Author’s note: Here comes part 2. I decided to split it, I want you to point to anything wrong as I write the rest of the fight. A bit later part 3 will be out. I will definitely end this one today, so worry not, no more cliffhangers. I think? Point out any mistakes you see, and enjoy!
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Everyone, I included, stiffened for a moment. Than our whole group rushed to the front of the cart to see how many assailants we were facing. On the road before us, there were 8 enemies, 7 human bandits in tattered cloak and a 5 feet tall wolf. They didn’t look weak at all. They had different weapons, all metal, some of them even had armors from, what I assumed, was studded leather.
Still, 8 opponents against our 17 wasn’t bad right? As I thought that, I forgot about common idea of flag triggering. More bandits started coming out from the sides of the previous 8. I counted about 25 of them in total, newcomers were armed with pointed sticks and stones, and they clothes were tattered. They looked kind of like me, actually, after my encounter with goblin, except they were all human.
The leaders (7 original bandits with the wolf, I will call them leaders (and yes, wolf followed them)) went forward in our direction. After stopping about 50 before our group, one of them, a woman spoke.
“We hold the advantage. Surrender your money, as well as 5 of you, and we will let the rest go unharmed.”
What? Didn’t they want cargo as well? Lomar with other protectors was standing in front of us, and now he responded in neutral voice.
“We can surrender our money, but no people will come with you. It is not negotiable, unless you want unnecessary bloodshed, take our offer and get out of the way.”
Woman looked our group looking into eyes of villagers, as if to ascertain all were agreeing with what Lomar said. She briefly stopped at noticing me, but she didn’t seem overly surprised to see a dwarf here. Finally, she turned her back on us and started talking in quiet voice with man beside her. He was grim fellow, and from what I could see from his expression this wasn’t going to end well. And my expectations seemed correct, when woman turned with cold smile and shouted one word.
“ATTACK!”
The 17 underlings with bad weaponry started charging at us while screaming. Why does everyone shout so much when engaging in battle? To encourage himself and his allies. So people around me started shouting as well, and charged, protectors leading the way, to meet the enemy.
What was with these people? Both groups were unorganized, the bandit leaders led the charge of theirs, protectors led ours, but we were just random masses of people, screaming and running. This encounter could have looked antirely different with some tactical orders. But I had thought of that only after the battle, because at this moment I was swept in bloodlust and adrenaline, doing what everyone else was just wishing to gain as much exp on those bandits as I could.
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First to clash were Lomar and wolf. Lomar stabbed forward, while the beast dodged by jumping to the side and quickly grabbing the spear. I had no time to watch rest of this fight, because chaos ensued, when people met other people. This game was awesome. Seriously, how did they make these AI. The conversations before could all be easily programmed, but fighting was much harder.To make it fluent and so responsive?
We were at disadvantage, but we had better weapons than most of the opponents. Bandit leaders were the only real problem, as those who engaged with them were being pushed back. I was attacked by one of the mob bandits, he thrust his stick at me. But it was similar to goblins thrust, and as I was much calmer than during my first fight, I avoided to the side while bringing my own weapon on his head, with all might I could muster.
Déjà vu. Crunch of broken bone, blood and brain matter splattered over me and surroundings and limp body falling to the floor. But this time, I simply continued to fight with others, as our enemies were plenty. I didn’t notice shocked looks from both sides and rushed to one of the bandit leaders who was whacking villager’s shield with axe. There was blood flowing from the shield arm of the defending person, and clearly he was on his last feet.
I couldn’t get to him fast enough. My way was barred by another leader, this one with short sword soaked in blood and a shield of his own. I could only watch with frustration as the axe fell, chopping through cracked shield, arm and torso of villager. Then I saw a sword coming towards my face, and had no more room to look around.
This guy was tough. I had range advantage, with my large stick (okay, staff, let’s give this one some credit) but he easily defended my blows with his shield, while using each opportunity I struck to counterattack.
We exchanged couple of blows, him parrying, me jumping to the sides and back to dodge, when I noticed he was holding his shield lower and lower, and his face was expressing pain and panic.
“Hey, Herad, stop playing around with that guy and help me!”
Not good. I must have some strength to make his arm suffer under the shield, but that also meant I would be focused in a moment by other tough enemies. I desperately started to whack him with all strength, abandoning defense. He tried to counterattack to stop my offensive, and we ended up striking each other. He hit me first, as I was just raising my stick for another slam, and I was struck straight to the stomach. I don’t know how, but I didn’t feel any pain, and there wasn’t much blood flowing through the wound. He looked baffled, that is, until my staff met his face and he didn’t look like anything anymore.
“GOD’S DAMMIT, YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT YOU BASTARD!!!”
I hoped I could catch my breath, but I looked up, only to see another one of my group, a protector this time, fall under the hands of the grim looking man from before, while he shouted, clearly at me. Except this time, he was not looking grim, but enraged. Not good.