32. Of sea mist and wolves (Part 2)

The Castri were an old race almost as old as humanity. A race of four armed reptilian humanoids they had quite flat and featureless faces with two eyes, a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth and two parallel slits as a nose, their most notable feature was the large bone crests that jutted out of their heads and the colourful plume of feathers that ran down the back of their head although only the males sported the feathers with females having smaller and more rounded bone crests.

The Castri had risen to power after the fall of the Aeldari, conquering and colonising a section of the galaxy, hundreds of worlds had been claimed when many of the other powers in the galaxy had been in disarray. Their first contact with the Imperium was upon the world of Ulux, it had recently been peacefully brought in to compliance and the garrison left there was small, the Catsri had encountered humans before but their knowledge of them was that their once great empire had been shattered and their worlds were easy pickings, they did not know of the Imperium's crusade to reunify humanity but they soon would. The Castri didn't expect any retaliation after they conquered Ulux, especially not an attack so large and vicious, the early days of the war had them on the back foot until the true scale of the Imperium was realised and then a proper defence and counterattack could be mounted but still their realm slowly shrank despite their best efforts until the Imperium was at their homeworld.

Admiral Kae'i Korli was quite a large male of his species, standing just over 7 foot with his entire body covered in green scales, the bone crest on his head was decorated with metal ornaments that showed his rank and the feathers running down his back were dyed a myriad of different colours. A veteran of many battles he commanded one of the most powerful battleships his species could construct, a vessel that could go toe to toe with Imperial vessels of similar tonnage, and he was charged with holding the invaders at the very edge of the system, draining them of their strength and allowing the reserves to move forward and push them back. Korli worried for the future of his race, he knew their empire was gone forever despite some fanatics that somehow still believed they could successfully rebuild it despite the immense losses they had suffered, he knew the most they could do now was to defend the homeworld and hope to bring the Imperium to the negotiation table, show them that the cost for taking Castri'a was too great and not worth what they would gain.

"Sir" one of the officers at a console got his attention, "Detecting massive gravitational fluctuations"

"That's strange" such gravitational disturbances had never been recorded proceeding an Imperial attack, "A new weapon, ALL HANDS TO THEIR BATTLE STATIONS, PREPARE FOR AN ATTACK!"

The ship and fleet came alive as they prepared for an attack, Korli had fought the Imperials many times and knew the power of their ships but he was confident the defences he commanded could hold them back, asteroid sized battle stations that bristled with hardpoints and were filled with swarms of fighters and bombers as well as thousands of ships the crews of many of which had already fought against the Imperium and were determined to hold the line for as long as needed.

The gravitational fluctuations suddenly ceased and a wall of ships appeared before Korli and his fleet, they were small with none of them being larger than an escort.

"Is this all they can send against us, this is an insult" the voice of one of Korli's subordinates came over the vox but Korli was more cautious, wondering what the plan was

It soon became clear what the plan was as the wall of ships let loose a barrage of powerful lancer fire, lancer fire that was much too powerful for a ship so small, Korli's ships shook as the lances smashed in to his shields and completely stripped them.

"Shields down across the fleet" one of his officers reported, "Hull damage minimal"

"They can't fire another barrage like that for sometime and they seem to have no other weapons, we need to move forward and destroy them now!"

The fleet was about to move forward when they witnessed the wall of ships pull back and another one pull forward, Korli fully realised his enemy's plan.

"ALL SHIPS, SCATTER NOW!"

It was much too late, the ships fired a wall of shells that were almost as large as a patrol vessel. The explosive shells ripped through the shieldless fleet; mighty battleships had their innards blown out or their bridges completely sheared off, escort craft were torn in half and any ship lucky enough not to be destroyed was riddled with holes that threw the crew out in to the cold void.

"30% of our ships have been destroyed or completely disabled, 50% of the remaining ships report heavy damage and the rest report varying degrees of damage, the battle stations also report heavy damage but they say they can still fight" Korli received a grim report

"How is this ship?" He asked

"Heavy damage taken to the engines but we should still be able to move, multiple decks report fires and breaches, current casualty estimate is 1300"

Korli clenched his jaw in frustration, "We need to send word to the 2nd line and get reinforcements here before they ca…."

