We were facing a battle with a monster. Or rather, two monsters. Tamurkhan himself hadn't even fully committed to the fight yet. To fend off the knights and steadily thin their ranks, the efforts of his Toad Dragon were more than enough. Clumsy as it was, and wounded to boot, the beast still managed to withstand the onslaught of the Empire's elite warriors, among whom was Rudolf Hock.
A knight in the black armor of the Morr Order tried to attack the Maggot Lord's monstrous pet from the rear, aiming for a hind leg, but he was swept from his horse by a lash of the tail. Does the Toad Dragon have eyes in its ass, or is Tamurkhan directing its every move? How the hell are you supposed to get close to this fantastic beast?
Many knights were wounded or dead. Only three mounted and five on foot continued to fight, including Rudolf.
— Magg, the cannon! — I suggested, while we were still outside the stone perimeter of the shrine.
Magg tried to take aim with his double-barreled gun but immediately shook his head.
— No, Jurg. Gotta blast the tyrant! Drop the tyrant and we win!
We did need to blast him, but the question was how. The Toad Dragon was in constant motion, and Tamurkhan's silhouette on its back swayed from side to side. I tried to come up with a plan more sophisticated than simply attacking from different angles. Nothing was coming to mind. Fine. Even if we couldn't destroy Tamurkhan with what we had, we had to stall him until reinforcements arrived. The Empire of Sigmar still had a few trump cards left, even against such a lethal foe. Perhaps if we circled the wall to the shrine and lured him there...
— What are we waiting for? — the dwarf interrupted my train of thought. — Kazak!
The Dawi scrambled over the wall and threw himself into the fray. Fine. Good luck. May Grungni watch over him. We'd do better to bypass the thick of the fighting and reach the shrine. It was a stone building; it would provide at least some cover if the Toad Dragon decided to charge us.
As we made our way along the wall, another knight was struck down. The dwarf didn't even have time to engage. He was sent flying by a tail swipe. It seemed the brave Dawi could still fight even after that; at least, he was trying to stand up.
— Can you do nothing without cannons and rockets? — came the guttural voice of the defeated horde's leader. — I will kill you until I grow bored. Then I shall return here. I will summon demons, and they shall sweep this city away.
There's the man to learn perseverance from. Even after losing his entire army and two allies, Tamurkhan wasn't lowering his ulcer-covered hands. He was busy trying to dismember Imperial knights with them.
While Tamurkhan was occupied, we finally reached the shrine. Once a beautiful building, the Chaos-worshippers had turned it into a ruin. Windows and shutters were smashed; inside lay overturned benches and beds where the Sisters of Shallya once tended to patients. The wide doors had been ripped from their hinges.
— What is that you have there, little man? — Tamurkhan was turned half-away from us. — Haargan's axe! Which of you slew him? You or the Ogre?
He'd noticed his buddy's trophy weapon. Could I provoke him? Why not try? It was time to ruin his mood.
— We did it together! — I shouted. — Was that your bodyguard? If so, no wonder you lost! He wasn't any stronger than a common Beastman!
A blatant lie, of course. That Haargan had a real chance of killing us all if not for Erik's precise shot.
— You crave a terrible death?! — the Maggot Lord replied, wheeling the Toad Dragon toward the shrine. — You shall have it!
Well... we managed to get his attention. That was probably a good thing, and now...
— Inside! — I commanded.
Tamurkhan's Toad Dragon lunged toward us with a sudden burst of speed. The beast's massive maw was agape, wide enough to swallow me or even Magg whole. Though, alright, I'm exaggerating about the Ogre. It would choke on him. But the creature was, without hyperbole, formidable. Tamurkhan's pet was far larger than the average Toad Dragons we'd had the dubious pleasure of seeing in the northern horde.
Our small group managed to duck into the shrine. A moment later, a dull thud shook the building, followed by a terrifying roar. The Toad Dragon's face peered into the doorway, but the rest of its body prevented it from squeezing further inside. The entire structure shuddered under the monster's exertion.
