Warhammer 40k: Melee Warriors

Chapter 557: Who exactly is the assassin?

After the Battle of Enschöd Tank Factory, the Salvation Army has only a little over 8,000 men left, and the combat uniform unit has only 200 tanks left. Ammunition is severely lacking, and combat blood sugar and beast brew are almost exhausted.

Although the orcs were much stronger than ordinary humans, Komi couldn't really use them like green-skinned orcs. He distributed a large axe to them and had them charge forward with him.

The replenishment of sub-orcs is not as simple and quick as that of orcs. They are transformed from humans and beastmen and follow the laws of nature. They cannot skip a single day of pregnancy.

However, Komi had already anticipated the problem of insufficient supplies due to the long battle. More than a dozen beacons emitting yellow beams of light were thrown on the ground, and the rift opened. But this time, it wasn't fighter jets carrying bombs that arrived, but transport planes with containers hanging underneath.

The container landed on the ground, and the alloy plates containing the supplies inside collapsed. The soldiers rushed forward and distributed the supplies as quickly as possible.

"Ammunition! Craft beer! Brand new Xuan-style defensive armor, and combat blood sugar! Take it all, take it all!"

For an army of several thousand men, these supplies were still too little, but much better than nothing. Each additional magazine full of bullets meant one more step toward victory.

The scouts brought news that the cargo route wasn't blocked by wreckage, but rather teeming with holy warriors seeking revenge for Saint Imaran. Compared to the Savior Army, their equipment was akin to that of beggars: a uniform that could insulate them from the deadly environment of Ironstar, a sharp dagger, and a laser rifle capable of firing beams—that was all the equipment most of them possessed. They couldn't even manage to have one grenade for every five of them, let alone heavy weapons.

The true weapon of the holy war army is their fanaticism. They regard dying in battle as the key to entering the golden throne. Faced with mountains of corpses and seas of blood that would terrify ordinary armies, they would only shout for the emperor to continue charging forward.

"Avenge the saint!"

Their shouts carried far and wide. Komi realized that if he wanted to leave, he would have to run over their corpses, but that would take too long, wouldn't it? Don't forget that Harald's fleet was still hanging over their heads, and no one could be sure when the ceiling above them would collapse.

The wisest course of action at this point would naturally be to retrieve the trade license. Its brilliance would shatter all of Harald's lies, and no one could ignore the golden flames and holy light drawn by the Emperor's blood!

But should we really use it in front of this group of people?

The burning sensation from that thing is no joke; you might not be able to get out of bed for weeks or even months.

As Komi hesitated, the chilling sensation of a blade pressed against his throat returned, as if warning him once more.

Once you've used up your trade license and are unable to move, we'll take that opportunity to kill you.

Who exactly is watching me from the shadows?

Koji gritted his teeth, thinking that when he fought with Dorjeer and Vashtor, these invisible assassins did not make a move. It was clear that they did not serve the forces of Chaos. They wanted to kill him and were also afraid of these evil beings from the Warp.

If they don't serve Chaos and are hostile to him, then the only people Gu Jian can think of are the Spirit Race. They have ample reason to hate him and can also use the network to evade the Spirit Bird Divination Instrument's scan.

The Spirit Clan, skilled in assassination, could find many in an instant.

For example, the Ark Eldar's Dimensional Spiders and Shadow Specters, and the Dark Eldar's Mandragora Assassins...

If we're talking about who gives Komi a bigger headache, it's definitely the Mandela Assassins. These things aren't Eldar, but rather a terrifying creature that the Dark Eldar found deep within the shattered realm of Comoros.

In the Warhammer universe, where monsters and demons roam freely, beings beyond imagination do not exist only in the warp.

Mandela's appearance was like a shadow cast by moonlight, mottled and unpredictable. Or like a statue shrouded in darkness, its dark body poised to open its bloodthirsty eyes at any moment.

Their skin is covered in glowing runes, which can cast a terrible curse on anyone who can decipher them. They can also use the runes on their bodies to transform them into a curse that ignites the soul, turning their prey into soulless Airbuses.

Their movements are also agile and bizarre. The mechanisms and principles of biological action are useless to them. They can fold their limbs into impossible angles, climb vertical cliffs despite gravity, or simply become a shadow flowing through crevices.

No one would want to be targeted by such a bizarre group of assassins, not even Komi himself.

In the end, Komi chose to relinquish the trade license and decided to control the Knight to fight his way out, allowing the souls of the deceived Holy War Army to flow into his Pure White Hall, rather than being trapped in a vortex of lies from which they could not escape.

"attack!"

Komi strode forward, stepping onto the freight corridor and running a few hundred meters before encountering an attack from the Holy War Army. Lasers and rockets came at him, but they could not stop the knight's charge.

The freight route was designed to be quite spacious to transport large quantities of ore, but this was still insufficient for the massive number of jihadist troops to deploy their forces. Their numerical advantage was limited by the terrain, and they were subsequently massacred in a one-sided manner by the Savior's army.

