In all of my long years of service in the Imperial Guard, I have fought against innumerable horrors in the name of the Emperor. From daemons to Dark Eldar, Genestealers to traitor guardsmen, I've seen it all whether I wanted to or not, mostly not, and triumphed over every single one of them without fail, despite my narrow odds of success each time. Seeing those three Chaos Space Marines barge out of nowhere wouldn't be my first incredibly unexpected and equally unwanted encounter with heretic Astartes. I still don't know how I survived some of my prior engagements I've had with them, but I managed it all the same. Of course, considering how I had the backing of either Amberley and her Inquisitorial retinue who were fully prepared to deal with such threats or the full might of the Astra Millitarum behind me on the rare few occasions I did find myself fighting against the vile monstrosities, I could make a few guesses as to why I never had any troubles living to tell the heavily embellished tales of my victory over them.
Unfortunately for me, I was nowhere near as unprepared to deal with Traitor Marines back then as I was now with only a few competent adventurers at my side who were only prepared to fight an army of goblins. To say I wasn't feeling optimistic about our chances of victory, let alone those of our survival, was a gross understatement. I've seen Khornate Berserkers tear through tanks with their bare hands before, so I knew there was little the majority of the adventurers present could do against three of the warp tainted monstrosities.
That was why I ordered all but the most experienced adventurers, those who I both personally trusted and believed could last more than a few seconds against the Berserkers' unholy might, to retreat towards safety to stop the inevitable bloodbath before it could begin. If any of the lower ranked adventurers had doubted my desperate demand initially, the sight of two heretic Astartes mowing down ork sized goblin champions, roaring with manic laughter as they butchered the greenskin behemoths with horrifying ease, was all the convincing they needed in order to frak off and give me one less thing to worry about. As the lower ranked adventurers fled for their lives, I quickly tried to think of any way the silver ranked adventurers and I could stop the Chaos Marines before they could massacre us, the few stragglers still left at the farm, and all of Frontier Town.
Had I not been pressed for time to think by one of the genetically enhanced warriors ignoring the crowd of goblins the rest of his traitorous kin were in the process of butchering, I probably would have come up with something more clever than 'handle it', as there were few ways I could think of handling an Astartes that didn't involve Plasma Weaponry or heavy ordnance that I didn't have access to. Instead, I had to improvise a means of surviving the next few seconds with the resources and manpower available on an isolated backwater planet in the hopes that Jurgen could pull my arse out of the mess I managed to find myself in.
Although I am sure the silver ranked adventurers I was surrounded by were the finest troops available, given my current circumstances, I wasn't so naive that I was willfully ignorant of how frakked we all were, not that I let my thoughts show to any of them despite the bowel clenching terror I felt. The farm's entire defensive force would be slaughtered in short order as none of us possessed any means to effectively fight them if any of us tried to put up a defense to stall the unstoppable march of a trio of enraged Khornate Berserkers, yet as the only ones with any chance to stall their charge, it came down to us to buy enough time to come up with the means to defeat them.
To the best of my knowledge, the only weaponry on the planet capable of consistently taking down armored Astartes was the meltagun in my aide's possession. Seeing as how Jurgen was more than likely driving to my location as fast as he could with my salvation within arms reach, I wouldn't have to wait long. With that said, surviving the onslaught of a murderously insane Chaos Space Marine long enough for my aide to put the heretic down was going to be far easier said than done.
"Avoid being hit by those monsters at all costs!" I shouted, hurriedly activating my chainsword as the lone Khornate Berserker rapidly approached us as the other two continued to butcher the remaining greenskins with alarming speed, "Blocking their weapons will be impossible! Focus on evading or redirecting their attacks away from you if you don't want to die!"
Heavy Warrior looked at his massive sword, carefully studying the faint seam from where his massive blade had been forged back together from when I had broken his weapon in half, before nodding in understanding at my words, "Anything else we should know about these things?" He asked.
"Aim only for the joints in between their armor. Our weapons will have no chance of damaging their ceramite plating." I advised everyone present, directing a meaningful glance at Witch, "Not even sorcery will be able to do much to them unless it is something powerful enough to take down a fortress."
