Warhammer 40k: Melee Warriors

Komi opened his eyes and looked at his hands. Even though his hands were clean, he felt as if there was a clump of blood on them, and even a few withered branches seemed to grow out of them.

Is this a hallucination?

"Hello, heroes of the reorganized battalion."

Upon hearing the voice, Komi looked up and saw that it was Commissar Tran leading a team of elite soldiers standing in front of him.

As he instinctively rose to salute, Commissar Tran stopped him with a raised hand. His face was filled with hope as he asked, "I heard it all from Major Faraday. You provided support to your comrades in the building, stopped the advance of the blasphemers with steel spears, and even killed one of their leaders. The demoralized cultists dared not raise their heads in your bravery... I don't doubt the truth of these things. I just want to know how you did it."

How did you do it?

Gu Jian himself wanted to ask this question, but in front of the political commissar, he still used the same old excuse he used to fool Mi Yang.

I saw the Golden Throne, and the Holy Lord of Mankind commanded me to destroy the enemies of mankind.

Commissar Tran showed no surprise at Komi's answer; instead, he breathed a sigh of relief, smiled with some relief, and then put down the small shrine behind him.

With devout prayers and careful movements, the small shrine slowly opened with a click. The remains and holy chalice inside amazed the surrounding soldiers, who all knelt down on one knee, holding the small statue of the emperor's blessing to their chests in prayer.

"This is the Holy Grail of the monastery. The high nun there told me that if you are the Emperor's chosen one, you can trigger a miracle. The high nun didn't tell me how to trigger a miracle; you should rely on your intuition."

Komi glanced at the Holy Grail, then at Commissar Tran.

He looked down at his hands, the bloodstains on them disappearing under the light of the Holy Grail.

Am I the Emperor's warrior or Khorne's butcher?

With this question in mind, Komi placed his hand on the Grail of Remains.

Chapter 59: Sacred Numbers

What should it be like to receive the emperor's blessing?

Surrounded by golden light, his majesty was unapproachable, and his holiness brought tears to people's eyes. Like a living saint Celestine, he became the dazzling core of the battlefield.

But all that Komi saw was emptiness, and all he could hear were the whispered prayers of the soldiers around him, who hoped that Komi was the saint chosen by the emperor.

The only sensation was that the palm that touched the Holy Grail felt like it was being burned, as if it were being roasted over a fire.

What does this mean? Has the Holy Grail rejected me? Or is it testing me?

Koji was somewhat confused; the Emperor's spiritual power had grown to a level that was difficult to ignore over the course of ten thousand years.

His voice was like a storm, capable of killing mortals; his light was as dazzling as the sun, capable of blinding psionicists who looked directly at him.

The power of an emperor is something no ordinary being can withstand. When the emperor's power is withdrawn, that is when the person whose power was possessed dies.

Think about it, even Saint Celestine, after her death, was searching for her armor, conscience, and boundless love for the future of humanity amidst her mutilated remains.

Could this increasingly severe stinging pain in his palm also be one of the emperor's tests? Is he trying to verify his loyalty through this simple method?

The pain gradually intensified, making Gu's face turn pale.

Or have I become Khorne's lackey?

Komi was startled, shocked by his own thoughts, and his hand almost slipped off the Holy Grail.

Just then, a large mass of corpses, their limbs bound together, was thrown in from outside, landing among the praying soldiers and eliciting screams.

Koji was jolted awake from his reverie. He opened his eyes and looked around, only to see Major Faraday organizing the soldiers to defend against yet another enemy attack.

The graffiti remains quietly in the shrine, its surface radiating a supernatural golden glow.

Komi looked at his hand, where the stinging pain had subsided. A layer of skin had been burned away, and the charred scars prevented the blood from flowing out.

"Damn traitor!" Commissar Tran cursed angrily, then turned to look at Komi. His eyes showed no sign of doubt; he still believed that Komi was the Emperor's chosen one.

Commissar Tran said respectfully and decisively, "It seems we need to take some time to decipher the Emperor's true intentions. Now we must eliminate all these traitors!"

“Okay.” Koji nodded, watching as his personal guards placed the Holy Grail into the shrine. He picked up his own machete, which he was comfortable with, and followed Commissar Tran toward the fortress wall.

The cultists of Grace City gathered once again, waving yellow-green flags made of human skin and inscribed with Nurgle's blasphemous runes.

