The Rogues were immediately a little bewildered. "Felix, what do you mean-"
"If there were only the Murlocs in front of us, of course we could wipe them out while we're at it and give everyone some practice. But there are too many of them now. We only need their gold coins. There's no point risking our lives fighting them."
He said quietly, "Look, there's a hole in the ground among those stilt houses. I'd bet their gold coins are hidden in that hole."
"I can draw the Murlocs' attention first and lure most of them away. Then, Joseph, you can hurry in with the others, wipe out the small group left behind, grab the gold coins, and get out immediately. Make it quick, and the Murlocs in the nearby villages won't have time to reinforce them."
"All right, that's the plan. If nobody has any questions, let's get started."
"Felix, you... be careful."
"Brother, put this on." A Rogue beside him offered him a lightweight suit of leather armor. "I stripped this off one of Lescovar's lackeys."
"Here, take this." Another Rogue handed over the shield he was holding. "I picked this up from a dead Stormwind City soldier."
Holding a shield will only slow me down. Felix was about to refuse, but suddenly remembered that he was no longer the useless loser he had been on Earth.
After all, the humans of Azeroth were descendants of degenerated Iron Vrykul. They were absurdly strong, genuinely capable of tearing enemy soldiers apart with their bare hands. What was carrying one extra shield to them?
Stealth Users could not use shields in the game, but Felix clearly was not satisfied with being only a Stealth User. So he reached out and took the shield, gently wiping away the dirt and bloodstains on it.
It was made of refined iron, with a blue-and-gold lion emblem engraved on its silvery-white face-the symbol of Stormwind City and, later, the Alliance. Its craftsmanship was fairly ordinary, but it was sturdy and durable.
"Stay here in ambush. I'm about to charge. Joseph, make sure you pick the right moment to move. Too early, and the Murlocs will realize they've been tricked. Too late, and they might already be back defending the village."
He held out his fist and smiled. Joseph froze briefly, then broke into a grin and bumped fists with him.
"Felix, good luck!"
"Don't worry. I run much faster than those Murlocs."
Felix immediately emerged from the grass and used Sprint to rush ahead. As he ran, he kept striking his shield with his sword, making as much loud clattering noise as possible.
The commotion stunned the Murlocs sitting beneath the stilt houses. But soon, a purple-skinned Murloc at their head reacted. It grabbed a three-pronged iron fork and let out a hoarse roar amid a stream of garbled cries.
"Woguwala woo woo woo!" At its lead, the Murlocs charged forward one after another.
It was lunchtime now, and a delicious meal had suddenly delivered itself to their door. These vicious Murlocs naturally would not let it get away easily.
Although a single Murloc stood less than half as tall as Joseph, the sight of dozens charging together was still frightening. Joseph did not dare underestimate them and immediately turned and ran.
"Am I making this... a little too obvious?" After leading them around for two minutes, Felix suddenly began to worry.
Although humans had an overwhelming intellectual advantage over these incompletely evolved Murlocs, he still worried that an unconvincing performance would give him away. If the Murlocs realized they could not catch him, they might simply stop chasing.
So he decided to bait them, fighting as he retreated to deliberately provoke their anger.
Felix turned around and fearlessly watched the few Murlocs charging fastest, striking his shield with his sword to produce a taunting clatter.
Bang! Taking advantage of his height, Felix delivered a Shield Bash, mercilessly smashing the Stormwind City shield into the first Murloc's head. That nauseatingly ugly fish face immediately crumpled to the ground, and thick, purplish-blue blood nearly splashed onto him.
Then he held his longsword across his body and blocked a Murloc's stone axe. He shoved outward hard, drew his sword back, and slashed again, cutting open the second Murloc's neck and leaving it to fall helplessly to the ground as well. Following through, Felix thrust hard and finished it off too.
The Murlocs' suicide squad had now become a squad rushing to their deaths.
Seeing the Murlocs behind them about to surround him again, Felix continued banging his shield tauntingly, then turned and fled at speed once more.
He had to admit that the stamina of Azeroth's humans was excellent. His old self would have collapsed from exhaustion long ago after running this far in cloth armor while carrying a shield, but Felix was not even breathing hard now.
He continued steadily leading this group of Murlocs through a boys' three-thousand-meter distance run, taking them farther and farther from their village.
After he repeated this maneuver several times, the Murlocs' leader was finally enraged.
The purple-skinned Murloc wielding the three-pronged iron fork furiously shoved its companions aside and rushed at Felix. It roared strange cries no one could understand, and the fish spear in its hands swiftly stabbed toward Felix's legs.
Felix hurriedly dropped his shield down, blocking the purple Murloc's "salted-fish thrust." The tremendous impact left his hand a little numb and rocked his previously steady body. He staggered back two steps and nearly fell to the ground.
Then, as quickly as possible, he made a rough calculation, placed his left hand at the shield face's "center of percussion," and raised the shield to smash the Murloc leader in front of him again. This time, he felt no jolt in his hand, while the Murloc leader fell to the ground at the blow.
The leader climbed up and was about to rally its followers to attack Felix again, but suddenly a Murloc in the distance let loose a string of "gwa gwa ha ha la la" cries in their direction. The Murlocs here abandoned the idea of making Felix their lunch and retreated along the way they had come.
Had they realized their home had been raided? Felix naturally had to give them a beating. He could not let their retreat go too smoothly.
Once again taking advantage of his height and long legs, he followed behind the Murlocs and hacked away. He caught up with one that had fallen behind, smashed its head with his shield, then followed through with an attack from his sword, bringing it down as well-time would naturally leave it to rot into a corpse.
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