A second ago, Grimnar had been very confident. He expected his opponent might use some petty tricks, and even wondered if they had brought a Personal Void Shield.
However, in the next second, the blonde woman in front of him lunged at him with a Rapier.
Her speed was incredibly fast; in the time it took to blink, she had already thrust the Rapier into his body.
Her footwork was as elegant as a waltz dancer, and her Rapier found the gaps in his Black Carapace every single time.
Lion didn't choose to use brute force for this fight, instead, he used a clever, refined technique to battle.
This style of fighting was originally pioneered by Fulgrim, though no one knew where that traitor was now.
"Holy crap, what's going on?" Grimnar's eyes widened. Before he could even react, the opponent had already finished a full combo.
The woman's figure practically whistled past him.
Immediately after, he could only catch a trace of a sharp wind.
This woman was like a loach, weaving and darting around him at will.
He only realized he'd been stabbed twice more after she was already standing right in front of him again.
"How the hell am I supposed to fight this!"
Grimnar felt his body stiffen; his external Black Carapace had already been pierced with several holes by the opponent.
The neural interface nodes connecting to his Power Armor had been cleanly sabotaged, and these nodes, which connected to the armor, were originally very critical pressure points.
Once they were all pierced, a person's bones and muscles would seize up.
"Do you surrender? If you surrender, I'll stop!"
"By the way, is this all the Space Wolves are capable of these days?"
"You are far inferior to your predecessors!"
Lion's tone didn't sound like an ordinary reprimand; it sounded more like an elder giving pointers to a junior.
To Lion, these little pups were all his little nephews.
He was the Primarch of the First Legion, after all. Seeing most of these pups as nephews was perfectly fine.
"No, I can still move!"
"How could I possibly lose to a mortal? This is impossible!"
Grimnar tried to struggle, but his legs felt as heavy as lead and difficult to move.
The woman simply walked up to him and gave him a flick on the forehead, and his body gave out.
His body had exceeded its limit. The gap between his combat power and this woman, who looked like a mortal, was still too vast.
"I lost just like that?"
"Lost to a mortal?" His body slammed heavily onto the ground, even leaving a silhouette of himself on the floor.
Logan Grimnar, had become socially withdrawn.
Consecutive failures had ruthlessly crushed his self-confidence.
An endless sense of humiliation welled up in his heart. It was one thing to be beaten by a mutant, but now being beaten by a woman who looked like a mortal was truly incomprehensible to him.
Caleb was also closely observing this battle. To be honest, the Space Wolf opposite really hadn't managed to scratch a single bit of skin off Lion.
Originally, a Primarch's larger size meant a larger defensive area. Although they could easily defeat opponents, they would more or less sustain some injuries or be affected.
But now Lion was a concentrated version. Maintaining the original stats while the total surface area had decreased, that was simply broken.
The weapon's swing radius was smaller and faster, yet it could deal the same damage.
The body was lighter, yet the jumping power of the leg muscles remained unchanged.
Under this series of influences, rounding it off, Lion had overall become stronger.
Aside from the body being a bit lighter and looking a bit softer and cuter overall, there were no downsides.
"Knight captain, you recorded it, right? Carry him down!"
"Let him rest well, then let him go back!"
"If these wolves are like their old man, then as long as they lose, they'll honor the deal!"
"Even if they don't, it doesn't matter. Later, release the recording and let this little puppy lose some face!"
"Yes, Lady Artoria!"
"No!" Logan Grimnar let out a miserable cry. This kind of defeat was far too embarrassing.
To be defeated by a seemingly petite mortal woman—if word got out, how could he show his face in the Space Wolves again?
Lion stepped forward and patted his cheek. Although it was somewhat insulting, the other Dark Angels were actually envious of this Wolf Pup's treatment!
Knight captain: I also want to be sternly disciplined by Lord Lion!
Lion: "Go back and rest well, and do as I said!"
"Your combat techniques are lacking; you still need to practice more!"
"Don't be like your father, thinking about drinking and eating meat all day. Practice your combat arts well and drink less wine!"
Logan Grimnar looked at the woman before him as if he had lost all his strength.
He was dragged back by the Dark Angels like a stray dog.
At this moment, these veterans were full of envy. To be personally lectured by a Primarch was a form of grace.
Sure enough, just as Lion expected, when the War Council reconvened the next day...
The Space Wolves actually agreed to all of the Dark Angels' battle plans.
They even argued strongly for them during the meeting, even if the reasons were ridiculous, they supported them.
During the meeting, Helbrecht of the Black Templars expressed great confusion over this strategic move of abandoning territory.
