Arcane Exfil

The creature’s glove clamped down on Cole’s forearm, crushing it with the force of what was damn near an industrial press. His strengthening magic was the only thing keeping his arm intact, but that was a stopgap at best against this kind of force.

He poured more mana into his arm, trying to reinforce the strengthening effect. The pain was tough to think through – white-hot pulses shooting up into his shoulder and down into fingers, which were starting to go numb.

He spawned a barrier around the trapped limb in the same moment, trying to reinforce whatever structural integrity he had left. But even with both magical defenses, the relentless bastard’s grip yet threatened to pulverize everything underneath.

With his arm holding together – barely – he tried to bring up his AK. If he could just spray into this thing’s face, the pressure might let up long enough to break free. The barrel started to rise, but the monster’s other hand shot out faster than he could track, grabbing the handguard and yanking. His entire upper body lurched forward.

In the same instant, it cocked its leg back. Shit. Cole diverted some mana into his stomach and chest, spawning a barrier just as its boot landed on him.

For a split second the pressure built like a garrote, rising almost instantly before the sling gave out with a sharp snap.

His shoulder exploded in agony as the joint absorbed the full force of his body going one way while his arm stayed anchored. Something tore deep inside – felt like he was literally getting disarmed as if this were a fucking Mortal Kombat fatality.

The rifle went flying somewhere behind the false knight, but he could hardly register that through the pain racing across the entirety of his left arm and torso.

Then metal scraped as the creature’s sword cleared its sheath.