In the World of Sword and Magic as Space Marine

Chapter 86: Fear the Night as We are the Lords

Four Days later,

Rana's army and 100 Sister of Battle traveled northeast towards a major city known as Eyham. According to the locals from the capital city, Eyham is one of the significant trade cities and provides a large number of foreign goods through multiple trade routes the city is connected with. Due to this reason, the Eyham was well known for its riches and diverse cultures for the merchants to have access to many trade goods in one location.

"We will camp here tonight. Tomorrow, we will arrive at Eyham so start setting up the camp and post guards for the night." Rana gave her orders, and many of her officers followed them accordingly as soldiers began to unpack camping equipment to set up a temporary camp. Meanwhile, the Sisters of Battle did the same but without the need of talking to each other as they knew what they must do.

The Sisters of Our Martyred Lady secure the area first while Order Hospitaller opens up the tank cargo to unpack necessary equipment for the camp and medical tents. Each night, Order Hospitaller provides a free medical check for Rana's soldiers but also checks for unnatural signs like Chaos corruption. As for Our Martyred Lady, they provide the first security check until soldiers are done with setting up the camp in which they will take over the night watch. The only reason Sisters didn't take over the night duty was because Rana order them to rest since they are the most powerful forces within the group and they are still human, unlike William's Astartes.

"So far there is no resistance or scouts from the Eyham. It is very unlikely that we missed them or the enemy forgot to send them ahead. Is it possible that they intend to set up a siege battle from the start?" Sister Superior of the Our Martyred Lady, Sister Superior Sabina said to Rana while everyone sit around the campfire to eat their dinner. Tonight, the camp cooks were serving boar meat soup with freshly baked bread on the side to which many of the Sisters gladly took the rich meal instead of eating standard ration bars.

"You are right. There is no way Eyham's military commanders forgot to scout over two thousand soldiers before reaching the city. I fear we are walking into a trap or ambush." One of Rana's officers said after chewing a piece of bread from his hand. The rest of the officers simply nod their heads or silently grunt with an agreement to understand the situation. They also sent a few of their scouts ahead but they only received 'all-clear' signals which it didn't go well with everyone.

"Something is wrong and we are not seeing it. Double the guards tonight just in case. I will not fall into novice mistakes such as night ambush from the enemy because we have gotten comfortable. Make sure the rest of the soldiers are fully rested and ready to depart first thing in the morning." Rana finishes her dinner and retires for the night. The rest of the officers eventually return to their tent for the night while no animals made any noise. As silent night slowly moves along with the stars, a dark cloud came quickly and darkened the night sky.

From distance within the forest, one pair of red eyes watched the campsite. The red glowing eyes study the camp while more glowing red eyes appeared from the darkness. By the time the first red eyes are done studying, more than 50 pairs of eyes waited, quietly and patiently but nurturing the desire to murder mortal beings.

"Tonight, we feast upon the flesh of the daughters of the false Emperor."

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The night attack came without any sounds at first. Few of the night guards simply disappeared from their position before others realized what just happened. Unfortunately for them, they also vanished from the shadow as dark blue giant knights slashed their throats with claws or sharpen fingernails to feel the warm blood from their victims. By the time rest of the guards realized what happened, it was too late as the entire camp was surrounded and there was no need to sound the alarm as the sound of bolters thundered the night.

"Cut down! Let them know the fear and terror of the 8th legion!" The leader shouted through his helmet as the rest of his brothers cut down anyone with bolters, chainswords, and power weapons of different types.

The initial first defense went down easy as 50 Night Lords crushed the bodies with each footstep and began to advance towards the next inner area of the camp when suddenly, tents fall to the ground, and a large wall of tower shields blocked their way. Behind the thick tower shield, Sister of Battle stood tall with their bolters in their hand, all aiming at the traitors Astartes.

"Fire!" Sister Superior Sabina gave a command, and immediately 100 Sisters fire their bolters as Night Lords are caught with their pants down. Not realizing that their enemy foresaw a possible night ambush, Night Lords attacked the enemy camp and got themselves in a tought situation. It is common for the Night Lords to attack the enemy when they have the advantage over them. After all, Night Lords are not warriors but murders of their homeworld, Nostramo.

