Barbarus, northern mountains, Alien Lord Nac'Lare's territory, mountaintop.
Now.
At the highest peak of Barbarus, poisonous fog silently shrouded the area, swirling and lingering.
A sharp whistle tore through the air. The distance of half a basketball court was crossed by the primarch in mere fractions of a second!
Wordless, blazing fury burned in Mortarion's eyes. Riding the momentum of his charge, he raised his war scythe—
Clang!!!
Keng!!!
Mortarion's full-force strike was blocked by Nac'Lare's enormous scythe, Annihilation. Brilliant sparks burst from where the two scythes met, scattering in all directions and illuminating the rage in Mortarion's eyes.
Nac'Lare gripped the shaft with both hands, desperately using it to hold back Mortarion's blade.
For a time, man and alien strained against one another with all their strength. Mortarion exerted his entire body, twisting the shaft and forcing his scythe downward. Even the solid rock beneath his feet was crushed into a deep pit.
Unlike Mortarion, who was consumed by fury, Nac'Lare, straining to block the blow, seemed to be mocking his anger.
The tall, powerfully built alien used Mortarion's downward slash to crouch and draw back its scythe. The delicate balance of force between them shattered in an instant.
Mortarion immediately withdrew his strength, swept his scythe sideways, then hooked it forward again. But Alien Lord Nac'Lare had long anticipated his next move. After retracting its scythe, it leaped back, holding the weapon in one hand while spreading the fingers of the other toward Mortarion.
Strange black-green Psychic Power violently gathered between its fingers.
"My laughable son!"
The Psychic Power surged in an instant, and its enormous fluctuations even warped the surrounding space!
Yet Mortarion was no longer as frightened as he had been in childhood. Furious to the point of laughter, he said,
"It seems you truly never cared what your child had been doing down the mountain all these years!"
Before Mortarion had finished speaking, Nac'Lare suddenly felt the space around it grow oppressive. Its connection to the Warp abruptly weakened, and the laws of the physical world began to press down upon it.
The Psychic Power in its hand exploded before it had gathered to a satisfactory level.
At the same time, having anticipated this, Mortarion charged forward once more and swung his scythe straight at Nac'Lare's head!
Nac'Lare was startled by the sudden change, but it instantly recovered. Mortarion's war scythe was already beside it. Unable to evade the descending blade and without time to raise its own scythe in defense, Nac'Lare simply reached out and grabbed the blade, taking the strike head-on.
Nac'Lare's right hand was severed at once, blood spraying everywhere, but it had successfully blocked Mortarion's lethal blow.
Seeing that he had the advantage, Mortarion immediately pressed his attack. His scythe swung like rain, striking Nac'Lare again and again at top speed, forcing it to fend off blow after blow without any chance to counterattack.
No! There was another person here!
And that person was a Blank!
Only then did Nac'Lare realize that Mortarion had played it.
Mortarion's initial charge had not been driven by rage at its mockery, but meant to conceal the second person's presence!
That person had to be a mortal, incapable of directly joining the battle between them. That was why Mortarion had created an opening for him to enter, waiting until Nac'Lare used Psychic Sorcery to catch it off guard.
It had been careless! It had assumed no mortal could stand atop this mountain.
As it fought Mortarion, Nac'Lare spared a fraction of its attention to carefully search for the figure it believed to be the Blank.
Blanks could conceal themselves from the sight of others, and this concealment was even more powerful against Psykers.
This prevented Nac'Lare from directly sensing the second person's presence.
But unless it found and killed that Blank, Nac'Lare would be unable to use Psychic Sorcery properly!
It swiftly surveyed the battlefield. Finally, Nac'Lare sensed an especially intense concentration of that nauseating aura behind and to its right—
There!
Nac'Lare "saw" him!
"Don't lose focus!"
Mortarion's swinging scythe came down once more, but Nac'Lare, having identified its target, merely sneered and used the stump of its right arm to take the blow head-on again!
