Oberyn lay crumpled on the ground like a sack of potatoes, coughing and wheezing, trying desperately to draw breath from his lungs that were having a hard time performing with the sudden compression of their living space.
That single unguarded hit he had taken from the Mountain had almost done him in, showing that even in his half-dead state, that monster's strength was not something a human can handle.
'Damn it! Don't give up on me yet!' Oberyn cursed at his trembling body as he tried to force through the pain and muster up the strength to get back up and finish the battle that he had almost won.
Fortunately for Oberyn, he was not the only one down on his luck, as that last strike had contained almost all the strength that the Mountain could muster, and immediately after he had dished it out, his strength left him, and the poison flared back up like never before leaving him too drained to take advantage of his attack and kill his enemey while he was at its weakest.
So now both men were wasted and on their knees, and whoever managed to get up first would be the winner.
But unfortunately for Obyern, few people in the world could match the Mountain in terms of endurance, and even with the poison running roughshod throughout his body, the man somehow managed to gather the strength to slowly but surely get up.
"ARGH!!" The Mountain roared angrily as if trying to scare his body into obeying his wishes, and it... was actually working, as he rose up like a slumbering giant, leaning his weight on his great sword, and after just a few deep breaths, he began to walk towards Oberyn with a murderous rage in his eyes.
'Shit! Shit! Shit! How the hell did it come to this?!' Jon cursed at this sudden turn of events, as he hurriedly turned his bow away from his last opponent, who was still stubbornly holding onto his shield like a turtle and refusing to die, and began to shoot his arrows at the Mountain, trying to halt his forward momentum.
But he may as well not have shot them for all the good his arrows did...
He didn't know if it was sheer adrenaline or just innate resilience that the beast was born with, but the man simply raised his armoured hand in front of his face and completely ignored the arrows hitting his body as if they were a mere nuisance, and continued on his way unbothered.
And while Jon knew that the monster was probably wearing the thickest armour that was possible for a man to wear and walk, he had hoped that he would still be able to feel some pain from his sharp arrows, but no, the beast continued his maddened stride towards his enemy, completely unfazed.
'Fuck!!' Jon cursed in frustration as, for the first time in his life, he felt that his archery skills, which he had been so proud of before, were completely useless against an enemy, and though it was only because of his urgency to protect someone and his desire to capture the enemy alive... it still left him a bit stifled.
Thankfully, Sarella arrived at that exact moment, giving Jon a much-needed reprieve.
"No! Wait!! Leave him to me!" he shouted at the girl to prevent her from running towards the Mountain. Instead, he pointed her towards his last opponent, "You take care of him," he ordered and then, without waiting for her reply, he immediately took off towards Oberyn, discarding his bow and quiver along the way, and instead drew his sword from its sheath.
The girl hesitated only for a few seconds before she decided to follow Jon's order, as she knew that with her skill with the sword, there was not much she could do against the Mountain, especially considering the thick armour she was up against.
So even though it frustrated her very much, she decided not to interfere in that fight and to leave her Father's fate in Jon's capable hands, and went to deal with Jon's last opponent, which was much more in line with her ability.
Besides, it would not be too late for her to join the fight once she had dealt with her opponent, and her sister Nymeria should also have recovered from her sudden death shock by then, and the sisters could then look for an opportunity to sneak attacks on the Mountain... but for now, she had an enemy to kill.
'Fuck! Slow down! You beast!' Jon inwardly cursed as he saw the Mountain single-mindedly marching towards Oberyn as if the Dornishman was the only one he could see, and unfortunately for Jon, Oberyn still hadn't recovered, and seemed to be having trouble breathing, with his hands only now unconsciously reaching towards his bent spear as if he was hoping to defend against the Mountain with it.
Thankfully, Oberyn did not have to try his luck with that broken spear as Jon managed to jump in front of him just in the nick of time.
"Your opponent is—" Jon began to announce heroically, but his opponent was not in the mood to listen to his declaration.
"Get the fuck out of my way!!" The Mountain snarled as he swatted his sword furiously at the cowardly archer who had been annoying him with his arrows from afar, wanting to take down this weak boy with a single strike.
