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Chapter 41: Beyond Berserk

“Are the gods real? (Yes, they are real.) Then why do they ignore our cries for help?”

~ Interview of a citizen in the Godless Badlands

Devin’s knees nearly gave out from bearing the colossal weight of the crimson hobgoblin’s aura, but only just. His legs bent under the terrible pressure as veins popped all over his body. He was resisting the elite boss’s field, yet it wasn’t enough; he was still trapped in the same spot as a flood of goblins, both big and small, congregated from all over the battlefield to his position.

The guttural shrieks and screams bore down onto Devin even harder than Crimson’s aura. The nasty, sharp teeth painted a gruesome picture of what would happen if they got their hands on him. Devin tried to move—tried to activate a card, skill, anything, but the weight that grinded him into the dirt was a meta-physical force; it applied pressure onto his deckspace as well as his body, preventing him from using anything, including his magic circle.

The quicker, closer goblins were slain and pushed back by the surrounding arcanists who didn’t even seem to notice the aura billowing over them to press Devin into the ground, but more followed in their place, jumping over the place like rabid dogs.

All to get to Devin behind them.

Devin fought the force that bound him, but without the strength from Rage, or even Explosive Strength, he couldn’t even lift a finger. He gritted his teeth as it took everything he had to just keep standing.

He felt himself grow angry at his weakness, at his helplessness. Devin wouldn’t cower in the face of the goblins. IF. ONLY. I. COULD. MOVE! The flames of rage stoke further in his chest, growing into a white-hot wildfire. The pressure Devin fought against only made him even more incensed, serving as the catalyst for the burning wrath in his heart to explode.

The essence of raging wrath flowed from his soul into his domain that had been repressed to the boundaries of body. The energy burned like phosphorus, bright and beyond hot. The raging fire in his chest spread to the rest of his body and even extended a bit past his skin. He screamed, from both the pain and the overwhelming power burrowing into his flesh.

His wrath-infused field smashed against Crimson’s, pushing it back long enough for the function to return to his deckspace. It begged him to go into battle and slaughter any being stupid enough to raise their weapons against him, but Devin didn’t let the anger overpower his mind. He wasn’t stupid enough to get himself into a losing fight.

Air whooshed to fill the spot he vacated as he slipped through space through a gap in the formation on the other side of the wall, away from the swarm of green, children and teenage-size monsters, who screamed at his disappearance.

Devin used Collect Potential on the nearby recently deceased beasts, refilling his resource pools while he was free from Crimson’s aura. He could see it now, locked in a furious clash with the greatsword-wielding soldier, unable to spend the attention required to send out its field to keep Devin from moving as the armored Walters kept the titanic panther busy.

Although he didn’t know why the monsters had suddenly gone berserk, he had a sneaking suspicion of what caused it.

Stealy’s Red Cap (Rare)

Equipment/Dimensional

The lucky hat of the legendary

golden hobgoblin, Stealy.

1st Circle—ACU

+0.2 Acumen

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+Hated Enemy (Goblin)

{Attention Slip}

{Gap Slip}

“God-freaking-dammit!” Devin yelled, nearly throwing the cap into the ground, but it was already too late. The goblins nearby screamed as they threw themselves at the shield wall to get to Devin. They quickly died, but they alerted all the other goblins on the battlefield, all of whom flocked to Devin with crazed urgency.

It would be stupid to throw this away, especially since it's so useful. Devin sighed, putting the stupid red cap back on his head. “I’m going to need your help Dewey. You think you can handle what we practiced yesterday?”

The mouse jumped down from his jacket, sending a silent affirmation through their link. The arcanist watched the mouse summon the card he had attached to hers—a dirty, brown sack that was a comical size on her back—and infiltrate the swarm of goblins and hobgoblins. Devin gave her as much arcanium as she needed, pumping a quarter of his reserves he had just refilled.

The snarling and screeching goblins and monsters didn’t even make it to the shield wall. They were blown to bits by the dynamite littered underneath them. The few that did survive were easy pickings for Devin’s red balls that obliterated entire skulls before bouncing off to their next victims.

