Old Foes, New Friends
The connection that the Emperor Penguin's shared was deep and incomprehensible to most beings, a bond of shared brother and sister hood that ensured that they could always find a solution to their conflicts before they spiralled out of control and could coordinate with each other when disaster struck.
It also informed them when one of their number had died.
GuntOLIANSDANWARK WARKlafiaon II, did not react on the surface when he felt the death, but he through the eyes of the recently crowned successor he knew what it meant. He recognised that figure of death that was swatting the attacks of the Turtles and Deep Ones from the heavens like they were mere flees and he knew what its most likely target was.
Long ago his great great Grandfather had welcomed the Ancient Wonderer into their home and the two had ensured that they would always be able to communicate with each other.
The latest Country attack had managed to give him a small amount of time, so he could contact her, the piece of ancient carved bone connected to its twin thousands of miles away.
She responded over the sounds of clashing axes, the screams of a daemon dying away as she pulled her axe from its skull, her serious askance at odds with her usually carefree demeanour. That seriousness increased significantly when he told her what was coming…An'ggrath the Unbound, the Lord of Bloodthirsters had returned to Avernus once again and if the information from other Guardians was accurate, was making a beeline straight for the human capital and their saint.
She thanked him for taking the time to tell her and left him. As the Daemons returned again he could only say a brief prayer that she would survive.
He knew she had no chance of victory.
Areatha knew that she would be out matched. Her strengths lay in her unmatched arsenal of abilities picked up over an incredibly long life, but An'ggrath nullified all of this with his mere presence. He was anathema to her very style of combat and was so much her superior in traditional combat that the mere idea that she could best him there was ludicrous.
But she could not simply stand by and watch as he butchered Dis and Lin, who had grown to be one of her closer friends to her own surprise and perhaps his as well.
She didn't even want Rotbart, the ass, to die to An'ggrath.
With acceptance in her heart she warned Rotbart about the incoming doomsday and went to prepare, centring herself mind, body and soul.
It took four days for An'ggrath to be close enough for her to sense it butchering its way towards them. Four days in which it had spent under constant attack from Island turtles, Deep Ones, Sun Beetles and even the orbital weapons of the Avernite navy, all of which had caused the being minor scrapes at best when it came into view.
In fact, it had expended the most energy in smashing through those fascinating wards that had suddenly appeared from the ground, a fact for which she was grateful for even if it changed little in the long run.
She opened their "reunion" with a shot from her bow, accelerated to thousands of times the speed of sound the enhanced arrow head slammed into An'ggrath with an explosion that shook the earth before stepping out in front of the creature that had so nearly killed her once before.
Looking upon it as the smoke cleared she felt fear, the same fear that had embraced her 15,000 years ago, the blood red eyes burning in recognition as it ground to a halt its entourage stopping as well.
"Ah, what a wonderful surprise this is!" It knew and remembered her as it stepped up to its full height towering above her. "Go on, bring me the head of the Saint, I will deal with this one personally.!"
One of the Bloodthirsters seemed like it wished to protest, where upon she realised she recognised it. The scars around its form were identical to the ones she had given it on the first skies of blood, one of the two survivors of the Old King's destructive attack.
A single glance from An'ggrath stopped whatever words it wished to say in its throat as it charged onwards with its cohorts as fast as it could. She let them pass her by, she didn't have the energy to waste upon the cannon fodder. The humans and Nynye would have to deal with them.
"I must say I am impressed, few could have survived in this place for so long!" Its voice wormed its way into her mind, bringing with it tales of death and oceans of blood, but she crushed those thoughts and gazed into its eyes. This time, she didn't freeze when she gazed into them.
"What can I say, stubbornness will let you survive almost anything no?" She flashed it an insolent grin and preparing herself, watching its frame for the first sign of it going on the attack.
Instead all she saw was bared fangs as it laughed in agreement.
"Indeed, indeed. But, before we begin I have thanks to give to you from my master."
She started in surprise then she realised the beast nodding as she did so.
"Yes, thanks. Wiping out that worm Heartslayer tipped the balance of the Great Game on a scale beyond reckoning. In fact, you may have aided my Lord more than most mortals can fathom and for that you have my thanks."