An ordinary psyker might have stood a chance against an Astartes, given their warp tainted powers were potent enough to be directed at the rampaging heretic without getting any friendlies caught up in the blast wave. Much to my immense relief, whatever the people of this planet called magic and miracles, they weren't warpcraft. The fact that none of the spellcasters Jurgen and I had encountered so far had turned into a frothing mess upon getting close to my aide and his rare ability to nullify the powers of the warp from a close distance was as good of a testament as I needed to prove that I had nothing to fear from the so called 'witch' I was working with, and most other human practitioners of 'magic' on this world, but I digress.
"I'm afraid… I am lacking… such a spell." Witch hummed in dejection as she braced her staff in front of her all the same, and I let out a small sigh of relief knowing I hadn't taken to associating with a human Earthshaker.
"Great. As if today couldn't get any worse." Spearman complained.
"What's wrong, Frontier's Strongest? You're not scared, are you?" Female Knight jeered as she did her best to hide her own uneasiness behind her attempt to antagonize the foolish warrior.
"I'm not scared. I'm just pissed that we won't be getting paid to kill these bastards like we will be with the goblins." The cocky adventurer boasted, sounding as confident in our victory as I wished I could be.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" The corrupted Astartes roared as it drew close enough to crush us beneath the whirring teeth of its massive chainaxe, raising up its weapon above its head and bringing it down with almost inhuman speed for such an enormous weapon.
The adventurers, acting quickly thanks to thire years of experience and instincts honed through countless adventures and battles against unknown threats similar to, but far less threatening than a Chaos Space Marine, dodged away from the chainaxe as it crashed down into our midst with lightning speed. Anyone familiar with my habitual cowardice and desire to stay as far away from danger as possible likely would have assumed I would join them, and against any other enemy, I would have if I wasn't already familiar with the nuances of engaging Khornate Berserkers in melee combat.
Crossing blades with an Astartes was never my first choice in dealing with the superhuman soldiers, nor should it be for anyone with any sense of self preservation when given the choice. Having fought Space Marines who debased themselves before the dark god of slaughter several times in the past with far less impressive weaponry than the chainsword I currently possessed, I had more experience than most in dealing with the heretical monstrosities in close quarters combat, which was why I knew what surely appeared to be a near suicidal charge to my allies was actually the safest move I could have committed, given the circumstances.
Chainaxes, for all their destructive power, were quite difficult to use against an enemy that could stay inside the reach of their gnashing teeth where any attempts to catch them with the axehead were just as likely to hit the wielder, something I knew quite well after fighting against a Khornate cultist's favorite weapon far more times than I would have liked to. Combined with the enormous bulk of a Space Marine's armor, it left them surprisingly vulnerable to anything that miraculously managed to get up close to them without being hacked to pieces. When the heretic Astartes' weapon crashed down into the earth behind me, I took full advantage of the few seconds of opportunity that were presented before me as I lashed out at one of the many openings between my enemy's ceramite armor. My first strike took the Traitor Marine below the knee, not biting deep enough to take the leg off but penetrating far enough into the Chaos Marine's shin that it faltered for a moment before it could retaliate.
The Berserker tried to swat me away with its free hand as if I was an annoying pest, stumbling slightly as it pulled its weapon free from the ground without the full support of its injured leg, allowing me to score yet another blow against its outstretched arm as I ducked underneath it. The corrupted Astartes let out a furious bellow as my chainsword found an old rent in its armor and tore down the full length of its arm. I felt the gnashing teeth of my weapon bite through bone upon my initial thrust, leaving the limb hanging limply by the time I pulled back my blade in preparation for its next attack. Its superhuman speed allowed it to bring its massive weapon to bear far faster than any ordinary opponent should have as it tried to split me in half with its chainaxe, but managed to parry the blade away on reflex, narrowly preventing myself from being bisected.
"I WILL FEAST FROM YOUR CORPSE BEFORE I OFFER YOUR SKULL TO THE SKULL THRONE!" The enraged Berserker bellowed as I frantically alternated between evading and parrying the flurry of blows it tried to chase me with as I tried to retreat from its retaliatory assault.
