The Dark Angels' Swordsmanship

When Lorgar heard Isas claim he came from the Sandalwood Order, he paused. Then he remembered what the order was.

The Sandalwood Order was dedicated to detecting and destroying particularly dangerous Xenos, especially those that thrived by means of Psychic Energy or physical parasitism.

The order was also widespread throughout the Dark Angels Legion. Its members possessed a vast collection of Force Weapons gathered from a hundred Fallen Kingdoms.

In theory, their presence here made perfect sense.

Seeing that Seras and Isas were about to come to blows, Lorgar hurried to stop them.

"Father!"

"Lord of the Word Bearers Legion."

The moment they saw Lorgar arrive, both men tacitly ended their standoff.

"Isas, how many men did you bring?" Lorgar asked.

"Six hundred legionaries from our company, plus three Battle Barges and their accompanying warships," Isas replied.

Six hundred Astartes, three Battle Barges, and an Escort Fleet of more than a dozen frigates and cruisers.

That was a force to be reckoned with on any battlefield. And all six hundred Space Marines were master swordsmen. Apart from Lorgar himself, even the Chapter he had brought might not be able to defeat them.

With a heavy, precise clank of interlocking machinery, a faint tremor ran through the hull of the Pathfinder.

The Dark Angels Legion's Battle Barge, like a black shark, locked its reinforced docking bay firmly onto the battered armed merchant vessel.

As soon as the passage between the two ships stabilized, the heavy airtight door hissed upward.

Behind it stood a moving wall of steel that radiated icy killing intent.

Dozens of giants clad in dark Terminator Armour marched into the Pathfinder's corridors, thick with the stench of blood and death, their footfalls heavy and in unison.

Their armour was bulkier than ordinary Tactical Armour. Dark Angels Insignia stood out on their pauldrons beneath the flickering red emergency lights. The Assault Cannons, Power Fists, and other heavy weapons in their hands marked them as warriors made for destruction.

Their arrival brought no cheers and no questions. Their suffocating aura of efficient, professional lethality swept away the fear and despair that had filled the corridors.

Almost the moment they stepped inside, as though roused by the life force of these uninvited guests, those skin-crawling roars of hunger and malice sounded again from the shadows on every side and from within the ventilation ducts!

"Roar! Roar! Roar!"

Dozens of Ughul appeared again, a blue tide pouring from a crack in hell.

Their gaunt bodies looked even more hideous in the warped light. Hunger for flesh glimmered in their sensory pits, and their sharp claws tore through the air as they charged madly from every direction at the newcomers, who radiated even stronger life energy.

The passage had never been spacious. Now the creatures packed it tight, turning it into the site of a sudden, deadly encirclement.

Yet the Dark Angels Terminators did not waver before a sight that would have broken ordinary mortals in an instant.

They swiftly formed a defensive formation, heavy weapons trained on the oncoming swarm.

But one man moved faster than the rest.

The instant the first Ughul roared, a streak of black lightning shot from the Terminators' ranks.

It was Company Captain Isas, the Guide! He wore no cumbersome Terminator Armour, yet his speed and explosive power far exceeded anything an ordinary person could imagine.

The ancient-looking Greatsword in his hands had a faint gray-white Force Field shimmering around its blade. Now it gave off a low hum like ten thousand bees beating their wings: the sound of a Disruption Field activating, the sound of death.

Isas's stern face was completely hidden beneath a rough burlap hood. No one could glimpse his expression, only sense the killing intent beneath its shadow, colder than the Ughul's roars.

"For Caliban!" A short, low battle cry rang out from beneath the hood, like a shard of ice cast into a storm.

He moved so fast he left only a blurred afterimage on the retina.

When the first Ughul lunged at him with claws raised, Isas made no elaborate slash. He simply used the momentum of his charge to sweep his Disruption Field Greatsword upward in a precise, swift backhand cut.

Sssht!

There was no thunderous clash of metal, only an unnerving sound that set teeth on edge, as matter was forcibly broken down into its most basic particles.

The Ughul's tough, dark-blue skin, capable of withstanding Bolt fire, was like butter beneath a hot knife before the Disruption Field.

The blade flashed past, and the Ughul's charge stopped dead. A perfectly smooth cut appeared from its right shoulder to its left hip.

Its upper body slid slowly down the cut, spilling dark-blue blood and entrails across the floor. Its lower half took another two steps on momentum before crashing down.

It all happened in the blink of an eye.

Isas did not slow. He charged on as two more Ughul lunged at him from left and right, roaring together.

One went straight for his head. The other swept its claws toward his abdomen!

Isas turned his hood slightly, as though he had assessed the situation in an instant.

He lowered his center of gravity and gripped the sword hilt firmly with both hands. Facing attacks from both sides, he neither blocked nor dodged. Instead, he raised the Greatsword overhead and brought it down directly in front of him with mountain-splitting force!

That strike held the fearsome power of a century of swordsmanship and the precision of his technique.

The blade did not hit both targets at once. In a fraction of a second, it swept through first one Ughul, then the other!

Sssht! Sssht!

Two soft sounds of disintegration followed.

The Ughul on the left was split evenly from crown to crotch. The one on the right was cleaved diagonally from left shoulder to right ribs.

Where the Disruption Field passed, flesh, bone, and carapace alike dissolved into dust of the most basic particles.

Two bursts of blue blood mist erupted. Isas strode through them, flecks of blue staining his black armour and lending him an even more fearsome air.

He was like a tireless, unerring killing machine, always charging at the head of the formation.

There was nothing showy about his swordsmanship. Every strike was simple, efficient, and aimed at a vital point.

Thrusts, chops, sweeping cuts...

The Disruption Field Greatsword was a reaper's scythe in his hands. Wherever it passed, the Ughul's hardy bodies, tough enough to withstand las-fire, were torn apart and shattered like paper.

An Ughul dropped from the ceiling. He severed both its feet with a backhand stroke, then beheaded it with another before it hit the floor.

Three Ughul charged side by side. He swept his blade through them in a perfect crescent, and three hideous heads flew into the air.

He did not fight alone. Behind him, the Dark Angels Terminators used concentrated heavy fire to clear away any creatures slipping past on his flanks or from behind. The roar of Assault Cannons and the hum of Power Weapons wove together into a symphony of destruction.

But Isas himself was undoubtedly the spearhead of the advance.

In the ferocity of the slaughter, those few dozen seconds seemed to stretch on forever, yet also pass in an instant.

When Isas finally stopped and planted his Greatsword against the floor, the corridor behind him had become a road of death paved with severed limbs and blue blood.

The dozens of ferocious Ughul were now unrecognizable pieces of flesh scattered across the cold floor. Their overpowering stench was almost suffocating.

The edges of the wounds left by the Disruption Field were smooth, with scarcely any blood flowing from them. Yet that sense of utter annihilation was more chilling than any bloody spectacle.

Isas slowly straightened. His gaze swept the ruined corridor beneath his hood, confirming that no living threat remained.

The Force Field around his Greatsword quietly died, giving one last faint hum before falling silent.

"Not bad. Not bad at all," Lorgar said, clapping softly in approval.

"But I believe my gene-sons can do better."

More than a hundred warriors in Cataphractii Terminator armour appeared beside Lorgar. They were the Stormboyz who had boarded alongside him.