Several dozen kilometers from the wasteland camp, the five greenskins who thought they had gone unnoticed were still lying prone on the hills, engaging in that futile attempt to hide while covering their ears.
"Um..."
"He seems to be walking over..."
"Did he spot us?"
"Who knows..."
"Maybe he's just on patrol?"
"Hey!"
"Is he really a hundred-year veteran?"
"More than that!"
"At least a hundred years, probably?"
"No idea whether the Horus Heresy has ended yet, or how many years ago it ended, but if he's here, then the Battle of Terra may already be over."
"Ha!"
"Whether the Horus Heresy is over or not, that guy won't be easy to deal with!"
"Why?"
"Time is uncertain for Chaos Space Marines in the Warp. Sometimes hundreds of years pass outside while only a few years pass in the Warp; other times, thousands of years fly by in the Warp while only a few months, or even days, pass outside."
"But no matter what, anyone who can survive in the Warp without being eaten by demons, driven mad by Chaos energy, and still come out wandering around is basically among the most ruthless of the ruthless!"
"They're all absolute monsters!"
"So, he might be hard to handle?"
"Yeah!"
"We can't beat him?"
"What do you think?"
At that, the group fell silent again.
Watch Your Left and Right Hands carefully observed the Chaos space marine, watching the way he moved across the open ground. It was not the human kind of walking, with its center of gravity rising and falling, but a smooth, machine-like glide that kept his center of gravity on the same horizontal plane.
Every step was precise, every movement efficient. There was no unnecessary swaying, no wasted strength.
It was like...
Like a precise killing machine