Path of the Berserker-Chapter 9Book 5:

I flew straight into the air at the sound of the bell.

As predicted, Lady Silver Tear held back no punches with her opening move, unleashing a blinding barrage of Qi blasts centered at where I’d just been seconds ago. Her follow up was equally aggressive, with two of her clones soaring after me with [Flash Step] and then engaging with all twelve of their blades at once.

The air became a maelstrom of sparks and clashing steel as I struggled to deflect the hits with my [Spectrally] charged axe. It was futile and not just because it was twelve weapons versus one. Her speed was incredible. I parried perhaps a third of the attacks as the rest tore through my robes and bounced off my [Diamond] hardened skin.

I [Lightning Walked] to evade a third clone and then retaliated with wide sweeps of my Phalanx Glaive, cutting loose with huge arcs of [Frenzied Lightning]. She evaded as I anticipated, buying me a bit of breathing room. I could barely keep track of which one was the real her. Although Silver Tear’s clones were all spectral forms, her dark robes made it difficult to tell which ones were see through or not.

It probably didn’t matter.

Each clone seemed as formidable as she herself was.

Silver Tear’s clones fanned outward, surrounding me on all sides.

“Just as I predicted,” she said in her multiple voices with a mocking scoff. “Incredibly strong, but yet unskilled.”

Her insult irked me, feeding my Flame, but she probably wasn’t wrong either.

I felt rusty as hell trying to perform my Axe and Glaive techniques and my moderately slow style versus hers was a bad match up to begin with. Much less that she had augmented her potency by five-fold.

Still, I wasn’t going to let her know that.

“Skill is the last thing I’m going to need to kill you, bitch!” I shouted with [Torment of the Frenzied Flame]. “I got rage on my side!”

The technique set off a chain-reaction that rippled through Silver Tear’s clones, ending with a pang a fear sparking within the real Silver Tear herself. I homed in on her and charged forward with [Lightning Drill of Fury].

The spiraling attack caught her off guard and as my blades drove into her, I elicited a sweet scream of pain.

“[Shadow’s Sacrifice]!” she cried and instantly her body burst into a cloud of black smoke.

I was blinded for a second and then heard another cry in multiple voices.

“[Eighth Heaven! Radiant Soul Strike]!”

Shit! I knew that technique.

I activated my [Sacred Soul Shield] just as five beams of blinding energy slammed into me. My [Soul Shield] flared with burning Frenzy as it suppressed the disruptive attack. She kept it up for a few seconds, but eventually cut it off when she perhaps noticed it wasn’t doing crap to me.

As the smoke cleared, Silver Tear changed her formation yet again, swirling in a cluster, but I noticed that one of her clones had now disappeared. I didn’t know of this [Shadow’s Sacrifice] technique, but it clearly appeared she could use it to save her true self from a killing blow with it at the expense of one of her clones.

That just made this fight a lot more irritating, I thought.

“An amazing initial bout for this legendary match up,” the announcer crooned over the speakers. “Lady Silver Tear has the point advantage thus far, but the Iron Marshal is showing he’s unfazed by most of it.”

I glanced at the scoreboard.

Seventh Warden vs The Iron Marshal

Odds: 5:6

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Time – 28:34

Seventh Warden

Iron Marshal

Damn, I thought. She’s hit me that many times, already?

“What manner of beast have you become, Bull Man?” she chided me. “Did you trade your soul for power on those Hell Worlds?”

It was my turn to pause now.

Could she sense my Frenzy somehow?

Or was it the fact that I could easily deflect five disruptive techniques like they were nothing? It was probably the latter, but in any case, she now knew she had to pull out her A game. And for me that could mean even more pain.

“You Fire Birds could never be trusted,” she said. “Tell me now! How did you grow so strong?”

“Ain’t you heard?” I flexed with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “I’m a damn prodigy.”

I fueled my Frenzy into another lightning charged combo, sending a torrent of white lightning her way. I closed the gap as she quickly parried each one and then dived in with a huge sweep of my Glaive.

The distraction worked and I managed to clip one of her clones.

No sooner than I had done so however, she blinked out of existence and then five screaming forms whizzed past me with brilliant flashes of steel.

“[Fifth Heaven! Nine-Point Strike]!”

I felt stuck in slow motion as the attacks struck me seemingly all at once, but each one etched a small chip in my [Diamond Skin] armor and by the end of it, I was covered in wounds that began to weep blood.

The pain hit a few seconds later, burning like a thousand papercuts soaked in acid.

I hissed through the pain, cultivating it for my own strength.

“Ah,” Silver Tear said from everywhere around me. “So the beast is killable after all. I suppose it will be just a matter of time.”

She glanced at the scoreboard and I did the same.

