"For the Emperor!"
Reinhardt's roar was like a war drum beating in the heart of every Helldiver. He charged ahead, his Chainsword carving a silver arc in the air.
The moment he slammed into the swarm, he ripped apart a leaping Hormagaunt and the Tyranid Warrior behind it in a single swing. Splashes of viscous, toxic green blood left mottled marks on his Power Armor.
Although he drove straight into the heart of the swarm, he was not blind. His battle-hardened eyes precisely located a sector of the defense that was dangerously thin and on the verge of collapse—a zone desperately in need of reinforcement. Reinhardt's judgment was sound; their arrival was an instant shot of adrenaline for the line.
Pyro, his fifty players, and the members of the Leman Russ crews followed close behind. Under Reinhardt's lead, their weapons surged like a tide into the waves of Tyranids.
The battlefield instantly grew bloodier and more chaotic. Plasma, laser beams and bolter rounds flew wildly, met by the sweeping claws and bone scythes of the xenos.
Despite the hellish scene, the players' unique frenzy drove them to pull their triggers relentlessly. Gunfire, explosions, the hissing of the aliens, and the shouts of men mingled together, forming a symphony of death.
Pyro's lasgun, after a series of short, accurate bursts, began to charge. The muzzle glowed with a blinding orange-red light.
He locked onto a large, heavily armored Tyranid Warrior and violently squeezed the trigger. A high-energy laser beam screamed out, striking the Gaunt precisely in the head.
"Boom!"
With a muffled detonation, the creature's skull instantly disintegrated, spraying foul-smelling gray matter and bone fragments everywhere. The terrifying xenos twitched under its own momentum before collapsing heavily. However, Pyro's lasgun was now smoking white, the casing scalding hot—it had been severely overloaded.
He quickly ejected the smoking power pack, reaching for a fresh magazine. Just then, a strong sense of danger slammed into him!
"Hiss—!"
An incredibly swift black shadow, reeking of gore, burst out of the side fog! It was a Lictor, its razor-sharp claws slicing through the air straight for Pyro's throat.
Pyro, rich in death experience, reacted purely on instinct. He snapped backward, simultaneously rolling sideways, narrowly avoiding the Lictor's first fatal strike. The Lictor's sharp claw tips scraped past his helmet, sending a cold shiver down his spine.
The Lictor was lightning fast. Missing its first strike, it immediately adjusted its posture, preparing a second pounce. In that critical moment, a figure had already charged in like a heavy truck.
"Dakka! Dakka! Dakka!"
Reinhardt raised the bolter in his left hand while running, spitting fire. A precise stream of bolter rounds sprayed toward the Lictor. Though the Lictor reacted swiftly, twisting its body to avoid the most fatal strikes, several explosive rounds grazed its chitin, tearing away sections of its exoskeleton and drawing green blood, causing a momentary stagger.
Reinhardt gave it no reprieve. Taking advantage of the Lictor's brief imbalance, he surged forward, his thick Power Armor arm clamping onto the Lictor's pouncing forelimb like an iron vise. The previously ferocious Lictor was instantly immobilized by the Space Marine's immense strength!
The Lictor shrieked in rage, attempting to counter-attack with its other claw, but Reinhardt was quicker. He twisted sharply, swinging the Lictor's body completely around and slamming it into the ground.
"Thud!"
The impact between hard chitin and the ground was a sickening thud. The Lictor spasmed in pain. Reinhardt allowed it no time to recover. He leaned down, his other hand gripping the Lictor's body, pinning it firmly to the earth.
In barely ten seconds of back-and-forth, the terrifying xenos—a creature capable of ripping apart an Imperial Guard line—was completely subdued by the Space Marine, unable to move. Reinhardt's cold eyes stared down at the struggling Lictor, his voice low: "You are not the first Lictor I have slain."
He prepared to exert his strength, intending to snap the alien's neck and end its life.
However, in that exact instant, a slightly urgent voice piped up from nearby: "Hold your fire, man!"
Pyro instinctively turned to see an empty-handed Helldiver player running up, panting heavily. The name ID floating above his head was unmistakable: [ONEPUNCH].
"You're the guy trying the bare-knuckle Lictor challenge?" Pyro asked, bewildered.
"Yes, yes, yes! That fatass Caseoh can do it, I'm a body builder, it will be a walk in the park for me." The player nodded vigorously, his face a mixture of pleading and excitement. "So, can you please let me have this one? I've already died over thirty times, but failure is the mother of success, and I think I can win this time..."
Before he could finish, a close-range bolter blast deafened them.
"Boom!"
The Lictor's head instantly exploded, splattering foul brain matter and bone shards mixed with green blood everywhere. But the fatal shot did not stop Reinhardt. His hand, still gripping the Lictor's body, yanked hard, tearing the now bloody and ragged head completely from its neck.
He tossed the mutilated Lictor head aside and turned to look at Pyro and ONEPUNCH: "We are at war, compose yourselves!"
Pyro nervously rubbed his helmet, holding his newly-reloaded lasgun, while ONEPUNCH stared at the Lictor corpse on the ground with a look of devastation, as if he had just missed out on a billion-credit prize.
"Move out!" Reinhardt said no more. He swung his Chainsword once more and charged into a fresh wave of the swarm.
The Helldivers quickly followed, focusing their fire into the gap he had carved. The roar of the bolters and the hiss of the lasguns intertwined, and the Tyranid assault was violently checked.
Every swing of Reinhardt's Chainsword took several alien lives, clearing a path for the players behind him.
The players proved their worth, too: the heavy weapons operators poured grenades deep into the swarm, shattering the Tyranid Warrior formations, while the light weapons users precisely targeted the smaller Tyranid organisms attempting to flank the Astartes.
Led by Reinhardt, this fresh force of Space Marines and Helldivers acted like a sharp wedge, forcefully splitting the Tyranid wave in two. They pushed forward step by step, bodies piling up, and putrid blood soaking the scorched earth.
Finally, after sustaining some losses, they reached a defensive line composed of the wreckage of several Leman Russ and Chimera transports—a critical position that had been recently lost.
"Secure cover! Suppressive fire!" Reinhardt ordered. The players instantly dispersed, quickly taking advantageous positions behind the tank ruins.
The fire net of lasguns and grenade launchers was re-established, pinning the attempting counter-attack outside the defense line.
In that moment, they had successfully reclaimed the forward position, winning a precious moment of respite in that slaughterhouse of a battlefield.
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This chapter has better animation than season 3...