"Warp signatures!" Korli was interrupted by multiple holes in reality tearing open

His face dropped as the Imperial fleet left the warp, thousands of ships clawing their way back in to reality, he recognised some of the ships such as the Vengeful spirit and the Eternal mist but some other vessels were new to him. The most prominent of the new ships was a great black vessel, it completely dwarfed his ship making the mighty battleship look like an escort, it was shaped like a great leviathan with the bow bearing the likeness of a great sea beast, its mouth open wide to show off rows of golden teeth and a massive array of nova cannons sticking out like a deadly tongue.

"All ships pull back! Contact the 2nd line we need to muster ever shi…." Korli never finished relaying his order as the leviathan ship opened fire with its nova cannon, the powerful plasma blast completely engulfing the bridge and decapitating the ship, leaving it as a silent hulk floating in the void.

The Castri defence was in complete disarray after the strong opening strike, the remaining ships of the 1st line were too damaged to flee or fight back effectively and the subsequent defensive lines were left with insufficient intel to effectively blunt the Imperial attack.

Ovis sat on the bridge of his personal battleship, the Krake, as he watched the alien fleet get cut apart, their ships being reduced to hollow wrecks as they put up what weak defence they could, watching the carnage reminded him of his childhood and his early days on Krake.

A holographic projection of Horus appeared next to his command throne, "All their ships have been completely destroyed or routed, some of our ships report damage but we've taken no significant losses, without you this would have been quite the meat grinder"

"We're not done yet, we still have to scour their world clean" Ovis wasn't concerned about the land campaign and instead busied his mind wondering what treasures the aliens had

Ovis and the 11th legion had mostly been pointed toward alien civilizations and human worlds that required extreme force to bring them to compliance, the World beasts had started to gain a reputation throughout the Imperium as a savage legion on par with the World eaters or the Space wolves, the pirate emperor regularly looted these worlds of anything of value and left behind only the handful of inhabitants that survived, if they were lucky.

The Imperial fleet split in to three spearheads, each commanded by a primarch; Ovis commanded the right, Horus the centre and Aeoran the left, the xenos tried to scramble together a defence but the Imperials had already established themselves in the system and it was now impossible to dislodge them.

The Krake and her accompanying fleet sailed through the alien system, the xenos recognised the danger that the massive ship posed and sent the bulk of their forces to stop her advance on their homeworld. The void was filled with alien bomber and fighter craft as they desperately tried to get close to the vessel only for them to be cut apart by a thick curtain of flak or intercepted by the Krake's own fighter compliment. An alien battleship and its escorts traded fire with the Krake but the great void leviathan shrugged the blows off with ease, her hundreds of gunport covers pulling back and revealing rows of cannons, she let out a deafening cry as thousands of tonnes of steel were flung at her enemies, destroying or disabling some and heavily damaging others.

Ovis watched as the xenos ships charged him head on in a desperate attempt to at least cause some significant damage to his ship but it was not to be, a second volley completely destroyed the rest of the fleet and Ovis simply moved on.

With the battle in space practically won, leaving the xenos with no significant space presence, the three fleets converged on the planet. The main cities of the world were void shielded and heavily defended by the entire remaining xenos population but still the fleet bombarded the planet, for an entire day the Imperial ships unloaded millions of tonnes of munitions on to the surface, they flattened mountains and widened canyons and some of the cities with weaker shielding even succame to the weight of the weapons and were drowned in fire.

Hundreds of thousands of marines were ferried to the surface, the remaining cities trying to shoot down as many of the transports as they could but nothing could stop the Imperium now; marines, Imperial army, knights and titans were landed on the surface and they started their attack.

