Space Odyssey: Spectre-Chapter 430: Jace Versus Belphe

Chapter 430: Jace Versus Belphe
Jace surveyed the scene below as he looked over the edge. The demon woman was just staring at him for now. But he decided to check on the outpost while he was waiting. He saw most of the demons were dead. Only the heavily armored demon and three other demons were left. Corporal Quest had gotten his work in on snipping the rest of them.
"You do not fear me and leave yourself open. But why do I feel like I would die if I attempted to take advantage of one of those openings." The demon woman asked as she waved her hand and a black void of space appeared. She reached inside of it and pulled out a Halberd.
"A battle sense?" Jace walked away from the edge. Satisfied with the idea that his team could take care of the rest while he dealt with this troublesome demon. Jace looked them over and tensed his body, preparing to throw himself forward. The demon flinched and Jace stopped himself from jumping forward. "Nope. What is that? Foresight?"
He was able to figure out using his intentions and reaction according to her own reaction. Which was to flinch almost as if she was shocked by something. It could be something else but with the control over gravity she was already displaying he would not be surprised if it was something like that.
The demon woman growled in annoyance. "You are troublesome." She waved her hand again and the black void of space disappeared. "I will remove you from the board. It will be bad if we have to deal with both you and the personification of death from my visions."
Jace frowned as he brought hand to his thigh where his loaded Pyre was waiting in its holster. "What makes you think that I am that easy to take out?" Jace asked with a scoff and got a response in the form of an action.
The demon woman leaped forward. Twisting slightly as she prepared to attack with her halberd. Jace went to draw his sidearm when he felt gravity increase on him, an attempt to keep him in place and prevent him from moving. It would not bother him, but if he tried to shoot the bullet would just go downward.
Jace propelled himself forward catching the demon woman off guard as he materialized the longsword in his hand. She stopped mid leap and took a defensive stance as Jace slashed downward in a simple motion that contained an abnormal amount of power.
Boom!
His sword slammed into the shaft of her halberd and the demon woman flinched slightly as his sword grinded against the halberd shaft. She shifted her weight, forcing Jace to reposition as he was pushed back and took a stance with his longsword.
The gravity that was pushing down on him increased again as the demon woman focused on him again. But Jace adjusted his strength again as he prepared to go on the offense as the demon woman spun around and pointed the halberd toward him.
Jace moved forward, preparing a more complex strike as he stopped just out of the range of the halberd. He swung the longsword with enough horizontal motion that a line of wind cut through the air.
But as the demon woman clicked her tongue and swung her halberd down to block the attack. The line of wind burst into electricity that pulsed through the halberd and shocked the demon woman for a moment. Giving Jace an opening that he was expecting as dashed forward slamming the hilt of the sword into the demon woman.
She was able to tilt her head slightly as the hilt only skidded across the side of her mask and scratched one of her horns. But she was already dropping her halberd and reaching to grab Jace’s arms. He felt another pulse of gravity keep him in place for a moment.
But Jace let go of the longsword and dematerialized it as he materialized a knife in his hand. He grabbed one of her wrists with his free hand while his other one snaked forward with the knife to stab her in the chest. But her free hand grabbed his hand as she wrestled to turn the knife back on him.
"For a human, you are fairly strong. Stronger than any human that I have encountered before." The demon woman pointed out as he felt her grip tighten on his wrist and felt a slight pain. "Perhaps there is something to salvage from this galaxy aside from political sway to pad our records."
Jace tensed his arm as he moved the knife slightly toward her chest. "If that is what you think, you have not been paying close enough attention." Jace pointed out as his other hand twisted her hand to pull her off balance. "But I will say, your ability to control gravity is strange. Is that something unique to your race?"
"Unique to my race?" The demon woman lifted a foot up to kick him. Landing a solid kick in his side. He felt his insides rattle from the impact. He could tell that it would have turned a normal person into mist upon impact. "I suppose that means that ’mana’ or the unique energy is new to you or this galaxy. An even better reason to conquer this galaxy."
Jace dematerialized the knife from his hand and used the now free hand to grab her wrist. He then pulled her arm to the side, forcing her to get closer and quickly raised his knee. His knee slammed into her chest and he could hear her lose her breath for a moment as he spun his leg back for a moment before coming back in for another strike.
But as he brought his leg up. The demon woman jumped up and planted her legs on his knee. Pushing down in an effort to injure him. He let go of her wrists and she jumped back through the air. Landing gracefully several feet away from him.
