Roya’s clash with the Mega-Armoured Nob reached a fever pitch.
The Mega-Armoured Nob’s massive body was a pure killing machine.
The twin-linked heavy Bolter in its left hand stopped firing, and the roaring, oversized Power Klaw in its right hand whipped up a fierce wind, smashing down toward Roya’s head.
Roya gripped the iron sword with both hands and swung upward to parry the Power Klaw.
“Clang!” The metallic clash exploded, sending a visible shockwave rippling outward.
Several nearby Ork Boyz were knocked off their feet by the blast.
The metal floor beneath Roya’s feet caved in over a wide area.
This Mega-Armoured Nob’s monstrous strength far exceeded that of the ordinary Nobs from before.
The two forces locked in a stalemate for half a second.
With a wild roar, the Mega-Armoured Nob put its waist muscles to work, sweeping its thick left arm violently across.
The scrap-metal armor plate hanging from its arm smashed heavily toward Roya’s ribs.
Roya did not retreat.
He chose to take the blow with his body, using the momentum to thrust the iron sword in his right hand toward the Mega-Armoured Nob’s throat.
“Thud!” The scrap-metal armor plate slammed into Roya.
The deep blue ceramite power armor was undamaged, but the remaining three red hearts at the bottom of Roya’s subjective vision instantly dropped to zero.
Roya’s body froze.
The iron sword was only an inch away from the Mega-Armoured Nob’s throat.
The next second, white smoke billowed up.
Roya, along with the power armor on his body and the iron sword in his hand, dissipated directly into the air.
Not a single drop of blood or severed limb was left on the ground.
The man had completely evaporated.
The Mega-Armoured Nob froze in place.
Maintaining its arm-swinging posture, it stared at the empty space ahead.
Its primitive brain could not process what had just happened.
It hadn’t smashed the humie into mincemeat, so how was the humie gone?
However, this confusion lasted only for a brief moment.
Savage instinct quickly overwhelmed its thoughts.
“Waaagh!!!” The Mega-Armoured Nob raised its crackling Power Klaw high, tilting its massive head back to roar, “Humie is dead!
I’m da strongest!” At the rear of the defense line, Foros held his Bolter, his eyes wide in disbelief.
He watched with his own eyes as the lord, who had casually created four hundred sets of power armor, vanished into nothingness under the Mega-Armoured Nob’s attack.
Foros’s heart clenched violently.
“Chapter Master Foros, continue firing.
Hold the line.” Cahn’s voice rang out in the communication channel, his tone steady.
The Ultramarines veteran’s Chainsword roared, slicing a charging Ork in half at the waist without him even turning his head.
“That lord will be fine,” Cahn added.
Foros stopped in his tracks, his face filled with bewilderment.
The man was blown to smithereens with not even ashes left, and he says he’ll be fine?
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Foros caught a glimmer of light flashing at the rear of the defense line.
He turned his head quickly.
Beside the red wool bed placed in the open space, Roya stood completely unharmed.
His deep blue power armor gleamed, and he held a brand-new iron sword in his hand.
Roya cracked his neck, exerted force with his legs, shattered the metal floor once more, and charged into the center of the battlefield like a streak of blue light.
Foros was completely dumbfounded.
Resurrected?
And returning to the battlefield in perfect condition in the blink of an eye?
He immediately turned to look at Chief Librarian Calculis beside him.
This scene, which defied all common sense, could only evoke thoughts of the evil gods’ tricks in the Warp, playing with life and death.
Calculis did not open his eyes.
He raised his right hand, and several dazzling arcs of psychic lightning erupted from his palm.
A dozen Gretchin in the shadows ahead, preparing to ambush the Astra Militarum line, were struck by the lightning and instantly turned to ash.
“Chapter Master,” Calculis opened his eyes, his gaze clear.
“There is no Chaos corruption on that lord.” Foros let out a long breath.
As long as it wasn’t heresy, this power was a supreme grace bestowed by the Emperor.
He leveled his Bolter and pulled the trigger, the round precisely shattering the skull of an Ork Boy.
In the center of the battlefield, Roya slammed into the Mega-Armoured Nob once more.
“Take this!” Roya barked coldly, his iron sword hacking heavily onto the Mega-Armoured Nob’s Power Klaw.
Seeing Roya return from the dead, the Mega-Armoured Nob’s eyes nearly popped out of its head.
It roared and swung its Power Klaw to meet the blow.
“Clang!
Clang!
Clang!” The two sides once again engaged in a straightforward, no-frills exchange of blows.
The previous exchange had already heavily drained the Mega-Armoured Nob’s stamina.
Its heavy scrap-metal armor had now become a burden; its breathing grew extremely heavy, and sweat poured down the lines of its skin.
Roya, however, had resurrected in perfect condition, his strength and speed at their absolute peak.