I didn't have any time to utter a retort as I typically would have in the past, as unlike before I had no time to try and bait out a rage fueled attack I could take advantage of as I was doing everything I could to avoid being torn to bloody chunks as the other adventurers nearby waited for an opening to assist me. Although the lone heretic Astartes was focusing most of its ire on me, it still had enough presence of mind to try and keep my allies at bay with the occasional wild swing meant to deter them from approaching. Female Knight attempted to withstand a direct strike from one of these hits in an attempt to assist me, but only managed to block a glancing blow that would have taken her arm off if it hadn't been for how thick her shield was. The large kite shield she used to block the blow was nearly torn in two as she and the other adventurers learned from her mistake and waited for a much better opportunity to interfere with my improper duel with the furious demigod I was barely able to keep up with.
Despite landing what should have been two crippling blows to my opponent, the Traitor Marine did not slow down in its assault against me. If anything, the damage I inflicted upon it only seemed to increase its fury, leaving me no time to do anything other than weather the relentless barrage of attacks it unleashed in an attempt to rip me apart. Thankfully, the Berserker's fury did little to improve its coordination, as while its attacks did grow slightly faster with every passing moment it failed to hit me, they also became much more wild and easier to evade or redirect with my chainsword.
The two of us stayed undisturbed in our deadly dance for what felt like an eternity to me until disaster finally struck and my continued streak of surviving impossible odds appeared to have finally run out. Whether by pure misfortune or from focusing too much on being wailed upon by a Chaos Marine, in my attempt to maintain a healthy distance as I continuously backed away from my opponent to avoid being trampled underfoot by him, I stumbled over one of the many corpses that had been left behind in the initial goblin assault on the farm. A hobgoblin's corpse managed to trip me up rather than one of the smaller breeds of xenos vermin scattered across the farm grounds, and my life flashed before my eyes and not for the first time as I fully believed I was going to die at that very moment.
I had no time to wonder where my allies were and why they weren't coming to aid me, no hope of salvation as the sight of my would-be killer lumbered over for me, and nothing I could do to save my own skin for once. For what appeared to be the last time in my life, my devilish luck seemed to have finally ran out.
Believing that nothing could stop the inevitable, I closed my eyes and silently prayed to the Emperor that everything would be over quickly and that the adventurers could somehow handle the defense of the farm without me. And yet, as I waited to find myself standing before the Golden Throne after cheating death for countless years, I heard a horrendous crash and the series of surprised shrieks rather than the sound of my own flesh and bones being rendered apart, and yet I did not have the courage to open my eyes until a familiar odor washed over me.
"Are you okay, Commissar? I hope I didn't keep you waiting long." My dutiful aide asked as calmly as if he were discussing the weather, his repulsive aroma announcing his presence long before he could say anything.
My eyes shot open to reveal perhaps one of the most ridiculous sights I have ever seen in my century of service to the Golden Throne. Standing before me with his meltagun held tightly in his grasp was Jurgen, looking as unperturbed as he usually did in the face of imminent danger, as he lowered his free hand to pick me up with the Khornate Berserker having seemingly vanished. It was only when I heard the rumbling of metal coming from behind my intrepid aide as he helped me to my feet that I saw both the reason I was still alive and what happened to the Chaos Marine.
Parked only a few meters behind my malodorous aide, surrounded by several slack jawed adventurers and a few more who looked quite nauseous after enduring a ride with Jurgen at the wheel, was the Trukk with the Chaos Marine squirming underneath its tires as it tried to crawl free. The inhuman heretic must have been so focused on me that it never noticed my aide approaching in our stolen Ork vehicle until it was too late, much like myself, leading to the corrupted demigod's current sorry state of being. One only needed to look at the unnatural angle its good arm was bent at to tell that its attempts to liberate itself were futile, although knowing how durable Astartes were, I didn't trust the Traitor Marine to lay down quietly and bleed to death. Such hubris was likely going to get somebody killed, and after having narrowly escaped death myself, I was in no mood to tempt fate again.
"Impeccable timing as ever." I told my faithful aide, attempting to hide the bowel clenching terror I was still suffering from with pure bravado as I moved onto a more pressing topic.
