Operation Honey Trap vs The Emperor of the Apocalypse

The commander assessed the situation in a few seconds, ordering his men into position.

"Niko, Baer, Wolf, join the girls on their flank and defend them as they retreat. Bo, Han, take the snake to the left of the church. Cormac, Magnus, the one to the right."

They weaved their horses through the pile of snakes, defending against strikes with their swords as they galloped.

"Don't bother with arrows," called Delphi to the guards. "Only crossbows will penetrate their scales. And watch their tails," she shouted just as a snake used its whiplike tail to sweep the feet of Wolf's horse out from under it, sending the man shooting off over its head where he skidded a few feet on his stomach before coming to a stop.

A snake used the opportunity to strike at him, but he rolled and sliced it's head, managing to remove a good chunk of flesh.

Niko, Baer and Wolf arrayed themselves in front of the retreating women and started to decimate the snakes that were attacking them.

Indy quickly found she couldn't get close enough to help. Everywhere she tried to strike at the snakes, Niko was already there, standing in front of her and slashing everything that moved. He had killed two snakes already.

"I don't need you to protect me," she called in frustration, as he jumped in front of her again. "I can fight you know."

"We've got this," he said. "Just stay out of harm's way back there."

She rolled her eyes. "We were doing fine by ourselves before you all arrived."

"It didn't look that way. It looked like you were under pressure and losing the fight."

"Hmmph," she huffed in exasperation.

She tried to push forward to stand alongside him, but he held his arm out, sweeping her back behind him.

A snake struck at Niko, and he used two hands to thrust his sword up through the underside of its mouth and straight into it's brain. He wrenched his sword free, and the beast dropped to the dirt with a loud thump, stirring up a big puff of dust.

"Show-off," muttered Indy.

He laughed with enjoyment, smiling over at her with his big blonde soldier swagger.

She rolled her eyes in frustration at him.

He deliberately dropped his eyes to her boobs, looking back up at her face and raising his eyebrows suggestively.

"It's good to see them… I mean you, again."

"Don't be so infantile. Keep your eyes on the killer snakes would you man," she snapped.

"You're very distracting for me."

He cut a chunk off a snake's nose, sending the flesh flying towards Indy. He caught it before it could hit her.

He tossed the flesh into the air and batted it back towards the snake's face with the flat of his sword. It hit the snake in the eye with a satisfying thud, shocking it into temporarily withdrawing.

"Bullseye," he crowed. "Oh, I can finally see my nose!" he cried in a high-pitched voice as he pretended to be the snake.

"Are you two years old?" she asked.

"He's putting on a show for the ladies," puffed Wolf helpfully, jumping over a tail whip.

A snake struck at Indy. She brandished her sword but before she could get near it, Niko ran in from the side, did a flying leap, and pinioned it's head to the ground with his sword. At the same time Wolf sliced both of its fangs off, and they clattered to a stop at Indy's feet.

"Look at the boys showing off for Indy," laughed Lili. "Giving her sweet gifts of venomous fangs and one-upping each other. I told you those things were weapons Delph."

"How about we stop flirting and focus on surviving this nest of snakes," grunted Delphi as she sliced at the head of a snake.

Commander Meyer was on the other side of the same snake and the two of them punched its head into the soil with a synchronous sword strike.

"I thought you said to stop flirting, Captain? Look at you and Commander Meyer slaying snakes together. So cute."

"Lili…" warned Delphi.

She pealed with laughter. The girl was incorrigible, thought Delphi.

Baer meanwhile was shielding Loveday with his bulk and fending off every strike that came their way. She tried to shift up alongside him.

"Uh, uh, uh. No you don't."

He lifted her up and shifted her behind him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked indignantly.

"Don't touch my sister Baer," called Niko.

"Oh, so now I'm your sister am I Niko?"

"You were always my sister. I just couldn't talk to you before."

"So it takes a swarm of red bellied black snakes to unlock your tongue does it, brother?"

"Don't make things difficult for me Loveday."

"Oh, you haven't seen the start of me being difficult yet."

"I think I've seen the start of it," contributed Baer.

"If you keep following us, you might get to see the end of it too," she warned.

"If that little gift from you was the start, I very much look forward to seeing the end," Baer growled, as he flung his sword so that it flew end-over-end and embedded itself in the roof of a snake's mouth. He ran forward as its head dropped and wrenched his sword free.

Loveday took the opportunity of Baer's absence from the frontline, to move forward and slice at a snake coming in from their left. Baer charged back like an angry bull and thrust his sword through one side of its head and out the other.

"Fuck off!" he swore at it.

Delphi ran forward into a group of three snakes moving so close to their bellies that they couldn't contort their heads down to reach her. She sliced each of the three through their soft bellies.

Cormac and Magnus who were covering the right side of the church clapped in admiration.

"She's fucking badass," whispered Magnus to Cormac.

"I heard that," she scowled.

"It was a compliment," he assured her.

"There are more of them coming out of the bush," yelled Commander Meyer. "Baer, Niko, get the ladies situated inside the church then get your arses back out here, pronto."

"Sir!" they both nodded, moving to usher the women and their horses inside.

"Commander Meyer," Delphi spoke quietly to him, "while I appreciate the gesture, and frankly, you guys getting yourself killed is your business, these snakes are all of our business."

"Leave them to us Miss Chastain. We've got this, and the men will do better without the distraction of you and your sisters."

"I take umbrage at you calling us a distraction, and I've told you before, only Indy and Ruby are sisters."

"If you could do me this favour, please, Miss Chastain? Just let us do our jobs."

"You're a long way from your jurisdiction and you have no control over us out here Commander, but if you want to handle these monsters on your own, please be my guest. Just don't expect any thanks from us."

"I certainly won't expect thanks from you and your sis… team, Miss Chastain. Two of my men have experienced your brand of 'thanks' already, and I'd ask that you don't thank me. In fact, I'd be positively thrilled if you can keep your thanks to yourself in future."

"I can't make any promises Commander. Perhaps if your men could keep their hands off my women, they might avoid finding themselves in unfortunate situations."

"Perhaps if your women could avoid prick-teasing my men in future, we could avoid all of this unpleasantness," he admonished her.

"Tell them to think with their big brain instead of their little one, and they wouldn't find themselves in stupid situations in the first place," she flashed.

The commander couldn't really disagree with her.

Delphi stalked off towards the church. "I'll leave you boys to your snake fight."