With the heady surge of adrenaline rushing through my hungry veins, my focus sharpens to a razor's edge and the world seems to slow until I can feel individual heartbeats pulsing against my temple.
One Beat.
The first man to react attempts to bring his rifle up, nearly fumbling his trigger discipline and spraying his allies with a panicked burst of fire. My pistol lines up against his thigh and barks off a subsonic round that digs through major muscle groups, causing him to begin falling.
Two Beats.
Still moving with most of the momentum I've built up, I grab the flying body of the unconscious and toothless man. Gripping tightly against his collar, I burn my speed into force, spinning once and releasing the heavy body into two others who had begun to react. It gives me enough time to run towards them, stomping on the face of the screaming man with the gunshot in his leg and knocking him out cold.
Three beats.
Four quick shots of my fast acting tranquilizer pistol later, all of the men are down for the count and I turn towards the sound of scrabbling claws just as DD takes to the air and snags the arm of another man who had exited a hut with a fresh magazine in hand.
As time returns to normal, the last thing the soldier attempting to fend off the wolfdog sees is a boot flying directly at his temple.
