Emperor's Bane

Chapter 571 Wolf King: I am a barbarian

"Morgan told me to pray for my kids because they need this."

"……Hold!"

"She's so right!"

Leman Russ stood on the platform, his body leaning forward, tall and wild, a black wolfskin wrapped around his broad shoulders, his ten thick fingers tightly gripping the railing, because of the fighting below the platform, his fingers were so tense that they turned white.

The Primarch's grey eyes were cold and ruthless as he watched the struggle intently, responding to every beautiful move and confrontation, no matter who made it, with a guttural growl and a thick Fenrisian accent in his hoarse voice.

But in most cases, those who could enjoy the cheers of the Wolf King were often not the Fenrisians under his command, but the son of Morgan who stood on the field from beginning to end: Bayar was fully armed and used his Chanabal saber to cut twenty-one neat and uniform scratches on the solid ground to record his results in this competition.

Among these twenty-one victories, fifteen were from the wolf champions of each company. At least within the wolf pack, they were well-known butchers, and the remaining six were all the wolf lords of Rus: the twenty-second victor, who was standing in front of Bayar, already panting, was also one of them.

Skarsson, the Wolf Lord of the 5th Company of the Space Wolves, had been sent to summon Magnus and his legion: he returned earlier than the Thousand Sons fleet, and as soon as he returned to the warship, he was attracted by this grand blade party, and hurried over, just in time to take over the baton from a Wolf Lord who had just fallen.

Leman Russ knew this warrior, because he was also a Fenrisian, and although he was not outstanding among the wolves, the fact that he could become a wolf lord proved his strength: but in front of the Terran veteran with almost three hundred years of fighting experience, the gap in strength shown by Skarson was still too obvious.

The battle lasted only a few minutes, and for most of that time Bayar was on the defensive, deftly hooking the Wolf Lord's axe with his two Chanabal sabers, testing Skarson's full strength until he was sure that this was all the threat the Wolf Lord posed to him: Skarson had no more cards to play.

So, Morgan's champion swordsman finally took the initiative to attack. He slashed, jumped, and easily avoided Skarsson's fatal blow. With a casual flick of the slender sword in his hand, he knocked the wolf lord's tightly held axe away. Before Skarsson could come to his senses, the other sword blade had pierced through his thick beard and hit his throat just right.

It was like a performance.

This switch between offense and defense took less than two seconds in total. Ruth's last cheer had not even faded from the rafters, still echoing in the suddenly quiet venue, which seemed particularly ironic.

"That's it again."

The Wolf King muttered to himself. He was not angry because of the failure of his offspring, nor did he fall into a dead silence like the wolf cubs outside the iron bars. The Primarch just sighed quietly in his heart: his butchers really never learn their lessons. One after another, even the reasons for their failure are so similar.

They were too obsessed with attacking, always brandishing greatswords or axes as soon as they entered the field, wasting their energy in vain under Bayar's blocking, until all their moves were seen through by the Dawnbreaker: When the Sons of Morgan began to fight back, these Leman Russ warriors naturally could not hold out for too long.

But this cannot be blamed on them. If this group of wild wolves had fought steadily and competed with Bayar, who was as famous as Akudona in swordsmanship, the scene would probably have become even more comedic: Leman Russ didn't even dare to think about it.

Thinking of this, the Wolf King couldn't help but turn his head. The silver-haired, blue-eyed relative of Avalon was standing beside him, sharing this unique platform with him: just as the Wolf King was not angry because of the failure of his offspring, Morgan did not show a smug expression on his face because of Bayar's winning streak.

It was as if to her, this was normal common sense.

Ruth grinned.

"I suppose I should thank you, my sister: your suggestion is very good."

【Just thought about it a little more. 】

Morgan nodded and glanced at the timer on the wall: according to the standard time of distant Terra, it was 6:30 in the evening on the [Heraculfen]. In another half hour, the [Night of the Wild Wolf] agreed by Leman Russ would officially begin.

But now, not yet.

In the largest arena on the entire Queen of Glory, apart from the two Primarchs Morgan and Leman Russ, there was only Bayar brought by Morgan, and more than a hundred Space Wolves who gathered from all over: all of them were the warriors that Russ said were eager to challenge Bayar.