Their bodies had become even more abnormal in the depravity of the past few days. Maggots swam in the patches of pustules on their bodies, and flies swarmed through the holes in their rotting bodies. The ear-piercing, eerie buzzing of millions of flies gathered together, creating a relentless vibration that attacked the fortress time and time again.

Those cultists who had lost all courage after being slaughtered by Komi were captured and used as ammunition for the cultists' makeshift siege weapons.

Hundreds of catapults, made of wood and steel, were parked in the distance, where more cultists were throwing clumps of corpses soaked in germ-laden broth into the fortress.

"They want to crush us with the plague! Let these unclean-believers witness the greatness of the Emperor's power! The Lord of Humanity of Terra protects every loyalist who fights for humanity!" Commissar Tran's roar drowned out the buzzing of flies. In such a desperate battlefield, having such a commander with such a strong fighting spirit was truly a blessing.

Komi's spear-throwing technique was no longer a secret in the reorganized battalion. He even had a special high platform for attacking the enemy from above, with a large number of spears made of steel bars piled up at the base of the wall.

Komi took a deep breath and put aside the chaotic thoughts in his mind.

Regardless of who he is, at least for now he has to help these people survive the madness of the Nurgle cult.

With a sudden burst of strength in his arm, the spear pierced through the air and flew rapidly.

Unlike the sounds of lasers and bullets that draw attention across the battlefield, some charging cultists even looked up to see a slender, long black shadow quickly passing overhead.

A trebuchet that looked like it was about to collapse was hit, but that wasn't enough to disintegrate it. More attacks were needed to completely shake these corroded war machines.

"Heh... It's him again." The cult leader's face darkened, and he raised his arm, which was hidden under his robe. Many deformed giants, who were tightly stuck together by disease, carried heavy shields made of broken walls studded with scattered iron plates and stood in front of the catapults to defend against Komi's attack.

The spears weren't fast enough to be undetectable, and the shields made from the broken walls were so large that they could almost completely block all of Komi's spears.

Koken was not discouraged, nor did he change the direction of his attack, instead throwing his spears at the charging cultists.

He hurled his spear at the broken wall that the giant was carrying with his bare hands, noting how many times it would take him to break it.

Once, twice, three times, four times...

As the number of spears that hit the broken wall in succession approached 8, the sacred number that could point to Khorne, Komi's palms involuntarily became sweaty.

The eighth time the spear was thrown, there was nothing particularly special about it, and no new phenomena occurred after it hit the broken wall.

This was not enough to make Komi breathe a sigh of relief; he was wary of the 16th spear throw, or even the upcoming 24th.

The...twenty-fifth time...

Komi silently counted in his mind, his eyes fixed on the broken wall shield in the distance, which was covered with 24 steel spears.

As soon as the attack was released, Komi immediately sensed something different, just like getting a critical hit in a game, or Vayne in League of Legends finally stacking three passive stacks on the same person.

This spear carries an inexplicable power, and its sharpness is unbelievably exaggerated. Even if there were a wall made of refined gold, Koken would be confident that he could pierce a hole through it with this attack.

boom!

Like being hit by a cannonball, the twenty-fifth spear throw exploded violently on the broken wall shield.

The entire steel-reinforced spear shaft collapsed instantly, scattering deadly fragments like a high-explosive bomb onto nearby enemies.

The massive, deformed giant was also shaken and staggered back several steps before losing his balance and crashing onto the catapult.

"Heavy artillery?" The cult leader was shocked by the attack. "Where did they find heavy weapons? We blocked all the weapon supplies on the way!"

“That wasn’t an artillery attack!” Another leader slapped him, then pointed to a huge crater blasted into the massive shield wall, still dripping with molten iron and lava, and said, “That was a javelin! A javelin made of steel!”

"The Corpse King bestowed power upon them? Could that corpse on the throne truly do such a thing? I thought..."

"Shut up! You fool! Is your faith in the Father so weak? You have disgraced His love!"

After executing his wavering comrades, the more resolute cult leader looked cruelly at the fortress, "Since we can't take it, let them all die in the swamp!"

Chapter 60: Plague Sieges the City

Gu Jian didn't know how many people had gathered in the city of Grace; he only knew that he and the Reorganized Battalion were trapped in the fortress and had no way to break out.