— Magg, shoot!
— No! Gotta blast the tyrant! — the Ogre insisted, choosing a very poor time to be stubborn.
I could barely hear his voice over the Toad Dragon's roar. The beast lashed out at us with a long tongue, lined with barbs along its entire length. At first, the monster tried to snatch Liandra. From its perspective, elves were probably the tastiest. I certainly couldn't blame it.
Liandra dodged, slashing the tongue with her blade. Then the Toad Dragon switched to me, trying to wrap that prehensile rope around my torso. I backed away, hacking with my axe. It didn't help much. The tongue was slick, fast, and elastic; it was nearly impossible to cut while it was flailing in the air. Then I tripped over the wreckage of a bench. I fell onto my back, the back of my helmet slamming against the stone floor. This unexpectedly helped. The Toad Dragon lost sight of me and pulled its tongue back into its maw.
— Fire one barrel! — I urged Magg, struggling to get up.
And then, a truly foul sound reached my ears. It was like a cat trying to retch up a hairball, but amplified a hundredfold.
— Get down! — was all I had time to yell.
I threw myself behind a pile of broken furniture, covering my head with my shield. First, a wave of scent hit me. It wasn't just a stench. It was a searing suffocation that caused my diaphragm to cramp. My body refused to take in air tainted by this filth. Then a torrent of acid and clumps of slime crashed against my cover. The barricade of furniture shuddered. Stray splashes hit me, burning my skin. And that wasn't all.
"Fuck me," was the only way to put it.
The Toad Dragon hadn't just vomited slime and acid into the shrine. The beast had deployed a literal landing force from its own gut. I was attacked by giant white worms, each nearly five feet long. Thick, bloated larvae with beaks and claws at the front. They immediately crawled toward me. I had to fight them off. Under the blows of the Chaos axe, they burst, and... smaller worms sprayed out in every direction with the gore.
God... how disgusting. Every time I think the Nurglites have shown me the foulest thing they have, it turns out they have a whole deck of nasty trump cards hidden away.
In the confined space, the blast of the falconet hit my ears almost as hard as the stench hit my nose. Magg had finally taken my advice and discharged one of the barrels into the Toad Dragon's face. A gaping circular wound appeared just above the creature's maw. The Toad Dragon did not appreciate a point-blank falconet shot. It backed away, pulling its head out of the shrine.
And thank Sigmar for that! At least there was a bit of fresh air.
— Hell of a stink! — Magg said, spitting.
Yeah. If an Ogre is saying that, then we are dealing with a true sanitary catastrophe.
While the Toad Dragon was occupied with us, the knights had opened a hole in its side large enough for a man to crawl through. Now the creature's innards were spilling out, and more worms were crawling through the gap. The plan to provoke Tamurkhan had worked. The Toad Dragon let out a piteous sound—a mix of a roar, a chitter, and a sort of croak. The beast was suffering. I'd like to finish it off, but the monster was still dangerous.
Tamurkhan was more upset and angered by the wounds to his favorite mount than he was by my provocations.
— I am the Chosen, you are but meat! Desolation comes!
With those words, the Maggot Lord dismounted. Rising from his throne-saddle, he slid down the Toad Dragon's massive leg like a slide, hitting the ground. Tamurkhan was entering the fray in person.
One of the remaining mounted knights tried to charge him. Tamurkhan didn't even flinch. He took the lance thrust into his massive bulk and, with a return swing of a two-handed axe, knocked the man clean out of the saddle. That knight was likely dead; a hole from Tamurkhan's greataxe was visible in his cuirass.
It's truly difficult to fight high-tier Chaos-worshippers from a psychological standpoint. An ordinary, vulnerable human has only one life. It feels bitter to give it up just to wound someone who doesn't even seem to care about the injury. A monster that can heal any trauma without issue, or an immortal demon capable of manifesting again after its physical form is destroyed.
