The battlefield was silent for a moment.
That's right. The battlefield, the Waaagh was silent for a moment, following the Morkanaut's defeat and its fall to the ground. But only shortly.
[Blessing of Gork and Mork has levelled up]
[Blessing of Gork and Mork has levelled up]
[Blessing of Gork and Mork has levelled up]
And then...
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!" "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!" "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!" "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!" "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!"
The Waaagh-field intensified as the Orks grew more excited, and it seemed as though two gazes watched the happenings of the battle. And they were extremely pleased.
As the first line of bikes was pulped, the smog parted to reveal the true scale of the Mek-Boss's ambition.
From the side alleys and ruins, thousands of 'Ard Boyz, Slugga Boyz, Shoota Boyz, Stikk Bommas, Pyromaniacs and Boom Boyz stomped forward, their scavenged metal plates, shootas and choppas in hand. Behind them, Burna Boyz roared in delight as their flamethrowers fired flames of unstable tanks and burned more Orks than they did Gerhard.
Tankbustas sprinted between the debris, rokkits strapped to their backs and held on relatively long stikks, eyes locked on the massive silhouettes of Gustav and Gerhard. Such a monstrous boom was clearly powerful; they had to crack it open.
In the centre, Stormboyz ignited their rokkit packs and zoomed across the sky. Great tongues of black smoke propelled them through the sky, hurtling toward Gerhard like large living, screaming missiles.
"Targeting air units," Sera reported from inside Gustav. Her fingers moved across the interface, locking the Smart Mana Missile System.
"Lock achieved."
Behind the turret of the tank, forty-eight hatches slowly slid back at the same time.
"Fire!"
The mana-powered payloads shot into the sky; they curved and banked with the coded, guided intelligence, intercepting each one of the Stormboyz mid-flight.
BOOOOOMMM--BOOOOOMMM---
The sky became a tapestry of explosions and falling, charred limbs and debris. The hatches closed again, and Gustav immediately reloaded the empty chambers with new ones.
Sera was at it again, looking at the three screens, giving her a near 270° view of the tank and showing her where to fire the different weapons systems. She was doing extremely well, so Gustav didn't have to intervene or take over.
H: > Killa Kan approaching. Move 43.3699° to the right and 23.2957° down.
The Mana Demolisher Cannon, which was located slightly below the Baneblade Cannon, moved to target the largest cluster of small Ork walkers who were approaching.
G: > Target locked.
H: > Fire.
A standard Demolisher shell is constructed with an outer layer of standard high explosive and shrapnel, surrounding a chemical core. Upon impact, the explosive layer detonates, punching a hole in the enemy's armour and spreading shrapnel over a wide area.
It also starts a chemical reaction in the core, causing it to superheat into a jet of plasma that lances through the compromised armour, spreading molten death over a wide area and literally ripping the target from the inside out.
A Demolisher shell has the strength to topple armoured fortress gates, tear open bunkers made from reinforced ferrocrete, and is so massive that its weight alone could crush a tank; the force of its blast can atomise the most heavily armed target, leaving only a crater.
...
That was a 'standard' Demolisher shell.
...
This was a Mana Demolisher Cannon. It used different shells.
As the infantry closed in, the heavier clank of Ork walkers joined the chorus. Several Killa Kans waddled forward, their Grotzooka barrels spinning.
Killa Kan – Lv.42
|HP: 16,000/16,000
|MP: 0
|A small Ork walker piloted by a deranged Gretchin. Cheap, numerous, and dangerous in packs.
|Weapons:
| Big Shoota / Rokkit / Skorcha / Grotzooka
| Buzzsaw / Klaw
--
Behind them, a Deffkilla Wartrike screeched into view, led by a speed-obsessed Nob who revved his saw-blades.
Deffkilla Wartrike – Lv.45
|HP: 18,000/18,000
|MP: 0
|A high-speed Ork war machine led by a speed-obsessed warboss.
--
However, just as they were about to reach the immediate surroundings of the battle, the Demolisher shell hit.
BBBBOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM-----!!!
