Build Sequence Is Key

Sneak Attack

With his back the the retreating orcs skirmishing. Directly ahead was the orc reserve ready to receive whatever result that occurred from the battle behind him. Yet he knew that there was also a second army of the insects ready to flank to his right as well.

With a sinking realization Jason knows he as to walk the fine line of passing between the orc reserves and the flanking insects. Every where else would be literally crawling with suppressive fire and scouts.

The only relatively safe spot for now was to travel between the armies. Neither side would want to alert the other to their presence. Even if they saw him and his men between them they would do nothing. He had to bet on that intuition and take the risk. Sooner was better than later, because as soon as the insects flanked literally his little highway to survival would be gone.

Immediately directing his four footmen where to go both in the system and by generically hand signaling Jason began his desperate gamble. Yet before he had gone more than a hundred feet a shadow appeared from behind a tree and neatly stopped his run with a arm to his chest. Lined out among the leaves and shrubs on the ground Jason became intimately aquatinted with the fact that an orc captain had been stationed to watch the flanking insects.

Fortunately once the orc realized that the five humans were no threat to him he no longer waisted time with them. It was interesting for Jason laying on the ground as the captain pulled a knife and held it to Jason's throat. It would have been so easy for the orc to slaughter him.

Instead the captain muttered about country bumpkins and after thoroughly searching Jason let him go. No questions asked. For his part Jason definitely tried to squire the orc as a hero, but he is unable to acquire the captain again Jason was forced to let his aspiration go. The four foots hadn't been stopped and running they were already almost out of the kill zone.

Due to being held back and unable to get his breath to recover after being knocked to the ground Jason lost the moment. Screeching and chittering announced that the insects were about to begin their maneuver.

Without options Jason realized he was dead. He had taken a risk and it hadn't panned out. Yet the only thing he could think about was why he wasn't already dead. The orc captain could have easily killed him. And then Jason realized that in his first experience with the system he had made a pact with orca. A different tribe it looked like, but this orc captain had respected that deal.

And now unexpectedly Jason felt a sense of debt. An incredible gift had been given to him by that dragon tribe of orcs and he had not realized the extent of the gift he had been given.

He had to pay them back even a little. As a player he could die and still live on to come back again another day. He was trapped now, why not do something to hero it out?

Yeah, why not, this was just a game anyway. And if it saved a few more of the orcs in the process, then maybe he would be able to pay it forward a little bit.

Alright, he already knew what he would do. Faint towards the insects and then run away from the orcish reserve.

"I know your their and I know orcs use horns and drums to direct troops in a fight. Give me a horn, I will run out and lead them away."

Jason extended a hand over confident that the captain would provide what was asked. But a slow smile leaked across the human's face when the horn was placed in his hand.

"Blow hard." The words leaked out in the space between when the horn arrived in Jason's hand and when action had to take the place of thought.

It was stupid and it probably wouldn't work. The orc was probably smiling laughing in the darkness of his cowl.

But at the end of that gut wrenching moment of silence Jason spun around. In a fit of youthful exuberance he sucked in a huge breath and blowing into the horn like it was a brass instrument a weak and weazing note caused the insect army to suddenly go silent at least on their front rank.

Another moment later Jason burst out from the tree line and stopped to plant himself and blow again. The insect army's leading edge was full of nasty preying manti, over two meters tall at the shoulder. This close Jason could see that they were at least six meters long. They should have been like small tanks in his world, but despite their size they were quick.

Ten of the things broke rank and dashed madly out to strike with their mandibles. Jason was already moving and did the unexpected. Dropping he rolled forward into the swiping claws.

Expecting to be dead already, Jason found that besides bruises from connecting with the legs of the manti he was still alive. Despite being quick, the ten insects tangled together and could not pivot to give chase without running into each other.

Now Jason's big plan was all used up and unable to think of anything else to help he just started running as fast as he could back in the direction he had appeared in this game at. Back to the beginning.

It was easy to hear another horn from within the wood sound and then drums lift a beat. Having no idea what this meant Jason ignored the sounds and just zigged before continuing on in a straight line.

A preying mantis monster tackled through the spot that he had been in a moment before and then he was back in the tree line. Here his smaller body was an advantage over the hunk of the insect bodies.

Purposely slipping between narrow gaps he forced his pursuers to take different routes through the undergrowth. At one point he looked back to find that he couldn't see the ground or the field for the amount of monsters following in his wake.

What he did see that scared him again after realizing he could make gains against the preying mantises was that quite a few smaller monsters. About three quarters his size were in the mix behind him and gaining.

This wasn't supposed to be how it went down. He was supposed to be dead already. But now he had time for existential dread to overwhelm his every thought.

These new insects were spitters. Jason found that out really when the fastest among them nailed him with its sour acid from behind. He didn't loose his footing, but he did end up stumbling down an incline.

Windmilling his arms to maintain balance. He had to go faster to keep from flying head over heels on the steep embankment. A high pitched screeching started behind him and to his consternation it grew to come from far out on this left and right.

Even while the trees were thinning out he could tell that the spitters almost had him surrounded. And he realized that the ones behind him weren't already taking him down because they were waiting for his flankers to round out their little trap.

He realized he was trapped again. So he did the unthinkable and turned around. Picking up speed back towards insects and back up the hill it took all of two seconds for the leading enemy to spit in his face and collide.

Inside the insects effective range for slashing Jason was protected for a moment from its mandibles. Yet the insect despite having less mass had more momentum and He was thrown back again. Although not as far as it might have been expected. These spitters were fast and light. Further while their mandibles were also fast they were not as big and sharp as the huge preying mantises were.

When he got up the spitter stayed down. Fortunately he had hit it right in a sweet spot. Also fortunately the preying mantis troops were no where in sight. They must have pulled back to the main army.

Unfortunately some hundred spitters who while having over run his position were doubling back already to come finish him off.

Already the two closest insects were engaging from both his left and right. More spit impacted his body. While the spit wasn't like bullets it still was solid enough to check his movement and leave deep compression wounds. The acid of which immediately went to work to start eating through his skin and muscle.

At this point he could feel his skin on fire. His eyes especially burned. He could still see, barely. It was going to be tough fighting in this condition. So he ran again. This time parallel to the sloop of the hill. He couldn't even tell if it was left or right if his previous direction. His only thought was to survive a little longer.