Furthermore, he raised a key question during the meeting: how were they to pass through the jungle between the main continent and the subcontinent?
With such a massive population, it was absolutely impossible for the Orks in the jungle to just stand by and watch.
Letting so many people pass through the jungle would definitely trigger an Ork riot.
Caleb: It doesn't matter. The greenskins there have already been led away by the mutants I sent down!
Now that forest might be even safer than a hive city. At least there aren't that many strange heretics. The main population can be preserved.
"It doesn't matter!"
Lion relayed this message through his knight captain. After learning that not many Orks were left in the jungle, the Black Templars finally agreed.
There was no other way, the Dark Angels claimed they had found a way to destroy the Gate of the Red Angel.
They even claimed that by doing so, an existence that could fully represent the Emperor's power would descend upon this world.
Until the lie was exposed, the Black Templars could only take it as truth for now.
In their minds, there were only a few things that could represent the Emperor's power.
On the gameboard, various units began to move, the Krieg Legions, who were still endlessly charging on the front lines, began to orderly cover their team's retreat.
The originally long front line began to slowly shrink, a large number of innocent civilians were being driven toward Hell hive city.
However, Chaos agents also took this opportunity to mingle among them.
Although their numbers were small, once they were allowed to complete strange rituals within the crowd, they would instantly corrupt the majority of the population.
Clearly, Caleb now had to solve this problem...
Looking at the neatly arranged chess pieces around the room, Caleb's gaze suddenly fell on the Necron models.
Among the Necron models he had purchased, a blackstone pylon happened to be included.
This thing could restrict psychic energy within the Warp and was also a key material used by Szarekh, the Silent King, to seal the Warp.
Clearly, this thing was likely similar to Blanks, possessing the ability to affect Psykers to a certain extent.
During the Fall of Cadia, the role of this object had been repeatedly mentioned.
Lion El'Jonson: Father, there are too many people!
I can feel that among these crowds, there must be many cultists. If they cause trouble in the crowd, then the mission to save 30% of the population might be very difficult to complete!
Caleb: How rare. You wouldn't have said these things before. But I have a way; you just need to go and do it.
When Lion heard this, he felt strangely at ease for some reason.
He stood atop a high tower, gazing far off at the migration tide that resembled a surging sea.
From this perspective, humans were like ants constantly migrating in one direction.
There were also many Astra Militarum soldiers around the crowd maintaining order. They maintained a strategic corridor, driving a constant stream of the population deep into the jungle.
Every hour, hundreds of millions of people were relocated to new areas.
Among them, some truly disgusting Chaos cultists were mixed in.
The Astra Militarum had no way to distinguish these so-called Psykers, and even the Inquisitors of the Inquisition could not handle so many people.
Even though the sound of Psykers being executed could be heard from the crowd from time to time, the efficiency was still a bit too low.
Do you want to deploy Blackstone Pylons? The effect of these Pylons will increase the burden on Psykers.
This effect only requires 25 deployment points. It will strongly increase the physiological discomfort of Psykers and slowly kill them over a period of time.
"Deploy!"
Caleb did not hesitate; in order to ensure the mission was completed smoothly, he deployed two Pylons directly.
These two Blackstone Pylons connected a vast corridor on the left and right.
Any evil Psyker passing by the Pylons would be dragged out and executed on the spot.
"What is that?"
The black Pylons descended from the sky with a golden luster, Unexpectedly, the Imperial defense fleet had no idea where these Pylons came from!
These two Pylons had actually evaded the fleet's monitoring, Even the Astropaths and many Seers had no awareness of the two Pylons.
"Great, the good stuff has arrived!"
Lion knew that the current work pressure was immense, especially since the Inquisition was nearly overwhelmed by the killings!
But with these Pylons, those illegal Psykers could be rooted out immediately.
This was just like fishing with a net; anyone with a stronger psychic intensity could not pass through the network woven by these two Pylons.
Personnel from the Adeptus Mechanicus arrived in this area first, and after careful study, they quickly understood the effects of these two Blackstone Pylons.
When the effects of the two Pylons were submitted to the Inquisition and the War Council, even the internal staff were amazed by this miracle.
This thing was simply fantastic, and it perfectly relieved their work pressure.
As long as those heretics blocked outside by the Pylons were executed directly, it would be done!
The two Pylons were not tall, about 15 meters, but these two Pylons were enough to suppress the invasion of Chaos.
"Hmm, good stuff. After this is done, can you give these two Pylons to us?"
"We, the Black Templars, really like this kind of relic. Perhaps this is the God-Emperor's reward for our loyalty. This is fantastic!"
Lion: "These bastards change their faces so fast."
