Path of the Berserker

I LEFT THE handler station feeling like a mountain was upon my back.

The day had turned from pretty great to shitty in a matter of minutes and my mind was still reeling from it all.

I need to focus, I told myself. I had to stop worrying about what happened and get my head back in the game.

I still had a year to deal with Fia and a lot could happen between now and then.

Plus, I had to remember that there was a lot more at stake than just her. Failing to defeat her in court would mean the loss of the entire sect and over a hundred innocent people being executed to satisfy the writ. And now that I’d drawn so much attention to us, if we lost the protection of the sect, hundreds of cultivators would be lining up to put every Terran back in their place.

We’d come too far to fail now.

We were the nail that was sticking up and everyone wanted to see us hammered back down. And I was the only one who could prevent that from happening.

But those were only the local problems.

I still needed to get back to Kelsey and Susan out in the wild. That was more important than anything else, really. The true seed of humanity lay with them and I needed to ensure they got the vital supplies they needed to survive.

Back to the bunker in the wild.

But it had another purpose as well.

Threja’s sword and the new Shuras to the Path of the Frenzied Flame were there as well. If I wanted to reach 5th Tier of the Core Realm, I would need the knowledge contained within it. Not to mention, once out in the wild I could totally cut loose when it came to cultivating.

I could take on awakened spirit beasts by the dozen to generate the Frenzy I needed to progress. The only downside was how long I could remain away from the city doing so. I was getting challenges every other day now and someone had to be here to protect my people. Gui Zu was there of course, but as skilled as he was as a fighter, he was still basically a mortal when it came to Qi.

I sighed.

I didn’t have a solution, but I couldn’t keep holding off on going back to the wild for that reason either.

Leaving was just another risk I would have to take.

All in the name of advancement.

And if I wanted to become 5th Tier to officially face Fia in the ring, I needed to be willing to pull out all the stops.

Suddenly the melancholy hit me again.

How could I fight her?

Fighting Hein was one thing. I hated the clown and going up against him filled me with a rage like none other. But when it came to Fia my Flame was pretty much dead. I couldn’t bring myself to hate her. And if I couldn’t hate her, then how could I tap into my rage?

A new and scary thought occurred.

If I couldn’t generate Frenzy to fight her, could I actually fight her at all?

My head hurt again, not even wanting to consider it.

Maybe we would have to talk it out again, but right now I seemed to have burned that bridge pretty damn good. And if I were being totally honest about it, maybe I was more afraid of things actually being able to work out than not at all.

But that meant joining her clan.

The clan of the same woman who sentenced my family to death.

The woman who caused my greatest pain.

The spiritual root of my Dao.

I sighed again.

Threja always said the path of the Frenzied Flame would be difficult.

But this wasn’t the kind of difficulty I could just take an axe to.

This was a difficulty of a different kind.

Why the hell did everything have to be so compli—?

I paused mid-thought as a column of flames came flying straight for my head.

Oh shit!

I leaned back like a limbo dancer, adrenaline and Frenzy kicking my reflexes into high gear. The torrent of bright yellow flames scorched the air just inches from my nose as it flew overhead. I backflipped with a handstand to land on my feet and panned about to get a bearing on my attacker.

I was still in the farmlands on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by fields on either side of the dirt road. One by one, cultivators in red and orange robes rose from out of corn fields at my side.

I counted five in all.

I didn’t recognize them.

Members from some other branch of the Fire Birds perhaps, but there was no mistaking their affiliation by their ‘gang’ colors. The one who had shot the flames at me was standing in the center of the road.

It was a woman, tall and slim, wearing a douli—a wide-brimmed conical hat—that looked to be made of out of black iron or steel. Bright red hair spilled out from beneath it, matching a set of fiery red eyes and painted lips. She had looks to give Fia a run for her money, high-set cheeks with a wide jaw. She carried no weapon that I could see, but from her robes I pegged her as an elder of the clan.

“Max Chun!” she shouted, and the strength of her voice caused ripples to flow across both corn fields. “Sole member of the Furious Lightning Sect and former disciple to Elder Hong Feng. You stand accused of crimes against the sect!”

What the hell was this bullshit now?

I casually reached for the axe strapped to my back as I summoned my Frenzy and channeled it into [Fear the Flame]. “If you want to file a writ you can speak to my lawyer to get in line. I got a lot of other bozos to deal with besides you, whoever the hell you are.”

