.
Surviving tal and debris had accumulated at the tear's bottom, creating a makeshift trench surrounded by a cetery of shards, tiles, and technology. That barrier was almost five ters tall, retaining so defensive properties. Yet, the Scalqa could easily climb over it
now.
The scene had been so incredible that the Scalqa had joined the human battalion in its shock, but their cheers were ready to return. However, Khan's order arrived sooner, and he stuck to a single word once again. He simply opted for the Scalqa language now. "[Charge]."
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