But the Holy Army did not collapse; they fought to the last moment, still cursing Komi for his betrayal of the saint Imran.

At first, Komi tried to find traces of the Chaos Cult's instigation among them, but then he realized that these people had not fallen, but were simply acting under the influence of lies.

Harald...you despicable man, I will surely kill you!

The chainsaw sword slashed through the ground, and hundreds of Holy War soldiers died tragically beneath the knights. Koji didn't enjoy the time of human civil war; he simply carried out the necessary battles in a cold manner, mentally condemning Harald, who had caused all of this.

Komi fought for survival beneath the hive, while his old steward, Faith, struggled to keep the Exterminator from the fleets of Harald and Imaran. Several times the Exterminator was on the verge of being reduced to dust by a barrage of macro cannon fire, but luck was on their side in the end. Macro cannon shells narrowly missed the Exterminator and fell into the void.

"Major General Griffin, we need your coordination! Support! Harald and Imaran have gone mad!" Fesses still hoped this was just a misunderstanding, and he hoped Griffin and Frith could handle the situation.

But the reply he received was quite disappointing. Major General Griffin's voice was heavy and helpless. He told Fesses that his army had also suffered a shameful betrayal, with almost all of the troops deployed on the ground being killed. Frith's situation was similar to his, except that she had managed to preserve a certain number of troops during the rebellion thanks to the powerful combat capabilities of the Imperial Blade.

“This is a premeditated betrayal, Captain Faces! We must make a choice: either preserve the fleet or be wiped out here.”

Chapter 558: Caw! There's a cow! Everyone, retreat!

"What do you mean? Are you telling me to shamefully abandon Saint Otto and run away?"

“No, no, it’s not about escaping,” Griffin explained. “What’s happening here must be made public, and only you can do that right now. The Exterminator is the fastest warship among us, and you must call for reinforcements.”

"And what about you?"

"Of course we will fight Saint Otto to the last moment!" Griffin said righteously. His fleet was entangled with Harald's fleet, and the dazzling light of warships being destroyed burst out from time to time in the void.

Fries pondered Griffin's proposal, but he felt that his promises were not as trustworthy as they appeared, and ultimately he gave Griffin a cold reply.

"The Punisher will not leave. We will live and die with Saint Otto, even if we crash on a planet."

After a moment of silence, Fiesce heard Griffin's somewhat regretful praise, "Although unwise, it was indeed a brave choice. We will fight alongside you. We must win this war. I always felt that the death of Saint Imran was not as simple as Harald said. Saint Otto was definitely not a despicable person who poisoned people."

“That’s right. Saint Otto is upright and brave, and would never poison his enemy,” Fesses replied with some pride, then led the Punisher toward Griffin’s fleet for protection.

But then a sense of crisis crept up Fesses’ spine. He didn’t know why, but whenever he looked at Griffin’s flagship, a feeling of being caught in a net would get stuck in his heart and he couldn’t shake it off.

Ultimately, his intuition prevailed over his trust in Griffin, and he ordered the Punisher to keep its distance from Griffin's fleet, adopting a posture of being ready to flee at any moment.

Griffin said nothing, but stared at the Punisher with a gloomy gaze.

......

At this moment, the Pride of Iris seemed to have been soaked in blood. Gu Jian didn't know how many Holy War soldiers injected with berserk potions he had killed in those few thousand meters. He only knew that the further he went, the more elite and troublesome the Holy War troops became.

Leman Rustank stood in neat rows, forming an insurmountable wall of steel. Several cannonballs exploded among the saviors' army, and the remains of the orcs flew through the air.

"Get out of my way!" Koji roared and charged forward in his knight, handing over control of the ion shield to the machine spirit so he could focus on cleaving through the heavy tanks.

As shells rained down, even a brand-new knight couldn't withstand Leman Rustank's fire with her armor alone, let alone the Pride of Iris, which had just undergone a less-than-perfect emergency repair.

"Too many shells!"

"That's your problem!"

Komi's roar was arrogant and unreasonable, just like the harsh words the Knight Soul spoke to Filone.

Left with no other choice, the machine spirit could only control the ion shield to move rapidly around the knight, predicting and capturing the landing point of each cannonball.

Fifteen shells were fired. The Machine Soul managed to block ten of them with all its might. Of the remaining shells, two were dodged by Komi, one was blocked by the destroyed Avenger Gatling gun, and the other two slammed into the Knight's frontal armor.

The Knight swayed precariously in the explosion, its machine spirit howling in pain. Komi desperately pulled on the cables, managing to drag the Knight's body back to its original position.

"I really feel like I'm going to die..."

The Knight Soul, in great distress, recounted his feelings to Komi. Komi didn't have time to comfort the Knight Soul; instead, he forcibly approached Leman Rustank like a puppeteer dragging a puppet along.

The tanks did not retreat, which was unusual. Even if their reversing speed could not keep up with the knights' charge, they should have tried to increase the distance between them to buy time. They were just raising their cannons to try to kill the knights controlled by Komi at close range, but unfortunately, they no longer had that opportunity.

