Ezra - Part 1

 

Ezra

Ezra lifted himself from the crater. Deathguard swarmed just beyond the blast zone. The Templar lifted his chain sword with his good arm thumbing the activation rune. The sudden thrumming of the chain drive calmed his nerve. Putrid waves of stench rolled across the open ground as Ezra righted himself, blinking his left eye to clear the blood flowing down from an open gash across his forehead. Bolters began to fire, breaching the open ground. His brothers laid dead rank upon rank, some piled upon one another. He heard the buzz of blow flies descending upon the dead, the constant drone was sickening as he held back the bile.

Erupting from the dead Ezra launched himself into the center of the most immediate enemy. The chain sword sang as the whirling bits dug into the flace plate of a champion flowing though the deformed skull. Flicking his wrist the shorn helm flew apart then he drove the weapon into the bloated gut of the next closet driving the traitor to its knees. He could hear the tearing of rotted flesh and bone as he guided the chain sword through the corroded plate sundering the Deathguard in half. Geysers of puss filled boils erupted as he leapt aside.

The enemy moved slowly. He felt their sunken orbs all staring upon him as they encircled him rank upon rank. Again their bolters sang in unison as Ezra dodged first to the right then to left. Leaping up he brought his chain sword down in a wide arc eviscerating another traitor with a swift strike. Biting down on a stim capsule the Templar felt the engineered genome burn within his veins as his limp arm came back to life. Pins and needles stabbed into the muscle as he flexed the stiff arm. Dragging his awoken limb across the barren ground the stiff fingers clutched at the haft of a huge cleaver.

Briefly the pain was gone as he attacked with unbridled passion hacking the huge blade with new found strength. Limbs were shorn free and heads rolled. "Converge." came the command from the second champion, redirecting the force of the Poxmongers. Suddenly the lone Templar was amongst them giving himself to the fight. They grabbed at him to hold him down but the chain sword and cleaver struck for faster shredding swollen fingers. Ejecting a hidden stilleto from the hilt of the chain sword Ezra drove the tip deep into neck of a lumbering traitor severing the spinal cord. The head fell limp as the Deathguard was pushed aside.

The ground trembled as a Lord of Contagion erupted from the sick fold barreling down upon the lone Templar.