Originally, the Wolf King had intended to arrange this challenge during his Night of the Wolf, but the Lord of the Dawnbreaker, who had fought alongside the Sixth Legion for some time, persuaded her Fenris brothers to use this challenge as a warm-up for the Night of the Wolf, limiting the contestants to Bayar and the wolves eager for a challenge.

At first, Leman Russ didn't understand Morgan's intentions.

But now, he understands.

It's impossible not to understand: when this warm-up match just started, the somewhat reserved Wild Wolves didn't send out any heavyweights. Most of them were hot-blooded new stars, or the champions of each company. They already knew that they were no match for the legendary Bayar, so they were asking for advice more than challenging him.

But Bayar's performance still far exceeded the wolves' imagination. He seemed to have not regarded this warm-up match as a battle at all. He treated the wolves' axe blade carelessly, and every move was out of instinct rather than thinking, as if he had not deliberately practiced these flawless swordsmanship at all. These supreme existences were just something he was born with.

The two Chanabal sabers given by Akudona, called "El Cid" and "Hus" respectively, were wielded casually in Bayar's hands. It took him less than half an hour to defeat all the champions and warriors who dared to stand up, including some of the most famous Wolf Claw leaders, especially those of the 13th Company. They rushed onto the arena one after another, bravely and fearlessly, and were carried down in a few minutes or even less.

In the end, perhaps to avenge his champions, or perhaps because he was itching to do something, an old acquaintance that Morgan was very familiar with stood up: Yorin Bloodhowl, the Wolf Lord of the 13th Company, stood in front of Bayar with his huge axe blade in hand.

Morgan remembered him, a man whose reputation was based on his many bad deeds: for example, when Morgan was still a mortal, she personally participated in the cooperation and conflict between the Dark Angels and Space Wolves on Duran. The fuse that eventually led to the two Primarchs, Jonson and Leman Russ, fighting each other was the result of Yorin Bloodhowl's self-willed decision, which indirectly destroyed an entire team of elite Dark Angels warriors.

The Spider Queen naturally disliked such a person. She secretly made a gesture to her champion swordsman. Bayar saw it and pounced on him like a leopard: Yolin Bloodhowl was defeated faster than anyone else. Morgan's champion swordsman swept the Wolf Lord out in just two rounds.

This result undoubtedly made all the wolf lords present united against a common enemy.

Everything that happened next was natural: one Wolf Lord failed, and the next one to take the stage was naturally another Wolf Lord. Including Skarson, seven Wolf Lords took to the arena one after another, and failed one after another. No one could last more than ten rounds.

And anyone can see that Bayar is still holding back.

Just like that, within an hour before the Night of the Wild Wolf officially began, Bayar defeated one-third of Leman Russ's Wolf Lords, the best ones, and he himself didn't even have a scar.

(I'm not deliberately criticizing the Space Wolves. They were indeed so weak during the Great Crusade. There was not a single capable fighter in the entire legion. As for the number of Wolf Lords: although the Space Wolves had thirteen Grand Companies from beginning to end, some of their companies had more than one Wolf Lord.)

(Also, don’t think Bayar’s current record is outrageous. In the original book, Akudona’s Ironhand Elite’s record is even more outrageous. It can only be said that he died a long time ago. This is a great advantage, and he can be easily praised.)
[You don't want to come down and meet my champion yourself, do you, Ruth? ]

Morgan stood aside, keeping an eye on his Fenris brother: even a man as open-minded as the Wolf King had to become anxious after his seventh Wolf Lord failed: he paced back and forth on the podium, just like the wild wolf elites watching below.

But this time, no next challenger emerged from the wolf pack.

"I?"

The wolf king burst out laughing.

"No, I will not."

He shook his head, and Morgan couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief: she didn't want her offspring to come into conflict with her own blood relatives, and if Ruth was really angry about this, Morgan wouldn't mind a confrontation with her brother.

"Rather, this situation was not beyond my expectations from the beginning."

The wolf king crossed his hands and leaned his entire upper body against the railing. Under their feet, accompanied by another round of cheers, an old wolf who looked somewhat old pushed through the crowd and walked onto the arena. He and Bayar nodded to each other as a greeting, and then drew out the sharp battle axe they carried with them.

This time, Morgan finally got serious about the champion swordsman.

"do you know who he is?"

Ruth asked, and Morgan was stumped by the question.

"He is my captain."

The wolf king smiled.

