Jace slid to a stop beside the unconscious Adea. He couldn't let any harm reach her.
His left arm, hurting as badly as it was, he stood.
He made as much space as he could make from his lying precious, coming to stand in front of the wrecked cafe door.
The female green gladiator turned to face him. Zzareck out cold.
The hate was still there as she brought her thumb to her neck, eyes firmly in his, and drew from left to right.
"The feeling is mutual," Jace answered as he balled his fists up in defiance.
[Suppressing Physiological Excitation]...halo announced as the pain in his left arm became a lot more bearable.
Krick…A sharp ting resounded as the Hobogoblin threw aside its broken club and charged forward.
[Cycle 3:1]
With the world in slo-mo, Jace easily read the movement of her fist and responded before she could fully initiate.
He sidestepped the first, bent down to avoid the second.
[Cycle Exhausted | Runtime: 3 Secs ]...Halo blared as he stood, but the Hobogoblin didn't have a cycle to exhaust.
Another fist was fast approaching.
[Cycle 3:1]...A new cycle was activated a second after the first was exhausted, a bit too late though.
Jace had avoided the first two by reading the move and responding before initiation.
This time, he could only watch in cinematic flair as the fist rapidly approached his chest, while his body was still just beginning to respond to his instruction.
Boom…Jace felt a quake hit the entirety of his being as he shot backward like a doll on a string.
His flight ended with him shattering a familiar wooden table.
"Ahh!" Jace gasped as he hit the floor, lying over the table he just wrecked.
[Cycle Exhausted | Bio Energy Remaining: 19%]
[Suppressing Physiological Excitation]...Halo displayed as the pain assaulting the entirety of his being became a bit more bearable.
The Hobogoblin was striding towards him to finish up its deed.
"*uck!!!!" Jace screamed with rage at the hopelessness of the situation, before his eyes landed on a familiar steel.
Purity lay beside him in all her glory, reunited to him in this terrible circumstance, after he had stabbed it into the table in a show of dominance to the Chef, under the succubus's influence.
He gripped the steel blade and stood.
His eyes staring back into that of the silent Hobogoblin. Defiant.
"Come get some!" he barked.
The gladiator replied with a dash forward.
[Cycle 3:1]
He honed his attention on her movement, inching his body to tilt to the side out of her dash.
Mid-dash, she paused.
Wait a minute, Jace gasped mentally as he honed his attention on her movement. Left knee flexed a little as her right foot left the floor.
A forward kick in the direction he was tilting to, he ceased the movement, changed the instruction to a dash the other way.
Dum, A deep vibration resounded as the hobogoblins' feet struck the wall in such violence, it lodged into it.
[Cycle Exhausted | Bio Energy Remaining: 16%]
Jace was already acting before the cycle even ended, his right hand held Purity in reverse grip as he stabbed down on the leg lodged into the wall.
His strike didn't land as expected.
It got stuck in a kind of force field, inches away from the hobogoblin's leg.
The curse, he didn't waste time appreciating it.
He added more strength to his stab, but the dagger barely budged a little.
The hobogoblin caught on his movement, it began to pull its leg backward as quickly as it could.
Not quick enough, though.
"AAHH!!" Jace screamed as he pushed on the dagger with both hands, it dug deeper, the resistance mounted…until the instant it reached its max.
It all happened in an instant after that…With a pop, the resistance disappeared, his dagger shot into the hobogoblin's thigh, piercing deeply into flesh with all the built-up pressure.
Jace noticed the feminine gladiator scream at the edge of his vision, but no sound reached him, though. The force field suppressed.
He pulled out his dagger and made to stab again, but the forcefield reappeared, he mounted pressure, before he could break through though…the hobogoblin pulled its lodged leg away.
"How do you like that?" Jace asked the hobogoblin, before his eyes darted towards the outside of the cafe, where the goblins were putting his daughter into their truck.
"Damn!" he cursed as he noticed the handgun Zzareck had given him earlier lying on the floor, a few inches from him.
He hadn't used it since he last reloaded; it would do.
[Cycle 3:1]...Halo flashed just as his hands touched the gun.
He searched for the possible threat…the hobogoblin.
It was back up and was limp-dashing towards him with an even more uglier expression on its face.
He couldn't do much with the position he was in; the only thing he could do was line up a shot and unload as many cartridges as he could to slow her down.
He could only unload two shots into the rapidly approaching gladiator before she rammed her feet into him.
[Cycle Exhausted | Bio Energy Remaining: 13%]...Halo announced as his being struck the wall.
[Cycle 3:1]...Halo activated once again a second later.
His mind was still reeling with pain, but he did his best to compartmentalize the pain and focus on the rapidly approaching attacker.
It made no difference.
Before he could even process shit, another kick reached his abdomen, and then she was on top of him.
Her weight pressing on his lungs.
[Cycle Exhausted…Halo announced. A second later [Cycle 3:1] it reactivated, but it made no difference.
He fired at the gladiator like hobogoblin in slowed time, but it made no difference; he couldn't move away, he was pinned under her.
Her blows landed heavily and painfully on his face, time after time.
He tried to claw at her, but that same force repelled him.
The blows didn't stop.
[#@@kk❌UHHnoij((0#^^‼️]
There was no time to think, analyze, or process what was happening; all Jace knew in the moment was pain.
"Adea," he muttered as his mind slipped into the endless dark, his mouth red with his blood, his face unrecognisable…Halo glitching.