The warhammer, cutting a full-moon arc through the air, slammed into the furious green fist.
At once, a tremendous blast wave burst outward from the point of impact.
Gaia felt both hands go numb. When she looked closer, she saw that the webs between her thumbs and index fingers had already split open into bloody cracks.
This was what a Warboss was.
Even with its Mek armor crippled, even after being badly wounded by the implosion of the Waaagh! field, this five-meter-tall beast still possessed enough strength to kill an ordinary Space Marine with a casual motion.
Gaia took a deep breath. She knew very well that in a direct clash of strength, she had no chance of beating this monster head-on.
She had to use her speed advantage.
A sharp light flashed in her eyes. She lowered her stance and held her warhammer to the side.
Then, with an explosive burst of core strength, she became a blur and struck toward the Warboss's legs, still trapped inside its dead armor.
Gorzag let out a savage roar. It tore the turret off a nearby battlewagon and used it like a giant hammer, smashing wildly at every point along Gaia's path like a maniac playing whack-a-mole.
Its attacks looked chaotic, but every strike landed exactly where Gaia had to pass.
And with its absurd strength behind it, that many-ton turret pursued her at an unbelievable speed.
Gaia's attacks were effective, but only enough to gradually force the beast lower and lower.
And though Gorzag had not landed a hit yet, it only needed to land one.
In the distance, the greenskins who had not been caught in the psychic bomb hurried toward Gorzag, trying to shield their wounded Warboss and kill the treacherous humies.
But Petrus, leading the surviving Astra Militarum soldiers, launched an almost suicidal assault and barely managed to hold them back.
At the moment, it seemed that before she crippled its legs, there was no way it could touch her even once. After all, she felt no pain, no fatigue...
That was what Gaia thought.
But the instant that idea surfaced, a strange hot surge burst from her lungs, and suffocation instantly flooded her chest.
In shock, she watched scorching blood pour from her mouth and nose, unable to understand what had happened.
That sudden betrayal of her body naturally stalled her movement for an instant.
And in the next moment, Gorzag's gigantic hammer, strong enough to shatter worlds, smashed into her.
Though she raised her warhammer to block in the final instant, the force of the impact still sent a teeth-grinding vibration through her bones and organs.
Gorzag grinned viciously as it watched Gaia fly away like a torn sack.
This was the result of its earlier plan.
Unlike its fellow Orks, who only knew how to kill mindlessly, this cunning beast had recognized Gaia as a threat. To weaken her as much as possible, it had sent wave after wave of elite boyz and Ork bosses to wear her down.
Gaia could ignore pain and injuries while fighting, but her body still had limits.
The accumulated strain and wounds from the earlier fighting had all erupted at once. Now she was like a battery on the verge of dying, unable to support her superhuman strength.
Gorzag cackled as it dragged its wrecked armor forward, each step shaking the battlefield as it advanced toward Gaia, who lay there trembling faintly.
The stench of death thickened around her until it was hard to breathe.
Even after weakening the Warboss with the Weirdboy's psychic bomb, she still could not defeat this beast?
She had already torn open a crack in what seemed like a hopeless battle, only to discover in the end that it was still a dead end.
Maybe she should never have meddled in this planet's affairs in the first place.
Maybe she should have taken Nia and gone into the hive city with Solomon. At least that way the child's life could have been saved.
Maybe she could not save anyone.
Not even herself.
One negating thought after another rose in her mind, becoming a swamp of self-doubt that slowly dragged her under.
But just as that darkness was about to swallow her mind, just as the grinning beast was about to kill her, an engine suddenly roared like a wild beast.
With a violent blast, a heavy Chimera armored transport crashed into Gorzag's back with unstoppable force.
The impact sent shards of metal flying into the air like a rain of iron.
Gorzag howled in pain.
That collision not only injured it physically, but the strange field surrounding the vehicle also cut it off from the Waaagh! energy it prided itself on.
A crushing weakness swept through it, and the Warboss's mountain-like body collapsed, kicking up a towering cloud of dust.
But the armored transport paid the price.
Its front end twisted out of shape. Thick black smoke poured from the engine assembly, with weak flames flickering inside. It looked ready to detonate at any second.
At the final instant, Horne kicked open the heavy hatch and jumped out of the vehicle, filthy and battered, carrying an excited-looking Nia in his arms.
Boom!
A violent explosion erupted behind them. The heat scorched Horne's back, fusing the fibers of his clothing directly into his flesh.
He gritted his teeth through the pain, curling himself tight to shield Nia from the blast.
The shockwave sent them rolling right to Gaia's side.
The instant Nia drew close, all the mocking and accusatory voices raging in Gaia's mind gave off sharp bursts and vanished.
Her thoughts cleared at once.
Without wasting time wondering what those voices had been, she picked up her warped warhammer, forced her mangled body to stand, and limped toward Gorzag who lay pinned beneath the wrecked transport, screaming in the flames.
Nia's anti-psyker field had greatly weakened it. Combined with its earlier injuries, it could no longer move the armored vehicle it normally could have lifted with ease.
To be sure, Gaia raised her warhammer high and smashed it down hard onto the cunning beast's skull.
The Orks watched in stunned disbelief.
"Dat humie... killed da Warboss!"
With that cry, the Waaagh! field that had once bound the Orks together collapsed on the spot.
The vox-operator shouted excitedly to Petrus, who was still fighting in blood and ruin:
"We have signal, we ha..."
But before he could finish, a strange tearing sound ripped through the air.
Then came a violent explosion.
In Petrus's shrinking pupils, the vox-operator was swallowed by fire...
...
Wolin Joguya, supreme commander of the Klaurund Planetary Defense Force, watched the distant battlefield coldly through a magnocular.
Then he gave an indifferent order to the Basilisk artillery battery beside him:
"Target the previous coordinates. Fire at will."
...
Terrifying artillery shells rained across the battlefield, mercilessly consuming both the panicked greenskins and the bewildered Astra Militarum alike.
Gaia looked at the bombardment sweeping across the field, anger surging inside her, yet there was nothing she could do.
With the badly wounded Horne on her back and Nia's hand in hers, she stood amid the fire of destruction in helpless silence.
They had not died at the hands of the greenskins.
Were they now going to fall beneath human artillery?
She slowly closed her eyes.
And just as everything was sinking into utter despair, a sudden sound of something tearing through the air came from above.
She opened her eyes in confusion, and saw something unbelievable.
A light transport aircraft was weaving through the sky with impossible agility, like a butterfly dancing, perfectly dodging the artillery fire blanketing the heavens.
As it neared Gaia's position, the hatch beneath it slowly opened.
A figure was reflected in her eyes.
His patch-covered coat whipped wildly in the wind, dyed blood-red by the brilliant firelight.
His cunning eyes shone brightly beneath the beams of destruction sweeping the battlefield.
Looking down with a faint smile, one hand braced against the hatch, the other slowly lifting off his old navy cap, he gave an ancient noble salute beneath the crashing rain of death.
"Captain Harlock sends his regards."
(End of Chapter)
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