"Fall back. Fall back!" The leader of the Night Lords gave an order just as he use his brother next to him as a human shield. Others did the same with fallen brothers, while few of them fell from the bolter fire.

"Send in the minions. Let them soak the bolter rounds while we retreat." With an element of surprise gone, Night Lords retreat to the forest while new units advance to cover them. A large number of Chaos Cultists rush towards the tower shield and the bolters as if their lives didn't matter to them.

Many of the Chaos Cultists didn't carry any range weapons, instead, they were armed with crude melee weapons. The first wave of cultists went down easily as bolters cut them down, but soon tower shields were tested as bodies after bodies pushed against them with the sheer force of raw strength.

"Bring out the heavy flamer and bolters." With the command, three Rhinos and one Immolator appeared from the back of the Sisters and unleashed heavy firepower upon the enemy mob. The heavy flamer did a marvelous job as the row of enemies simply went down as their skins melted and screamed in pain beyond imagination.

The moment of victory didn't last for the Sisters and the soldiers as Night Lords regain their confidence and lunch a secondary attack. With all sides blocked with walls of shields, the leader of the Night Lords sends in shock troopers of his own as 17 Raptors flew over them using jetpacks while generating high pitch screeching noise.

After landing behind the enemy line the Raptors began to slaughter anyone standing in front of them with chainswords and bolter pistols as foot soldiers armed with swords and shields couldn't fight against Night Lords. The screeching noise also affected the soldiers as the noise disoriented them from fighting properly, making them easy prey to be slaughtered.

"Heavy troops, charge!" Rana gave the command and hidden soldiers armed with long halberds charged the Raptors before they could escape. As expected, the halberds didn't penetrate the power armor of the Night Lords Raptors but it held them down on the ground long enough for the Sisters to unload bolters and meltaguns to bring them down permanently.

Unfortunately, the Raptors did their job as damaged from their bolter pistols did kill a decent number of soldiers with tower shields and the remaining cultists managed to break the shield wall. Even though the Sisters continue to put down cultists, many of them simply sacrifice their bodies for others to reach the crucial points. When a few of the cultists finally reached the key points, they crawl under the heavy vehicles and detonated explosives around their bodies. When four heavy tanks went down and were inoperable this was the precise moment Night Lords were waiting for as the remaining 8th Legion come out from the shadow and charge into battle once again without any worries.

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"They are coming once again. Send in the remaining front-line soldiers to push back the minions while archers take out the ones in the back. Sister Superiors, refocus your weapons at incoming knights instead, your weapons are the only thing that hurt them." Rana reorganizes her defensive structure of the army and sends in new commands to prioritize enemies her soldiers and Sisters can handle. Previously, Rana didn't give the order to fire arrows since she knew these knights possess similar armor to William's but after the enemy changed front line units, she unleash all her soldiers against cultists.

"Yes, Holy Host." With simple acknowledgment, both Sister Superiors signal the remaining Sisters of Battle to change the target and aim all their weapons at incoming Night Lords. With heavy support gone, Sisters took it upon themselves to salvage any heavy weapons from the vehicles and mount them on the makeshift tripods to lunch counter-attack against Night Lords.

Two different fights were waged at the same time as Chaos Cultists went face to face against Rana's troops while Night Lords and Sisters of Battle fired a barrage of bolters as their distance gets closer and closer. With each side going down every second, Rana sends her heavy cavalry from the far side as knights armed with lances and swords onto Chaos Cultists. She planned to quickly finish the Chaos Cultists and move to Night Lords to overwhelm them.

Rana realized her mistake after sending away a large portion of the cavalry when suddenly a group of Night Lords in terminator armor appeared out of nowhere and began to slaughter soldiers in the rear formation. Leading the kill team was the giant terminator armed with a power sword of a different color. Holding a green blade and hilt, the leader of the terminator squad slices the head of Rana's horse and knocks Rana from her horse.

Landing hard on the ground, the last thing Rana saw was the power sword going through her armor and onto her stomach as the Night Lords' terminator spoke to her with a cold whispering voice.

"Ave Dominus Nox, little mortal. Cry his name for we have come for him."