Good on you for giving the beastmen an actual culture; I always appreciate attempts to do things differently and take ideas in a new direction. I liked the story overall, although the middle section, where you shift from present action to past narration, felt a little rushed. I would have appreciated a little more time to take in the details. I also found Gnarl's characterization to be unclear. You write about his loving the spray of blood and losing himself in battle fury, but he also calmly takes time to contemplate whether or not his mechanical opponents care if he curses at them. Don't get me wrong, that paragraph was very funny, but I felt it clashed with the rest of the writing about Gnarl.
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Thanks for the comment, I was trying to get some culture building in there and trying to pack it into 1k words or less is tough so I think you are correct and it ended up a bit rushed.
I was trying to go for a thinking warrior that does like the battle, but not a berserker that gives into it. He does have a fury that builds within him while fighting, but it does not make him go blind to the contemplative side and he manages both. Essentially trying to place the Beastmen or at least individuals within as more complex than savage, marauding brutes.
You're right - it is hard to fit everything into a thousand words, and I can definitely see you were trying to thread that needle. As for the details of Gnarl's characterization, that makes sense. A simple shift in the language from talking about how his blood fury 'builds' and 'rises' to describing him as 'stoking' or 'building' it (just as suggestions) I think would really help that become clear to the reader.