ALL NOVEL Chapter 9: Hounds of Khorne
"Someone is raising the undead wolf, there must be a necromancer nearby!" One of the adventures said as he grabbed his injured friend and retreated. Fighting the undead is challenging to the adventure when half of the party is injured but fighting an undead beast is impossible because they have superior speed and don't get tired.
William on the other hand knows better. He's been familiar with Warhammer lore and units of every faction, so he knew this creature is something much more terrifying and dangerous compared to some undead animal.
'It's a Flesh Hound. He is just testing me isn't he?' He thought as he put away his bolter pistol in his holster and pulled out a frag grenade from his pouch. Flesh Hound is a demonic beast in service of Khorne, a Chaos God of blood and murder. This creature is the hunting dog of the Blood God and never rests until it's prey is dead. The Flesh Hound is much larger than a regular wolf, in real life comparison, they are a similar size to the adult tiger.
"Come at me you foul creature, taste the wrath of the Emperor and his Angel of Death!" William gave a battle cry and ran toward the Flesh Hound, but the demon beast dodged the Space Marine at the last moment. The Flesh Hound opened its mouth to bite William's leg to reduce the movement speed but to its surprise, Space Marine expected this move.
William, who anticipated the attack, made a quick stop and turned around to face the Flesh Hound, turning the fight into a close melee. Using the power sword, William blocked the demon beast's attack and cut it's mouth in half which he used the beast's momentum to completely cut it horizontally.
"I expected more of a challenge but that was easy… way too easy." William stabbed the demon beast's head just in case and about to put the grenade back into his pouch when he heard a scream in the distance. The corpses of the other 8 wolves turned into Flesh Hounds and started attacking the adventures.
"They are not undead wolves! Form up a defensive position!" Gale gave an order to everyone as Flesh Hounds started to circle the adventures to attack the weakest prey. William sees this, pulls the grenade pin and rushes at the densely packed Flesh Hounds he could find. With three demon beasts closely together William threw his grenade and in a few seconds, all four beasts died from the explosion. The remaining five Flesh Hounds turn their attention to William and decide to attack him as he is a much bigger threat.
"Come at me you beasts! Feel the wrath of the Emperor's finest warrior!" William shouts at the Flesh Hounds as he pulls out Chainsword from his inventory to dual wield. With a power sword in his right hand and Chainsword in his left, William cranked the engine of the Chainsword to bring out deadly sounds.
The Flesh Hounds were divided into three groups as two went to left and right and a single one stayed in front against William. First to attack William is the left side as two charged ahead as if they didn't care for their safety. William sees this, blocks both demonic beasts using his two weapons and slew one of them with a Chainsword right in the head. This resulted in Chainsword stuck in the Flesh Hound's skull, so William used his inhuman strength to swing the Chainsword, resulting in the dead Flesh Hound slammed into another beast.
With the second Flesh Hound staggered, William struck down the demon beast with his power sword, killing it with one swing. But William's back is now defenseless as two Flesh Hounds and one in the front charges to kill the Space Marine. Before they could do anything, the group of adventurers intercept the demonic beasts and start to do some damage as now adventures have greater numbers compared to Flesh Hounds.
With Gale's Eastern Eagles and other adventure parties combined, a total of 11 adventurers stand against three Flesh Hounds, giving William plenty of time to recover his Chainsword from the dead demonic beast and reposition himself.
"Thank you for taking their attention for us, now we are more prepared to face these hell hounds," Gale said to William as everyone formed up standard Front, Middle and Back rank against three remaining Flesh Hounds.
"No problem, I'll handle two while you guys finish the last one," William spoke with a loud voice as he once again cranked the Chainsword engine and started walking toward ahead without any concern, leaving the formation.
"Wait, what do you mean…" Gale tried to stop William but he had to stop as three demonic beasts charged at them. William once again rushed ahead to fight two beasts in melee combat, seeing this third beast turn at William but before it could do anything William kicked the third Flesh Hound which it knocked towards adventurers.
"I'm busy, play with them," William said to the third beast as he continued his fight against two Flesh Hounds. Using his power sword, William stabs the first Flesh Hound as it opens its mouth while buzzing the second one's belly with Chainsword. It was quick and swift in one motion as William killed the two demonic beasts at the same time.
The third Flesh Hound after getting kicked by William got killed by the adventurers as they overwhelmed it by sheer numbers. It took a minute but when the last Flesh Hound was killed, all of the corpses of Flesh Hounds disintegrated, leaving only bones of regular wolves.
"We did it! We killed the hell hounds!" The rest of the party cheered as they survived a deadly encounter. William on the other hand knew this was just a beginning as Khorne was just testing him and soon other Chaos Gods will make their move against him.
'I need to think of something to fight against chaos. Flesh Hounds are just hunting dogs and if I'm not wrong, the entire hunting party will soon appear, bringing absolute death and destruction.' William thought to himself as he cleaned his weapons and put away his Chainsword back into inventory.