Sith raised his hand and fired a shot, the laser precisely piercing through the heads of at least three unarmored rebel soldiers.
He then swung his combat blade down, hacking another frenzied rebel wielding a great axe to the ground.
The combat blade was long since dulled; at this point, Sith was less cutting down enemies and more bludgeoning them.
After dispatching four more rebels who dared to challenge him, Sith stood surrounded by corpses, his body once again drenched in blood.
Even the frenzied rebels, seeing Sith's current state, gathered around him fearfully, not daring to approach.
Sith took the opportunity to reload, his eyes scanning the surroundings.
At the entrance, an endless tide of rebels seemed to pour forth endlessly from the deep passageway.
Outside, Bruno and the remaining soldiers, along with the veterans of the 101st Regiment, desperately held back the enemy onslaught using any weapons they could find.
But with a combined force of less than two thousand, they were nearly overwhelmed by the endless rebel tide. Almost everyone was isolated, forced to face simultaneous attacks from several, even a dozen, rebels alone.
The 101st veterans fared better, bolstered by their 'two-hundred-battle survival' enhancement. However, Bruno and the newly integrated remnants, despite offering their full loyalty to the Emperor, suffered heavy casualties.
It was only after accumulating their initial hundredfold gains that they gradually steadied their defense.
Having finished reloading, Sith looked at the dense crowd of rebels eyeing him warily, their courage returning. He discarded his combat blade, scanned the area, and picked up a rather disloyal-looking chainsword from the corpses at his feet.
As if it were a signal, when Sith straightened up, the surrounding rebels lunged forward once more.
This time, Sith strode straight toward the rebels!
If the initial fighting could be described as a back-and-forth struggle,
then after this prolonged slaughter, with at least ten thousand rebels fallen outside, the surviving Sith soldiers had undergone a complete transformation.
For every enemy they killed, they gained the experience of a hundred kills, leading to a qualitative leap in their combat prowess.
Thus, they gradually shifted from being suppressed by the rebels to pushing them back.
In fact, the rate at which rebels emerged from the passageway was beginning to fall behind the speed at which Sith's soldiers cut them down.
As the kills piled up, the soldiers' combat effectiveness grew increasingly exaggerated, to the point where it almost felt like they were grinding for experience.
Sith was busy serving the Emperor on this pile of rebel corpses, paying little attention to his surroundings.
Meanwhile, the rebel Commander at the entrance, his face muscles rigid and eyes bloodshot with rage, glared furiously at the Imperial Army that had suddenly appeared outside.
Especially at the mountain of corpses piled at Sith's feet, forcing advancing rebels to climb uphill just to attack!
Watching rebel bodies continuously tumble down the pile, the rebel Commander, like a desperate gambler, pointed at Sith and his soldiers and roared at his equally terrified officers:
'Are they even human anymore?!'
The Commander's frustration was shared by his officers. While his words were an outburst, they held a grain of truth.
After all, even the Astra Militarum couldn't hold back tens of thousands of rebels with less than two thousand men.
It wasn't that he only had tens of thousands of troops; rather, tens of thousands had been thrown into the fray since the gate opened.
If not for the rebels at the rear being unaware of the slaughter outside and some heretical zealotry keeping them going, such carnage would have shattered their morale long ago.
Yes, carnage!
That was the only word the rebel Commander could think of as he watched the scene unfold.
'Maybe... we should retreat for now?'
'Yes, yes! Let's fall back, regroup, and bring in some heavy weapons!'
Several rebel officers hesitantly suggested. The Commander's eyes widened, the furious red veins in them seeming to glow brighter.
He raised his hand and shot the officer who suggested retreat. Amidst the terrified silence of those around him, the Commander's face showed only the madness of a gambler refusing to leave the table.
'Keep sending them in! I refuse to believe they can grow stronger with every kill!!!'
...
The sky gradually darkened.
Sith wrenched his chainsword free and kicked a rebel in noticeably finer attire down the corpse mound.
