The waters churned violently as Jonathan approached the construct, his presence radiating raw, unstoppable power. "Jonathan, calm down," Jason called out, his voice firm as the figure loomed closer. Mark wasn't sure how much Jonathan could sense underwater, even with his extraordinary hearing, but it was clear he wasn't registering Jason's plea.

Jonathan's form finally came into view as the black blood settled into the surrounding waters. Sam's sharp intake of breath broke the silence, and Mark took an instinctive step forward, alarm etched on his face. Jason muttered a curse, his eyes darting to Wesley, who had already braced himself, shield raised and knuckles white.

"Jesus, what the hell happened to him?" Wesley said, his voice thick with apprehension.

Jonathan had become else completely. A juggernaut—a force of nature forged for destruction. His already imposing frame had swelled to titanic proportions, muscles rippling beneath a thick carapace of bone-like armor. Interlocking plates spiraled up his neck and shoulders, forming a seamless barrier that exuded both resilience and menace.

His limbs were stretched into weapons of war, elongated and corded with strength. His hands had transformed into sharpened bone claws, each digit ending in a blade-like point. The jaw that framed his face now seemed designed to crush anything in its path, a brutal counterpoint to the raw, relentless power that radiated from every inch of his being.

Jonathan wasn't just a man anymore—he was a force of nature and was headed in their direction.

"Mark, can you keep him out?" Jason asked.

Mark still had a little over half his energy but from the looks of things he wouldn't be able to stop Jonathan for long if he decided to attack them.

Preparing for the worse he charged Mana and Prana into his construct and created a secondary one while he was at it. By that point, Jonathan had gotten to the barrier and he seemed to be sizing them all up.

It was hard to tell what the guy was thinking as his facial features were shrouded behind a helmet of bone but he cocked his head at them.

Wesley stared at him and ground out

"What is he? Has turned into one of those corrupted humans?"

Mark never moved his eye from Jonathan but shook his head.

"His Corruption hasn't climbed to that stage yet"

While they spoke Jonathan leveled his pointer finger at the shield and stabbed it forward, causing a deep grating sound as the two came into contact.

Mark flinched as his barrier trembled but held.

A snarl appeared on Jonathan's face his hand clenched into a fist.

"Oh shit, everyone get down!"

Jonathan drew back and punched the construct with his full might. Mark had latched the barrier onto the floor, but with the amount of force coming their way now, he only had one option. And that was to let the force of his punch carry them away.

However, he did not fully anticipate the titanic force Jonathan could now output.The strike connected with the construct and the amount of energy his modifyers could sapped from it was just enough for Mark to hold the barrier together. This caused the bubble they were in to warp and go hurlting backward into the stone wall.

All the them hit the barrier and then the stone respectively. Mark was only just able to pull Sam into his chest before they went for one hell of a ride. The impact caused the stone to crumble and drift to the floor.

Jason and Wesley were the first to recover and they climbed to their feet, getting ready to fight.

"Not in here! Mark retreat!" Sam yelled

He understood her loud and clear and launched them up towards the surface of the water. From the looks of things, Jonathan was not at all inhibited by the depths so they were the only ones fighting with a handicap.

Jonathan watched them go and gave chase, charging after their retreating forms.

To buy them time Mark sent his secondary construct out but Jonathan sensed it coming and slashed through it with his claws.

With the remaining energy in the construct, Mark tried to wrap it around him, but it did not last long. Jonathan tore through it like a layer of plastic.

Mark grunted at the lash back, but at the same time, he tried to activate [Prana pulse]. His construct managed to glean something just before it was destroyed. From what Mark could tell, Jonathan was not even fully conscious. His body was reacting to external stimuli, but his mind was still very much encased in that same defensive skill.

"Shit, Jonathan's completely out of it. We need to knock some sense into him!" Mark shouted as he used the opening to pull them up and out into the passageway behind them.

The moment they were on solid ground, Mark pushed power into his spell and thickened the walls of the construct to the extreme.

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Sam had been gathering Mana this whole while, and she used it now to shape a large amount of ice around them.

Water exploded out into the camber as Jonathan rushed after them and Sam slammed the ice down as he left the liquid, super-cooling the pool of water.

The ice froze solid, trapping Jonathan halfway out of the water. But Sam wasn't done. She quickly packed more snow and ice around him, encasing him like a frozen statue.

No one dared lower their guard. The ice held for only a moment—barely two seconds—before Jonathan shattered it and broke free. But it was enough. Jason and Wesley had used the brief opening to get into position.

The ice exploded outward in all directions as he flexed his limbs.

Jason sent a wave of resin at the raging man in an attempt to catch him in it but Jonathan seemed to have learned from his mistake and vaulted onto the ceiling to escape it.

From there he charged at their group, a wail coming from his maw.

Wesley moved to block and caught a claw on his shield for his trouble. The weight of the attack pushed him back but Mark reinforced him with a construct by pressing it up against his back.

