The Last Wolf

Chapter 5: Daemons. Treachery.

Loken led the charge through the darkness as he faced Bloodletters head on with High Elf's blessed arrows whizzing past him, weakening the Daemons they struck, giving the Astartes the openings he needed to cut them down. One by one, Loken's power sword fell, chopping through skulls, slashing torsos, and severing limbs before changing direction, cutting across in an executioners strike. Onward they pressed, further and further into the blood soaked lair of Khorne's horrors. Goblins of red skin and taut muscles, taller and more powerful than their green kin met them with shining brass weapons, crude simulacra of swords and axes. They rushed at the party drooling and roaring, swinging their heads one side to the other in berserker fury. Upon their chests and foreheads was burned the symbol of Khorne.

Their ranks slammed into the party with Loken taking on the majority, cutting them down as they swung and stabbed at his joints, though despite their berserker rage, there were tactics in their movements. They separated into battle groups of five, attacking each individual in force. Dwarf Shaman, Goblin Slayer, and Lizard Priest met them head on. Goblin Slayer dashed and lurched, using his speed and superior reach to rapidly stab and slash at the red goblins. Each blow he blocked with his shield felt far stronger than any blow he'd taken from a goblin before, like another man at arms was striking at him.

'Something's changed these goblins. They're much stronger and more aggressive than normal.' Goblin Slayer observed, disconcerted at their new behaviour. They didn't seem as if they were much for trickery though. They attacked one at a time instead of swarming, as if adhering to some goblin code of honour, of which he knew there was no such thing. It was like they were testing themselves, trying to prove their strength to the others.

Lizard Priest came in from the side and his blade of bone reaped through the goblins like wheat. More came to replace those lost and bellowed their challenge. Stones came rushing past Goblin Slayer and Lizard Priest like discharged bullets, shredding the bodies of the goblins. Dwarf Shaman nodded to them both. The clashing of brass on steel drew their attention followed by the meaty crack of a mace crushing a skull. Three of the red goblins laid siege to Paladin, bashing her shield, jabbing at her stomach and shins as she guarded Priestess with everything she had. She was a fierce bulwark against them, each blow glancing off of her heavy plate armour and each retaliatory strike felled a goblin, leaving its skull pulped.

'I see, they're adjusting their tactics based on the opponent. Paladin must seem like she's a heavy unit requiring teamwork. This doesn't sit well with me at all.' Goblin Slayer thought, cutting down another before blocking an oncoming strike. He turned it away and kicked out the goblin's legs and hacked through the back of its neck.

Almost all of Priestess' spells were used. Holy Light and her barrier spells were cooling down for the day, and she only had her low-tier healing spells. She made herself as small as possible to avoid the goblins, and as a means of staying out of Paladin's way. Lizard Priest waded into the fray swinging his bone blade through the goblins, his immense strength more than enough to cleanly carve their flesh and slice their bones. Gore slicked the ground and his blade, his cloth garbs stained red. For the moment, the assault on Paladin and Priestess abated.

"My thanks." She said to Lizard Priest gratefully. She looked behind her, lifting her helm's visor and checked on Priestess. "Are you alright?" Priestess nodded clutching her staff to her chest. She was pale and her skin felt clammy, but she felt relieved at the break in the siege on Paladin. A new spark of admiration came to life in the young girl as she looked at Paladin. She was like a one woman fortress, strong and unyielding, never bowed or broken. Just as she'd been taught Paladins should be. It was safe to say she was internally fangirling.

''Uh, y-yeah, just fine.'' Priestess said with a smile.

With a final fall of his power sword, the last Bloodletter was banished back to the Warp by Loken. Goblin gore spray slicked his armour, their remains smouldering, chunky slop on the ground having been sliced by his sword and pulped beneath his boots.

"We can't stop now! Onward!" Loken called, rallying the party to him. Advancing further, no more Daemons materialised, but a horde of Goblins rushed in from the shadows ahead. Loken waded onto the fray, punching and kicking, swinging his power sword in sweeping arcs. Bodies and skulls broke against his fists. Muscles pulped and skin ruptured under his boots. Blood cooked as it settled on his blade.