"Would you mind if I were to finish what I started or would you rather have the honors?" I asked him as I gestured to the Chaos Marine he parked on top of.
"That heretic scum is all yours, sir." Jurgen said, spitting at the traitor in disgust that one of the Emperor's own finest could ever fall so far from grace. "There's still some more to go around for the rest of us."
"All the more reason to get on with it, then." I hurriedly said at the reminder that there were still two other heavily armed giants with an inclination for mass murder nearby.
I marched up to the pinned heretic Astartes with no small sense of satisfaction as it glared at me with every step of my approach, failing to find the strength to utter so much as a single curse as it stared at me from halfway underneath the Trukk. Not wanting to waste too much time with theatrics when there were still more threats to deal with, I placed a boot on the helmet of the trapped Traitor Marine and brought my chainsword down on the its neck, letting the teeth of my weapon slowly chew through the heavier layer of armor protecting the Chaos Marine's vitals until it's head finally was severed in a shower of blood and bone fragments.
That simple act managed to redirect the attention of the silver ranked adventurers, now joined by the unusual gathering of xenos and abhuman adventurers who climbed out of the back of the vehicle looking only mildly nauseous, entirely on me. I did not waste time trying to rally them back into fighting shape with a rousing speech that was just as disingenuous as the lies my reputation was built on in fear that they might bail on me after seeing what it took to take down just one heretic Astartes when we still had two more to deal with.
"Well, that was easy enough." I calmly stated, struggling to keep a straight face at the complete and utter frak I was spouting, "Now, are you going to help me with the other Chaos Marines or are Jurgen and I going to have to take them out on our own too?"
My words took on my desired effect almost immediately and snapped the other adventurers back to attention, even if they were lacking the same fighting spirit they had when we were only dealing with goblins.
"Oh hoh hoh, it would be an honor to slay one of these monsters in men's skin alongside you, Commissar Cain." Lizard Priest said, laughing boisterous as he was the first to stand by my side.
"And I can hardly let Scaly join you on his lonesome." The Squat said as he joined his larger companion.
"I can't call myself an elf if I back down from any challenge a dwarf would accept." High Elf Archer chimed in too, much to my annoyance.
"Nor can I." Half-Elf Scout called out as she scurried beside her xenos kin.
As much as I wanted to turn down the assistance of the two Eldar, I was hardly in a position to refuse their help. Besides, I knew from experience that some Eldar could hold their own against Astartes better than they had any right to. I doubted these two were anything like those frightening specters of death, but on the off chance that they were, nothing short of the Emperor himself climbing off of the Golden Throne would make me reject their assistance now.
"How about the rest of you?" I asked the other silver ranked adventurers, "I understand if you don't think you're up to the task of-"
"Oh shut up with all that bullshit." Spearman interrupted me, and for a moment I thought the dense idiot might not have been as dull witted as I believed him to be.
"You think we're going to let you take all the credit for taking down these armored giants? Not a fucking chance, Commissar." The brash fool declared, failing to notice my sigh of relief that he hadn't noticed my charade for what it was.
"Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say that, but it wouldn't be right to just sit back and let you save the day all on your own." Female Knight spoke up, choosing her words far more carefully than the brash idiot did. "Besides, we still have to show you what adventurers are made of. We can't be letting an old soldier like you do everything on his own, even if you are a Hero back where you're from."
Female Knight's little speech was enough to get the rest of the human adventurers to rally together around her, and despite my desire to correct her misunderstanding as to how I earned the moniker 'Hero of the Imperium' as a side-effect of saving my own skin, I ultimately kept my mouth shut in fear of any attempt I did make would hurt our already shaky morale.
Even then, I wouldn't have had any time to have dissuaded anyone of such notions. In the time it took Jurgen to save my hide, the other Chaos Marines had managed to finish off the last of the goblin champions and were now looking towards us as their next tribute to offer to their dark patron. They were already charging towards us when I spotted them making their move, giving us little opportunity to divide ourselves between each of them.