Iris's Pride's actions exceeded their expectations. The knight did not display the rigidity expected of a mechanical giant in his slashing and dodging. Instead, he swayed from side to side like a nimble cat. His chainsaw sword, with its serrated edge almost gone, was also exceptionally sharp. Each slash could cut down Leman Rustank's turret or split it in two.

More than ten Leman Rustank tanks, a powerful force capable of tipping the scales of victory in small to medium-sized battles on the battlefield of Ironbreaker Star, were all destroyed in less than half a minute under Komi's chainsaw sword.

"Ugh... what happened..." After being unconscious for a long time, Fei Ling woke up under Komi's legs. She rubbed her head and felt a tearing pain in her back. Then she looked up and saw Komi sitting on the mechanical throne.

“O... Saint Otto!” Filyn exclaimed in surprise. She felt surrounded by happiness. She had never had the chance to be so close to Saint Otto before. In a daze, she felt as if she had ascended to heaven or fallen into a wonderful dream.

The commotion made Gu Jian glance down and see that it was Fei Ling who had woken up, so he gave her a brief greeting.

"You're finally awake? I borrowed your knight for a bit, you don't mind, do you?"

“She should mind!” The knight-like soul, struggling to restart the ion shield, said matter-of-factly. He had had enough of the pressure Komi was putting on him and desperately needed Fei Ling to share the burden.

To his disappointment, Filene simply replied to Komi with sparkling eyes, "Why would I mind... You are a saint, you can use my knight however you wish! Or rather, if you wish, I can..."

The Knight Soul was stunned by Fei Ling's coy and lovesick demeanor, and he almost cursed Fei Ling for her low-class pursuit.

Isn't the time spent fighting alongside me far more glorious and precious than the time spent with this saint?

The Machine Soul really wanted to ask this question, but Komi just tugged on the cable and made the Machine Soul shut up obediently, humming and groaning inside the Knight's body.

Komi broke through the defensive line formed by Leman Rustank. Looking into the distance, he finally understood why these tanks were fighting to the death.

Harald's mercenaries, recruited from the Nest City, have planted numerous molten metal bombs along the final stretch of road leading to the surface; a rough count reveals that there are over a thousand of them, their red flashes indicating their presence.

"It's over..."

As soon as Komi uttered the word, all the molten metal bombs exploded, delivering the final blow to the ravaged cargo corridor. Then the corridor began to collapse, and the stacked nests all crumbled, burying Komi and the Salvation Army beneath the surface of Ironbreaker Star.

The last glimmer of light was buried by the floor above. Koji managed to carve a path through the rubble with his own abilities, but what about the soldiers he had trained in the Battle of Iron Star?

Koji looked back and saw that the army of over 8,000 who had come to save the Lord had been reduced to just over 7,000 after the desperate attack.

Chapter 559: We, the Butt-Earthlings, Accept Employment

The feeling of the dagger against his neck slowly subsided, and the assassins seemed to think that Komi was doomed, and that even using his trade license could not change the outcome.

Just as Komi was contemplating the last possible escape, a cunning and lewd voice entered his cockpit.

"Buzz... Agent 005... Agent 005, can you hear me? Can you hear me? We've dug a tunnel, come over here right now!"

Is that... the voice of a farting elf?

Are there still farting devils on this planet?

Koken was somewhat surprised, but at this point he had no choice but to trust the bastards. He confirmed the coordinates sent by the bastards and led the rescue team in a final escape through the cargo corridor.

Beyond the freight route, Harald erected a platform to mourn the saint of Imran, surrounded by weeping Jihad soldiers. His backdrop was the crumbling and burning hive city under the bombardment of the Great Cannon, and his sky was filled with the Imperial fleets locked in battle.

On the high platform, Harald solemnly addressed the holy warriors, saying, "The treacherous Otto will be buried forever beneath the Ironstar. He is unworthy to bask in the Emperor's light and will perish along with this desecrated land."

But this was only the beginning. Otto's ideology had begun to corrupt the Gothic Sector. He proclaimed that the Savior was the Emperor's merciful side and that demi-humans and heretics deserved a chance for redemption! Before his death, the saint Imran discovered that his ideology harbored the danger of corrupting humanity's purity, which led to his own demise!

Otto must perish along with this world, and his ideals must be completely eradicated. Demi-humans are not worthy of trust, and heretics do not deserve a chance for salvation! This was the dying wish of the saint Imran!

Harald raised his arms and shouted, stirring up the fanaticism and anger of the Jihad Army. He smiled and stretched out his arms to look at the sky.

Harald believed that Komi was destined to die underground, but Komi led the Saviors to the tunnel dug by the Farts. He walked in the darkness and then heard the Farts calling him in the channel.

"Agent 005, you've brought a bit too many people."

The nickname "Agent 005" was something he had only told that bastard Lusny. If he were still alive, he would be spreading the name among those red-headed bastards by now.