The paved road around them had become a stinking nightmare due to the accumulation of too many corpses. The corpse fluid even softened the ground, forming a swampy landscape that Shangchao could never have.

The soldier, who had taken all necessary precautions, tried to scout outwards, but his boots rotted away completely in just a few seconds. Had he not been quick-witted, he too would have been swallowed by the deadly swamp.

The cultists besieging the fortress established their camp on a distant street, a blasphemous green light shrouding their camp, and inhuman shadows stretched out to terrify the fortress's defenders.

More catapults were hidden and distributed around the fortress. Every day, dozens of corpses were thrown in. Even though Commissar Tran promptly organized soldiers to clean up the area day and night with flamethrowers, the plague inevitably spread within the fortress.

First, the military rations sealed in the cans became moldy to varying degrees. Some cans were even soaked with green, rusty-smelling water the moment they were opened.

Then there's the ammunition; the energy magazine is still functioning well, and the resilient machine spirit is fighting to the bitter end against the evil forces.

However, the bullets used for automatic guns were severely rusted, greatly reducing their firepower when fired, and sometimes they would even explode inexplicably inside the gun like firecrackers.

Finally, there's the fortress itself. More and more mold is hollowing out the thick walls, and some areas will collapse instantly if someone stands on them.

The reorganized battalion was in dire straits; they lacked heavy weapons, were isolated and helpless, and were struggling amidst the plague.

Moving through the coughing, Commissar Tran scanned the increasingly weak soldiers with his eyes. Major Faraday had fallen ill and was lying unconscious in bed.

"Your Majesty... what is your revelation..." gesturing for a soldier who had risen to salute to sit down and rest, a hint of weakness appeared on Commissar Tran's resolute face.

If the city of Grace is already like this, what about the other parts of Upper Nest?

Commissar Tran thought to himself that when he was observing the enemy through his binoculars, he also saw many conscripts among the corpses in the swamp. They were all members of the conscripted corps who had not received supplies and respect, and now they were carrying out the most ruthless revenge against the hive with full of anger and resentment.

Damn nobles...we could have stopped all of this...

Commissar Tran's head throbbed whenever he thought about how he and the other dutiful soldiers listened to the noble representatives ramble on about profits and taxes at the meeting. The war had turned out this way not because the soldiers were incompetent, but because the commander-in-chief was mentally unstable.

Approaching the fortress wall, the tower that had slain countless traitors and even more terrifying creatures still stood. This was the reorganized battalion's only hope; as long as the tower stood, the army could continue fighting.

Commissar Tran walked up step by step and saw Komi sitting on an ammunition box, polishing away the corrosion on the steel bars. The shrine containing the Holy Grail was placed in the corner of the wall.

There were originally hundreds of steel bars of varying lengths in that area, but they had already been thrown out during the defensive battle a few days ago.

The ammunition of the reorganized battalion will eventually run out, but the number of people captured and corrupted by the cultists is virtually endless.

Commissar Tran didn't disturb Komi. He also found an ammunition box to sit on, leaning on his chainsaw sword and closing his eyes to rest.

"I think I might not be the saint chosen by the emperor. I don't feel anything, except that this hand is getting burned more and more." Komi said calmly.

“But you killed those behemoths with javelins made of steel bars. If we had relied on laser guns and even weaker automatic guns, it might have taken a hundred men firing in several rounds to kill them,” Commissar Tran replied, his eyes hidden by the shadow of his peaked cap. “In all the battles I’ve fought, no soldier has ever done what you did. You have earned the Emperor’s attention; it’s just that we haven’t yet figured out how to interpret the Emperor’s revelations.”

"If we still can't decipher it, we'll all die here." Komi gave a bitter smile.

Commissar Tran shook his head. "We're the ones who will die here, but you won't. If our ammunition is running out, the entire reorganized battalion will fight to the death, launching a fierce attack on the west side of the fortress. I think the monastery shouldn't have fallen yet."

"That's unlikely... The swamp is too deep, we'll all drown halfway there, and I can't fly."

“The swamp won’t be submerged in an instant. We’ve made up our minds to pave a path for you with our own bodies.”

Koji stopped wiping his corroded hands; he could picture that scene from Commissar Tran's simple words.

Just like fire ants facing a river, they will gather together and firmly protect the queen in the center. Some ants will drown in the river, but the queen will live on with the hope of the colony.