Jon could hear the sound of his heart pounding within his chest. An overwhelmingly loud rhythmic thumping echoed throughout Jon's mind, screaming at him to do anything other than just stand still. His mouth trembling at the sight of the approaching beast, its enormous, yellow-toothed grin sending shivers down Jon's spine.

His breathing grew erratic, and his pupils dilated.

His fingers twitched, reaching for something that his mind had not realized was not there.

His Sea Of Knowledge once lapping joyously with the integration of his Fragment Of Avaritia, was now transformed into an enormous violent whirlpool. Any thought. Any feeling. Any piece of knowledge that Jon might have used to combat this situation was absorbed into the raging currents, dragged down to the deepest depths of Jon's mind.

There was no witty remark.

There was no stalwart self-confidence.

There was no trust in his own capabilities.

Jon was fixated on the approaching creature. For whatever reason, Jon found himself unable to move his legs, the mental resistances born from [Mine Is The Sea Of Knowledge] shattered under the enormity of this creatures presence.

There was no flight or fight response. Nothing urging him to stand and fight or run away and live another day.

Jon just froze, unblinking. Unable to remove his eyes from ashen-skinned abomination in front of him.

Jon watched as the Knight Ranked creature extended its hand towards him, watching as a spherical construct of putrid yellow spiritual energy formed in the palm of its hand. An incredible amount of rot natured spiritual energy gathering in one ability, a malicious grin pulling at the corner of its cheeks as it hurled the sphere towards Jon's frozen figure.

The eighteen-year-old did nothing as rot natured projectile was lobbed through the air. His [Monstrous Intuition] twitched, urging him to move in any other direction. His figure rooted in place under the influence of the fear natured Aura ability the beast possessed, his hand unconsciously reaching towards his spear, but finding no purchase on the air around him.

In the final few moments before the sphere struck him, Jon felt an obvious chunk of his ice natured spiritual energy drained away, before watching as Schwarz Eis manifested an enormous physical ice barrier between himself and the Knight Ranked creature.

An explosion, one louder than anything Jon had ever heard before echoed throughout the forest. The ice barrier held but cracked under the immense amount of force Schwarz Eis forced it to endure. A foul scent of corruption filled the air, as the barrier expanded once more, preventing the air around Jon from becoming tainted and rotten.

With his vision of the beast obscured, Jon found the strength within his legs to take a few steps backwards, before feeling a sharp pain emanate from his cheek.

Jon almost found himself tumbling onto the ground from the sheer amount of force Schwarz Eis placed behind that hit. Blinking, Jon steadied himself, unconsciously manifesting Assail in one hand.

Lifting his head, the young human turned towards the figure of his summoned companion, watching as the White Lady Of The Winter Castle narrowed her eyes, waving both her arms at him, gesturing for Jon to run away.

"What the hell do you think you are doing! Freezing up like that on the battlefield! You're a man, not a goddamn child! If you cannot fight then run away! If you cannot run away then you fight! There are no other options."

"Do you want to die Jonathan!? Is that what you want!?" the sheer amount of venom in Schwarz Eis' tone caused Jon to furrow his brows, steadying his breathing and shaking his head. There was no response that he could give that could excuse the way he froze, losing control over his Sea Of Knowledge.

Suppressing the numerous whirlpools that manifested all across his mental construct, Jon took a deep breath, tightening his grip on the Spear Of Verdant Cedar. His hands were dyed white with how hard Jon was gripping onto it. Both Ashvattha Rana and Schwarz Eis could see how he had lost control over his Sea Of Knowledge just observing the figure of that putrid-looking Knight, causing Jon to curse under his breath at his own lack of self-control.

'Get it together you idiot! What the hell do you think you're doing?!'

Exhaling another short, shallow breath, Jon felt another tremble shake the ground beneath his feet. Lift his head, he noticed that Schwarz Eis had focused her attention elsewhere.