She’d scored another 100 odd points and while it didn’t kill me, if time ran out, she could still technically win this match. Anger boiled within as I thought of such an infuriating outcome. No way was I going to allow her to stall for time.

“Cowardly bitch!” I shouted. “Fight me head on!”

I blasted her with axe and glaive techniques, but she easily kept her distance with a combination of fending me off with her clones and [Flash Stepping] in and out of range. I knew her techniques thanks to Fia’s training, but the way she executed them was on another level. By the time I recognized what type of attack she was using, she had already executed three more via her clones.

The result was a battle of attrition I didn’t have time to win.

But to hell with winning.

I wasn’t here for a damn win.

I was here to kill.

We ping-ponged around the arena, drawing huge cheers from the crowd. The wounds on my body worsened as I desperately tried to match her speed. With [Mark of the Beast], I’d probably well exceed her, but I couldn’t cut loose like that right now.

And neither did I want to.

I had to prove I had enough raw strength to match her.

Even if short on skill.

I landed on the ground to regain my focus and Lady Silver Tear again surrounded me.

“I hope you haven’t given up already, Bull Man,” she said, tauntingly. “I was hoping for far more from you, after what I saw you do to my nieces.”

I flashbacked to me using [Furious Flame of the Father] and wondered if the Warden herself hadn’t gotten a quick look. It might certainly explain her interest in the origins of my newly gained powers.

“That was a fraction of my true strength,” I said, my anger seething. “But you’re going to get it full on from here. For what you did to my family. To Fia. You’re going to suffer far worse than your nieces before you die!”

I unleased my rage with thoughts of my mother, father and sister in my heart. That night so long ago. I finally had the strength I wished I’d had back then. The strength to stop the madness. To save them.

But there was no saving them now.

All that was left.

Was revenge.

I let out a guttural cry as my Flame surged with Frenzy, tapping into the root of my Dao. I no longer tried to engage her with skillful axe and glaive techniques. She was too advanced for that anyway.

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I went old school.

Back to my roots.

Back to the core of what it meant to be a Berserker.

And gave into my rage.

The world tunneled as I let the Demon have full control of the reins. He had waited a lifetime for this, and I wasn’t going to deny him. I blasted through the air with a combination of [Ride the Lightning] and freeform swings of my Axe and Glaive.

I was only vaguely aware of her multiple sword techniques, slicing through my defenses and cleaving through my flesh beneath, but I was on too much of a roll to care. Awe arose from the crowd as fear began to seep from the soul of the Warden herself.

“What a fearsome rally from the Iron Marshal!” the announcer screamed. “The Lady Silver Tear looks completely overwhelmed! Her techniques are landing but the Marshal just doesn’t seem to care!”

Damn straight, I don’t care! I thought, as my mind continued to rage.

I could count the zero shits I could give as I crossed the [Barren Ground] and made my way through [Deaths Door]. Blood and bone shattered as I endure technique after technique, but with every death blow I took came one of my own.

“[Shadow’s Sacrifice]!” Silver Tear cried. “[Shadow’s Sacrifice]!”

One by one, I popped her nine lives.

Or five in this case.

Before too long I got her down to one.

The countenance of her soul shifted then, from fear to outright panic.

“Enough!” Silver Tear cried. “Time to end this and you!”

Her single form was in my sights and my tunnel vision was zoomed in on her.

“Lightning Drill of Fur--!”

Before I could get the technique off, the world was suddenly plunged into darkness.

“What’s this?” the announcer’s voice echoed in the pitch-black void. “The Lady Silver Tear has pulled out all the stops and summoned her inner world! We can only imagine what’s going on inside that black cloud now! Will the Iron Marshall survive? I’m certain only one of them will emerge!”

Shit, I thought.

This was the same as when I fought Lo Feng.

Only Lady Silver Tear’s inner world was much different.

“Very impressive,” her voice came from all around me in the darkness. “You are one of the few to ever bring me to this stage of combat.”

A blinding light appeared, and I braced myself to defend against it, but it grew from a pinpoint and exploded into a huge visage of heavenly clouds and pink skies. Then one by one, I saw sparkles in the clouds and when I looked closer, I saw they were gleaming swords.

Hundreds of them, suspended on nothing.

I floated in the air, panting and bleeding; pain as constant as the pulse flowing through my gushing veins.

Silver Tear emerged in the center of it all.

She was glowing like a god, radiating new power, her skin gleaming like silver itself.

“Witness Bull Man, my life’s work and creation.” She floated to one of the swords and took it in her hand. “You are one of the few to ever see my great collection. I have curated over a thousand blades and stored them within my inner world.”

I fought to push back against her, trying to summon an inner world of my own.

“Yeah, well your vision of heaven will burn in hell when you see my inner world.”