It bowed to her before standing.
"Take the first strike Areatha, I will not resist, but I warn you make it a good one."
She shivered as it focused all its attention upon her at last, recognising her as a true foe.
"You will not survive my counter attack."
A daemon of Khorne does not make an offer like this lightly, this much she knew, and An'ggrath represented many of Khorne's twisted nobler aspects like honour. She had to take this chance, if nothing else to balance the scales just slightly more in her favour.
Her strongest attack was not really a single attack, but a combination of thousands of attacks that she had learned over the decades. Power carefully amassed over millennia.
Enough perhaps to end this in one fell swoop.
And so, strike she did, the power contained in her axe barely contained as her axe bit into the bronze skin of the Bloodthirster, cleaving through its armour like paper and sending it staggering backwards, its form surrounded with static, wavering in and out of reality as her attempt to banish it whence it came struggled…and failed.
An'ggrath stood, its arm baring its whip held on with only the barest of ligaments, blood pouring from its eyes, burns all across its form as it stood with disbelief in its eyes. It was over confident like the last of its kind that had stood before her and the one before that. So powerful, so convinced that a gnat like her would be unable to stand against them, that they could play with them as if they were, but entertainment.
She was not entertainment, but she was in danger. An'ggrath was a very different beast to Heartslayer, overwhelming power, physical prowess abounds yes, but unlike the Slaaneshi Daemon, An'ggrath recovered quickly from its maiming and charged her rather than speak on its wounded pride.
And its charge was fast. So fast that she could feel its breath on her face before she blinked out of the way, reappearing and losing an arrow at the wound she had carved in its hide, but to her dismay it's axe smoothly deflected the blot, while the bull like creature changed directions charging her again, readjusting to her new position instantly.
It was a risk, a game of cat and mouse where a single mistake meant her certain demise, but it was the only plan she had available to her, to stall and hope that a Great One came to finish An'ggrath.
She struck at it with lightening, with black holes and even more esoteric attacks, trying desperately to wear it down, directing it into blasts from the Island Turtle and more. She was not winning, but neither was she loosing, she simply had to keep its attention upon her, keep it from regenerating its other arm.
So focused was she on this that she forgot why An'ggrath was known as the General of Khorne. Once again, she blinked out of the way of its strike, but An'ggrath the ancient tactician had predicted her and her movement. Even in the most skilled of combatants there are patterns, a one in a trillion that they favour slightly more than they should.
This An'ggrath discovered and exploited, even as she emerged back into reality. On one side there was An'ggrath's axe, that spelled certain doom, on the other was his clenched fist, the arm it was attached too still healing, but strong enough for this.
She did not have time to blink, she barely had enough time, even at her greatest enhancements to move her axe to block only one of the incoming attacks.
Thus, she choose to block the axe, her arms breaking under the force of the blow only to be swiftly repaired. Then the fist impacted her body and she was sent flying, her internal organs pulped, all her bones shattered, blood vessels ruptured. Her body was so injured that she found it hard to triage what needed to be fixed first as the Daemon walked calmly over to her, raising its axe over its head, only to stumble as a massive laser beam blasted into its head.
A lone Sun Beetle, making its way towards the front lines had come to her aid, its attack burning a tract of skin off the Daemon as it moved to crush the beetle.
Preparing a shield around herself, she braced her body for impact, working as fast as she could to repair the damage. Any being that knew Avernus would never attempt to kill a Sun Beetle in melee.
The blast from its detonation hurled her across the plains of Elysium at an impressive gait, surfing the tide of concentrated solar energy to what she hoped was safety.
Her burned regenerating form forced itself to stand and look back towards the explosion, where the Bloodthirster stood still, its skin blackening even as it forced more energy into itself to restore its corporeal form.
Then it flapped its wings, taking to the air and charging towards Dis at full tilt, seeming to ignore her, or perhaps unable to see her through her quick concealment. Concealment that she swiftly dropped in order to pursue the creature before it reached Lin.
At her top speed she was incredibly fast, but the Daemon was boosted by the power of its God and its own fell strength and was out pacing her, loosing speed only to dodge a hail of Island Turtle bombs that homed in upon it, slowing it down just enough that she was gaining ever so slowly.
