Deep in the forest's muddy swamp, Emrys, caked in mud, moved almost imperceptibly slowly, swimming towards the resting, dozing behemoth.
He dared not expose even a trace of his presence.
A behemoth crowned with the name 'Behemoth' was enough to make one intuitively imagine its terrifying power!
In the myths of ancient Terra, Behemoth was a daemon created by God, who later fell into hell and became one of the Seven daemon Lords of Hell, the Lord of Greed.
Of course, it had another, more widely known name—the Behemoth beast!
And the 'Behemoth' beast dwelling in this mysterious forest, which belonged to the Lion King's 'Warp essence,' was, without a doubt, one of the most powerful creatures!
As he drew closer, Emrys could even feel the air currents stirred by the Behemoth's exhalations from its nostrils, forming tiny gusts of wind pressure.
After getting close, Emrys did not rush to act but carefully observed the Behemoth.
Its appearance resembled a silverback gorilla, but its fur was a deep, dark color, and it had two horns on its head, with prominent facial bones, similar to a bull's.
The most noteworthy feature was the Behemoth's two extremely thick arms!
Just a few days prior, while tracking this beast, Emrys had personally witnessed these fists, larger than a man, smash a plated rhinoceros to pieces.
The armor on the plated rhinoceros was so thick and hard that even a heavy bolter might not penetrate it, yet it was still pulverized into a bloody mess by this beast.
Under normal circumstances, Emrys would have a myriad of ways to kill this beast.
Whether it was a power sword, a melta bomb, or a plasma gun, if he had any one of them, he could make this Behemoth kneel and call him daddy.
But the problem was, he didn't.
His only weapon was a dagger, its blade almost too dull to use and covered in rust—a rather standard 'tetanus blade.' But who knew if tetanus would even work on a Behemoth?
Moreover, even if tetanus did work, by the time it took effect, he would have long been digested and excreted as feces!
According to the Lion King, a mere Behemoth beast could be subdued bare-handed by him when he was three years old. If Emrys, who had been personally taught by him for half a month, still couldn't deal with the Behemoth, he might as well die.
A three-year-old Primarch was probably already a monster, two meters tall with fists that packed several tons of force, right?
Emrys thought to himself, then pulled out the dagger from his body, trying to keep his breathing steady, every inch of his muscles trying to relax.
This was a technique he had learned from the Lion King.
Constantly tensing muscles doesn't allow for maximum strength. Only by engaging the necessary muscles at the critical moment can one maximize the body's potential!
Three meters, two meters, one meter—the distance between man and beast was almost compressed to inches. Emrys' pupils suddenly contracted. As a large gulp of air filled his lungs, his calm heart was like an engine suddenly accelerating, pumping large amounts of blood into his limbs.
Bang!
The muddy swamp exploded, splattering everywhere.
The loud noise startled the sleeping Behemoth, but before the beast could discern the source of the sound, a dagger, glinting with a cold, sinister light, thrust upwards directly into its groin.
That's right, Emrys' surprise attack target was precisely the vital point of every male creature!
Who could blame him when the Behemoth's groin had two round, furry objects so conspicuously displayed?
Cowardly?
No, no, no, this was a battle of life and death; there was no such thing as cowardly or not cowardly!
Facts proved that no matter how thick the fur or how fierce the beast, its groin was still soft.
Pfft!
The dagger plunged into its groin.
Then, Emrys twisted his wrist and, following the inserted part, cut savagely to the left.
Two objects, each as large as a human head, were thus severed by him.
Although all of this happened in mere seconds, the excruciating pain from the severe injury to its groin caused the Behemoth to let out an unparalleled shriek!
But it was at that moment.
The cold, excruciating pain in its groin made the Behemoth realize that it was no longer whole; it had permanently become a mutilated 'Behemoth.'
"Roar!!!"
The Behemoth opened its gaping maw and let out an earth-shattering roar!
In an instant, violent psychic energy gathered, surging and churning like a tidal wave breaking a dam, carving monstrous ravines into the surrounding ground!
