Chapter 89: You Can Only Retreat!
"By the blood of the fallen!"
BOOM!
A sound like muffled thunder registered in their sensory systems, and in that instant, the crimson Angel was upon them.
SHHHRIIII—
First, the sound of a disruption field cleaving through carapace, then a stream of deep green plasma shot past the Angel, who had come to a dead stop, and lanced into the sky.
The cooked body of a Biovore collapsed. Its killing blow had missed, and its life had come to an end.
The Hive Tyrant was stunned, staring at the Angel who should have been caught in the plasma blast.
But the Angel did not retreat, nor did he show any other emotion. He only pressed forward with fury.
Too bad. You can't predict me!
Before the heavily armored Tyrant Guard could close in, Karna flicked his spear upwards. Standing before the Hive Tyrant, its guard now wide open, he leaned back, gathering all his strength into the spear's haft. Then, he lunged forward, his left foot stomping down hard.
BOOM!
With Karna as the epicenter, the molten rock, shredded flesh, and carapace fragments on the ground were all blasted into the air. Using his left foot as a pivot, he threw the spear with an incredibly wild posture.
CRACK!
A sonic boom echoed through the air. A ring of multi-colored vapor exploded in the atmosphere. The spear, like a meteor, shot forward, unstoppable.
The Hive Tyrant scrambled back. The weapon, wreathed in its disruption field, pierced through its psychic shield and tore a massive gash in the thick armor of its limb.
And the Angel did not remain idle. He pumped his arms and charged, catching the spear as it lost its momentum, and then a relentless flurry of thrusts and cleaves rained down.
The Hive Tyrant, already disoriented by the surprise attack, was finally unable to hold its ground under this new assault and could only retreat, again and again.
Retreating from the protection of its guard, retreating from the chaotic battlefield.
And stepping into the cage known as a duel.
How did he find me?
Its thoughts, stiffened by the storm of attacks, the Hive Tyrant froze for a moment. The Hive Mind, which was still reallocating its nodes, hadn't even had time to react before the impossible had happened. The Hive Tyrant, which had been serving as its command node, had been found. All its camouflage and tactical deceptions had failed.
Even the Hive Mind itself couldn't find the enemy's commander; it could only continuously assassinate the human front-line command in the hopes of exposing a weakness.
But how had this single individual seen through its disguise?
It seemed there would never be an answer. At least for the moment, the Hive Mind had no time to think, because it now had to face something incredibly real.
Killing intent. A killing intent wrapped in boundless fury.
"Sever! Cleave! Mince!"
The crimson Angel was lost in a frenzy of rage. Any and all combat patterns seemed pale and useless in the face of these completely random, lethal attacks.
"Burn, my enemy!"
The roars did not slow his movements in the slightest. The spear swept out, a circular arc of light appearing, and it cut through the Tyranid swarm.
The Tyrant retreated again. Its guards gave chase.
The already leaning hive structure, under the immense pressure, began to crack at its midpoint. The building started to tilt and collapse. As the ground was pried open by the massive structural modules, countless tons of promethium spewed from the ruptured pipes.
You want to live?
An afterimage pierced through the dust.
Karna swung his spear, forcing the Tyrant off a cliff.
You can.
He then plunged downwards, raising the tip of his spear, aiming straight for the Tyrant's skull.
CLANG!
Another clash of blades. The Hive Tyrant blocked the blow, the massive bone-sabre forged from psychic power catching the disruption-field-wreathed spear.
It had finally reacted.
SLASH!
Another cleaving blow came. The beast retreated. The Angel stood his ground.
The crimson Angel tilted his head, blood seeping from his cheek.
"ROAR!"
As if in response to Karna's own roar, the Hive Tyrant roared back. The deep green psychic wave grew even more profound as the Hive Mind withdrew its other psychic nodes.
Blood sprayed. Karna took a step, his speed increasing, charging forward into the baptism of the psychic shockwave, as if he could not see the arcs of light that were hot enough to melt metal.
Humanity has paid a great price to hold back the Hive Fleet. The defensive lines are being breached, key facilities cannot be recovered in time, and countless people are dying every second.
You can only choose to retreat!
"Come, face me! Face your end!"
The Angel charged unyieldingly through the storm. The psychic energy radiating from the Tyrant was diminished upon contact with him. The extreme heat could only scrape lava-like scars across his ceramite armor.
CLANG!!!
When the two clashed again, the spear struck the middle of the bone-sabre, forcing the Tyrant, which had been gathering its psychic power, back.
Karna only continued to press forward, the sacrifices of humanity having been transformed into an emotion, carved onto his handsome face.
Its name was relentless fury.
"Come, face death!"
"..."
The command center was silent.
From the air, the trajectory of the Angel was even more shocking. A clear fissure had appeared in the hive city, stretching from the edge of the battlefield to the vicinity of the Forge-World. On the path carved out by the Hive Tyrant's psychic baptism, not a single intact building could be seen. And the Angel's figure was the most prominent, the surging psychic power searing his armor, plating it with lava-like cracks, making him look like a shining jewel from a distance.
And the front line quickly changed. The offensive that had once troubled even Romulus had been blunted. The Hive Fleet, with a large number of its nodes occupied, began to slow. All of its previous sharpness was gone.
And the remaining humans, the ones who had just been fleeing, after a brief moment of stunned silence, finally took up their weapons and turned back.
"The line has stabilized."
In the "Broken Swords" command post, Colonel Kovek lowered his binoculars, then clutched his right hand with some discomfort. His right arm had been severed and was now replaced with a bionic one. It must be said, he was lucky. When Kovek was being assassinated by a Tyranid unit known as a Lictor, the Carcharodons had been nearby.
"Humanity has been given another chance," the Commissar said, rubbing his eyebrows. Two months of combat stimms, honestly, were not as effective as a single charge from an Angel. This was the strange magic of personal charisma. The same action, when performed by different people, could have completely different effects.
Some people could, through a single, simple action, convey their ideals to everyone.
And the message the crimson Angel had conveyed to them was—
Nowhere is safe. Only by standing with the resistance can you fight for a chance to survive. To run is to die, to hide is to die. The predator will devour everything.
The combat power of the Mechanicus Temple is for protecting something more important. Do not expect it to protect you.
There is no such thing as luck.
Because even the Emperor's Angel can only fight with his life.
This is a war where everything must be wagered!
This is a war of relentless advance!
The Hive Fleet's ranged fire breached the armored layer, exploding in a burst of cannon fire in the spacious interior.
The chaotic crowd stopped almost in unison, looking at the lingering trail in the sky, like a group of statues.
"Yes. I shouldn't have run," a young man was the first to turn back, hugging his gun and walking into a familiar trench. To flee would only expose his comrades to the enemy's claws, and then his own exposed back, and then his family, and then everything that made him a person would be eaten.
"Yeah, let's fight them."
More and more people rushed to the front line and took up their weapons. Death had already arrived, and they could only trade their lives for a chance.
How much power does a single person have?
The Angel's wrath could shatter a hundred men, could make a Tyrant retreat. A sorcerer's spell could sweep away ten thousand, could tip the scales of war. But they, in a war that covered countless humans and half a hive city, were small.
A so-called hero is a leader who moves with the times. He must awaken humanity's desire for "survival" to be able to wield this great hammer and crush everything.
Just one correct lead, one collective turn.
The collapsing defensive line was re-stabilized. The beleaguered people, under the watchful eye of the endless Hive Fleet, had once again won a fleeting chance at "survival."
They could no longer retreat!
(End of Chapter)