I summoned the Fourth Scourge in Warhammer

Chapter 167 Hedgehog
Amidst the ruins of Gelblin, shrouded in green poisonous fog and gunpowder smoke, a suicide squad was advancing at an astonishing pace. Ignoring the deadly chemical environment around them, they ran forward, throwing specially made gas canisters into every piece of rubble that might be hiding enemies, their movements as practiced as if it were routine work.

Suddenly, a fiery red figure flashed past like a comet streaking across the sky, accompanied by a piercing shriek that tore through the air.

The squad at the forefront of the company didn't even have time to react. In less than three seconds, their bodies were torn to pieces by an irresistible force and a blazing energy blade, with severed limbs, broken carapaces, and internal organs flying in all directions.

Before the soldiers behind them could react, the air around them began to ripple and distort. The next second, XV-8 crisis combat suits painted in ochre and white appeared out of thin air, their optical camouflage systems deactivated the instant the attack began. These silent war machines caught the suicide bombers completely off guard, and a one-sided massacre ensued.

The longswords wielded by the fire warriors, gleaming with energy, could slice through the armor and flesh of the dying as easily as a red-hot knife cutting through butter. Meanwhile, the heavy logging rifles and grenade launchers that the dying warriors were so proud of could only leave a faint, feeble mark on the iridium alloy plating of the XV-8 combat suits, sometimes not even a scratch.

This was clearly not an equal battle; it was more like a one-sided massacre.

Just when the fire warriors thought that the human company would be wiped out in just a dozen seconds, the figure in the custom-made fiery red combat suit—Commander Vision—suddenly changed his expression under his visor.

"Retreat! Disengage immediately!" he commanded sternly through the encrypted channel.

Before he finished speaking, the vectoring nozzles on his back erupted with a stream of scorching plasma, propelling him backward at an astonishing speed and instantly creating a distance of over a hundred meters between him and the human soldiers.

Although the fire warriors present were filled with doubt, their absolute trust in their commander led them to faithfully carry out orders. They activated their jetpacks almost simultaneously, abandoning their readily available gains, and retreated to the rear.

The reason why the visionary issued this order was quickly revealed—

Just as the fire warriors had moved out of close combat range with the humans, the soldiers on the outer perimeter who had been futilely fighting back suddenly burst forth with a blinding pure white light from the inside out!
Several miniature suns rose simultaneously on the battlefield, unleashing terrifying molten energy that instantly obliterated them and everything around them. One fire warrior, who hesitated for even a second and was a fraction of a second slower in retreat, didn't even have time to scream before being vaporized in the devastating light and heat, leaving not even a trace of ash behind.

"They actually strapped thermal explosives to their bodies..." Yuanjian hovered in mid-air, watching the remaining survivors who immediately regrouped after the explosion and cautiously looked around, feeling a chill like never before.

Clearly, even a seasoned veteran like himself couldn't understand how these humans dared to do such a thing. This was a rapidly changing battlefield, not a counter-terrorism operation where strapped-on bombs were used to intimidate the police! Stray bullets, explosions, falls… any tiny accident could detonate the thermobaric explosives they were carrying. Weren't these humans afraid that an accident would cause the thermobaric explosives to explode among their own people?

But even the visionary had to admit that this insane tactic had caused him and his elite squad immense trouble. These humans had turned themselves into hedgehogs, covered in quills and curled up in a ball. Trying to kill these hedgehogs with your bare hands would inevitably result in your hands being covered in blood.

Immediately, Foresight changed tactics, ordering a long-range attack. Initially, he only had his squad use plasma rifles and pulse burst cannons to pick off the remaining humans one by one. However, after a full thirty seconds, Foresight, through the battlefield analysis system on his combat suit, discovered something amiss—the density of firepower from these humans seemed to have not decreased at all!
He decisively ordered an upgrade to firepower. Missiles and fusion cannons, originally intended to destroy enemy armored vehicles, were launched without hesitation. Under a devastating barrage of fire, the tenacious company finally fell silent.

"What's going on with these guys...?" Foresight vaguely understood why the Krut, who had always been regarded as top hunters, had collapsed so quickly. At the same time, he also keenly realized that his original battle plan of "taking advantage of the time difference between the two sides to defeat this large but individually weak human force first" was probably going to fail.

If every battle continues in the same manner, forget about a quick resolution; it would be a miracle if it didn't drag on for ten days or half a month. By then, those genetically modified human warriors in blue heavy armor would have already charged in, and his squad would be at risk of being surrounded and wiped out.

"However... it seems that the remaining humans are not strapped with thermobaric explosives?" Since all the suicide squad members were dressed exactly the same, Farsight could not find any clues through long-distance observation and could only make this guess: "Perhaps, that company was a special 'suicide squad'?"

Vision decided to put his judgment to the test. He quickly led his squad to intercept another rapidly advancing Deathbringer company. By this time, the Deathbringer command had learned from the fallen company commander, who had been resurrected at headquarters, that the Tau Empire had dispatched hero-level units and elite troops to intercept them. However, the Deathbringers continued their advance for a simple reason—they wanted to be the first to see Sicarius.

This time, Foresight only used long-range attacks. This company naturally and quickly replicated the fate of the previous unit, being rapidly vaporized by the overwhelming firepower. However, from beginning to end, there was no repeat of the horrific self-destruction of the molten metal bombs from the previous attack.

"Could that human company really be special?" Farsight wondered to himself.

So after the third engagement, Foresight once again tried to command the fire warriors to rush forward and engage in close combat.

As a result, the suicide bombers, who had been on high alert, detonated the molten metal bombs again without hesitation as soon as they spotted the enemy! Even though the fire warriors were prepared to activate the vector nozzles and retreat at any time after being warned in advance, two team members were still caught in the core of the explosion and instantly vaporized because they could not avoid it in time.

Foresight, of course, had no idea that players had shops where they could shop at any time. It could only interpret it as: these humans were actually all strapped with molten metal bombs! They would self-destruct the moment an enemy got close!
This time, Vision was heartbroken. The Fire Warriors in their XV-8 Crisis Suit were to the Tau Empire what the Primitive Space Marines were to the Imperium of Man, perhaps even more so. Each one was an elite chosen from countless warriors, the most precious asset of the "Supreme Good Path." Just recently, under the command of another commander, they had inflicted a devastating blow on the Imperial armored forces without suffering a single casualty.

From the player's perspective, it's worth thousands of merit points.

But now, his three precious teammates have been killed in such a simple, brutal, and technologically unsophisticated suicide attack, with humanity sacrificing three hundred cheap lives! Vision's heart is bleeding!

Indeed, long-range attacks don't need to worry about self-destructive attacks, but the efficiency is too low. How many missiles and fusion cannons can an XV-8 Crisis Combat Suit carry to attack infantry units? As for anti-infantry plasma rifles and pulse burst cannons, based on the previous tests, it's highly doubtful how effective these conventional weapons will be against this fearless and relentlessly firepower-laden abnormal human force…

(End of this chapter)