Come on! I thought, hoping for a breakthrough. Burn this bitch on the planes of the Hell World, damn it!

She started to laugh. “I know not what you hope to accomplish, but it seems you are indeed but a 7th Tier after all. Your inner world is too weak to supersede mine.”

Damn it! I thought.

She was right.

I had no idea how to counteract this.

“But you have fought well, Bull Man,” Silver Tear said as she whipped her blade through a series of martial forms. “As I knew you would. For this, you have the privilege of facing my ultimate technique.” She began to shimmer and one by one, clones appeared at each sword dangling in the sky.

It was her Shadow Clone technique amped up to a thousand.

“[Final Heaven! Thousand Point Unlimited Blade Strike]!”

I barely had chance to channel all my Frenzy to my defenses as the sky rained down on me with a thousand blades of steel. My [Diamon Skin] shattered instantly as the barrage of attacks went straight through and crashed into my [Diamond Core]. I cried out with a maddening pain as my Dantian began depleting like I was back on the Hell Worlds again.

Her sustained attack was so powerful, it took all my Frenzy to counteract it and stay alive through [Death’s Door]. But even that would give in soon once it hit zero. I needed more power. More Frenzy to push back against this and see me through.

I needed a reset, to turn the tides.

I didn’t want to resort to using a [Mark] but now, stuck within her inner world, I didn’t have much choice. But that meant no one else could see me from the outside either. At least for just a second anyway. I thought back to that final image of my family as Lady Silver Tear callously condemned them to death.

But not just them…

She was responsible for who lived and died across the entire world that night.

Billions of people, died by her hand.

I cried out as I tapped into the power of [Everyone’s Sorrow] and felt the strength of my Dantian growing again. It was now or never. I needed something so powerful that it would end both the technique and her in an instant. I tapped into my meridians and lined up two techniques in quick succession.

“[Three Fold Frenzy]!”

A blinding rage filled my mind as my body morphed with all three [Marks] at once. My skin and bones were instantly healed and the Demon went from being in command to being totally out of control. The Struggler gripped him by the horns, giving me but a fraction of a second to react with my rational mind.

“[Wrath of a Million Slain Souls]!”

The technique went off with the power of the [Demon], [Beast] and [Giant] combined. Huge tendrils of white lightning ricochetted between every sword in Silver Tear’s domain then focused on Silver Tear herself.

She let out a horrific cry as the entire world exploded and in a flash the arena reappeared again. Along with it came the shattering of a thousand swords as metal began raining from the sky. Silver Tear was stunned in midair, and I surged towards her with [Lightning Walk], lifting my Glaive overhead for a killing blow.

“[Lightning Splits the towering Oak]!”

She seemed to come to herself at just the last moment and with a scream of shock she pushed both palms towards me and formed her last, six Jian blades into a triangular formation.

“[Ninth Heaven! Six-Point Guard]!”

My blade struck the translucent pink barrier that formed between her swords, and I felt it give a little as my power pushed through. Fear, panic and incomprehension filled her silver eyes, and I stared right back at her with [Focused Fury] within my own.

“H-how?” she said as both fear and lemonade filled her soul. “How are you still alive? How have you been made whole?”

“Because I follow the Son of the [Furious Fame of the Father], bitch!”

As I invoked the technique, I could see her catch a glimpse of the One True Flame as it was mirrored in her silver eyes. She let out a primal scream of terror and her defensive technique faltered, leaving my glaive to break through it like shattering glass.

A huge boom went off as she went careening towards the ground.

I was after her in a flash, punching through the air with [Lightning Drill of Fury].

We both hit the ground at the same time, my technique going off like a bomb as it drilled right into her chest. A resounding shockwave went throughout the entire stadium and when the dust cleared, Silver Tear was impaled to the ground with my Glaive twisted through her midsection.

Deathly silence fell as the crowd stood to their feet.

I looked down at her as she gurgled and spat blood, her arms shaking in spasms.

“I don’t believe this arena has ever seen such raw power before,” the announcer came over the speakers. “But it’s a definitive victory, folks. The Lady Silver Tear is no more! We have a new Warden in Jurin Province. All hail the Iron Marshal!”

The crowd burst into thunderous cheers, and I could feel the surge of awe and lemonade that came with it, but none more so than that which was coming from the Warden herself. It puzzled me for a moment and then, with a bloodied hand, I could swear she was beckoning me.

“Come quickly, boy,” she said, emphasizing ‘boy’ like it was a curse. “I won’t last long from this damn deathblow of yours.”

What the hell?

I touched down on the ground next to her and her silver eyes filled with a sort of delight as she looked up at me, teeth bloodied with a smile.

“You did not fail to deliver, Iron Bull. Well done.”

“What are you talking about?”