"Look, Morgan, all of your captains are famous, their names are echoing in the galaxy, but my captain's name is hard to remember: there are no great warriors in the wolf pack. I figured this out when we were drinking at Jonson's place."

【But you didn’t admit it at the time.】

"You want me to admit in front of Jonson that my cub is not as good as his? You might as well kill me!"

(I really didn’t find out what the captain of the Wolf Group was called at that time)
[Of course I won't kill you, brother.]

"You can imagine..."

[But I will gladly reveal this to Jonson the next time we meet.]

[Ruth said he was not as good as you: this sentence would probably make Jonson happy for a few days. ]

"..."

The wolf king's smile froze on his face.

【But this is weird.】

Morgan leaned next to Russ, and the two Primarchs were about half a meter apart. They watched the fight between Bayar and the captain of the first company of the Wolf Regiment: it could be called a fight, because Morgan's champion swordsman was always in control of the situation, and the Wolf Lord was relying entirely on his savage cunning to hold on in the dodging and moving.

"If I hadn't heard about what happened with Akudona, I would have been angry."

Leman Russ's beard trembled as he breathed heavily.

【What happened to him? 】

"In the Battle of Gardenar that I told you about earlier, Akudona did something remarkable: he defeated all the Iron Hands who dared to challenge him, just like Bayar is doing now, and defeated the captain of Ferrus's company with only three swords."

"Look at our side: my captain has at least withstood five or six strikes."

【Don't be shameless. 】

Morgan laughed out loud, and when she realized Leman Russ's magnanimity, the Spider Queen's words became more casual.

[We can all see that my Bayar is not serious at all. Your wolf cub is indeed a little strange: let’s not talk about what kind of person you are, Russ, but the people under your command are really a group of barbarians.]

"Who says it's not?"

Ruth also laughed.

[But logically speaking, shouldn't barbarians be good at fighting?] "Who told you that?"

Leman Russ raised a brow and glanced sarcastically at his blood relative.

"If barbarians are really better at fighting than civilized people, then why do civilized people always build great empires while barbarians can only be driven into the mountains and forests: Is it because they like to stay in the mountains and forests?"

【But it is often the barbarians who ultimately destroy the empires built by civilized people. 】

"Barbarians are different from each other."

The wolf king shook his head.

"Those barbarians who live in the deep mountains and old forests, use animal bones and bronze, and have no common equivalents. Their cultural heritage is only totems or oral legends. Although they can rely on luck and strength to temporarily defeat the civilized army, what awaits them is only more punitive armies from the civilized people. They cannot win forever. A single failure will mean the demise of the entire civilization."

"And those barbarians who you say can conquer civilized people often live on the border of civilized countries. They have been trading with civilized people and even intermarrying with them for hundreds of years. They speak the language of civilized people, hold civilized people's weapons, and identify with civilized people's thoughts and culture. Apart from having barbarian faces, what is the difference between them and the so-called civilized people?"

【But they can conquer civilization. 】

“Because they are in the middle of a black swan moment that belongs only to them.”

The wolf king shook his head, his pupils gleaming with wisdom.

"When are the barbarians at their strongest? When they first come into contact with civilization, during those few generations: they still retain the bloodiness and fearlessness of the tribal period, as well as a relatively fair social system, but they have also learned the more advanced organization and technology of civilized people. The combination of the two is a natural disaster that is enough to tear apart the greatest empire in the world."

"The famous black swan events in Terra's history: Charlemagne's empire, Heraclius' elegy, the conquests of the horse kings, and the rise of Bogd Khan, the so-called [Empire of the Barbarians] are nothing more than this."

"Looking back, isn't it the same with the Imperium we serve now? The powerful institutions brought by the All-Father, the rich technological heritage of the Adeptus Mechanicus and Terra, the brute force of the Astartes and the legacy of Terra's war of unification, together have shaped the Great Crusade to this day."

"And civilized countries like these were crushed by the iron hooves of us barbarians."

[So, this is the route you plan for your Space Wolves?]

Morgan glanced at the captain of the first company of the Wolf Regiment who was retreating in the arena.

[A group of barbarians who have just begun to show some semblance of civilization? ]

"Yes."

Ruth nodded.

"When I took them over, they were just a group of wild beasts. I could not make them civilized like you. This civilized savage is my limit: just like my warriors may never be as good as yours and Jonson's warriors, at least they can't do it now."

[Don't say that. Zhuang Sen and I only rely on those Terra veterans.]

