Rogue Trader Blasts Space Marines!

"Draw your chainswords! Inject the stimms! For the Dynasty, for the God-Emperor! Charge!"

Seeing that these Astartes were not invincible after all, everyone found their courage again.

The stimms placed a heavy burden on the mind. Damon had warned everyone to use them only as a last resort, and now was clearly that time.

As the stimms took effect, the Rangers forgot their fear. Their strength and speed surged once more as they clashed into the enemy.

The combat suits gave these Rangers an overwhelming advantage against ordinary Chaos cultists. Only when facing the Word Bearers and the three Enchanted Warriors did they seem somewhat powerless.

But even then, they weren't without results. Relying on their Adamantium combat suits, the Rangers traded wounds for wounds, lives for lives, hacking away at the traitors.

Some Firebats even charged the Word Bearers in a suicidal frenzy, clutching Melta Grenades. Before the Word Bearers could understand what these Firebats were, they detonated the grenades and ignited the plasma energy tanks on their backs. Flames comparable to melta fire consumed both the Firebat and a Word Bearer entirely.

The Word Bearers grew increasingly unsettled as the fight dragged on. Had they traveled through time in the Warp? Were the Empire's mortal troops already like this?

Ian saw the Enchanted Warrior charging at him and tried to cast another psychic spell, but the Khorne-Enchanted Warrior was already upon him. The full-force blow didn't shatter Ian's shield outright, but it sent him crashing into the nearby rubble.

A massive cloud of dust rose, and Ian didn't get back up.

Without Ian's suppression, the Enchanted Warriors grew even more reckless. Loyalist blood spilled across Pilgrim Square, splattering onto the God-Emperor's Holy Icon as if it wept tears of blood.

Gao Yi watched the battle unfold under the protection of Damon and Veil.

"How come the Astartes don't seem that fast? Shouldn't an Enchanted Warrior be stronger after a demon takes control of its body? Why do they look just average to me?"

At that moment, the battlefield hadn't slowed down in Gao Yi's eyes, but he realized he could effortlessly track every move the traitors made.

Gao Yi seemed to understand something. With the battle so intense, he hadn't had time to check his Psionic Crystal's changes.

When he looked, he found his balance had reached 250,000.

This massive sum had doubled the size of his Warp projection.

And as this vast Warp energy was purified, the power fed back into his physical body was astonishing.

Gao Yi's physical strength might now have surpassed his own imagination.

The Enchanted Warrior sensed Gao Yi's gaze. The dismissive look only fueled its rage. It had intended to finish off Ian, but now it felt it had found a more worthy skull.

The unique combat suit, and the tense expressions on Damon and Veil's faces.

"Could he be that Rogue Trader? If I take his skull, the Blood God will surely favor me more!"

The Enchanted Warrior changed targets, abandoning Ian and charging straight at Gao Yi.

"Captain! Run! He's locked onto us! I'll cover you!"

Veil quickly shielded Gao Yi and urged him to flee. Even knowing he was no match for an Astartes, he was ready to fight to the death. Damon's face turned grim as he watched the Enchanted Warrior approach—he had never seen such a bizarre humanoid fighter.

Nearby loyalists noticed the danger and rushed to help.

"Run?! Where to? Charge with me and take him down!"

"What are you saying? That's impossible!" Veil thought Gao Yi was talking nonsense.

But before he could stop him, Gao Yi shot forward at an unbelievable speed.

"So fast!"

Even the Enchanted Warrior was startled by Gao Yi's speed, but his charge only excited the Khorne demon more.

"Weak mortal! I admire your courage! Fight! Thrill me!"

Compared to easily obtained skulls, the Chaos God Khorne preferred offerings won through pure combat.

"Slow... so slow..."

Once in combat mode, Gao Yi felt his senses sharpen further.

Both sides sprinted at full speed, closing the distance in an instant.

The Enchanted Warrior raised its claw and swung at Gao Yi with all its might.

Veil's eyes bulged as he watched.

"Captain!"

In his mind, there was no way Gao Yi could block that attack with a mortal body.

But to everyone's shock, Gao Yi was completely unharmed, while the Enchanted Warrior's claw flew high into the air...

Within the Empire, there were those who could defeat an Astartes in melee with a mortal body, but most of them could no longer be called purely human.

The Arch-Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus could do it. Powerful warriors enhanced with gene modifications and heavy implants, clad in Power Armor, could do it. Those blessed by the God-Emperor went without saying. But an ordinary human body had its limits.

Veil knew Gao Yi had only undergone basic gene enhancement—he didn't even have a single implant.

The Enchanted Warrior stared in disbelief at its missing arm. Its eyes barely caught Gao Yi's movement, but its body couldn't keep up.

"Is this thing even human?!"

What terrified the demon most was that it hadn't just lost an arm—it had lost part of its soul. It even felt its connection to the Word Bearer's body weakening the closer it got to Gao Yi.

Like a powerful signal jammer, it made the Enchanted Warrior's body clumsier by the second.

In the demon's eyes, Gao Yi's Warp projection appeared before it.

Countless tentacles were reaching for the demon's soul.

"No... you're not human. You're definitely not human!"

And Gao Yi, for the first time, truly understood the strength and combat capability of his current physical body. At this moment, he needed no technique—relying solely on the power and reaction speed of this body, he could finish off his opponent as long as the enemy had no other tricks up their sleeve.

Once Gao Yi had a clearer grasp of his own strength, his fighting style became even more unrestrained.

The Adamantium Combat Suit allowed Gao Yi to withstand the attacks of the Enchanted Warrior head-on.

And every time his strike landed on the Enchanted Warrior's body, the Enchanted Warrior felt as though a part of his soul was being torn away. Moreover, Gao Yi was weakening his connection to the Warp. The punch Gao Yi landed on his chest even shattered the Power Armour's plating outright.

"You... you're a Blank?!"

The Khorne daemon within the Enchanted Warrior grew terrified. He had originally believed that as long as he fought with all his might, even if he died, the Chaos God Khorne would allow him to be reborn in the Warp. But when the fear of utter annihilation loomed over him, the power Khorne had granted him began to slip away.

With one side waning and the other waxing, the Enchanted Warrior lost all hope of victory or escape.

Watching the Enchanted Warrior grow weaker and weaker, Gao Yi delivered his most lethal strike, cleaving his head clean off. The daemon's soul was utterly extinguished, and the Word Bearer's flesh lost all life.

Staring at the massive corpse lying on the ground, Veil snapped back to reality, realizing that all of this was real.

"Did... did we win?" Veil stood frozen in place.

The two sides had already exchanged dozens of blows, yet in Veil's perception, only two or three seconds had passed.

And yet, a Rogue Trader had taken down a fully daemon-possessed renegade Astartes in direct combat? This was enough to become a legend circulating throughout the Expansion Zone.

The remaining two Enchanted Warriors, seeing their strongest battle-brother slain by Gao Yi, couldn't believe what was unfolding before their eyes.

"No! This human before us is wrong!! He might be a Chosen of the Corpse Emperor!"