Recovery Arm

Jake tried to pounce on the man’s back. If he could get the guy in a sleeper hold, this fight would be over in a hurry. The man kept moving, though, and avoided Jake’s dive. This time the kick he pistoned out landed on Jake’s upper left arm and twisted him around. That arm went numb for a moment and hung uselessly from his shoulder, so he couldn’t use it to block the blow when the man clubbed both hands together and swung them with stunning force at Jake’s head.

The two-handed blow caught him above the left ear and stretched him out. It was a good thing his skull was so thick, he thought vaguely as he tried to recover. Before he could do so, the man landed on him and dug a knee into his belly. That didn’t do any damage to the slabs of muscle there, but it did force the air from Jake’s lungs and disorient him a little more.

He got his right hand up, planted it on the man’s face. The hand slid because of the hood. Jake dug his fingers into it and ripped upward. The hood came off.

The shadows in the plaza were so thick Jake still couldn’t see his enemy’s face, but he could feel the guy’s hot breath panting on him now. He threw the hood aside, grabbed the man’s hair at the back of his head, and jackknifed his body in the middle so he could head-butt the guy in the face. Cartilage crunched and blood spurted as the man’s nose flattened under the impact.

That stunned him enough for Jake to grab his shoulders and fling him aside. Both of Jake’s arms were working well enough now that he was able to grab the man’s right leg and lever it up until something gave with a sharp snap. The man let out a thin shriek of agony that Jake choked off with a hand around his throat.

Jake hovered over him and increased the pressure. The man was in too much pain from his broken or dislocated hip to fight back anymore, but the lack of air and the desperate need to breathe made him spasm ineffectively.

- Chapter 6