As he killed, Loken's mind wandered. He became lost in memory, his body moving on its own, slaying his enemies while remaining aware of his allies. He hadn't made his fellow Astartes aware of his reluctance to keep fighting after the Heresy. Istvaan III had stolen most of his will to fight, where he had died as Garviel Loken, and been reborn as Cerberus, only to become Garviel Loken once again, but broken and scarred. He knew he wasn't the same after the initial betrayal of Horus. The name sent liquid scorn coursing through his mind. He fought for answers and for vengeance in the thin guise of duty.

His singular desire went against the very purpose he was made for. He wanted peace. He didn't want to spill blood for someone else's ideals. He was made to fight and die all because he had been told he had to, and it was the right thing to do. After participating in countless compliances on a hundred worlds, he had seen that many human worlds just wanted to be left alone, away from the Emperor's war machine. He'd had many, many years to contemplate his life and its purpose, and found that he was unsatisfied. Eventually, he found himself only loyal to his brothers in the Knights Errant and to mankind itself, not the Imperium or the Emperor. The latter was not at all innocent in the downfall of the Legions and half of the Primarchs.

He was broken from his thoughts when Priestess called to him. He'd almost left them behind in his distracted slaughter. He turned to look at the party, seeing the ground in front of them had turned from dusty grey, to gore splattered red.

"I'm beginning to wonder if we're even needed." High Elf Archer muttered. Paladin heard her as she inspected some of the dents in her armour. She too was wondering just how necessary their presence was. Clearly no goblin would ever be able to take the Grey Knight down. Who was this man that he could wade through enemies with nary a moment of pause? He had said he was made what he was by some emperor, but that explained very little. Nothing in fact.

"Looks clear now. Can you hear anything approaching?" Goblin Slayer asked High Elf Archer. She took an knee and closed her eyes, focusing on the subtle vibrations in the air. She could hear the water below with crystal clarity, the mechanical heartbeat thrum of Loken's power armour, howl of wind from distant exits. There was no movement at that moment.

"We're good to go." She said standing up, and they carried on into the darkness. As Priestess made to move with the party, something at the edge of her hearing caught her attention. It had no definitive direction, seemingly all around her. It was like a whisper on the wind, but a word spoken from a mouth of fetid breath and rows of teeth. Behind her, next to her. Never in front.

''S..m...s'' she heard it again. ''...n...to...ou...'' she looked at the backs of her comrades moving further into the darkness. Shook her head and jogged to rejoin the party, dismissing the sounds as the wind, her imagination, the footsteps of her friends. Just anything but a voice. ''Samus...is the man...beside you...''

Khârn marched at the back of the group of shuffling fanatics, with Barial Tor and some of his favoured at the head. For the time being the knifing pulse of the nails in his skull abated, and he had clarity of thought.

The ambitious Word Bearer struck a chord of disgust within the World Eater, though most did. Only one hadn't and he had been Argel Tal, dishonourably killed by that serpent, Erebus. That name caused the nails to momentarily burn hot and stab at the meat of his mind. Kill signals pulsed through his brain, his sudden urge to gun Gore Child's trigger and butcher Barial Tor and his zealots was almost overwhelming, but he held back.

He didn't even know where they were going. He and several others had been brought to this unknown backwater world without explanation, simply told that the Powers has brought them as some kind of divine providence. So far, he and only a handful of Astartes had been summoned, some he knew, some he didn't.

A Night Lord and an Iron Warrior had joined them, both unknown to Khârn and as long as they stayed away from him he wouldn't kill them. The Night Lord was like his brothers under Curze, a transhuman murderer, as adept at inducing fear as an Apothecary used a scalpel. A jump pack rested on his back, the two turbine engines were silent and still, ready to belch fire and hurl the warrior of terror into his enemies with chain blade and lightning claw.

The Iron Warrior was a Tech Marine in Martian red battleplate with yellow and black hazard stripes across the edges of his gauntlets and boots. His power pack was configured as all Tech Marines had, with servo arms attached to a harness affixed to the warrior's chest armour. Two of the four extra appendages were occupied holding a Conversion Beamer. It was a powerful and esoteric weapon rarely seen in the Great Crusade, and even less during the Heresy. Thick power cables were plugged into ports on the marine's power pack, with an extra rig attached at the top of the servo harness to hold the weapon's own power source. The energy coils at the top of the weapon glowed and pulsed with blue light the colour of a glacier.

