Activating his strengthening skill Urist dropped the empty bottle and kicked into the ground causing seeds and dirt to fly up. Jumping into the air Urist descended into the tide smashing his foot into a large rat causing its body to explode into gore.

The rats didn’t run away from him, without fear they jumped at Urist, full of hunger, their eyes showing their wish to rip into him. The dwarf and rats proceeded to dig into each other with Urist using his spear as a club and the rats that got past biting and scratching at his leather boots and gambeson leggings.

He didn’t worry about the small ones as their teeth were not long enough to pierce the material. The ones that could actually injure him were the quarter and half rats. Of those over half a dozen had injured him with their teeth along his stomach and legs.

The battle had been going on for about a minute and it was then that Urist started noticing the true effects of the berserk potion. By now his heart felt like it was about to explode out of his chest. That and his mind was slowly slipping away from him pulling him into a frenzy calling for blood. 

If someone saw Urist right now they would be shocked by how his once amber eyes had turned blood red.

The berserk potion truly lives up to its name. Fuck, my vision is growing black. Even so…

One of the reasons why he hadn’t given the rest of the team a berserk potion was its side effect of causing temporary mental corruption. That is what the Alchemist Empty had told him when he mentioned it to the group. He figured that as long as he held a hint of sanity he would be able to leave the battlefield. Unfortunately, even though he had some control over his mind his body was consumed in rage killing as it pleased.

I really should have tested it before taking it into combat. Fuck... Am I actually in danger?

He realized at that moment that his selfish ideas of not wanting anyone die had caused his logical mind to be suppressed. 

I wanted to shoulder all the risk and now I’m paying the price. Smiling bitterly he regretted his rash decision as he felt the potion digging into his mind making his conciseness slip bit by bit away from him.

His berserk body yelled full of fury using his spear like a club swinging it into the tide crushing the bodies of the rats. With each new wound golden flame started to flicker around the berserk dwarf. His berserker body had activated the origin flames and gathered a raging inferno on his back.

Although that didn’t deter the rats from throwing their lives onto his back for one more bite scratch. In the back of the wave, the bloodthirsty rat king watched his rat army kill Urist by one thousand cuts. If Urist wasn’t in such a fury he would notice that the rat king had grown to reach ¾ the size of a dwarf. 

Yet it wasn’t enough to slate the kings' bloodlust. He wanted the one that wounded him to die! Die! DIE!

...

“GET IN THE FUCKING BASE NOW!”, Rat the fisherman screamed at the top of his lungs with the rest of the exploration team coming up from behind him. Everyone on the construction team was confused as to why Rat seemed so hysterical.

The one to be quick-witted was Unicy who was already giving out orders.

“Everyone in the construction team gets inside. Guard team on me. We will cover the construction teams retreat before entering. Move, move, move!”

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Thanks to the strict training of Unicy the guard team got into formation in front of the gate without a hitch as the construction team hurried through. When about half of the construction team had entered the base the exploration team had reached the guard team. That was when they noticed that Urist wasn’t with them.

Her gaze became cold as she turned to the fear-stricken Rat, “Where is our boss? Did you leave him to die?!”

Anguish filled the hearts of the exploration team at her accusatory words leaving Rat at the verge of tears. It was Reaver who answered Unicy’s question with remorse, “The boss told us to leave while he held off the tide to buy us time to escape.”

Unicy gashed her teeth in anger. “That fool. We must rescue him! Fellow guardsmen to me. We shall open a path of slaughter for the Boss to retreat! KILL!”

The guardsman roared full of resolve, “KILL!”   

Reaver held back Unicy from charging forth, “You can’t! there are too many of them. You would be wasting your lives! Believe in the boss that he will come back alive!” 

Unicy tried to push Reaver out of the way but the tamer hold on fast not letting go, “Unhand me! I must save my lord from death. He is a beacon of light for our race, he cannot die here. Fellow guards remove this woman.“

As the other dwarfs tried to remove Reaver her marked beasts surrounded her and growled at the guardsman menacingly, causing the air to become tense.

For the dwarven community, this would mark the first conflict between fellow dwarfs. The two parties stood opposite each other, not sure what to do in this scenario.

“We need to save him, get off me.”

“We need to stay safe and believe in him.”

“He just started learning to fight, he won’t be able to come back alive alone.”

“He has the berserk potion, origin flames, and the strength skill. Much more would be needed to kill the boss. We should enter our base and wait for him.”

The two argued long enough to see a pillar of flames rise in the distance, sending hundreds of charred rats into the air. 

...

Time seemed to slow for Urist’s whose mind faded into its berserker rage. In this time fragmented memories entered his mind unsurprisingly showing all his failures one by one. He could only learn, not create, lead, save, or give anything back to society. 

My hands were only created to fail. Then for what reason was I born?

Helplessly Urist strand of will watched on as his body threw itself into the grinder. There were simply far too many for him to kill alone. He needed to escape back home.

But every time he wished to run away the endless urge of bloodlust held him in place. As torrents of black and red filled his vision, he realized in his half-crazed state that he was going to die in this place.

He had been too overconfident on handling the effects of the berserk potion. He thought that since he had so much strength he could escape with ease.

How big a fool he was. It didn’t take him long to come to terms with his death. Sure he had helped the dwarfs survive, but he wasn’t a leader that could lead his people to prosperity. He wasn’t the man for the job. 

Perhaps it's better this way?

As he was about to close his eyes and let go. A thought rang through his mind shattering through the compounding thoughts of darkness.

Promise me you will come back.

In a stunning moment of clarity Urist smiled before erupting with utter rage.

“You bastard rat king invading my mind. Making me feel like shit. Go to hell for I cannot die here!”

As Urist yelled, flames exploded outwards from his body sending a wave of hellfire to the surrounding rats. Next, on instinct, his body moved in a strange way gathering all the flames around him to then be condensed around his body. The condensed fire then moved towards his arms around his weapon before gathering at its tip.

Urist’s opened his mouth and his voice mixed with a strange voice that sounded thick like static.

“Flaming Pillar of Origin!”  

Urist’s stabbed the spear into the ground causing all the built-up fire to explode out of the ground causing a flaming pillar to appear out of the ground.  

After unleashing this majestic attack Urist’s consciousness turned black.