章 129: A dynamite time

Afton had just ducked back into cover when he heard vicious sounding barks coming from nearby. The mongrels had apparently been allowed to go ahead of the larger unit as Afton could see a few of them almost on top of his and Boone's position.

Their thick shaggy fur and orange, almost coming on red eyes gave them a fierce appearance. Especially with how their teeth were currently bared. One ahead of the pack leapt towards Afton and attempted to bite him, going for the nearest thing it could reach.

Afton kicked the snarling beast in the face as it jumped at him, putting a bullet between its brows as the other's charged him. "Fuck! Boone, dogs!" he exclaims, causing his parter to swivel around and start shooting at them.

Afton himself had already unloaded his two pistols on the creatures, the pack was larger than expected though and he was forced to unsheath his knife as he had no time to reload. He could've perhaps used the sawed-off shotgun strapped to his chest, but it only had two shots in it before he'd need to reload that too.

His laser and plasma pistols were also an option but neither was suited for this. The laser pistol might not be able to kill them in one shot, and the plasma pistol lacked the fire rate to be useful.

His eyes fluttered upwards as a mongrel launched itself from a boulder to try and get a bite at his neck. He used VATS just as he heard the sound and got a good look at it as time was frozen, once time resumed he spun around as if he had eyes on the back of his head and plunged the knife into the dogs chest.

His 8 strength displayed itself as he held the dog up by its throat and stabbed it a couple more times for good measure before tossing it down the hill towards the advancing Legionaries to slow they ascent slightly.

This battle between man and beast continued until Afton was covered in blood that wasn't his own, and bitemarks. His endurance and [Toughness] Perk prevented the mongrels from doing any meaningful damage, but he'd definitely be sore tomorrow, not to mention the many potential diseases they could have conferred to him.

He sheathes his bloody knife and start reloading his two pistols, thinking to himself that it was about time that his trap activated. "Boone, on my signal we'll retreat from this place."

"What's your signal?"

Afton grins, "You'll know when it happens!" he shouts and continues firing at the enemy.

A Legionary recruit had just climbed up a boulder to try and reach their enemy. These cowardly NCR snipers had managed to kill their hostages, as well as a swath of the advancing Legionaries with not a single injury as of yet.

The lone brave Legionary growled as he spotted a mongrel corpse nearby, seems like their animal companions had failed to do any damage whatsoever. He takes a step forward but is stopped... His foot had been caught by some sort of cord? He takes a closer look at it but almost shits himself when a spark travels down it to an unknown location.

He quickly stands and looks down at his fellow advancing Legionaries and is about to shout for them, but... *BANG!*, he falls onto his stomach after getting shot in the spine, disabling his legs completely. He crawls towards the edge in an attempt to warn the others but another shot rings out and cuts him off, his head exploding like a melon.

Sadly, even if he had managed to warn the others, it was still too late.

The fuse connected to the payload of dynamite sparked as he entered the red sticks...

*BOOM!*

A huge explosion occurs and it kills a few Legionaries who were at the front of the group, but that isn't what it was primarily placed there for... Instead, it's the dislodged rocks and stones that immediately start cascading down the hill like a rock-slide that does the most damage.

The Legionaries start sprinting down the hill away from the bone crushing wave way faster than they'd climbed it. Some trip and strat flipping the down mountain, getting heavily injured in the process. Other's simply aren't fast enough and are enveloped by the dirt and stone, any caught in it will either be crushed or suffocate under it.

As soon as the explosion occurs Afton and Boone quickly start retreating. Yeah sure, the Legion was temporarily routed, but there was definitely more where that came from. That's not even mentioning the fact Afton didn't have any dynamite left to use. Even if he did it'd be almost impossible to cause another rock-slide without moving to another area.

"That your signal?" Boone asks as he hefts himself over a boulder than Afton'd just climbed up.

"Obviously? If that wasn't the signal then we might need another Great War to get you moving." Afton jokes.

"Didn't know you knew your way around explosives, causing a rock-slide is harder than it looks youknow. Trust me, I've tried."

Afton nods at that, if his Repair wasn't maxed out he wouldn't have been able to locate a weak spot in the hillside that'd cause a chain reaction once removed. He had no idea if the dynamite would be enough to trigger it, but it was worth a shot. It paid off in the end anyway. "It was luck, don't count on me to do it again..." he admits.

Boone shrugs, "Let's get back to the camp before the Legion sends more after us. After this the NCR might be able to retake Nelson."

"They better be, we must've wiped out twenty to thirty percent of their numbers."