Chapter 35 — M18A1 Claymore

The Space Marine braced and fired his 20mm gun, sending shrapnel barreling down the hallway. The Spectre Knight, caught off guard, desperately tried to dodge. However, he was too late and chunks of metal were embedded into his body. The Space Marine saw the target fall to the floor and aimed his gun downwards.

[Selected mode: Internal detonation]

Unable to dodge, 20mm rounds tore into his flesh and detonated, splattering the corridor with blood and guts. Despite this, the Space Marine didn't stop shooting, sending round after round into his mutilated corpse. It was only when the shining light died out that he stopped.

[Light at safe levels. All systems back online]

[Warning! Multiple light sources detected! Switching back to virtual reality mode!]

Over the history of the Spectre Knights, they had fought many strong enemies. Trialled and tempered through battle, they had identified and fixed many of their weaknesses.

While their light was able to blind any enemy, if their enemy was powerful enough, they could just unleash destructive magic in the general location of the light source and hit their target. There had been many cases of a powerful wizard, while being blinded, using investigation magic and sound to locate a Spectre Knight. There were many ways to locate a target apart from sight.

Through their long history, the Spectre Knights had come up with an effective strategy. Some Spectre Knights would emit blinding light, and the rest would stay dark, using magic to dampen their approach and hide their magic fluctuations. With their ability to see in the brightness, they would have a crushing advantage in melee combat against any opponent.

This style of fighting was almost like an assassin, except instead of hiding in the dark, they hid in the light. It was quite a bizarre way of fighting, but the corpses of their enemies hung on the walls of their capital proved its lethality.

[Selected mode: Fragmentary detonation]

The Space Marine fired through the walls at the spots of light. However, without the assistance of aiming software and being given a blurry and vague target, very few shots connected. The few pieces of shrapnel that hit were blocked by their hard armour or only left surface-level wounds.

Unbeknownst to the Space Marine, a few Spectre Knights not releasing light were charging straight at him soundlessly. They kept low to the ground, looking like assassins honing in on their target.

Through the chaotic gunfire and smoke, they successfully closed the distance and the leader swung his sword with all his strength at the Space Marine's helmet. The sword struck with a resounding clang, but he was stunned by the result.

The sword barely left a dent and the Space Marine didn't seem to react. Undeterred, the Spectre Knights surrounded the Space Marine, ready to strike all at once. However, just before they attacked, they suddenly felt an intense sense of danger.

Their eyes widened as they were drawn to the grey-green boxes tightly covering the armour of the Space Marine. They had assumed that it was just another part of armour and didn't think much about it. Little did they know that this oversight would cost them their lives.

The M18A1 Claymore mine is a directional anti-personnel mine originally developed for use by the US military. The Claymore fires steel balls out to about 100 m within a 60° arc. Internally, the mine contains a layer of C-4 explosive behind a matrix of about seven hundred 3.2 mm steel balls set into an epoxy resin. And right now, the Space Marine's armour was covered with them, tightly packed together.

The blast of the magically enhanced Claymores was so strong it even shook the Space Marine. Despite the suit taking most of the damage, the remaining energy was enough to kill a regular human. But after all, there weren't regular humans in the power armour; there were Space Marines.

Outside the suit, the damage was infinitely greater. The explosion shook up a huge amount of dust as steel balls ripped through the surroundings, overlapping with each other to form a 360° death zone.

Every Spectre Knight around the Space Marine was instantly killed. Without having any time to react, their armour was shredded and their bodies were torn apart. They had been hidden from the Space Marine's view, lurking in the surroundings, and the Space Marine had chosen the simplest but most effective counter: remove the surroundings.

The Spectre Knights releasing light in the distance were stunned. All around the Space Marine, the walls and ceiling were peppered with small holes and a ring of dead bodies.

This scene was happening all around the ship. Spectre Knights had found lone Space Marines and tried to sneak attack them, only to be disintegrated by Claymores. With this, they had lost over half their numbers.

Additional Space Marines emerged from hiding and formed a force nearly half the the remaining Spectre Knights. Without hesitating, they simultaneously opened fire at once.

The remaining Spectre Knights found it harder and harder to dodge the deadly spray of shrapnel and saw their numbers slowly get whittled down. They were not able to advance since it would make them easier targets to hit, and mele fighting was out of the question since the new Space Marines were all covered with Claymores.

Gritting his teeth, the leader of the Spectre Knights made the difficult decision to retreat. They had not achieved their mission, but further fighting was pointless. It was better to retreat and preserve their force than face annihilation.

The remaining dozen of Spectre Knights jumped out the side of the Bismarck, skydiving back to the ground. However, in their panic, they had forgotten a crucial detail; why they had decided to close the distance and fight the crew of the ship, instead of fighting the Bismarck head-on.

With hisses of steam, humongous battleship cannons aimed downwards at the airspace where the survivors were falling.

[800mm Airburst High-Explosive shells loaded!]

[Fire!!!]

The Bismarck shook and recoiled as its entire battery of guns fired at the Spectre Knights. Countless gigantic high-explosive shells approached and detonated simultaneously.

The explosion was equivalent to a small nuclear detonation. A massive fireball bloomed and rings of shockwaves reverberated. It was so loud that everyone in a ten-mile radius heard and looked up, terrified at the power shown.

Caught right in the centre of such a fireball, the Spectre Knights were instantaneously vaporised. Not even a speck of dust remained and even the legendary Sunstones were nowhere to be found. Today marked the end of the Spectre Knights, and they would only be remembered in legends, eventually fading into the depths of history, forgotten and never to return.