Jace rubbed the wrist of the hand that she grabbed where a bruise was already forming. "Mana? I suppose I might know what you are talking about. But we call it by a different name in this galaxy."
"Oh? What would that be?" The demon woman asked as she twisted and turned her body like she was stretching.
"Spirit." Jace answered as he took a breath and channeled the energy that had been building from absorbing electricity in the air since the battle started.
The demon woman burst into laughter, "Spirit?!? Hahaha! Very well then." She then took a ready stance and got in a strange stance that looked like a martial arts stance. "Let’s test your spirit against my mana. See how well it does."
Jace watched as he saw a purple energy begin appearing around her fist. It was swirling like the portal and seemed to be getting pulled from the air itself. With his electrical vision he could see that the electricity in the air was getting dispersed. He then noticed that most of it went away and then came back around as he started absorbing it all.
Jace then leaped forward as a grin graced his face. A crackling of electricity covered his fist as he prepared to punch the demon woman. She jumped forward slightly before landing and taking a solid stance as she punched forward. Their fists met or almost met, but before impact he could feel a repelling force.
He frowned and looked at the demon woman and knew she was smirking as the power of her fist began sending him away. It only made sense, if she had control over gravity she could direct gravity in any direction. But as he felt the full impact of her gravity punch he made sure to transfer the electricity into the air as he was sent flying backwards.
Jace spun in the air and materialized his longsword. Stabbing it into the ground, cutting a clean line through the strange red material that the demons used to construct the original outpost. But he still felt the impact of the punch as spit out a glob of blood. His damaged organs were already repairing themself as straightened himself up.
The demon woman was in a similarly damaged state as the electricity that Jace had left behind was like several lighting strikes hitting her at once. She had smoke coming off her as she was pulling herself up off her knees. She looked over at him before walking over and grabbing her halberd.
Jace stood up and readied another stance with his longsword before jumping forward. The demon woman was already adjusting herself. Preparing to block the strike with her halberd again.
Jace stopped himself short and swung at the halberd, hitting it to the side. The demon woman was still holding it but he dashed closer to close the distance without the lethal part of the halberd getting in the way. She could have jumped back but opted to strengthen her stance as she prepared to block his blow again.
Jace’s sword swung down and slammed into the shaft of her halberd. But as the demon woman was preparing to push back she noticed something strange. There was not as much force in the strike. She looked at the hilt of his longsword and saw only one hand on it.
Before she could react, she saw the other hand held back slightly in a fist. It raced forward in a blur of movement that not even she could follow.
BOOOM!!!
In a dizzying moment for her she was pushed back a few feet as Jace stood there with his arm outstretched in a punching motion and his fist smoking with burns rapidly repairing. Jace smirked as he felt contact and knew the type of effect his punch would have.
The demon woman on the other hand was not as aware and despite being pushed back could not feel any pain. "Was that all you-
crack!
" She looked down quickly as an audible cracking noise spread out through the area. Jace watched as a spiderweb of cracks spread outward from the impact point of his fist after making contact.
Jace smirked as she looked back up at him. "Let’s keep going."
"Let’s not." The demon woman answered as she spun her halberd in her hand. "My name is Belphe of the Sloth Sins. That is my name and the species evolution I branched into." Belphe explained as she slammed the base of her halberd into the ground.
Jace could feel the structure shifting almost like it was following a command. He rested the longsword on his shoulder. "My name is Jace of the Spectres. No family name and Spectre is the species I evolved into from a human."
"Hmm... well met, Jace. We will meet again on the field of battle. But for now..." She trailed off as she looked back at the remaining three demons that were left from the outpost. The rest had died. "I will have to retreat with what remains of the demons that had manned this outpost." She waved a hand and a swirl of purple energy appeared in the air as a portal appeared. She then waved at the remaining demons and they went through. She walked backwards into the portal. "Next time we meet, we will be on a battlefield where rivers of blood will flow freely from both sides."
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[General Information
Name: Jace Steel
Chronological Age: 18
Compatibility Rating: S
Spouse: Salem Wintry
Bound: Shilla Aphri
Lineage: Electricity Warlock
Bound Items: Ritual Sword, Gladius, Longsword
Talent/Ability Understanding: 86%
Evolution Stage: 0% Human, 70% Spectre, 30% [Redacted]
{Sealed}: {Locked}
Physique: 19%
Mind: 25%
Spirit: 7%
Soul: 15%]
[Astral Beast Companion
Name: Cho
Age: 1
Imprinted on: Jace Steel, Salem Wintry, and Jordan]