Why does my vet hit with the flat of the shovel?

Why does my vet hit with the flat of the shovel?

There are armies in the world who can’t afford bayonets, or for some other reason trained with an entrenching tool as a weapon. Might not still be a thing, for a time it was.

The ones who did however, used it as a budget axe. IT was something they needed to carry to dig foxholes, had them already, might as well come up with a few martial arts moves. That kind of thing.

But still, when you hit someone with anything, you want to hit with the narrow if you want to hurt them. I don’t think I’m trying to concuss a mauler and take him prisoner.

This animation is weird. What gives?

(BTW, this is #2 heavy, #1 was hard to screenshot, and the lights seem to use the edge and there’s also a flip in one of the patterns for seemingly no reason.

I assumed for weapon diversity. Using the flat of the shovel gives the Vet a club like weapon with stronger stagger and crowd control rather than giving them another axe.