Path of the Berserker

Chief Yora’s words haunted her.

She would be willfully throwing her life away if she did that right now.

Part of her was doing that already, just landing on a Hell World.

But she had to remember she had revenge to fulfil beyond that for Max.

But avenge him she would, if the opportunity presented itself.

If Jei Su Long dared to step upon the Hell World himself, that would be her chance.

“Prepare to disembark!” Jei Su Long cried. “You shall descend upon the defense skiffs in waves. The last descent was nearly lost because all deployed at the same time. Another mistake by the incompetent Iron Bull. We will do so differently now, under my command.”

Ire burned in Blue Rose’s gut, quelled only by the fantasy of slitting Jei Su Long’s throat.

He would pay for destroying Max’s name.

Somehow, someway, she would make him pay.

“You heard the Senior Commander,” Wing Pho said. “Everyone to the defense skiffs.”

Blue Rose still couldn’t believe the mousey, Token Black Robe, Wing Pho had been made the actual platoon commander, but under Jei Su Long and his uncle’s influence, anything seemed possible.

Not that she had anything against Wing Pho personally. He was anything if not agreeable and was humble in a way that defied his station. Still, the pudgy man with the bowl haircut looked ill fit to be a Black Robe of any sort, much less a legionnaire.

Yet here he was, in command none the less.

Blue Rose did as ordered and grabbed hold of the small skiff that would see her landing before the cargo skiff touched down. Her heart raced with anticipation and terror. Although she’d passed her final exam, that was on the safety of a world ruled by only a Bloodmoon.

This one had a Cursed Star.

“Wing Pho, join Blue Rose,” Jei Su Long said.

The pudgy man looked back at Jei Su Long with his mouth open. “What?”

“You are the Junior Platoon Commander. You must lead them on the ground.”

“But, I’m not—”

“Why don’t you lead us, Jei Su Long?” Blue Rose said, cutting him off as anger filled her heart. “You are the Senior Commander. You have experience. It should be you leading us down there, not him.”

Anger burned in his blue eyes. “I have served my tour on the Hell Worlds already. You should count yourselves lucky that I volunteered for further duty for your sakes. My role is to oversee. Yours is to do you duty. And Wing Pho’s is to lead you. Go on now! Join her skiff. You shall deploy first.”

Son of a bitch, she thought.

Jei Su Long gave Wing Pho a kick in his ass, humiliating him as he pushed him towards her skiff. While indignation burned in her heart, the rest of the platoon remained silent and sullen. It’d been like that the entire voyage.

A malaise that seemed to have zapped the camaraderie that Max had built within their ranks. With his loss, everyone had reverted to becoming subservient prisoners again. Perhaps she herself was a fool for thinking she should do anything but the same.

Maybe even revenge was foolish.

She needed to only survive this and then never see Jei Su Long again.

But that would dishonor his memory.

One opening, she thought. Just one for you, Max.

Wing Pho clambered besides her, sweat and fear dripping from his brow. “Please… you’ll protect me, won’t you?”

Blue Rose glared at him with disdain.

How he even managed to pass his final exam was beyond her.

“Just do what you did you survive the exam,” she said.

“I can manifest a protection aura,” he said quickly, almost as if to earn his keep. “I can protect us from the Demonic Qi, but not the demons.”

That was something at least.

“Go now!” Jei Su Long shouted. “Skiff one, two and three! Go, go!”

“Fine,” Blue Rose said to Wing Pho as she hopped onto the railing of the command skiff and then pulled him up with her. “Stay close and do exactly as I say.”

* * *

It took me less than five minutes to jump back into my real body and prep myself for racing to the drop zone. I packed what meager possessions I had into what was left of my bag. My canteen and drawings mainly, which I double secured within the metal tube of my brush holder, like scrolls.

I then slung the bag across my chest and for the first time in weeks realized I was practically naked. I barely had a loin cloth anymore, but it didn’t matter. Hopefully I wouldn’t offend my fellow legionnaires when I rejoined them.

Just the thought had my insides bubbling with excitement.

I took to the air with [Lightning Walk] and then, entered the tunnel at the top of the cavern before racing to the surface. The taste of sulfur and Dark Frenzy filled the air. But hopefully I would be tasting it for the last time.

Well… at least for this round.

I’d be returning to fulfil the Flames battle against the Cursed Stars eventually.

But now I had just weeks to get back to Fia and I had to ensure I didn’t miss my flight.

I took to the air once again, bounding over the swarms of demons and then blasted through the sky with [Ride the Lightning].

* * *

Blue Rose screamed with a mixture of desperation and primal terror as yet another wave of the large batlike creatures with tentacles dove at them. She’d already seen two of the skiffs that had left with her, destroyed by the creatures. It was perhaps only due to the barrier that Wing Pho was generating that the monsters were avoiding them, more than diving into them now.

Perhaps the idiot Jei Su Long had done her a favor in that regard by forcing Wing Pho onto the skiff with her. She delivered another Qi strike with her [Hidden Dagger Thrust] technique from afar, killing two of the creatures right before they slammed into the side of the main skiff now hovering high above them.

