Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 758 On the Other Side, the Sons of the Emperor
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Was it really wise of us to use up all our explosives at once?

"At a point like this, what's the point of keeping them?"

Lucius spread his hands. "We might need them. We still have to win this battle."

Saul Tavitz did not answer, but instead led two of his close associates, Buhler and Sachian, along with all the explosives he had collected from the remaining eleven men in his company, to the target in stealth.

They now have only thirteen people left.

Just moments before, his team consisted of twenty-two people.

Thinking of all this, and seeing the glaring blood flowing down the bone-white giant thorn tree before him, and the remains of his nine brothers who had just died and were pierced like chunks of flesh, the grief of mourning, the indignation of revenge, and the surging anger at the tarnishing of the Legion's honor made Tavitz determined to blow up the giant tree before him rather than argue with Lucius first.

Win this battle? Only then did Tavitz realize that people can feel like laughing out loud in certain extremely speechless situations.

Although he considered Lucius his friend, Lucius was always on a different path from him.

He had never realized so clearly that the ideas of Lucius and Lord Commander-in-Chief Edron had begun to take hold of the minds of most of the Emperor's Sons.

Pride may have been widely regarded as a virtue among the Legion's high command, and the blind pursuit of victory—or rather, proving oneself superior—has overshadowed the Legion's original creed of purely pursuing self-perfection. The thought of this pains him deeply.

The current situation is that, according to his estimate, after the entire ordeal of the airdrop and trek, the ambush by the giant spider monsters and the numerous battles, there may only be around fifty sons of the emperor left on this planet.

What could fifty men do against a planet that had already devoured three companies of the Holy Blood Angels and their auxiliary forces? Barring a miracle, Tavitz believed they had no chance of winning; all they could do was take as many enemy lives as possible before sacrificing themselves.

They are destined to perish here today because of Edoron's thirst for glory—which Tavitz deeply suspects is personal glory.

Lucius was still convinced he could win.

But he wouldn't choose to argue with him at this moment; the last thing the remaining soldiers needed was to hear the two officers arguing.

Tavits secretly resolved to lower his brother's body from the eerie white thorn tree before death came, so that they would not suffer the fate of being devoured by those strange flying giant spider monsters that tore through their armor.

They sped across the open red earth from the edge of the grassland and rushed into the shadow of the strange white trees. The winged, metal-shelled monsters that perched on the treetops and fed paid no attention to them. Only the occasional flapping of their wings and the chilling sounds of their mouthparts feeding echoed above them.

The three men each set up a detonation point. Just as Tavitz set the timer on the detonator to 45 seconds, Lucius's voice came through his communicator.

"Run! Tavitz! Run! Don't look back!"

Tavitz and his two comrades immediately began to run towards the edge of the grassland. He glanced back and saw two flying giant spider monsters had broken away from their feeding group and were flapping their transparent wings as they charged towards them at high speed.

"Get down!"

They quickly lay down and crawled forward as instructed. Bullets from the bolters whistled overhead. One monster was stopped by the fire, but another nimbly flapped its wings to dodge the shots. At the same time, it spread its eight pairs of hook-like limbs on its chest and lunged at them. Tavitz grabbed Sachian and rolled with him to avoid the predator's attack.

"Ten seconds!" On the other side, Bühler was almost in cover. "Get ready to lie down!"

The buzzing sound, like that of a giant mosquito, was already above Tavitz and Sachian. Panting, Tavitz pulled the other forward. He heard gunshots and Sachian's painful screams right behind him. He turned around and tried to kick away the shattered monster that was twitching on top of Sachian.

"Get down! Get down now!" Bühler dropped to the ground. The shockwave and blast from the explosion spread rapidly from the point of detonation, knocking away another giant flying spider monster that was trying to rush over to attack them, and throwing it far into the depths of the grassland. Those that were feeding in the thorns were killed by the explosion's flames and the several-meter-long sharp thorns that were blown away by the explosion. Only one or two managed to escape quickly.

Amidst the raging flames that erupted after the giant trees and their remains were set ablaze, and the lightning that struck the ground, Tavitz, panting, helped up his companion, who had just shot down the monster but whose arm had been broken by the monster's dying struggle. They were covered in dust and looked utterly disheveled.

"Are you satisfied now?" Everyone heard Lucius mutter into the communicator.

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The commotion of the falling tree and the smoke from the fire quickly attracted the remnants of two sons of the emperor's army. They had been searching for each other, and the communication and visual interference had allowed them to approach each other without realizing it. The explosion became an excellent waypoint.

