The street shook as the massive goblin bound forward, where he scraped the paint off a row of houses while he dragged his bat to the side and reared it back to take a wide swipe at us. Maintaining my focus, I readied to shield me and the Lyka with another counter-shockwave, but I decided to try something different. Using my roach vessel, still sitting on the young woman's shoulder, I spotted a flat area on an adjacent building down the street. Focusing, I thought about being up there, attempting to use my mind's eye to obtain a clairvoyant view of the top of that roof.
Letting a blast of kernel energy surge out of me, Lyka yet out a surprised yelp as we were suddenly on top of that roof in an instant, with our backs now turned to the street below. I felt "winded" but nowhere near as exhausted as I did when I'd teleported us to Carverstead.
"Wow, I knew you could do this, Master!" Lyka exclaimed as she watched Gogrin's swing hit only the empty street, where he stumbled forward in confusion while those on the ground also looked around upon noticing us vanish.
"Yeah, thanks to your confidence," I thought to her telepathically as she held me up. "Thing is, I'm not sure what to do next. Everything I've done so far has been defensive, I'm not sure how to just attack."
"You can do it, I have the utmost faith in you," she smiled as to my shock, she reared her arm back with me in her hand. "I'll just throw you at him and you can figure it out from there."
"W-wait, Lyka, no!" I stammered as I could tell she was serious. "Just give me a second, I think—
Too late. The young woman whipped me as hard as she could towards the hobgoblin, turning my corn body into a yellow boomerang as it spun in midair on its course. Suppressing panic as I had mere seconds to think of something, I again disconnected from my cockroach puppet and focused on trying to stop.
I could sense Gogrin's energy rapidly getting closer, giving me a rudimentary way of gauging where I was over the street. I wasn't sure if I could do, but like everything I'd done that far, I had to believe that I could and try.
"STOP. STOP. STOP. STOP," I kept thinking, but nothing happened. Struggling, I thought deeper, not aware that time almost seemed to be slowing down. That's the thing about time. Once you become unaware of its presence, you're freed from the shackles of waiting. I sat on that corn stalk for months upon being reborn into this new world, and time eventually ceased to be a worry for me. Remembering this period of my life as a corncob, I sought to return to that feeling of timelessness.
I ordered time to stop.
Not for everyone else or the world at large, but just for me. Closing in on the hulking goblin's body, I suddenly sensed its aura become stationary. Well not him, but me. Frozen in midair, which was surely a strange sight to the onlookers, my corncob hovered about 15 feet off the ground, unmoving. I instinctively expelled more kernels, and that's when something unexpected happened. I could see!
"Demon! The demon rises!" Soundov yelled, clutching his nearby guards. "Where did Lyka go? What did you do, you vile spirit!?"
I was treated to the bizarre spectacle of a panoramic view of the entire street. I could see everything at every angle, and I could hear everything too. Still disconnected from the roach, I was no longer seeing or hearing from the insect's eyes. It's as if my entire corn body had become an "eye", and I could see everything at once. It was like an upgrade of my "scan" ability. Focusing on Gogrin, who now stared at the floating vegetable in confusion, I could make out a faint red wall around me. Not a wall, but a sphere. 3 feet in diameter all around, I wondered if this was my own kernel energy that I was seeing.
"WHAT IS THIS?" the hobgoblin asked he clumsily reached forward to attempt to touch my yellowy form.
Seeing his approaching hand, I focused on attacking the hulking creature. I suddenly became aware of a straining feeling, like when you're flexing a muscle when carrying something heavy. Whatever I'd done to stop and activate these senses was clearly draining me, and I wasn't sure how long I'd be able to hold the position for. Returning to my focus on attack, I thought deeply about punching the giant square in the face. To land a hit right there on the top of his ugly grey temple.
In the blink of an eye, the street shook as Gogrin groaned and clutched the bridge of his nose while taking a step back. Increasing the strain that I was feeling, I willed myself to keep hitting. Grunting and gasping in confusion, the hobgoblin was caught off guard as something huge and invisible seemed to be striking him in the chest, then the belly, and then the shoulder. The mayor and his spectators were amazed as something unseen looked to be attacking Gogrin, but looking ahead from my perspective, I saw what it was.
That red kernel sphere that had surrounded me was rapidly extending and striking the monster like an appendage made of energy, operating at my command as I willed it to beat on the hobgoblin over and over again. Blinking as he attempted to spot his unseen assailant, Gogrin blindly swung his makeshift club in random directions, but I responded with two more hits to his face. Amazed as spit flew from the creature's drooling mouth after the blow, I was operating on instinct alone at this point, focused and hell-bent on defeating the giant.
"WHO ATTACKS GOGRIN!?" the hobgoblin demanded as another strike hit him square in the chest, where he swung his bat into a nearby house in response. "SHOW YOURSELF!"
My attacks were hurting him, but not doing anything serious enough to knock him out of the fight. Hovering there in my corncob body, I struck the towering monster in the face again with my kernel energy, but this time I "held" on. My energy appendage gripping the bearded goblin's face, I got a brilliant idea. Focusing again, I thought hard and deep, trying to emulate the shockwave that I produced earlier but localized to Gogrin's face. Nearby windows shook as a tornado of air swirled down the streets and the sphere surrounding me expanded slightly. Then I let loose.
An explosion of force erupted right against the hobgoblin, creating a splash of blood and sending him flying several dozen feet in the air, skipping and slamming into several buildings roofs before crash landing somewhere unseen with a burst of dust and debris. The whole town seemed to shake, where the tree trunk that the creature was using for a bat fell motionless onto the road, split in half.
The spectators looked like they were in awe, with Mayor Soundov in particular stepping forward in shock. I felt like I'd just lifted far more weight than I was capable of, however, and again slipped into that sleep-like state. The last thing I recalled hearing was Lyka's distant cheering, before my newly acquired senses fizzled out.