More screams came from above as a dozen or so of the creatures flew straight into the hull of the skiff, sacrificing themselves to break open half the vessel. Her heart froze as two of her platoon mates tumbled out of the skiff unprepared. One of them righted himself with a burst of Qi and immediately began defending himself with a flaming jian blade. The other continue to tumble and fall. It wasn’t until his shrill cries plummeted right past her skiff that she realized it wasn’t one of her platoon mates at all.

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Nine hells, she thought. Was that the pilot?

Blue Rose glanced back up with new fear in her heart.

The main skiff was now pitching back and forth uncontrollably with legionnaires jumping out of the craft for dear life rather than to defend it. The entire thing had become a ‘shit show’ as Max would have put it.

“Hang on!” Blue Rose cried and tilted her skiff out of the way, just narrowly avoiding the main skiff as it plummeted towards the ground. She had dodged a direct hit, but the backwash from the vessel sent her into a tailspin of her own.

Wing Pho released a terrified scream as he clung to her robes. “What’s happening?!”

The world spun as she struggled to regain control.

A sea of demons rose up to meet her at incredible speed.

Blue Rose barely caught sight of the main skiff hitting the ground and breaking into pieces before her own did the same. Pain and chaos came next as the claws and fangs of countless demons, bit into her skin.

She cried out as she slammed into them, their bodies doing just as much damage ripping into her as cushioning her fall. She lost track of where Wing Pho had gone and simply acted on instinct, [Shadow Stepping] her way out of the mass of bodies and placing herself above them.

She rained down on them with a hail of Qi attacks, unleashing her [Dagger Fall] technique. The monsters screeched and howled in response, sending her nerves crawling with fire and Demonic Qi.

Above the din she could make out the confused cries of her comrades and on top of that the annoying shouts coming from their so-called Senior Platoon Commander from within the crashed debris of the skiff.

Jei Su Long was actually fighting for once, delivering water techniques from afar, that were admittedly powerful enough to push back the demons in droves. But as she watched the blue-haired boy curse and scream for people to fall back and defend him, the murderous intent re-emerged in her heart.

That fool had doomed them all with his actions. They would have had a better chance deploying all at once instead of in waves. What little resistance the first three skiffs could put up were nothing compared to that flying horde of monsters.

Now the skiff itself was destroyed.

How were they ever supposed to return to the ship now?

I should have doneit, she thought. Killed him earlier while I had the damn chance.

She would have perhaps been put back in prison eventually, but at least she would have been alive.

“Blue Rose!” she heard a cry from below. “Blue Rose, help me!”

It was Wing Pho.

He was pinned with his back against a rock, but was surprisingly keeping the demons at bay with his barrier technique. Sweat and blood streamed from the bowl haircut above his brow and by the way he was standing, one of his legs had to be sprained or broken.

For a moment she thought of helping him, but then what would be the point in that?

They were all as good as dead now thanks to Jei Su Long.

The only thing she had left was to kill the bastard first before they all died.

A small measure of payback for all his sins.

She was just about to [Shadow Step] to the interior of the downed skiff when a blinding crack of lightning drew her attention to the night sky. Skidding to a halt in mid-air was a half-naked figure of pure muscle, brawn and steel.

Her heart leapt before her mind could even fathom what she was seeing.

“Max?”

* * *

I pulled out of my [Ride the Lightning] technique to survey the ground below me.

There were two gates nearby with at least one of them spewing tentacle-rays into the air. The ground itself was in a similar predicament, with throngs of demons rampaging in swarms and closing in on an epicenter I couldn’t quite yet discern.

As I focused though, I finally saw what I’d been looking for.

There, atop a small ridge was the cargo skiff.

I bounded towards it with a burst of [Lightning Walk] desperate to see if the tethers had been released. I didn’t see any cables streaming into the air. That was a good sign. My hopes lifted, but then I didn’t see something else I was expecting to see either.

Where the hell was the platoon?

I would have expected at least a handful of legionnaires to be putting up a resistance to defend the skiff, but surrounding it was no one. More alarm bells went off as I got a closer look and saw both tethers atop the skiff were still attached.

What the hell?

But then instead of the cables streaming into the night sky, I saw them lying flat and strewn across the ground.

No… I thought. No, no, no…

This couldn’t be happening.

I raced to follow the fallen cables and then came to what I had feared to see the most. There, broken to pieces was the remnants of the command skiff itself. It was being swarmed by demons and a handful of legionnaires were fighting desperately for their lives.

Instinctively I dashed towards them.

I could only imagine what had happened. Somehow that bastard Jei Su Long must have sabotaged the whole damn skiff this ti­­-.

My thoughts trailed off…my mind unprepared for what I saw next.

There, yelling like a madman atop what was left of the skiff was none other than the arrogant, murderous little piece of shit himself.

Jei Su Long…

My Frenzy boiled and instantly I saw red. I screamed with a primal rage as the images of my men flashed before my eyes. All of them mutating and begging to be killed because that son of a bitch left us all to die.

That instantly fueled the root of my Dao.

He was no different than the Warden in his actions.

But so much worse.

These were people he knew.

People he callously discarded for some ridiculous hope of gain.

I had no idea why he’d come back or why he was even here.

