53 – The GOAT

Just like the first time, the goat began the battle by reducing gravity. Unlike the first time, Jonny was ready. He had gotten out of practice since dying, and had gotten so used to needing to cover larger distances that he got lax on his fundamentals. Instead of running toward the goat, he just maintained his stance, shuffling forward and keeping both feet on the ground, fully supporting his body weight. When gravity decreased, he floated for a moment, but remained upright, and when it increased gravity to try and slam him downward, he landed firmly on his feet.

The gravity started moderately intense, and as the goat lowered its head, the mana in its horns flared again, and gravity got even more intense. Jonny did not counter by reducing his own weight. It would have relieved the pressure, but he was withstanding this much just fine, for now, and he knew what would happen if he lightened himself too much. The goat would flip the gravity, and he would practically launch upward, putting himself at its mercy while it waited for him to land.

When the goat charged, it gravity stayed heavy, so Jonny merely enhanced his body as he slid to the side and out of its way. It tried to kick him again, just like the last time, but he was ready, leaning to the side and letting the hooves hit empty air. He immediately stepped forward, throwing a low roundhouse kick to its back leg before it could turn around. His kick landed, but the goat must have seen what he was doing, because just before it did, gravity flipped, and the impact made his planted foot lose purchase.

The kick didn’t do nothing, but the force of it moved Jonny more than it moved the goat, and he barely managed to keep his balance when the goat made him heavier again. He grimaced and reoriented himself as the goat did the same, ready to charge a second time.

He hadn’t been able to kick at full strength, but that was probably for the best. Even weakened as the strike was, it felt only marginally better than kicking a steel pole. The goat might not have been specialized in brute strength and physicality, but it was still a third layer magic beast, and Jonny was only first layer. He was more likely to break his leg than its leg if he actually landed a kick at full force.

Damn, he thought. I was looking forward to being able to hit something.

The goat charged again, lightening gravity as soon as it burst forward. Jonny was ready for it, and slid to the side, just like before. Since he wasn’t pushing himself off the ground, the low gravity actually made him faster, briefly, but it also made it harder to stop. The same went for the goat too, though, so it reverted gravity a moment later, and as soon as it did, Jonny shot toward it.

It had not finished turning around when he reached its side and climbed up. It increased gravity, causing him to fail his first attempt at climbing, but Jonny just lightened himself, and jumped up again. His lightening was not instant, nor was it strong enough to fully counteract the goat’s gravity, but it was more than enough for his muscles to make up the difference.

He leapt onto its back, straddling its spine and wrapping his arms around its neck. The goat’s neck was thicker than the deer’s, but not quite so thick that he couldn’t get his arm around it. He got into position and started to squeeze, and felt a slight pang of disappointment. The goat had seemed so fearsome the first time, but this time, it was so easy.

Then, the goat proved once again why it had survived so long despite being alone at a mana well. It was not stupid, and while Jonny doubted it had ever had a human on its back trying to choke it out, it responded almost perfectly anyways.

It tried to buck him off, even reducing gravity to try to make him fly upward, but Jonny held on. Almost immediately, it realized that wouldn’t work, so instead it ran over toward one of the two remaining stone pillars, balancing on its front legs as it swung its torso around to slam into the pillar and crush Jonny’s leg. Jonny shifted his weight to the opposite side, raising his leg out of the danger zone, and when the goat slammed into the pillar, it only hurt itself. Before Jonny could get back in position, though, the mana in its horns flared, and gravity increased so much the he nearly slid all the way off.

Suddenly, he was no longer on the goat’s back. He had managed to keep his arms around the neck, but he was now hanging off it from the front, and was not applying pressure to its throat or arteries at all. Keeping one arm in place around the back of its neck, he tried to use the other to apply pressure to its throat, but the goat’s mana flared again, and gravity increased by so much that even while lightening himself, Jonny simply could not apply enough upward pressure to do much.

The goat was just as immobile as he was, but it was also just standing there, while Jonny was burning through energy trying to hold his position. And if he fell off, he’d be directly underfoot, which was not ideal. It was smart enough to realize this, so while he tried and failed to choke it, it just stood there, waiting for him to fall.

Damn bastard, he mentally cursed.

His arm was burning from holding his body weight up under the enhanced gravity, and he knew that he was just going to gas himself if he tried to hold it. He let himself fall, landing hard on the ground below. The very millisecond he released his hold on the goat’s neck, it reduced gravity just enough that it could move more freely, and reared up on its hind legs above him. Jonny backstepped away, escaping its range before it could come crashing down, and then backing away a little further. The goat glared at him, but for the first time since Jonny first encountered it, it didn’t seem sure what to do.

Jonny wasn’t really doing a whole lot better, though. The goat was strong and skilled, but it had a very limited bag of tricks. It could make everything heavier, it could make everything lighter, it could ram with its horns, it could kick with its back legs, and it could try to kick or stomp with its front legs. It could probably bite too, but it had yet to try, though that might have just been lack of opportunity.

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Either way, while it was powerful, Jonny could easily work around it at this point. It was bound by its own gravity magic, which made it predictable, and it was a quadruped, so it was much slower to turn than he was. The issue was that it was durable, to the point that Jonny couldn’t do serious damage with his strikes, and it was smart enough not to let him choke it out.

The easiest answer was the knife. If he just got on its back again, the knife would be more than enough to kill it. But now that he knew it couldn’t really hurt him anymore, he was disinclined to do that. It was the easy way out, and he wouldn’t be able to rely on weapons like that in the long run. If he started to run low on mana, he would do it anyway, because he needed to save Igrette, but whether he killed it in ten seconds with the knife, or two minutes with his body, it wouldn’t make much of a difference, and he wanted to see if he could overcome this on his own.

He needed to take out its mobility. If he did that, it wouldn’t be able to stop him from choking it out. Getting it to the ground probably wasn’t an option. This wasn’t like the fight against the wolverine, where his opponent was small and light enough that he could force it to the ground. The goat wasn’t enormous, but it still likely outweighed him by a couple hundred pounds, and the fact that it could just make itself heavier at will meant he doubt he’d be knocking it over.

That meant that if he wanted to slow it down, he needed to take its joints out while it stood, and that most likely meant kicking its knees. Its bones were stronger than his, but he was pretty sure that a good, solid front kick to its knee joint under high gravity would be enough to mess up some tendons. The issue was getting into position while the goat had high gravity mode on.

While he pondered his dilemma, the goat tried three more charges, mixing up its gravity use slightly and trying to catch Jonny off guard. It failed each time, because regardless of how it varied its magic, it was still beholden to its own ability. It needed higher gravity to start and stop its charges, and it couldn’t move under high or low gravity any better than Jonny could. Sure, it was more experienced with it, but that advantage was lost in the fact that Jonny was simply inherently more mobile.

Jonny tried to kick at its joints on all three charges, but every time, even if he actually landed the kick, the goat would simply reduce gravity so much that Jonny either tipped over, or slid back. It probably wasn’t comfortable for the goat to get kicked in the knee like that, but it also wasn’t doing any visible damage.

Jonny frowned as he recovered from yet another failed attempt, and got ready to dodge the next charge. It seemed like an impossible dilemma. It couldn’t do anything to him, but it also had answers for everything he tried to do to it. He needed to somehow get it to maintain its high gravity while he got close enough to kick, but it wasn’t stupid enough to do that.