[Killa Kan defeated]
[+160,000 EXP]
[Killa Kan defeated]
[+160,000 EXP]
[Deffkilla Wartrike defeated]
[+180,000 EXP]
[Killa Kan defeated]
[+160,000 EXP]
[Deffkilla Wartrike defeated]
[+180,000 EXP]
The rail-cannon mounted below Gerhard's left Power Gauntlet was doing tremendous work. At 11,000 RPM, it didn't sound like a regular assault cannon anymore; it sounded like several powerful magnets were pulling the world apart. Mach 10+ kinetic slugs hammered into the Orks of all shapes and sizes. The Internal Liquefaction effect turned the Orks who had armour, or those inside vehicles and walkers, into soup before the armour even showed a dent.
Suddenly, the ground trembled. A new enemy had arrived. Gerhard stopped firing the Assault Rail-Cannon when he saw the Big Mek arrive. This was what he was interested in: that weapon.
A Big Mek levelled what was known as a Shokk Attack Gun.
The Shokk Attack Gun is one of the most bizarre weapons the Meks have ever invented. It serves as a great example of just how deep Meks' innate understanding of technology lies, and of how they use it solely to create weapons of mass destruction.
No Ork knows exactly how it does it, but the Shokk Attack Gun projects a narrow forcefield through the Warp, beginning at the end of the barrel and ending roughly where the gun is aimed. In this way, it is possible for living creatures to travel through the Warp towards the exit point.
Though the field maintains its integrity, an unprotected journey through the Warp is a very horrifying experience, and no Ork would agree to being fired. Gretchin, well, they have the brains enough to avoid it, so Mek Operators of Shokk Attack Guns gather Snotlings, who are brainless enough to serve as their ammo.
These sorry little shits are sucked in and then fired out of the gun, shot through the Warp, and driven out of their tiny minds in the process. This has the effect of terrifying the Snotlings, making them exit the portal in a frenzy, ripping and tearing at anything they encounter as they leave the portal.
This is effective because the Mek often aims the gun directly at enemy soldiers, who usually emerge from inside living creatures or enemy tanks, ripping them apart from the inside, and landing nearby due to the very effective, compact exit point.
...
[Psionic Mana Shield]
Gerhard tried to use the mixture of psionic and Mana to shield himself, only to realise that he wasn't even the target and that there were multiple Big Meks with Shokk Attack Guns.
A spinning black hole opened at the Shokk Attack Gun's barrel end. A Snotling was sucked in and hurled through the Warp, materialising inside the outer layer of Gustav's insanely powerful plating.
H: > We have a breach on the outer layer!
Hans shouted as several snortlings appeared inside the bloody tank. Sera was alerted, but thankfully, not at the exact spot where the Snortlings appeared from. Still, she pulled out her Las pistol and started firing wildly at the frenzied creatures.
It was a disastrous chaos as she hit the technology inside Gustav, which, who would have thought, wasn't supposed to be how it went.
"AAHHH!!" Sera shouted as she was scratched and almost lost an eye to one of them. Several Mechandrites pierced the creatures and killed them. Hans was working quickly.
H: > Enter ultimate lockdown. Siege mode!
Everything except the innermost level of Gustav started to crackle as the two Mana Cores went into overdrive and sent millions of volts through the entire tank, frying anything and anyone too close.
Gerhard, who saw the predicament the Shokk Attack Gun caused, acted right away. He ignored anything else and activated his powered turbines to full power and shot across the battlefield, killing anything as he did so, until he reached the Big Mek.
[Bind]
[Bind]
The Ork suddenly found himself bound and unable to move on the ground, as Gerhard appeared above him.
"OI, WHA--"
Gerhard stomped on the Ork's head, making sure not to damage the weapon. He levitated it and then placed it into the inventory. He would find out how the core principle worked and then create such a gun for himself.
But now, he had to up his game a bit.
H: > Repair systems engaging!
G: > 89% complete. Mana burn is still in effect, releasing heat.
Nearby, Traktor Kannons fired large beams, attempting to lift or simply pull the 360-tonne tank into the air. Gustav groaned, its Energy Field glowing white as it fought the magnetic pull.
Gerhard started moving again. And as he did so, a slight green energy started to crackle from him. He didn't realise it then, but as he was about to get close and personal with the Orks, the Waaagh rejoiced.
