With the NCR forces now joining the battle, the pressure on Afton and Karl's shoulders had lifted somewhat. Both had honestly been ready to die at any moment, at least now they had a good chance to win this fight.

"We need to back up, even with the NCR we are unlikely to win this... Go, get back to Boone." Afton says as he gets ready to start shooting at the Fiends again, this time without the LMG. ​​

Karl crouches and moves as quickly as possible towards the NCR forces, bullets flying overhead as the Fiends tried their best to hit anything or anyone.

Fortunately for the former-ranger, most of their focus was still on Afton who'd already picked a couple people off with clean and decisive shots. Once Karl had gotten to safety Afton himself had started moving, mentally thanking the NCR troopers who had decided to apply suppressing fire to assist him.

Still, that didn't stop the Fiends from releasing their many mongrels. A small army of rabid-looking dogs had suddenly started sprinting towards him, snarling with foam, saliva, and blood pooling from their mouths. Clearly they had been injected with some chems to get them in fighting condition.

The NCR did their best to pick the dogs off, but a few were directly behind Afton, making it too dangerous to try and shoot them. Afton himself used VATS to check the situation behind him, grimacing slightly at how close a few of the dogs had gotten... He was faster than most humans that've ever existed, but he was still lacking when compared to creatures designed with speed in mind.

Stopping VATS and turning his head slightly as he ran, he shot a couple of the dogs that were chasing him, their flailing bodies were quickly trampled by the others though, making their numbers seem completely unaffected.

He tries to fire again but curses as he hears the familiar *click* indicating that it was out of ammo, holstering That Gun and drawing Lucky. Again, he unloads all of its ammunition at the dogs to prevent them from swarming him and tearing him apart, but their numbers just don't seem to decrease.

*Click!*

"Fuck!" he shouts as he holsters Lucky while continuing to run as fast as possible, that is, until some jaws lock around his ankle. He wrenches his foot forwards with his 10 Strength, snapping the dogs neck, but this action had slowed him enough to allow the slower ones to attack.

Not wasting any time, Afton draws his knife and strikes as hard and fast as his body would allow at the nearest dog leaping up at him to get its pound of flesh.

The other dogs didn't even seem to care when he literally beheaded the dog midair, in-fact, the smell of its blood seemed to excite the group more. Afton continues slashing away at the beasts trying to overrun him, his remaining arm looking like a blur as it acted like a lawnmower, killing anything that came close.

This continued until the Fiends eventually got bored of letting their dogs do the work, beginning to start firing on their own pets in an attempt to get Afton. This killed many more dogs than Afton had actually done, allowing him to start retreating again as the beasts were distracted by their allies gunfire.

Soon enough, he reached the NCR forces. He was slightly out of breath but more or less alright. The nearby soldiers gave him wary looks due to the blood covering him but he didn't let it bother him... Instead he made his way to Boone and Karl who were sitting next to each other behind a small makeshift wall made from scrap metal.

"Boone, you have no idea how happy I am to see you." he says with a huge grin.

Boone nods and tosses something at him, "Thought you two were dead, decided to reposition and wait to see if that was true... Knew you guys were some of the luckiest and unluckiest people I've ever met."

Afton looks down at the NCR radio Boone had just passed to him, he'd given it to the man before he and Karl had started sneaking into the Fiends base. So this was how he'd managed to acquire some NCR support. "Well, you know us. When it seems good it's bad, when it seems bad it's good. Sometimes I think the universe just hates us." he shrugs.

Karl slowly nods at that before scowling, "Boone, have you seen Nephi amongst the Fiend forces?" he asks, wanting to get some payback for those poor hostages that'd been obliterating on that man's orders.

Boone frowns slightly and takes another look into his scope, "I think he's down there... He knows that there are snipers around though, letting his own men take the damage while he attempts to control the battle."

Afton sends a smirk to Karl at this and takes a look at the Fiends, noticing that they were slowly advancing upon the position where he'd set his trap. A little longer and the could end this all in one go.

Honestly, he was thinking of asking Boone to set off his trap, but wondered if that would apply his Perks to it or not... Shaking his head, he'd just have to do it himself.

Afton struggles to get his Anti-Material rifle off of his back before sliding it atop the cover they were behind, using the makeshift wall as a stabiliser. He shifts its weight with his remaining hand and locks onto his trap, confirming that it was still there.

He disengages and looks around at the NCR forces for their captain, eventually finding a man wearing a green beret. "Excuse me, Captain-?" "Krajcik" "Captain Krajcik. I need you to have your men slowly retreat, I've set a trap for the Fiends but need them to advance closer to our position."

The man raises a brow, "What'd you think we were doing in the first place? There's no way we can fight off this many Fiends... What have you got planned Parker?" he says, clearly knowing who Afton was.

Afton smirks at him, "Oh, quite the light show, I assure you."

Captain Krajcik nods, "I'll trust you on this, let's hope whatever you've got doesn't doom us all." he says while ordering some of the front lines to start collapsing towards the backline, a tactic that would allow them to give suppressing fire for the units in the most danger.