His chest heaved like bellows as he leaned on the sword, gasping for breath.
The rebels in front were now frantically retreating into the Hive City. Even newly emerged rebels, seeing their Commander slain by a 'demonic human' atop the corpse mountain, followed in terrified retreat.
Only Bruno, his eyes bloodshot with battle fury, kept firing his long-empty machine gun at the fleeing rebels.
Each click of the empty trigger, though producing no barrage, still sent shivers of terror through the retreating enemy.
Sith glanced around, confirmed the rebels wouldn't be returning soon, finally tossed the chainsword aside, and slumped onto the pile of corpses.
His weary gaze swept over his remaining forces; their numbers had significantly dwindled since before the gate opened.
The survivors, once they confirmed the temporary lull, collapsed onto the ground regardless of the gore. Apart from their heaving chests, their blood-soaked forms were indistinguishable from the surrounding dead.
No one spoke. Under the darkening sky, only the sound of ragged breathing filled the air.
Only when night fully fell, the world plunged into darkness by cloud cover, and the icy night wind began to wail, did a loud stomach growl abruptly shatter the silence.
Sith jerked upright from the corpse pile, looking toward his foul-mouthed adjutant, Bruno. The hoped-for answer didn't come; instead, Sith's frown deepened.
Because that hungry growl had come from Bruno.
'We've been out of rations for over a day,'
Bruno said, knowing Sith was about to ask about supplies.
Hearing this, Sith looked back at the distant land and the empty, pitch-black sky, immediately dismissing any hope of a supply drop from command.
The surviving veterans all looked at Sith. No matter how strong their combat prowess, they still needed to eat.
Some had even begun eyeing the rebel corpses.
Seeing this, Sith's expression turned fierce:
'No cannibalism!'
The soldiers' hearts skipped a beat, and they quickly averted their eyes.
It wasn't that Sith insisted on humanity in this grim reality. After all, corpse starch was an Imperial staple, and many had to queue for it.
But who the hell knew if these rebels carried Genestealers or some small 'blessing' from Father Nurgle?
Sith had no desire to join Horus's rebellion after a meal, or suddenly start thinking the Emperor should have four arms!
After this battle, no one dared show Sith the slightest disrespect. Faced with the mountain of corpses at his feet, even Bruno instantly rediscovered his long-lost manners.
So if Sith forbade eating, everyone put the idea out of their minds.
But the soldiers' hunger didn't vanish just because Sith forbade it. As they recovered, more hungry growls echoed.
Sighing, Sith thought for a moment before his gaze turned toward the deep, dark Hive City.
'According to the map, the supply depot shouldn't require us to go too deep in.'
Sith looked at the passage entrance. Bruno glanced at it too, then raised his long-empty machine gun.
Seeing Bruno indicate they were out of ammo, Sith exhaled a white puff of air. He looked at his equally depleted sidearm, thought for a moment, and tossed it aside.
'The Hive City is narrow. Use rebel blades and axes.'
Sith ordered. The soldiers around him only paused briefly before discarding their battered rifles and scavenging various serviceable melee weapons from the rebel dead.
Moments later, as the armed group assembled at the entrance, Sith took one look and froze.
Already lacking armor, their clothing was tattered from continuous fighting.
Now, a group of burly men stood bare-chested, soaked in blood, wielding exaggerated close-combat weapons like chainswords and great axes.
Especially Bruno, who, without his machine gun, had transformed into a dual-axe-wielding berserker, standing menacingly at the front.
If Sith didn't know better, an outsider would think they were a bunch of Khorne cultists who had popped up from nowhere.
Perhaps it was due to the sheer amount of killing earlier, but when the soldiers switched to melee weapons, what Sith saw next left him utterly stunned.
He looked down at his own hands gripping the chainsword, then at the veterans in front of him who were starting to glow, his face a mask of bewilderment:
'Why are we...'
'Glowing red?!'