Chapter 286: Fierce Battle
"Jackie, stop them!" Valerie's calm voice rang out.
In the next moment, the two dark red steel giants moved.
The Iron Guard piloted by Valerie took heavy steps at a speed synchronized with her neural reactions. The Power Fist, carrying a low hum, accurately smashed toward another Bloodletter trying to outflank them.
The demon raised its burning weapon to block, but was blasted away, person and weapon together, by the Iron Guard's immense strength. It crashed into the metal wall in the distance, emitting a dull thud.
The Iron Guard piloted by Jackie was slightly clunkier, but relying on the machine's powerful performance, it successfully used its attached melee ram to block the third Bloodletter's pounce on the remaining Tempestus Scions.
The collision of metal and brass erupted in dazzling sparks.
(Inside the Iron Guard cockpit)
"Maine!" Valerie's voice rang out in the encrypted channel. Her Iron Guard was locked in a perilous struggle with the Bloodletter, which had gone berserk after being repelled. Every collision between the demon's burning weapon and the Iron Guard's Power Fist erupted in blinding sparks and the sharp screech of twisting metal.
Maine instantly understood her intent—someone needed to break the deadlock.
"Rebecca, suppressing fire! Dorio, Pilar, with me, support the Iron Guards! Falco, Mower, keep an eye on that sorcerer, don't let him pull any tricks!" He issued orders rapidly, his voice steady, trying to maintain order amidst the chaos.
The Plasma Cannon on Rebecca's shoulder emitted a low hum as it charged, but the distance between friend and foe was too close; she dared not risk a volley.
"So in the way!" She spat, quickly switching to the lasgun she carried as a sidearm.
Searing beams of light, like precise scalpels, struck the Bloodletter's head, joints, and other critical areas.
Although unable to penetrate its tough skin blessed by Warp power, the continuous burning and impact effectively disrupted its balance and attack rhythm, creating precious breathing room and counterattack space for Valerie's Iron Guard.
On the other side, Dorio let out a low roar like a lioness. Her biochemically enhanced muscles tensed instantly, and she pushed off the ground, charging like a fired cannonball toward the other Bloodletter deadlocked with Jackie's Iron Guard.
Without any flashy moves, a straight punch infused with all her strength and carrying a faint whistle of tearing air smashed ruthlessly into the demon's knotted back!
"Bang!"
The instant her knuckles made contact, the built-in Volkite core was triggered. A small but lethal burst of energy erupted at the point of impact.
The Bloodletter let out a hiss mixed with pain and anger, stumbling forward, leaving a charred patch on its back with bizarre, inextinguishable flames clinging to it.
Just as this Bloodletter lost its balance due to attacks from front and back, exposing a vulnerability on the side of its neck, Maine's already raised Volkite Charger steadily locked onto the target.
Chooom—!
That low, unique spraying sound rang out again. The invisible thermal ray crossed the space and hit precisely.
The Bloodletter's body stiffened abruptly, and then violent flames that one could not look directly at burst from within!
It let out a shrill, pitch-shifting howl, frantically clawing at its burning body, as if trying to dig the flames out from within. But the incineration process, starting at the molecular level, was irreversible.
In just a few seconds, this ferocious demon turned into a pile of violently twitching, ultimately collapsing charred remains before everyone's eyes, leaving only a lingering stench of sulfur.
The first demon was successfully killed!
The death of their companion thoroughly enraged the remaining two Bloodletters.
The malicious flames burning in their eyes almost burst out. Their attack methods became even more frenzied and heedless of themselves.
The one entangled with the Imperial Fists Astartes completely abandoned defense. Its burning greatsword slashed wildly in a mutually assured destruction posture, forcing the Astartes to temporarily avoid the brunt of the attack. Sparks from his chainsword blocks flew like a waterfall.
The other one, wrestling with Jackie's Iron Guard, tried to rely on pure brute strength to push the Iron Guard down, its cloven hooves gouging deep marks into the metal floor.
Inquisitor Karras endured the discomfort, executing precise shots with his bolt pistol to try and share the pressure on the Astartes, while loudly chanting ancient, power-infused exorcism litanies.
An invisible, reassuring force field spread out from him as the center, like a warm sun melting snow, suppressing to a certain extent the suffocating Warp miasma surrounding the Bloodletters and weakening their fierce flames.
Within the entire pre-processing area, the roar of the chainsword, the boom of bolters, the howls of demons, the clash of weapons, the holy words of exorcism, and the noise of twisting metal wove into a furious symphony.
And that Chaos Sorcerer keenly seized the tiny gap when the Astartes was slightly pushed back and his attention was drawn by the frenzied demon. Dragging his semi-mutated body like a crippled vulture, he desperately lunged toward that torn ventilation duct entrance—his last path to survival.
Just as his fingertips were about to touch the cold metal of the duct's edge!
Bang!
A steady bolter shot.
Not from the Inquisitor, but from that Imperial Fists Astartes!
While parrying a heavy slash from the Bloodletter, relying on extraordinary combat instincts and marksmanship, he fired a precise bolter round.
The bullet was not aimed directly at the sorcerer, but at the ground a hair's breadth in front of him!
Although the violent explosion and flying shrapnel didn't hit the sorcerer directly, the shockwave and debris successfully knocked him back, cutting off his last hope of escape.
A few sharp metal fragments even slashed bloody gashes on his mutated limbs and intact cheek, oozing foul blood and some disgusting tissue fluid.
His retreat was completely severed! Before him stood the Astartes, an insurmountable mountain; behind him were the fiercely glaring Maine squad and the recovering Inquisitor.
The half of the Chaos Sorcerer's face that still retained human form twisted with extreme anger, despair, and pain, while the writhing flesh on the other half emitted an ear-piercing, inhuman shriek, filled with hatred and profanity towards the real universe.
"You... forced me!" he roared in a tone mixing human language and demonic whispers, his voice hoarse and broken. "Since I cannot offer this great gift to the Lord, I will use your souls and flesh to appease my wrath! You... will all die!"
He abandoned all fantasies of escape, spun around abruptly, and poured all his madness and accumulated psychic energy like a bursting flood toward Maine's squad and the Inquisitor who had just struggled to stand up!
He judged these "mortals" to be an easier breakthrough point and could maximally distract that powerful Astartes.
His completely mutated, chitin-covered giant claw raised abruptly, dangerous pink-purple electrical arcs dancing on the fingertips, aimed at Inquisitor Karras!
"Heretic! Die!" The Inquisitor forced himself to raise his relic-inlaid power sword, trying to block and launch a counterattack.
But the Chaos Sorcerer's psychic lightning came too fast and too fierce! A bolt of lightning thick as an arm, containing destructive energy, burst forth instantly, tearing through the air with a crackling boom like a thousand screaming birds, striking straight at the Inquisitor!
The lightning accurately hit the blade of the power sword!
Blinding light instantly swallowed the Inquisitor's figure. The massive energy overload not only instantly collapsed the power sword's force field but also penetrated the Inquisitor's armor.
He was blasted away like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily against the hard metal wall behind him with a muffled thud. Electrical arcs ran wildly across the surface of his power armor. He struggled for a moment, then slid weakly to the ground, temporarily losing consciousness.
(End of Chapter)