His iron sword rained down like a torrent, utterly suppressing the Mega-Armoured Nob.
Forced backward repeatedly, the Mega-Armoured Nob left a trail of deep craters in the metal floor beneath its feet.
“You humie got strength!” the Mega-Armoured Nob roared, protecting its head and chest with its Power Klaw, its bloodshot eyes glaring intently at Roya.
“I’m gonna chop off yer head and hang it on me belt!” The Mega-Armoured Nob prepared to gather its strength for a counterattack.
Roya gave it absolutely no such opportunity.
He held his sword in his right hand to block the Power Klaw.
With a flick of his left wrist, his mind accessed the inventory.
A Bolter materialized out of thin air in his left hand.
The pitch-black muzzle pressed directly against the Mega-Armoured Nob’s chest.
Staring at the suddenly appearing Bolter, a flash of panic crossed the Mega-Armoured Nob’s eyes.
It opened its tusk-filled mouth and snarled, “You humie real sneaky!” A cold sneer played at the corner of Roya’s mouth.
His index finger squeezed the trigger all the way down.
“Bang!
Bang!
Bang!!” A deafening roar erupted at point-blank range.
The muzzle spat out dazzling tongues of fire.
The Mega-Armoured Nob’s thick scrap-metal armor rapidly shattered under the continuous bombardment of bolt shells.
The large-caliber rounds tore through its skin, burrowed into its muscles, and detonated one after another inside its chest cavity.
Blood, bone fragments, and bits of viscera sprayed from its back, splashing all over the ground.
The magazine ran empty, yet the firepower output did not pause for even a fraction of a second.
“A sensible Bolter knows how to steal bolt shells from the Warp on its own!” Roya wore a faint smile.
The Mega-Armoured Nob’s agonized screams were drowned out by the gunfire.
Its massive body shuddered violently under the relentless kinetic impact, rendering it completely unable to mount any counterattack.
Within a few short seconds, this once-insufferable Ork monster’s chest cavity was completely riddled into a hollow honeycomb.
Roya released the trigger.
The light faded from the Mega-Armoured Nob’s eyes, and its massive body tilted backward, crashing onto the metal floor with a resounding boom.
The corpse flashed violently with an eerie red light.
The white smoke dissipated.
The Waaagh Field core collapsed.
Sensing that their Nob had fallen, the fanaticism in the surrounding Ork Boyz’ eyes instantly vanished, and they screamed as they turned and fled into the depths of the ruins.
Roya stowed his Bolter, his gaze falling upon the spot where the Mega-Armoured Nob’s corpse had vanished.
Two metal shards gleaming with a deep green luster and carrying track-like textures were hovering in mid-air.
They rotated slowly, emitting an enticing purple glimmer.
Roya strode forward and reached out to grab them.
A crisp sound effect chimed in his mind.
The shards vanished, slipping into his inventory.
“[Obtained: Damaged Chimera APC Shard]*2.
Roya brought up the interface of the book of knowledge.
A new message surfaced.
“[Description: Collect five shards of this type to synthesize the “Chimera APC Manufacturing Blueprint”.
Once unlocked, it can be mass-produced through the workbench by consuming materials.]” Roya exited the interface, a sharp gleam flashing in his eyes.
As long as he found a few more powerful Orks to farm materials, the chimera transport blueprint should be resolved very quickly.
Furthermore, he might even be able to farm blueprints for the Leman Russ Battle Tank or even Titans in the future.
A production line that the Adeptus Mechanicus would need to pray over for a century just to activate required only a few workbenches and a pile of scrap metal for him.
The Ork army ahead had descended into a total rout.
Led by Foros, the four hundred newly equipped Lamenters Space Marines formed an assault formation, launching a one-sided slaughter among the routed forces.
The red lights on the Astra Militarum line merged into a single sheet as lasguns ruthlessly harvested the lives of the Orks.
The battle was decided.
Roya turned and walked back to his side’s position.
Just then, a flurry of hurried and chaotic footsteps echoed from the dark corridor behind.
Silas, the Political Commissar of the Astra Militarum 318th Regiment, ran quickly out of the corridor, his face terribly grim.
Behind him followed two messengers with tattered uniforms and covered in mud.
The two soldiers panted heavily, their eyes filled with utter terror.
“My Lord!” Silas strode up to Roya, skipping any pleasantries and cutting straight to the point.
“The situation has changed.” Roya stopped in his tracks.
Cahn also walked over, carrying his dripping Chainsword.
Noticing the activity here, Foros gestured for his company to continue the pursuit from afar and turned back himself.
“Speak,” Roya said.
“All three of our outer sentry squads have lost contact,” Silas swallowed hard, his voice tight.
“In the last communication recording we received, there were no Ork battle cries.
The scouts managed to capture some footage.”