"Lizard Priest, Dwarf Shaman, Jurgen, elves, you're with me. We'll take the one on the left. Everyone else, keep the one on the right busy until we finish with ours and can come to assist you." I quickly said, dividing us into the groups I felt we would work best in.
"Oh, feeling cocky, are you? We'll see who kills theirs first when all of this is over." Spearman said as we divided ourselves into our respective groups.
As much as I wanted to chastise him for choosing to be a pain in the arse now of all times, I bit back my retort and ignored his provocation in favor of directing all of my attention into bringing down the Traitor Marine my group would be responsible for as we all moved towards our respective targets.
"Then I will wish you the best of luck with that." I settled for instead, doing my best to instill some hope in them that they might succeed in the impossible if they didn't know how frakked they truly were.
"Lizard Priest, Half-Elf Scout, and I will try to keep the heretic Astartes distracted. Dwarf Shaman, High Elf Archer, use whatever spells and tools you have at your disposal to assist us. While all of us are keeping the Astartes busy, Jurgen, try and line up a killshot with your meltagun. Let us know when you have an opening so we can all avoid getting in your way." I quickly barked out, assigning everyone a role I knew they could fulfill and subtly let my aide know that any 'accidents' involving either of the Eldar women would not be appreciated, for now at least.
The others barely had enough time to give me a nod of assent to my plan before we were moving to intercept our target. While I never explicitly mentioned it, we didn't necessarily need to divide our forces to handle each Traitor Marine individually. With that said, I did have my reasons for refusing to acknowledge the option. For starters, to the best of my knowledge, Jurgen was the only one amongst us carrying a weapon powerful enough to bring down an Astartes with any reliability. Naturally, I wanted such firepower to be as close to my person as was safely possible to maximize my chances of seeing tomorrow.
That my aide was able to run over the Astartes I decapitated without being noticed beforehand was nothing short of a miracle, one which I didn't believe we would ever be able to replicate to matter how hard we tried. As cathartic as it would have been to run over another one of them with the orkish deathtrap, the odds of it happening again were a million-to-one.
In addition to the limited availability of Astartes slaying weaponry we had in our possession, Jurgen and I both knew first hand how deadly a group of Space Marines could be when fighting together. Although the Reclaimers chapter we witnessed did not favor melee combat like the World Eaters we were faced with, I had also seen those loyalist Astartes mow down horrors that had butchered an entire Mechanicus excavation team and the Skitarii contingent they brought with them in the past. With my first hand experience of watching a squad of Space Marines in action, I had no doubt that the two Chaos Marines would be infinitely harder to deal with if allowed to fight together as opposed to eliminating each one of them separately. With only one of us possessing a weapon that could kill the Astartes without them being completely immobilized, our success depended on being able to take down one of our traitorous foes before both could overwhelm us with their combined might.
Not wanting to see how long the human adventurers could last against a bloodthirsty demigod they couldn't hope to meaningfully injure, I charged down the Chaos Marine in front of me alongside Lizard Priest and Half-Elf Scout in an attempt to buy Jurgen the time he needed to line up a killing shot on it. Unsurprisingly, the skull crazed maniac targeted the scaled abhuman first as Lizard Priest was by far the largest of us three and whose skull likely looked the most appealing as an offering. To my complete shock, Lizard Priest did not try to evade the blow but raised his claws in order to catch the shaft of the chainaxe sailing towards him and managed to stop before it could turn him into a bloody mulch. Amazed as I was at the abhuman's impressive feat of strength, I did not stop to stare in wonder at my party member's fearsome strength and instead stabbed my whirring chainsword into a rent in the Khornate Berserker's armor left by some monstrosity I wished to never meet.
I felt the Traitor Marine shudder as my blade went hilt deep into its lower abdomen and prepared to let go of my weapon as the monstrosity tried to pull me off of it. Before I had a chance to react, Half-Elf Scout came to my unneeded rescue and lopped off a few of the tainted Astartes' unarmored fingers from the hand it tried to grab me with, leaving me ample time to liberate my blade and douse myself in the heretic's corrupted ichor from the deluge that chased behind my freshly liberated chainsword.
