The Black Rift of Klaxus: Assault on the Mandrake Bastion Read online

  More Bloodbound burst out of the stairwells of the shattered gatehouses, charging towards him. The first to reach him exploded into motes of char, as did the second, but the third swatted the beacon from Kratus’ grip even as he smouldered and crumbled. Kratus parried an axe and beheaded a bearded bloodreaver.

  Lightning streaked down, and struck the bastion again and again. Each strike shook the stone wall down to the foundations. Bloodreavers were flung from the rampart, or were burnt to cinders by the touch of the lightning. But more still pressed forward, driven to a killing frenzy by fear and madness. As the last echoes of the lightning faded, Kratus readied himself to meet their charge. But he knew that he would not do so alone.

  ‘Ho, Silent One, you called and we have come – make way, make way,’ Lord-Castellant Gorgus roared, as he plunged out of the swirling smoke of the lightning strike. He whirled his sigmarite halberd about in a tight circle over his head as he pounded towards the stunned bloodreavers. His loyal gryph-hound, Shrike, loped alongside him.

  Before the Chaos worshippers could recover their wits, Gorgus and Shrike were among them. As the smoke cleared, newly arrived Stormcasts followed their Lord-Castellant into battle. Liberators pressed forward, smashing into the bloodreavers and driving them back. Judicators took up position on the walls, and began to fire down into the enemy milling about on the slope below.

  ‘Take the gatehouses – quickly now,’ Gorgus said, directing a retinue of Liberators forward. He scooped up Kratus’ celestial beacon with the tip of his halberd and extended it to the Knight-Azyros. ‘Lost something, did you?’

  Farther down the bastion, a howling mandrake fell silent as Prosecutors destroyed it. The winged warriors swooped past a moment later, rejoining their fellows as they attacked the Bloodbound on the slope below. Caught between their own bastion and the advancing Stormcast, the Khorne-worshippers were slowly coming unravelled. Those that didn’t flee would be ground under, and eliminated. Gorgus hurled a barbarian over the rampart and turned. ‘Best go let Orius know we’ve arrived, eh? I’ll settle up here,’ he said, and extended his hand. Kratus nodded and shot into the air.

  The Mandrake Bastion had fallen.

  The storm had come to Klaxus.

  About the Author

  Josh Reynolds is the author of the Blood Angels novel Deathstorm and the Warhammer 40,000 novellas Hunter’s Snare and Dante’s Canyon, along with the audio drama Master of the Hunt, all three featuring the White Scars. In the Warhammer World, he has written The End Times novels The Return of Nagash and The Lord of the End Times, the Gotrek & Felix tales Charnel Congress, Road of Skulls and The Serpent Queen, and the novels Neferata, Master of Death and Knight of the Blazing Sun. He lives and works in Northampton.

  The storm breaks as the Stormcast Eternals go into battle for the first time. Read the first book set in the Age of Sigmar.

  A BLACK LIBRARY PUBLICATION

  First published in Great Britain in 2015.

  This eBook edition published in 2015 by Black Library, Games Workshop Ltd, Willow Road, Nottingham, NG7 2WS UK.

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  ISBN: 978-1-78251-688-0

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