In The World Of Sword And Magic As Space Marine - Chapter 123: Wood and Rust

William and his personal honor guards advanced with no intention to stop no matter what. With each step, they take, the enemies tried to stop them but they fail as honor guards managed to take out the target before they could react.

At first, the Tau defense force approached with their ion rifles and other various weapons to stop William and his men. The problem Tau didn’t or couldn’t consider were that William and his guards possess the most advanced technology in humanity’s history.

The ion rifle couldn’t dent the honor guard’s armor as it simply absorb the energy. The heavy rail gun was simply redirected the moment it hit the energy shield that was powered by the energy from the ion rifle. Meanwhile, honor guards raise their bolters and open fire without any hesitation or remorse on the mind-controlled Xenos.

To them, they are obstacles for their Chapter Master and their job is to clean the path so William gotta do what he must do. Killing the traitors once and for all. After finding out that they are facing another traitor legion from the long-ago Great Heresy, they didn’t ask questions or hesitate for a second. Action must be taken and no one will stop them from accomplishing their goal.

“Section two is clear.”

“Section one is clear.”

“Section four is clear.”

“Moving towards section three. Advancing to the next section.” With a clear sign and hand gesture of two fingers forward, William’s honor guard and their captain advance quickly and tactically. Following them, William and the remaining guards follow as their heavy footsteps are covered by the sounds of bolter fires.

“We are getting closer, Chapter Master. Still no words from the second team.” One of William’s honor guard lieutenants said after checking his helmet. Assigned as a communication officer and equipped with an additional vox communicator, the lieutenant is one person who stays close to the Chapter Master and provides updates regarding the current battle situation including their infiltration.

“They know what they are doing. We must advance and meet them on the route.” William replied and move forward as he step on the dead Tau soldier, crushing the whole upper body like candy on the floor.

A few minutes later, honor guards reach a large door with glorifying designs of gold. By the time William reach them, they already made all the preparation including breach charges and heavy weapons ready for any retaliation.

“Progress report,” William asks as he places his hammer down on the ground and relaxes a bit. At this point, no amount of firepower or enemies could hurt him or his men. It is as if he is playing a video game with all the cheat codes active and demolishing any enemies with one shot at a time.

‘This is getting way too easy and I don’t like it. This is Alpha Legion and they don’t play around doing standard military strategy or siege when it comes to fighting an overwhelming opponent.’ William thought to himself and lift his hammer as he saw his men ready to blast the door.

“All set, clear.” With a single pull from the breach trigger, the door was blasted with the loud sound of ‘Boom’. The door turned out to be a simple heavy wooden door and it could have been easy to just knock it down with a thunder hammer. The whole reason the honor guards decided to use the blasting charge was because of multiple life senor detected on the other side of the door.

Not wanting to take the unnecessary risk of going full blitz while not knowing who is on the other side, Captain Auguste made the decision to go with a blasting charge to destroy the door, expand the opening and disorient the enemy with an explosion.

“Go, go, go!” Following an order without pause, four honor guards rush through the opening while two more follow them while holding heavy bolters. Just as the dust cleared, William saw inside the room through the wide opening the door used to stand.

The room is beautifully decorated with colorful items and paintings. The room itself is big enough to host a ball and the ceiling has elegant chandeliers all of which are still shaking violently.

Out of all things beautiful and elegant, the only thing out of place was one large wooden cage in the center of the ballroom and a single Tau warrior in his power suit. Wielding a power ax of his own already high up, ready to strike down the door to the wooden cage.

Without a word, four honor guards open fire, killing the Tau in a power suit but not it was too late as his power ax cut through the wooden door like a hot knife on butter. With the cage open, the six honor guards point their weapons in the same direction with the intention to kill anything that comes out. What came out wasn’t something they expected as four giant bugs step out from the wooden cage with long antennae and tough-looking carapace.

Once again, the honor guards open fire on the three bug-like monsters as they identified them as some kind of Tyranid variant. The problem was that once the monsters’ antennas helped identify the location of their prey, they moved fast, and their tough natural armor was tough enough to ricochet the standard bolter rounds.

Seeing that their bolters have no effect the four guards change their range weapons with power swords. Before they have an opportunity to activate their blades’ power, one of the monster’s antennae touches the guard’s gauntlet. The moment the monster’s antennae touched the gauntlet, it began to rust, and before the honor guard could react, it fell from the armor, continuing to spread like cancer until the monster ate it.

“Don’t let them touch you!” Recognizing the threat, honor guards attempt to distance themselves but it was too late as some of the monsters managed to spread the rust, destroying the priceless STC armor.

“Kill this thing now!”

The honor guard with heavy weapons couldn’t do anything since his battle brother is so close to the monsters. Instead, two guards dropped their heavy bolters for the power ax and activate the power weapon. With blue lighting fully covering the ax itself, two heavy honor guards slice two of the four Rust Monsters as the monster’s carapace couldn’t withstand the molecule-cutting power weapon.

The remaining two Rust Monsters didn’t stop after two of their siblings were slain. Instead, they proceed to fish spreading the rust within two honor guards, crumbling half of the power armor and devouring them completely.

The two honor guards who lost their armor didn’t disappear as they finally managed to activate their power weapons and deliver the finishing blow by decapitating the monster’s neck, avoiding the antennas.

By the time the final monster was slain, the rest of the honor guards entered the ballroom confused and dumbfounded. This is because two honor guards lost either part of their power armor such as leg or arm while the other two were completely without armor as it is slowly rusting away on the ground.

“What happened?” Captain Auguste said and a moment later, William entered the room with surprise on his face.

“Well, captain. These monsters ate our armor.” One of the guards without his armor said as he is now wearing nothing but a black fiber muscle suit and Black Carapace.

“You got to be kidding me. These are Rust Monsters.” William said to himself as he approach one of the monsters but kept his distance from the monster’s antennae.

Rust Monsters are one of the D&D’s infamous monsters that no adventurers want to encounter in their adventure. This is because just like their namesake, they tend to rust any kind of metal such as iron to magical ones such as adamantium and mithril. No matter the property of the iron, Rust Monster can turn it to rust, completely destroying them and devouring them.

“A native creature of this world?” Said Captain Auguste as he understood the situation.

“Yes, and a bit different from the ones I heard of. Looks like Hydra bastard managed to alter these ones to withstand the bolter rounds. Captain, have the men change their weapons to power weapons and flame weapons if they must use range. Don’t want to lose precious weapons by feeding them to enemy pets, do we?”

“Yes, Chapter Master.” Captain Auguste places his right arm in his chest and bows a little to salute. As honor guards follow the order, the lieutenant approaches William with a new report.

“Chapter Master, I found the location of the second team and they are engaged in combat with the same type of monsters. The Sisters of Battle are requesting additional assistance.”