Chapter 100: Berserk Battle of the Beast Bones

A split second before the spear pierced his throat, Chief Hondos instinctively turned his head aside. The spear followed the motion and drove into his right shoulder, sending a vast mist of blood into the air. With that single strike, more than two hundred points of health vanished from the chieftain’s body in an instant—nearly one-fifth of his total health.

The beast-bone berserker Big Fork flew into a frenzy. He wrenched the spear from the chieftain’s shoulder with one hand, flinging a streak of blood through the air, then charged forward again with a hoarse, savage roar. The bestial spearhead glittered with greedy malice, as though it could hardly wait to burrow into the broad chest of the half-orc chieftain and drink still more blood…

Clang!

A thunderous crash brought the Corruptor’s second attack to an abrupt halt. A figure even more imposing than the skeleton had appeared before him, standing like a mountain between him and his target. The beast-bone berserker was already tall and powerfully built, yet before this enormous man he looked as frail as a youth.

The giant was none other than the only minotaur paladin on the entire continent of Falvi—the beloved child jointly favored by the Earth Mother and the Father of the Gods—our companion, Bull Million. He was leaning forward with his left leg planted ahead of him, both arms wrapped around one end of a massive obsidian pillar. The other end had already smashed a deep crater into the ground.

The minotaur paladin had just completed a brutal interception. He had rushed to Big Fork’s side before the chieftain could take another hit, then swung the obsidian pillar with both hands and smashed it sideways into the Corruptor’s hips. At the instant it connected, I thought I heard bones breaking. The sturdy Corruptor was nearly knocked airborne by the tremendous blow. His legs gave way beneath him as he staggered back four or five steps before finally managing to halt his retreat.

By then, the rest of us had arrived as well. The battle song of B-flat Nocturne instantly swept across the battlefield, awakening the power within us—the longing to fight. He himself drew his short sword and began slashing at the beast-bone berserker. Fairy Face-First transformed into a sturdy black wolf and savagely tore at Big Fork’s exposed leg bones. When the elf druid girl was flung aside by her opponent, Ding-Ting Little Brother had also finished casting his spell, summoning a voluptuous ice demoness from another world.

I did not rush to attack. Instead, I raised my shield and activated Shield Bash, aiming it squarely at the beast-bone berserker’s face. His hard skull collided with my steel shield, producing a dull, muffled tremor.

Unfortunately, the Corruptors possessed powerful resistance to attacks that could cause unconsciousness. My Shield Bash failed to stop the beast-bone berserker’s retaliation. He thrust his spear back at us, piercing B-flat Nocturne’s thigh, and then launched one attack after another. The bard immediately let out a string of agonized screams. His loud and passionate tenor, as boisterous as a slaughtered pig, somersaulted upward through eight consecutive notes, leaping straight from B-flat minor into A major—and still showing every sign of rising higher.

“I can’t stun him!” I shouted anxiously.

The enemy was not especially high-level, but his counterattacks were swift and crushing. The slightest lapse in attention could result in serious injury. We had to find a way to restrain his movements and slow the rhythm of his attacks. Otherwise, the battle would become increasingly disadvantageous. Even if we ultimately won, we would likely have to pay a terrible price.

“Hold on! Let me try something!”

At that moment, the half-orc warlock Ding-Ting Little Brother remained calm. Under his command, the ice demoness gathered magical power for several seconds, then cast a spell called Icebound Body.

A huge snowball shot into the beast-bone berserker’s abdomen. A pale-blue radiance filled with chill immediately spread from that point, covering his entire body. As the glow extended, a thick layer of ice armor formed over Big Fork. Beneath its cover, his movements slowed dramatically. Every time he moved, little shards of ice pattered down from his joints.

With Ding-Ting Little Brother keeping him under control, B-flat Nocturne finally escaped from Big Fork’s frenzied assault. The elf druid girl had also returned to her human form. She promptly cast a restorative spell called Green Benediction on the bard, and moments later his health had returned to a safe level.

