Annihilation - 11 - Attacks from Sonya

She cut her gaze this way and that, her eyes trying to penetrate the gauzy fog, and was turning to investigate another hint of movement in the brush when an arm snaked around her throat from behind, roughly yanking her backward.

Gagging and sputtering, Sonya desperately grabbed hold of a tree limb above her head, leveraged herself off the ground, and backflipped up and over her attacked – an angular, exotic-looking woman with eyes like burning coals, and a body as tautly well-conditioned as her smile was vicious.

Sliding her hands between the woman’s limbs, Sonya landed and put her in a headlock, flipping her back into the mist, which poured around her in a churning brew, concealing her from sight.

There was a brief silence. Sonya and Jax exchanged alarmed, wary glances, tension humming between them like voltage.

Then, all at once, the mist in front of Jax coalesced into the shape of the first attacker, who struck out with a rapid succession of blows that snapped his head back like a speed bag. Jax reeled dazedly, bringing up his new arms for a retaliatory combination of punches – but his commands to them were still getting scrambled somewhere en route from his brain.

(...)

As Jax looked down at his mutinous fists with disgust, cursing them under his breath, the red-eyed woman cartwheeled through the mist and landed with her legs wrapped in a scissor-grip around Sonya’s neck. Screeching with delight, her powerful thigh muscles squeezing Sonya’s windpipe, she repeatedly boxed her ears with the heel of her hands.