I can't dodge from this range---

All I can manage in the scant moments before the fist's impact is to yank my sword free from the blighted thing's body and try to use it as a brace to avoid as much damage as I can. If I become too injured, I can't assist in completing our mission, after all. It's the only thing that I can do.

I don't feel anything much, immediately. But I see the world twisting and running together around me, rushing past as the blow takes me off my feet. Then I ca register it.

The throbbing sensation shooting up through my whole body, assaulting my nerve endings.

The impact explodes through my back.

All the air leaves my lungs as I hit the ground, and my vision turns white for a few moments.

---Can I stand? Can I move? Before anything else, these questions play in my head.

If I can, then that means I can still help. Any other sensations, any pain, is secondary.

The Behemoth has refused to let go of life quietly and is seeking to take us with it, after all.

So I need to move. I need to force myself back onto my feet.

I can tell what's happening easily enough. I don't even need to listen properly.

I can move my right arm, and since that's holding my katana, that means I can still be of use.

I'll pour as much power as I have left into the blade, and release it. That should help with the countermeasure to the falling star over our heads.

I know I'm unsteady. I know that every motion is I make is punctuated by shaking. I'm certainly in no shape for more conventional fighting, even if I'm not sure how much injury I've actually sustained. But that doesn't matter.

I can do this much.

I raise my sword skyward---