Chapter 465 - 465: Terrain Kill

Having finished screaming at Blackiron, Three-Arm went straight back to hunting Kian down.

Rounding a street corner, he spotted Kian standing beneath a sixty-plus-meter statue of the Emperor, raising both Annihilator cannons and firing off two more shots.

The totem mounted on the Mork Walker flared with lightning, deflecting both plasma spheres harmlessly aside.

Three-Arm let out a booming laugh, unleashing another barrage from his super-rotary cannons while the head-mounted rocket pod fired at Kian in unison.

Kian detonated the incoming rockets mid-air with his lascutters, raised his ion shield to absorb the blast, and kept running.

Three-Arm was getting genuinely irritated by this point. This human shrimp-tin-can was exploiting his ranged advantage, firing off a volley and immediately running, slippery as hell.

His own Mork Walker was, admittedly, still too small to mount a proper finishing weapon. The rotary cannons couldn't reliably land a killing blow, the rocket pod kept getting shot down mid-flight, and the WAAAGH lightning trick needed time to charge.

All told, this being his first attempt at building a mech this size, Three-Arm was noting quite a few things he'd want to improve for next time.

While he was thinking it over, he arrived at the spot where Kian had just been standing, right beneath the ruined statue of the Emperor.

He'd barely started scanning for Kian's position when he spotted him standing across the Emperor's Square, over five hundred meters away.

"Heh heh heh, done running, shrimp-tin-can?"

Kian raised the Annihilator cannons.

"Done running. Time for the cutscene. Execution cutscene."

BOOM BOOM!!

Both Annihilator cannons fired in an instant, streaking straight at the Mork Walker, followed immediately by all four lascutters unleashed at maximum output.

Inside the Mork Walker, Three-Arm cackled wildly, the totem atop his head beginning to charge, a ball of green lightning slowly gathering.

"I've told you a hundred times, dat trick don't work on me!!"

"Doesn't it? Take another look."

Three-Arm froze, and only then realized Kian's attacks weren't aimed at him at all, but at the statue standing directly behind him!

The Mork Walker's mechanical head snapped around, and he saw the sixty-plus-meter statue of the Emperor, having just taken two direct Annihilator hits, its marble thigh blown apart, held together now by nothing but a few thick exposed rebar rods.

And right now, Kian's lascutters were burning straight into those exposed rebar supports, melting them fast. The statue was starting to sway, starting to fall.

By the Emperor's grace, the direction it was falling was directly onto the Mork Walker's position!

"NO!!!"

Three-Arm shrieked in terror, watching helplessly as the colossal statue toppled straight down toward him.

Kian burst out laughing.

"Take note, everyone: against a boss mechanic that doesn't show a health bar, you go for the environmental kill."

"NO!! My masterpiece!! It won't go down that easy to..."

The green lightning Three-Arm had gathered didn't fire at Kian. Instead, he redirected it straight up at the falling statue.

There was no time to escape. The Mork Walker was simply too slow to dodge. All he could do was brace and take it head-on.

The bolt of green lightning slammed into the falling statue's chest, blasting rubble and debris in every direction.

The statue's head and half its chest sheared off cleanly, the remaining mass crashing down toward Three-Arm.

But even that remaining mass didn't finish falling. The totem atop the Mork Walker's head flared brilliant green, and, impossibly, the Mork Walker actually managed to hoist the several-hundred-ton chunk of stone up over its head!

Kian felt a massive surge of psychic energy wash outward, something reminiscent of his own gravity magic.

There was the Mork Walker, its totem blazing green, straining to lift and shift that massive stone slab away.

Kian's mind raced. This bastard's pinned under a boulder, at the limit of his strength, unable to move. If he breaks free now, I'm in real trouble.

I have to strike while he's down. Now's the time to end him.

Kian thought it over for half a second, and unleashed everything he had.

All four lascutters fired at full output, splitting heaven and earth alike. A verse for the occasion:

Steel bones, iron frame, a mighty sight, Battle-worn, blazing with warrior's might. Standing tall, a tyrant's stance held true, Fierce and proud, his fury breaking through.

Beams of light, cold as heaven's frost, Xenos broken, their spirits lost. Beneath the Emperor's shattered form he fought, Loyalty unspoken, in silence wrought!