The woman smirked. “This One was told of your arrogance. And also of your betrayal.”

“Betrayal? What the hell are you talking about?”

But I knew exactly what she was talking about. I’d killed Hong Feng and his whole damn crew a couple weeks ago. I thought I’d thrown them off my trail seeing as none of them had come looking for me since then, but I guess my luck had finally run out.

“This One is known as Hin Wu, Elder of the 24th chapter of the Fire Bird Sect. Master Lo Feng has summoned me from Twi Lin province to deal with you.”

Twi Lin…?

My knowledge of Yee geography was rusty, but I was pretty sure that province was north in what used to be Wisconsin.

“Deal with me, huh? From the fireball to the face, I assume you mean kill me?”

Hin Wu smirked, amused. “As I understand it, you betrayed your sect by consorting with a member of the Silver Leaf Clan which led to one of their elders laying waste to Master Hong Feng and the entire sect branch.”

I blinked dumbfounded for a second. I was sure she was going to accuse me of killing them all, but I guess the pin I had left with Ju Gong at the crime scene had worked after all. They were blaming the Silver Leaf Clan for the massacre. Although I still felt kind of shitty that it was Silver Light’s pin that I had left. If she ever found out she’d probably want to kill me twice over.

Especially now.

“I don’t know anything about that,” I said.

The woman scoffed. “You should not be so modest, Max Chun.”

Modest? “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I am simply commending you on your ambition and cunning,” Hin Wu said with a smile. “Especially as a lowly Terran. Your plan to first trick Hong Feng into making you the sole member of a new sub-sect and then conspiring with a rival sect to have him and all your rivals slain was nothing short of brilliant.”

I had no clue what this woman was even talking about, but the squirt of lemonade she gave afterwards told me her praise was genuine. As jacked up as it was.

What a world, I thought. Only a cultivator would have come to the conclusion that I had orchestrated everything for a grab at power. Although it was still better than the actual truth.

That I was a Berserker that followed an illegal path of the Frenzied Flame.

“You’ve achieved your goal of becoming an elder it seems,” Hin Wu continued. “Equal in rank to even me now, but you made one fatal flaw.”

Wait what?

My mind spun for a second. Did she just call me an elder?

She was right about the whole conspiring with the enemy thing, but it had nothing to do with me wanting to become an elder. I no longer wanted to be even associated with their scum.

But I thought about it some more and I guess it made sense in theory. Hong Feng had sponsored my subsect as the elder, but with him now dead, I supposed that made me the elder of the Furious Lightning Sect now.

“Did you truly believe that Sect Leader Lo Feng would honor your position, knowing that you had his very nephew killed to achieve it?” she asked.

I cracked a grin, keeping my eye on the lesser Fire Birds circling around me. “To be honest with you, I don’t even know who the hell Lo Feng is.”

Her crimson eyes snapped open widely with disbelief. “What? You know not who your own sect leader is?”

One of the men in the field laughed next to me. “He kills his master’s nephew expecting a reward and then doesn’t even know who his true master is? What buffoons these Terrans are!”

All of them had a good laugh at that.

“Your kind make a mockery of our sect,” Hin Wu said. “Perhaps it is fitting that Hong Feng was killed for even allowing one such as you to join our prestigious ranks.”

“What a dumb piece of shit,” the same man cursed me. “Getting all those brothers killed for nothing. Your death will be painful and slow, Terran.”

I sensed the bullshit lecture on Terran inferiority coming to an end and began cycling my Frenzy. I didn’t know these guys, but if Hin Wu was an elder, then she had to be on the same level as Hong Feng. Whether she was a demonic cultivator like him or not was still yet to be seen, although I didn’t sense any Dark Frenzy coming from any of them.

Regardless, she was still likely a high-tier Core Realm cultivator, and the men with her low-tier Core Realm cultivators at least. That meant the [Odds Were Against Me] for sure, especially if I couldn’t totally cut loose with my full Berserker repertoire.

Although I was out in the fields, there was no telling who might be looking, and I couldn’t guarantee I could kill all of them to leave no witnesses either.

Stacking the deck against myself caused my Flame to growl with hunger, feeding me fresh Frenzy triggered from my [Odds Against Me] technique that I quickly cultivated to enhance my physical form. Adrenalin ran like lightning through my veins as my demon heart pumped Frenzy throughout my system.