Horus stood on a hill far outside the void shielded capital city of the xenos, the other cities were being assaulted by the Imperial army and contingents of the three astartes legions but the main bulk of all three had gathered to cut off the xenos' head, he watched titans and artillery pound at the shield as his Luna wolves waited patiently next to their cousins to breach it. As he watched shells and plasma blasts burst against the shield Aeoran came up behind him.

"Have you seen what defences they have in the city?" Horus asked

"Billions of them, most are hastily armed conscripts but they will all try to stop us, they will not break and flee, we'll have to kill them all" Aeoran relayed his visions to his brother

"That was always the plan, did you see anything about the other cities?"

"They are less well defended, most of the worlds civilians have been moved here, the other cities only have professional soldiers in them"

"Why are they defending them then?" Ovis walked up to his two brothers

"Probably to split our forces and lessen the pressure on the capital" Horus and his brothers watched the void shield waver under the intense constant bombardment

"I don't know why they're continuing to fight their species is dead, they will never be able to recover from this" Aeoran had seen it, the further in the future something was the harder it was to see for Aeoran since the far future was always in flux but somethings were set in stone and Aeoran could always see those and he saw the extermination of this xenos breed, one way or another

"They still have hope if they have hope they can still fight; hope of escape, hope of survival, the hope that they can live one more day and that it will be just a little better" a sadistic smile spread across Ovis' face, "But that just makes the fight even better, there is no greater feeling than seeing that hope completely shatter"

"Have you met Konrad?" Horus asked, "You two might get along"

The three brothers watched as the bombardment finally made the shield flicker and fade, Horus connected his vox to a general channel.

"All units forward before they get the shield back up!"

Cries came up from the army of space marines, the different warcries of the legions melding and creating a world-shaking roar. The xenos rained down artillery on the charging astartes, firing volley after volley of las rounds from entrenched positions, some astartes were unlucky and their armour was overwhelmed but most made it through.

Casis Thal jumped in to the xenos trench, firing his bolt pistol at anything with scales, he drew his power sword as his brothers poured in behind him and started slashing. The Xenos were roughly as tall as an astrtes but they possessed none of the power and speed that the Emperor's angels did. Thal watched how the other legions fought, the Luna wolves were disciplined and the squads moved as if they were a single organism. The World beasts on the other hand seemed to fight as if they were two different legions, the Terran marines were orderly and fought much like the Luna wolves or Mist walkers but the Kraken marines were much more disorganised, much more like the World eaters or Space wolves, they let out terrifying screams and obscene war cries as they butchered the enemy. Despite finding the World beasts tactics distasteful Thal could see the effect it was having, terrifying the xenos and forcing them to flee in the face of both their null aura and their barbaric ferocity.

The xenos were driven out of their first trench and forced back to their second, their artillery intensified and emplaced heavy weapons strafed the recently lost positions. For a time the xenos managed to hold the three legions in the trench and they found themselves daring to hope that maybe they could push them back but that was before the primarchs descended on to the battlefield.

The massive form of Horus strode towards the front, a golden sword drawn, he stepped over the trench his sons sat in as a normal man would step over a crack, his master crafted armour withstanding the concentrated heavy fire.

"LUPERCAL!" the Luna wolve let out a war cry as they followed their primarch in to fire

Horus swept his arm in wide arcs and cut down the xenos like wheat, he took some time to observe how his brothers fought, they both led their legion from the front. He watched Ovis laughing sadistically as he blasted xenos apart with his massive bolt pistol and burned them to ash with his monstrous arm. Aeoran on the other hand was completely expressionless and he moved with almost unnatural speed and grace, even for a primarch, every one of his movements either killed a xenos or moved him from the path of danger.

Unable to withstand the force of three primarchs and their legions the xenos were forced back in to the city and street fighting commenced. Every building was filled with xenos, most armed only with bludgeons, the well armed and trained troops would use the hastily cobbled together civilian units to protect them while they consolidated their forces for counter attacks. The fighting was ferocious with snipers on every rooftop, heavy weapon emplacements around every corner and every building boobytrapped to come down on any astartes who entered.

