Nightmares Paradise [LITRPG System Integration]

Jon and the fire-breathing ducked locked eyes, his bright green coloured irises staring deeply into the small beady-black eyes of that abominable creature.

An expression of recognition flashed through the eyes of the duck, causing it to release an overwhelmingly loud quack, stomping its webbed feet into the sand, ash falling of its brown-coloured feathers. Jon could feel the strangest of feelings emanate out from the mutated duck, a warmth, and the scent of embers growing stronger even outside the presence of fire and smoke.

It was not something born from his [Monstrous Intuition], but rather the same sensation that was released whenever Jon found himself casting [Cometh Thy Red Horse Awaits].

The familiar sensation of spiritual energy spilling out from the form of this enormous-looking duck, a subtle warmth overflowing from whatever Mana Core the beast had integrated.

Opening its maw, the Jon could quite clearly see the faintest emanations of light from within its gullet, his intuition flaring up as he darted towards the tree line. A flash of bright orange light passed right behind Jon, following him as he sprinted towards the nearest available cover.

A stream of searing orange-red flames stretched from the mouth of the duck across the riverbank. Jon had roughly measured the distance between him and certain landmarks within his "territory", entering a roll as he quickly calculated the distance the ability crossed.

'There must be more than thirty feet between myself and the duck! Its ability stretches a range of over thirty feet and possesses such an overwhelming offensive capability! How much spiritual energy must this thing possess!'.

It only further cemented the fact in Jon's mind that this creature must have somehow obtained an additional Mana Core.

The eighteen-year-old suppressed a wince, knowing that parts of his back had been touched by the stream of flames. Gritting his teeth, Jon tore off the loose-fitting shirt, wrapping the torn fabrics around his spear wielding hand.

He could not afford to drop his spear right now.

He could not afford to lose right now.

Unless Jon wanted to abandon his belongings, Jon would have to fight this fire-breathing abomination.

The pain on Jon's back was pushed down and ignored, as Jon sprinted out in a wide arc. Using the tree line as cover, Jon observed the movements of the duck, who followed him with a similar level of concentration.

The last time he had encountered this creature, Jon was relatively sure that it had not integrated any Fragments relating to agility, perception, or sensory enhancement. The duck would have been able to follow him, despite Jon possessing the same ability as well.

It possessed an incredible size, potentially from a Fragment Of Size or a Fragment Of Magnitude.

A resistance to flames and incredible heat, possibly from a Fragment Of Resistance or some sort of Fragment Of Defiance.

Its ability to breath fire and release ash from its feathers were both interesting abilities, although Jon had no idea what manner of fragment could manifest either.

Taking a deep breath, Jon placed a hand over his chest, feeling the spiritual energy within his Knowledge Mana Core surge and swell.

Words tinged with the faintest traces of mana flowed out of Jon's mouth, imbuing his physical form with the horrific heraldry of blood and war.

"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".

Jon's figure was dyed with a pale crimson glow. The light was metaphysical, an expression of spiritual power, meaning that it did not illuminate Jon's figure through the shrubs and undergrowth. His speed dramatically increased as Jon imagined the rotation of his Knowledge Mana Core increase by roughly a third, subsequently increasing the effects of [Cometh Thy Red Horse Awaits].

Jon took care not to lose control over the rotation of his Mana Core. Increasing the speed too quickly would result in draining the entirety of his spiritual energy from the Mana Core. Losing control and decreasing its rotation would cancel the effects of his ability, leaving him weakened for a short duration.

The duck eyed the tree line carefully, retreating backwards closer towards the river.

Despite Jon's… feelings, regarding the duck, he knew it was not stupid, nor would it allow Jon to simply walk up to it and kill it. He was not sure if it was the natural intellect of the creature, or if it was a result of some powerful fragment, but it knew how to best leverage its abilities against its prey.

It noticed the flashing of a shadow from across the riverbank, immediately opening its beak and releasing a searing torrent of flames. The duck kept the eyes on either side of its head open, observing whether to adjust the direction of its flames.

The stream itself did not last more than four seconds, before the duck deactivated its skill, stretching its brown feathered neck and searching for any traces of Jon. There was no trace of him along the riverbank or tree line.

The duck quacked loudly, almost provocatively, flapping its wings as if to invite a challenge. To Jon, the quacking seemed strangely rhythmic, as if it was trying to mimic something that Jon was saying, or something that it had heard previously.

Jon's eyes widened and the young man immediately crouched behind the largest tree his could find, [Monstrous Intuition] sensing a ripple of spiritual energy emanate from the duck.

