Blood flowed across the dirt beneath the feet of the combatants as they fought. Screaming, shouting and gunshots filled the air. Then came another sound, one you would not expect to hear in a place of such carnage. Laughter, low, musical, feminine and callous also rang out. Lelith Hesperax Dark Eldar champion of the Cult Of Strife almost danced her way across the battlefield. Her long red hair flowing like fire around her head, laughter spilling from her crimson lips as she cut the humans down with inhuman skill and grace reveling in joy of the slaughter. Her sister Wych's flowed around her like a wave cutting down anyone who threatened their mistress.
"They are barely even a challenge" Lelith thought as she span beneath the blade of a human before quickly slicing his neck with one of the two long combat knives she was currently using. A fountain of blood erupted from the man's neck splashing her face but this didn't bother Lelith in the slightest in fact she liked it. She found something euphoric about the feeling of warm blood on her skin. These humans were nothing compared to the beasts and gladiators that she was accustomed to fighting on Commorragh and died easily by her blade and far superior skill.
To the average onlooker it would seem she was poorly dressed for the occasion. Instead of being clad in armor like most others of her kind she simply wore long pieces of fabric that covered up her chest and lower portion but the rest was simply bare skin. There was however a method to her madness. Most armies especially the humans used males as their main force and men were still slaves to their baser desire thus unconsciously their eyes would roam over the inordinate amount of flawless skin laid bare, leaving them distracted. The knives in Lelith's hands weren't the only weapons she was using.
"Orders mistress?" one of her sisters asked as Lelith kicked a dead human from her weapon.
"Get the cargo and lets get out of here" Lelith informed her bringing the blade of one of her knives to her lips and licked the blood from blade enjoying the acrid taste.
She and her hunting party had been out on a regular patrol when they had come across a traveling group of human's who were obviously transporting something by the way they all attempted to guard a single chimera transport vehicle. Lelith's scouting party took them unawares. The humans never stood a chance. It was as she was running her tongue along her lips she noticed another taste in the humans blood. Her eyes flashed to one of the corpses as she realized what it was. She quickly cut the flak armor off the mon-keigh's body to reveal its chest and her face contorted into a scowl as she saw the mark of Khorne embed on the man's skin.
"Chaos" she spat turning away in disgust. These humans had all been tainted and were obviously just dressed as loyalists to fool the others of their pathetic race. Ironically she realized that she may just have saved mon-keigh lives by attacking which annoyed her even more.
"They were tainted?" one of her sisters asked as they waited for their sisters to reappear from inside the Chimera.
"It seems that way" Lelith replied eyeing the dead human distastefully.
Just then the two Dark Eldar women reappeared from the vehicle one of them clutching a box about a meter and a half in length.
"Open it" she commanded observing the ornate carving on the box. Using their blades her two sisters pried the box open to reveal an axe. Lelith looked at the weapon intriguingly. It was ornately crafted and colored in gold and red. The blade itself was a chain mechanism not unlike the chainswords used by Imperial Astrates. It was as this thought crossed her mind Lelith remembered where she had seen weapons such as this before. In the Chaos Legion of Space Marines the World Eaters used weapons such as this just a lot less ornate and well crafted. She was about to reach for the weapon when a voice caused her to freeze.
"That does not belong to you Xenos" a low grating voice said a note of amusement in its voice.
Lelith and her sisters spun round just as more men began emerging from the ruins around them. These however where not mere tainted humans. Lelith could feel her sister's nervousness as the eight foot tall red and gold clad Space Marines advanced on them. Imperial Astrates were a force to be feared but the psychotic, battle loving ones of the tainted World Eaters legion put new meaning into the word.
The group of Marines which consisted of five stopped a few meters from her and her team. Although Lelith's warriors outnumbered them, her eight to their five she knew that those odds were still not favorable enough for her liking. She herself could take on an Astrate due to her superior training and skill but her men were not on the same level as her and Space Marines were superhuman soldiers built to take on multiple opponents. Still the odds were good enough. Just as she was about to give the order to her sisters to attack another of the armored behemoth's emerged.