Khârn didn't know their names, and he didn't care to. They would later die or he would kill them himself, of that he was certain and he was satisfied with that. Around them the tunnel system changed, and they were no longer walking along narrow sewer walkways, but through vaulted ceiling tunnels with branching paths. Doorways and faded murals lines the walls. The murals themselves were unique in design, painted centuries ago if the chipping and faded colours were any indication. They depicted armies of armoured warriors, many mounted with more on foot. The expressions on the ones without helmets were stoic. Without a keen eye for detail, Khârn would have missed it, but amongst them in slate grey armour, obscured by the melee of warriors around him, was the worn depiction of a Space Marine with chain sword raised and bolter firing.

The World Eater stopped and stared, looking for more familiar things. This was interesting to Khârn, more so than the rantings of Barial Tor and his snivelling band of misfits. He stayed behind as they moved on, not caring that they had left as he studied the mural further. He saw the ancient form of a Contemptor Dreadnought stomping across the field in full sprint, rushing to engage with something too worn away by time to know what it was.

"Why is this here?" Khârn muttered, his voice was a rumbling hiss through his mouth grill. He'd never heard of this world, and no records he'd seen made mention of a world with such a variety of humanoid species coexisting. The level of technology would surely have been mentioned, being a primitive divergent of Caliban's with castles and knights, just without the power armour.

The colours were too faded for him to make any accurate judgements on the colours of the figures shown, though at a guess, the Contemptor looked as if it could have been from Dorn's seventh.

"Khârn?" He turned and faced the source of the voice, seeing nothing. His helmet auspex detected nothing, and no heat signatures were displayed when he switched his vision mode to thermal, only the blacks and purples of cold stone. He never chalked up to hearing voices in his head to the nails, as mind mangling as they were. "Khârn."

"Who's there?" He growled, a spasm shot down his arm and he gunned Gorechild's trigger. Something was setting him on edge. His teeth itched as they did whenever his personal space was being invaded.

"What are you doing here, Captain?" Khârn whirled, recognising the voice. It was impossible though. In the shadows mistaken for a glare of light on his display, he could see what looked like two faint, crystal blue eye lenses. There was an outline roughly the same as him in size, with a long curved blade at each hip. This was definitely impossible.

"Argel Tal?" He asked, a strange tightness in his throat. Disbelief made his grip on Gorechild slacken fractionally. He took a firmer hold of it again, snarling indignantly before bringing the massive weapon to bear, revving it in a mechanical growl. "No! Who or what are you, revenant!" He demanded, the nails threatening to take hold once more.

"You need to go, Khârn." The spectre said, not addressing his question. The ghostly warrior was adorned in the steel glimmer of the old Seventeenth, untainted by the arterial crimson of the Heresy. The oath papers on the surface of the armour were held in place by red wax seals that Khârn's eidetic memory, the undamaged parts anyway, remembered. This was Argel Tal, yet not him.

But who else could it be? Khârn silently argued within himself. This was Argel Tal wasn't it? But how, and why? That serpent Erebus killed him, whatever blasted sorcery killed his brother and sapped the daemon from his soul before sniffing it out. Does he strike? Does he listen? He didn't know.

"Khârn." The World Eater spun, swinging his Chainaxe around, barely stopping as he was met with the snarling faceplate of Barial Tor's helmet. The green eye lenses glinted. To the Dark Apostle's credit he didn't flinch or raise his crozius. Not many would have such confidence in their survival with Khârn, the bloody, the betrayer, swinging Angron's discarded Gorechild at their throat.

"You fell behind. Is there a problem?" Barial Tor asked. A bestial growl boiled in Khârn's throat. That tone, the false concern, the lofty superiority, grated on Khârn.

"Come no closer, priest." He spat, as if the word itself were the vilest of curses. Behind the Word Bearer, several of the hunched, malnourished creatures both human and other, watched. They shrunk further as Khârn's lensed eyes swept over them briefly. "Why did you come back? I'd have caught up."

