40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 98 1. Blood (3k)

blood.

She could smell it, so clearly, so clearly that it was even a little unsettling.But the woman just let out a low grunt from her throat and said nothing.

She is used to this smell, just like the other seven people around her.However, compared to this, they actually know another thing better.

They knew it as much as they could see the paint and blood on each other's skin and smell the stench in the air.

Facts can never be changed, especially when you can see it with your own eyes.It is impossible for man to deny himself.

"When?" A man asked in a low voice. He had leaned against the blood-smeared rock wall and remained silent.

He wears a leather armor and has two short knives in his hand.Burning torches crackled above his head, and the smell of tallow was pungent.He leaned on it as if leaning on his own coffin.

"Half an hour." Another man replied. "We will fight before the undefeated."

"And what?"

"A beast," said the woman—or, Kleist. "One of the many monsters created by slave owners, this time it should be a big guy."

"Every battle before the undefeated must be bloody." The man who spoke first said so. "This is a rule and a rule, so you can remove the should, and you're a big guy."

He was silent for a moment.

"But I always feel that we are sacrifices." He said softly. "We—and the beast, are all sacrifices to summon him to the stage."

His words silenced the crowd, and they began to recall the giant in unison.Then, one of the crowd spoke.He carried a spear with a sharp point, a new weapon, signifying that he had not been long in the bloody arena.

"Have you seen him?"

"Once," the man said. "I saw him kill a Morella with my own eyes."

There was a burst of exclamation.

Even Kleist is no exception.She gripped her spear tightly, not wanting to speak.

"Really? You're not lying?" The person who asked the question said suspiciously.

"What's the need? You'll believe it once you've seen it with your own eyes."

The person leaning against the rock wall laughed, the black oil on his face covered most of his facial features, and his eyes were also dimmed, not looking like a person, but something else.

Then he fell silent, and so did Kleist.Silence spread from them until the bell rang.

The rock wall trembled, and the heavy door made of fine iron was pulled open, and the light from the outside suddenly pierced in, followed by hot air waves and huge cheers.

Kleist knew where the voices were coming from, above their heads and from all directions.The dignitaries who came to watch the battle of the Invincible roared excitedly, and Kleist stepped forward, ready to wait for the next bell.

3 minutes later, it came.

So Kleist came out of the darkness, together with seven others.

She stepped barefoot on the hot sand, carefully avoiding the places where the bones were buried.

One of her companions squatted down, grabbed a handful of sand and sniffed it a few times, and then concluded in a positive tone: "Many died before us."

"Do you still need to say it?" Someone kicked him, a harmless joke. "The dark red color of the sand has changed again, we can see that."

"Stop talking." A man said softly. "It's coming."

He is right.

The ground trembled, and opposite them, a black iron fence was slowly pulled up.Amidst the jaw-dropping sound of metal hinges moving, a gigantic beast rushed out.

Its teeth gleamed in the sun, and Kleist's eyes were stung a little, not from the sweat that slid into her eyes, but from the dangling head on the spikes on the thing's back.

The heads of the gladiators--their companions, bleary-eyed and open-eyed, dangled gently on those spikes.

"I'm going to kill this beast." Someone murmured beside her.

Kleist didn't know whether he was referring to it, or to those who had done it.She had little time to think, for the beast was already charging at them.

It was hungry, and it was obvious that the beast would not have come so close to man if it had not been driven by hunger.There were marks left by the whipping on the red skin, the skin was torn apart, and the blood was continuously dripping along with its movement, leaving more bloodstains in the bunker.

The first person to meet it was a woman with a short sword and a shield. She rushed towards it with a roar, tried to block its attack with the shield, and stabbed its eye with the short sword in her hand.

Her tactics were obvious, and Kleist could see that she had even figured out how to cooperate with her.But she didn't expect that the beast could see it.

It turned sideways, and its tough tail swept across, screaming, the shield shattered, the woman fell to the ground, and the right hand holding the shield was broken.

What happened next is needless to say.

First.In the screams, Kleist thought.Will I be second?

She didn't have an answer, she just grabbed her spear and rushed forward with another man with a spear.

The blood-drunken beast didn't respond to their attack, it just tore at the flesh and feasted on it. The internal organs, flesh and bone itself were shattered with the sound of its chewing, until two spears pierced its left foreleg.

The thing roared, turned around at a speed that Kleist couldn't react at all, and followed by a violent slap.

She flew upside down, and her perception was unprecedentedly clear.Abdominal pain, she can clearly feel this, but that is not the point, because she is about to land.

The air brushed her hair and dry skin, the heat wave was rolling, the roar in the stands was still obvious, and someone was laughing harshly.A thousandth of a second, or 1 years later—she fell to the ground, screaming.

"Get in the back!" a man passed her, yelling.Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a completely pitch-black face, and what happened next was all fragmented memories.

Blood, screams, roars, and some cursing.Someone threw cold water on her from the stands, and instead of feeling ashamed, she wanted more.

The cold eased her pain, but she couldn't speak.

Wanted to beg—she would call: "Master! Master! Please! Give me some water!"

She had learned the call from a dead gladiator, a lively man who would not tell them his name.They didn't know what to call him until he died.

And now—Kleist lay sideways on the hot sandpit, the rough touch scratched her skin, and the raging heat wave followed.

She wanted to scream, but she couldn't make a sound.Instinctively, she made a slight sound between opening and closing her lips with the words the man had taught her.But not for water, but for death.

"Master, please, give me some water." She called weakly. "Master, please, please, give me some water, please give me some water."

The first time, the second time, the third time. Her memory became a broken abstract painting, but the smell of death was always so real.She could smell the increasingly pungent smell of blood, and the screams and frantic shouts of her brothers and sisters.

The last one is the most violent, and even overwhelms all after a short pause.

In a daze, she seemed to hear the sound of metal hinges moving again. The delirious woman raised her head and wanted to crawl back to their cell, but she didn't see the cell, she saw a giant.

He is breathing.

This was Kleist's first thought.

He's breathing -- yes, he's breathing.

She smirked.

The giant looked down at her.His face was twitching nervously, contorted into some kind of horrible echo.But he didn't kill her, at least not yet.He just bit his lip and let the blood flow.

"Climb to the back, you want death and they won't give it to you." He said in a low voice, his voice like two sharp knives rubbing against each other.He still twitched his face between words, as if he was being tortured.

Kleist's sanity came back at this moment, and she groaned in pain, feeling dizzy: "Who are you?"

The giant didn't answer.

He stepped past her, then corpses, corpses, corpses—he stepped into the middle of the bunker, between the bones and the dried blood, and raised his weapon.

Then he growled.

"come over!"

A thunderous sound erupted in the arena, overwhelming the voices of all the dignitaries who cheered for his appearance.Their collection seemed insignificant and insignificant before him.

From Kleist's perspective, she could only see his back, but this did not prevent her from observing him.

Is he human?Kleist thought.She had no answers, but she wanted to know them, and she began to crawl, not to safety, but to get closer to the battle.

The beast ignored the giant who called it, it was busy eating - it was hungry, otherwise this would not explain why it dared to do so.There was a roar like a mountain roar and a tsunami from the stands. At first, it was chaotic, but after a few seconds, there was only one common syllable left.

"Angelonius! Angelonius! Angelonius! Angelonius!"

They roared in unison, and the sound made Kleist puzzled.Her thoughts stopped again, but not for long.

Because the giant started roaring again, this time without words, just pure anger.

Then came the thunder, and the storm.

"Undefeated." Kleist whispered.

She knows who he is now.

　5k left
　　
　
(End of this chapter)