Aeoran walked through the madness of war with a casual gait, his face expressionless as he casually moved his head to dodge bullets before they were even fired, he didn't even look in the direction the fire came from as he swung his great axe and a blade of energy tore through the xenos hiding behind cover. Aeoran was not thinking at all as he pushed deeper and deeper in to the city, he didn't need to he was in a battle trance.

A battle trance was a state Aeoran had trained himself to enter, the guiding voice that knew of the very next instance controlled his body, he followed it as it led him out of danger and guided his blade to his enemies, nothing could touch the mist king when he was in this state and only he could bring himself out of it. Aeoran was fighting his way through a horde of xenos conscripts, blocking and dodging their makeshift clubs with ease as he brought hundreds of them down with each swing of his axe.

Back step

Axe down

Left kick

Right block

Aeoran listened to the guiding voice and together they slaughtered, the xenos fleeing as they realised they couldn't even touch him, he stepped forward to pursue but the voice stopped him.

Stop

Duc..

The voice was suddenly torn away from Aeoran and he was thrown out of his battle trance, for an instant he was frozen in shock and he wondered what could have forced him out of his battle trance, a second later he got his answer. Aeoran felt a boot press in to his back and he was kicked to the ground just as a heavy calibre round sailed behind his head. Aeoran fell on to his stomach and without missing a beat pushed himself back up, he swung his axe at the position that had fired at him and completely destroyed it.

The mist king turned around to see who had saved his life, even if he wasn't in any real danger, he found Ovis standing behind him with a self-satisfied grin on his face.

"You gonna thank me?" the pirate emperor asked

"I was going to dodge that"

"You seemed kinda out of it, you're in battle you need to focus"

"Despite that I was fine" Aeoran turned his back to Ovis and was about to walk off but the words of his mother came in to his head, he turned back to Ovis and despite the uncomfortable feeling he looked him in the eyes, "I am thankful, that round might have killed me if we can really die"

Ovis gave him a pat on the shoulder, "Well always here to help"

The pirate emperor ran in to the maze of streets in search of more xenos to kill and Aeoran went off to do the same, as he felt Ovis aura retreat and fade he focused and felt himself slipping in to his battle trance but on the cusp of slipping under he thought on what his brother told him and the consciousness he had supressed resurfaced, at least for this one battle.

With the primarchs as the tip of the spear, the three legions soon made it to the centre of the city and to the xenos royal palace. The high walls were decorated with gilded depictions from the xenos' history and of their great heroes, the walls themselves were defended by the most skilled and well-armed warriors they still had. Desperate troops held the astartes off just long enough to allow a few remaining troops to retreat behind the palace walls.

"This is it, we'll finally cut the head off these snakes" Horus watched tanks roll down the streets and position themselves in front of the walls, ready to blow down the gates

"Can you leave the walls intact, I'm thinking of putting them around the peak of my palace" Ovis looked at the walls and imagined where he would put them on Krake

"Can you only think of loot and treasure?" Aeoran asked

"I was raised by pirates, its not my fault" Ovis smirked

Horus smirked alongside his brother, "If you can open the gates without us having to break them down then you can have whatever you like"

"You wanna see if I'm as good on land as I am at sea, don't worry I have an idea" Ovis went off to coordinate his attack with his legion

Aeoran gave Horus a strange look, "Do you think this is a good idea?"

Horus looked out at the arrayed forces ready to assault the palace, "Have you fought with the World eaters?"

"Yes, they're rabid berserkers, it's hard enough fighting a war but to do it with an ally as unpredictable and uncontrollable as them is near impossible"

"The World eaters aren't uncontrollable, you just need to know how to control them, how to keep them on a leash and when to let them loose" Horus was a master diplomat, using that skill even when everyone around him was unaware of it, "Ovis and his legion have the opposite problem, you need to know how to push them to action, they're not likely to fight unless they think it'll be a fun fight or something is in it for them or both, doesn't matter if they know they're being manipulated or not they can't back down from a challenge"

"Have you ever manipulated me like that?" Aeoran looked at his brother with suspicion

"No of course not, you loyally fight for our father no matter the situation"

"I'll choose to believe that"

Horus ordered all forces to stand down until Ovis made his move, him and Aeoran patiently watched as he walked in to the no man's land between the palace walls and the Imperial positions. As soon as Ovis stepped on to the desolate wasteland the xenos had their weapons trained on him.