"...Damn it!"
Emrys was sent flying by the violent sound waves, crashing into a tree trunk like a cannonball. But he had curled his body beforehand, preparing for impact, so he was almost unaffected.
However, when he looked at the Behemoth again, he was shocked by the sight before him.
He saw that the Behemoth, originally covered in thick, black mud, had, due to its enraged state, shaken off the mud covering its body, revealing its true form!
Its pure golden fur stood on end like steel needles, and an indescribably terrifying aura, accompanied by a tyrannical roar, echoed through the forest!
"Roar—!!!"
The enraged Behemoth pounded its chest with its fists, emitting a dull rumble like rolling thunder. Invisible waves of air spread out, impacting the surrounding trees like a tsunami!
"How does this feel… like I've seen it somewhere before?"
Emrys' eyelids twitched uncontrollably as he gazed at the Behemoth, enveloped in golden light, its fur bristling like steel needles, with two horns on its head and a bull-like face.
He blurted out instinctively, "Holy crap?! A Raging Golden Rajang?!"
No wonder he kept thinking the Behemoth looked familiar—wasn't this a Raging Golden Rajang?!
Bang!
In the blink of an eye, a violent blast of air rushed towards him!
The terrifying gale was like knives, making it difficult for Emrys to open his eyes, and his body was pressed firmly to the ground by this immense pressure!
"Gravity suppression? It can use psychic energy too!" Feeling the heaviness in his body, he was startled, a hint of horror surfacing in his mind. But the explosive sound of air coming from ahead pulled Emrys' attention back.
It was the Golden Rajang… no, it was the Behemoth!
Its speed was incredibly fast, even surpassing that of a Space Marine. Its massive fist, enveloped in golden light, was like a meteor streaking through the air, carrying a terrifying sonic boom as it struck directly at Emrys!
The surrounding air seemed to have been sucked out!
A suffocating pressure enveloped him. Veins bulged on Emrys' forehead as he squeezed every ounce of potential from himself in the face of death. He stomped his legs forcefully, using the momentum to leap backward, while his psychic energy transformed into a telekinetic barrier!
Boom!!!
The psychic barrier was shattered with a single blow.
But taking advantage of this gap, Emrys narrowly escaped the Behemoth's attack range, gasping for air.
The entire swamp was violently impacted, sending up a ten-meter-high wave of air. The terrifying gale was like a slap, hitting him hard and forcing him back dozens of steps.
This guy was truly enraged!
Looking at the Behemoth's blood-red eyes, Emrys had no doubt how miserable his fate would be if he were caught by it.
It was understandable.
After all, a minute ago, it was a complete male behemoth, and now it had most likely become the last eunuch of the Behemoth race.
No male creature would let go of the bastard who had crushed its balls.
"The Lion King was sure he, himself, subdued this thing bare-handed when he was three years old?!"
Emrys' eyelids twitched wildly. He had a vague feeling that the Lion King had probably tricked him!
The moment Emrys thought of Lion King saying he could subdue this abomination with his bare hands when he was three, he felt like he couldn't take it. That old guy was definitely lying!
No matter how powerful a Primarch was, he couldn't possibly kill this abomination at three years old!
He didn't believe it, absolutely not!
Emrys gritted his teeth. Although he knew he had been tricked, escaping was out of the question now.
He had drawn too much hatred!
"You were the one who cheated first—" Emrys' eyes narrowed slightly, an invisible pressure diffused, and his pupils gradually turned azure blue.
"Isn't it just psychic power? It's not like I don't know how to use it!"
Not allowed to use psychic power?
Come on, no exaggeration, Emrys felt that this abomination could twist off a three-year-old Angron's head and use it as a chamber pot!
He wasn't sure if Lion King was that powerful when he was three, but Emrys knew deep down that if he didn't use psychic power, he would be turned into a meat paste by a single slap from it in minutes!
Whoosh!
The humid air in the forest swamp suddenly felt as if it had been sucked dry!
Dry, scorching air permeated.
