Seraphs of the Emperor’s Judgment

Chapter 213: Attackers in the Dark

"These xenos truly are evil."

To Sol, the Tyranids were an exceedingly unfamiliar breed of xenos. Absolutely everything he knew regarding this species stemmed entirely from fragmented records stored within the archives.

However, the moment he saw these creatures that looked almost entirely indistinguishable from baseline humanity, he instinctively recognized the profound threat they posed to human society.

Greenskins or the Eldar might be terrifying foes on the battlefield, but they were far less horrifying than this kind of completely silent, insidious infiltration. During the Great Crusade Era, he had also witnessed several species of xenos possessing parasitic or mind-control capabilities—every single one of those xenos had been a massive problem, some even causing the Astartes Legions to suffer devastating losses.

"Move!"

Firing another burst of bolter rounds, Sol turned and vanished entirely into the darkness.

Suddenly, dead silence descended upon the intersection, broken only by the sharp, crisp click of magazine latches during reloads.

It didn't take the xenos very long to respond to the Loyalists' retreat. They could practically taste victory, yet they remained somewhat hesitant regarding this particular tunnel.

A portion of them crawled low near the tunnel entrance, while the rest fanned out, completely occupying the shattered cover scattered across the intersection.

They knew that this mine tunnel possessed absolutely no cover whatsoever, and they also knew it was a dead end. This was precisely their proudest trap.They had already cornered their prey, yet they displayed absolutely no carelessness. Every trace of their fluid movements clearly demonstrated physical capabilities far surpassing those of mortals.

Even their tactical maneuvers appeared highly militarized—their sprints were short and disciplined, always with one group holding position and providing covering fire while the others relocated.

Within mere seconds, the vast majority of them had already entered the mine tunnel, including several heavy bolters among them.

All the Astral Knights could do was completely deactivate their armor's servos and crouch tightly at the bottom of the freezing, pitch-black mine tunnel.

"Wait."

Soshyan forced those words out with great difficulty. The sound transmitted through his helmet's vox-channel, perfectly resembling the sound of grinding teeth.

In the exact center of this mine tunnel lay a pool of stagnant water, dyed entirely mud-brown by the runoff that washed sediment from the surface deep into the mining sectors. The water was remarkably deep, capable of fully submerging an adult man up to his neck.

Such water seepage was incredibly common in the mining sectors, though extremely difficult to deal with. The xenos perfectly knew there was a massive pool of foul water here, but they absolutely didn't believe the noble Angels would ever hide in such a place—especially since there was absolutely no movement whatsoever.

More importantly, at the far end of the tunnel, bullets occasionally whizzed past, clearly indicating the presence of enemies over there.

They made only this single oversight, yet it was their only oversight.

Subsequently, they began to slowly wade across the surface of the water in groups of three, while those providing covering fire from behind maintained firing stances at all times.

Although they had entered the water, their movements generated almost absolutely no splashes or ripples.

Very soon, the vanguard composed of three squads of hybrids safely reached the opposite bank and immediately began firing toward the end of the mine tunnel—they were utterly convinced the Astartes were hiding exactly there.

Furthermore, one of them even waved backward, signaling for those trailing behind to catch up.

Thus, massive swarms of hybrids began wading directly into the water.

But they never expected that, completely concealed within the pitch-black water, lethal hunters were actively crouching in wait.

Sensing the flow of water directly above, Soshyan turned his head to check on the others—absolutely everyone was perfectly in position. The only one missing was Armin.

He was actively serving as bait on the far side of the flooded section.

Then, when the perfect moment arrived, Soshyan powerfully activated his power armor's servos.

"Kill."

The Astartes launched their ambush entirely from the water without uttering a single word.

The only sounds were the violent splashes of them erupting through the water, the rapid whirring of their armor servos, and the utterly terrified shrieks of certain xenos.

The hybrids in the water were instantly thrown into sheer, utter panic. They tightly gripped their shotguns and autoguns, while those lugging the heavy bolters were completely disoriented, even directly discarding their weapons as they desperately tried to swim back to shore.

