The battle at Kotheran Port was extremely intense.
The Iron Warriors' defensive line kept contracting under the berserk charge of the World Eaters, only to be stabilized again through tight tactical coordination.
Amidst the roar of explosions and chainsaws, the curses exchanged by both sides were even more piercing than the gunfire.
There was no helping it—though the Iron Warriors of the main universe weren't as "miserable" as those in the Warhammer 40k universe, they were indeed somewhat "inconspicuous" compared to other legions.
The Ultramarines had great numbers, the Blood Angels were practically all "saints," and the Sons of Humanity (Emperor's Children) looked flawless in appearance. By contrast, the Iron Warriors appeared rather ordinary.
They were said to excel at siege warfare, but other legions could do that too. They were skilled in defense, but then the annoyingly talkative Imperial Fists were already known for that.
This time, they had finally received an "expedition" order from the Emperor, giving them a chance to vent their wrath on xenos and heretics and gain merit through the Unification Wars. Who would've thought the World Eaters would be so damn foul-mouthed too?
Moreover, the World Eaters were perpetually in a state of rage and slaughter, and as the battle and casualties mounted, the "gunpowder" between them and the Iron Warriors grew even thicker.
On the eastern side of the battlefield, a fireteam of three surviving Helljumpers was retreating in a triangular formation.
Spiked rounds fired from Gauss rifles sliced through the smoke, striking the power armor of the World Eaters and throwing up a cascade of sparks and dents.
Each bullet burst into a flash of light upon impact, but only left charred scorch marks on the blasphemous armor.
"Keep the suppressive fire up! Aim for the joints!"
One paratrooper shouted over the comms.
"Heh heh... interesting little things."
The World Eater being focused fired chuckled deeply, as foul exhaust burst from his power pack.
Then the monster—over two and a half meters tall—charged forward with unbelievable speed, chainsaw axe sweeping across with a deadly whirr.
WHIRR—CRACK—!
The leading paratrooper barely raised his weapon to block, relying on sharp instincts and anticipation, but the next second, his body was still cleaved in half at the waist.
SPLURT—!!
The high-temperature teeth seared the wound, preventing even the blood from spurting out.
The remaining two Helljumpers hadn't even had time to retreat before the World Eater closed in like a phantom.
His left hand easily punched through the first paratrooper's chest and tore out the still-beating heart; his right hand brought the chainsaw axe down from above, cleaving the second from right shoulder to left hip.
Viscera and blood splashed across the charred ground, giving rise to a mist of gore.
"Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!"
The World Eater raised the dripping heart high, ready to perform a blasphemous sacrificial rite.
But at that moment—
"The Covenant stands eternal!"
Over a dozen Sangheili veterans charged from the flank.
Their steel-gray armor gleamed in the firelight, and the energy weapons in their hands carved deadly arcs.
These elite warriors had just finished dispatching nearby Bloodhounds and Bloodletters and were hurrying to support the heavily damaged Helljumper platoon, only to arrive just in time to witness the last three members perish.
Furious, the veterans launched an immediate assault with their weapons.
?
The World Eater, seeing the Sangheili close in, didn't dodge. He simply stood there as the lead elite drove a dual-blade energy sword through his shoulder plate.
"Hahaha! Now that's more like it!"
The World Eater laughed madly as eerie blood mist seeped from the seams of his armor.
WHIRR—!!
He crushed the heart in his hand and clashed with three simultaneous energy sword strikes, creating a blinding sparkstorm.
The Sangheili exhibited astonishing combat prowess.
Five focused on the attack, seven provided cover, and their constantly shifting formation operated like a precise killing machine.
Each swing of the energy swords left ghostly blue trails in the air. Veterans wielding energy spears or power lances specifically targeted the armor joints of the World Eater.
Though immensely strong, under this coordinated onslaught, the World Eater began to show signs of fatigue for the first time.
"Die!"
The berserker roared, and the blood vessel-like patterns on his power armor lit up in crimson. His speed suddenly surged, and his chainsaw axe slashed at the nearest Sangheili with blinding speed.
"For the Empire!! For my Lord!!"
