Claire was not happy. No, she was angry. She was angry that the apocalypse happened. She was angry that she had now been forced into a world of blood and carnage. She was angry that the others of her group seem to be taking this in stride, as if they think this is all normal. It’s not, the only reason we have survived so far is because of having a healer, my brothers ridiculous innate ability, and their master tactician. Most of all though, she was angry at herself.
Sure, she can hack and slash like anyone else but for some reason the very act of killing chilled her to her core. She can kill no problem, in fact every time she seemed to not help but smile. She always smiled after she started mercilessly slaughtering creatures from nightmares, there was something about slicing through rotten flesh and bones, the certain resistance they gave before letting her weapon pass through unhindered. It was only after she finished slaughtering that the smile from her lips would falter and she would begin to question who she is fundamentally.
How can she, someone who has never gotten into a fight before the apocalypse, who owned a bakery, who volunteered on the weekends at the soup kitchen, suddenly start liking to kill. No. Love it. She seems to act as if killing was her drug, except when the high came down, she didn’t crave more. Instead she was ashamed for the way she acted, clinging to any kind of morality can still survive once the world goes up in flames.
And so there she was, breathing heavily after throwing a chair she dragged from the break room down the hall. Currently the store they were hiding in was as big as a Lowes but she decided that being as close to the back as possible would be helpful, this she trained just outside where the break room was, down the hall, past the bathrooms until it opens up into the store.
After her screaming bout with her brother, he left in an ill mood, going back to his room so he could help Gary train. He also told me that Sam was coming to help me seeing as I was obviously struggling. Not that I didn’t need help but right now I’m not sure if I will snap at him or not.
Hearing the distinct sound of metal boots, ones he must have created while he was crafting for us, I can now seem Sam slowly making his way toward me, Some weird object in his hand. It looks like a thermostat but the glowing blue runes tell me that it is much more than that.
I don’t mind Sam. In fact if it were a choice between him or Gary I would always choose him. Not because he’s cute!...it’s just because he is not as talkative as Gary and by that I mean he does not annoy me after ten minutes.
He keeps walking until there is only a foot between us. He stands there, towering over me since I am only five seven with him being an above average six feet. His piercing blue eyes seeming to stare into my soul, gauging me from the inside and out. He then forms a thin lipped smile and steps back. His focus on the weird item in his hand.
The item quivers a little bit, then starts creating more of itself, slowly, before settling into the shape of a wicked looking Katana. He then looks at me and speaks with his clear crisp voice.
“Let’s move these shelves and give us some space.” He then flicks his katana once before moving it into a sheath at his side that he most likely created.
I turn towards the shelves, only as tall as Sam turns out very easy to move albeit a little loudly.
Once the shelves were moved to create a half circle with the open half having a way to lead back into the backrooms, where Gary and Clyde are currently in.
“Now, let’s start with you telling me what motivates you.”
“What do you mea-” My words were cut short when he suddenly sprang from ten feet away and stopped in front of me with his katana in his hands, pressing against my neck. A slow trickle of blood started leaking from the place where he had the katana at and I couldn’t help but smile at him.
My vision is suddenly obscured with a red haze and I can’t help but try to fight back. Using my left foot I pulled his front foot further forward, making him lose his balance while I lean back and allow myself some room to awkwardly roll backwards and back to my feet. I pull my battleaxe out right before he rushes me again, this time it is me that is pushed off balance as I failed to understand how he gained so much momentum.
The red haze still covered me while we fought, my mind further entrenching itself deeper inside the haze until my conscious was completely clouded with a profound instinct to kill. Suddenly my body became faster as we were exchanging blows and I began to meticulously force him back. My strength has doubled at this point and all I know on how the fight is progressing is that I am very close to actually getting a hit in.
Even though I can tell I am now starting to win, not even a doubt of worry can be seen on Sam’s face.
He then jumps back after twenty minutes of clashing and just stares at me impassively, almost as if me trying to kill him hasn’t fazed him at all. I must have put that aside though because the next thing I know s that I am charging him, just trying to decimate him, to kill.
“That’s enough.”
Suddenly I see Sam teleport next to me and use the pommel of his blade to strike me in the temple.
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I wake up with a pounding headache and what I can only guess is a forming bruise on my head, that is until I can feel my [Constitution] stat start to kick in. Feeling the bruise slowly heal is weird to say the least.
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“So what have you learned.” Sam appears to be sitting cross legged right next to me, his eyes closed seeming to meditate.
Getting up to brush off the dust I can only groan. All of my body feels like I just trekked a ten mile hike up a mountain. Even with [Constitution] working over time, my body will probably be sore until tomorrow.
“I seem to not have self control once I start fighting. I don’t know how to explain it, it’s like once I start to fight I feel as if...as if... ”
“...As if nothing else matters and the only thing you should focus on is killing what is in front of you.” He calmly said. How did he know?
“When you fight your eyes turn a deep red color, is this because of a skill you have?” He inquisitively asked.
“Yes, I unlocked it after I fought with you and the others in the underpass. It’s called [Berserk Rage] the description was really vague though.”
“Could you read the description for me?”
“Sure, Passive, activates when one gets into life threatening danger. The human mind is a fickle thing, being able to perform superhuman feats when the right amount of stress is induced. With berserk rage, sacrifice your morality for survival by regressing back to base human instinct.”
“Interesting, and what are the effects?”
