The hive city was still lit, brilliantly so. Evan could see the enormous shell flying toward him.
Standing atop a daemon tank, Evan stamped down hard, crushing its turret into the chassis. He had to devote every thread of his parallel thinking to calculating the battlefield situation.
The steady bursts from that strongpoint guided Evan. Although those crimson shots barely stood out amid the countless machine daemons, following them revealed a human strongpoint beyond the soul-steam and black smoke.
He lunged forward in several great strides. Behind him, the shell struck the daemon tank where he had stood, blasting its turret dozens of yards into the air. It spun and smashed into a flying daemon.
The shock wave shoved Evan forward a little, while also clearing away the daemons around him.
Daemons swooped down from the sky. An ironwing eagle daemon hooked both talons into Evan's pauldrons. Terrifying energy gathered in the throbbing "energy core" on its chest, its melta-derived annihilation cannon ready to fire.
The daemon beat its wings furiously, trying to take flight. The cold exhaust streaming from its flame nozzles sent the surface temperature of his adamantium armor plummeting.
Evan tried to impale it with his warblade, but more ironwing eagle daemons swooped in, "slicing" at him with their steel wings. Every impact from those razor-sharp wings shook his warblade.
The enormous adamantium giant threw himself backward. The daemon's lethal attack skimmed past his breastplate, while the weight of his adamantium armor battered any daemon foolish enough to try to stop him.
Your wings are no longer hard before me. The attacks you pride yourselves on are nothing but breezes sweeping away dust. Keep trying. Every struggle you make will only make me stronger.
Evan seized the talons hooked into his pauldrons, ripped them free with brute