In a desperate move, she ignited an explosion behind herself and got close enough to begin bombarding the Daemon once more from behind and getting just close enough to strike at it with her axe.
Faster than lightening it turned and cut down upon her, a grin upon its bovine face slamming her into the ground a few hundred metres from the gates of Dis still burning from the assault of It's entourage, but unbroken. Glaring up from her impact crater she saw the beast turn and begin to dive towards her, axe raised over its head in one hand as it lashed out with its whip with the other.
She dove out of the way as the ground erupted under the force of the blow, launching a blind temporal attack upwards in the hope that it would force it to stop its dive.
To no avail. An'ggrath dove straight through the slowed time, the strike of its axe destabilising the entire area and knocking her into the air.
She flew backwards, desperately trying to avoid An'ggrath's attacks until she could no longer.
The long whip coiled around her and brought her low once again, binding away her powers as she was tossed to the ground.
She struggled and fought before looking up.
Death loomed above her, but she would not go quietly gathering her power for one final flash.
Then a bright red flash impacted An'ggrath's back, as the macro cannons lining the walls of Dis finally managed to target the Daemon, now that it was not moving around. The blows did little to stagger the creature, but they were enough to irritate it, stopping for an instant to deal with them.
Raising its axe it threw it, the blade cleaving through the void shields and walls like wet paper, but leaving at the cost of leaving it's master exposed.
She had little power bound as she was by the whip, but enough for this. A technique learned from a peculiar breed of frog, she spat into her enemies' eye, the small drop of moisture and blood accelerating to super sonic speed to slam into An'ggrath's eye.
Even a Daemon as powerful as it would react to such an attack, flinging her into the air, the whip unravelling as she was flung towards Dis, reasserting her control over her flight.
In the second that took An'ggrath was on her, and she was on the defensive again, desperately dodging as the Bloodthirster herded her towards the Central Palace.
Towards Lin.
She landed before it, the zeroth wall An'ggrath landing shortly afterwards and charged it, her axe and power clashing with his in a display where she was totally out matched. Her desperate attack doing nothing to even slow down the Transcendent of bloodshed.
She screamed as An'ggrath removed her left hand, the pain somehow more real than any other time this had occurred before. A crimson aura surrounded the stump, preventing her from healing it, forcing it to bleed while amidst her pain she was unable to dodge the cloven hoof of An'ggrath come down upon her.
A storm erupted around the Daemon, as the humans finally had time to readjust the battle that had taken place in less than a few seconds around them, those able to retain their sanity around the Exalted Daemon pouring fire upon it as An'ggrath laughed at the futility of their attempt, beginning to move his wipe to whip them out in a single motion to slay all those who dared strike at it.
So confident was he that he did not notice a door open and a figure clad in black charge at him, hidden as it was behind layers of charms.
Lin's light blasted out across the Bloodthirster's form, An'ggrath howling in pain as its powers were weakened by the mere presence of this remnant, before desperately leaping to the side in true terrifying fear, headless of the danger it may be going towards to escape an assred death.
Jacob Oakheart, baring the Black Crystal Regalia and Blade had used all his immeasurable skill to get behind the daemon and almost manage plunge the blade into its back, his mother vaulting down to attack An'ggrath's form its blind escape letting her cut through on of its horns, Xavier attempting to leap upon it soul killing fire bursting from his blade, while Minyev clad in a shroud of Vortex Grenades charged almost to embrace the Daemon. More heroes of Avernus trying desperately to stop the monster in their midst.
An'ggrath's counter attack was vicious and immediate, the whip cracking across Jane Oakheart's front splitting open her power armour and bringing her to the ground, Xavier's attack rebuffed by an elbow and Miniev split from forehead to crotch by an errant flick of the axe. Only Jacob lasted more than a few seconds the power of the Black Crystal enhancing his skills beyond their already surpassed limits, but he was losing.
To Areatha it was like watching history on repeat, different characters, but the same scenario. An'ggrath, wounded, weakened, but still so immeasurably strong would crush all opposition before it no matter what they did to it. Only this time there was no Great One, no World Serpent to defeat it.
An'ggrath had seemingly forgotten her as it advanced upon Lin, casting Jacob's bleeding form aside when she felt it.
