Path of the Berserker

All of them did.

I awoke before everyone else and after spending a couple of hours studying from the new Shuras, got to work barbequing one of the scorpions. It was common to me now, but the revulsion on their faces reminded me that I had truly been surviving like a savage down in this hole for the last couple of weeks.

Still, I had burned a lot of calories and needed to replenish them.

Plus, the stuff tasted pretty good to me now.

“You guys don’t know what you’re missing,” I said, taking another bite and then washing it down with some muddy water. “Don’t worry. You’ll eat it once you get hungry enough.”

“I still have some rations,” Wing Pho said, grimacing. “I can do with just that for now.”

It’d been about four hours since we arrived in the cavern. Thankfully the aetherite crystal seemed to have done its job. Although one of the guys, Song De, seemed to be suffering from some memory loss. He couldn’t recall anything after the crash landing. It was a reminder that not every mind could take the rigors of the Hell World.

It wasn’t just physical.

The eldritch horrors of the unseen, attacked one’s very mind and spirit and not everyone was equipped to withstand them. I made a note that Song De now fell into that category, which didn’t put his chances of survival very high.

At least not in the long run.

Jei Su Long was still unconscious thankfully.

Hopefully I had put his ass in a damn coma.

But even without hearing his annoying voice the bastard irked me.

“Okay time to spill it, Blue,” I said, putting aside my empty scorpion leg shell. “Why did we haul that piece of shit across the desert instead of us just leaving him out there to die?”

I had a couple of guesses, myself, many of them being to inflict more pain on him and to make him suffer, but I knew Blue must have had a better reason than that. Otherwise, she surely would have gotten involved in my ass kicking of him earlier.

“He’s framed you for everyone’s deaths,” she said. “He still had that letter of yours.”

“What letter?”

“The one from your princess, telling you to ensure you returned alone. He used that as proof that you had motive to kill the whole platoon. He said you attacked him, but that he managed to kill you before escaping on the skiff alone. He said he found the letter on your body.”

My mind saw red.

“That piece of shit said what?!”

I was on my feet in a second, about the wake the bastard up just to put his lights out again.

Blue pulled me back down. “Did you hear nothing I just said? You need him alive, Max. You being alive is living proof that he lied, but he needs to be alive to take accountability for it. For everything. Even today. He caused all this by making us deploy in waves instead of all at once. The guy is a piece of shit, yes, but death is too good for him now. You need him to clear your name. And these guys need to vouch for you as well. Tell him, Wing Pho.”

Wing Pho looked between Song De and Wu Liang nervously. “Well, what do you two think?”

Wu Liang, who looked in his thirties with a bald head and goatee frowned. “The Su Long family is very powerful. My family is subservient to there’s on the core worlds. I would not want to make an accusation that might be one day overturned or even forgiven.”

“Forgiven?” Blue said. “How could he deny any of this if we all returned home to tell the truth. He would be forced to admit his lies.”

Song De, who wore his hair long and sported a full beard, shook his head. “You all do not know his family like we do. They will explain it away. Such is how it goes in the core worlds.”

“I’m from a core world too!” Blue Rose said, jutting a thumb at her chest. “For small things what you say is true, but this is far too big now. Jei Su Long was responsible for those deaths in Max’s deployment, not him.”

“Are you sure of that?”

The annoying voice came from behind us, and I turned to see Jei Su Long awake and propped up against the wall. His face was swollen but no longer a bloody mess thanks to Wing Pho cleaning him up.

My anger seethed at just the sight of his crooked smile.

But I was glad to see he had lost a tooth or two.

“So, it seems you managed to survive my death blow, Iron Bull,” he said, leering at me. “But I know what I saw. You killed your men. Not me.”

Rage burst inside of me like a volcano. “You’re still trying to lie? You incredible sack of shit!”

He then pointed at me. “Look, Wing Pho! See how he immediately gets defensive. It’s his guilty conscience at work. Look, all of you.”

I then realized what he was doing. Trying to convince his lackies that he could still be trusted.

“I honestly can’t believe this shit,” I said, nearly lost for words. “Still trying to weasel your way out?”

“What you reported was no where in Max’s character,” Blue Rose said, standing next to me. “And when he is able to speak for himself in a court, everyone will know it. Plus, you already messed up with your lies.”

He squinted at her. “What lies? I spoke the truth.”

“Well, you clearly didn’t find that letter on the Iron Bull’s body now, did you?”

A silence fell and Wing Pho, Song De and Wu Liang all looked to Jei Su Long for an answer.

Blue Rose then laughed. “See? It was that easy for me to prove your guilt and I’m not even a barrister.”

I chuckled at her. “Maybe you missed your calling.”

