This is the bonus chapter for reaching 600 Powerstones.
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In the center of the Aru Industrial Zone battlefield, the duel between Paul and the Great Unclean One had already begun its first exchange concurrently with the player legions' sweeping operations.
Paul initiated his action the very instant the orders were given.
Gamma-class psychic power surged from his body, adhering to every armor plate of his Aquilon Terminator armor to form a dark gold energy plating.
Simultaneously, the five-pointed star deep within his pupils began to spin frantically. Five-colored lightning danced around Paul's body, the visual manifestation of his five trait energies.
He gripped the Watcher's Axe tightly and began his charge.
With his first step, the concrete beneath his feet shattered. The anti-grav suspensors operated at maximum output, granting his 3.55-meter frame the speed of a cheetah.
By his second step, he had surged forward twenty meters. Any Nurgle daemons in his path grazed by the five-colored lightning were instantly carbonized and disintegrated.
At fifty meters, a Beast of Nurgle attempted to block his path with its bloated bulk. Paul merely turned his body and rammed into it with the edge of the storm shield on his left shoulder.
BANG!!!!
The Beast of Nurgle, weighing over five tons, was sent flying by the impact. It tumbled through the air and crashed into the pile of daemons behind it, crushing dozens of Nurglings and slimes.
Paul rapidly entered the one-hundred-meter radius of the Great Unclean One.
The putrid Great Unclean One seemed to sense the threat, its murky yellow eyeball locking onto the golden figure. The carrion tentacles dangling from its abdomen writhed excitedly as it lifted a hooved foot.
THUD!!!
The ground quaked violently.
Paul didn't halt his advance because of its action. The instant the Great Unclean One's hoof hit the ground, he abruptly changed direction.
He leaped violently upward.
The micro anti-grav suspensors on the back of his Aquilon Terminator armor engaged, pairing with a short burst from his jump pack to allow him to execute a right-angle directional shift mid-air. He transitioned from a straight charge to a forty-five-degree upward thrust.
His target was the rear-lateral side of the Great Unclean One's left knee.
His Wisdom trait had marked a red dot right there. At the knee joint connection, the thickness of the carrion carapace was 30% thinner than other areas, and there was an oozing sore there—its weakest point of defense.
"Roar!"
The Great Unclean One let out a low bellow, attempting to swat him with its thick arm, but Paul was too fast.
The Watcher's Axe was raised high, the psychic light on the blade coalescing into a tangible blade of light.
CLEAVE!
The axe blade struck the sore with pinpoint precision.
RIIIP!!!
The sound of tearing echoed.
The pale golden psychic light blade sliced into the carrion carapace, penetrating half a meter deep before getting stuck on the denser bone and hyperplastic tissue deeper inside.
Paul didn't linger; a successful strike meant an immediate disengagement. The jump pack burst a second time as he retreated rapidly backward.
Almost at the exact same instant he pulled back, the giant palm of the Great Unclean One's left arm slammed onto the spot where he had just been.
BOOM!!!!
A five-meter-wide crater was smashed into the ground, sending rubble and pus flying in all directions.
Paul landed, dropping to one knee to cushion the impact, and looked up at the Great Unclean One's left knee.
The wound was healing at a visible rate. New carrion tissue surged from the edges of the sore, fungal mycelium interwove, and pus coagulated. In a mere three seconds, the half-meter-deep gash had fully recovered.
It only left behind a trace of dark gold psychic residue, sizzling on the surface of the wound and slowing the healing process.
"As expected..." The corners of Paul's mouth curled up beneath the faceplate.
The tenacity of Nurgle-aligned daemons' vitality ranked first among the four Chaos Gods. But he hadn't expected a one-hit kill in the first place.
He was just running a test. Testing the maximum output of this Custodian body, the synergistic effect of the five traits in actual combat, and the combat patterns and regeneration speed of this Great Unclean One.
And now, looking at the results!
"Output, defense, and mobility are all sufficient."
Paul slowly stood straight, spinning the Watcher's Axe a half-circle in his hand as the disruption field and dark gold psychic light re-ignited across the blade.
"So, next..." He initiated his charge once more.
This time, the attack was not a test.
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Behind the defensive line, Seranaphy watched, dumbfounded.
He witnessed the entire exchange between the golden figure and the horrifying Warp entity with his own eyes. That speed, power, and tactical selection...
"Is this... the true strength of an Imperial Custodes Praetor?" Seranaphy muttered.
He had seen his Father fight; when Sanguinius took the field personally, that aesthetic blend of grace and violence was enough to make any Astartes warrior's blood boil. He had also witnessed Champion-level warriors from other Legions fight—those battle-hardened veterans truly could carve paths through hordes of xenos.
But the combat style of this Praetor Demetrian Titus was something else entirely.
His combat wasn't flashy or frenzied. Instead, he was like a machine of war. Every single movement was calculated, every single attack aimed at a weak point, every single evasion perfectly timed.
This level of combat efficiency was terrifyingly high.
"Though he doesn't match a Primarch..." Seranaphy gripped his power sword, feeling the festering pain radiating from the wound on his cheek. "...he definitively surpasses standard Astartes, even surpassing me, a Legion Champion."
He looked at the Crimson Dawn PDF soldiers who had retreated alongside them, and then back at the army steadily advancing in the distance.
This suddenly appearing reinforcement army... where did they truly come from?
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Bridge of the Red Tear.
Azkaellon stared at the magnified combat footage on the tactical screen.
It was the close-range visual feed the Red Tear had captured of the Imperial Custodes Praetor engaging the Warp entity.
"Slow the footage down to fifty percent speed."
"Yes, Commander."
The footage played back frame by frame.
Azkaellon watched the entire sequence of the Praetor's charge, directional shift, strike, and retreat. He saw the astonishing defensive power of the Warp entity and the speed at which its wound healed. He saw the Custodes Praetor's momentary pause upon landing, followed by the decision to initiate another charge.
"The combat experience of this Imperial Custodes Praetor... is absurdly vast," Azkaellon said in a low voice.
The Custodes were indeed powerful; as the Emperor's personal bodyguards, their individual combat prowess was truly sufficient to rival a Primarch. But that typically referred to defensive battles within the Imperial Palace on Terra, relying on terrain and preparation. To fight like this in a field battle, facing such a powerful, fully manifested Warp entity...
"This Praetor is likely not just an ordinary high-ranking Custodes commander."
Azkaellon looked at the holographic communication interface. The Terra's Glory hadn't yet responded to his inquiry regarding support. But he didn't care right now, because the tide of battle was visibly shifting in the Imperium's favor.
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Rank 14!
Next Bonus chapter at 700 Powerstones.
Keep em stones coming.