“You do not belong here! Go back to wherever you came from!”

Though his opponent was terrifyingly strong, Chief Hondos had never abandoned the fight. The elderly half-orc’s eyes were wide, his expression horribly twisted. He stubbornly hammered at the Corruptor with both fists, as though he could not release the hatred in his heart without doing so.

Perhaps it was an effective form of emotional relief for him, but in practical terms it accomplished almost nothing. The damage dealt by his fists was so pitiful that he could probably spend half a day pounding away without matching the damage of one ordinary attack from me. Fortunately, the beast-bone berserker Big Fork only attacked whichever opponent had inflicted the greatest damage upon him. With the chieftain’s pathetic offensive power, even if we tied him up and placed him directly in front of Big Fork, the berserker might not consider him worth a second glance.

Thus, although he stood closest to our enemy, he was also the safest among us.

At least, he was the safest for the moment.

Throughout our journey, Chief Hondos had maintained an exalted fighting spirit and a seemingly inexhaustible passion for battle. He had looked ready to snap the bones of every Corruptor with his own hands. Yet something felt strange when he faced Big Fork. His attacks were just as fierce as before, but his expression was no longer so resolute. His eyes were slightly red, his pupils webbed with blood vessels. Beneath his fury, there seemed to be a trace of reluctance. And on that rock-hard face, I caught a faint, almost imperceptible weakness…

The level-fifty-five beast-bone berserker was certainly powerful, but our levels were not far apart, and his combat strength exceeded ours by only a limited margin. Our battle continued for more than a dozen rounds without incident. No one was ever in genuine danger. From beginning to end, we held the initiative with ease, and before long Big Fork’s health had been reduced to less than one-quarter of its original value.

At this point, the Corruptor’s defeat seemed unavoidable. Half our bodies were already basking in the dawn of victory. Completing the mission and earning our honor appeared to be nothing more than a matter of time.

“Haha! Give it everything you’ve got! This fellow is almost finished!”

B-flat Nocturne shouted encouragement happily. His gleaming short sword danced nimbly through his hands like a metal butterfly flashing with deadly light.

The bard’s enthusiasm infected us, plunging our spirits into a brief spell of blind optimism. But just as we were about to cheer in response, the situation suddenly changed in a way none of us had expected.

From the mouth of the Corruptor Big Fork—a mouth that held nothing but a jawbone and teeth—came a sudden rasping hiss. It sounded like the shrill turbulence produced when a powerful wind tore through cracks in bone. A moment later, every joint in his body began to creak and crack.

As the sound spread through him, his already sturdy bones began to thicken at a speed visible to the naked eye. A dark-red halo seemed to seep across them, as though vast quantities of blood had been infused into his remains, staining them with a dense and savage crimson.

When the astonishing transformation ended, he had grown almost as tall as Bull Million. The beast-tooth spear in his hand now looked absurdly tiny, no more than a child’s toy.

Suddenly, he swung his right hand. The spear carved half a vicious arc through the air before him.

I sensed the danger and immediately raised my shield in front of my chest. The next instant, an enormous force crashed into it. It felt as if I had not been struck by a spear at all, but by a colossal hammer. I stumbled backward several steps against my will, losing seventy-six points of health.

Only then did I realize that I was not the sole victim of the blow. Bull Million, B-flat Nocturne, Fairy Face-First in her wolf form, and the half-orc shaman Chief Hondos had all been driven backward by that hurricane-like strike.

Without the protection of a shield, they suffered far greater losses than I did. Bull Million, clad in heavy armor, lost more than ninety points of health. Nocturne and Fairy Face-First lost over one hundred and thirty. Chief Hondos had taken the blow almost bare-bodied, and his loss was the greatest of all: his health plunged by two hundred and thirty points.

Only Ding-Ting Little Brother and his summoned ice demoness escaped injury. They relied on magic attacks and were standing farther away, which allowed them to avoid the shock wave.

Only then did we realize our mistake. This towering Corruptor was not merely an ordinary undead warrior. His name had already told us exactly what he was: a true beast-bone berserker.