Once he was in the middle of their group, the three Aura users fought.

There was an explosion of Aura as both Jason and Wesley attacked him together. One using the flat side of his blade and the other his shield. The three of them exchanged blows and by the looks of things Jonathan was losing as he was fighting on both fronts.

Unfortunately, while he couldn't beat them in terms of attack, Jonathan's pure strength and natural defense more than made up for it, because, only a minute later he had adjusted to their strikes and was returning as good as he got.

Seeing they were in danger of getting thrown off, Mark expanded a secondary construct over them all and sent Prana into the two of them. Tying off a [bestowal] on each of them to raise their speeds.

The boost helped them steer clear of Jonathan's wild strikes but was unable to give them the upper hand.

"Guys we need an answer here!" Jason shouted.

Jonathan screamed in triumph as he battered Wesley's shield aside in time to claw him across the face.

Then planting a foot in his chest he sent the man flying into the cave wall, creating cracks through the stone.

Jason's face was grim as he had to contend with Jonathan on his own.

Mark kept trying to get into Jonathan's head but they were running out of time, if he didn't stop he would have to resort to other measures.

Jason put up a good fight but even with his enhanced speed he could not keep up with Jonathan's new body.

He was sent back towards the frozen pool and sunk below the surface.

"Shit! Jonathan wake up you stubborn bastard." Mark growled as he sent a construct to block him

Jonathan dodged it at first but Mark quickly overpowered him with sheer numbers and wrapped him up in bands of force. Jonathan bearly even slowed as Mark strained to hold him back.

Sam moved forward into his sight and tried to get his attention.

"Jon, look at me. You need to wake up! Please come back!"

Jonathan growled in her direction and threw a punch which Mark blocked by wrapping it in cords force and yanking it off target.

Rage blossomed from Jonathan's form as he screamed at the top of his lungs.

The Aura in the area suddenly became unstable as it continued to flow from Jonathan, and in a burst of power, it crashed against Mark's shield.

Seeing he was about to be overwhelmed Mark hardened his construct and waited for the strike. But when the burning cold cut of Aura never came, he squinted at Jonathan.

Taking a closer look, it was not that Jonathan had stopped his attack but more like his Aura had refused to carry through.

The lethal power brushed up against Mark's shield with all the resistance of a faint breeze.

Even Jonathan seemed confused at the outcome. Mark wasn't about to let the opportunity go to waste, so he poured Prana into him through his bindings.

The energy seemed to rush to the man's wounds of its own accord and Mark had to redirect it toward his mind. The [Regenerate] had been working all this time so hopeful with a strong enough top-up it would calm him down.

Once more the skill blocked Mark, but this time he unbound his power from his Mana and sent just his Energy inside.

It managed to slip past the skill once more but it was like operating on someone from a different room. All the feedback felt wrong and warped.

"Jon, please, don't make me hurt you!" Sam yelled, and Mark felt something responding to her voice, but it was far too buried to rise to the surface, but it was there.

"Sam keep calling to him, I think I can get him!" Mark screamed as he reached for the sensation again.

She didn't need Mark's urging, Sam kept calling to Jonathan, trying to get him to stop.

Mark's Will was rebuffed time and time again but he was making progress, each time he uncovered a little more of Jonathan's will.

It was like digging him out of a tomb little by little. Unfortunately, Mark's energy could not hold out on both fronts. Restraining and healing Jonathan proved too much and he quickly wrestled out of Mark's hold.

Jonathan pushed past the construct by headbutting a gap big enough to squeeze through and reached for Mark.

Sam stepped in front of the man and tried to block him but he battered her out of the way. She cursed as she fell on her ass and Mark frowned, stepping closer he balled his fist and released his physical limit. Punching Jonathan through the jaw. At this stage, Jonathan's body was almost immune to anything Mark could dish out with his bare hands. But at the point of contact, Mark weaved a [Mind spike] into the attack, and before the rebound arrived he pulled Jonathan from the mental rubble.

All at once Jonathan's form froze and he began to shrink as the bone protrusions sunk back into his skin and his mass returned to normal levels.

There was a moment where he looked confused and dazed, before slumping forward.

Mark caught him before he fell and a wave of Aura assulted his mind. Luckily it was nothing compared to what Mark had dealt, as his Aura seemed to shy away.

"Jonathan?!" Sam said as she got up to check on the guy. A frown on her face.

"Tell me when he wakes up, I have a lot of choice words to say to him," she said as she dusted herself off.

Mark snorted. He did not envy Jonathan right now, but the good news was that whatever state his mind had been in before was completely gone. If Mark had to guess, Jonathan had been undergoing some kind of metamorphosis, and the metal attack had accelerated it. There were still problems but now at least Mark knew the guy wasn't going brain-dead.

Mark got Wesley back on his feet and fished Jason out of the water. Their wounds would all take a fair bit of power to heal but he'd prefer to do that somewhere safe, and with the dungeon cleared it looked like they were heading back to Aiyana.

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