40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 104 7. Raging Flame (3)

Under the cover of night, the first thing Khalil saw were burning flames, and then the collapsing ruins.

A large hole was blasted at the edge of the arena, and a truncated broken surface appeared on the complete wall of the building that was tens of meters high. It was as abrupt as if someone had cut off a piece of it with a huge blade out of thin air. It's not like an explosion should leave a mark.

He approached quickly, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of blue under the burning ruins. With his eyes focused, Khalil immediately stopped and lifted the ruins in three strokes. The soldiers buried underneath were deep in a pool of blood, which was obviously his own.

There were signs of scorch on his power armor, and there was a big hole in his chest. The cables were exposed and sparks were coming out. His own chest was in tatters, as if he had been hit by a bomb-like thing from the front. Khalil pulled him out silently, with a flash of blue light in his eyes.

He pulled off the injured man's helmet and looked at his facial features carefully. After confirming that there was no bleeding from his eyes, ears, mouth and nose, he carried him out of the ruins. After using psychic energy to treat him, he raised his right hand and used the communication channel to notify the second company commander in the city.

After receiving a positive answer, Khalil entered the ruins again.

He stepped over the flames and collapsed walls, as fast as a ghost, the flames flickered, the smoke billowed, and the wooden chairs placed in the stands became the catalyst for the flames to spread. As he moved forward, the most things he saw along the way were corpses.

A total of six of the dead belonged to the Ultramarines. The corpses were badly broken, and traces of charred blackness spread on the fragments of the armor, but the U-shaped emblem was still shining. Khalil silently collected their bodies, led them away from the ruins, and then entered again.

The fire intensified, spreading at a relentless pace. The smoke was raging, pungent to the nose and choking the eyes, but it was of no use to him. His vision is still clear and his hearing is still sharp. He could hear a subtle sound in the crackling fire, carried by the imperceptible breeze, and he caught it mercilessly.

Khalil turned his head and sprinted in that direction.

Along the way, he could see more corpses, but they were no longer those of the Ultramarines, but corpses created by bolters.

Many of them were still holding weapons when they died, a kind of silver-shining metal gun that did not look like a live weapon.

Continuing forward, he walked through the sand pit that gradually began to undergo qualitative changes due to the high temperature and the deep pit on the edge that was filled with some kind of acid liquid. He arrived at the front of a cave. There were molten black metal fragments on the edge that were slowly moving. deformed, and there were large pieces of broken metal on the ground. Khalil knew that there should have been a gate here before.

The sound came from here.

Just as he was about to enter, a fast and tense unfamiliar language came from inside the cave. Khalil slowly narrowed his eyes and raised his hands, deliberately using a speed that ordinary people could see clearly.

He could clearly see the appearance of the person who was targeting him in the cave, so he didn't want to cause any misunderstanding. After a few seconds, a man holding a metal gun walked out. He had many scars on his body, the most conspicuous one was probably the claw mark on his chest.

Khalil could tell that it should be the mark left by some kind of beast, which could also prove the identity of this person from the side - of course, the gladiator field cannot only allow gladiators to fight with each other and dangerous beasts. Fighting also sells tickets like crazy.

He stared at the man expressionlessly, and the latter fell into some strange confusion. His body was trembling slightly, and there was a terrifying complexity in his expression. After a while, he lowered his gun and gestured for Khalil to go in with him.

Khalil put down his raised hands, but did not agree. He lowered his head, and blue light flashed in his eyes again.

"No," Khalil said. "Before that, I need to ask you a few questions."

The man looked at him in surprise, his vigilance reappeared, and he raised his gun: "Who are you?"

"I am Khalil Lohars, the instructor of the Eighth Legion of the Human Empire. Who are you?"

"What... what empire?" The man frowned. "Where are you from? Your accent is so strange."

Of course it's strange, I just learned your language not long ago.

Raising his hand, Khalil pointed to the sky.

"What do you mean?" the man asked.

"I come from the sky, beyond the stars," Khalil said. "Whether you believe it or not, it's true."

The man looked at him, still not putting down the gun in his hand. Khalil looked at him calmly. Of course, he knew that his words might sound like the ravings of a madman to a gladiator, but he did not want to lie.

What's more, he could detect the subtle emotions in the man's heart - he instinctively felt fear when he saw Khalil, but he still raised the gun.

And when he saw Khalil's face clearly, the fear dissipated and was replaced by a strange joy. The reason why it was strange was that this joy was not for himself. Moreover, along with this joy, there was also a kind of sympathy and sadness.

Sympathy for whom? Who are you sad for?

"So, you and those blue giants come from the same place?" After a while, the man asked.

"They're called the Ultramarines," Khalil said. "They belong to the Human Empire like me, but they are not from the same place as me. They are here to liberate you."

"liberation?"

"Just so you don't have to be gladiators anymore."

The man looked at him blankly, as if he didn't understand what he said. After a while, he put down the gun again and wiped his face with his trembling hands stained with dried blood: "My name is Karelian, and I come from Nor Sand."