"Because you are important, Khârn. The powers demand your participation. You-"

"Spare me your sermon. I grew tired of them before the Heresy, and they are even more tiresome now. More mouths than yours have spouted their ramblings at me. Save your breath." Khârn dismissed him with a scoff.

"Very well. Perhaps you would be happier to know a loyalist has been found down here with us. The whisperings have told me such." He could hear the smile on his voice.

"And I am to kill them? I'd have done so with or without your say so."

"No, no, I have something much more important for you to do. I know exactly where they're going, so Tulgon and Khreel will cut them off. It is only a loyalist and a group of mortals. Our time is better spent elsewhere." Said Barial.

Barial turned and left with his followers in tow, feeling Khârn's burning glare but overall was unaffected by it. He'd looked into the heart of Chaos and it would take more than the hateful gaze of a blood crazed madman to shake him.

Once he was alone again, Khârn looked back to where the spectre of Argel Tal had stood. He shook his head thinking it was just the nails, but there was undeniably something very real about it. He turned on his heels and stalked away to find Barial and his filthy congregation.

There was a lull that all present were grateful for, and the group were able to proceed uninterrupted for over 20 minutes. They came to a large wooden door braced by iron with a thick wooden beam stretching the great width of the door. The beam was split in the middle. Chewed, splintered wood blackened by the heat of friction made a mess of the useless locking beam.

"A Chainaxe did this." Loken said, pushing open the large, heavy door with one hand as he led the group of mortals forward.

"The weapon of that warrior you killed the other day?" Paladin asked. The mechanical hornet buzz of the weapon idling, and the bestial roar of its gunned trigger sent a shudder through her as she remembered it. She wondered in morbid curiosity just how much damage such a weapon would do to a person when wielded by such a powerful being. It would be extremely inelegant when compared to Loken's swordplay with his sword with lighting at its edge, that seemingly passed right through his enemies as they fell to chunks only a second later. A Chainaxe in his hands would rend and chew, spitting gore as it tore its victims asunder. Another shudder.

"Yes." He replied. "Keep your wits about you." His helmet auspex sent out a pulse. Nothing. There was no skittering in the walls that belonged to anything other than rats. Up ahead, chained from the ceiling by their wrists was a figure in old armour and a dusty surcoat, head down and unmoving. There were no life signs and no thermal signature of note. Whoever it was was dead, and had been for some time.

"A prisoner?" High Elf gasped, lowering her bow. Priestess took a step forward, eager to check on false prisoner. She was stopped as Goblin Slayer took hold of her arm. His instincts were sharp, and his knowledge of goblin trickery was second to none.

"There's no heat coming from them. No pulse, either. A trap." Loken said.

"Goblins like to use sympathy as a weapon against adventurers. They know most of the time that they'll try to save a prisoner." Goblin Slayer informed. From the top of the figure's head a wig of golden hair slipped of, revealing a bleached skull with a hole in it. The rough nature of the hole suggested something sharp had struck the unfortunate person's head and pierced it. A dagger perhaps? Or a kind of pick? It was hard to say.

The large door was slammed shut, and a loud thump against the door told Loken that something large and heavy had been placed against it. A sudden change in Loken's target lock had him instantly on guard, as memory served him well. The target lock was in the same position as it would be on an Astartes sized target.

A roar of jump jets made the mortals pause, while a warrior of the Night Lords came shrieking towards them with his revving chain blade and buzzing lightning claws. He slammed down in front of the false prisoner, his exhaust burners setting the thing aflame.

"I see the Dark Apostle was right. Tell me, loyalist dog, who owns the face I will cut from your skull?" The harsh processing of his voice through his vox grill stabbed at the ears of the adventurers.

"You won't live long enough for it to mean anything to you, traitor. But it is Garviel Loken who will cut you down." Loken bit, his power sword raised.

"I am Khreel. Let us begin." The jump jets roared again and carried him up, he took something from his belt and threw it at the group. The object gave a metallic clang against the ground and erupted into a cloud of smoke and light. Coughs and splutters interrupted screams and shouts as they found themselves blinded. Loken cycled through vision modes, settling on thermal sight. Up above he could track the heat coming from Khreel's jump pack.