'It has a fucking Spell as well!?' Jon's inner voice screamed.

Jon barely had a moment to cover his ears, before the duck unfurled its wings out fully, releasing an enormous burst of ash from its feathers. A black-feathered wave of superheated ash exploded outward from the duck, engulfing the riverfront in a world of ash and fire.

The sand beneath the ducks' feet rippled, pushed outwards from the sudden explosion. Sand, driftwood, rocks, even Jon's duffel bag and backpack were all affected by the size of the explosion. He could see the clothes that he had just changed out of set alight, his bags thrown somewhere into the forest.

In an instant, Jon felt his ears ring and his lips crack as the temperature of the air around him exploded in intensity. Jon had never seen an explosion before in real life, outside of perhaps fireworks he had set of with his friends one summer. The sheer amount of heat that washed over him was astounding, feeling his skin grow dry just from the excess heat released from the ash-explosion.

Jon felt his vision distorted for a couple of seconds before a sense of clarity brought the focus of his attention back into the present. The ringing in his ears did not vanish, although silenced everything else, allowing him to focus his mind on the task at hand.

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Just looking around, Jon could see that the leaves and shrubbery around him had been instantly ignited, setting the forest alight, the thick scent of smoke and ash filling his nose and ears. His eyes watering slightly.

Jon could not help but rub his eyes while adjusting his glasses. Keeping away from the fires and burning embers around him, Jon peered out from behind his cover towards the source of the explosion.

The duck just stood there, menacingly.

Its beady black eyes observing the tree line with a narrowed expression on its small face. Most of its brown-coloured feathers had been cleansed of the ash that clung to it, revealing the dark-grey tone that its feathers actually possessed.

It stood tall, albeit with its wings retracted. It did not seem bothered by the presence of fire and ash around itself in the slightest.

Despite this, something within Jon thought that it seemed slightly… strained.

He could see that the trail of ash the duck left behind ignited, sending a stream of flames flickering off into the forest. Jon was not too concerned about the possibility of a forest fire, not right now at least.

'I need to figure out a way to distract it. It has the advantage in position. It knows that I'll need to get close in order to attack it. I must figure out how to- '.

Jon glanced towards the ground, before raising a single eyebrow. There was something that he could try, something risky, something that all but guaranteed a single clear shot at the duck.

'But if I fail, I'll be a… well, I'll be a literal sitting duck,' the joke was lost on Jon in this moment, not finding the situation as humorous as his subconscious mind suggested.

Jon debated himself in his mind for a second, before gritting his teeth and picking up an odd-shaped stone beside him. Feeling [Cometh Thy Red Horse Awaits] enhance his physical strength by more than thirty percent in this moment, Jon brought his arm back throwing the stone high up into the air.

The eighteen-year-old watched as the baseball sized stone flew through the air, casting a sharp, parabolic arc over the duck.

With his enhanced strength, Jon made sure to aim the rock as high up into the air as he could possibly muster. He needed to make sure that it would not enter the duck's field of vision until the moment that it hit the water.

Glancing towards the beast, Jon noticed that the feathered creature did not lift its head towards projectile launched over the forest canopy, reading the wooden spear in his free hand. Jon felt his breath hitch, as the stone reached the apex of its intended arc, rotating several times in the air before being pulled down by the effects of gravity.

His feet carved deep trenches in the earth beneath him, as Jon entered a sprinters starting stance.

Across the riverbank, the fire-breathing creature narrowed its eyes, waiting for any sign of Jon to reappear, before realizing something.

The last time that it had encountered this two-legged creature, it had almost immediately run away after a single confrontation. Had it done the same thing, and run away the moment that it saw itself?

The duck had been too focused on its own thoughts to notice anything going on behind it.

The sound of a rock plonking into the river's smooth surface cut through the silence on the riverbank. The fire-breathing duck unconsciously turned around and glanced towards the source of the sound, fearful of the possibility that Jon had somehow managed to sneak up on it.

Its eyes darted towards the water's crystal-clear surface, examining the bottom for any traces of that two-legged creature. The duck scanned the sunken logs and faint traces of aquatic plants along the riverbed, not seeing anything remotely similar to the two-legged creature.

There was nothing but the remnants of rippling water on the surface of the river. It continued to look around for a few seconds, its gaze lingering on the waters surface before shaking its head.

It seemed as though that the two-legged creature had run away once-.

The fire-breathing duck barely had any time to react before the sound of feet stomping on sand echoed from out behind it.

Almost instinctively, it started to open its beak, gathering the spiritual energy from its Mana Core in order to activate its most powerful offensive ability.