Emrys' fingertips moved, and the moisture that had been pervasive in the air seemed to evaporate in an instant, molecules changing from orderly to chaotic, followed by an unimaginable burst of energy, and a violent blaze appeared out of thin air!
This is what a psyker is!
They can completely disregard the order of the physical universe, borrow the power of the Warp, and manipulate the rules of the universe at will!
The blaze erupted from his fingertips, then rapidly grew at a visible speed, evaporating all the moisture in the swamp, transforming into a roaring giant dragon tens of meters long, descending from the sky as it twisted and turned!
The scorching fiery dragon rampaged, turning the trees in its path into scorched earth!
However, who would have thought that the golden lion—bah, the enraged Behemoth, whose muscles were already exaggerated, would swell several times further in its anger, its height rising to eight meters, like a small mountain!
It roared and swung its fist, and golden light exploded!
Bang!!!
Layers of air waves shattered the fiery dragon, and the enraged Behemoth, as if transformed into a tank, crushed everything that tried to block its path without exception!
Giant trees that several people could embrace were smashed by Behemoth, which charged towards Emrys with an unrivaled momentum!
"A beast is a beast!" Emrys sneered, his feet seemingly stepping on an invisible ladder as he flew into the air with the help of telekinesis, his five fingers suddenly closing.
"Smash it for me!!!"
The gathered telekinesis forcibly broke off a mountaintop, then, like a cannonball, dragged with a whistling sound of air currents, it smashed down from the sky towards Behemoth!
The biggest difference between humans and beasts is that humans use tools.
A mountaintop weighing tens of tons smashed down like a cannonball, with a fierce wind pressure roaring and howling.
Behemoth looked up, its blood-red eyes fixed on Emrys, then its legs bent, and with a powerful thrust of its limbs, its massive body actually leaped into the air, moving so fast that there was no sense of delay!
"Roar!!!"
Behemoth roared, and shattered the descending mountaintop with a single punch!
Immediately after, its speed did not decrease at all.
"Holy crap?!"
Emrys' eyes widened. Was this guy made of iron?!
But in an instant, the enraged Behemoth had already thrown a punch. Although it was over ten meters away, that dazzling golden light, like a surging torrent, split the air and slammed into Emrys!
"You die too!!!"
Knowing he couldn't avoid it, Emrys also became ruthless, completely disregarding the surging golden light, he drew out the air, forming a sharp air blade, and flung it towards Behemoth, who was also in mid-air!
Boom!!!
With a loud bang, Emrys, like a kite with a broken string, was sent flying by the golden light torrent, crashing heavily into the swamp in the forest.
As for Behemoth, its chest was also cut open by the air blade, a wound revealing the white bones inside, blood gushing out as it fell to the ground.
"Come again, who's afraid of who!"
Emrys endured the severe pain, struggling to climb out of the swamp, spitting blood while roaring.
"If I don't chop off your head today, I'm not Emrys!"
"Roar!!!"
The fallen Behemoth slammed its fists into the ground, its pupils growing even redder, roaring and glaring at Emrys, as if responding to his provocation.
However, just then.
The panting Emrys noticed the strange changes quietly happening around him.
The place they were in, at some unknown point, was enveloped by a mysterious dense fog, as if they were in a sea of blood, and there were even sounds of killing in his ears!
His heart was pounding violently, like a war drum!
Blood rushed faster to every inch of his body. Emrys could feel a surge of murderous desire invading his consciousness.
And his senses, as if activated, from The Message blowing through the trees to the pulsation of the ground, he seemed to be able to clearly feel everything!
Even the movement of every muscle and bone on the enraged Behemoth, the flow of blood within its body, the scent and hormones emanating from deep within its fur, and even its emotional fluctuations, Emrys could perceive with perfect clarity!
It was like he had activated a cheat!
This familiar feeling struck, making Emrys show a hint of confusion.
He looked at the space around him, gradually thickening, as if stained with a layer of blood mist, and at Behemoth's face, which seemed to be covered by a distorted, hateful, terrifying mask, and his heart suddenly skipped a beat.