Enraged by its wounds and inability to hit any of us, the heretic Astartes kicked out at Lizard Priest and struck him in the chest, sending the scaled abhuman flying away and giving it a chance to fight back with its weapon. Rather than turn its attention back to me or Half-Elf Scout as I expected it to, the Chaos Marine instead raced towards Lizard Priest as he sputtered for breath while slowly pulling himself back to his feet. The Astartes was obviously injured, perhaps even mortally so, but even so there was nothing me or the Eldar woman at my side could do to help the ogryn sized abhuman out, and for a brief moment I thought I was going to lose an entertaining dining partner.
"Oh no you don't!" Dwarf Shaman called out, hurriedly mumbling a spell underneath his breath as a large pillar of stone shot up out of the ground to shield Lizard Priest from the decapitating strike the Traitor Marine intended to end the abhuman's life with.
The corrupted Astartes' weapon got stuck halfway through the pillar, trapping it in place once again. A few wooden arrows attempted to shoot through some of the weaker points in the heretic Marine's armor but, even though they struck its helmet's lenses and several of the bloody holes spread out across its armor, they failed to penetrate where they hit.
"You have got to be kidding me? How tough are these guys?" High Elf Archer yelled after seeing her surprise attack fail.
As much as I wanted to ask her in what world she expected wooden arrows to do against solid ceramite armor and gene-enhanced flesh that could stop stub rounds underneath it, I bit back my admonishments as Half-Elf Scout and I went to work in disabling our opponent further.
The Eldar girl was the first one to reach our target and made the unfortunate mistake of targeting one of the thick armor plating covering its calve as she attempted to slice through its leg. Aside from managing to chip the paint, or rather what I hoped was paint and not a dried layer of blood, her attack had no effect. Rather than try her luck again, the xenos had enough presence of mind to back away from the Chaos Space Marine as it tried to swat her like an annoying insect with its fingerless hand while the other continued to unsuccessfully free its weapon from the stone shield the Squat had summoned. With the heretic Astartes' attention split between the woman that tried to take off its leg and liberating its weapon, it never so much as spared me a glance until I managed to stab it with my chainsword yet again, this time through its waist. Unlike before, I did not pull my chainsword out but dragged it across the corrupted Astartes back to cause as much damage to the fallen demigod as possible before retreating back to safety, not that it was necessary.
I can only assume I managed to cut through something important, as the Khornate Berserker let out a strangled cry of agony and collapsed onto its knees, leaning against the pillar of stone its weapon was trapped inside of as if that was the only thing preventing it from falling flat on its face.
"You have my thanks for the rescue." The scaled abhuman gratefully called out to us as he finally staggered back to his feet and away from the Traitor Marine, clutching the side of his chest with what I presumed to be a pained expression drawn on his animalistic snout as he limped towards safety.
LIzard Priest more than likely had a few broken ribs and possibly worse, but luckily for him, I knew he possessed healing miracles far more potent than those which Priestess could use. That he didn't end up with a foot sized hole through his chest after being kicked by an Astartes was a testament to his abhuman resilience, something I was incredibly grateful for as I would have missed the jovial abhuman otherwise. He would probably be fine after some rest, but more than likely feel sore for weeks to come.
"I think that'll do, Commissar. Ready to fire at will." My aide announced now that his target was temporarily immobilized.
"Close your eyes, everyone. This is going to be bright." I warned the xenos and abhumans nearby, in case they hadn't learned their lesson from the last time my aide used his meltagun in their presence against the two Ogres we fought.
I had just enough time to follow my own instructions as a searing bright light filled the air beyond my closed eyelids for a gratifyingly long time, the acrid smell of ionized air eventually being replaced by the familiar scent of burnt flesh. I was pleased to note that Jurgen had been quite thorough in disposing of the Chaos Marine when I opened my eyes, leaving little more than a smoldering skeleton with only a few scraps of blackened meat attached to the bones, surrounded by a puddle of liquidated metal that still radiated heat.
As much as I wanted to bask in our momentary victory, I knew there was no time to waste as the other adventurers were still fighting a war of attrition they were bound to lose before long. Turning to see how many of them were still alive, I was incredibly surprised to see that none of them had perished against the heretic Astartes in the time it took for my group to take out ours. The silver ranked adventurers were fighting to their strengths and against the Traitor Marine's weaknesses, using their greater numbers and speed against the fallen Astartes' inability to keep up with so many different targets attacking it from all angles.
