The Punished

The office.

The guards pushed the door open, and Lu Jin strode inside. The first thing he did was look at Little Damian, who was lying facedown on the floor.

He saw that Little Damian had been beaten within an inch of his life. His body was curled up, and he seemed to be clutching something to his chest. He was still conscious, and it looked as though he had deliberately taken the blows on his back to protect whatever he was holding.

"I'll take his punishment!"

Lu Jin's voice rang through the office.

Omi's raised right hand paused. Then he turned around, leaning on the shock baton as he looked at Lu Jin.

"You're the slave who killed the heretic Astartes."

The savage, violent expression on his face vanished in an instant, replaced by a somewhat sinister yet amiable smile.

"Even if you've earned some merit, that doesn't mean you can let a little brat sit around on the gun deck and freeload."

Lu Jin kept his eyes fixed on Little Damian, gritting his teeth. He could no longer hear a word Omi was saying.

Only when Omi raised the shock baton again, preparing to strike, did Lu Jin speak. "The administrative regulations require everyone to work on the gun deck. No one is exempt..."

He had only gotten halfway through when Omi brought the baton down.

Lu Jin's eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. He lifted his head and glared at Omi.

"You're a slave. Do you have the authority to explain yourself?" Omi smiled, his tone and expression as casual as if he were joking with a friend.

Hot air blew from Lu Jin's nostrils, stirring his collar. He didn't know how to respond.

When Omi raised the shock baton again, Lu Jin immediately put up a hand. "Y-yes... I have no authority to explain myself."

Omi lowered his right hand, then pointed the shock baton at Lu Jin. "I don't like the way you're looking at me."

Lu Jin looked away and stared at the floor.

Then Omi suddenly raised the baton once more and struck Little Damian across the back.

"Weren't you going to take his punishment?"

"You don't look like you're going to..."

Lu Jin immediately walked over, took off his shirt, and knelt beside Little Damian with his back to Omi.

The first blow fell.

The impact itself didn't bother Lu Jin much, but the electricity seeping into his insides was agonizing.

Omi's baton bounced back after striking Lu Jin, nearly making him lose his balance. He pointed at the broad-shouldered Lu Jin and looked toward the others, grinning.

The guards and soldiers watching from the doorway burst out laughing.

The second blow came down soon after.

Lu Jin didn't make a sound. He lowered his head and looked at Little Damian.

The boy looked back at him, gratitude and weakness in his eyes, then tried to turn over.

Watching him squirm helplessly on the floor, Lu Jin realized that Little Damian's spine had been broken.

Lu Jin took another blow, then reached out to help Little Damian turn over.

The boy looked up at Lu Jin and tried to raise his right hand to reach for something, but as soon as he lifted his arm, it fell back down.

In the end, he used his unbreakable left hand to reach into his chest.

That left hand was a Mechanical Arm. When Little Damian was young, he had worked near an ammunition loader and got his left hand crushed. His previous officer had authorized an artificial replacement. The hand really couldn't be broken.

Lu Jin took another blow without a sound. His eyes remained fixed on Little Damian's chest, confusion showing in them.

The boy's Mechanical Arm pulled a mechanical device from his shirt. Its structure looked quite intricate. It had a ring-shaped piece that seemed designed to fit over a shoulder, and a slot at the top that looked like it could hold something.

Lu Jin saw the boy's left hand rotate a hundred and eighty degrees. It pointed to the mechanical joint, then to the device he had made, as if to say: This arm can attach to it.

Then the left hand pointed at Lu Jin's shoulder.

It meant that the boy's creation could be mounted on Lu Jin's shoulder.

Little Damian kept trembling and coughing throughout. If his left hand hadn't been mechanical, he wouldn't even have been able to make those gestures.

Lu Jin finally understood why the boy had been acting so strangely all the time—and what he had meant by that mysterious smile earlier.

He had made this thing during the night, which was why he was sleepy during the day. It was a gift for Lu Jin, and he had smiled because he was imagining Lu Jin's reaction when it was finished.

But Lu Jin didn't understand why the boy had made this thing for him.

"Forget it." Omi stepped aside. "You don't look like you're hurting..."

Lu Jin counted the blows. He had taken all twenty, so he picked up Little Damian and prepared to leave.

"Better to hit him instead," Omi said again.

Lu Jin whipped around to look at Omi.

"What?"

"Doesn't he deserve a beating?"

Omi leaned on the shock baton with one hand and pointed toward the door with the other.

"Parts keep going missing from the deck's storage area. Those parts probably ended up as toys for this little brat. Stealing is a capital offense. I'm saving him by giving him a few hits, understand?"

"If this isn't settled, you'll all die..."

Lu Jin cut him off. "I'll take his punishment. Is that not enough?"

He didn't believe this had anything to do with stolen parts. Omi probably hadn't even known about it before.

Whatever this was about, Lu Jin wouldn't let the boy in his arms take another blow.

Omi slowly shook his head. When he saw Lu Jin look away, he turned toward the guards outside the door and secretly made a throat-slitting gesture, while nodding angrily at Lu Jin on the floor.

The guard nodded slowly, one hand reaching for the trigger of his Laser Rifle.

He didn't know why his superior wanted Lu Jin dead too, but it was an order, and he had to carry it out.

Lu Jin set Little Damian down.

The next second, he sprang up and punched Omi square in the face.