"My name is Khalil Lohars and I'm from Nostramo."

"Caril?" Karelian read his name again. It was not easy to pronounce these three syllables in the local language of Nuceria, but he still did it, although he seemed to be stumbling a little.

Then he made the gesture again. "You should come in, those blue warriors, they need your help."

Khalil nodded to him and followed him into the cave. Karelian was surprised by his lack of hesitation, but he did not forget to explain to him. He led Karil towards the cave and spoke in a low voice.

"The guards of the arena fought them into the underground cave. Those tall warriors are very brave, but their number is too few now. There are only three of them. We are helping them, but we can't help much. This gladiatorial arena The field belongs to the Talco family, and they have many personal guards stationed there."

Khalil said nothing, but silently wrote down the names of the Talco family.

He followed Karelian into the cave, and his four-meter-tall body did not appear embarrassed while walking inside. Karelian raised his head and glanced at him, and suddenly laughed, and the smile was a bit strangely sad.

"They've widened the entire underground cavern since Angron was twelve years old. You should thank him, Khalil, or you might end up knocking your head."

"Angron?"

"Don't you know him?" Karelian asked. "I thought you would know him."

"I come from beyond the stars, from a place so far away from you that it is almost unreachable. So it is unlikely that I know him. Who is he?"

Karelian was silent for a moment and answered his question in a very soft voice: "He is just like you."

"same as me?"

"As tall as you, as inhuman as you are," Karelian said. "I understood it when I saw you, just like the first time I saw him. You are all different from us. To be honest, Khalil, when I pointed the gun at you, I was actually quite scared."

The gladiator pretended to laugh bravely, as if he was mocking himself, but also seemed to be taking this opportunity to tell the truth.

Karil stopped, and an unlikely guess emerged. He should have thought Karelian was lying, but the subtle emotions in the latter's heart at this moment did not escape his perception.

So Khalil took a deep breath.

"How tall is he?"

"A little shorter than you."

"Where is he now?"

Karelian also stopped, turned his head in the darkness, and showed a complicated smile towards Karil.

"Fighting," he said. "Alone."

——

Rashif Palpas, of the Second Company of the First Chapter of the Ultramarines, felt the urge to vomit. He lowered his head, but vomited out pieces of internal organs, and the smell of blood filled his mouth. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he seemed calm.

Turning his head, he saw their pharmacist Fritz bandaging a woman. Her abdomen was bleeding and her neck was twitching abnormally.

Rashif could tell that she was suffering from the aftereffects of facing the explosion, but, to be honest, the gladiator was lucky to have survived. Compared to her, many of their brothers were not as lucky.

Thinking of this, names flashed through Rashif's mind, and the faces that these names referred to came along with them.

He couldn't help but slowly clenched his right hand, and the metal collided and creaked. But Rashford knew that wouldn't help.

The explosion was too sudden and too traceless. The guards of the arena obviously knew the inside story. They were beaten and retreating, but after the explosion, they roared excitedly and launched a charge.

And those modified soldiers who use silver tentacles as weapons.

Rashif pursed his lips. Beside him, Sergeant Tampafus of the team was still tirelessly continuing his current business - calling their commander in the communication channel and trying to report the current situation.

"This is Sergeant Tampavers, repeat, this is Sergeant Tampavers, we were attacked by unknown local psykers in the gladiatorial arena, seven of our brothers were missing. We have three left, We are continuing to fight them in the underground cave of the Arena, and we need support."

There was no answer on the channel. The gladiators held their weapons - spears, daggers, long swords and axes - and watched Sergeant Tampafus keep making this sound. Several people's eyes were filled with excitement. With sympathy, she seemed to think he was crazy.

Rashford knew he hadn't, but he thought the sergeant would be soon. After all, their communication capabilities had been completely destroyed in the explosion. This is beyond proof that their superiors could not have heard their requests and failed to answer them.

Furthermore, the sergeant stubbornly believed that it was a psychic explosion. This made no sense at all. They had no evidence that the attack was caused by psykers.

Sighing, Lacif reached out his hand, trying to persuade the sergeant to stop doing this futile and useless work. They must now lead this group of civilians out of this underground cave on their own. The honor of the Ultramarines cannot be lost.

However, just as he stretched out his hand, he heard an inhuman roar - coming from the depths of the rock, with unparalleled fury, like the roar of a wild beast.

Rashif immediately became vigilant. He held his chain sword. Although he did not activate it immediately, he was ready to face the incoming beast.

Turning his head, he looked at the group of gladiators, trying to get something from their reactions, but they were very calm. The woman who was twitching next to the pharmacist had calmed down now.

She opened her mouth and slowly spit out three syllables. Rashif frowned and repeated it in Gothic: "An-ge-lang?"

He had no idea what it meant, except that every syllable sounded like a roar. The sergeant stopped calling and stood up neatly.

"Prepare to fight," he ordered curtly. "No one can harm this group of civilians until we are all dead. They have shown us the way to escape the fire and siege, so we must protect them."

"Understood." Rashford replied in a low voice.

besides