Lelith's heart skipped a beat as she saw the ornate armor and the giant axe chained to his right arm. Her sisters also saw the Marine and a flash of fear appeared on their faces briefly. Lelith may not have been an expert on Chaos but she knew who and what the thing standing in front of her was. His name was Kharn. He had once been loyalist but who had turned on his own kind. Kharn had even been there when Chaos had attacked Terra itself. The man in front of her couldn't be much under ten thousand years old by now but due to the Astrate enhancements and favor by the Blood God, Kharn could probably function as good as if he were in his prime. He had earned his title of Kharn The Betrayer when he had slaughtered his own men for attempting to flee from a fight. This changed things dramatically. Although she had never met or even seen Kharn before his exploits were legendary even in Dark Eldar society. On a World Eater crusade Kharn's squad had apparently been killed down to the last man leaving just Kharn and against two hundred enemies, impossible odds for even an Astrate to accomplish. However the battle ended with Kharn atop a giant bloody mound of corpses holding the leader of the enemies head aloft. The axe that was chained to his arm and currently swung as his side was called Gorechild and had been previously wielded by the Primarch Angron himself.
"Kill them but I want her" Kharn hissed pointing to Lelith and his men laughed psychotically as they charged forward.
Lelith clenched her teeth as the Marines charged into her squad. She spun aiming a blow to the nearest Marine but her blow never landed as it was deflected by a flash of red. Lelith staggered back as Gorechild narrowly missed taking her head off. The Dark elder woman turned to face Kharn who was now standing literally inches from her. Her eyes widened in shock as she realized how fast the Khronate champion truly was. He had covered the distance between them and deflected her attack in the time it had taken her to simply swing her weapon.
Although his face was covered by the red and gold helmet she could tell Kharn was smiling beneath it. He moved again Gorechild's chainsaw like teeth whirring in anticipation. Lelith jumped back throwing herself into a back handspring by throwing legs over herself. Kharn laughed manically and followed her as she began to put some distance between them using continuous handsprings to avoid Gorechild's eager edge. Suddenly her legs connected with something hard and she realized that she had hit one of the many ruins lining the clearing. She quickly used her feet to push off the wall throwing herself into the air and somersaulting over Kharn's head as his axe sliced through the stone with ease. Landing on her feat she took the opportunity swipe with one of her knives. It struck the Marines armor with a metallic clang of protest sending sparks flying but to her frustration it didn't penetrate the armor.
Lelith ducked as Kharn spun round swiping in arc with the Gorechild and she felt the slight tug as the axe's serrated teeth sliced through some of her hair. Lelith swiped again as she ducked but this time at his feet attempting to slice the armor where the ankle met the foot the place where the armor was weaker. Kharn quickly side stepped as he realized what she was doing before pulling back and punching her in the jaw with his free hand. Lelith rolled with the blow to lessen the pain and quickly got back to her feet. Kharn stood but a meter from her observing her intently a low deathly chuckle escaping his lips. Lelith wiped some blood from her lips and returned Kharn's stare. Although she had been using the same tactic she always did, using seductive, sensual and deadly movements in an attempt to distract him it wasn't working. She could tell by the way he attacked, the way he laughed and the way her was looking at her now through the eyepieces of his helmet that he wasn't even interested in that at all. The only lust he had was to see her blood flowing across his blade.