After receiving a positive reply from Caleb, Lion finally nodded and agreed to this small request.
Caleb knew a thing or two about the Black Templars; they naturally hated illegal Psykers and heretics to the extreme.
This force was likely one of the few Astartes Chapters that did not have a Librarian.
With such an artifact, they couldn't be happier.
Very quickly, large numbers of pagans and fanatics influenced by the power of Chaos were dragged out on the spot.
Huge mountains of corpses had already piled up at both ends of the two Pylons, Every day, incinerator units arrived to incinerate the corpses here.
Otherwise, the blood realm of Chaos might affect this place.
Perhaps sensing the actions of the humans, the offensive from the Chaos side began to become increasingly fierce.
In the battle, a Daemon named Skarbrand appeared on the battlefield.
He began to slaughter wantonly on the front lines, and used his exquisite skills to tear open one gap after another in the defensive line.
For a time, the forces of Chaos attempted to destroy this survivor corridor, trying to cut off this torrent of life and sacrifice all the population preparing to evacuate to the Chaos Gods.
When the iron hooves of war approached Hell hive city, the hive city had already become a true hell.
Due to the influx of a large population, the already precarious public security became even worse.
Although the problem of cultists was sufficiently alleviated under the influence of the Pylons.
But ultimately, in the lower hive city, a small number of people embarked on the path of slaughter.
Consequently, during this relocation activity, the Black Templars finally couldn't stand it anymore.
They dispatched highly skilled executioner squads, directly launching a bloody purge on high-risk areas, namely the lowest level of the hive city.
The reason for this purge was simply because the probability of heretic outbreaks below was too high.
However, this indiscriminate purge also led to a legend on Armageddon about a "kill line."
Once you fall into the lower hive city, you are not far from death.
The Emperor's Angels detested these damned poor people, They would use holy swords radiating the Emperor's luster to disembowel those blasphemers.
Afterwards, even the corpses would be incinerated, the means being quite brutal.
Workers who still had meager jobs in the lower hive city often told this story to their children.
This horror story was very effective, even able to spur those children who didn't work seriously to work properly in the factories.
Even though the average lifespan of these child laborers might still not exceed 8 years, under the threat of death, they eventually chose to become parts of the Imperium, erupting with the necessary productivity.
Watching the lower hive city, where blood flowed like a river and which was completely plunged into a sea of blood.
Caleb only hoped that people in the future would not fall into this tragedy.
These images on the gameboard were so real that he could even zoom in on the screen to see everyone who died miserably in this disaster.
Morality did not exist; in this place without any order, morality was a luxury.
In this absolutely cruel place, being able to sell one's own flesh cheaply was something to be thankful for.
Because at the very least, you had your own value, rather than being treated as a high-risk unit and disposed of at the very bottom.
When the incinerator units behind caught up, these corpses would not leave any trace in the world.
The raging fire would burn them completely clean, burning away the grievances and blasphemy together.
"Whew!"
Looking at the completion of the preliminary strategy, Caleb sighed slightly.
To be honest, since he had mastered the gameboard these past few days, he had felt a strange sense of oppression in his heart.
The escape of the people at the bottom was truly too tragic, or rather, people in the Warhammer world had always been tragic.
It would be slightly better in the upper levels; at least before you were plotted against and killed by schemes, you had a decent and comfortable life.
But once you fell into the Imperium's "kill line," then only the cruelest death awaited you.
Because the Imperium's "kill line" was triggered almost based on mood.
No matter which level of the Imperium you were in, as long as you touched it, you had a high probability of not living to see tomorrow.
The terrifying images constantly stimulated Caleb's heart, until the doorbell of the room rang, and Caleb was pulled back to reality by the sound.
"Coming!"
Caleb took out the black cloth he had prepared long ago and covered the gameboard.
Then, he drank a sip of purified water, calmed his mood, and then went to open the door.
The moment he opened the door, Caleb saw a middle-aged man wearing a white lab coat.
His forehead was full of wrinkles, and the top of his head had already gone gray.
"Hello, you are Mr. Watson, right!"
"I am your grandfather's attending physician, and also a doctoral supervisor, specializing in the Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Oncology!"
"Oh~" Caleb smiled and shook hands with the other party, then immediately remembered what happened yesterday and said.
"My dad mentioned you; you must be the Doctor Aulani my dad talked about on the phone!"
"Please come in and sit down. I presume you came here to talk about my Grandpa's medical condition!"
Caleb had already anticipated this doctor's arrival, but Caleb did not expect the other party to come so quickly.
Grandpa's condition had gradually improved yesterday afternoon... and this Doctor Aulani had actually arrived at his home by noon the next day.