This is bad!
Thump!
Thump!
Thump!
From the depths of the blood-colored dense fog came sounds like war drums, mixed with the roars of countless beings, the surging killing intent like a tide, endlessly stirring!
The killing intent in Behemoth's eyes grew even more intense. In its entire brain, there was only one thought left: kill Emrys!
"Roar!!!"
Visible sound waves transformed into layers of Impact, violently trampling the ground, like invisible air blades cutting across, plowing out gullys!
And Behemoth, standing in the blood-colored dense fog, its golden fur, bristling like steel needles, was stained with a chilling blood-red hue, as if it had just emerged from an endless sea of blood, emitting a strong and pungent smell of sulfur and fresh blood.
"Damn it, even you're messing with me?!" Emrys' heart was greatly shaken, as if raising stormy waves, his pupils suddenly shrinking to pinpricks,
trembling violently.
"Are you kidding me, this thing can also be blessed!"
The current situation was already very clear.
Someone on the Brass Throne had cast his gaze here, and seemed to be very interested, granting both sides a blessing.
Khorne, you fucking—Emrys had a swear word stuck in his throat, unable to curse it out, when he saw a shadow, like a heavy cannon, dragging explosive strong winds, pressing down!
From Emrys' perspective, the strike of an eight-meter-tall giant beast felt no less than the Impact of a hundred-ton king.
Whoosh!
Air currents and strong winds howled in sorrow, like torn cloth, filling Emrys' vision with the gradually enlarging fist bone, covering and enveloping him!
In a trance, he seemed to see the sinister smile of the blood-red figure on the Brass Throne.
Khorne, you fucking wait for me!
Boom!!!
In his daze, Emrys was sent flying.
He tumbled like a wolf, but thankfully the swamp provided a buffer, absorbing most of the force, which barely allowed him to withstand Behemoth's furious blow.
However, even so, the immense power that surged into his body, and the impact on his internal organs, still made him feel unwell.
In contrast, Behemoth stood in the bloody mist, and the deep, bone-visible wound on his chest, which Emrys had sliced open with a Qi blade,
was healing at a speed visible to the naked eye!
The surrounding grass, trees, and forests withered rapidly, as if their vitality had been stripped away!
"And it's biological psychic energy." Noticing this, Emrys' heart sank slightly. This meant that if he couldn't kill it in one blow,
with Behemoth's recovery ability, it would eventually wear him down to death!
Although psychic users are diverse in classification, they can generally be divided into six categories.
Like Emrys, he himself belonged to the psychokinetic system, but through learning, he could also use other types of abilities, such as elemental and precognitive.
Of course, his proficiency in these two types of abilities was clearly not as good as his psychokinetic abilities.
What Behemoth displayed was clearly the biological system. These psychic users often have tenacious vitality and can control life energy, thereby directly affecting the physical body or biological structure.
Just now, Behemoth was absorbing the surrounding life energy to heal his wounds.
But these were still somewhat manageable.
What really gave Emrys a headache was that the damn Khorne had also gotten involved!
The bloody mist enveloping them was clearly Khorne's domain power, and having experienced it several times, Emrys could roughly guess that the old bastard's intention was to make him and Behemoth fight to the death!
Retreat?
No, absolutely not!
If he retreated even half a step here, the situation would only get worse. Although Khorne wouldn't mind if you used dirty tricks in a duel, if it was a loss of courage and bravery, the outcome would only be more tragic than death!
In short, it was—fight, enjoyable!
Understanding this, Emrys no longer held back his strength. He put on his power gauntlets and drew out the "Blade of Atropos," a long blade named 'Fate' and shaped like a seedling. He looked up at Behemoth not far away, his pupils gradually consumed by madness, and his lips, cracked from lack of water, also curved slightly upwards. His voice hoarsely said, "Come on, let's see who dies here today—!"
"Roar!!!"
His provocative gaze seemed to enrage Behemoth. The eight-meter-tall beast suddenly stomped with great force!
Boom!
