There was still a little corner of Juno's mind that panicked with disbelief when something like this happened. Since her blood had awakened, she'd fought more than one terror from beyond...some more successfully than others...but she hadn't quite gotten used to it. The confidence she projected was still partially swagger.
But she'd learned, fast. Most critters from the nightside had one big exploitable weakness, and that was overconfidence. With her it usually lasted exactly one punch. So she tried to make that one punch count.
Heat flowed out from her heart through her veins like molten gold; a faint echo of the legacy of the warrior-kings of old. Her gift was still young within her. Even so, her uncle had helped focus it in conjunction with her athletic pursuits. It was very much a power of the body.
Even with her head still ringing a bit from the blow, Juno moved with the precision of long practice, shoving the ghoul's oversized arm up and out of the way with her left forearm, then driving her right hand, palm-forward, into its center of mass with all the strength at her command. For an instant as the blow landed, there was a suggestion of a light around her, like an aura. The impression of a jaguar overlaid over her, its spots dotting her arms and face. Blink and you'd miss it.
The force of the strike knocked the ghoul backwards and air came rushing out of its lungs. It staggered for a moment, then recovered. The hate in its glare had somehow magnified, but was tempered now by something else. Not fear, exactly, but a reassessing.
Juno locked eyes with it and put her hands out to guard again.
"I dunno...doesn't seem too hard so far."