Unsurprisingly, none of them had managed to do any lasting damage to the armored behemoth. What they had achieved though, was thoroughly enraging the Chaos Marine worse than any cultist of the other Ruinous Powers could hope to.
"STAY STILL AND BLEED, YOU PATHETIC MAGGOTS! KHORNE DEMANDS BLOOD AND HE WILL HAVE HIS FILL!" It roared as it furiously and sent a chasing blow against Spearman as the cocky adventurer managed to score another hit against the Berserker that failed to penetrate its armor.
"Good, then your dark god can have yours." I retorted, suddenly seeing an opening in its guard and chasing after it to try and make the most of the opportunity I was given.
I had to cross quite the noticeable gap to close the distance between us, but years of trying to run from various problems I felt were best dealt with by a long ranged artillery barrage than my personal attention had left me quite fleet footed compared to most other members of the Commissariat. I closed the distance between us in what felt like an instant as Heavy Warrior and Female Knight must have seen what I was trying to go for and ran up beside me far faster than I had seen any of them move before. I only spared a second of thought as to where their sudden burst of speed came from until I realized that I hardly care to learn now, or when this whole mess was over, and instead was delighted to see the Chaos Marine focusing its attention on those two rather than myself, leaving me the perfect opening to take a swipe at its unarmored knee with my chainsword.
The effects of my strike were as gratifying as they were immediate. My chainsword cleaved through to the bone with ease, the spinning adamantium tipped teeth making short work of the bone and tearing out the other side of the heretic Astartes' leg even easier. The superhuman soldier bellowed in rage as it collapsed on one knee, trying to bring its weapon to bear against me but failing to raise it up in time to stop my chainsword from piercing through the small gap between its helmet and breastplate, my blade catching the demigod in the neck and unleashing a shower of blood as I pulled it free.
Rather than try to fight me until its dying breath, the Astartes let out a wet rattle as it dropped its weapon and clawed at its own throat in a desperate attempt to try and seal the wound I had inflicted upon it. Unwilling to walk away when I knew the behemoth could still easily rise up and wreak havoc upon me and my allies for a few more minutes until it bled out, I pulled out my laspistol and fired continuously into its throat until its head lulled back for its scorched spine to show through the wound in its neck and the heretic Astartes finally fell still. Even then, I made sure to finish removing its head with my chainsword just to prove to myself that it was truly dead.
It was only as I stopped to look at the other adventurers I had left to fend for themselves, pleasantly surprised to see that all of them were still alive, that they were all staring at me like awestruck juvies after decapitating the Khornate Berserker they wore down for me. I had thought that my compatriots in organizing the farm's defenses would have been a little less swayed by such theatrics, but then again, I did manage to make a successful career for myself by groxshitting my way to retirement so I suppose if I could fool generals and politicians alike without trying, then a bunch of adventurers wouldn't fare much better. The fact I had managed to effortlessly execute one of the monsters that had butchered an entire platoon's worth of goblin champions likely contributed to whatever fantasies they were imagining about what I was capable of.
To get their attention off of myself, if only to avoid them embellishing my achievements so much that the Adventurers' Guild started to get any ideas about throwing me at the first daemonhost they found, I quickly tried to make light of what I had just done.
"What was that about not letting me steal all the glory?" I jokingly taunted Spearman, "If this keeps up, then you'll have to start calling me the Frontier's Strongest."
"Like hell I am!" The brash fool retorted, earning a chorus of laughter from the gathered adventurers, much to my relief, as my aide, abhumans, and xenos finally joined us.
"Don't… relax yet." Witch interrupted her partner before he could continue his tirade, "We won't know… if the job… is finished… until Goblin Slayer… returns."
"Oh please, as if we have to worry about Orcbolg. He had the easy job of exterminating the Goblin Lord's nest while we took care of all the dangerous goblins!" High Elf Archer grumbled, earning a nod of assent from Spearman, "Besides, it's not like he had to deal with these armored giants."