The duck did not have any abilities which increased its physical capabilities, only being able to adjust the size of its physical form through a Fragment Of Size.

It could barely react before the figure of the two-legged creature blitzed across the riverbank, crossing a distance of over fifty waddles before arriving within five waddles of itself.

Jon stood within striking distance of the duck, his Knowledge Mana Core rotating rapidly, imbuing his physical enhancement ability with an even greater amount of spiritual energy.

For a single moment, Jon felt his speed had become superhuman. The distance of thirty metres was crossed within the span of three seconds, each one of his steps creating deep indents into the sand beneath him.

Despite this preternatural speed, Jon could only bring himself to increase the rotation of his Mana Core for a single second, afraid of running out of knowledge natured spiritual energy.

With his wooden spear gripped in a single hand, Jon thrust the weapon forward, piercing through the air, an extraordinary amount of force placed behind this one strike. His pupils dilated as the sense of clarity that washed over him removed any excess thoughts from his mind, focusing the entire reservoir of knowledge and experience within him into a single blow.

His accumulated momentum was condensed into a single spear thrust. Jon felt the tip of his wooden spear come into contact with flesh, before a flash of orange-red dyed his vision.

Both Jon and the duck released their own versions of a pain-filled scream. The sound of flapping and human wailing echoing throughout the riverbank, as the two combatants both inflicted incredible wounds onto the other.

While Jon thought that he had gotten used to feeling pain over the last few days, its was his adrenaline and sense of clarity which dulled the sensations in his arm preventing him from losing focus.

The duck on the other hand, desperately attempted to get further away from Jon, trying to waddle away with a spear half-lodged into its chest.

Almost snarling at the duck, Jon clenched his uninjured hand, ignoring the scent of cooked flesh on his nose.

The eighteen-year-old reached out, still using his physical enhancement to grip the neck of the duck tightly, before throwing himself into the water.

The sensation of cool water filled Jon with a sense of pain he did not know was possible, streaks of red dyeing the crystal-clear waters.

His hand still firmly gripped around the neck of the duck, his opposite hand relentlessly piercing the duck with the spear still tied to it. Jon could feel its large, webbed feet try and claw itself at him, but Jon just gripped even tighter, choking the life out of it.

A familiar sense of cold detachment filled Jon's veins. There was no hatred or desire behind his spear strikes, no traces of anger or rage behind the grip he had in its throat.

There was only survival, and the things that people would do to accomplish it.

Jon could not see the duck amidst the numerous streams of bubbles released from its mouth. He did not know how long it would take to drown the beast, but Jon just clenched his hand even tighter, feeling something crack underneath the sheer amount of force.

The duck did not last more than ten seconds, before its body went limp. The light vanishing from its small beady eyes. Although he could not quite see the beast, Jon knew that he had killed it.

His hand still clenched around the neck of the duck, Jon could not help but let out a mouthful of bubbles. The young man swimming up towards the surface of the water, breaking through the near-crystal clear surface.

Jon opened his mouth, gulping down the ash-tasting air around him. Stumbling up towards the riverbank, Jon could not but lift his head all around him, the sound of his heart beating in his chest was so loud that it drowned out the crackling of burning leaves and the snapping fiery trees all around him.

The young man just stood there, letting his breathing adjust to a much steadier rhythm, before stumbling back towards the riverbank. His ears still ringing after experiencing that ash-feathered explosion.

Jon threw the corpse of the fire-breathing duck onto the shore, before releasing the control he had over his Mana Core. A powerful sensation of weakness rippling through his muscles and bones, causing Jon to fall onto his knees, his vision slightly blurred, only now realizing that he had lost his glasses.

The eighteen-year-old just laid down listlessly on the damp sands, gritting his teeth as he ignored the pain coursing through his arm. The gradual rise and fall of his chest, proof that Jon was still alive.

Break

Dozens of System Introduced individuals heard the echoing sound of an explosion ripple through the forest. Some Races, particularly those more sensitive to sound or smell could immediately tell what direction the explosion had come from, opting to retreat in the opposite direction.

Just like Jon, they had all been placed within the System Introduction without their consent, forced to participate in whatever grand design the System desired. They were expected to risk their life in order to complete a series of tasks, or risk death upon the completion of the System Introduction.

People had already been killed, and the timer had only just begun.

This world that they had been introduced to, whatever it was…

Was perhaps the opportunity of a lifetime.

A single lone figure gazed at Jon's figure from across the riverbank, tapping its chin in thought as it spoke in its native language.

"He seems kind of strong. What are the chances that I can convince him to trade with me, I wonder?".