My teammates were as ready as they would ever be. Zur had unlimbered the alter-mace and was idly snapping the heads off flowers as we passed. Kor was rolling one of her steel balls up and down on the blade of a wedge-sword as she walked and making it look easy.
It would be foolhardy to try for the trees with the Leapers in their current arrangement. The blocking force would simply move forward and engage us in the open, allowing the other two wings to close on us in an area with no cover. We would have to do this the hard way.
I leisurely removed the coiled flexi-whip from my shoulder. Actually, I shouldn’t call it a flexi-whip, since it had been modified. I had affixed one of Kor’s steel balls to its tip, the weight of which, combined with the whip’s lashing action, could pulverize rock. It wasn’t a flexi-whip anymore, it was a Bug-killer.
“Subtlety does not seem to be working,” I beamed at the team. “Break for the cliff on my count…ready…three…two…”
As a unit we wheeled and began jogging for the cliff. As we ran, we spread the formation slightly until there was space of about two and a half meters between us to ensure weapons room, and we held at that distance. It is neither a fast-moving nor an impressive formation, but once set in motion it doesn’t stop for anything. Though it is not a particularly terrifying sight, few have stood in the path of a jogging formation of armed Tzen and survived.
For a few precious moments there was no activity in the Enemy ranks. Apparently they were having difficulty comprehending that we had seen them and were charging them head-on. Then a series of chirps and squeals went up behind us, and the Leapers moved into action.