"I got this." Mat caught the potion. He then gripped the arrow lodged in his shoulder, and with a deep breath, he yanked it out. Mat felt a split second of hell- gritting his teeth through it.

He let out a breath or two before moving to the other arrow on his thigh. With a firm grip he pulled, the pain ever as strong as the first one.

"Fuck." Mat then downed the potion, feeling the relief wash over him like a river.

"Alright, I'm good to go." He let out a deep exhale before patting Amigo beside him.

The giant wolf then dashed forward, destroying the standstill between him and the armored juggernaut in front. The monster crossed its cutlass and spear against teeth, a barrage of thrusts between the juggernaut's weapons and Amigo's fangs slicing the air.

Mat gripped his sword and shield, and with a step, he dashed forward and thrust his blade against the juggernaut- blade clanking against armored steel. He kept it up, with stray blades glancing shallow cuts on his cheek, arm, and leg. Still, he pressed on, not daring to back down.

It was a simple flow of movement. Both the juggernaut's spear and cutlass countered every bite and crunch of Amigo's jaw, ending up leaving its own body exposed to Mat's sword.

Fang against steel, sword against armor- it was only a matter of time until the juggernaut succumbed to both forces. Every thrust and every bite between Mat and Amigo pushed the juggernaut further and further, a flurry of attacks crumbling the monster's strength.

With a final drive, Mat put all his strength into the gap of the armor at the collar. The flurry of weapons stopped with the final thrust of his sword. The monster then crumbled, its armor and weapons clunking and clicking against the stone ground as all the metal parts collapsed to pieces. The dark miasma inside vanished to thin air, leaving only the broken armor on the ground.

With that, Mat was assured his victory.

"Fuck yeah!" Mat hollered a celebration. It started to become a habit of his with every kill. He jumped to Amigo with joy, smothering himself in warm fur.

"If you'd accepted Amigo's help from the start, you really wouldn't have had such a hard time." Nian walked towards him as Mat cradled Wingman in his arms. The bird did a lot for him. He may not have been a huge help with the armored juggernaut, but he's already shown his immense worth with the other monsters. This time, Wingman needed a rest.

"I wanted to try and see if I could take on the juggernaut with my own strength."

"Amigo's part of your strength, remember?" Nian threaded her fingers through Amigo's green fur. "He's literally born from your magic. Not acknowledging that your summon is a part of you just hurts his feelings, you know?"

Mat turned to Amigo, beaming the wolf a smile before he dropped Wingman cradled in his arms to Nian's. "Take care of him for a bit, I have something to do with the monster's body."

"Alright."

Mat turned back to the body on the floor, with all that's left of it a broken mess of armor pieces and a spear, cutlass, shield, bow, and quiver. Mat turned to sit, waiting for the green soul to materialize above the monster's corpse so he could finally turn the armored juggernaut into his familiar.

It was an exhilarating moment, like he was about to catch a rare Pokémon to add to his collection. Currently that collection was pretty small, with only a giant direwolf and a kite eagle, but after materializing the armored juggernaut, he was well on his way to building an awesome team of beasts and monsters.

The problem here was, the soul didn't come out.

"What's going on?"

Mat half expected this to happen, though he had hoped it wouldn't have been the case. A limitation of his soulmancy was that he couldn't see souls that were stronger than him, and seeing that there was no soul above the corpse of the monster, that really seemed to be the case.

"Well, maybe next time." Just as Mat turned to leave, a faint green light caught his attention at the end of his vision. As he turned back again, he saw green smoke rising from the armor pieces and coalesced into a green orb floating above.

He could see the soul of the juggernaut.

"Oh god, you had me in the first half." Mat beamed a wide grin. Aside from seeing the juggernaut's soul, he was happy that his soulmancy system deemed him strong enough to see the soul in front of him. He may not have been as physically strong as the juggernaut, but as Nian said, his power comes not only from his own body, but also extends to his ghost wolf and bird: Amigo and Wingman. It sounded cheesy, but it made more or less sense- to him at least.

Mat stretched out his hand, absorbing the green light into it. He then passed the light to his other hand before he pushed it out again to form the silhouette of the armored juggernaut in front.

There was now a tall, ghost-green and mean armored juggernaut staring back. It gripped a long spear on one hand and a cutlass on the other, along with the shield, bow, and quiver strapped to its back. Green miasma seeped out from the crevices of the armor, completing the menacing look of a domineering monster knight.

"Hi?" Mat waved a hand in front of it. This was his first monster summon, unlike Amigo and Wingman who were beasts- normal animals, at least according to fantasy standards. He didn't know how it would respond.

The juggernaut nodded, its armor clanking against itself before it dropped to its knees with a clunk and bowed its head, letting go of both its spear and sword as if by an act of complete subservience. It was like a knight to his king, offering its own body to his service.

Mat knew the souls he materialized into familiars were all bound to loyalty, but the sight of a strong monster kneeling down to him was still something to look at.

It felt pretty good.