Kharn lunged again and she barely had time to bring her knives round to block the blow. Gorechild struck her combat knives causing sparks to fly as the saw-like teeth bit into the metal. Then to her horror the knives snapped and Gorechild continued its arc slicing her across the chest. Before she could recover the World Eater moved forward and drove his elbow into her head. Lelith crashed to the ground red spots clouding her vision. Taking a blow from someone who could rip the limbs off a greater daemon without much effort was no small feat and Lelith was surprised she remained conscious. Kharn stood waiting for her to get to her feet. Groggily the Wych pulled herself to her feet then shakily straighten herself up. She didn't expect mercy from this monster and waited glaring at Kharn daring him to cut her down but to Lelith's surprise she watched as Kharn's eyes flicked from her to the shattered knives that lay in pieces on the ground.
His armored hand went to his other wrist and he un-clipped the manacle from his wrist. The manacle and chain followed by Gorechild fell to the ground with a metallic clang. Lelith watched, eyes narrowing as the Marine moved his head from side to side clicking his neck before clicking his knuckles.
"Fucking mon-keigh. Why didn't you just kill me?" Lelith spat.
"Don't think it a kindness Xenos. You are Lelith Hesperax yes? Killing you unarmed would serve no purpose I will not have your badly made weapons taking my glory" Kharn replied as he removed his helmet.
Lelith growled as she realized that Kharn simply wanted to kill her with his bare hands. One thing she did notice however was that despite being Khrone's most favoured champion Kharn seemed almost completely untouched by mutation which was unusual for Chaos Marines. A pair of chilling blue eyes and hard-set features stared back at her. Despite his lack of mutation Khrone's presence was evident Lelith could see it in his eyes. The hunger, the rage and the madness. Suddenly Kharn lunged forward throwing a punch towards her abdomen Lelith dodged expertly and delivered a roundhouse kick to Kharn's face.
If the Marine felt the blow he didn't show it as he grabbed the foot that was currently slammed into his jaw and lifted her off her feet. Suspended upside down Lelith had to act quickly, Kharn could most likely snap her in two she had to get free fast. Seeing where the joint was in abdominal part of the armor she flattened her hand and drove it between the gap feeling the mechanics of the armor protest until she reached skin. Pushing hard her long fingernails sliced through flesh and into a nerve cluster causing the Marine to drop her. She got up quickly not wanting Kharn to get the upper hand again. It was then she noticed that the other World Eaters had encircled them both and were watching with much amusement as their Champion fought her. The bodies of her sisters lay strewn across the ground heads removed. The sight of her sisters coupled with maniacal laughter of the other psychotic Marines was enough to distract her for a second and that was all it took.
Kharn was on her in a flash. The Marine pinned her to the floor straddling her bare stomach and drew back his fist struck her hard in the face again and again and again. Then abruptly he stopped. Lelith couldn't see a thing her vision was blurry and she could feel blood trickling down her face. Kharn then pulled her upright and brought his mouth to her ear.
"As much as I would love to take your skull in his honor you yourself sacrifice so many people to him it would be a shame to lose such a devoted servant" the World Eater hissed.
"I'm not slave to Chaos you mon-keigh filth" she gurgled back as blood flowed from her mouth.
"You slaughter things in the arena all the time. You're forgetting he does not care from where the blood flows as long as it flows. You have caused torrents of it and you will continue to cause torrents in his name whether you believe it or not" Kharn replied slightly amused.
Lelith could tell by his tone that underneath the amusement and underneath the madness he believed what he just said. Kharn tossed her back to the floor.
"Take Gorefather. We are done here" he commanded gesturing the box containing the axe.
"What about the Xenos? That's one less skull for the throne" one of the Marines asked eyeing her in much the same manner as a dog eyes a piece of meat.
"You're right" Kharn agreed as he re-chained Gorechild to his wrist.
Lelith watched through her blurred vision as Kharn lashed out taking his own warrior's head off with the arcane axe before turning to look down at her.
"Khorne does not care from where the blood flows as long as it flows" he repeated behind the maniacal laughter of his fellow World Eaters who seemed to support the fact their leader had just beheaded one of their own.
The last thing Lelith remembered before she passed out was the sound of the World Eaters laughing and the feeling of the dead Marines blood pooling round her face.