BXBX NOVEL Chapter 23: Fury of Lioness
Chapter 23: Fury of Lioness
"Come at me you daemon! Lioness of Argus will send you back to hell," Duchess yells out loud and charges her horse against the approaching daemonette. Meanwhile, Prince Benton also drew his weapon to protect himself and take command of riflemen to prepare for close combat.
"Fix bayonets! Prepare yourself for combat after firing your weapon!" Prince gave a command to his riflemen as a few of the daemons passed the knights and ran towards them. The officer gave an order as riflemen fired their weapons to hit the targets. But due to weak caliber and firepower, it only slows down the daemons a little bit. Still, this was enough for spear soldiers to make a formation of a spear wall to impale the approaching daemons as swordsmen shop their head, killing them.
The duel between the Duchess and The Masque is intense as both fighters strike against each other while protecting themself from each other. Riding her horse, the Duchess used her skill and the speed of her mount to match the Masque\'s speed. The Masque on the other hand was just playing with her opponent as she was dancing and attacking with her three limbs (One hand, two claws).
"You are just wasting your time, human. This world is new and untainted like a virgin but sooner or later, my lord will come to claim this world, just like countless worlds did before." The Masque taunts the duchess while dodging the attack which only enrages her opponent more.
"You can try but you will fail. I don\'t know which deity you serve but this isn\'t the first time your kind has attacked our world before." Duchess said to the daemonette as she twisted her spear to make a sharp turn to strike. The spear hit the dancing daemonette\'s right shoulder but to the Duchess\'s surprise, her attack hit the Masque\'s shoulder armor. At the last moment, Masque used her dance movement to block incoming attacks with her armor.
"I can smell an unbroken seal within you, dear. No scent of man taint or nectar of sweet blood. You are a virgin! How delightful, The Prince of Pleasure will have fun with you when I bring you to him," The Masque increased her attacks which put the Duchess on the defensive. Eventually, one of the claw attacks struck the horse\'s leg, decapitating it and bringing the rider to the ground hard. The Duchess made her roll save and quickly stood up to face her enemy, but it was too late as daemonette already got close enough to slice the spear in half.
Seeing her main weapon destroyed, the Duchess retreats to reach for her sword in her hip right after she threw her broken spear at the daemonette. The Masque just swipes the broken spear and proceeds to attack once again with fearsome speed. Facing a purple daemonette, Duchess did her best to fight back but it was pointless as none of her attacks could hit as the enemy just dodge while dancing. Finally, Masque disarms the Duchess\'s sword using her second claw and superior strength.
"Now, be a good human and embrace my lord\'s pleasure," The Masque put her main claw arm at Duchess\'s chin and slowly brought it down to scratch the metal armor.
"Magic Missile!" Multiple magic missiles struck the Masque in the back as Duchess\'s mages cast their remaining spells at the Daemonette. All this was pointless as Masque was unharmed from the magic attack and turned around to unleash her chaos sorcery on them. The madness took over the mages as their heads started to bleed from mouth to ears while their sensation of pain increased tenfold. Eventually, Duchess\'s mages collapse where they stand as their faces show expressions of agonizing pain while covered in blood.
"No!" The Duchess cried out loud and pulled out a dagger to stab the daemonette\'s stomach. The dagger hit the daemonette but it didn\'t do much as Masque just smiled with a sound of pleasure coming her.
"Their souls and magic were tasty. If this world can provide this kind of flavor, I\'m sure my lord will remove my dancing curse and place me back as head of his handmaiden," The Masque smacks Duchess with her dance staff as she opened her mouth to bring out her tongue and taste the air as if she was eating something. Seeing this, Prince Benton couldn\'t do anything as his riflemen\'s gun could hit his cousin and he couldn\'t attack the daemon due to his bodyguard refusing to let him go.
"Do what you want, daemon. I will not easily break from your torture." The Duchess said to daemonette while trying to get up from the ground. The Masque hearing this slowly approaches the woman and stabs the stomach with her claw.
"That\'s the spirit, dear. Try to last as long as possible when you enter the Palace of Pleasure, hahaha." Masque mockingly laughs at her prey as she twists her claw to give more pain. The Duchess cried out loud in pain but didn\'t beg for her life as she denied the Masque a pleasure of despair. While this is happening, none of them saw fast approaching Black Templar as William dropped from the sky with a power sword in his hand.
With a powerful landing, William lands a few steps away from Masque and proceeds to attack the daemonette. He didn\'t land next to the daemonette as he didn\'t want to harm the injured Duchess with his heavy landing. The power sword cut Masque\'s main claw, freeing the Duchess, then William unleashed his bolter rifle at now retreating daemonette as she fell back to the remaining Herald of Slaanesh.
"What? You, a subhuman minion of anathema. How are you here in this world?" Injured masque said in surprise as she recognized the Space Marine. At this point, humans managed to slay most of the Herald of Slaanesh as their numbers diminished into half a dozen.
"Go ask your master after I send you cooking," William then brought out a heavy flamer from his inventory to fire the weapon at the gathered daemons. The flame from the heavy flamer quickly engulfs the remaining herald and masque as soldiers pull back to a safe distance. The fearsome Promethium flame burns everything as all of the heralds burned to nothing, leaving not even an ash.
The Masque was the last one to stand as she managed to survive the powerful flame attack. Masque, now missing the main claw hand, tries to treat back to warp after witnessing the presence of Space Marine in the New World.
Before Masque could do anything to return to immaterium, William charged forward with the jetpack with the power sword. From a single strike from the power sword, William decapitated Masque\'s head which daemonette\'s surprised face roll to the ground.
Witnessing the end of the last daemon, many of the remaining soldiers cheered with a victory but experienced officers and soldiers remained vigilant as they feared more daemons would appear out of thin air. Meanwhile, many of the healers from the church begin to heal the wounded and cast purity spells to purify the battlefield from daemonic corruption (They never experienced the chaos but they do have knowledge and history from daemonic beings from this world before).
Putting away his power sword, William went to Duchess to see her injuries. The Duchess is still on the ground as healers are casting healing magic and purifying spells to remove any taint on her.
"What took you so long? I almost had that daemon before you jumped in and stole my victory." Rana (Duchess\'s name) smiled and complained to William as she looked at the giant black knight, then she saw the damage from the Blood Duke on William\'s armor which stopped her smile.
"Looks like you\'re not invincible as you seem, Sir William. Do you need a healer?" Rana asked William but before she could get her answer, a great shock wave came out of nowhere as a giant warp portal appeared not far away from the army.
"This is not good. Prepare yourself, we have more daemons coming! Take the Duchess and other injured soldiers back," William shouted, giving an order to all soldiers.
"No, I can still fight," Rana tried to protest but she stopped knowing that she will be the only burden to William.
"No matter what\'s coming from that portal, you better survive and answer my questions. You hear me?" The Duchess yells out loud as she is being carried away. William hearing this only nodded and prepared himself for the second wave of Chaos attack.
Another shock wave, much stronger than before erupts which forces everyone into the ground. William was the only one to stay standing as he saw what was coming out from the warp portal.
A huge humanoid creature with four arms, two holding a large sword and the other two in the shape of sharp flesh blades. The huge daemon is covered with a few cloths of silk around its body while wearing a beautiful golden crown on its head.
This daemon is known as \'Bringer of Temptation\' and one of the most powerful daemons of Slaanesh. The greater daemon of Slaanesh, the Keeper of Secrets, steps out from the war portal and unleashes a powerful psychic aura that puts every man and woman on their knees as they feel anguish and ecstasy.