Overrunning the enemy (1)

I might look a little weird as the only monster here not wearing a skull but due to my inactivity and me hiding in the crowd I have yet to be noticed. My energy daggers were launched from within the charging crowd and couldn't be traced.

When the captain is about to speak into his radio again, I separate from the crowd that has just engaged the army gunners and slip past one of them to take a stab at the captain. The radio is a push to talk and he's still holding the rifle with his other hand. With one hand on the radio and the other unable to effectively utilize the rifle he is nigh defenseless.

Surprise lights up in his eyes as my dagger aims for his exposed armpit. With his arm raised to operate the radio, that spot is most vulnerable and if I stab deep enough he'll be dead in one blow.

Of course, it doesn't happen that way. The captain raises his rifle to block me and twists the other way to try avoid the stab. I hook the rifle with my other dagger to keep it out of the way and slightly adjust my stabbing motion.

My dagger doesn't hit the captain's armpit but instead slices along his chest toward his neck. The gash looks gory but I know it isn't deep. Enough to severely inconvenience his left arm's movement but nothing more.

He drops the rifle and draws a handgun with his right hand. I send four energy daggers at his gun and attempt a cross slash at his torso with my daggers.

I doubt I will do much damage due to his vest that is probably slash resistant. Only an idiot would bring a bullet proof vest to a melee fight where no enemy has a gun…yet.

As I feared, the captain isn't hurt by my cross slash as he completely ignores it and focuses on not getting cut by the energy daggers. However, since I already anticipated that he wouldn't be hurt that naturally wasn't my aim.

He flinches when his utility belt suddenly begins to slide down and hurriedly catches it with both hands. The cross slash was never meant to hurt him. It was meant to cut his utility belt's straps.

Now that both his hands are busy trying to press the belt against his abdomen to prevent it from sliding down I stab towards him with both daggers. Unwilling to get stabbed, he lets the utility belt drop and steps out of my reach.

What are you looking so smug for? Think you won? Think again!

I don't follow up and instead duck down to his utility belt. His shot misses my head and causes a skull goblin behind me to scream in pain and charge at the captain. The captain easily deals with the skull goblin but that gives me enough time to find what I wanted.

Ordinary army gunners don't carry explosives but the captain does. And confined by the narrowing rock formations whatever side gets caught in an explosion will pay dearly.

These explosives are the main reason I focused on the captain while ignoring the skull goblins that are clearly not numerous enough to breach this place once the soldiers and dwarves arrive to provide backup.

The captain's face goes ashen pale as he sees me pick up the three grenades from his utility belt. I quickly pull the pin of one and toss it high over him at the soldiers and dwarves that are rushing over.

"Fire in the hole! …Take cover!"

The captain desperately warns the soldiers and I snicker at the obvious mistake in his choice of words. These soldiers aren't familiar with military terms so fire in the hole just confuses them. Hearing that they should take cover while in a narrow place without cover just makes them freeze up even more.

The grenade lands amidst them and explodes, turning these people into a bloody mist. The army gunners meanwhile all realize that they are in trouble. As military personnel they naturally understood their superior's command and were trained to follow it at a moment's notice.

Since the captain was in a hurry he didn't stop to think of how his subordinates would be affected as he was focused on saving their reinforcements. Now he has caused both his reinforcements to take a large number of casualties before even joining the fight and his men to fall into a precarious situation. They had not hesitated to throw themselves to the ground and cover their heads. In their minds, the captain was a veteran of the battlefield. They thought he had tossed a grenade at the skull goblins and after the explosion, they would have some breathing space.

How devastated did they look after the explosion went off behind them? Terribly devastated! There were no goblins that way, only their own reinforcements who had been blown to bits.

I can't help but feel fortunate seeing the tragic fate that awaits these army gunners. To move and shoot effectively they aren't wearing heavy protection equipment. Their vests can defend against most random slashes and stabs coming their way but they aren't indestructible and don't cover every part of them.

This will make my mission much easier.

The skull goblins spend a few moments in a daze at their opponents' bizarre behavior before piling on top of them to make sure they'll never get back up. Buried in a mess of limbs, claws, weapons, and teeth the army gunners will soon meet their ends.

The captain as the only army gunner left standing can't stop the breach that is about to happen. He knows that as well as I do and his hand goes for the radio with explosive speed.

I immediately slash out while making four energy daggers manifest to join my attack. The captain has no choice but to stop reaching for the radio and engage me. I'll be damned if I just let him inform all the others that there has been a breach.