Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 751 Listen to me, let's get it done in one go -
The narrators waiting outside the cave gathered together and talked in hushed tones.

The sergeant who brought them out has already led his squad away to do his own thing. It's hard to say whether they didn't evacuate with the Astartes simply because they wanted to wait for the Lord of Steel to leave together, or whether they subconsciously felt that they would be safer with Ramizane.

“Perhaps we should get out of this haunted fortress first,” Carl Casey said, “at least get to a place where we can see the sun.”

"The sun here is definitely not the same thing as the sun in Terra."

"It's enough if it makes me feel better psychologically."

Mesadi nodded. "By Terra, I'm not even sure I have the courage to open the archive again and start editing..."

“Shh.” Euphrates tugged at her arm. “They’ve taken my camera, but they don’t seem to remember you have a copy. You’d better not mention it until we’re sure it’s safe.”

“Actually, I didn’t see much, since I was looking down at the time.” Messadi lowered her voice, and their conversation echoed low between the empty, dark tunnel and the stone chamber.

"But you saw most of it later, right?"

“Yes…” The dark-skinned female reporter shuddered involuntarily and gripped her blonde companion’s hand tightly. “It’s the most terrifying situation I’ve ever seen in my life… I mean… you know, he looked so strange. I do interviews, I’ve interviewed ruthless warlords and the squalor of slums.”

Messadi Oriton's voice was barely audible.

"But the feeling I got from 'him' at that time was something I had never seen in any other person before."

A piercing shriek.

"What's that?" Carl Casey almost jumped up. The portly poet was indeed quite startled today. He quickly pulled the two ladies, who were still peering into the hall, aside.

"I want to see more later—"

There was a loud bang.

Naro Vepas's backpack and shoulder armor smashed open the hall's doors, landing where they had just been standing.

Wood chips and fragments of other materials flew everywhere, and Loken's adjutant was hunched over, seemingly still protecting something in his arms.

"Terra..."

The indescribable deep, guttural sounds and gurgling noises came from a grotesque monster so large it almost filled the entire hall entrance.

It has twisted, swollen, corpse-white muscles, and its tongue hangs out of its mouth like a fat leech. Its head is roughly similar in shape to that of a canine, but its protruding, elongated snout is full of sharp, dagger-like teeth that grow upwards and downwards. Its eyes are like two red-hot charcoal balls, peering out from their dark sockets.

“Sams…”

Most grotesquely, the chroniclers preferred to discover without their knowledge that human teeth and bones remained on its jawbone, and that on its body, which occasionally emitted a dim yellow glow and flashes—now turned into black claws dripping with venom and pus, and on its legs with their bent joints—a few pearly white remnants of armor still remained, connected to cables.

"Terra by your side!"

The narrators stood frozen in place for a moment, then Carl Casey, hurling the most vile curses he knew, dragged the two women away in the other direction.

Messadi blinked frantically, as if trying to leave some clues about the murderer before he died;

Euphrates, amidst screams and attempts to escape, chose to clutch the pendant to her chest, raising it and trembling as she uttered some words to the monster.

—Clearly, it had no effect.

The monster that Zhu Bo had transformed into smashed through the door frame, took a single step and stood in front of her, opening its blood-red maw to bite down on her head.

Messadi cried out in despair.

"Qile!!! Help! Someone save us!!" Before the words were finished, the ferocious monster, which was a collection of the most terrifying things in the ancient genes of mankind, was grabbed by the hind leg and pulled back.

It hissed sharply, its sharp black claws carving grooves in the stone ground that emitted a corrosive stench.

"You're just a bunch of idiots." Someone said something they couldn't understand in a cursing tone, "You're only worth thirteen yuan and six jiao, right?! You keep coming back even when I'm dead! I told you not to act like a fool! I think you and the subspace are just asking for trouble! I gave you a little face and went through the motions, and you're already putting on airs! I think you just owe me a few 'muddy shavings'!"

what?
Amidst curses in an unknown language, a mortal figure emerged from behind the door, grumbling and swearing.

The monster that Zhu Bo had transformed into roared fiercely, but was actually weak inside, and made as if to turn around and pounce on the man.

"What are you yelling for? If you yell again, you'll regret it!"

The man kicked the monster hard in the heel, and with a muffled crack of bone breaking, it howled and collapsed to the ground again.

"No...! This can't be...! What about...Sams..."

"I've had enough! There's a limit to how much you can abuse your power! I'm here to arrest that damn primary target, not to play games with humans like you bunch of clueless devils!"

Then he delivered another vicious kick, before standing still, swinging his arms a few times at his sides, and leaping onto the monster's back.

Although the exercise was so clumsy that even a gentle person like Messati couldn't bring himself to use terms like "divine intervention" to describe it, the effect was remarkable.

The monster's sternum and spine cracked repeatedly as it was stepped on, then its upper body collapsed, and it lost the ability to move. It could only lie at the man's feet, waving its limbs, looking like a giant zombie cicada that had been trampled on.

"Watch out...!" Loken shouted. With this commotion, he arrived with blood dripping from the corner of his mouth and limping. He stared in astonishment at what he saw before him, but immediately raised his bolter at the monster's head.

“Watch out, Mr. Lamizane.” Loken’s voice crackled with the sound of a damaged chest. The dents on his breastplate indicated that he too had been attacked by the monster and thrown back, which explained why he was the last to arrive.

“It…it’s dangerous. You’d better get away from it. Vipas and I will take care of it.”

Are you sure the two of you can do it?

“Nero?” Loken raised his voice, but his eyes remained fixed on the monster’s movements.

"Automatic firing mode. I won't stop firing until it's completely dead, platoon leader."

Nairo Vepas pushed the man he was protecting toward the stone pillar where the narrators were hiding, then walked over himself, holding his gun.

"While you're talking, it'll start to recover again!"

The blue-eyed mortal said with dissatisfaction, "Listen to me, do it in one go."

--------

When Loken came to his senses, he found himself sitting in an empty meeting stone house in the outpost town of Kasheli.

...When did I sit here? Where is everyone else?
Dozens of oil lamps, placed at varying heights around the room and on the wooden table in front of it, illuminated the surroundings.

These wooden tables and chairs are primitive and rough, but sturdy and large enough that even a strong man like Astartes, wearing armor, could sit comfortably on them.

"Are you sure you've disposed of the body properly, leaving no trace?"

A voice pulled him back from his daze, bringing him back to focus.

...Abaddon? When did he arrive...?
(End of this chapter)