Nobody likes fighting a berserker who has entered a state of rage. They are all madmen, slaughterers, devotees of violence, and anarchists. Once you clash with one of them, you cannot expect the battle to end simply with victory or defeat. In most cases, a fight with a berserker ends for only one reason: death—your death, his death, or the deaths of both of you.

Only death can extinguish a berserker’s thirst for combat and slaughter.

Yet for the beast-bone berserker Big Fork standing before us, even death could not calm his madness. He was obviously already dead, and that had clearly done nothing to help.

Before we had even caught our breath, the enraged beast-bone berserker swung his spear again. Damnably, he did not pursue any of us. Instead, he aimed at the unarmed Chief Hondos.

Another streak of red burst forth, painting the curtain of rain with the color of blood. The chieftain’s health immediately dropped toward the dangerous halfway mark.

At last, we managed to close in on him again. Weapons of every kind struck his body with full force. In that instant, the beast-bone berserker seemed like a humanoid fountain of vitality. More than five hundred points of health erupted from his body in a single moment.

In a berserk state, a berserker’s attack power rose dramatically, but his defense fell accordingly. With less than one-quarter of his health remaining, Big Fork’s rage skill was practically accelerating his own destruction.

But would a dead being that had already lost its soul fear dying a second time?

Under the influence of his rage, the dark-red soul fire inside Big Fork’s skull burned hysterically. It looked as though he intended to consume himself and his enemies alike in those wild, despairing flames.

We all knew that the soul fire inside a Corruptor’s skull was a cold flame without heat. Yet at that moment, my eyes must have deceived me, because the streams of rain falling from the sky seemed to evaporate the instant they struck his head.

That flame, which seemed desperate to burn away every trace of life and hope in a single blaze, made everyone who looked directly into it feel a shudder of fear.

Another devastating blow landed on Chief Hondos, leaving him with less than four hundred points of health.

By then, Big Fork seemed to have abandoned the spear’s proper use altogether. He wielded it as though it were an iron club or a war hammer. None of his attacks bore any trace of the disciplined training of a professional warrior. He had surrendered his body completely to the most violent and savage part hidden within his soul, relying on murderous instinct and physical impulse to destroy and kill.

The situation turned sharply against us.

We had never imagined that Big Fork’s attacks would suddenly become so ferocious. Even less had we expected him to abandon all conventional rules at the very end of the battle—to ignore the enemies dealing the most damage and instead focus all his strength on the utterly ineffective “boxing-style” shaman.

This complete violation of traditional combat logic stunned us. We could only watch helplessly as the beast-bone berserker drove Chief Hondos closer and closer to death.

At his current rate of attack, there was no way we could bring Big Fork down before he killed the chieftain.

Was this mission really going to end in failure?

A hollow sense of helplessness rose in my heart. I could think of no solution at all. I was almost ready to give up.

Fortunately, my companions were stronger than I was.

They did not give up.

“Everyone, get out of the way!”

Amid the chaos, Bull Million suddenly roared at us.

Before I had time to understand what he intended, a huge, black, gleaming obsidian pillar was already hurtling toward my face.

At that critical moment, my well-trained body reacted instinctively to the danger. My legs tensed, filled with supple springiness, and I nimbly stepped backward like a hound evading a blow.

My reaction was so quick that I almost avoided Bull Million’s blundering attack.

Unfortunately, “almost” was not enough.

Smack!

“Ow…”

The obsidian pillar clipped the bridge of my nose and struck me brutally from left to right. In that instant, I felt as though a dragon had slapped me squarely in the face—or as though an entire mountain had been shoved into my nose.

Then I realized that I was flying.

And my nose appeared to be dragging me through the air.

I imagine this was what happened: my nose had just endured an immense force. Under normal circumstances, it probably should have flown straight off my face. But my skin was too attached to it, and my skin happened to be unusually sturdy, so…

So my entire body flew along with it.