And I didn’t care.

I trusted that the Flame had somehow seen fit to deliver him right into my hand.

“JEI SU LONG!” I screamed.

His head snapped towards me and his eyes went wide as all life drained from his face.

Fear exploded in him like a volcano, and he staggered backwards in disbelief.

He was seeing a demon of vengeance returned from the grave and I relished every second of it.

“You left us all here to die you bastard! You’ll pay for your sins now!”

I thundered across the sky with my axe raised to cleave him in two.

Something flashed in front of him, and I pulled back at just the last second when I saw who it was. There in shredded robes was Blue Rose. A new mixture of feelings filled my soul. I couldn’t believe she was here either, but then why the hell was she protecting him?

“Max! You can’t kill him!” she said quickly. “I know you want to and so do I, but you just can’t kill him right now!”

For a second, I wondered what the hell she was talking about, until I finally noticed the wall of demons closing in on us.

“You’re right,” I said. “We’re all going to die because of what this prick has done. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t get to die first.”

“No!” she shouted. “You don’t understand. Theres more to it than that.”

I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about.

All I wanted to do was sink my axe into his head.

“How the did you survive down here, Max? Is there a refuge? A crystal, like at the academy?”

She was talking sense. The struggler finally engaged, backing down the Demon.

I looked at her again and still couldn’t believe she was even here.

That either of them were here.

Jei Su Long especially.

The bastard was still trembling with his mouth open, unable to speak.

“You said I can’t kill him,” I said as I stowed my axe and summoned my Frenzy. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t beat the living shit out of him!”

“No wait!” Jei Su Long screamed.

He cried out like a little bitch before I could even reach him, turning to flee.

I slammed him hard in the back, sending him crashing through what was left of the skiff.

“Max, don’t kill him!” Bue Rose shouted again, but I was barely listening to her now.

I tore down through the wreckage to reach him and started pummeling Jei Su Long in his stupid face, over and over again. The anger inside me was a torrent of hate and pent-up rage, but the Struggler jettisoned it all straight into my Dantian so that I couldn’t use it to strengthen my blows.

Still, it felt good as hell to let the damn bastard have it, even at a quarter of my true strength. By the time I finished, his face was an unrecognizable mess of bloodied hamburger and broken bone. He coughed and sputtered, but I could tell he was completely out cold.

“Tell me why the hell I can’t finish the job, Blue,” I said with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “Tell me now before I do it anyway!”

“We need to get out of here first or it won’t matter!” she said, slinging a volley of Qi daggers into the horde. “Max, come on! Focus!”

Her words pulled me out of my [Bloodlust] and I refocused on the true enemy at hand.

We were still out in the open on a Hell World and there were things that needed to be killed way sooner than Jei Su Long. I launched into the mass of demons while channeling my hatred for the little bastard.

“[Wrath of a Thousand Slain Souls]!”

My body exploded with a shockwave of violent energy that rippled through the demon horde like bomb going off. Horrific screeches filled the air as they exploded in a chain reaction of devastation that cleared an area the size of a football field.

In the brief reprieve of calm, I looked for who was now left alive.

Besides Jei Su Long and Blue Rose, there was that chunky guy Wing Pho plus two more of Jei Su Long’s lackies that I barely recognized for as much as they’d been torn up. Granted Blue and Wing Pho didn’t look much better.

Jei Su Long looked worse than all of them though.

And that was just fine with me.

“We need to get to shelter underground,” I said. “But no way we’re going to be able to dig while keeping this horde off of us with the numbers we have, especially not with there being two gates here.”

“What do we do?” Wing Pho asked.

I weighed the odds.

Even if we could dig there was no telling what I would find down there.

That cavern system was a Godsend but I had no idea how rare it might be.

Especially now being a hundred miles away, who knew how much the subterranean environment might have changed. Plus, heading back would be in the direction we needed to head anyway.

“We run and fly,” I said. “One hundred miles. I have a refuge but we need to reach there before the end of the night.”

“What about the senior comman-?” Wing Pho started, but just the mention of that stupid title sent me off.

“You two carry that piece of shit,” I said, cutting him off while pointing to his two cronies. I then looked to Blue Rose. “And then you need to tell me why the hell you stopped me from killing his ass, Blue.”

Blue Rose just stared at me, looking as if on the verge of tears.

Suddenly she threw her arms around me in an embrace. “I’m so damn glad you’re still here, Max. You’ve got no idea.”

I was now the one to be embarrassed by one of our hugs in front of strangers, especially being almost naked.

“Okay, okay,” I said. “I’m damn glad to see you too.”

I then looked to Wing Pho and the other two legionnaires whose names I still couldn’t remember. “All of you.”

“We should get going like you said, Master Iron Bull,” Wing Pho said. “The demons are regrouping.”

I nodded as I picked out my bearings. “This ain’t going to be easy. This will be every bit as bad as surviving your final exam.”

“Let’s go then,” Blue Rose said, finally pulling away. “On the way, I’ll fill you in on why I stopped you from killing him. There’s a lot you need to know about what’s going on in the outside world, Max. What you think you know about what Jei Su Long has done, is just the beginning.”