Its right arm slid smoothly from beneath Mortarion's sharp scythe. Thick blood clung reluctantly to the keen blade. Without blocking or resisting again, Nac'Lare directly spun around and leaped, swinging Annihilation to its fullest extent before bringing it down in a spinning slash—
It could not determine the Blank's exact position, so it could only gamble by exposing its back to Mortarion.
As long as Nac'Lare's next blow struck that Blank, and as long as Mortarion's next blow failed to kill Nac'Lare,
then the victor of this battle would be Nac'Lare!
Keng!
The feedback of impact suddenly traveled up the scythe shaft.
Nac'Lare smiled. It had guessed correctly.
Only upon making complete contact with that "Blank" could Nac'Lare barely make out the blurry humanoid shape.
Armor already corroded into tatters by the poison gas creaked and clattered. The short figure barely reached Nac'Lare's chest.
At that moment, the little man who had just ruined its plans was holding up a scythe, desperately blocking its strike.
But the tremendous disparity in strength meant they were not opponents of the same caliber at all. What could be called resistance lasted only fractions of a second—
Crack!
Hades watched helplessly as his scythe shaft snapped!
Alien Lord Nac'Lare's massive scythe, Annihilation, came straight for his head—
Too fast!
Taking advantage of his smaller stature, Hades instantly crouched and retreated. But even as an elite among mortals, he was still only human and could not keep up with Nac'Lare's speed. The huge scythe struck directly against his helmet.
Nac'Lare concentrated all its power into a single point for a full-force blow.
Hades was sent flying. His helmet slipped off in midair, and the blood flung from him was mixed with white fragments of bone. Bright red and pallid white instantly turned gray and foul beneath the poisonous gas.
Hades felt like a ragged doll, thrown into the air before drifting lightly back to the ground.
The poison gas swiftly kissed his exposed head. The left half of his face had been torn open by Annihilation, his left eye shattered, and his skull felt as though it had cracked.
I shouldn't have gotten so close.
Nac'Lare's Psychic Power was stronger than that of any Alien Lord Hades had encountered before. Hades could even feel the enemy's Psychic Power pushing back against his Null Field.
To suppress the other's Psychic Power more effectively, Hades had no choice but to take a risk. He compressed the Null Field down to seven meters and followed closely, step by step, in Nac'Lare's blind spot.
After Nac'Lare's right hand had been severed, Hades had moved into the blind spot on its right side.
Of course Hades knew Nac'Lare would discover him sooner or later, and he had remained prepared to defend himself.
But he had never expected Nac'Lare to be this insane!
Having completely abandoned its rear defense, Nac'Lare was instantly torn open across the abdomen by Mortarion's scythe. Its organs slid out from the wound along the blade!
Seeing Hades lying in the distance, on the verge of losing consciousness, Mortarion's rage grew even more frenzied.
But Nac'Lare was even more frenzied. The tall, powerfully built alien burst into laughter, then raised the short stump of its right arm and violently swung it down—
Enormous Psychic Power exploded around Mortarion in an instant. His armor burst apart, fragments scattering amid the psychic blast.
As the poisonous gas and psychic pressure suddenly intensified, Mortarion's vision went black.
Cough!
He coughed up black blood mixed with chunks of flesh.
"Kneel!!!"
The enormous Psychic Power pressed down once more!
—The situation reversed in an instant—
Hades lay on the ground, his vision beginning to blur. He saw Mortarion's figure swaying beneath the overwhelming pressure of Psychic Power.
Had I really been unable to change anything?
Was this the world of Warhammer?
Hades could no longer hold on. His consciousness gradually slipped toward the edge of the abyss.
Suddenly realized I write one short fight scene every five chapters, and one big fight scene every ten.
As expected of Warhammer. Just fight and get it over with.
By the way, do you all like it when I write fights often?
Happy reading (ω)
Before you continue