'Damn! That's rude!' Jon inwardly grumbled at being so blatantly underestimated, but his body did not stop as he agilely ducked down, dodging the dangerous great sword, and then immediately retaliated against the hand holding the weapon with his own sword, wanting to continue the work that Obyern had been doing all this time.
'Fuck! Not Again!' The Mountain thought frustratedly, as the annoying bug that he had considered to be just a worthless archer kept on dodging all his deadly attacks in an eerily similar way to the Dornish prince before him, making Gregor almost doubt himself, wondering if he really was not as strong as he considered himself to be, if this kind of random archer could run circles around him.
"ARGH! Why don't you just die!!" The Mountain screamed as he drew even more strength from who knows where and placed all his might into his attacks, making his sword almost disappear due to its sheer speed.
'Fuck! This is dangerous!' Jon thought as he desperately weaved between the ogres' attacks, with every one of them being life-threatening.
For the first time in a while, Jon was fighting a battle where his life was genuinely on the line, where a single mistake, a single stumble over an unnoticed pebble... could cost him his life.
It was only now that he himself was up against him that Jon finally realised what kind of monster Oberyn had been dealing with all this time.
It took a lot of skill, mental fortitude and especially guts to remain calm and react accurately amidst this storm of deadly strikes, especially as the Mountain grew angrier and intensified his attack. Jon felt as if he could barely hold on, let alone find opportunities to strike back.
He had always considered himself to an elite warrior and even felt that perhaps he was a little bit better than Oberyn in combat, but now... now Jon understood that without his handy bow, he did not have that much of an advantage against the Dornishman, that pehaps he had underestimated the might that the warriors, who were at the top in this world, could unleash when they were at their peak... when their lives were on the line.
Thankfully, he wouldn't have to deal with this alone for long, as he could see Oberyn's figure slowly rising from the corner of his eyes, so soon he would have a helper, which should make it much easier to— 'Shit!!'
It seems that Jon was not the only one who noticed Oberyn's looming resurgence, as the Mountain suddenly decided that it was just too dangerous to continue to be entangled with the archer and that it would be much better if he dealt with the downed enemy first.
So, from attack mode, the Mountain abruptly went into defence mode as he began to slowly move towards Oberyn while only deflecting or defending against the attacks from Jon that could kill him, and completely ignored the rest.
And this made Jon very desperate, as it was one thing for him to deal with a Mountain with all his focus on defeating him, and quite another to deal with him while protecting a downed ally, as in the first situation, he could evade as much as he wanted, nullifying most of his strength advantage, but in the second scenario... well, his might and endurance will fully come into play in that situation.
So if he wanted Oberyn to not end up like his counterpart in the original timeline, then Jon had to work harder, make his attacks deadlier, focus on only going for the vital points such as the eyes, and the throat where there was no armour, making the Mountain believe that he was trying to kill him for real, so that he becomes more hesitant.
But this forced Jon to close the distance between them, increasing the risk for him by a lot, as at a smaller proximity, the Mountain's attacks became much more devastating, making the margin for error even smaller.
In fact, in barely half a minute since the Mountain decided to go for Oberyn, Jon had already come close to getting seriously injured over three times, only managing to dodge at the last moment after taking a few superficial cuts.
So with his heart pounding fiercely in his chest, Jon finally realised that he could actually die here and decided that it was time to put all his cards on the table, without worrying about how he was going to explain himself later.
He had cut off his connection to Frost before his fight with the Mountain, as he had felt at that moment that he would need his complete mental acuity to deal with this Monster, but it now became a hindrance for him as he would have to restart the connection if he wanted to call for reinforcement.
In the blink of an eye, almost one fifth of his mind disappeared inside of Frost, but just as he was about use the link to order his friend to launch her indiscriminatory scream attack from high above, without caring about hurting him and his allies along with their enemy(as he did not have time to use ear protection), his momentarily distraction cost him dearly...
Because the Mountain just happened to be unusually focused at that particular moment, and noticed the distracted gleam in Jon's eyes. Without even thinking about it for an instant, his body instinctively responded by sending a devastating swipe of his great sword at his enemy's vulnerable moment, "ARGH! DIE!"
'Fuck!!' Jon was caught completely off guard and panicked for the first time in this fight. His eyes narrowed to pinpricks as he looked at the deadly greatsword heading towards his body.
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