However, he knew Night Lord tactics, and so knew he would toy with them before killing them. He came swooping low, lightning claw raised and ready to reduce Priestess to cauterised chunks of meat. Loken struck and his energised blade clashed with the other weapon with a thunder crack of colliding power fields.

Loken traded several blows with Khreel, the scything claws and ripping teeth of his chain blade striking the edge of Loken's blade. Khreel narrowly avoided the blade, jumping with a belch of fire from his jump pack and crashed back down, forcing his weight down against Loken. He was buying time until the others recovered from the flash grenade. He knew they could aid him against the Night Lord but surviving the initial attack was crucial.

Goblin Slayer blinked after images out of his eyes while thick smoke clogged his throat. He was fortunate that his helmet acted as a buffer between his face and the smoke as he found it far less choking than the others. He knew Paladin also benefited from her helmet being closed, as hers was even more enclosed than his. He could see the blooms of light like lighting through thunder clouds as power weapons clashed and chain teeth ground against armour.

"What the hell's happening?" High Elf cried out, rubbing her eyes and coughing.

"We need to move, we can't stay near them!" Paladin called. She knew first hand that getting between two brawling giants like them was not something a mortal should do. They had no business fighting an Astartes. She blinked rapidly as she tried to clear her vision. Hearing Priestess' coughs, she grabbed the girl and pulled her from the smoke cloud, while the others made their way out too.

"Everyone in one piece?" Paladin asked as her vision returned in full. Priestess nodded while rubbing her eyes. Dwarf Shaman, Lizard Priest, and High Elf Ranger gave their affirmation.

"What do we do?" Priestess asked as she frantically looked around. The door had been blocked, another warrior like Grey Knight had appeared and was battling their giant ally.

"Keep clear of those two and stay aware of our surroundings, now would be the perfect time for an ambush." Goblin Slayer couldn't have been more correct, as green goblins came rushing up from the darkness behind the Night Lord, with red goblins spliced in amongst them, organising them into rough approximations of combat units of ten to fourteen individual goblins.

"Get ready!" Goblin Slayer yelled as he raised his sword and shield. Arrows tore past him, High Elf Archer already into the action as her arms seemed to move with preternatural speed, from quiver to bow string and back again, loosing death onto the goblins. A bone warrior of Lizard Priest smashed into their ranks with its summoner, ancestor and descendant slicing with bone blades and crushing skulls with their tails.

Goblin Slayer was joined by Paladin. ''I have a defensive prayer that I can cast, but it will only last a short while!'' she called as she pulped a red goblin's skull with a savage swing of her mace.

''Do it!'' Goblin Slayer grunted while tearing his blade free of a torso, then spun quickly to slam his shield against a goblin's face, reducing one eye to a leaking burst orb of jelly and breaking teeth.

She muttered a prayer and golden light surrounded each of them, and a translucent golden glow wrapped tightly to their forms. Blades, arrows, clubs, and spears bent and broke against her protective ward. They engaged in the slaughter as Paladin smashed into them like a battering ram. Where her boots fell goblins were thrown aside, and her shield battered them while her mace crushed them. Minutes passed like hours as the fought the green tide, the floor becoming less that of stone and more of green flesh and red ichor.

Goblin Slayer split flesh with his sword swings, parried blows with his shield and countered. Arrows killed goblins in his blind spots, which he was thankful to High Elf for. The protective aura of defense faded, making them vulnerable once more.

"Uh, their numbers aren't going down! Why are there so many?" High Elf called, her concern growing with the number of goblins. She was attacked on her flanks, two of the little green monsters leapt at her with weapons raised. She threw herself away from them, but one of them caught her ankle. She kicked and scrambled, desperate to get away from them as her bow clattered to the ground.

Dwarf Shaman spared her a glance and began to move to her, holding off goblins of his own. The green tide was increasing the pressure on them with sheer weight of numbers. Despite his size, his dwarvern physique was a densely packed form of hard cut muscle that gave him strength rivalling the strongest of human men. His hand axe rose and fell, splitting skulls and severing limbs as he fought urgently to reach High Elf.

