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~~((Thanksgiving Special - page 9 of 30))~~
The Man of Crows was on the ropes, Hector felt. But he also remembered what terrible shape the Sunsmith's armor was in. That was probably why Abbas was resorting to such a straightforward beat down now. His technological arsenal was limited.

Hector couldn't get too comfortable, he knew. Even as he saw the flock of crows chasing him slow down and begin to disperse, even as they stopped spitting deadly attacks in his direction, he was reluctant to conclude that the battle was already won.

He did, however, allow himself to reach the apex of an arc and land on a hovering iron platform. It was still wobbling and moving with his momentum, but the footing was mostly stable. And after all that, he didn't feel too disoriented. He'd expected a lot worse, quite frankly.

He took a moment to reassess the situation. None of the boxed crows had broken out yet, as far as he could tell, so he started collecting them and boxing up more.

It might have been a needless effort, though.

Abbas was still going hard. No doubt, the crows were losing their potency because of how badly he was slapping the shit out of their master. It seemed like every hit was landing now, drawing more and more blood, with only the occasional glancing blow being returned.

At this point, Hector couldn't even picture how he might assist in such a fight. A ranged attack would risk hitting Abbas, and trying to help up close would probably just earn himself a flying roundhouse kick to the face or something. Either that, or Abbas would have to start pulling his punches, and Hector certainly didn't want that.

Hector was watching in morbid awe. One of Abbas' metal boots caught the crow guy in the side, folding the man's body in half--and not in the normal direction. Abbas was trying to grab his head, seemingly--probably to rip it off his shoulders--but the guy was barely managing to wriggle away.

Honestly, the fact that the crow guy wasn't dead yet was kind of impressive in its own way. Abbas was moving like a man possessed.