“Umm, doubles Strength, Endurance, Constitution, Dexterity, and Perception but halves Intelligence, Willpower, and Charisma. It also induces the berserk state which blocks the mind of any unnecessary distractions or thought.”
“As I suspected, looks like you are becoming a Berserker.” Sam looks at me as if he has found a lost puppy.
“What is a Berserker?” Not aware of the gaming lingo, I do not know what he is talking about.
“Simply put a Berserker is a class that specializes in dealing massive amounts of damage to opponents but in return they usually have a new resource called [Rage] that they have to use instead of mana. It is not a bad class when playing online but right now until you learn to control it you might end up attacking your own team. Before we go to the dungeon however we should see if Clyde can get a sleep spell or a calm spell in order to keep you under control when you turn.”
“You asked what my motives are.” I said, both of my hands balled tightly.
“And was is your answer?” Sam opens his eyes and looks directly into mine, ones that seem to be filled to the brim of resoluteness.
“I want to survive, but most importantly I want my brother to survive. No, to live. I want him to continue being happy and I will guard that no matter what, I won’t leave him alone like our parents did with us. I will make sure he is taken care of!” Near the end I am almost shouting at him, my hands clenched into fists at my sides, staring straight at him.
He then forms a smile while still maintaining eye contact.
“That’s good, but that reasoning is exactly why this is happening to you.” That makes me falter for a bit. He continues.
“You see, since your priorities is to keep your brother safe which is admirable, you keep telling yourself you just have to survive. You never said you wanted to live as you want your brother too, this is most likely what is causing this shift in behaviour when fighting and the reason you gained the [Berserk Rage] skill. It was the systems way of acknowledging that you are willing to sacrifice yourself if it means you protect your brother.”
I...can’t believe it. He is absolutely right, while I want to not die I really just don’t want to see my brother getting hurt. Knowing this helps me see why I gained the [Berserk Rage] skill. While the power it provides it amazing, it comes at the cost of me not even knowing who I am trying to protect while using it. But without it all I have is some commonly gained skills that while useful, don’t have the potential like [Berserk Rage], well except for my innate ability from my apparently real ancestor, Arthur Pendragon which is even more ambiguous than my [Berserk Rage] skill. Nevertheless, using this skill is going to be fastest way to get stronger by leveling up faster with it.
“Thank you Sam but, I think I will keep using this skill and see if the negative effects lessen once I level it.”
“If you would like I may be able to help.” He then stands up and starts brushing off the dust that has accumulated from the fight.
“In what way?” I ask wearily while slowly reaching for my axe again, the red haze starting to form.
“Well while we could just fight I was thinking of doing something else that might help lessen the effects of the [Berserk Rage].”
“How?” is the only thing that came to my mind.
“Well, while your brother was an exceptional sword fighter when playing video games, he always used magic as his secondary tool and even then, being a blood mage is much more different than a regular mage.” He then closes his eyes and I can see that he has activated [Meditation].
“Your brother never realized that the classes I played, such as a samurai, or a knight, I always played with my real body size. This naturally helped me over different games since it was essentially the same body, but different skills. In essence though while your brother is undeniably the best fighter in our guild, when I rarely fought using a damage class instead of a tank one, I alway was able to dish out more damage. This is because instead of being a regular physical fighter, I also used magic. This was the one thing your brother never picked up though, there is a way to regenerate magic in battle faster and I am very close to evolving one of my skills into it here.” What he is saying, it could change everything!
“What skill? Evolve how? What was that crazy move you used to knock me out?” These were the three questions that I had in my mind and couldn’t help but blurt out in quick succession.
“Well, let's start with your third question since it requires the least bit of explaining. That was a martial arts technique called flash step that I have been perfecting for quite some time now, in fact as soon as I used it I was given the system equivalent skill which pretty much does the same thing. Now, if you were perceptive you could see that my [Meditation] skill hasn’t stopped since we have started this conversation.”
“You’re right! But how can that be, I thought when you activate [Meditation] you have to remain still and focus on drawing the mana into your body.” I ask since I thought that was the con of using the skill.
“You are correct when I am using [Meditation] I have to remain still to be able to focus on drawing mana from the air. Though this is where the evolve kicked in. You see, when I was starting out as a mage I realized something about meditating. All it is..is a state of mind.”
“A state of mind? Are you going to go all Mr.Miyagi on me?” He clearly was not expecting that since his smiled faltered a bit when I mentioned the wax-on wax-off guy.
“Well, yeah actually, but a little less cryptic.” He smiled at me sheepishly.
“Very well, carry on then.”
“Right, anyways meditation is just a state of mind. In this case when you use [Meditate] you are actually acknowledging the part of your body that is usually subconsciously drawing mana into your body and taking direct control of it to draw even more mana into it. This also has a side effect of when broken out of it, it gives you that refreshing feeling. Well, to evolve [Meditation] into the skill [Battle Meditation] in the other games, you would have to activate meditation, get a feel for how that affects your mind when you meditate, and simply copy it while you are fighting. Once you do it enough your mind will start to slip into that calm, dreamlike everytime you fight until it becomes second nature.”
[Battle Meditation] it’s true that that will help me counteract the negative effects of [Berserk Rage] if I can learn it. The only reason Sam has is because he has actually trained himself over years of hard work to achieve it. But with him teaching me I am sure I can learn it eventually. Smiling now, I give sam a huge thumbs up.
“Alright, let’s do this!”