The Warboss of the Blood Splatter Klan roared in excitement, watching Hubert fly backward, and immediately charged forward, gripping his Power Axe.
Hubert, seeing the massive Ork sprinting towards him, showed no fear whatsoever.
He shouted at the top of his lungs:
"A Son of Dorn knows no fear!"
And charged the Ork Warboss in return.
"Duang!"
A dull, heavy collision rang out.
The two figures passed each other.
The only difference was that Hubert flew out horizontally, while the Ork Warboss had his Power Axe severed at the handle and bore a massive wound on his flank that nearly cut him in two.
"WAAAGH!"
Feeling the savage pain in his body, the Warboss bellowed skyward, then looked back at his opponent.
On the ground not far away, Hubert slowly rose, his helmet's warning display flashing frantically.
"WARNING: Cardiac, Pulmonary Damage. Bone Fractures Detected. Emergency Combat Stimms Administered. Life Status: CRITICAL. Efficiency reduced to 35%."
His modified organs activated desperately, sealing the wounds with coagulated blood and shutting down damaged systems.
Hubert slowly pushed himself up from the scattered Ork corpses beneath him. As the concussion faded and his vision recovered, he clearly saw a massive, diagonal wound across his own chest plate.
The excruciating pain had been blocked by his neural implants, but the multiple fractures severely hampered his movements.
Attempting to stand, Hubert was forced to drop to one knee, using his Power Sword to support his weight.
"Great Emperor, Your will guides us. We dedicate our lives to Thee. May Your strength flow through us, granting me the power to destroy this foe!"
Hubert waited for his body to self-repair, reciting the prayer ritual aloud.
The Black Templars never doubted the divinity of the Emperor. Although the Emperor Himself had vehemently denied it, the existence of the Emperor's Champion only served to corroborate the undeniable truth.
In that brief exchange, the Power Sword had severed the axe haft, and the immense strength of the Ork Warboss had caused the broken haft to sweep across Hubert's chest like a vicious blade.
Hubert, refusing to back down, had simultaneously attempted to cleave the Warboss in half as he cut the axe haft.
The result was clear: both were heavily wounded.
The opponent had not fallen, and the duel was not yet over.
As the prayer concluded, Hubert slowly forced himself to his feet.
Although his injuries were severe, they were not yet fatal enough to force an Astartes into suspended animation or death.
The Warboss, meanwhile, had to remain rooted to the spot, using one hand to staunch his abdomen, which had been nearly bisected.
The wound, which sliced halfway across his torso, similarly had not killed him instantly.
However, it had rendered him completely incapable of movement.
Hubert violently pushed through his physical limitations, once again raising his Power Sword through sheer willpower. Even though the life status warnings in his helmet were deafeningly loud, his gaze remained fixed solely on the Ork Warboss before him.
"The enemy of the Emperor shall fall this day!"
The Warboss then performed a move that stunned Hubert.
Roaring in agony, he used the broken axe haft to stab himself in the abdomen, poking it out of the gash and using it to forcibly hold his torso together, preventing it from splitting apart.
Then, wielding the now shortened Power Axe, he charged Hubert once more.
Seeing the enemy's equally staggering steps, a strange smile flickered across Hubert's face.
"WAAAGH! Death! Blood! Fighting!"
Hubert strained to control his fractured body, and just as the Warboss reached him, he executed a swift, low-crouching move, sweeping his Power Sword diagonally upwards.
The sudden dizziness in his brain left him uncertain if the blow had connected.
However, as a heavy weight crashed down upon him, Hubert was forced into emergency stasis and lost consciousness completely.
…
Axion, following Apothecary Ousen, quickly arrived at the centre of the battlefield.
Although the Orks did not see a victor stand, a few of them had seen their Warboss's head fly off in a spinning arc following the final exchange.
Immediately, the battlefield devolved into a mass rout.
The Blood Splatter Klan Orks, as if their courage had been surgically removed, began scrambling back towards their damaged scrap ship.
A few of the stronger Orks began fighting amongst themselves during the retreat.
"Da Boss is dead! Dat means I'z da new Boss!"
Ousen looked at his fallen battle-brother, crushed beneath the corpse of the Blood Splatter Klan Warboss. He urgently attempted to shift the heavy xenos body.
But the sheer weight of the corpse proved too much for Ousen to lift.
Axion said nothing. He stepped forward, grabbed the Ork's arm, and simply tossed the massive carcass aside.
Lying amidst a great mass of spilled blood and scattered organs was a figure in shattered Power Armour.
Ousen quickly checked the status monitor on his arm.
He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Hubert was merely in stasis.
The already critically wounded Hubert had been subsequently crushed by the sheer weight of the deceased Warboss. The broken axe haft, which the Warboss had used to hold his own abdomen together, had also created a large secondary puncture wound in Hubert's back. This secondary trauma caused his already plummeting system efficiency to enter a state of mortal collapse.
His enhanced organs had instantly forced him into emergency stasis.
"The God-Emperor protects. If his injuries were any worse, we would have lost a valiant and glorious battle-brother today."
As an Apothecary, Ousen immediately began emergency triage on the severe wounds.
Looking at the extent of his brother's damage, conventional treatments would likely be ineffective.
Perhaps it was time to attempt a new, untested procedure.
Axion simultaneously swept his bio-identification rays over Hubert's body. Frankly, to sustain such injuries and still retain life functions, the biological technology of this era was perhaps not entirely useless.
Thinking of the other battlefield, Axion suddenly twisted his head, glanced at the healing Ousen, and instantly vanished in a dimensional warp.
The fight against the Red Fog Klan's Warboss was proving far more difficult.
The Black Templar warrior engaged in the duel, though more senior than Hubert, was slowly being pushed back. He had sustained several breaches in his Power Armour from the repeated exchanges but had failed to achieve any decisive result. To continue the prolonged engagement would only lead to his inevitable defeat.
The Red Fog Klan was significantly stronger than the Blood Splatter Klan. They had been lost in the Warp for a longer period and had left their homeworld earlier.
Their Warboss had survived far more engagements and was naturally much more capable than the Blood Splatter Klan's leader.
Were it not for the fear of the Power Axe the Blood Splatter Klan had acquired in an earlier fight, the latter would have been assimilated by the Red Fog Klan long ago.
Although the Red Fog Klan Warboss currently wielded a huge blade crudely patched together by an Ork Mek, he would not tolerate a single Astartes challenging him to a duel.
In his eyes, these Space Marines were not so difficult to deal with. Rather than a duel, he preferred utter annihilation.
Axion had barely materialized on the battlefield when he instantly assessed the situation. This Warboss was not only dealing with the self-declared Astartes duel but was continuously commanding various Orks in his Klan to perform flanking manoeuvres and establish an encirclement.
Scanning the battlefield, Axion made no unnecessary consideration. With a flash of silver transit light, his figure appeared directly above the Red Fog Klan Warboss.
The slender, golden blade extending from his forearm effortlessly sliced through the crude weapon the Warboss frantically raised to defend himself, and then proceeded to split the xenos' skull clean in half.
An Iron Man is merely a tool. Glory? The Iron Man only cares for efficiency.
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