"I don't know if you understand me!" Ovis projected his voice so it could be heard clearly inside the palace, "But unlike my supposed brothers who kill you on the orders of another and won't be convinced to stop, I am a reasonable man and wish to give you a route to survival and salvation!"

The Imperial and xenos forces were completely focused on him, they watched as he pulled off his armoured arm and undid the belt that held his sword, "I believe that the only truth is strength!"

Ovis pulled off his coat and dropped it to the ground with a heavy thud, further agitating the defenders on the wall and bringing more barrels to bear on him. Ovis pulled his shirt over his head, surprising both his brothers with the fact he actually wore chainmail under his shirt, he pulled off the chainmail and strutted in front on the xenos forces bare chested, daring them to fire on him.

"Send your best warriors against me, as many as you like, if they are victorious then my brothers and I will leave this world and system in peace and if I come out on top I don't even want anything the fight will be enough but the attack will continue!"

Chattering came up from the xenos, a number of them could speak the human language and those that did spread Ovis' offer through their ranks and they decided it was worth the risk. They had seen the power of the primarchs, they knew what they could do and they had thought of several ways to try and counter them. 20 of the xenos' most skilled warriors had survived the fighting and taken refuge inside the palace, individually they had killed squads of astartes and fighting together the xenos believed they could take down a primarch.

They adorned them in the strongest armour they had, plate that was almost the equal to what the primarchs wore, and armed them with power glaives and swords that could easily cut through ceramite. Ovis strut in front of the gates shouting challenges and obscenities at the xenos, he remained shirtless, daring any of them to come face him or even just shoot him. The gates were pulled open and the 20 xenos warriors stepped forward.

"We are the greatest warriors of the Castri!" the xenos were incapable of speaking in any way a human could understand but a translation device dealt with that, "Do you promise that if we defeat you that you'll leave our world in peace?"

"I do, I'm not the type of man to go back on his word" Ovis opened his arms up, "Now let's hurry this up"

The xenos warriors inched forward cautiously, their polearms out stretched as they fanned out and attempted to surround Ovis. The gates of the palace remained open as the civilians inside watched their warriors and the defenders on the walls focused entirely on the fight that would decide the fate of their species. Ovis didn't move as he was surrounded, his brothers and their legions wondering what he was planning as they held their positions. Several of the xenos warriors thrust their glaives at him, Ovis dodged all the blades as the other warriors moved to strike as he dodged, he moved like a snake as the blades seemed to almost move through him.

"What's he doing?" Horus leaned forward as he watched the fight, "Why hasn't he ended this yet?"

Ovis grabbed the shaft of one of the glaives and pulled the warrior towards him before kicking him back in to the dirt, the warrior quickly scrambled back to his feet as Ovis forced the other warriors back, breaking the circle they had formed. The xenos population watched with baited breath as they were entirely focused on the fight, their warriors moving forward to strike and being beaten back by the speed of the primarch, their armour just barely protecting them.

They had been fighting for a couple of minutes and the warriors' armour were covered in dents and gashes and a few of them had sustained minor injuries. Horus watched the fight but he was constantly wondering why Ovis wasn't fighting seriously, the pirate emperor was making it look like he was having trouble taking these warriors down but Horus knew that even Lorgar, the weakest of their number, would be able to easily win the fight.

The answer soon came as a loud high pitch scream came from the sky, the xenos' focus had been completely consumed by the fight and they had relaxed their defences just slightly, thinking an attack wouldn't come until the fight was decided. Hundreds of marines wearing jump packs rained down on the xenos palace, all of them letting out ear splitting screams that had the defenders frozen in fear and shock from the sudden attack, stopping them from responding immediately and allowing the marines to quickly establish a foothold on the walls.