The soldiers at the door froze for a second. Just as they were about to rush in, Lu Jin shot toward them like an arrow loosed from a bow. Nearing the doorway, he kicked out.

Bang! The door slammed shut, smacking a soldier who had already stepped one foot into the office and sending him crashing into the hallway wall.

Omi slowly opened his eyes. The world spun around him. Once his vision began to settle, he crawled over to the desk and struggled to his feet like a dying old man. He saw Lu Jin locking the office door.

Omi swallowed and reached for the Las-pistol on the desk. But after taking Lu Jin's solid punch, his vision was drenched in red. The desk and the gun each had dozens of afterimages. When he reached out, all he found was a quill pen.

Lu Jin silently turned around and glanced at Little Damian.

The boy was lying on the floor, his head tilted as he looked at Lu Jin.

"Like swinging that shock baton, do you?"

Lu Jin looked away, picked up the shock baton, and walked toward Omi.

Omi had just managed to get his hands on the pistol. He was about to pull the trigger when Lu Jin brought the baton down and shattered his right hand.

A scream started to rise in Omi's throat, but the agony of his left hand being smashed by the shock baton shoved it right back down.

He turned to run, but Lu Jin kicked in his left leg. As soon as he fell, the shock baton came down from above and crushed his right leg.

"You... you..."

Omi was probably trying to say something like "You're dead," or perhaps beg for mercy. It didn't matter. The pain and weakness made even forcing out two words take everything he had.

"When I was a kid, someone said my name wasn't good. Lu Jin sounded too murderous."

"The ones I want to slaughter are beasts like you!"

Lu Jin raised the shock baton high and swung it at Omi's head.

A cracking sound rang through the office.

At the instant Omi died, Lu Jin felt full of energy, as though he had done nothing at all and had just enjoyed a good night's sleep. He could also sense that he had gained another measure of strength.

As he registered the feeling, Lu Jin turned and ran to Little Damian. He tossed aside the shock baton, picked up the shirt he had taken off, twisted it into a rope, and threaded it under Little Damian's body.

But as he prepared to lift Little Damian onto his back, he realized the boy had already stopped breathing.

The shirt slipped from his hands. It was as though all the strength had been drained from Lu Jin in an instant. He silently stared at the body.

The soldiers were pounding on the door.

Someone suggested blowing it open, and the words reached Lu Jin's ears.

"No matter what... I promised to take him back."

Lu Jin took a deep breath. He continued threading the rope he had made from his shirt beneath Little Damian's armpits, tied the two ends together, then lifted him and carried him on his back.

At that moment, the mechanical device Little Damian had made and a drawing fell from inside his clothes.

Lu Jin froze for a moment, then picked up the drawing and studied it closely.

It showed him.

The lines were crude, and the paint was black engine oil cleaned out of a Nova Cannon.

It was Little Damian's imagined version of Lu Jin: wearing Power Armor similar to an Astartes, holding a long-handled Warhammer in each hand, with a device on his shoulder carrying a Mechanical Arm whose mechanical hand gripped a pistol.

He thought Lu Jin was as tall and imposing as the Astartes he had seen during the boarding battle that day. He thought Lu Jin should be a warrior, not a pack mule on the gun deck.

He also thought Lu Jin looked powerful when swinging a hammer while doing odd jobs. But a Heavy Hammer would take up both of Lu Jin's hands, leaving him unable to wield a gun like an Astartes.

So he had invented the device that could hold a Mechanical Arm for Lu Jin.

Lu Jin looked at the drawing and fell silent for a second. He reached out for Little Damian's creation, then fitted it onto his shoulder.

But all he did was install the device. Then he got up and searched the entire office.

A pile of tools sat in the corner.

Lu Jin rummaged through them and picked out the ones that felt right.

He usually swung a hammer while doing odd jobs, so he chose a two-handed Heavy Hammer.

There was another one too: a two-handed Heavy Axe.

Ordinary people would struggle just to hold these two heavy tools, but in Lu Jin's hands, they were no different from one-handed tools.

The soldiers were about to break through the door.

Lu Jin crouched with Little Damian on his back, holding the Heavy Hammer in one hand and the Heavy Axe in the other. He crossed the hammer and axe into a cross and held them upright in front of himself.

Boom! The door blasted open.

As he charged at the soldiers like a ferocious beast, Lu Jin thought he heard a voice—though he couldn't tell if it was only his imagination.

"Slaughter the whole ship, warrior..."

Then the sound was drowned out by the crunch of breaking bones.

As Lu Jin charged out, he slammed one man aside with his shoulder, swung the Heavy Axe and split another man's body open, then spun halfway around and smashed the senior soldier's carapace armor and chest with the Heavy Hammer in his right hand.

He was still only a mortal. A sword or a Laser Rifle could still hurt him.

But even after seeing Lu Jin take a shot to the abdomen and a sword thrust, the guard standing at the very edge still watched him slaughter everyone else like a whirlwind.

The guard's experience told him that a normal person would lose the ability to move after being stabbed, while a gunshot would knock them right down...

A Laser Rifle shot pierced Lu Jin's knee. One could see right through the wound. Just as he was about to fall to his knees, he planted the Heavy Hammer on the ground and used it to brace himself.

The guard held his rifle at the ready, its muzzle still steaming with the residual heat of the laser shot.

The next second, he saw the wound in Lu Jin's knee healing—and then a hammerhead came straight for his face, accompanied by a roar.