A piercing shriek rang out as a jagged dagger sank into the meat of High Elf's upper thigh, much to the delight of the goblins. She punched and scratched, managing to dig one of her thumbs into the large eye of the offending creature. She managed to barely bat away the other goblin's overhead swing, catching its elbows with her forearm. Her heart banged like war drums in her ears, and a tremor began to work its way up from her numb leg. Sweat began to bead all over her body.

Dwarf Shaman and Priestess were at her side, the Dwarf drenched head to toe in blood, slamming his axe home in the back of the goblin's head before it could attack again. Priestess jabbed with the sharp end of her staff, her aim and strength compromised by the adrenaline of battle rattling her body. Luck was on her side as the point struck the goblin's throat, pushing it back with a gag before the smile of Dwarf Shaman's axe hit home again, this time making the creature's eyes bulge from its head almost comically with the steel buried between its eyes.

"Goblin Slayer told me that goblin weapons are usually coated with poison and waste." She said mostly to herself as she pulled a small bottle out of a satchel on her hip. "Here, take this." She opened the bottle and placed it to High Elf's lips. The purple liquid was both bitter and acidic, causing a strange fizzing in her stomach as her body began to metabolise the poison out of her system with some magical assistance. The pace of her heart slowed, and her skin warmed from the cold clamminess of just moments before. Now only the pain of the wound remained.

Goblin Slayer and Paladin regrouped with them, standing ready to defend them. "Treat her wound, we have you." Paladin said, bringing her mace down on a goblin and flattening the face of another with her shield.

"The tide is thinning! Not many more now!" Lizard Priest called, still in the thick of slaughter with his Bone Warrior at his back. The bone warrior was suddenly shattered to pieces as both Night Lord and Luna Wolf barrelled through the air narrowly avoiding Lizard Priest as they grappled. Intense heat washed over him as Khreel's jump pack belched fire near him. Khreel kicked Loken free of his body, sending the Luna Wolf rolling and finally slamming into the wall, turning three goblins to gore paste under his weight. The Night Lord turned, setting his sight on the adventurers and attacked. He went for Goblin Slayer first, raising his lightning claw high and swiped at him. Goblin Slayer, by some form of providence evaded the attack, throwing himself out of the way of the buzzing scythe talons. Even through his armour he could feel the intense heat of the active power fields, and their electrical crackle-buzz set his teeth on edge. Goblin Slayer quickly got to his feet, body shaking with adrenaline. He'd almost died then, he realised. It would have been swift. Too swift.

As quickly as he'd stood, the churning teeth of the Night Lord's chain blade descended. Goblin Slayer blinked, and in a moment he found Paladin before him, shield raised and luminous with golden light. She'd dropped her mace to the ground and held braced her shield with both arms, struggling with all of her might against the traitor Astartes' immense strength. Sparks shot in all directions as the chain teeth nicked and scratched against the aura of divine protection enveloping her. It managed to hold the weapon back, even as some of the teeth bypassed the aura and ripped into the steel of her shield. Her struggle against the Night Lord lasted less than five seconds, but it felt like an eternity. She dropped to one knee, muscles screaming and bones creaking in protest as Khreel forced more strength into his arm, and swept his lightning claw back ready to slash her to pieces.

Three arrows struck him, one hit his right eye lens, another hit his mouth grill, and another struck his throat. All three were enough to make him instinctively flinch reflexively, especially when he felt a steel tip lightly press against his jugular. This distraction left him open for a mere fraction of a second. Loken's fist crashed into Khreel's face plate, denting the metal and cracking his left eye lens as the Luna Wolf tackled Khreel. The red glow guttered out leaving it a dark slit. A stone sarcophagus erupted into chunks as the two transhuman warriors smashed onto it, sending grey dust and black exhaust fumes up in a plume that engulfed half of the chamber. Loken was kicked in the chest and he sprawled back rolling to his feet poised to attack with his power sword glowing, power field eager to cut through ceremite.