[Blessing of Gork and Mork has levelled up]
Gerhard ignited his turbines, not to fly, but to become a living wrecking ball. He leaned forward, the MK V-H Hulk Buster suit's servos whining with hydraulic fury, and charged into the thickest concentration of the Ork vanguard.
The first thing the Orks saw was a black and grey blur trailing a slipstream of cackling green light. Then came the sound, the Mana Storm Bolter on his right arm began to bark with glorious fury. The Orks couldn't contain their glee and happiness at hearing the sound. Because of the Variable Projectile Logic and the Mana Bullet skill, each firing of the Mana Storm bolter unleashed a literal wall of bullets and bolter rounds. With every pull of the trigger, thirty-two Mana Bullets materialised simultaneously in a twin-linked stream and zoomed across the air, always hitting a target.
BBROOMMMM--BOOOBOOOOMMMM--BABABABOOOOOOMMM---
[Ork Trukk destroyed]
[+130,000 EXP]
[Ork Trukk destroyed]
[+130,000 EXP]
...
[Level up]
...
The lead Trukk, piled high with what looked like hundreds of 'Ard Boyz hanging off the roll bars, didn't just stop, but it disintegrated. The 3,600 RPM fire rate meant that within a single second, 960 high-penetration Mana Bolts slammed into the enemies.
The Mana Storm Bolter did a base damage of 1,000, but that was without the Mana Bullet skill included. Each Mana Bolt... did a whopping... 5,000 damage in Gamer stats. In real life, that was more than enough power to eliminate an entire Ork Trukk and all the Orks on it, to nothingness.
The Mass-Reactive Detonations occurred simultaneously in the engine block and the fuel tanks. The battlefield became a sick feast of detonations and destruction. The Trukks vanished in a fireball, launching pieces of 'Ard Boyz and all the other types of Ork Boyz through the air like green shrapnel.
The ground shuddered as a new type of enemy approached.
Deff Dreads waltzed through the smoke and flames, targeting Gerhard.
Deff Dread – Lv.60
|HP: 25,000/25,000
|MP: 0
|A brutal Ork walker piloted by an Ork, built for close combat slaughter and battlefield dominance.
STR: 145
VIT: 160
--
Gerhard didn't slow down, though. He ploughed through the wreckage, his massive shoulder guards pulverising a Killa Kan that tried to block his path. He swung his right arm, the Lightning Claw, in a wide, horizontal arc. Using [Psychokinesis], he pulled them towards him! The disruptor fields gained a green-taint and its blades sheared through the reinforced scrap-metal armour of two large Deff Dreads at once.
[Deff Dread defeated]
[+400,000 EXP]
[Deff Dread defeated]
[+400,000 EXP]
As he moved, he raised his left hand, his battle awareness having grown enormously since he ventured into the Underhive the first time and stupidly engaged a Plague Zombie with a sword.
The Adrathic Repulsor Ray integrated into the Lightning Claw hummed with charged power. He swept the beam across a line of ten massive Ork Tanks racing toward Gustav's flank.
The effect was horrifyingly silent. Where the heated beam touched, matter simply ceased to be. The cockpits of the Trukks vanished, leaving the headless bodies of the pilots sitting at steering wheels that no longer existed. The momentum of the vehicles carried them forward into each other, creating a massive, tangled pile-up of screaming Orks and collapsing steel.
"GET OUT DA WAY!" an Ork Nob screamed, leaping from a bike.
Gerhard, who had turned into a bulwark of death and destruction, caught him mid-air with his left Power Gauntlet and squeezed. The Assault Rail-Cannon mounted on the underside fired a single Mach 10+ slug point-blank. The kinetic shockwave didn't just kill the Nob; it turned him into a disgusting slushy that coated the windshields of the vehicles behind him.
Gerhard was now a whirlwind of cataclysm, using plasma and Adrathic repulsor rays to kill and destroy any that came too close. He fired his turbines and crashed onto the roof of a moving Battlewagon, his weight buckling the top plating. He jammed the Lightning Claw into the hull and unleashed a Plasma Incinerator burst directly into the troop compartment.
VVWWWOOOOOOOMMMMM---!!!
