"Tarvitz?"
Akurduana's voice rang out, as calm as though he were offering an everyday greeting.
With a slight turn of his wrists, the ghostly blue weapons known as the Bone-Carving Sabres traced two precise streaks of cold light and slid silently into their sheaths.
He raised his head. The utter coldness of the slaughter had not yet entirely faded from his violet eyes as he cast an indifferent glance at Tarvitz and the squad emerging behind him from the canyon's shadows.
"It's me, Akurduana," Tarvitz answered, stepping forward.
His boots ground through sticky blood and fragments of carapace with an unsettling sound.
He approached the Second Company captain, his gaze quickly sweeping over Power Armour so thoroughly coated in dark green acidic blood, dark red bodily fluids, and thick grime that its original sumptuous Purple-Gold were almost impossible to distinguish.
Fine scratches and acid burns covered the armour, and several decorative heraldic emblems had become indistinct, in stark contrast to his expression, which was so calm it seemed almost hollow.
Tarvitz frowned slightly and asked the crucial question in a low voice. "Where are your squad members? Where are the other brothers?"
Akurduana tilted his head slightly, as though trying to remember, yet his movement lacked any of the expected anxiety. There was only the detachment of someone stating a fact.
"I don't know. The interference was too strong during the landing, and the impact was heavy. We got separated." He paused, his gaze sweeping over the giant spider remains he had hacked apart around him.
"I wandered around this area alone and ended up here. Then..."
He paused again, briefly, yet long enough to make his listeners hold their breath. Raising a hand, he casually gestured around him, encompassing the entire slaughterhouse.
"I ran into these dozen or so