The surrounding swamp mud, like a curtain, was thrown up to a height of over ten meters.
Accompanied by a tangible wave of air, a massive shadow, carrying a terrifying momentum, stretched into a afterimage on Emrys' retina!
This kind of power, purely from a sensory perspective, was no less than a fearless charge!
Emrys' face was almost distorted by the oncoming gale, and his outer clothing was ripped and flapped loudly. Every strand of his hair, even his pores, could feel the bone-deep crushing impact!
His heart pounded, but it wasn't out of fear!
The more dangerous the situation, the calmer Emrys became. His gaze followed the afterimage through the chaotic wind.
Then, just as the opponent was about to collide with him, he suddenly accelerated and dodged to the side. At the same time, he rotated his blade horizontally, using the opponent's charging speed to slice across Behemoth's abdomen!
Slash!!!
Force is interactive.
The greater Behemoth's impact, the greater the damage it inflicted on itself.
Emrys took advantage of this point, his blade forcefully cutting a wound over ten centimeters deep into Behemoth's abdomen. Foul-smelling blood gushed out, drenching half of him in blood!
However, Behemoth, with its abdomen sliced open, became even more frenzied under the intense pain. It completely disregarded the churning internal organs beneath its skin, forcibly twisting its body during the charge, and its palm, like a rocket, slapped towards Emrys!
In a hurry, Emrys held the slender blade horizontally in front of him, blocking the slap.
But the immense force, without any reduction, passed through the blade and landed entirely on his body.
Boom!!!
In a flash, Emrys was sent flying like a cannonball, breaking over a dozen large trees, and was buried in the dirt!
The violent impact almost destroyed his entire right arm; his bones were completely shattered, and more seriously, one of his legs was severely distorted!
As for Behemoth, its abdomen had a huge wound, and because it had forcibly turned and exerted force just now, bloody organs spewed out.
In almost an instant, both man and beast were severely injured.
"Hoo, hoo—"
Emrys switched to holding the blade with his left hand, barely supporting himself as he struggled to climb out of the dirt. He dragged one leg, swaying as he stood.
Behemoth was also panting, and it haphazardly smeared the swamp mud on the wound on its abdomen, temporarily stopping the bleeding.
"Damn it, a beast is a beast—" Emrys' forehead was covered in cold sweat from the pain. Smearing swamp mud on the wound, wasn't it afraid of infection?!
At this point, both sides had completely lost their retreat. Behemoth's frantic actions had already proven that one of them had to die today!
Emrys originally thought he was already crazy enough, but a beast was a beast, much crazier than him.
Both sides fell into a brief stalemate.
But both Emrys and Behemoth knew very well that this was only temporary; once their physical strength recovered slightly, it would be the final blow.
Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!
In the swamp, man and beast confronted each other, their heavy breathing gradually diminishing, as if foreshadowing the impending showdown!
The next second, Behemoth roared, its entire body engulfed in dazzling golden light, mixed with a touch of fresh blood red. Its muscles swelled again, its bones made a thunderous sound, like the extension and curvature of its forehead horns, and its appearance underwent a terrifying further transformation!
Now, Behemoth was less like a giant beast and more like a 'daemon'!
Under Khorne's blessing, Behemoth completely transformed into a 'daemon'. Its fur turned into a mix of blood-red and golden, its arms became as thick as giant hydraulic clamps, twisted blades grew from beneath its skin, and its body was covered in distorted, desecrated heavy armor!
"Roar!!!!"
The huge roar seemed to materialize!
The wave of air and sound spread suddenly, blowing away the swamp mud. The violent aura mixed with killing intent dyed the originally tranquil forest a somber blood-red!
"???"
Emrys was dumbfounded. What the hell? They had fought to this point, and Khorne was still giving it a cheat code?!
Looking at Behemoth, which had almost turned into a daemon, he was truly speechless. It was supposed to be a fair duel, but the opponent powered up just before death!
Who was the protagonist after all?!
Didn't they say that only the protagonist could power up in life-and-death situations, recalling their past experiences?!