The senior Sangheili veteran didn't dodge, instead charging straight in.
His energy sword clashed with the chainsaw axe, and in the resulting energy surge, he caught the spinning teeth with his bare left hand.
WHIRR~SIZZLE—!!
Flesh was shredded in an instant, but he succeeded in creating an opening for his comrades.
"Now!"
One veteran seized the moment, thrusting his energy spear like lightning and piercing the World Eater's chest cavity.
Simultaneously, three others launched suicide charges from different angles.
One clung to the World Eater's left leg, allowing himself to be torn open from behind;
Another locked down the axe-wielding right arm, refusing to let go even as his internal organs were pulverized;
The last leapt forward with an energy sword, aiming straight at the foe's helmet in a decapitation attempt.
"Glory is my life!"
The dying senior veteran used his final strength to plunge his energy sword into a crack in the World Eater's power armor chest, and the rest of the veterans swarmed the momentarily restrained foe.
Superheated plasma poured through the wounds and armor gaps, and thunderous rumbles echoed from within the World Eater.
When the monster finally collapsed, four of the attacking Sangheili were dead, and the rest were all injured.
Seeing this, the surviving veterans dropped to one knee, chanting in the ancient Sangheili tongue to their "Master"—Human Emperor Samuel Young—for the fallen.
All around them, the battle raged on, but in this moment, these warriors from different worlds and universes wrote a heroic war song of "For Humanity" and "For the Empire" with their very lives.
The fighting grew hotter, like molten steel.
At the central plaza of the port, the gray phalanx of Iron Warriors clashed again and again with the crimson tide of the World Eaters. Each clash threw up waves of blood and fire.
Fifty Iron Warriors formed a tight tactical array and were locked in a bloody tug-of-war with an equal number of World Eaters.
"Maintain formation! Flank from the left!"
The platoon leader's voice roared in the encrypted comms.
His helmet screen flashed with IFF signals, and the minimap showed five red dots had broken formation and pushed too far forward.
It was a perfect opportunity.
A tactical squad immediately moved to execute a crossfire suppression.
BANG BANG BANG!
Ri~WHOOO—!
Heavy bolters, plasma cannons, and standard bolters roared to life, their thunder shattering the glass of surrounding ruined buildings. The blue beams of the plasma cannon seared paths through the air.
This death web precisely enveloped the five overextended World Eaters. Bolter shells punched through their armor, detonating with muffled booms, interwoven with the hiss of plasma vaporizing flesh.
Two of them, blessed berserkers, withstood dozens of bolter shots. Twisted power armor leaked strange blood mist, but the Iron Warriors continued their cold, relentless barrage.
After the second volley, the pair finally collapsed, their corpses riddled with gaping wounds the size of soup bowls, like prey torn apart by a massive beast.
But then, the balance of battle was shattered in an instant.
"Blood for the Blood God!"
With a deafening war cry, a crimson figure crashed into the Iron Warriors' line like a cannonball.
This World Eater was shrouded in boiling blood mist, and dozens of skulls embedded in his power armor shrieked horribly.
The chainsaw axe he held—twice the size of a regular one—was wrapped in chaotic warp flame, each swing leaving a blood-red trail in the air.
The first sweep cleaved through three Iron Warriors, their Titan-class power armor and bodies sliced cleanly in half. Their energy shields shattered on contact, and their adamantium armor was torn like paper.
Broken bodies flew, and arcs of blood painted the air.
"Blessed one! It's one of their champions!"
Urgent warnings filled the comms.
This monster brought a storm of carnage to the battlefield.
The Helljumpers' spiked rounds were dodged with twisted agility, glancing harmlessly off his armor; five Sangheili veterans struck at once, but their proud energy swords were shattered by a single sweep.
The line began to falter, and the Iron Warriors were forced to contract their formation.
At that critical moment—
"Arrogant fool!"
A silver-gray "lightning bolt" struck from the flank.
The World Eaters had a champion—so did this side.
A company champion equipped with a Thanatos-class Terminator suit roared in. The power hammer in his hand crashed down with immense force, even igniting holy golden flames mid-swing.
