Behind him, the World Eater drew the point of his gladius back, ready to deliver the killing blow. Khârn opened his eyes, and blood began to flow.
It should have been a fatal stroke. There was no way that the veteran legionary could miss his target at such range. But then, this was Khârn. It all happened in a matter of heartbeats. It was stunning in its brutality and its speed, leaving the onlookers wide-eyed, frozen in surprise and shock.
Khârn leaned to the side, moving just enough so that the blade of the gladius sliced by his bare neck. His hands came up from the arms of his throne, grabbing the surprised warrior by the wrists.
He twisted, savagely. Snap.
The World Eater released his hold on his weapon, snarling. Still seated, Khârn grabbed the gladius by the hilt as it dropped from his enemy’s armoured grip. His arm whipped out, and he flung the gladius away from him. It embedded itself in the throat of one of the other Bloodborn, sinking deep. The warrior clutched at it, blood gurgling. The Bloodborn were battle-hardened veterans, however. They were surprised by Khârn’s sudden revival, of course, but their instincts had been honed by endless warfare. Their reactions – already far beyond those of mere mortals – had been sharpened to a razor’s edge by constant battle and exacerbated by the Nails thundering in the back of their skulls.
Already their systems were being pumped with stimms, synapses flaring as adrenal spikes surged through them, flooding them with strength and speed. They were not frozen into inaction as Khârn awoke. Far from it. They responded instantly and without hesitation. Blades were levelled at their singular foe. Barrels were raised.
They were five legionaries against one – four now, as the one with the blade embedded in his neck was already dying. Still, they were armed and fully armoured, they were in an enclosed space, with no way out, and they surrounded a lone, unarmoured, unarmed opponent. There could only be one possible outcome to this fight.
And yet, the outcome of the fight was anything but certain. Even alone and unarmed, Khârn was never an opponent to be taken lightly. He’d already killed one of their number in the blink of an eye. He rose from his throne, moving with ungodly speed, even for one of the Legiones Astartes. He still had a hold of the broken wrist of the warrior who had tried to execute him. He twisted it sharply as he came up, turning him. In one smooth movement, Khârn was behind him, even as a bolt pistol raised by one of the other Bloodborn fired.
The sound was deafening in the enclosed space of the isolation cell. The shot struck the Bloodborn Khârn was using as a living shield square in the chest. It detonated with a concussive thunderclap. Khârn kicked the World Eater away, planting a bare foot square in the small of the warrior’s back, sending him stumbling directly into the shooter, even as Khârn claimed a plasma pistol from the veteran’s holster.
He drew and fired smoothly, straight into the back of the helmet of the warrior he’d just kicked away. An oscillating scream accompanied the stream of blinding white-blue plasma as the weapon discharged, blasting through the horned helmet and liquefying his head. Hissing coolant vapours vented from the plasma pistol’s reactor chamber.
Two down.
A movement to his left. Khârn dropped to one knee, and a hurled throwing axe, spinning end over end, sliced over his head. It embedded itself in the headrest of his recuperation throne. Khârn’s pistol came around as he dropped, swinging towards his next target.
A spiked power maul smashed the pistol from his hand, then came back around to crush Khârn into the wall. He rose to meet the blow, darting forward with blinding speed to put himself inside his attacker’s effective range. He caught the warrior under one elbow and turned him, taking the Bloodborn off balance. Using the warrior’s momentum against him, Khârn rammed him back into the armourglass wall. The sheer transparent panel shuddered under the impact.
Khârn punched upwards with his fingers outstretched, driving up into the warrior’s throat like a blade, crushing his windpipe.
-Page 93-95 Eater Of Worlds
Note he even manages to crush a Space Marines wrists through power armor despite being bare handed.
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