"Report to me," Commander-in-Chief Aidoron barked. The highest-ranking son of the emperor in the area looked extremely displeased. He pursed his lips and looked at Tavitz, who was covered in insect fluids, dust, and blood, with a critical eye.

As the first high-ranking official to be favored and promoted by the Primarch, Aidoron himself had so much gold decoration that it was hard to see clearly. His purple power armor also showed many signs of battle, but it was spotless as if it had just been swept.

Now, having joined forces with the two armies of Commander-in-Chief Aidoron and his adjutant Antios, their total strength has reached fifty men, who are all the surviving sons of the emperors in this place.

Tavits then reported their previous encounters and discoveries in as concise and clear language as possible, while Edoron listened without saying anything, and his adjutant Antios began to ask questions.

"You said there are corpses of Holy Blood Angels on the trees you encountered?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Neither of our teams has seen it. What evidence do you have that you saw the corpse of the Holy Blood Angel?"

“No, sir, there’s just a pile of wreckage there now. My words are the proof.”

“I meant nothing by it, brother.” Antios nodded. “Please don’t mind, sir.”

“Foolish.” Aidoron finally spoke, clearly displeased. “You said you’ve used up all your explosives?”

"Yes, my lord."

"Double the stupidity."

Tavits hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

The act of blowing up the giant tree clearly succeeded in preventing the corpses of his comrades and cousins ​​from being further devoured, and the anomaly caused by the explosion allowed them all to reunite successfully, didn't it?
But he ultimately swallowed those words, because Edoron was the commander-in-chief, and Tavitz was just a front-line officer.

Under Lord Forgrim, the sons of the emperor are clearly divided into classes.

“I told him it was wrong, sir,” Lucius’s voice came from behind Tavitz, tinged with a hint of pride that said, “I knew it would turn out this way.”

What did you say?

“I said it was unwise of him to use up all the explosives, sir.”

"What's that in your hand? Is that an alien limb, Captain? You're using an alien weapon? I'm ashamed of you. Throw it away."

"Yes, my lord."

After Edoron finished lashing out at Lucius, he turned away, clearly displeased.

Tavitz guessed that he was annoyed because he had to take responsibility for the current situation as the supreme commander, but he was unwilling to admit that he had made a mistake in command.

"You said that there was more than one corpse of a Holy Blood Angel hanging on those bombed-out trees."

"Yes, my lord."

“Then I think we’ll need to submit some fragments of relics or something similar to the Blood Angels for them to mourn over, and they will be grateful to us. You and Lucius, and these few of your men, you’re perfect to do that.”

--------

The sky is now calm, with the black firmament above the dissipated clouds, and faint starlight seemingly twinkling at the edges.

Tavits led Lucius and several others toward the burned ruins, which were about a kilometer from their current camp.

Lucius kept nagging the whole way, believing that it was all Tavitz's fault.

“Shut up,” Tavitz said. They had reached the ruins, which were still smoldering and emitting wisps of smoke. The two of them were communicating on a one-on-one channel. “This is the result of you betraying your friends to curry favor with the Commander-in-Chief. You got what you deserved.”

"What? Why? I didn't!" Lucius said, feeling wronged.

“Didn’t you?” Even Tavitz couldn’t help but sneer at this point. He mimicked Lucius’s tone in a sarcastic voice. “I told him it was wrong, sir.”

"I did tell you that!"

"Yes, you said that, but do you know there's something called solidarity among friends? I always thought we were friends, Lucius."

“We’re friends, Tavitz!” Lucius’s tone sounded genuinely confused and heartbroken.

“A friend wouldn’t do that, Lucius. What you did was backstabbing. That’s what a traitor does.”

“We are the sons of the Emperor. Lord Forgrim taught us to face our mistakes, correct them, and learn from higher-ranking officers in order to achieve perfection. By pointing out your mistakes to Commander-in-Chief Adoron, am I not following the Primarch’s teachings?”

Tavitz frowned. There was nothing wrong with what he said, but many people in the Legion didn't quite understand it.

"Didn't I warn you twice not to use alien limbs as weapons?"

"...You are right, Tavetz. I made a mistake and didn't listen to you, so I was reprimanded by Lord Edoron. I deserve it. I'm sorry, Tavetz. You are a true friend."

This sincere innocence was the reason why Saul Tavitz initially became friends with Lucius, but he always felt that something was off about what Lucius said.

But what happened next left Tavitz with no time to think about it.

"Who?!"

(End of this chapter)