The sensation of weightlessness was truly marvelous, but do not expect me to volunteer for another experience.

Only after I crashed headfirst into the ground did my mind begin functioning properly again. The first thought that entered my head was:

It was all because my nose was too long…

When I turned around for another look, the sight nearly bent my nose with rage—though, all right, I admit it may not actually have been bent by anger.

Beside Bull Million stood B-flat Nocturne, a bard who did not even reach the minotaur’s belt. Fairy Face-First, now in the form of a gray wolf, stood beside Bull Million’s legs. Farther behind them, the half-orc warlock Ding-Ting Little Brother was casting spells.

From the very beginning, this accident had been destined to leave me as its only victim.

I felt profoundly wronged. If it had been possible, I would have bitten that murderous weapon of Bull Million’s into pieces and swallowed it as revenge.

Ow, my nose…

I had to admit that Bull Million had used his Powerful Whirlwind skill at exactly the right moment. Fortunately, the skill’s knockback effect had not affected me alone. It had also struck Chief Hondos and the beast-bone berserker Big Fork.

The chieftain and the Corruptor were sent flying in opposite directions. Though the attack had hit our honored chieftain even harder than Big Fork’s blow—he had lost a full two hundred and forty-three points of health—it had successfully widened the distance between them and bought us precious time.

“Haha! When it really matters, you can always count on me to save the day! Urgh…”

Bull Million boasted loudly and heroically, as though he had just accomplished some magnificent feat. His voice was deep and resonant, with a peculiar magnetism produced by the vibration in his nasal passages. He really did sound like a great champion.

His image would have been even more glorious if he had not succumbed to the penalty of dizziness at the end and produced several nauseating sounds.

“Big Brother Bull, you’re simply brilliant!”

Fairy Face-First’s delicate cheer came from the mouth of the gray wolf, whose long tongue lolled outside. The spectacle raised gooseflesh all over my body.

She immediately sprang upon the fallen beast-bone berserker and, before he could rise, began clawing and biting him furiously.

Yes, this clever brute had also smashed my innocent nose! How had everyone managed to forget that?

“Quick! Now! Concentrate your attacks! Don’t let him get near the chieftain!”

B-flat Nocturne reacted at once. He rushed before Big Fork with his short sword and unleashed his most powerful combat skill without holding anything back.

Ding-Ting Little Brother was not idle either. One powerful single-target spell after another flew toward the beast-bone berserker. Under his control, the ice demoness released a constant barrage of ice bolts. Although the low-level spell was not especially powerful, it was cast rapidly and attacked with remarkable efficiency.

Bull Million was still spinning woozily in place, clearly no longer dependable. I got to my feet and hurried forward, just as I was preparing to contribute to the final assault…

“…Go back to wherever you came from…”

Unexpectedly, Chief Hondos had also climbed back to his feet. Completely oblivious to the danger, he was trying to rejoin the battle.

My heart instantly turned cold.

If he really charged over there, the beast-bone berserker could kill him with a single reach of his hand. I truly could not understand whom he thought he was helping. If he genuinely wanted to destroy these Corruptors, could he not simply stand aside and stay put?

I had to stop him from throwing his life away.

That was the only thought in my mind.

Almost without thinking, my body reacted on its own. I swung my left arm in a wide arc and slammed my shield viciously into his green face.

Shield Bash!

Clang!

Chief Hondos stopped where he stood. His eyes stared blankly ahead, and his body swayed back and forth.

Ha! I may not have been able to knock Big Fork unconscious, but surely I could knock you out. Now stay right there and behave yourself!

This stupid half-orc chieftain had dragged us through hell throughout our journey. At last, I had the chance to teach him a personal lesson. It felt as though a blocked pond had suddenly been opened, releasing all the pent-up frustration in my heart at once. The pressure vanished completely, leaving me more refreshed than I would have been after killing an enemy.

If he had not had so little health remaining, I might even have struck him a few more times.

Smugly, I clapped my hands, raised my sword again, and charged toward Big Fork, whose life was now hanging by a thread.