“This is nonsense!” Jei Su Long cried. “You’ll prove nothing. And Song De is right. My uncle would never allow such a trial to occur. So, make your choices now. Will you three stand with me, or with the Iron Bull and his stupid little whore?”

I flew across the room so fast, Blue Rose didn’t have a chance to stop me this time.

I grabbed Jei Su Long by his throat and lifted him into the air.

His legs kicked at me futile as he gasped for breath.

“Now listen up and listen quick,” I said with [Struggler’s Resolve]. “Your dumbass lies stop now. However it plays out in the courts, the only thing I know for certain is that its better for you to be alive. Because you’re so damn stupid even a blind man can see through your bullshit story. Count yourself lucky, because I’m itching to send your soul straight to hell for everything you’ve done.”

I could sense the fear pouring off the trio of Song De, Wu Liang and Wing Pho. They were always together at the academy. Sticking by Jei Su Long’s side, regardless of the outcome, was perhaps a self-defense mechanism for them.

But none of that would even matter if we didn’t get off this Hell World first.

“Now listen up all of you,” I said. “Jei Su Long’s justice will have to wait. Our main priority now, is getting off this rock and to do that we have to catch the last deployment out of here.”

I dropped Jei Su Long back on the ground like the sack of shit he was, leaving him sputtering for air. It was necessary to keep him alive, but dealing with him down here was like keeping a cobra for a pet without a cage.

Already I could sense the hatred in him, desperate to strike back at me.

“Protocol says they’ll circle back to the initial drop zone of Fhae I’ung for the final deployment,” I said. “That’s 900 miles from where we are now. And we have two weeks to get there.”

“900 miles?” Wing Pho said. “How long did we travel just now?”

“About a hundred,” I said. “And it damn near killed all of you. Doing nine times that is going to be straight up impossible.”

That cause a heavy silence to fill the air.

I’d been contemplating it for the last couple of hours while everyone was asleep. Working out the math while recalling the deployment charts I’d seen on my prep missions before our deployment.

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“It took us over three hours to get back here to the tunnel,” I said. “Which means doing nine times that is a journey well over thirty hours total. No way are we doing that.”

At least not right now, I thought to myself.

“We have two weeks,” Blue Rose said. “We can make our way there more slowly. A hundred miles each day. Less even.”

I sighed. “I’ve thought about that. But this place you see now, I came across it by luck. I can’t be sure we’ll find a cave each time we dig into the ground. And digging itself is an issue. To get down this deep without being overrun by the demons, I had a full platoon backing me up and forming a perimeter to hold them off.”

“So, you’re saying we couldn’t do the same?” De Song said.

“Do we look like a platoon to you?”

He frowned.

“The point is,” I said. “Each time we leave this cave we’ll be taking a risk. This is the only safe place I know to come back to. We have food, water and shelter. As far as I know, I’ve been the only Legionnaire to accomplish this in history. And it was mostly by luck, like I said. We have no way of knowing just how rare this set up might be. Aetherite, water and shelter all in one place. Even if we could dig, we’d be rolling the dice nine times, even more if we take shorter hops. With the terrain changing each time, there’s no telling what we may or may not find. Chances are, we’d roll snake eyes on at least one of them and if we’re caught out in the open when the Cursed Star rises…” I paused, reliving the horrors of seeing my platoon transformed into demons and howling for their own deaths. “Let’s just say it’s not something you want to experience for too long.”

“So how will we do it?” Wing Pho asked. “Is it even possible?”

“If you could all fly as fast as me, maybe,” I said.

Jei Su Long scoffed. “Tubby can barely fly at all.”

“Shut the hell up!” I spat, but the bastard wasn’t wrong either.

None of them were in a condition to make that kind of trek. But I didn’t fancy rolling the dice nine times either.

“We’ve got a choice,” I said. “We could spend two weeks risking our lives every day trying to get there and risk failure each time, or spend the next two weeks getting strong enough so we can make a single journey all at once.”

Blue Rose looked up at me and blinked. “That’s insane. Travel 900 miles across a Hell World in one day?”

“Two days,” I said. “Well, a day and a night technically. The days are 28 hours long here. We’d need to leave at daybreak and travel straight through night and hopefully meet the skiff just before the next sunrise. But we’d have to push it a bit faster than what it took us to cross just now.”

“No way,” Song De said. “That’s crazy. We only trained to survive a single night under the Bloodmoon. Plus, you just said yourself we couldn’t survive for long under a Cursed Star.”

“The aetherite!” Wing Pho said pointing to the crystal. “We can use that to get across, right? It will shield us.”

I shook my head. “That stuff evaporates like ice under a Cursed Star. But you’re not wrong either.”