A premonition…that fortune was on her side.
Dragging herself to her feet she flung herself at An'ggrath, the warp as calm as it could be due to the presence of Lin and then dragged them both into the warp.
They reappeared within the caldera of the Spine's volcano, her body once again shattered, and her mind strained to a breaking point by the trip as she lay on the floor unable to move.
An'ggrath was breathing heavily, its corporeal body strained to breaking point by the wounds she had inflicted, by the permanent damage done to it by Jane and by the awful presence of the Black Crystal and Lin. It turned to her, its whip abandoned choosing instead to hold its axe in both hands.
"Fare well Areatha." It raised the axe above it's head in the traditional executioner's stance.
"Your skull will have a place of honour in the skull throne."
As it brought its axe down she acted, all the power of an Alpha psyker straining the limits of that classification, whose control was beyond perfect allowing her to channel far more power then even her natural ability, slammed into the axe swung by an Exalted Daemon of Khorne, shifting it…just enough.
The axe slammed into the ground with force that shook the mountain to it's core. And with that An'ggrath sealed its fate.
The volcano was old, fit to bursting and long since due for an eruption, its chamber already unstable due to the war raging outside, but now the shock of the impact sent it into full power.
The eruption of the natural world, blasting the fragment of rock they were upon into the atmosphere at super sonic speeds, sending them soaring into the heavens by the sheer force.
Areatha was ironically shielded from the blast by An'ggrath's body, but the Daemon had no such luck, its back and wings ruined as it pulled yet more of its essence from the warp to restore itself, and in its distraction, it slammed into one of the strange barriers that had emerged from the world.
These barriers were strong, strong enough that even An'ggrath needed to focus to destroy them quickly, but this time it had no such luck.
It was thrown from the boulder while Areatha passed through the barrier to safety, as she marshalled the last of her dwindling power and consciousness and pushed.
A wave of force as powerful as she could create slammed into the Daemon, arresting her momentum, but forcing Daemon's body to move at even higher speed, pushing it upwards and faster until at last it reached terminal velocity with no means to slow down beyond futilely grabbing onto air itself.
An'ggrath was sent hurtling out of the atmosphere of Avernus, screaming in impotent rage and began to tap into its deeper reserves of power. Once long ago it had been forced from this world in disgrace and it refused to allow this to happen again, it would return to that world and lay it to waste, but in this senseless rage it had forgotten something critical as the servants of Khorne so often do.
The ancient defences left to the World by the Old Ones stood eternal guard against all threats to Avernus that were not present upon the surface. Only in the most apocalyptic scenarios would they ever be turned to fire upon the planet itself.
But, An'ggrath was not upon the planet. He had been forced to leave and was floating in the void of space.
The defences flickered into view and unleashed power to annihilate the Daemon. If there was only one problem it was that the weapons were designed to destroy the Necrons, soulless creatures. They could not destroy An'ggrath, but they did force it to discorporate within moments, costing it all the power it had invested in its body.
While the Daemon survived to slink back into the warp, it was only as a much-weakened thing that would need to throw itself upon it's lord's lacking mercy to return to its full power quickly, while across the World, the Daemons felt the banishment of one most high amongst them and recoiled. Weakened by its defeat and the withdrawal of their Lord's favour.
Areatha saw this even as she started to fall, finally giving into exhaustion, blood loss and over use of her powers. She assumed she was dying if not from her wounds then the fall and was content with that, spending her last moments defeating a mighty opponent, denying chaos it's prize, having one more final fight and saving the life of a friend.
But, the World does not forget those that have aided it. It is harsh, but it is just, proving oneself to it will see it in time return its favour.
A ship, belonging to a Guardian race even more advanced than the humans, grabbed her before her fall to certain death and treated her physical wounds as best it could before swiftly depositing Areatha in Dis, in front of Saint Lin and his personal Healer the head of the Order of Restoration Ambrosio Rana. The two of them were easily the best healers upon Avernus, Lin working to heal the damage to her soul, while Rana restored her body as best he could.
After three days of effort, both breathed easy. Though unconscious, she would live.
@Durin
How Areatha vs a Exalted Bloodthirster would likely go down.
