Annotated 30-17
Yeah, see what I mean? A Cultist-made berserker probably wouldn’t have stopped killing one guy just because he was getting stabbed some more.
Very faint stirrings of conflict between Byron and Bandit here. With Syr’Nj’s instructions guiding him and the word “berserker” kind of triggering him, Byron is a bit reluctant to give up his “responsibility” of berserker-herding. It was Syr’Nj (with Scipio) who hatched the plan to take on Hammerhead that Byron has been pursuing; Bandit wasn’t even part of that conversation. In the best of times, all the team’s leadership-minded types can work together frictionlessly, as they did during their threat assessment at the end of the last chapter. The worst of times are a faint glow on the horizon, just barely visible.
At least it’s gotta be a blow to Rebel morale to see Hammerhead running pell-mell away from the fighting with a single gnome on his back and leaking a couple of human bodies’ worth of blood.
Nothing like the Bane of the Truly Swole, access to their back.
So, Hammerhead is definitely not berzerking in the Byron sense, but if he was able to think this through in a more sober way, he’d just drop on his back and either smash the gnome or force her to leave that comfortable position between his shoulder blades.
That plan only works, though, if he’s far away from anyone else who might attack him while he’s flat on his back. Even Hammerhead can’t afford to just lie down in the middle of an up-close fight.
Quick backwards (or forward) roll? Make use of a wall? Also, he just had two accelerated peacemakers slice him like there’s no tomorrow, and both of those are gone. So maybe some foot soldier getting half a chance at one hit would be better than that Gnome continuing to poke around in his back with her daggers for as long as it takes him to get to where he’s going?
It’s not that I don’t find his reaction understandable (he probably does want to get out of the fight, and it’s that kind of moment where most people would not stop to think), but he’s not totally rational here, is what I was saying.
I’ll go along with that.
I guess it’s just a random accident but if I remember correctly, that is bandit’s second encounter with a berserker (as T pointed out, a different type, but still). And last time she died because she was slashed along her shoulder plates – about where she now hurt Hammerhead.