Chapter 56: Once I Was a Soldier

Chapter 56: Once, I Was a Soldier

Kro did not heed them, nor did he continue to pursue the fallen students.

He merely stood there, dragging that massive scrap-iron battle-axe, his hollow eye sockets sweeping over everyone present.

“You… do you know?”

His voice grew increasingly fluent, carrying within it a deep, unforgettable hatred.

“Once, I was a loyal soldier of the Emperor, a heavy weapons operator in the Cadian Shock Troops. I bled for the Empire, I lost a leg! But in the end? What did they give me? A cheap medal and a disability discharge certificate, and then they tossed me like trash onto this sunless planet, to become a damned miner!”

He pointed with his enormous axe at the twisted corpses they had slain around them.

“They, too, were miners! The bedrock of the Empire! They worked eighteen hours a day, breathing lethal dust, eating synthetic nutrient paste that tasted like shit! Their only hope was that their children might escape this fate by joining the military!”

“My three sons all joined the Astra Militarum! They were fine lads! But… they all died! Not at the hands of xenos! They died in the power struggles between this planet’s governor and his fucking nobles! Used as cannon fodder! Sacrificed!”

Kro’s roar, like a wounded beast, echoed through the entire mine.

“The Empire! The Emperor! Emperor my fucking ass!”

He howled in madness, his voice brimming with endless despair and venom.

“This Empire, from top to bottom, has long rotted through! The nobles revel in luxury, while we, the dregs at the bottom, are worked to death like livestock! Why?!”

“Lord Nurgle… is merciful…”

His voice gradually turned fervent and eerie.

“He gave us new life… gave us eternity… In this garden full of love and warmth, there is no pain, no oppression… Disease, death, decay… these are the ultimate beauties of the universe… We… are happy…”

He looked at the students before him, clad in fine power armor, these “chosen ones” with bright futures, and from his hollow eye sockets, two streams of murky pus trickled down.

“And you… join me in new life…”

“…”

Kro moved again.

This time, his target was Shi Potian, who had just risen from the ground.

A flash of resolve gleamed in Shi Potian’s eyes.

On the blade of his sword, a blinding, thunderous light erupted—a sign of highly concentrated psychic energy.

“Hah—”

He let out a low roar, charging forward instead of retreating, meeting that mountain-splitting axe with the strongest strike he could muster.

“Clang—!”

Sword met axe.

This collision was fiercer than any before.

The shockwave of energy, centered on the two, exploded outward wildly, kicking up a storm of dust.

Shi Potian’s sword managed to block the axe.

But only just.

“Crack!”

A crisp sound of shattering.

A clear fissure appeared on the blade of that Grade-I standard alloy longsword.

Kro’s strength was truly terrifying.

“Ninefold Thunderblade… pity, too green…”

Kro snarled, his arm exerting force again.

The crack widened instantly.

“Bang!”

The entire sword shattered in Shi Potian’s hands into countless metal fragments.

The axe, its momentum unchecked, slammed heavily into Shi Potian’s chestplate.

“Pfft—”

Shi Potian spat a mouthful of blood, his body flying backward like a kite with a broken string. On the chest of his power armor, a horrifying gash was carved, deep enough to see bone, with crackling sparks of electricity spitting out.

Another one down.

Since the battle began, less than two minutes had passed. Chu Lan, Qian Duoduo, Shi Potian… these top-tier fighters in the class had been crushed one by one by Kro in a near-overwhelming manner.

He hadn’t even killed them, only used the cruelest methods to shatter their weapons, tear through their defenses, and destroy their confidence.

As if toying with ignorant children.

The entire battlefield fell into a dead silence.

All the surviving students stopped in their tracks, staring in horror at that invincible figure, like a demon god.

Despair, like a plague, spread rapidly through their hearts.

After defeating Shi Potian, Kro did not move again.

He stood in the center of the battlefield, dragging his axe, his rotting body heaving slightly, a guttural, satisfied wheeze escaping his throat.

Just then.

A steady footstep, incongruous with the surrounding despair, rang out.

“Thud.”

“Thud.”

“Thud.”

Qin Feng, carrying that three-meter-long iron-gray spear, walked out step by step from the dust.

His power armor was intact.

Through the T-shaped visor, his eyes were cold and focused.

He stopped ten meters in front of Kro.

Slowly, he raised his spear, its tip touching the ground, forming the standard “Coiled Dragon” stance of the Thousand-Army Spear.

Every gaze on the battlefield converged on this last standing figure.

Kro’s hollow eye sockets turned toward Qin Feng.

“Oh? Another one, not afraid of death.”

He sized up Qin Feng and the spear in his hand: “A spearman… the most useless branch in the Astra Militarum… Have you decided how you want to die?”

Qin Feng did not answer.

His response was action.

“Whoosh!”

Without any warning.

Qin Feng's figure moved.

The power armor's engine let out a low growl.

His body sank slightly, and he transformed into an arrow loosed from the bowstring, shooting violently toward Kelo.

The three-meter-long alloy spear in his hand traced a straight, precise trajectory, aimed directly at the huge, writhing wound on Kelo's abdomen!

There, his defense was weakest.

"Naive!"

Kelo let out a disdainful roar, and the giant axe in his hand swept across like a door panel, trying to send Qin Feng, spear and all, flying.

However, just as the giant axe was about to strike the spear shaft,

Qin Feng's wrist suddenly twisted.

The spear that had been thrust straight forward seemed to turn into a boneless spirit snake; the shaft curved at an impossible angle, sinking sharply, and slid past the axe blade by a hair's breadth.

Then, the spear's momentum changed again!

The sinking spear tip, using the sliding force, suddenly hooked upward!

"Thousands of troops, flee!"

A spear light condensed to the extreme burst from the tip, like a crescent moon, slashing fiercely at Kelo's wrist holding the giant axe.

The entire movement was smooth and fluid, completed in one breath.

Fast! Precise! Ruthless!

(Chapter End)