Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse-Chapter 156: First Blood

The sound of swords being drawn from their scabbards was quickly drowned out by shouts as the girls the General had tasked to shoot, loosed their first arrows.

Arrie’s struck a man in the shoulder, injuring him, and drawing a deep grunt of pain, but the man remained upright, his hand pressed to the wound.

Opal’s arrow took a man through the neck. He fell to his knees, his breath rattling hideously as he tried uselessly, to stem the flow of blood.

She stood frozen as she watched the man, transfixed by the gruesome sight.

The girls wore their black masks with just their eyes visible, but at 5’0" and 5’5" it was more than obvious that these two archers were women.

Loveday also shot an arrow, but her targeted soldier managed to knock it off course with his sword before it struck him.

Brenner leapt in to engage the man in a sword fight. Loveday stood behind the pair, waiting for Brenner to shift aside so she could get a clear shot away. The fight was messy. Too messy for her to risk firing just yet. Her aim wasn’t solid enough for her to be certain she wouldn’t wing Brenner, or worse...

Brenner backed the man towards the cliff with a flurry of rapid footwork. With a final sword thrust from Brenner, the man took a step backwards and slipped.

He disappeared from view, and Loveday lowered her bow, panting heavily, thankful she hadn’t been needed in the end.

Niko sprang forward to engage a soldier in a sword fight, and Opal followed quickly behind him, standing out of his way but ready to support him if needed.

Niko was a huge unit, and it didn’t take too many of his heavy sword strokes before the soldier he was fighting realised he couldn’t beat this man.

The soldier looked behind him for an escape and suddenly realised his predicament.

He doubled down his efforts against Niko, but in short order Niko managed to knock his sword from his hands and stick the man through the ribs.

The man sank to his knees with a hideous groan, blood dripping down his leather jerkin.

Niko moved onto the soldier beside the injured man, Opal still following at his heels, her mind stuck on repeat flashing up the man she had shot.

Delphi and Alton were fighting the Sergeant.

He was the biggest man in the patrol, and a strong swordsman. Delphi just held her own to the man’s left, with Alton forcing the man backwards from the right.

"Two on one," the man grunted. "That’s how it is, huh?"

"Yup," Alton snapped. "We need every advantage we can get if we’re going to take down the Emperor. You guys definitely have the benefit of numbers, so excuse us if we fight dirty."

"S’that a woman?" the Sergeant asked Alton with disgust, indicating Delphi, his voice dripping with venom.

"I am," she called cheerfully, "and I can even answer simple questions like that, amazingly".

She came in with a flurry of blows from the man’s left, forcing him to take her seriously.

"Bitch like you deserves to die," he raised his sword over his head to bring down a massive blow she couldn’t possibly parry. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Alton took the opportunity of the man opening himself up to slice his leg open. He could have gone for his ribs, but he could see that the man was wearing leather armour, so he thought it better to disable him first.

The Sergeant fell to one knee, his sliced leg sitting off at an odd angle, his face a mask of pain.

"Today’s not that day, buddy," said Delphi in reply.

She pulled her crossbow off her back and shot the man, the bolt easily passing through the leather. Now the Sergeant fell flat on his back and didn’t move.

Alton gripped Delphi’s hand briefly in a squeeze of support, knowing it was never easy. It was when it got too easy that you knew you were in trouble...

Wolf was engaged in a vicious fight with a man not dissimilar to himself, in height and build.

The rapid clanging of their swords rang out across the plateau as they danced together in a sword fight that was moving rapidly forwards towards the cliff, then backwards as the soldier rallied under pressure.

At times, Wolf had the upper hand, but then at others, his opponent was managing to push him back towards where Arrie stood, poised and ready.

She pulled out her dagger as they neared her, and without thinking too much about it, she threw it as she’d done so many times at the target range.

The knife flew end over end and embedded itself deep in the man’s thigh. He screamed and dropped to one leg and Wolf rushed in and finished him off.

He turned quickly to check on Araminta, but she gave him a thumbs up and gestured that he should keep fighting. She was okay.

Niko had now managed to despatch the next soldier he had engaged, and he looked across the battlefield to see that Indy was being beaten backwards towards the cliff, while Baer was otherwise engaged in a vicious sword-fight.

Niko flew across the battlefield to Indy, stabbing his sword through the soldier who had her teetering much too close for his liking, to that awful drop.

His sword went through the man’s back and emerged out the other side, where Indy looked at it in horror.

Niko wrenched his sword free and pushed the soldier aside, grabbing Indy and pulling her to his chest. She was breathing heavily, her face a mask of fear.

"Hey, hey, it’s alright," he hugged her tight, stroking the hair from her face. "You’re okay sweetheart. I’ve got you. I won’t let anything happen to you."

She took a deep steadying breath, nodding as she looked up into his eyes.

Why did he have to make it so hard to hate him? she thought, tears pooling in the corners of her eyes.

He brushed her tears aside and took her hand, pulling her along behind him, protecting her as Baer finished off the soldier he was fighting.

Niko looked across the battlefield for any enemies left alive to slay.

There weren’t any.