Liam felt his heart race beneath his rib cage. The distance between him and the hobgoblin growing smaller and smaller.
The beast was still struggling to free its axe but the blade of its head was already halfway free. Soon it would be free to use its axe once again.
Liam approached the creature's back and when the distance was less than three meters, he aimed and fired.
Bang!
The gun roared and a bullet ripped a wound in the creature's back. It looked like a small puncture wound to be honest, as though the bullet hadn't gone deep enough and maybe it didn't — there wasn't even an ounce of blood leaking.
The hobgoblin paused, then slowly looked over its shoulder. Its eyes locking onto him.
Dread.
That was all Liam felt in that moment. The slit yellow eyes of the goblin felt as if they were peering into the very depths of his soul. Drenching it in an ocean so cold his body shivered. Every cell in his body screamed at him to turn around and run without looking back. Cold sweat fell down his back.
Liam really would have liked nothing more than to turn tail and run but hadn't he already crossed this bridge? Hadn't he already started this fight?
There was no way the hobgoblin would let him run scot-free after what he just did. So…
Bang!
He fired again. And then again and again.
ROAR!
After suffering under the constant barrage of bullets the hobgoblin let out a vicious roar that pulled on the Aether and an outward force suddenly exploded.
It hit Liam and it felt like a wall had crashed into him. He was sent flying a small distance before his body hit the ground. He coughed, the air having been knocked out of his lungs. He felt sore and abused — whatever that force was, it was painful.
Slowly he stood, legs feeling as though they would collapse from under him. His hands were empty, somewhere along the way he had lost the gun. He looked forward, his heart palpitating.
The force wave had actually thrown him 5 meters in the opposite direction from where Norse had retreated with the little girl. And even from that distance Liam could feel the tense muscles in the hobgoblin's arms flex and with a final pull the large axe was ripped from the ground.
With the axe free, it turned to look at him. Its gaze filled with anger.
Liam's bombardment had riddled the hobgoblin's back with bullet holes that bled quite slowly. They also left holes in the monster's legs and one of its arms. Purple blood covered most of its body. The monster took a step and its figure seemed to get bigger and more menacing.
The fear that clogged Liam's throat made what he felt before nothing more than child's play. However this time Liam didn't freeze — the moment the hobgoblin took another step he turned around and ran.
At this point it was all he could do but unlike before he was completely and utterly drained. He didn't run as fast as he had before, there was a limit to what adrenaline could do after all. He put his everything into going forward and never looked back.
Even when the ground trembled with what should have been the hobgoblin's steps he didn't look back.
'Move forward. Don't think of anything else, just keep moving_' Liam's eyes widened when a large shadow appeared to his left from thin air. Time seemed to stop in that moment, he turned his head to the side and his heart dropped.
Liam had thought that he would at least have a chance if he ran but…
A sneer formed on the hobgoblin's lips — it had appeared beside him as though by magic…no, it wasn't magic, it was simply the sheer difference in physicality. The monster was simply too fast and in its eyes Liam's pathetic excuse for a run was nothing more than a snail's crawl.
Liam could hardly react when its leg extended like a whip as it kicked him. Its leg crashed into his side covering his entire upper arm and side.
His body bent like a bow, bones shattering on impact. Blood jetted from his lips before he was blasted to the side, his body crashing into a brick wall that cracked on impact.
'What…' his thoughts failed to catch up as he looked at his body lying on the ground. His back leaning into the wall, cracked and covered in his blood, his legs sprawled out before him and his entire left side bloodied and broken. He didn't even feel the pain in that moment — his head just felt fuzzy as though there was a disconnect in his brain for a moment.
Blood fell from his head, mouth and nose, staining the ground below.
The hobgoblin lowered its leg, looking at his unmoving form. It wasn't in a hurry at all and why would it be. In its eyes Liam was all but finished. It stepped forward.
Liam's vision faded in and out of focus. And every time his vision focused the silhouette of the hobgoblin appeared larger and larger.
Soon it filled up his entire vision. He blinked, looking up to meet those feral eyes and it was then that his thoughts seemed to finally catch up.
'Is…this it?'
Indeed it seemed that was the case…
But fate...
Fate can be the strangest of things and with its machinations even the most unlikely of events can occur. And that very same fate had other plans…
Space was suddenly shattered…no, it was completely sundered by a smoldering heat and a massive presence descended upon Liam and the hobgoblin. No, it wasn't just them. The presence covered the entire city.