Almost immediately, Jon realised that he could not fully dodge that attack, and that he would have to sacrifice at least one of his hands to get away.
But since he was wearing top-quality light but sturdy armour that had been made especially for him by little Tom using the best techniques he had learned from all over Weseteros, he was obviously not going to get any permanent damage. Still, even with the armour's protection, he was sure to suffer at least a fracture, which would make that hand completely useless for the rest of the fight.
And this liability, he knew, could easily cost him this fight and his life, considering who he was up against.
But at that moment of life and death, when he knew that the danger to him was real, his mind's concentration peaked like never before...
And reacting instinctively to the threat, his spirit reacted instinctively and pulled back all its scattered parts lying outside, even those that had been hidden deeply inside Frost's mind that he had completely forgotten about. All those parts converged fully inside his mind for the first time since he began to warg in his childhood, and in its haste his consciousness brought something extra along on its return journey... leading to a wondrous miscalculation.
It would have been hard for Jon to describe what he was feeling at that moment...
It felt as if a large part of his mind that had never been used before had suddenly been unlocked for him; his brain felt bloated but somehow even more nimble and responsive than before.
It felt to him that minutes or maybe even hours had passed in his mind before he finally stopped being fascinated by the bizarre phenomenon he was experiencing, and started to understand what was actually happening to him.
It seems that at that particular life and death moment, when his mind had aggressively regathered and brought pieces of Frost's spirit along with it into his own mind, an accidental bond had been forged, one that was similar in essence but almost completely opposite to the warg connection he had before.
If earlier, he simply sent a piece of his spirit into Frost to forge a connection to control her and send her commands through his thoughts, then this time, while his own mind stayed fully inside his head, a small part of empty space had been occupied by Frost's spirit, establishing a new kind of connection for the first time.
Now, this did not mean that Frost was now somehow controlling him, because no, her mind was too simple for that kind of operation.
No, the connection this time was different, as instead of giving Jon access to Frost's various extraordinary senses, it gave him a key to utilise all her brain's numerous capabilities.
And while her brain was a bit primitive compared to a human's, there were some specific functions that the brain of an animal, especially of a magical bird species like Frost's, was far better suited to do than a human mind could ever hope for.
These tasks include, but are not limited to, processing all kinds of visual information precisely and at lightning speed, with every single detail in his field of view being retained, instead of performing like before, where most of the details had been deemed 'useless'.
Jon had read in his past life somewhere that a human's sensory system gathers about 1 billion bits of information per second, with the subconscious mind only able to process about 10 bits per second. And now Jon had acquired the capability to process almost half of that massive information previously considered useless.
So, while Jon's visual hardware(his eyes) remained the same, the processing power available to him, especially for breaking down the dynamic motion happening in his surroundings in real-time, had increased exponentially.
What he essentially got, in layman's terms, was... Bullet Time.
The same bullet time that was always being mentioned in movies and novels all over the world as a marvellous combat skill, which allows one to feel as if they had the law of time under their control...
Of course, in truth, it was all in their head, and the flow of time does not actually change.
So while he may have felt a lot of time pass as he processed his new skill, in reality, not even a millisecond had passed by, and the deadly strike from the Mountain was still heading towards him.
But this time, Jon was completely serene as he watched the great sword approaching him, feeling as if he had all the time in the world to think up a solution to his predicament.
And it did not take him long to figure out that with just a small adjustment of his body posture and by hitting the Mountain's greatsword at just the right angle with his weapon, even without using too much force, he could change the trajectory of the sword just enough for it to harmlessly pass him by.
And that is exactly what he did...
His body moved fluidly and dodged seamlessly, tracing the exact path that he had envisioned in his mind, with the greatsword unable to even touch a corner of his clothes.
His abrupt manoeuvre staggered the Mountain, who had been quite sure that this would be the strike that would bring down the annoying archer.
Sadly, the infamous knight of Westerlands did not even get time to ponder over this sudden turnabout, as in the very next moment, the shadow of a sword appeared out of nowhere and slammed into the armour on the back of his head with the force of a hammer, leaving him momentarily stunned.
'Thankfully, that wasn't a one-time thing,' Jon thought with relief, as he watched everything still happening in slow motion around him, as if a video had been slowed down to *0.1x speed, with every single detail appearing crystal clear, 'But who knows how long this will last, so better not waste it...'
With his new ability, Jon began to completely and irrevocably overwhelm the Mountain like never before, with every single one of his attacks moving through paths that seemed very bizarre from the outside, but somehow were always able to dodge around the greatsword and accurately hit his target.
'What the fuck is happening?!' The Mountain thought furiously as again and again the bastard archer's sword hit his head, making him so angry that his eyes turned red and the veins in his head almost burst open.
But no matter how furious his attacks were, they were completely useless as the archer seemed like a completely different warrior than he had been a few moments ago; it was as if the soul of Arthur Dayne had descended into this boy, making every attack of his precise, fluid, and almost... inevitable.
Jon was feeling more ecstatic at that moment than he had ever before in his life. This uplifting feeling of having everything under his control was very addictive; it made him feel as if he were a god, and the warrior before him, a mere mortal.
The moment that Mountain's arm twitched and before his weapon even started to move properly, Jon could easily deduce where the sword was intended to strike, and from there it was effortless for him to see the attack's weakness and then move his sword along the path that offered him the least resistance to his fixed target, the Mountain's head, which even if covered with an armour, could only take so many hits.
This bizarre sight left the girls, who had finally dealt with their enemies and were just about to come help him, so amazed that their steps subconsiously slowed down, and then they just stood in their places staring at Jon, moving around one of the strongest fighters in Westeros as if he were dealing with a child.