But it was far too late.

The exact moment Soshyan activated his Holy Flame Sword, the terrifying roar of the melee weapon was already violently echoing throughout the mine tunnel.

The closest xenos, fumbling clumsily with an unfamiliar safety catch, merely managed to fire a single shot with his homemade rifle. The useless solid slug bounced off Soshyan's breastplate with a dull thud. Immediately following that, a single punch smashed half of his body entirely into a bloody mist, while the scattered remnants collapsed heavily into the water.

Due to the cramped terrain and the densely packed personnel, some hybrids were unable to shoot without running the massive risk of hitting their own kind, but they still opened fire anyway. At this moment, sheer terror thoroughly overwhelmed absolutely everything else.

A portion of the hybrids were even completely ripped apart into tattered, bloody rags of flesh explicitly by their own crossfire long before they were even physically attacked by the advancing Astartes.

Soshyan accelerated into a sprint, charging straight through the hail of bullets. With a terrifying, sickening crunch, he violently smashed a hybrid who had just pulled out a grenade squarely against the rock wall, instantly turning him entirely into an unrecognizable smear of bloody gore.

Still, he didn't make a single sound.

Within merely a dozen seconds, over half the xenos had been violently butchered directly in the water. Sol, transforming entirely into a ghostly phantom of death, had carved out a veritable river of blood.

Suddenly, a bullet cleanly struck him.

"Aaaargh!!!"

The xenos who had fired the shot staggered backward, desperately trying to open up distance between itself and the grey butcher. Throughout this entire process, it continually shrieked while firing absolutely frantically.

Yet not a single shot was capable of penetrating Sol's power armor. The absolute best weapons these hybrids possessed were safely merely the standard lasguns used by the local defense forces, while the single genuinely threatening heavy bolter had long since completely vanished.

Taking two massive strides forward, Sol brought his sword down entirely, neatly cleaving the abominable creature's head perfectly into two explicitly clean halves straight down from the exact center of its brow.

The entire flooded area became like a boiling cauldron. Chainswords tore, massive fists smashed, and the Astartes cleaved through flesh and bone with casual ease. Armin had even charged onto the bank, cutting down all the hybrids that had previously crossed the water.

Within a minute, everything was over.

Steaming xenos entrails smeared the rock walls and ceiling, while even more floated entirely upon the surface of the water. The entire flooded area had been dyed completely red, its surface utterly covered in filth and corpses, looking exactly like a massive pot of bloody soup.

However, just when Soshyan thought everything was over, the rock wall at the very rear violently exploded entirely inward.

BOOOOM——!

A violent explosive shockwave roared through the mine tunnel, blasting the Astartes off their feet. Soshyan was positioned closest; he was directly blasted flying squarely into the rock wall.

Before he could even regain his senses, an unprecedented howl filled the underground space.

A shadow tore through the billowing dust, its red eyes burning fiercely in the gloom.

Its speed was simply too fast; no one could react in time. Only Sol sprang forward instantly, raising his sword horizontally between the creature and Soshyan.

In the darkness, two clusters of sparks violently erupted.

Sol felt his blade strike something, but it was absolutely not the creature's physical body. Instead, the massive impact left his arm feeling slightly numb.

As he pulled his sword back for a reverse slash, he suddenly felt a metallic gauntlet viciously grab onto his pauldron, while something else lunged directly toward his neck.

He immediately twisted his body and drew his second sword with lightning speed, executing a backhand thrust at the attacker.

But he pierced nothing but thin air.

The entity did not seem to care about the outcome of its sudden ambush. Before leaping away from Sol, it pirouetted twice in mid-air with the sheer elegance of an avian predator, before melting flawlessly back into the darkness.

Having finally regained their wits, the Astral Knights raised their weapons and fired at the exact location the entity had occupied a second prior, but the bolter rounds failed to hit absolutely any targets before the creature completely vanished through the newly blasted gap in the rock wall.