"Where did you get this?" Zeke shook the jar of honey, dipped his finger in for a dab, and tasted it.
It was exactly that taste—sweet and silky.
"I got it from a..." Bela's sentence was cut short by a burst of static from the radio.
"Something's coming out of the gate! It's Heldrakes—a whole flock of them! Quick, angle the flak cannons up!"
Zeke heard command after command blaring from a nearby soldier's radio.
He looked toward Kasr Kraf.
There were three Heldrakes: two smaller ones trailing behind a clearly massive alpha leader.
They sped out from the upper section of the colossal Nether Portal, crossing Mariatus and arriving at Cadia.
"Soldier, weren't you ordered to strictly guard the portal?"
"The portal is too massive; the airspace is difficult to secure. The Adeptus Mechanicus personnel are already scrambling to install defensive structures..."
"Excuses."
Zeke raised his spyglass and looked towards Kasr Kraf.
The three Heldrakes, having just crossed the Nether Portal, were startled by the sudden change in environment.
For a moment, they hovered above the portal, unsure of what to do.
Only when they saw the dense clusters of humans within the bastion and the gun barrels trained upon them did they react.
They immediately flapped their wings to ascend, unleashing fire from the Hades Autocannons in their maws in retaliation.
Three Heldrakes against the entire garrison of Kasr Kraf were simply outmatched.
The anti-aircraft guns locked onto the lead drake and began spewing lead.
The leader executed a barrel roll to accelerate and evade, leaving the flak fire to strike the two smaller ones beside it.
Specialized armor-piercing rounds hammered against the Heldrakes' iron bodies, tearing through their metallic carapaces.
After a single volley, the two smaller Heldrakes disintegrated in mid-air, turning into two balls of burning wreckage that crashed onto the open ground outside the bastion.
"Concentrate fire! Take out the last one!"
More anti-aircraft firepower shifted toward the lead drake.
Bolter rounds, las-beams, and flak shells filled the air.
Realizing the disparity in strength, the lead Heldrake attempted to flee.
Its daemon engine roared, and the thrusters on its tail wings erupted with white-hot flames.
With a burst of speed, the Heldrake fled in the direction opposite to Kasr Kraf.
Armor-piercing shells chased its retreat, shattering half of one wing.
The lead Heldrake wobbled in the air but, hugging the ground, managed to escape.
–
Kasr Kraf was already in a state of full combat readiness, so they responded timely to the three sudden intruders, sustaining minimal damage.
Over the radio, an officer sternly ordered the immediate strengthening of the Nether Portal's defenses to prevent any more creatures from Mariatus from using it to raid the bastion.
The Nether Portal connected Cadia and Mariatus, establishing a supply line between the two planets, but simultaneously offering a fast lane straight to Cadia's heart. Without reinforced precautions, it could easily be exploited by the enemy.
Through his spyglass, Zeke watched the receding figure of the Heldrake.
The last time he had fought such creatures, he had used a curtain of lava to melt them down, but all the loot drops had rolled into the lava. He still didn't know if they dropped anything good.
This Heldrake looked far more impressive than the two smaller ones—definitely a mini-boss.
Zeke pulled out an Ender Pearl, deciding to see if he could catch up and kill it.
Throwing it by hand at this distance was unrealistic. Zeke went to the perimeter of the camp, where a soldier was operating a mortar.
The weapon in question was an Accatran-pattern mortar.
This type was known for being easily modified; if used correctly, you could stuff a propane tank inside and fire it as a shell.
After a brief exchange with the soldier, Zeke handed over the Ender Pearl.
The soldier first loaded a standard shell into the mortar, then placed the Ender Pearl in after it.
After some visual calibration and estimation, he aimed for the path the Heldrake was taking.
The soldier handed the control unit to Zeke. Following the direction the soldier pointed, Zeke pressed the red firing button.
The mortar recoiled, and the muzzle flashed.
The Ender Pearl traced a high parabolic arc, falling toward the direction of the fleeing Heldrake.
The soldier's aim was precise; visually, it looked like the Ender Pearl would land not far from the target.
When I have time, I must commission Magos Klein to build me a specialized Ender Pearl Launcher, Zeke thought to himself.
He whipped out potions of Swiftness and Strength, and ate an Enchanted Golden Apple—a silky smooth combo.
He had to take out the Heldrake while it was hugging the ground; otherwise, if it got alerted and took to the skies, hunting it down would become significantly more difficult.
The Heldrake was dragging its frame along, fleeing close to the earth.
The shattered half-wing made its flight extremely unstable.
Prolonged high-altitude flight risked structural disintegration, so it was forced to choose this humiliating, ground style of movement.
As it skimmed over a relatively flat gravel beach, the Ender Pearl smashed into the ground fifty meters away from it.
The distance was a bit off. Zeke teleported in, landing and immediately sprinting toward the Heldrake.
The Heldrake, having just had its wing smashed, originally wanted to fly up to avoid combat, but then it saw a puny human running toward it.
Where did this bug come from?
Its jaws parted, revealing the gun barrel within.
Its mouth had been modified; unlike the Hades Autocannons of the two smaller ones, this was a modified Baleflamer.
The balefire—an interweaving of dark green and orange red—washed over Zeke in a deluge.
The stones at his feet cracked and popped with the sound of thermal shock, splitting down the middle.
Balefire was a flame capable of igniting both flesh and soul, a nightmare that had claimed many Imperial tanks.
Zeke, fearless, charged straight into the blaze. He was instantly swallowed by the surging flames, vanishing from sight.
The fire was so violent that the sheer concussive force of its eruption was enough to blow a mortal away.
To any distant observer, Zeke, who dared to face the Heldrake head-on, must have been reduced to ash in the blink of an eye.
It is over. Another arrogant insect. This judgment flashed through the Heldrake's chaotic logic circuits.
Just as the Heldrake prepared to cease its stream of fire, an arm reached out from the inferno, completely unharmed, gripping a Harlequin's Kiss.
"All that flashy nonsense... go talk to my Fire Resistance."
In a panic, the Heldrake tried to flap its wings and soar, desperate to put distance between itself and Zeke.
But the flank torn apart by the flak cannons destroyed its balance.
That fatal sluggishness gave Zeke his final window of opportunity.
"Gotcha."