******* Assault in the Night (I) *******
They move at night. Silently. They're not too surprised to find the shield at the cave entrance. They break it.
"This will alert them. Be careful," one of them says.
"If they've been hiding and waiting, they've found something valuable. And they don't dare fight us. They'll be easy prey. Especially, with the poison," another says.
They've thrown something inside. It must be that poison they're talking about. They're in for a surprise.
"Shit, there's another shield. Those who've taken the antidote should advance. As soon as we destroy the second shield, they're ours."
There're fifteen of them. Five stay outside. Those are level six and seven. What they don't know is that we're watching them from behind. We chose this cave because it had two exits.
Yi, Yu, Shi, Rui, and I approach silently. We cover their mouths as we stab them. We have enough daggers for everyone. It takes me four stabs to finish him off. Rui probably only needed one. I put the bodies away. It's worked out fine. We didn't make any noise. It would've been nice to go inside from behind, but that gas seems dangerous. With Detect Qi, I make sure no one else is around.
We wait for a while. Three come out. Two at nine and one at eight. The one from eight seems a little dizzy. They're dragging three others with them. The other four must have stayed inside.
They aren't the only ones who know how to use gas. We've put the sleeping gas inside the shield. It's worked out great. As soon as they opened it, it hit them. It doesn't seem to have been enough for the ones at nine. Had it been if they'd stayed more time? Seeing their own people fall, they must have gotten out early.
"Damn! They set a trap for us! What was that? I'm a little dizzy," one at nine stage complains.
Suddenly, we attack. Song and Lang go for the one at eight. Shi and the twins go for the one at nine. I go for the other at nine. Rui is waiting in the shadows. Liang is hiding with Ning.
He blocks my attack. It's clear they're experienced. Probably, more than us. But there are fewer of them. And the sleeping potion has affected them. I block his sword, and he kicks me. Thanks to Inner Armor, I feel almost no pain. But he's knocked me back. He also easily dodged Liang's arrow.
Against Shi and the twins, the one at stage nine has trouble. She's more powerful, but she's fighting against three. They're hounding her from all three angles. They have the advantage, but they can't be too confident. She's dangerous.
Shi attacks with one sword. Her enemy blocks with one axe and counters with the other. Just then, Yi attacks. Their enemy is forced to turn to deflect the attack back at her. Yi backs away. Yu then tries. Now, it's their opponent who retreats. She wields the other axe and tries to reach Yu. But Shi pressures her. Their advantage is clear. But a moment of distraction could cost us dearly.
Song attacks with her spear. Although she's limping, her spear has a long reach. And her opponent is dizzy. He barely manages to block it. And he doesn't see Lang. She plunges both swords into his back.
"Aaaaaaaargggh!!!"
"Li!" my opponent shouts.
He tries to slip away from me, attack, and run toward him. Too many things going on at once to notice Rui's sneak attack. He manages to turn, but a dagger is stabbed into his arm. Furious, he tries to attack her. But she's already hidden. And I attack him again. This time, he has a harder time blocking. His arm is injured.
Song has pierced her spear into her enemy after Lang's attack. He falls. The two of them go to support the other three, Lang a little behind. She's weaker and more inexperienced.
The range of Song's spear poses a new problem for our enemy. She can't counterattack with three others surrounding her. She can only block or dodge.
Lang joins in, feinting to attack. But in the end, she doesn't get close. Although, she manages to get her attention. Song attacks right after, along with the other three. All at once. Their enemy manages to dodge Song and block Shi.
She makes a half-backward arc with her other axe. Desperate. Trying to intimidate or reach the twins. But Yi has ducked. And Yu is half-blocking the attack, her two daggers half-blocking it. Her job is to stall her.
Yi plunges a dagger into each heel. And leaves them stuck. She has two more. Their enemy collapses. They quickly disarm and immobilize her. The twins tie her up. The rest come to meet me.
My enemy is wounded and furious. Even more so when he sees his fallen comrades. It's their fault for attacking us. But he can't afford to be distracted. He's somewhat superior to me, but not by much. I have a cut, but it's superficial. And Rui is lurking. The second time she's attacked, he's managed to narrowly avoid her. That's not all. Liang's arrows don't have much effect, but they distract him a bit.
Finally, Shi arrives, attacking directly. He steps back, dodging her. Without losing sight of me. Still, I attack. And Rui appears. Now, three of us are harassing him. He's also wounded in the arm. But we don't rush. Until Song arrives too.
I imbue the staff with qi and slash at his waist. It's a semicircular trajectory. It's easy to read and block. Even to dodge backward. But there, Shi is waiting.
