The ground was trembling; with every step it took, dust from the dome fell in showers.
The monster did not run.
It simply stepped into the illuminated dome, and the Tyranid Swarm that had been surging behind it like mad dogs instantly went still.
Tyranid Lictors and Termagants squeezed against each other as they retreated to the sides, their carapaces grinding with a teeth-aching crunch, clearing a royal road to the slaughterhouse.
This was absolute awe, a biological instinct toward a higher-order will.
The Shadow in the Warp bore down, and everyone’s thoughts were filled with noise.
“My…
my head hurts…” Defense Forces Soldiers knelt in pain, nosebleeds dripping from the edges of their gas masks.
A shrill screeching, like a thousand cicadas, echoed in Alex’s mind, and red static flickered at the edges of his vision, but he managed to hold on.
“Fire!!
Push it back!!” Sergeant Merrick let out a cracking roar as red las-beams converged into a rain, splashing frantically against the monster’s body.
But against that level of heavy chitinous armor, the Lasguns truly became flashlights.
The beams hit the carapace, leaving only shallow charred pits, unable to even make it pause.
“heavy weapon team!
Fire!” Two Defense Forces Soldiers carrying heavy cooling backpacks rushed to the flank; the plasma rifles in their hands emitted a dangerous hum, their cooling vents already glowing red-hot.
The surrounding Soldiers cleared a large space for their two teammates, who could suffer a plasma backfire at any moment, as if they were avoiding a plague.
Sizzle—Boom!
Two blinding blue-white plasma bolts shot out.
The Hive Tyrant merely raised its arm.
One shot missed, melting a large hole in the wall; the other grazed its armguards, and although it burned through the carapace, it only served to enrage it.
“Roar—!!” The Hive Tyrant let out an ear-shattering roar, its body suddenly lowering as the muscle groups on its back compressed like hydraulic pumps.
It was about to charge; in this critical moment, Tarkus said nothing.
He only tilted his head slightly, his red eyepieces locking eyes with Avitus for a brief moment.
There were no redundant tactical commands.
Through countless battles fought side by side, their souls had long been linked through the Chapter’s combat rituals.
Avitus took a sudden step forward, slamming the bipod of his heavy bolter into the ground.
Thud-thud-thud-thud—!
A storm of bolter rounds poured forth.
Avitus didn’t attempt to penetrate the Hive Tyrant’s thick crest; all his firepower was concentrated on its compound eyes and face.
The violent explosions and shockwaves forced the monster’s head back, compelling it to raise its arms to protect its face.
The momentum of the charge was forced to a halt.
Meanwhile— Cyrus, hidden in the shadows, pulled the trigger.
The sniper round didn’t aim for a headshot; instead, it precisely burrowed into the joints of the Hive Tyrant’s carapace.
Green blood splattered, and the Hive Tyrant stumbled, its defensive posture momentarily faltering.
On the console above the dome, Matellus’s servo-arm had already plugged into the industrial gantry crane’s interface.
His bionic eye stared intently at the battle below, like a suspended Sword of Damocles.
They were creating a window for a killing blow; their current weapons couldn’t instakill the Hive Tyrant unless they chained their attacks perfectly.
The Hive Tyrant’s regenerative abilities were too strong; its wounds were healing visibly.
It was adapting to Avitus’s firing rhythm, and its bone swords began to adjust their angles, preparing to parry and counterattack.
A final straw was needed.
Alex watched the stalemate.
His gaze fell upon Sergeant Merrick’s sidearm, a uniquely shaped short gun.
The barrel was short and thick, with structures resembling cooling coils on its back.
A plasma pistol.
Alex rushed over with a slide and snatched the pistol from Merrick’s hip.
The gun was clearly in an extremely volatile state; the indicator lights on the cooling vents were flashing red frantically, warning of an imminent overheat explosion.
“mortal!
Put it down!” Matellus warned over the comms.
“The thermal core is overloaded!
It’s going to blow!” “Then let it blow!” Alex gripped the plasma pistol and began to calm his mind, attempting to convey his will through the contact.