The primarch's daughter led the attack on the walls, her vox caster modified to let out even louder screams as her warcries shattered the xenos' ears. She watched as they scrambled to put up a defence but it was far too late, she walked along the wall with impunity firing her plasma pistols as the xenos tried to bring their weapons to bear. The warriors on the wall were easily slaughtered or forced off the walls, they tried to protect the passages that led down from the walls but the marines simply leapt off the walls and flanked them, they didn't even need to utilise their jump packs, their power armour and genetic enhancements being enough to protect them from the drop.

The xenos warriors were torn between weather they should return to the palace to defend it or continue the fight with Ovis but the decision was quickly made for them as Ovis quickly killed all 20 of them with his bare hands.

The World beasts surged forward from their positions, letting out howls and screams. The xenos finally gathered themselves and attempted to shut the gates but the few seconds of hesitation they experienced was enough for Ovis to reach the gate before it closed and lodge himself in it. All the xenos desperately tried to push Ovis back and get the gate shut but the primarch used his immense strength to push back as they barely held against it, spears were thrust at him but they barely even drew blood. The marines soon reached the gate and put their weight behind their primarch's, the xenos crowd was thrown back as the gates flew open and the World beasts poured in.

Horus, Aeoran and their gene sons simply walked in to the palace unharassed. The courtyard was completely empty, except for the mutilated corpses of the xenos, the World beasts had harried the survivors deeper in to the palace as they sought to slaughter and loot.

"This is brutal even for the Imperium" Casis Thal looked around the courtyard

The world beasts had been thorough and creative with their massacre, xenos had been nailed to the wall with the bones of other xenos and left their barely alive, some had been lynched and left flailing like fish on a line, many were missing their heads or other body parts. Casis Thal walked amongst the corpses and found one that was still alive; its arms and legs had been broken, its eyes gouged out and its teeth, nails and tongue ripped out, the 1st captain recoiled as it looked at him with its bloody sockets and let out as pained cry. The captain quickly stuck his combat knife in its neck and swiftly ended its life.

Aeoran looked at the carnage unaffected, he was starting to understand his brother's methods and the need for them, "The Imperium needs people willing to do such brutal acts, our enemies must know that the price for denying the Imperium can and will be steep"

Horus and Aeoran walked through the palace as the sound of bolter fire and chainswords bounced off its walls, its halls were littered with bodies and had clearly been stripped of valuables. They soon found Ovis casually strolling through the halls and taking anything that caught his eye, his arms filled with treasures from the dawn of the xenos' civilization.

"I asked you to open the gates without breaking them down and you did it" Horus chuckled as the long war finally came to an end

"I only expected them to let down their guard on the wall and allow for a surprise attack that would then open the gates" Ovis laughed, "I didn't actually think they would leave the gates open"

"Wouldn't finding your shirt be more important than these trinkets?" Aeoran asked as Ovis went around grabbing more treasures bare chested

"I'll find it later" Ovis waved him off

"Did you even need to take it off?"

"No I just look good with my shirt off" Ovis laughed like a kid in a candy store

The three primarchs walked through the palace as World beasts ran past them carrying priceless artifacts, they made their way through the halls and to the centre of the palace where they found marines attempting to break down the doors to the throne room. Several marines threw themselves against the great doors as xenos held a gate bar in place, Horus simply walked over and with one kick threw the door open with ease. The xenos scrambled back as the marines flooded in, the couple dozen remaining xenos wielding mostly improvised weapons.

"Stop!" the xenos king spoke

The xenos king was large, over 8 feet tall with a head crest the rose another foot and gold coated feathers running down his back. He stood from his throne, the myriad of jewels and charms in his crest acting like chimes as he approached the primarchs, his few remaining subjects attempted to stop him but he pushed through them.