“So, I’m guessing we don’t handle something like this through the courts, huh?” I used [Struggler’s Resolve] as I said it, remaining cool as ice as I lowered my axe into a fighting stance.

She grinned feral like. “Even the courts don’t get involved with internal sect matters.”

“That’s fine with me,” I said, rolling my shoulders. “Means less paperwork when I kill you all.”

I flew into a martial form and went for the head of the Fire Bird closest to me. I moved faster than he could react, lopping off his head in a single cleave. The sight energized me with a new burst of Frenzy from my [Bloodlust] and I used it to send a sweeping arc of Frenzied Lightning into the other cultivators.

“[Lighting Arc Cleave]!”

With a crackling boom, blue lightning radiated outwards in an arc, trailing from the edge of my axe blade. It cut through the corn stalks and cultivators alike, all but two of them falling prey to the power of the attack cut neatly in two.

A sudden spike of fear came from the two cultivators, their eyes wide with shock at how quickly I had slain their comrades. I realized then that they had to be only high-tier Foundation Realm cultivators at best, not Core.

I let out a laugh with [Fear the Flame]. “You bring such weaklings to ‘deal’ with me? Pathetic!”

I consumed their fear and went on the offensive, surging through the corn field with blazing-fast sweeps of my axe.

The two cultivators fought against me as one, defending with flaming blades of their own as they set their jian swords alight. I focused on the one who had made those stupid comments, shouting as I parried his blade with a sharp metallic ring!

“Dumb piece of shit, huh?” I leapt into the air and then powered downward with a [Two Log Chop]. “Guess you’ll have the pleasure of being killed by one today, asshole!”

The heft of my axe shattered his sword as he tried to block, the blade chopping straight into his torso with a wet thunk. I pulled my axe free with a spray of blood, cultivating the excess Frenzy produced from my [Bloodlust].

“No! Impossible!” the last Fire Bird cried. “He is far stronger than Master Lo Feng sai–!”

I cut his words short by lopping off his head.

As his body hit the ground a slow clap filled the air.

I looked up to see Hin Wu had taken to the air and floating within a pillar of flames.

“Well, you are indeed as strong as the rumors claim. I’d thought six outer disciples would have been more than a match for you.” She then grinned with a splash of lemonade. “Glad to see that I was wrong.”

“So you’re glad you just got six of your own disciples killed for no reason?”

“They weren’t mine. But the sect only grows stronger when weakness is culled. Master Lo Feng will understand and even appreciate it.”

I shook my head. “You’re one messed-up bitch, lady.”

I channeled my Frenzy into another [Lightning Arc Cleave] sending the bolt straight for her head. She spun with a wave of her arm, slipping her douli from her head and deflecting my lightning bolt with it like a shield. She spun the hat about her with unseen tethers and then slung it at me with a burst of flames.

I charged towards it instinctively, winding up my axe and slapping the flaming douli back at her like I was hitting one out of the ballpark. She ping-ponged it right back at me and I used a slug of solid Frenzy to hit it back at her again.

The clang of flaming metal on metal increased in frequency as I closed the distance, the speed of my attacks matching her own. The look on her face shifted from amusement to duress and focus as I got within twenty feet, the douli moving nearly too fast to see.

I dug down for another burst of Frenzy as I sent the flaming disc sailing back at her, but when she sent it spinning back at me again, I didn’t try to hit it. I channeled my Frenzy into [Iron Skin] instead.

The flaming douli hit me directly in the chest, the force of it slicing through my robes and cutting into my flesh with white-hot pain. I used the pain to fuel my assault, springing towards her with a savage roar.

“Die, you bitch!”

Her eyes widened with shock and disbelief as I brought my axe down on her shoulder.

“[Flaming Shield]!”

The world exploded with a fireball that sent me rocking backwards. I landed on my ass a good thirty feet away. I looked up just in time to see Hin Wu staring at her shoulder. The robe of her sleeve was cut away, revealing the faintest cut on her porcelain white skin.

“You… you actually managed to wound me…”

Her words were filled with disbelief, but her soul was filling with a mixture of rage and lemonade. She turned her head to look at me with baleful eyes.

“This One has played with you long enough. You will suffer the price for striking an elder of the Fire Bird Clan!”

She tossed the douli back at me again, but not directly at me this time.