The four lascutters blazed crimson, tearing straight into the Mork Walker's chest.

With the totem currently occupied holding back the falling stone, it had no way to answer the laser fire with a counter-burst, and could only watch helplessly as the beams tore into its own body.

The lasers didn't punch all the way through, though. The Mork Walker's armour was thick, still faintly wreathed in a shimmer of green light, enough to hold the beams at bay.

The first strike hadn't landed a kill, but Kian didn't let up, keeping the pressure on while opening up with all four chest-mounted heavy bolters at the same time.

The barrage slammed into the Mork Walker in a series of crackling explosions, absorbed by the lingering WAAAGH field. For the moment, it held.

But don't forget, the Mork Walker was still holding that massive slab of stone overhead!

It was like doing a deep squat while someone jabbed a pole straight into your gut. The Mork Walker's footing was starting to buckle.

Kian narrowed his eyes, checked the Annihilator cooldown timer. Thirty seconds left.

The Mork Walker could no longer deflect incoming attacks. Every hit now landed clean, meaning, in plain terms, its shields were down and its health bar was showing.

Thirty more seconds, and two more shots would finish him off.

Hisss hisss hisss hisss!

The Annihilator cannons vented steam through their cooling systems, and Kian waited calmly, watching the execution sequence tick down.

Watching all of this unfold from a distance, Three-Arm broke out in a cold sweat, pouring down his face.

His totem was fully occupied fighting off the boulder, with no ability to deflect the incoming fire at all, forced to rely on nothing but the thin residual WAAAGH field wrapped around the chassis to hold on.

And if that field took a direct hit from an Annihilator cannon, there was no way it would survive. He was finished.

"Blackiron! Blackiron!! Get over here and back me up, NOW!!"

Three-Arm's plea came out ragged with panic. He'd already burned everything he had holding the slab overhead, and had no way left to dodge.

Let go of the boulder, and it crushed him. Don't let go, and he'd simply sit there and wait for Kian's execution cutscene to finish playing.

"Blackiron!! Blackiron, you useless piece of garbage, what da hell are you doin'?! Get over here and back me up, NOW!!"

Meanwhile, over on the other side of the fight, Blackiron's Gork Walker had already taken a lance thrust clean through the chest, courtesy of Luca.

Blackiron let out a furious shriek, swinging the Claw of Gork wildly, trying to tear Luca apart.

But Luca caught the claw on his shield, the telescoping mechanism on his lance slowly withdrawing the tip, only to thrust forward again a moment later.

There was a sharp mechanical crack, and the Gork Walker's chest was punched through a second time, the wound glowing red-hot at the point of impact.

"AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"

Blackiron raged, utterly helpless, one arm already useless, pinned in place while Luca kept stabbing the Claw of Gork aside and driving the lance home again and again.

Over on Three-Arm's end, his Mork Walker's systems had higher-tier access, and he could see clearly that Blackiron's Gork Walker was already on the verge of going down, and at this distance, there was no way reinforcements could reach him in time regardless.

"USELESS GIT! USELESS GOOD-FOR-NOTHIN' GIT!!"

Three-Arm roared, but by then, Kian's Annihilator cannons had finished their cooldown, the superheated venting steam finally trailing off.

"Heh heh heh, Uncle Old Fart Kian's here to see you~"

Kian taunted lightly, and fired.

Three-Arm watched the Annihilator cannons flare blue with charging light, eyes bulging with pure horror, and with a desperate scream, slammed a fist down on a red emergency button on his console.

The next instant, on both battlefields at once, hidden ejector seats burst free from the backs of the Gorkamorka Walkers, carrying Three-Arm and the mangled lump that was Blackiron.

With a sharp whoosh, the ejector seats fired, launching both pilots clear of their machines entirely, an emergency escape system!

BOOM BOOM!!!

Both blue plasma bolts slammed into the Mork Walker, erupting in a devastating explosion.

The Mork Walker was punched clean through and melted from the inside, its totem finally unable to hold, and the massive stone slab crashed down, flattening it into scrap.

Meanwhile, Luca's lance kept driving forward, punching seven clean holes straight through the Gork Walker's frame.

With Blackiron, its pilot, already ejected and gone, the Gork Walker had no one left at the controls. Luca drove one final thrust straight through its mechanical skull, and the massive war-machine toppled to the ground, finished.

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