“Huh?” he said.

“I need to test something. Blue you need to come too. The rest of you stay down here and keep an eye on shithead.”

I took to the air with [Lightning Walk] before the bastard could even retort. I didn’t like the idea of leaving him alone with those three, but for what I needed to test, it wouldn’t take but a few minutes.

As I entered the tunnel, I could already feel the difference in the air.

The Cursed Star was out and the sounds from the surface had changed.

The howls and wails took on a supernatural tone, chilling right to the soul.

“What the hell is that?” Blue Rose said as she touched down in the tunnel entrance next to me. “I… I’ve never heard anything like that before.”

I could sense the fear in her soul. She was needed for this test, and I had to hope it worked. But I’d needed to be careful for her sake as well.

“I’ve been cultivating while I’ve been here,” I said.

“What!?”

“It’s sort of like what we did for our Bloodmoon training,” I said, explaining it away. “Anyway, I think I’ve gotten a lot stronger now. I could just barely survive under the Cursed Star before, but I need to see how much I’ve grown. If my aura can withstand it, and protect you, then we have a real fighting chance of making it across this planet.”

She blinked at me. “Max, are you sure about this? Are you truly that strong now?”

I shrugged. “Let’s find out. Stay here until I call you.”

I left before she could say anything else and perhaps try to change my mind. What I’d told her wasn’t fully bullshit either. Since defeating that Deep Dweller and obtaining the essence of Fhae I’ung, I had felt my spirit and flame grow. My core density had increased as well, growing smaller yet holding just as much Frenzy.

Plus, from my studying earlier, I found I had an upgraded form of [Soul Shield] I still had yet to master and try. I recalled the knowledge of the scripture from memory, even though it was now etched in glowing runes upon my sword.

[Sacred Soul Shield]

Upon the emergence of one’s Sacred Soul, so too does one gain a renewed defense against the forces of the unseen world. This technique will utilize not only the strength of one’s spirit but the strength of thy Sacred Soul as well.

I had just barely scratched the surface in terms of learning it but that didn’t matter. A mere test was all I needed right now. Finding this one technique was what gave me hope that a crossing was even remotely possible.

I hovered at the edge of the tunnel exit and tested the rays of the Cursed Star upon my skin. It burned like acid. Like I was under a damn broiler. But it was more bearable than I recalled. As I risked to ventured further, I took on the full effects and it was like breathing in superheated air.

I gasped and choked on what smelled like concentrated ammonia and above me, the oppressive dark rays of the Cursed Star itself caused my Flame to flare. But not in a good way. It was reacting like a candle in pure oxygen and now, knowing my true relation to the Cleansing Fame, I understood exactly what was going on.

It was trying to absorb me.

Bring my Flame back into its own.

Across the landscape the horrors of the Star Born demons etched my mind with fresh madness. Creatures that walked on tall spindly legs over a dozen stories tall. Giant starfish with hundreds of eyes that pinwheeled across the desert like tumbleweeds. Something that resembled a giant cockroach with a human head and which stood like a man.

I bared it all as my Frenzy drained as if through a sieve.

This was what I needed to do to grow even stronger.

Tax myself just like I did under the Bloodmoon.

Only now it was under the Cleansing Flame of a Cursed Star.

My vision began to tunnel and stray thoughts entered my mind.

Pure destruction and chaos.

Cursed Frenzy.

~Come hither fallen one…Seek thy redemption from the One True Flame~

The Demon in me wanted to ponce, but the Red-hued Struggler kept him at bay.

My Dantan was already below half.

Now was the time.

I engaged my Meridians, activating the new technique. It was a mixture of [Sacred Soul Projection] as well as [Soul Shield] and as I finally completed the sequence, I felt the oppressiveness of the Cursed Star instantly subside.

I panted for air, my full vision returning.

I didn’t even realize how close I had come to blacking out and losing my soul to the Cursed Frenzy. But now that I was back under control, I could see the world for what it was. My new technique was difficult to maintain, but I could feel it working.

With [Soul Shield] I could still feel the rays penetrating, but this kept the power of the Cleansing Flame at bay completely. I was still paying the price of Frenzy for it, but a much lesser extent now.

Holy shit, this is powerful, I thought. I’m surviving under the light of a Cursed Star.

What turned normal cultivators into demons, was something I could now endure, so long as I had enough Frenzy in my core.

Time for the final test.

“Blue!” I called. “Come quick.”

This would all be for nothing if I couldn’t protect her and everyone else with it.

I heard her scurrying behind me. “Just be carefu—”

Blue Rose immediately began screaming before I could say anything else. She was staring straight up at the Cursed Star with her hands atop her head.