CLANG—!
The deafening impact echoed across the battlefield.
The World Eater champion hastily raised his axe to block, but the hammer's power exceeded imagination.
The chainsaw axe shattered, bent and deformed. The hammer kept going, crushing the left shoulder and caving in half his torso.
Terrifyingly, even in such a state, the monster still counterattacked.
His maimed left arm suddenly grew like a living thing, bones piercing through skin to form jagged spikes, which stabbed at the champion's chest at an impossible angle.
The vile strike pierced the Terminator's energy shield and embedded deep in his chestplate.
"You too shall be an offering..."
A layered, distorted voice echoed from the twisted helmet.
But the company champion made no sound of pain.
Calm and swift, he released the hammer, grabbed the bone spike with armored hands, and snapped it clean.
BOOM—!
He then headbutted the enemy full-force, adamantium helmet clashing with corrupted armor in a blaze of sparks.
As the monster staggered back, the champion raised his dual-linked bolter mounted on his left arm and pressed it to the World Eater's chin.
BANG BANG BANG—!
The successive shots exploded the champion's head like a ripe watermelon, splattering red and white matter across the Terminator's armor.
The headless corpse swayed, then collapsed with a crash.
The skulls embedded in the armor let out a final scream, then turned to ash.
As the battle reached a fever pitch, the gloomy skies over Fral were torn apart by dazzling "firelights" and "contrails."
Drop pods fell like a meteor shower, blue trails cutting through the clouds, announcing the arrival of the main force.
The descending transport fleet's engines left long trails, and the vehicles slung under their bellies were dropped with precision onto key battle zones.
BOOM—!
Dozens of armored personnel carriers smashed through flaming barricades, their heavy treads grinding the World Eaters' spiked traps into scrap.
Before the side and rear doors fully opened, fully armed auxiliaries, clones, and Terminators were already leaping out.
Behind them, a wave of main battle tanks formed up in battle formation, their turret-mounted cannons spewing fire.
But the real game-changer was the god-machine that descended from orbit—
The Titan Mech.
Standing a hundred meters tall, this sacred machine shook the ground with each step. Chinese scripture was engraved on its leg armor, still smoldering from friction.
The Titan's shoulder-mounted twin-linked hardlight turbines began to spin, their energy distorting the surrounding air.
Ri~—KABOOM—!!!
Beams of hardlight, over five meters in diameter, erupted from the turrets, vaporizing an entire World Eater heavy infantry unit three blocks away.
The explosion's shockwave toppled debris in a hundred-meter radius. Even the clouds were ripped open by the sheer force.
With four Mammoth-class mobile fortresses advancing in support, and such overwhelming firepower, the World Eaters began a full retreat. Many cowards even abandoned their comrades and fled deeper into the city.
At this moment;
A new order came through in Kasim's tactical helmet: "Tactical squad, proceed immediately to the designated warehouse sector. Repeat, proceed immediately. Intelligence indicates a large number of civilian survivors in that area."
Having been treated by an Apothecary, Kasim stood up. His thigh wound had scabbed over, even starting to grow new flesh. The gap in his armor had been sealed with medical foam.
Even the rookie whose right shoulder had been almost destroyed was now able to hold his bolter again—though his accuracy was currently only at 67% of normal.
"Copy that."
Kasim replied over the comms, then flexed the joints of his repaired power armor. The servos hummed smoothly.
He turned to his ready squad and said, "Squad regroup. Work with the Helljumpers and Sangheili veterans. We need to reach the target zone in five minutes."
Twelve Helljumpers had already formed ranks. Five Sangheili were inspecting their melee weapons.
As this mixed squad moved toward the warehouse district, Anxi Seikurt, hiding in an alleyway on its outskirts, was staring in astonishment at the giants clashing outside—those World Eaters and Iron Warriors.
To her, the battle between these titans was like a legendary "Battle of the Gods."
ROAR—!
Just as she was frozen in awe, a Bloodhound, catching the scent of "terror," broke away from the alley's mouth and charged straight at her.
(End of Chapter)
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