The fight hapening before them gave them the illusion that the Northern boy could somehow predict the future... as if every single move of his enemy was under his control, or else how could one explain his ability to move in such a strange way, as if the enemy's sword was deliberately avoiding him, as if the enemy was willingly providing his head to him so that he could get hit every few seconds...
It felt less like a fight between warriors and more like a training session between a brutal mentor and a particularly dumb student...
"Stop! STOP!!" Mountain screamed in agony, anger and even a little bit of plea, as the man was once again hit on his head, leaving his brain so scrambled that he couldn't tell left from right.
The knight had never felt more helpless in his life... he couldn't run, couldn't dodge, and didn't even have the option to endure a few hits to retaliate, as the bastard would just dodge no matter how fast his attacks were.
And the situation only worsened for him as this time, instead of from the front, he got hit from behind, on the same injured back of his knee that had left him kneeling a few minutes ago.
"ARGH!!" The Mountain cried out in pain and turned around, only to find Oberyn once again standing on his feet, with the bent spear in his hand, breathing just a little heavily, with hate and determination in his eyes, not having decreased by even a little.
"YOU—" He roared furiously, but before he could even finish forming his sentence or think about punishing the Dornishman, he was once again hit on the back of his head by that blasted archer.
This time, seeing him distracted, Jon did not stop after just one successful hit and continued with his assault, swinging his sword left and right, and only stopped hitting when the Mountain turned back to him to defend with his greatsword... only for Oberyn to take advantage of that to attack his knees once again.
"AAHH!!"
And that was how it went, as the two men took turns assaulting the Mountain as if they were hunting a mindless beast, always keeping his focus scattered and never giving him the chance to focus on one of them... almost driving the Mountain mad with anger.
Jon always stayed dangerously close to the Mountain, so that he could easily access his armour-covered head, which was already showing signs of being dented after enduring so many hits, while Oberyn, having not yet fully recovered, stayed some distance away and focused on using the longer reach of his weapon to target the Monster's legs.
"GO... DOWN!!" Oberyn angrily screamed as he attacked again and again, pouring all his frustrations and anger into the bent spear that was almost on the verge of breaking in two.
"DIE! YOU BEAST!!" Jon too hollered as he was swept along into the Dornishman's passionate anger and intensified his attacks, striking almost three times as much as the other man, even though most of Mountain's focus stayed on him.
"NO... Not... like... This..." The Mountain growled as he stumbled, and his legs, finally unable to take any more beating, gave up, bringing him once more to his knees.
Having already gone half delusional from the beatings he had taken to his head, he wildly waved his sword around him while screaming incoherently, but in the end, he was unable to stop the inevitable from happening...
"DIE!!" The two men screamed in unison as their weapons simultaneously slammed into the Mountain's head at the exact same spot, making an audible crack echo through the night.
And finally, after all their efforts... The beast, The Mountain that rides, The Knight who had committed countless atrocities, lost the fight and fell to the ground with a resounding thud...
...
For a few seconds, there was no sound other than the heavy breathing of the two men who still weren't able to extricate themselves from the rush of the dangerous battle and kept on staring intently at their fallen foe, as if expecting him to jump back up at any moment.
"Er, I don't think he is going to get up any time soon," Nymeria's awkward voice came a few seconds later, and finally broke Jon's concentration.
And the moment he lost the tension of the battle, Jon was abruptly yanked out of his special state, and this abrupt loss left him so disoriented and mentally feeble that he had to use his sword as a support to stop himself from falling headfirst into the ground.
"There are... chains in my bag," Jon let out after a brief struggle, his eyes remaining closed as he tried to regain his lost bearing and to push through the aftereffects of his new skill.
"Huh?" Nymeria let out in a confused manner at the random piece of information, but unlike her, Sarella immediately understood what Jon was asking for.
"Right!" Sarella nodded with a serious expression and immediately turned around to go towards the shrub behind which Jon had hidden during their ambush. A few seconds later, she came out carrying long, thin pieces of iron chain that looked very heavy in her delicate hands, "Nym, help me bind him."
"Sure." The girl nodded, finally understanding what the chains had been prepared for, and immediately went to help her sister with the labour-intensive task.
Together, the two sisters slowly and carefully moved the Mountain and wrapped the chains around his large hands and feet, making sure more than once that the bindings were tight enough that the beast could not break free, even with his strength.
And all while the two men remained at guard, standing vigilantly with their weapons tightly gripped in their hands in case danger arose... thankfully, though, the worst-case scenario did not happen, and the Mountain never woke up.
Thud!!
The moment Mountain had been fully secured, Oberyn's body lost all its stress, and the adrenaline on which he had been functioning until now finally proved to be insufficient to hold back the injuries he had sustained, and with no sign of danger around, his body gave up and fell straight to the ground.
"Father?!" The two girls cried as they rushed towards Oberyn and immediately knelt beside him, concernedly moving their eyes over his injuries, making sure that there was nothing life-threatening there.
"Father, are you fine?" Sarella asked worriedly, but Oberyn did not seem to have heard his daughter's anxious question; instead, his entire focus was on something behind their heads.
"I did it..." Oberyn muttered softly with unfocused eyes, looking at the night sky as if he was searching for someone, "I finally did it..." he deliriously repeated again and again, until finally he cried with all his might, "I DID IT!!" as if trying to make the twinkling stars above him hear his declaration.
'Yes, you did,' Jon softly acknowledged as he looked away from the shiny tears slowly falling from the eyes of one of the toughest men he had ever known.
A small, relieved smile also appeared on Jon's face at having finally avenged his half-brother and half-sister, whom he never got the chance to meet.
///
If you can't wait to read ahead, then I urge you to go to that magical place where you can get things from the future...