Shit! I thought. Did it not work?

I sensed the extreme terror in her soul.

Finally, she closed her eyes and turned her head away.

“Max, get it away from me!” she cried. “I can’t unsee it! I can’t unsee all this. Those creatures. That Star!”

I quickly grabbed her and pulled her down the tunnel.

We re-emerged at the exit and I floating her down from the ceiling with [Lightning Walk]. Immediately, I placed her in front of the aetherite crystal. Blue Rose huddled around it and shuddered like it was a campfire warding off extreme cold.

Wing Pho rushed to her side. “Let me check her. She must be poisoned again.”

He studied her, adjusting his glasses, but then he looked confused. “I sense no Demonic Qu in her soul at all. What did you do up there?”

“You don’t want to know,” Blue Rose said as she rocked back and forth. “Damn it, Max. You could have warned me, at least. I’ll never unsee that shit now.”

A huge grin spread across my face. “No Demonic Qi?”

Wing Pho shook his head.

“It worked!”

“What worked?” Jei Su Long said. “What are you yelling about?”

“What’s going to get us off this rock,” I said.

“What do you mean?” Wing Pho said.

“I’ve grown strong enough to withstand even the rays of the Cursed Star. Like you I can produce an Aura, but this one can protect us during the day.”

“What?” Song De said. “Then what happened to her?”

“His aura protected me against the Cursed Star, yes,” Blue Rose said, spitting on the ground as if trying to remove a bitter taste from her mouth. “But not the things you will see, hear or feel.”

This was it, I thought. Our means to a way out.

The mission began crystalizing within my mind.

“Listen up, legionnaires,” I said. “We have a new goal. We will train by the light of the Bloodmoon and under the poison rays of the Cursed Star. This will be Du Gok Bhong Academy to the extreme. You need to grow your spiritual strength to not go instantly mad out there and we don’t have much time to do it. But if you can survive the basics, I can see us all through.”

“900 miles, under a Cursed Star?” Wing Pho said.

“You can forget about that,” Jei Su Long said. “I’m not doing anything you say.”

I finally fixed my eyes on the bastard.

“Don’t worry,” I said as I slowly stepped towards him with a mixture of [Indifference] and [Struggler’s Resolve] in my heart. “You won’t have to.”

The mixture of techniques caught him off guard and fear instantly spiked within his soul.

“Wait,” he said, backing up against the wall. “What the hell are you doing?”

“We’re all going to get stronger to survive,” I said. “But not you, Jei Su Long. You… You, I just can’t trust with more power.”

“Max…” Blue Rose said warily. “Don’t kill him, remember?”

“You heard her!” he echoed in panic. “You can’t kill me!”

“Who said anything about killing.”

I surged forward with a touch of Frenzy, grabbing him by his collar this time.

I contemplated a second more, just to be sure I was correctly weighing the odds. Jei Su Long was strong despite himself and his cowardice. He had powerful Qi techniques that could be invaluable in keeping away the demon hordes. But on the other hand, he was a piece of shit that I just couldn’t trust to turn that same power against us the first chance he got.

Turning him into a human duffle bag was a much safer option for us all.

“Sorry pal,” I said. “But your shitty reputation precedes you. The only way to feel safe around a rat-bastard like you, is to tear out your fangs and claws.”

“W-what?”

True fear crept into his soul now.

I summed my Frenzy with a disruptive technique. “[Struggler’s Fist of Fury]!”

He tried to block, but I was far too quick.

My fist struck him right in the Dantian and I felt the satisfying give of something break inside of him. Wing Pho, Wu Liang and Song De all cried out in shock and fear, no doubt terrified at the repercussions of what I had just done.

Jei Su Long fell to the ground holding his stomach and spitting blood.

“You…you..!” he kept crying over and over, and then like an infant, he began to cry for real. “My core! You crippled me! You bastard! You’ll pay for this! My family will kill you. I’ll kill you!”

I looked down at him with [Indifference]. “Nice to see your true colors finally showing now.”

“Was this wise, Iron Bull?” Wing Pho said. “What you’ve done is—”

“Absolutely necessary,” Blue Rose said cutting him off. She then pulled herself away from the aetherite crystal to stand over Jei Su Long. “If Max hadn’t done it, I would have done something similar. No way I was trusting him for two weeks down here.”

“I’ll kill you too,” he whimpered. “I’ll kill all of you!”

It was a pathetic sight, but I could spare him no pity.

This piece of shit was beyond redemption.

Yet still, I had to bring his sorry ass home alive.

“Take away his weapons and tie him up,” I said to his two former lackies. “We’ve got a lot of training to do, and we don’t need this asshole getting in our damn way anymore.”