"Why have you done this?" he spoke this without a translator, his mouth not made to speak human languages giving him a strange accent, "This war was a noble endeavour until you brought these savage beasts against my people, we were prepared to surrender"

Horus looked down at the xenos king, "The galaxy belongs to humanity, your species has no place in my father's Imperium"

"So your Emperor is a savage beast as well" the xenos king look at Ovis, "And you, you betrayed our trust, we believed you wouldn't attack until the duel was decided"

"The duel was decided from the moment I declared it"

The xenos king lowered his head, "Your entire empire is rotten and will tear itself apart" he was shaking from pure rage, "But none of you will be there to see it"

The xenos king tore his robe open, revealing a bomb strapped to his chest, as he lunged at Ovis. The king had given the primarchs only a split second to escape and almost as soon he grabbed Ovis the countdown reached 0. Horus and Aeoran turned their backs to the bomb and let their armour absorb the blast but the unarmoured Ovis had barely enough time to react. His hand enveloped the xenos king's head as he kicked him off, easily tearing his head from his body, and barely got behind his brothers in time before the bomb went off and bathed the throne room in nuclear fire.

As the smoke cleared the primarchs could see that the entire throne room had been destroyed, the stone work melted or completely evaporated, and everyone besides them killed, the king and his few remaining subjects had been reduced to scorch marks on the floor and the World beasts marines had been cooked in their armour. Horus' and Aeoran's armours had sustained some superficial damage but ultimately remained intact while Ovis had several burns across his body that would soon heal.

"At least he was nice enough to end the war for us" Horus joked

"And he left us a nice gift" Ovis held up the xenos king's skull, the flesh having been almost completely melted off in the blast

With the war over and the xenos completely destroyed the three legions took to celebrating in the ashes of their civilization. The World beasts piled the treasure and loot they acquired high in the palace's courtyard; the mountain of gold, jewels and priceless art rising high. The three legions celebrated their victory quite differently; the Mist walkers remained as disciplined in celebration as in war with Aeoran personally handing out commendations and even promotions to astartes that had distinguished themselves, the World beasts on the other hand were as rowdy in celebration as in war with them drinking and eating excessively and competing in different physical competitions.

Aeoran was giving out the last few promotions to marines from companies that had lost many of their command personnel, personally picking them based on their experience or the talent and skill they had shown. As he was anointing a marine as a captain Ovis approached him, still shirtless and covered in burns.

"Come on, this is no way to celebrate" the pirate emperor gave him a light shove, "Take that armour off and fight like a real man"

Aeoran sighed as he thought about it for a few seconds, a few feet away the marines of his brother's legion had stripped off their armour and were wrestling each other as other marines cheered them on, even some Luna wolves had joined in.

"Fine" captains of Aeoran's legion attended to him and took the armoured plates he pulled them off, stripping until he was as bare chested as his brother

Marines of all three legions gathered as the two primarchs circled each other, sizing the other up, this was something none of them had seen before and doubted they would see again. Ovis was the first to make a move, he lunged at Aeoran to grapple his midsection but the mist king dropped and intercepted him. The two pushed against the other, trying to force them in to submission. It was a strange experience for Aeoran since he had never met anyone who could come close to him in strength, even the astartes were orders of magnitude weaker than him.

Horus watched as Ovis kicked Aeoran's knee and forced it to buckle and giving the pirate the high ground, he started to force Aeoran down but before he could get him in a hold Aeoran slipped under him and stood, lifting Ovis up. Aeoran threw Ovis to the ground and elbow dropped right in to his stomach, Ovis used the opening to grab Aeoran by his neck and slip on to his back, wrapping his legs around his waist and getting him in a choke hold. Aeoran managed to get to his feet and was about to throw himself back but as he did Ovis unwrapped his legs and seamlessly transitioned in to a suplex, throwing Aeoran back and in to the ground.

The two wrestled for hours with neither giving in to exhaustion or their injuries, it took Horus calling it a draw for it to finally come to an end.

"I'll beat you next time" Aeoran promised

"Then you'll have to practise" the two brothers laughed together

Next time: Blessings of a god