The winter demon spirit narrowed her eyes, turning her horned head towards her left and right, noticing several approaching foreign spiritual energies behind her. Schwarz Eis' gaze lingered in that direction for a few seconds, before scrunching up her face in in disgust, extending her right arm outwards and grasping on the empty space beside her.

Shards of black ice appeared across her limb, her Memento Source Fragment, [Licht Weiss; Right Hand Of Winter] manifested itself on her right arm. The ice shaped itself into an obsidian-coloured pauldron, extending downwards into both a vambrace and gauntlet, emanating a strong ice spiritual energy. Although this energy was produced from Jon's Ice Mana Core, after being channelled into his Fragment Of Summoning, Schwarz Eis was able to manipulate it as she saw fit.

The White Lady Of The Winter Castle summoned a thin, long sabre of freezing ice within her gauntleted hand. Jon noticed her glance back towards him for a fraction of a second, her expression terse, but remained standing in front of him protectively.

"Do not use [Frozen End Art; Envelop Seas And Mountains In Ice And Snow]. Limit the overloading of your Seir-Glacial Heart and Murmur-Glacial Marrow… in fact, use that final fragment of choice in your possession. Fragment Of Eradication, right now", demanded Schwarz Eis.

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Jon knew that she was not in the mood to argue. He stood frozen in the face of a Knight Ranked Aura, when he could have used the time to run away in the opposite direction. Jon did not want to admit to being scared, so the eighteen-year-old just nodded, opening his task reward page and accepting the Fragment Of Eradication as his final task reward.

A dark-blue coloured gemstone appeared within the palm of his hand, leaving just a single spiritual item to be claimed on his task reward page.

Jon did not even so much as blink before integrating it into his Spear Mana Core.

The young human opened his mouth to speak, wanting to inform Schwarz Eis of the effect description, but felt his [Monstrous Intuition] twitch, as the shadow of the Knight Ranked creature appeared through the enormous ice barrier that Schwarz Eis had formed. Jon almost felt the control he had over his Sea Of Knowledge slip, before commanding the waves to overwhelm whatever whirlpools had formed across its surface.

His gaze lingering on the shadow of the ashen-skinned beast, Jon could see the silhouette of an arm strike the barrier, suppressing the urge to flinch as numerous cracks formed all over the external layer of ice. Even with all of his physical enhancements active at once, Jon did not believe that he would be able to produce such an incredible amount of force with just a single swing of his arm.

His breath hitched before feeling the winter demon spirit grab the collar of his shirt with her free hand, narrowing her eyes at him as she pointed her ice sabre towards the shadow.

"I will distract the [Malum Hobgoblin] using walls of ice to shield your figure, pulling its attention towards myself. In the meantime, you will, and I mean you will, exterminate the rest of its little tribe. Give them no quarter Jon. You should not expect anything in return from his animals."

"The first chance you get, look to escape towards the riverbank," Jon opened his mouth to reply to Schwarz Eis' words, but heard the sound of ice crackling, forcing him to lift his head, gazing up towards the Knight Ranked beast. Its beady-yellow eyes swept over the human and winter demon spirit, grinning as it stared towards the Memento Source Fragment on the latter's arm.

Another violent emanating of fear natured spiritual energy rippled out from its enormous, rotund form, causing Ashvattha Rana to curse, noting her obvious disadvantages while in the presence of a Knight Ranked creature. The bodhi tree would be a defenceless target for the Malum Hobgoblin to violate and corrupt, resulting in her decision to remain within the gap between Jon's conscious and subconscious minds.

'Dammit! Maybe I should give up on the Fragment Of Emptiness after Jon reaches Knighthood. A more offensive fragment, such as a Fragment Of Thorns or even a Fragment Of Curse would give me a much greater flexibility during situations like these!', Ashvattha Rana thought to herself.

Jon did not lose control over his Sea Of Knowledge, however still felt his knees tremble as whatever Aura Trait ability it possessed violently shook the Fragment Of Mind within him. His grasp over his Knowledge Mana Core almost slipped but found the voice of the bodhi tree within his mind a reassuring presence.

