Mikhail's heart was filled with a cold, pure despair.
He tried to reach for the spare bolt pistol at his waist.
But his arm was completely bound by the locked servo-joints and the excruciating pain from his nerves.
Even this tiny movement became incredibly difficult.
He could only watch as the destructive giant claw descended with unparalleled force.
It was preparing to crush him, along with the scrap metal beneath him, into cosmic dust.
Just as the giant claw, imbued with absolute destructive power, tore through the air, only a few meters from Mikhail's chest armor, and death was already within reach—
"Woo—BOOM!!!"
A piercing shriek, so extreme it seemed to tear the soul, came without warning from directly above the cave ceiling!
This sound surpassed the roar of any engine or weapon on the battlefield.
It carried the texture of pure physical laws being violently broken!
Immediately followed by a deafening, terrifying impact sound, like a planetary collision!
The entire core area shook violently as if a severe earthquake had occurred.
Large sections of rock from the cave ceiling collapsed and fell like a torrential rain!
A scorching pillar of fire, as dazzling as the core of a supernova explosion, accompanied by the ear-splitting roar of adamantium tearing through thick rock layers and a scorching heatwave capable of melting steel, precisely and infallibly, like a divine punishment, struck between the Warboss and Mikhail, just inches from both!
The violent shockwave and scorching smoke instantly swept through the entire core area.
They temporarily obscured the light of the furnace.
In the smoke, the outline of a massive, standard Imperial-issue drop pod was deeply embedded in the shattered ground.
The pod body glowed dark red due to the high-speed impact and internal high temperature.
With a muffled thud, the hatch exploded outwards, propelled by internal explosive bolts!
The smoke had not yet completely dispersed.
The lingering dust was still slowly settling.
A slender, tall, and composed figure had already shot out like a phantom from the wreckage of the drop pod and the still-dissipating scorching plasma trail!
She was dressed in a well-tailored, deep grey administrative uniform, completely out of place in the battlefield environment, and spotless.
She stood silently at the edge of the massive impact crater created by the drop pod, where molten metal still flowed and astonishing heat radiated.
Her appearance carried an ineffable, almost tangible, cold and absolute majesty that permeated the entire space.
Her amber-gold eyes, like two burning stars in the swirling dust, instantly cut through the chaos, precisely locking onto the massive green target that had temporarily stopped moving due to the impact, filled with surprise and uncertainty.
That pressure was as heavy as a mountain, as biting as cold ice.
It caused even the rampaging Orks on the battlefield to momentarily choke.
It was Hathor Lupeca!
Tooth Fracture's Planetary Governor's office's Chief Administrative Secretary!
Mikhail's mind was a roaring blank.
His Power Armor's cognitive system seemed to temporarily crash due to this extreme absurdity.
How could she be here?!
In the heart of the battlefield?!
Appearing in such a way, descending from the sky like a divine soldier?!
This completely overturned all his perceptions of this civilian official!
The Warboss was also stunned by this sudden "meteorite from the sky" and the tiny figure that emerged from it.
Its simple brain was clearly unable to comprehend this scene.
But immediately, offended fury overcame its confusion.
It let out an even more violent, more piercing roar!
It abandoned the nearby Mikhail.
The massive Power Claw, with the power to tear space and crush everything, stirred up a foul wind and slammed fiercely towards the tiny human who dared to appear before it in such a manner and challenge its authority!
The air was rapidly compressed, emitting a sharp crack!
Hathor Lupeca carried no visible firearms or heavy weapons.
Facing the giant claw capable of crushing adamantium fortresses, she merely casually, even gracefully, sidestepped and glided.
Her movements were utterly fluid and natural.
As if she wasn't dodging an attack capable of destroying a tank, but rather avoiding a clumsy drunkard's shove on a dance floor.
That destructive force, carried by an ill wind, merely ruffled a few strands of hair at the edge of her meticulously styled bun.
It failed to touch her in the slightest.
In the tiny moment when the Warboss inevitably lost its balance due to its full-force attack missing, Hathor moved.
Her movements were so fast they completely exceeded the maximum dynamic capture limit of Mikhail's Power Armor's optical system!
Only a blurry afterimage remained on the tactical display!
Like a cold flash of pure speed tearing through the gloomy cave!
In her hand, she held only a slender rapier, ancient and understated in design, shimmering with a cold, moonlit metallic luster, seemingly a common weapon used by nobles for ceremonial duels.
The sword light flashed!
There was no earth-shattering roar of energy collision.
No ear-splitting shriek of force fields tearing at each other.
Not even the crisp clang of weapons striking.
Only a subtle, almost imperceptible, yet seemingly space-cleaving, time-freezing sharp cold gleam.
It was as if she were lightly brushing a speck of dust from her clothes.
It precisely and silently swept across the Warboss's neck, thick as an ancient tree and covered with inches of starship armor plating.
Time seemed to freeze for a moment with that single sword gleam.
The Warboss's mountain-like body suddenly stiffened.
All movements, roars, and the hum of energy fields, ceased at this moment.
In those small eyes, which always burned with savagery, cruelty, and the desire for destruction, for the first and last time, an unbelievable, childlike pure confusion appeared.
Immediately, confusion was completely replaced by the emptiness and stillness of rapidly draining life.
Its massive Power Claw, entwined with destructive energy, fell limply.
The crimson glow on the claw instantly extinguished.
The super-shoota on its other arm, whose barrel still held residual heat, stopped its futile rotation.
A fine, hair-thin line of blood quietly appeared on its armored, thick neck.
Then, the bloodline, as if stretched by an invisible force, rapidly expanded and fractured.
That enormous, ugly, green head, symbolizing the savage strength and tyranny of the Tooth Fracture tribe, slowly slid from its massive body, accompanied by a gushing, viscous, fluorescent green column of blood.
It hit the ground, covered in rubble and oil, with a dull "thud" like a meteorite.
The head rolled a few times.
Its empty eyes stared blankly at the cave ceiling.
The massive, headless corpse collapsed like a stack of blocks from which all support had been instantly removed.
It lost all its power.
The corpse crashed down.
It kicked up a cloud of dust mixed with the smell of blood and engine oil.
The ground trembled.
The entire noisy, chaotic core battlefield, filled with the roars of death, instantly fell into a heart-stopping, eerie silence.
Only the central furnace continued its futile roar.
In the distance, sporadic boltgun fire, signaling the collapse of resistance, could be heard from the passages.
And Mikhail's own heavy, incredulous gasps echoed within his helmet.
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