Khreel had heard stories of Garviel Loken's prowess amongst the legions. He was a fast warrior, one of the fastest in fact, and skilled. He ranked amongst Lucius and Saul Tarvitz of the Emperor's Children, Khârn of the World Eaters, and arguably Sigismund of the Imperial Fists. He was the man who scarred Lucius' face. He was the man who had cast Khârn upon the dozer blades of a Rhino transport at the Siege of Terra. He would take his head. Nothing would have pleased him more. To see the look of abject terror on the mortals' faces when he had them all on their knees, and held Loken's head high. The thought spurred him to action, retaliating with a swipe of his lightning claw, then with his chain blade as he alternated his stance meeting Loken's attacks.

His jump pack still functioned as it sputtered smoke at first, then lit up screeching as jet fire sent him up. He struck Loken with the back of his scything talons, their tips grazing yet leaving four shallow scores from above the right lens to the top of the helm. Loken lurched back turning on a heel, already defending from the incoming swipe of the lightning claws, then the rushing onslaught of chain teeth and Khreel threw himself forward with the jump pack, pushing Loken back once more.

The Grey Knight strafed to the right and stabbed, his power sword was blocked as Khreel twisted, pulling himself away and swinging his chain blade up intending to split him from groin to head. Instead of blocking, Loken jammed tip of his blade into the chain teeth housing and twisted it. The housing split apart as the power sword cut through it on its wielders downswing and chain teeth were spat across the room like shrapnel as the mechanism tore itself apart. It was a difficult thing to do, as it required precise aim and skill that the heat of battle seldom allowed time to make use of, especially between Astartes.

"Maybe we should help him." Priestess said, having treated High Elf's wound. With the goblin numbers thinned, they'd begun retreating with the red goblins being dead and unable to organise them.

"No." Goblin Slayer said. He watched the two with quiet awe as they moved so fluidly and with speed that he'd seen nothing else be capable of. This was what Paladin had meant when she'd made mention of the Grey Knight's prowess. The speed of his movements, the power behind each strike, the weight behind him enough to crush a man. A precisely applied bludgeon, as oxymoronic as it seemed. "We'd only get in the way. We should go further in, find the main nest and destroy it. We can't be far away now."

"Maybe we should wait, though. What if there's more of them in there?" High Elf said, looking at their enemy. The Night Lord struck a horrific image with the faces of flayed victims stretched across his armour, and bones hung from his waist. From observing Grey Knight, it was clear to her that with those helmets on they could see in the dark. They would be at a severe disadvantage, even though goblins could do the same.

"Wait, what's that?" Paladin questioned, seeing a blue light in the distance. Loken had seen it too and reacted immediately, using that moment to push Khreel back and sweep his blade up in a vertical arc, severing his right arm at the elbow. He had only a moment to dive out of the way of the matter eating energy stream of a Conversion Beamer discharge.

"Get back, get through the door!" Loken bellowed at his team. Even with a severed arm, Khreel came at him with lightning claw poised and jump pack screaming. He bore down on Loken as he hunkered down, slashing wildly. The Grey Knight turned the claw away with his blade, suffering shallow puncture marks to his armour. He rolled and kicked out, striking the back of the Night Lord's knee and he hit the ground kneeling with loud clang of ceremite on stone. Again Loken's armoured fist collided with Khreel's faceplate, smashing the last good lens out in shards.

The Night Lord was met with stinging glass shards in his eye and blood filled his vision in it. Blinking it out was pointless, and his eye would clot shut anyway. He was allowed no moment of reprieve as an elbow struck him, another fist , and a final kick to the side of his head, and be sprawled to the ground, half blind and bleeding.

A beam of antimatter streaked towards the team. With every survival instinct screaming at her like the Earth Mother herself was warning her, Priestess swiftly turned. "Protection!" With that word a golden wall of divine energy was erected just in time to meet the antimatter beam, much to her surprise as she could have sworn she'd used up her Protection spells that day. There was a thunder crack that made their ears ring, and the buzzing of static while the light of the beam strobed and flickered. With no matter to consume, and magic's strange relationship with natural laws, the beam slowly died out with no matter to consume to power it.

"Dwarf, can you get that door open?" High Elf asked.