This was his first time actively attempting to communicate with a machine spirit.
After receiving a faint, hazy response…
He didn’t seek cover like those two timid Defense Forces shooters; instead, he charged directly from the flank—entering a blind spot at the exact moment the behemoth was suppressed by the Astartes.
As Alex ran, he shut off the pistol’s flow limiter.
Buzz————!!!
The plasma pistol in his hand let out a piercing shriek.
The sound was like a meteor collapsing inside the barrel; the impending burst of energy began to warp the surrounding air.
The machine spirit was screaming, not in pain, but in ecstasy.
It had never experienced such an unreserved release; it only cared for that moment of ultimate destruction.
The Hive Tyrant noticed this tiny creature.
It tried to turn, but Avitus’s bolter rounds pinned it in place.
He pulled the trigger.
Boom——!!!
A ball of blue-white light, so blinding it could instantly cause blindness, erupted from the muzzle.
The light was so intense that even Alex’s silhouette was swallowed by it.
The orb of light didn’t travel like ordinary plasma.
It reached its target almost the instant it left the barrel, without any hindrance.
Against this extremely overloaded mass of plasma, the Hive Tyrant’s indestructible chitinous carapace, tough muscle fibers, and thick nerve bundles were like butter thrown into a steel furnace.
Sizzle—Crack!!
The high temperature vaporized everything instantly.
The Hive Tyrant’s entire right joint simply vanished; there wasn’t even any bleeding at the stump, because all the tissue had been instantly cauterized and carbonized.
“Skree—!!” The Hive Tyrant let out a shrill, wretched scream.
Having lost its support, the massive five-meter-tall body could no longer defy gravity.
Rumble!
The monster crashed heavily onto one knee, the ground cracking like a spiderweb beneath it.
Billowing white smoke rose from the plasma pistol in Alex’s hand.
The cooling coils had completely melted, turning into a red-hot lump of scrap metal that he was forced to drop onto the ground.
He shook his hand and glanced at the heavy weapons specialist nearby, who was staring blankly while holding his long-barreled plasma rifle.
The heavy weapons specialist looked at his own plasma gun, then at Sergeant Merrick.
I’m being sincere with you, but you’re playing mind games with me?
You’ve been hiding a pistol with this much power for all these years?
At the same second the Hive Tyrant knelt, Matellus’s servo-arm swung down violently.
“The Hammer Falls!” Above the dome, a multi-ton alloy maintenance beam that had been hovering in place released its magnetic locks.
Whoosh—Thud!!!
The blow landed squarely on the Hive Tyrant’s just-raised back.
The terrifying kinetic energy slammed the once-arrogant monster flat against the ground.
The sound of shattering bones was clearly audible.
It tried to struggle, but Matellus had already locked the hydraulic clamps, pinning it to the floor like a specimen.
The Hive Tyrant’s chest cavity deformed, and it spat out a large amount of biological fluid, its limbs frantically clawing at the floor, leaving deep gouges.
Tarkus looked up toward the top of the dome.
“Finish it.” A red meteor fell; Thaddeus had been waiting in the air for a long time.
He activated the maximum thrust of his jump pack, and using the momentum of his descent, the Chainsword in his hand roared violently, turning into a bolt of red lightning.
Squish—!
The Chainsword pierced without resistance into the crushed wound on the side of the Hive Tyrant’s neck, sinking deep into the junction of the brain and spine.
Flesh and blood splattered.
The Hive Tyrant’s struggling stopped instantly, and the light in its eyes, once filled with intelligence and malice, quickly faded.
With a low sound like a balloon deflating, the pressure weighing down on the mortals’ heads snapped.
Outside the dome.
The Tyranid Swarms that had been moving with discipline suddenly became like puppets with their strings cut.
Their formation collapsed—some continued to pounce on the nearest heat source, some spun in circles screeching, and some simply turned and retreated into the darkness.
Without the governance of the hive mind, the terrifying army instantly regressed into wild beasts.
“They’re in chaos!!” Merrick roared excitedly, brandishing his Chainsword.
“Counterattack!
Drive them out!” ————————
“And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”