I felt my palms grow clammy and my stomach tighten at the xenos archer's words. Turning to see Witch and Heavy Warrior's expressions, they looked just as terrified as I felt, not that I let my apprehension visibly show.
"Does anyone remember if Goblin Slayer said which direction the Goblin Lord's nest was?" I asked as calmly as I could given the circumstances, voicing the question I was afraid I already knew the answer to.
"Somewhere to the east of here." Jurgen answered dutifully, blissfully unaware as to why I and several of the other adventurers were so concerned with what must have appeared to have been a trivial question to him.
As I stared at the trail of mangled corpses leading from the easter edge of the farm, I felt more worried then than I had at any time my life had been put in intimate danger thanks to the exploits of that goblin exterminating blockhead.
"Oh frak." I muttered, dreading what needed to be done, if only for the piece of mind the confirmation of my worst fears would bring or another confrontation with any lingering Chaos Astartes forces we might find if we weren't too late.
"Jurgen. Get the Trukk ready. We need to find Goblin Slayer and Priestess NOW." I instructed him, struggling to maintain a level voice as I gave him my order and silently prayed to the Emperor that they were still somehow alive.
Special thanks to Doc43Souls for beta reading this chapter!
Author's Corner:
As what I am sure is a complete and utter shock to all of you reading this, the HERO OF THE IMPERIUM saves the day again. Whether or not he will be able to save anything more than the farm and Frontier Town is another matter entirely.
Comments:
cirithewitcheress: Nice chapter again. Surprised to see the Fox Rogue Guild guy was the reasonable sort. Yeah sure he hes in it only for the money but recognized this shit was life or death and the money could just be settled once they finished surviving
Is Fox's assistance really that unbelievable? Frontier Town is the largest settlement in the entire Frontier of Goblin Slayer's world according to canon. Imagine the thousands or millions of gold that would be lost every year if Frontier Town fell and you'll likely see why Fox didn't even bother to take the pittance Cain offered when pledging his assistance, if the Rogue cared solely about profit.
"Austin": Wow….Ciaphas is not taking any chances in regards to the Goblins…
Considering how often shit hits the fan whenever he's around, is it any surprise? Besides, he still believes goblins to be related to Orks in some capacity and Chaos worshippers too, two enemies he is much too familiar with for his liking.
Veznite: (On how everything in W40K is OP)
That's one of the challenges of doing W40K crossovers; how almost every faction is pursuing omnicide of every other race in the galaxy and how wiping out all life in the majority of other fictional universes for them would be a trivial affair. That is why encounters with other elements of W40K will be sparing and why Cain or some other W40K character will likely play a pivotal role in ending such threats.
zerkil: nice
Indeed.
Greed720: (A fair criticism of my portrayal of Cain)
We all have our preferences mate and I fully understand the way I portray Cain in this story will not be for everyone. For those of you who are not familiar with Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, he is equal parts coward, hero, and pragmatist. Above all else though, he is very much aware of how completely and utterly frakked a normal human like himself is against the innumerable threats of the 41st millennium.
To counter the point you made about Cain not helping the rookie trio enough on his first official quest, knowing what we do know about the luckiest man in the Imperium, why would he continue risking his life for a bunch of overconfident idiots who are likely to get him killed after refusing to accept the help he repeatedly offered them? To quote Cain on that very situation, or rather, myself, "They made their choice". That it happened to be stupid choice that got one of them killed and two of them raped was a direct result of their actions, similarly to how Cain and Priestess' choice to wait for Goblin Slayer and Jurgen ended up saving their lives from the 100+ goblins lurking in that cave.
It's cruel to acknowledge, but much like W40K, the world of Goblin Slayer is filled with the laughter of thirsting gods who see mortals as little more than pawns to play with. And no, as much as you might want to forget, I am not making that up. The world of Goblin Slayer is literally shown to be a game board the gods play on in some of the intermissions. Neither are worlds where idealistic heroes last long, whereas heroes like Cain tend to be quite effective despite their supposedly selfish motivations.
Well, that's it for me. Thanks for reading and I hope to see you all again soon.