"Well I can't get through it, but I can break the stone around the door and take it down."

"Do it." Goblin Slayer ordered. Dwarf Shaman muttered the words of incantation, and the stone around the large door frame crumbled. The juddered and came loose, bowing forward before completely toppling to the ground with a loud smack of wood on stone that sounded like a gunshot.

"Out, quickly." Goblin Slayer said hastily, clambering over a heavy stone sarcophagus. He was the first out looking around for any sign of his enemy.

"Priestess, lets go! Now!" Paladin called as she's turned, seeing the girl stood with her protection spell still raised, the golden wall still repelling the beam of lethal energy. Curiously, no cracks appeared on it. Arrows and blades had cracked it, but not whatever this exotic weapon was using. Priestess has noticed this and was emboldened, the wall hardening further with her will.

The electric buzz of the weapon ceased momentarily and with it the light and heat of discharge. The noise was replaced with the serpentine hiss of cooling coils venting hot gas and cycling its coolant through the pipe work guts of the weapon, bringing the core temperature of the weapon back down from dangerous levels.

It was then that Khreel died. His struggle against Loken ended when his compromised sight and the loss of his right arm had sealed his fate. Loken's blade sliced through the power cable serving as the link between the lightning claw and Khreel's armour, stripping the claws of their power fields. Then as Khreel pulled his arm back, Loken followed quickly and stabbed, impaling him through the stomach. The blade twisted and pulled up, splitting the Night Lord from stomach to shoulder. He fell in two, held together at the waist by meat and loose fibre bundles. His body hit the ground with a bang and the slick sound of spilling viscera, sat up by his jump pack.

The Conversion Beamer was focused on him, the firing system spinning up as exotic technologies of unknown function set to work. Heat and light gathered in the barrel of the weapon accompanied by the static buzz of antimatter charge. Just then, Tulgon heard something inside of his helmet, nodded, and turned to leave as he released the weapon's trigger.

Goblins rushed past him and covered his escape, and the churning, growling rumble of a chainaxe met their ears from the darkness. Tall as a Primarch, a figure of red slabs of muscle in brass armour lumbered from the shadows, murder in mind and hunger in its belly. In its hand was a chainaxe bound to its forearm with iron chains.

"A hob? No… not a lord either… a champion." Goblin Slayer said, himself having seen few goblin champions in his eternal slaughter quest for revenge. He could clearly see it had fallen to the sway of the same powers that the lesser creatures had, but it benefited much more than they did. He'd never seen such a large goblin, and the… Ogre, if he remembered correctly, was the only thing he could think of that was bigger.

Loken stepped away from Khreel's bisected corpse, not at all surprised that the traitor Iron Warrior had left at the first sign of defeat. He eyed the champion, certain he could kill it. But he hadn't accounted for something, and it took him completely unaware.

With Khreel's death, the life monitor inside of his armour gave a long, steady beep as his vitals flatlined. That sound continued to get higher in frequency until the sarcophagus next to him, and the others around the chamber detonated in a crack-boom crescendo as stone sundered and exploded outward. The floor caved and Loken was swallowed by the earth as charges rigged inside of the sarcophagi sent stone shrapnel everywhere, smashing goblin skulls and blinding others.

His team took cover behind the fallen door as within a split second, Lizard Priest used his immense strength to lift the door in front of them, bracing it from behind. Tiny chunks of stone skittered across Paladin's armour as she looked out at where Loken had been a moment before, and worry seized her. She could barely see due to the dust and smoke sent up, mingling in the air as chalk white and gunpowder black mixed into dense grey smog.

"Grey Knight! Where are you? Say something!" Paladin called out through the choking mist. No thing but the footsteps and snarling of goblins met her ears. "Loken!"

Another chapter done. It's really hard trying to come up with believable combat scenarios with the party and traitor space marines, since they stomp anything that isn't another space marine or higher tier combatant. Well that's all for this time. I do have more former Knights Errant planned to join Loken after Garro and Rubio. I do plan to hurry the story along next chapter though, been stuck in the sewers for way too long. Please review, follow, fav, all that good stuff. Until next time, BrutalAftershock out.