Before either Jon or Schwarz Eis could make a move, the Malum Goblin opened its mouth to speak, muttering just a single phrase soaked with spiritual energy.

Neither Jon nor Schwarz Eis do nothing but watch as the familiar emanations of blood natured spiritual energy and corruption natured spiritual energy expanded outwards around him.

A reddish-black ring engraved with undecipherable characters and letters brushed through Jon and Schwarz Eis, inflicting them both with two different afflictions.

[Blood Death]: Inflicts a continuous blood-natured damage over time effect. Corrupts the blood, transforming the natural blood natured spiritual energy into a chaotic, self-destructive blood natured spiritual energy.

[Corrupting Spirit]: Inflicts a continuous corruption-natured damage over time effect. Erodes the spirit, transforming the natural spirit natured spiritual energy into a chaotic, self-destructive spirit natured spiritual energy.

Jon did not know how one ability managed to inflict two debuffs on him but felt Archetype Green transfer the two afflictions away and swiftly commanding Archetype Avarice to claim them once more. He repeated the process with the winter demon spirit, feeling his Fragment Of Avaritia swell with as it greedily absorbed all of the afflictions.

Jon was rewarded with two buffs at the cost of the stored lifeforce within Archetype Avaritia, judging just how many debuffs his war natured spiritual construct could absorb before being annihilated.

[One With Green]: Increases natural recovery rate and stamina regeneration.

[Avaricious Yellow]: The next strike made against a target will drain a miniscule amount of their lifeforce.

Glancing at the notification of the two buffs in the corner of his vision, Jon took a deep breath, muttering the chant for [Cometh Thy Red Horse Awaits]. Considering that Jon could not overload either his Seir-Glacial Heart nor his Murmur-Glacial Marrow, Jon switched his tactics, relying on the first ever Spell he obtained within the System Introduction.

"Clad in robes crimson, harkening thou pitiful extinction. Sing thou of the coming of blood and war, proclaiming the sounds of trumpets that announce mine arrival".

His form gained a subtle red tint to it, his flesh, muscles and bones saturated with the violent heraldry of blood and war.

Wielding Assail in his hands, Jon sent one final look towards Schwarz Eis, who returned it with one of her own. The White Lady Of The Winter Castle smiled, manifesting another jagged barrier of blue ice around the Knight Ranked creature. Giving him one final nod, Schwarz Eis flourished [Licht Weiss], drawing upon Jon's ice natured spiritual energy to fuel her Memento Source Fragment.

"Do not die", said the winter demon spirit," I will not have my second chance at life ruined from some immature human who does not even understand the different between an Ability and a Technique."

Although her words were sharp, her tone was anything but. Jon knew that both Schwarz Eis and Ashvattha Rana cared for his own wellbeing, even if it was due to the fact that his death would mean their complete annihilation. Even if their current bodies failed them, so long as their summoner continued to live, there was always the chance to be summoned back into existence.

Jon gave the winter demon spirit a nod of his own. He knew that Schwarz Eis did not expect him to say anything. Although he had wavered before, he would not do so again.

His heart pounded, not in fear or fright, but in the expectations Jon had placed upon himself.

His actions would prove his worth.

Jon swiped Assail through the air, ever-so-slightly overloading the Spear Of Verdant Cedar so that it slashed a neon-green light through the space front of him. A dark-red haze of spiritual energy emanating from the soles of his feet, [Le Mat Avancement] enshrouding the entirety of his figure.

Taking one last breath, Jon felt his Sea Of Knowledge grow still, before summoning every piece of knowledge and information contained within it, relating to war and violence and combat. The familiar teachings of his various Techniques and the nascent spear style that Jon had formed using his own comprehensions and understandings as the foundation.

'Not afraid. I'm not afraid,' Jon thought to himself before rushing forward, his vision tinted with the colour of blood.

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