Such thoughts stirred a burning hatred in my soul for this decaying murderer. I wasn't exactly an ordinary human myself anymore, and I would gladly use my strength to destroy a creature like this.
Magg, Liandra, and I attacked together. I went first, shield held high. Maybe I could try to bind the enemy's weapon like last time and...
Bam!
I can't say I didn't see the blow coming. I saw it and even managed to react, otherwise I'd be dead. However, I couldn't fully protect myself. The shield, reinforced with metal and the Winds of Magic, was shattered. The force of Tamurkhan's strike sent a wave of pain through my entire body. Even the Exalted Champion whose axe I'd taken didn't possess such crushing power.
I was enveloped by the breath of evil. Stench, moist heat, and the roiling Immaterium. A lethal cocktail from Grandfather Nurgle. The urge to vomit made it hard to focus on the fight. However, I managed to dodge the next strike, and then...
— Haaaa!
Magg's shout and a gunshot merged into one. A flash, clouds of smoke, the Toad Dragon's roar. I cast aside the broken shield, fumbling for the tainted pistol on my sash.
Tamurkhan had been hit hard. Magg had blown away a chunk of his skull along with the helmet, but the Maggot Lord had no intention of dying. He was launching a new attack. I was the primary target. Well, fantastic!
Flash!
He didn't even notice the hit from my pistol. Swinging his two-handed greataxe, he tried to take my head off.
Duck, then back a bit... Where is he swinging next? Left, diagonally. Back again. I had to keep track of the space around and behind me so I wouldn't trip.
For nine or ten long seconds, I had been tanking Tamurkhan. I was trying to learn this boss's hit-frames without leaving myself open. Fuck, when is this Soulslike going to end!
In addition to his axe attacks, Tamurkhan was spreading the blight of Nurgle around him. Fine, the stench—I was as used to that as one could be. After these exploits, I could guard a sewer or perform autopsies; nothing could be worse. The main problem was something else. Flies and foul insects I didn't even have names for were swarming out of Tamurkhan's wounds and from everywhere else. Even creepy giant mosquitoes were cute compared to these pests. Long limbs, sharp antennae sticking out everywhere, ovipositors on bloated abdomens. It was all getting in my face, trying to bite.
The situation was looking grim. Glancing to the side for a second, I saw the Toad Dragon strike the unmounted Rudolf Hock with its tail. The knight might very well not have survived that hit. Then Tamurkhan's monstrous mount was about to help its master, but military luck decided to smile on us again. Reinforcements had arrived, and what reinforcements they were!
Five Demigryph Knights, and among them was Theodore Bruckner—the Countess of Nuln's champion. Excellent! We hadn't been stalling Tamurkhan, dodging blows and suffering the stench, for nothing.
Though the Demigryphs were smaller than the Toad Dragon, they could overcome the wounded monster with their fury, agility, and above all, their numerical superiority. One of the Empire's war-beasts immediately sank its beak into the victim's hind leg. Three others attacked from different sides. And the fifth, the largest, carried Theodore Bruckner on its back, and he was heading straight for Tamurkhan.
The Maggot Lord noticed the arrival of the Imperial reinforcements.
— More meat for the maggots, — he said, trying to reach me with his greataxe once more.
Bruckner entered the fight without a word. First, the Nuln executioner tried a classic cavalry charge, combined with the Demigryph's pounce. I noticed the tip of his enchanted lance shimmering slightly. The enemy likely noticed it too. This time, Tamurkhan actually decided to protect his rotting bulk. With a sweep of his axe, he knocked the lance aside, stepping out of the Demigryph's path.
However, we didn't let the Chaos-worshipper go unpunished. Having avoided Bruckner's attack, he took hits to the back from both me and Magg. And that, if you'll excuse me, was a hell of a lot of damage.