Morgan comforted her by saying that her words were not entirely false: the Dawnbreaker elites led by Bayar were still mainly composed of Terran veterans to this day, and the best recruit contributed by Morgan's home planet Avalon so far was only Davu, who was famous for commanding operations rather than dueling.

"But in my legion, there are no veterans of Terran descent left."

The wolf king's smile was bitter.

"No, it's not that they don't have any. It's just that they don't have any."

"Before I returned, a group of them had already been shot by the military police. After I came back, I had to deal with another group. Another group was lost in the wars over the years. The remaining people, along with Yolin Bloodhowl and the others, became the biggest destabilizing factor in the legion."

"On one side are these bloodthirsty Terran veterans, and on the other side are Yorin Bloodhowl and other impulsive warriors who came with me from Fenris. I can only wait for these people to grow old slowly, and then I can transform the Space Wolves into what I imagine."

[Sounds like a long time?]

"almost."

The Wolf King was very optimistic.

"In fact, I was watching a little fellow lately: did you see him?"

[That one?]

Morgan looked for the trail and saw only an inconspicuous minion: he was squeezed at the outermost edge of the howling wolves, standing on tiptoes desperately, and could not see how their company commander was chopped to the ground by Bayar. He could only follow the wolves in front and fell into another round of howling of failure.

【what is his name?】

"Bjorn."

The Wolf King nodded. He watched his captain being helped down by everyone, while Bayar on the stage saluted him from afar: Bayar stuck his two swords into the ground, then knelt on one knee and bowed to the two primarchs.

The Wolf King nodded. As the father of the losers, he accepted Bayar's victory with an open mind. As the Lord of Fenris was the first to applaud, cheers for Bayar gradually rang out from the wolf pack that had been dead silent.

Wolves recognize the strong: even the strong who step on their corpses.

"And this is one of the changes I brought to my wolf pack."

The wolf king raised his head proudly.

"Just wait and see, Morgan, when this generation of wolves gradually grows old, when Bjorn's generation gradually grows up, when they learn the will and thoughts that I have instilled in them: my wolf pack will eventually be reborn."

"Perhaps, in the distant future, they will no longer be feared."

"They will be the protectors of mortals."

"I'm looking forward to that day."

[Me too, brother.]

Morgan responded to his blood relatives,
They ended this preliminary match precisely at an appropriate time: when Bayar walked off the stage amid the cheers of the wolves, the large bell embedded in the wall rang, and at the entrance of the arena, the shadows of the World Eater and the Dawnbreaker could be vaguely seen.

They come to the next event, to the great Night of the Wolves.

"It seems that our World Eater brothers are more punctual than we thought."

Leman Russ was excited as he saw Angron walking in the front.

"Come on, let's go meet him."

"I hope he has brought with him the best warriors of the World Eaters, as well as your own legion, my dear Morgan. I hope that other warriors of yours will also be able to attend this event, including the famous swordmaster Ahriman."

[You don’t have to worry about this. ]

Morgan looked at the crowd.

【He is already here: right there.】

“Ah… I saw it…”

"Oh my god, who's that giant next to Ahriman? Your cub?"

[That's right, Hector: Captain of the 11th Company, my first child.]

[Is that person next to you yours?]

"Hedemaker, chaplain of the Fifth Company."

[I know him: he and my Hector had some trouble in the battle.]

"This is perfectly normal. Wherever my legion goes, it will cause a lot of unpleasantness with friendly forces. If this causes trouble to your child, please convey my apology to him."

The wolf king smiled. He seemed to be very familiar with the apology process and did not have the face burden of his other brothers. Morgan was not sure whether this was a typical case of practice makes perfect, or simply a desperate measure.

"If that's not enough for you, I'll go over to him in person. I also want to see this giant up close. He looks almost as tall as me. All-Father, I'm not the tallest among us, but this is a bit exaggerated."

[No need, Ruth: I will appease Hector.]

"That's good……"

"Wait, where's Kahn? I wanted to congratulate him for being the first to reach the battle."

【The one behind Angron.】

"Ah...who's next to him?"

【Hmm, let me think about it.】

Morgan fell into deep thought, looking through her records of the World Eaters.

[I remember him. He performed well in the arenas of various legions. I remember that he often teamed up with Amit from the Blood Angels.]

[I think his name is... Kagos? 】

(End of this chapter)