He waved to the defenders before activating Rage with Dewey’s sky-blue ring, allowing him to jump over the front line to meet the rest of the goblin stragglers. God, I don’t think I’ll get over this, He thought to himself, a wide grin plastered onto his face as he fell onto the incoming goblins, who pointed the tips of their weapons to impale him out of the air. Which was soon proven to be worthless as Devin’s own magic circle glowed a vivid blood-red as he used it to summon his own trusty steed.

The crowd of green monsters was soon crushed beneath the imaginary weight of his conjured, raging boar. It once again squealed through the night, intent on destroying anything that stood in its master's way. Devin followed a whispering instinct, imbuing [destroy]-tinted arcanium into his conjured steed. It bellowed, trampling underneath screaming goblins as it stomped away from the wall. The arcanium Devin imbued into it simmered around, vaporizing anything unfortunate enough to be in its way.

Influenced by Rage, Devin couldn’t help but laugh at the carnage that unfolded around him. He searched for the next enemy, eager to squash his foe beneath his feet.

A tide of overwhelming force surged through the air, reverberating with much greater intensity than the previous shockwaves. Devin turned his head to the source, only to see the soldier with the greatsword fly through the air and the shadowy afterimage of the crimson hobgoblin as it bounded straight toward him.

An instinct that he was facing overwhelming death, Devin overlapped both his rings to combine Rage and Boar’s Charge. In his efforts, a portion of the storm gray circle mixed with the sky blue, creating a wispy violet ring in the middle.

That instinct saved his life as the Berserker’s armor projected from his body, forming a shield of red light nine feet thick.

The construct shattered in an instant, dispersing some of the force behind it while its caster succumbed to the overwhelming power the monster had in its casual punch. Devin was sent flying, his head reeling. The crimson boss hardly paused, kicking back into a speed Devin couldn’t perceive.

He simultaneously reached out to the ground, while invoking another combo on top of Berserker’s Rampage. His head swam from the pressure on his deckspace as well as the concussion the elite boss surely smashed into him, but Devin held on.

Only the thought of the technical possibility of it egged him on to keep pushing.

The world slowed. The crimson hobgoblin that was nothing more than a blur became something more manageable. It was still faster than Devin, but now he could see it.

Now, he could keep up.

Collect Potential and [Seize] sent a cloud of arcanium skewers into the atmosphere, penetrating the crimson boss’s thick aura to impale the multitude of dead bodies that still had a shred of resources left. He used the wispy resources to fuel his combos with comparatively endless amounts of stamina, arcanium, and life, while all the shards he absorbed were spent holding his rings and deckspace together as his meta-physical systems strained just as much as his body from taking in and dishing out the rivers of energy.

Where the energy weathered down his body and mind, white, blue, and even purple shards came to uphold it, locking his body in a battle between destruction and regeneration.

Only his will kept him afloat. The Berserker’s wrath flowed through his soul, reinvigorating him with a righteous indignation against his own weakness, which only intensified once he clashed with the crimson hobgoblin.

Several notifications tried to flit through his vision, but his will slammed them back down. The Berserker [focus]’d on the fight.

For once, the overwhelming Berserker was being pushed back, embarrassingly so. He had no choice, but to give up ground, rapidly learning to riposte the boss monster’s punches and claw strikes. Yet that was quickly changing; The Berserker was disgusted with his pride being trampled by a mere monster, and that disgust gave way to anger, propelling his wrath and power higher.

For every clash, the Berserker came out stronger and more infuriated. Although he had to re-engage Extreme Blitz every couple of seconds to even have a chance of reacting, his wrath grew deeper, burning hotter and brighter. The previously white fire in his soul now burned a deep purple as the Berserker fed it his pandemonium as well, using everything he had in an attempt to match the elite boss.

Then came the soldier, who flew in with his weapon covered in a deep, blue light that sang with potency. He cut through the air with a force on par with a missile, so fast that the Berserker struggled to track him in his periphery while he defended against the boss's herculean strength.