Jarr had been trying to lure Jason into a trap. Now frustrated at his failure Jarr swings the club wildly. Jason takes the smart approach and stays out of the spiked clubs way. The fight continues on with this stalemate for a while longer, Jarr unable to connect and Jason unable to counter. Then it happens, Jarr swings the club so fiercely he almost loses grip of it. Jason takes this opening and jumps in. While the stone plates cover the demi-cyclops well enough, it shares the same weakness all plate does. It leaves the armpit open to allow movement and Jason goes straight for it. His back arm swings up and around with such force his back leg slides around as well. A fierce upper cut with a dose of blast punch slams right up into the weak point. He can hear a loud pop as Jarr’s shoulder dislocates and the club sent flying off into the distance.

Jason retreats as Jarr goes into a frenzy from pain. The right arm now hangs down at his side but not for long. Jarr goes to his knees and slaps the ground with his good hand. With a flash of his tattoos a pillar rockets out of the ground and slams into the dislocated shoulder. Another pop, this time with the sound of bones grinding together and it is back in place. Jarr swings his right arm around but the movement is a lot rougher than before. Still enough to be a threat though as he rushes forward going for a tackle. Jason tries to dodge to the side but Jarr’s arms are deceptively long for his body and it catches Jason.

-3

They both slam into the ground hard. Jason tries to break the grapple but Jarr just squeezed tighter.

-1

Unable to breathe now Jason panics. He wiggles back and forth under Jarr. then as the demi-cyclops tries to bite him he goes for a headbutt.

-2

It connects with Jarr’s mouth and knocks a couple teeth out. This shock loosens his grip on Jason who takes advantage of the chance to get an arm out. With his arm now free Jason goes for a cyclops’ obvious weakness. He grabs Jarr’s head with his hand and gouges the singular eye with a thrust of his thumb. Jarr releases him only to slam Jason in the chest with a punch as he scrabbles back.

-11

The blow knocks the wind out of Jason but gives him the chance to stand up. Jarr is a distance away crying tears of blood. The injury isn’t enough to blind him for good but Jason has enough time to get his breathing under control before the fight restarts. Once Jarr gets his sight back, he roars and his tattoos glow once again. The armor plate on his chest thins a little as a helmet forms over his head. Jason notices this time though that the glow was dimmer than previously. Whatever power Jarr has been using is running out.

Not to let this chance go Jason circles around the enraged demi-cyclops while he approaches. Jarr spins in place to keep a line of sight with him then lashes out. Jason reverses the direction he was circling and jumps in. Jarr takes a moment to reorient himself but this is enough to let a punch through. This is just too much for him and all remnants of sentience flee his mind. Jarr screams out his rage with the ending of it being that of a wounded animal instead of a thinking creature. He drops onto his knuckles as his tattoos glow one final time and his very body changes. Whatever else happens Jarr has now lost his chance of advancing. His body warps with his arms elongating, the spine curving, and his legs shortening. The last of the glow fades away and with it the tattoos. Jarr now looks like a shaved great ape more than anything else. Even the plate armor has changed and melded into its flesh, now looking more like strange bone spurs. Its knuckles dig into the soil as it throws itself at a shocked Jason.

This knocks Jason out of his daze and he can barely dodge out of the way in time. However Jarr doesn’t stop and with its now massive fingers gouges out the ground and tosses itself at him over and over. Each dodge is closer and Jason is breathing hard from the exertion. With no other option it forces him to attack before he runs out of stamina. Jarr is in the air going for him once again when he strikes. A short jump back and Jason makes enough space for a knee to the jaw. More of Jarr’s teeth fly out of his mouth. These though are jagged and malformed. Regular goblins aren’t known for their straight teeth but this is way beyond normal. Even though he doesn’t have the time Jason still takes a moment to wonder if Jarr could even survive if it has mutated his whole body like this. Then a wide swing from Jarr brings him back to the fight. Jason dodges back then steps in with a cross punch to the ribs.

-1

The stone plate hurts his hand but at the same time shatters. When Jarr had made the helmet it had thinned out the sides of the plate too much. More howls of pain come from Jarr but Jason now has a target. After he dodges a couple more swings, he gets another shot at the ribs. This blast punch shatters the plate even more and blood is oozing out from between the cracks.

With victory in sight Jason becomes even more cautious. He lets Jarr swing wildly as much as it wants. While the transformation seems to have increased its stamina, he knows it won’t last forever. Jason just has to stand back and take his shots when safe. Each punch damaging the mad monster. Jarr no longer roars but is instead coughing up blood and each swing takes it longer to recover from.

It drops onto all fours and can barely swat at Jason with one claw. With a close dodge Jason gets right in and blasts one final uppercut right into its chest. A flash of light from his blast punch and the entire chest plate shatters with bloody chunks dropping away. However Jarr with its final breath lunges at Jason who is has gotten right in its personal space.

-17

Jason crashes down backwards and is trapped under the now dead Jarr. System message after System message are popping up and chimes are going off non-stop. However they will have to wait as Jason is unable to stay conscious. The last thought that goes through his mind as blackness overtakes him is thanks that nothing else is around to kill him after such a hard fight.

Lily is now alone with Jason unconscious. She can only sit there and worry as she observes him. A red three is flashing over his head.

-1

Then a couple minutes later it falls down and becomes a blood red two. However after a couple more minutes the strange monster on top of her master despawns and the number stops flashing. She sighs in relief as while she doesn’t understand what it really means the flashing worried her. With nothing else pressing to deal with she snuggles into the soft bedding and falls asleep, hoping Jason would wake up soon.

Akhier

Thank you for reading! Next two chapters free on my Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/dragonheartednovels ), five chapters beyond that for only a dollar, and many more for five dollars (two chapters release a week at this tier).