[Battlewagon destroyed]
[+320,000 EXP]
[Ork Boyz defeated] x 73
[4,380,000 EXP]
[Level up]
[Level up]
[Level up]
A new type of Ork walker appeared.
A Mega Dread.
Ork Mega Dread – Lv.72
|HP: 49,000/49,000
|MP: 0
|A massive elite Ork walker, far more powerful and advanced than Deff Dreads. Built for devastating frontline assaults.
STR: 200
VIT: 240
--
"YES!!" Gerhard's voice boomed with excitement, amplified by the Waaagh! energy that seemed not only to enhance and fuel him, but to be generated by him as well.
He was both effectively stealing from the Warboss and creating his own as his excitement and fighting intent grew.
"DIS A PROPER FIGHT!"
He leapt from the exploding Battlewagon, his Turbine Flight System kicking in for a low-altitude burn. He flew three feet off the ground, a grey mass of destruction and landed on the ground, standing before the massive Mega Dread.
The Mega Dread loomed over Gerhard like a hab-block made of grit, spit and jagged iron. Its Kill Kannon barked loudly, a shell the size of a beer keg shot toward his head, but Gerhard didn't even flinch.
The green hue had taken on a physical form, and, apart from lying on the Hulk Buster, it crackled with green lightning. He blurred forward.
As the Kill Kannon shell detonated against his Psionic Mana Shield, converting the blast into a surge of blue mana, Gerhard struck.
Gerhard raised his left Power Gauntlet, which now gripped a massive, shimmering Power Axe that he had created to be used with the Hulk Buster. And it was the second weapon in Gerhard's new lines of weaponry that combined technology with magic.
The blade was etched with the first very crude versions of mana-conductive runes, hummed at a frequency that only enhanced the disruption field and the weapon's durability.
He swung it in a brutal vertical arc, burying the axe-head deep into the Mega Dread's left knee joint. The Adamantium-Auramite edge ignored the walker's physical resistance, severing hydraulic lines and sparking bundles of fibre-optics. The massive machine groaned, tilting forward as its leg seized, but continued to fire.
While the Mega Dread was off-balance, Gerhard levelled the Assault Rail-Cannon mounted below that same left power gauntlet. At point-blank range, there was no need for using much targeting skill. He pulled the trigger, and several Mach 10+ hyper-velocity bullets hammered into the walker's main cockpit hatch.
BBRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTT----!
The metal turned into a fluid. The kinetic shockwave bypassed the three-inch-thick scrap plating, turning the Ork pilots inside into a pressurised soup of green gore before the hatch even buckled.
The Mega Dread's automated sub-systems, driven by a primitive and angry Gretchin, tried to retaliate, swinging a Rippa Klaw at Gerhard's midsection.
Gerhard caught the massive claw with his right Lightning Claw, the metal screeching as adamantine-auramite met rusted iron. The sheer Newtons released were staggering, but the power Gerhard now possessed in his power suit enabled him to withstand them.
He fuelled the armour with more of his Mana and enhanced its already strangely bolstered durability.
"GET DOWN 'ERE."
As he held the Rippa Klaw, Gerhard engaged the Mana Storm Bolter integrated onto the Lightning Claw—16 Mana Bullets per shot materialised in a continuous stream of 3,600 RPM. The bolts burrowed inside and exploded with glorious booms.
The Mega Dread began to glow from the inside as its fuel tanks and ammo racks cooked off. For the coup de grâce, Gerhard ignited his turbines, leaping into the air. He swung the Power Axe in a two-handed grip, channelling the full power of the Prismatic Mana Reactor into the blade.
With a roar that was half-human and half-Waaagh!, he cleaved the Mega Dread's "head" clean off its shoulders. The massive Kill Kannon arm fell into the mud with a wet metallic thud, followed shortly by the rest of the 75-tonne walker.
[Ork Mega Dread defeated]
[+750,000 EXP]
[Blessing of Gork and Mork has levelled up]
[Blessing of Gork and Mork has levelled up]
Gerhard landed in a three-point stance, the green lightning from his suit having intensified and arcing into the surroundings. He stood up, the Power Axe dripping with black oil and glowing with immense heat.