“When I stepped onto this battlefield, I knew there was a very good chance I would not survive. For weeks I anticipated my own death at your hands.” She then paused to hack out a wad of blood. “It’s a comfort, I suppose, to at least be right about something.”

I grimaced, looking down at her as she began to laugh.

“What the hell do you want? A cookie?” I’d had enough of this shit. “Go rot in hell, you bitch. I’m glad your death will be a painful one. For both leaving my family to die and for trying to kill Fia and my son. You’re lucky your dumbass nieces failed, or you and the rest of this planet would be a burning ember by now.”

Her brows lifted in surprise as I gave her a shit eating grin.

“Yeah, that’s right bitch. They’re both still alive. And now, with you gone, I’ll be returning her and her father to their rightful place in this city.”

She let out a scoff that grew into outright laughter.

It infuriated me and I felt like punching her right in the damn face and probably would have if she wasn’t already bleeding to death.

“Hell’s so funny?”

“Oh, my dear, dear boy…so amazingly clever, yet still not very wise.”

My ire peaked. “What are you talking about?”

“Bull Man, I barely cared about your first family, why would you think I would care anything of your second?”

The statement filled me with anger and confusion both. “What do you mean?”

She let out a sigh. “It was the Princess who ordered their deaths, you foolish boy.”

“What?” My mind struggled to comprehend it. It didn’t make any sense. The princess wanted Fia and my baby dead? “Why? Why would she want that?”

She laughed again. “Don’t be so daft, child. Did you not discern that the woman is infatuated with you?”

Infatuated? “Look, I know I’m like her prized tribute or something, but why would she try to kill Fia?”

“To have you to herself, you idiot.”

I was starting to feel every bit as stupid as my nickname.

Was I really being a chun here?

“You can sense it even now, can’t you?” Silver Tear said and craned her neck to look up at the floating dais where the Princess was. “See the way she stares down at you? She desires you as more than just a tribute or trophy. She desires you all to herself. As a husband.”

The world went off kilter as my stomach lurched. “The hell?”

“I dutifully carried out the deed, as did my nieces,” Silver Tear said. “But for me there was no personal interest in it. For her, however, it was much more.”

My mind reeled yet again. “That bitch ordered you to kill my wife and child?”

“Future wife,” she said. “And yes. She wanted no trace of Silver Light’s lineage to sour her fantasy, I suppose.”

New thoughts raced through my mind. I recalled the way she kept patty my hand in that meeting. “That dirty old slut! I thought those damn letters of hers were strange, but this is crazy!”

I seethed as my anger was redirected. I looked up at the Princess again and the bitch actually blew me a kiss. I recoiled inside, torn with revulsion and hate. “I’m gonna kill her. I’m going to damn well kill her!”

“Calm yourself, Bull Man,” Silver Tear said, chuckling until she spat up blood. “Still so unwise.”

Unwise? “What the hell are you talking about now? And why are you telling me all this?”

“Know you not that a dead man tells no tales, but a dying man tells all?”

“Huh?”

She laughed again. “You truly are but a fool... You seek power, don’t you? To restore your petty world? Think you can do that by being the ruler of Jurin Province?”

I felt like slapping her again. “I’m doing it one step at a time, bitch. I’ll get there eventually. I beat you, didn’t I?”

“So full of fire… do yourself a favor, Bull Man. If you truly wish to kill the princess, keep your family hidden and marry the ridiculous old woman first.”

I was rocked back on my heels by the notion, instantly disgusted. “To hell with that!”

She laughed. “Let her make you a Duke. True royalty with land of your own. That will get you much farther than being an Imperial Marshal alone.”

I paused at that and in the back of my mind, the Struggler was starting to do the math on what she’s said. “I still don’t know why you’re telling me all this.”

She smiled with bloodied teeth. “Because I hate the bitch and the ruling clan…just like you.”

A distant look then entered her eyes as the light in them began to fade. “My dear Bull Man. You were my only mistake. A boy I let across the threshold when I knew you were yet too old. What a fitting end to befall me for my folly. You distracted me from my path. Never before did I practice compassion.” She chuckled once more. “But at least it allowed me to see both the pinnacle of my creation and my demise. My one mistake, which led to the prodigy that foretold my end. I take some pride in knowing that I played such a critical role in your path.”

My mind reeled yet again as I took in what she’d said.

She was absolutely right.

That one decision.

Her choice to take me in, instead of leaving me to die with my family, was what changed everything.

“I know not what darkness you partake of now boy, but I wish you well with it.” She then smiled. “And spit in the princess’s face for me before you kill her, yes? But be smart for once and marry the deluded old bitch first.”

With that Lady Silver Tear wheezed her last.

I was left perplexed and beside myself, thinking new thoughts as the crowd and the princess herself showered me with their accolades from above.

“What the hell…”