Haargan's axe sank easily into the rotten flesh. I tried to hit the spine, but the blade probably didn't go that deep; the enemy's bulk was just too bloated.
Magg hacked at Tamurkhan's neck. Shards of pus and gods-only-know-what-else flew in all directions.
Tamurkhan spun toward us, answering Magg with a blow of monstrous force. The Ogre took it on the haft of his axe and... literally fell on his ass. What strength! It was terrifying, truly terrifying, but Tamurkhan's time was coming to an end. The Demigryphs were tearing his Toad Dragon apart, and Bruckner had dismounted, drawing his blade. As I understand it, he had the Runefang of Wissenland, or some other top-tier magical blade.
Tamurkhan failed to switch back to him in time. A second later, another chunk of the Maggot Lord's skull hit the ground. Flies began to crawl out of the rotting remains of his brain. Tamurkhan was left with literally half a face and one eye.
— Ha! — Magg chuckled, climbing to his feet. — Well, that's you done for!
Nearly done. I agreed. However, Tamurkhan was still resisting. He turned toward Bruckner, attempting to land a crushing blow on the Empire warrior. But Theodore, with agility surprising for a man in armor, stepped aside and...
Bravo!
Bruckner's counterattack caught the Maggot Lord on the right arm, nearly severing it. Excellent! The enemy doesn't want to die like a normal person? Fine, we'll take him apart piece by piece.
Liandra, Magg, and I seized the moment, attacking the leader of the broken horde in the back once more. There was no need for formalities with a creature like this. Pus, blood, and flies flew everywhere.
Meanwhile, Bruckner let another of the enemy's strikes pass by. I think even one-on-one, Theodore would have had a decent chance against an unwounded Tamurkhan. But now the Maggot Lord was nowhere near his peak. His body was falling apart. Even his monstrous regeneration couldn't save him anymore; the wounds he'd taken were too heavy and extensive. Although his strikes still carried crushing force, Tamurkhan was moving very slowly now.
A swing of the axe, Bruckner steps back, I move in from the side and...
Now, bravo to me. With Haargan's enchanted axe, I managed to hit the limb Bruckner had already hacked. Tamurkhan was left without his right arm. The rotten tyrant's limb fell to the ground among the other scraps of his flesh.
— No! — the Maggot Lord roared. — I cannot be slain! I am the beloved son of Nurgle! I was chosen!
— You were chosen... — I agreed with a smirk, leaping well back. — You were chosen, and you fucked it all up!
I was hoping to provoke him again to give Bruckner a chance to finish the bastard. In truth, I had to watch with both eyes to make sure Tamurkhan didn't escape in his maggot form or try to possess someone else's body. I hoped my reflexes would be enough to stop him.
— I... Aaaa-rrrr!
Tamurkhan's words turned into a scream. Warp energy roiled around the Maggot Lord. It seemed Nurgle was trying to help his favorite little son. Brownish-green, foul-smelling miasmas enveloped us in a thick cloud, obscuring our vision. Inhuman voices echoed from different sides. Plaguebearers—the lesser demons of Nurgle—were likely beginning to manifest here. Shit. If in all this chaos he...
"Watch out!" I heard Loom-Pia's voice, but I didn't have time to react.
Tamurkhan literally flew into me. He was moving fast and violently again. The Maggot Lord grabbed me with his remaining hand, dragging me forward. Curse it! I couldn't get my footing. I hacked at the enemy's side with my axe, but he didn't care about such wounds.
Through the foul haze, Tamurkhan burst into the shrine and hurled me onto the pile of broken, Toad Dragon-vomit-covered furniture.
— I wanted to take that Ogre, but you'll do, chatterbox, — Tamurkhan said, boring into me with the heavy gaze of his one remaining eye. — If you defeated Haargan, it means you are strong.
This monster decided to take my body for himself? No thanks! No room at the inn. I've already got a spectral toad living in me; there's no spare space. Becoming a meat-suit for this super-maggot is not in my plans.