It curved in an arc, flying in a circle around me. Its speed increased and as I rose to my feet, I felt the air suddenly grow hotter.

“[Vortex of the Nine Hells]!” she screamed and the ground around me erupted in a torrent of white-hot flames. I screamed uncontrollably as the pain set my mind on fire, barely having time to engage [Iron Skin] over my entire body.

It didn’t help.

My skin melted as easily as my clothes, burning away to expose white flesh beneath.

How powerful was this woman?

Her attack was the same strength as the ultimate technique Hong Feng had used against me back in that tunnel.

But I had no tunnel to hide in this time. I bolted for escape, but was repelled back into the center of the vortex by the douli that was now moving faster than I could see. My vision blurred, tears desperately trying to keep my eyes from being cooked alive.

I choked on superheated air as my lungs burned from the inside.

[Death’s Door] kicked in, keeping me alive on pure Frenzy alone.

The technique didn’t let up.

I was going to die in this thing!

What kind of bullshit was this? My journey ended by some random bitch?

No…I would not bow to this.

The fate of my people and the destruction of the empire would not be quelled by the likes of her!

For the first time in weeks, I felt the true power of my Flame ignite with the strength of my fury and rage. Frenzy filled me like an ocean, but I needed more than just Frenzy to overcome this. I could no longer see Hin Wu through the swirling pillar of flames.

But that meant she could no longer see me either.

“[Mark of the Demon]…”

My body transformed as I engaged my meridians to perform the technique, solid Frenzy renewing my skin in the same hue as the red-hot flames. Bull horns grew from the side of my head and I felt the strength of my [Iron Skin] technique increase tenfold.

The flames no longer burned through my skin.

But I still felt the pain.

Pain I endured to feed Frenzy right back into the technique itself.

She was still going.

The Qi capacity of this woman was impressive.

But it was time to end this now.

“[Mark of the Beast]…”

The world slowed as my dual techniques kicked in, my reflexes heightened to godlike speed as my limbs elongated and my mouth became filled with fangs. I could actually see the disc spinning around me now, circling perhaps two or three times a second. Dropping into a crouch, I aimed for it with my axe that was now glowing cherry red and slapped it with a [One Chop Cleave].

“Hyaa!”

Hin Wu’s technique wavered as I sent the douli flying and I charged right after it, bursting through the wall of flames. I came through on the other side and was rewarded with the sight of the hat striking Hin Wu right in the face, her head snapping back like a rag doll as she stumbled backwards in midair.

Now was my chance!

I wasn’t sure if I could kill her with a single strike or not. But if I couldn’t, I would risk revealing my true nature to her.

Ah screw it…it was now or never. I summoned my Frenzy as I leapt in the air towards her pulling out all the stops.

“[Lightning Splits the Towering Oak]!”

A column of blue lightning crackled from the heavens as I performed my ultimate technique.

Hin Wu was still flailing from being hit in the face, but then in a remarkable feat of recovery, her eyes flashed open and my axe struck the douli as she deftly maneuvered it to block my attack.

Shit!

A resounding boom thundered across the farm land and Hin Wu went flying like a missile from the force of my hit. Her back crashed into the earth, forming a trench that went for over a hundred feet as she slid across the ground.

It didn’t look as if I’d killed her and I wasn’t sure just how much she had seen of my combined Demon and Beast form either. This wasn’t good. I made the mental shift to retract [Mark of the Beast] and [Mark of the Demon].

My body ached, being put through the wringer, but my core was still over half full.

I could only hope that she’d expended enough of her Qi to be nearly out as well.

She rose from the ground from over a hundred feet away.

I stood almost naked before her, my clothes burned to tattered shreds.

I used the opportunity to flex the hundreds of battle scars laced across my skin, channeling [Indifference]. “I say we call that exchange a draw.”

But the playful and amused smirk had left her face now, replaced by a grimace of rage. The same was mirrored within her heart, but it was joined by something new now. Gone was the lemonade to be replaced by lemons.

True fear bubbled within her soul.

The change encouraged me and I tapped into her fear to replenish some of the Frenzy I had just burned.

“I’ve underestimated you,” she said as she began flexing her arms in complex martial forms. “Your body cultivation is off the charts for a practitioner of your tier.”

I had left my masking technique engaged and she no doubt had sensed that I was only a 2nd-Tier Core Realm cultivator. But thankfully she didn’t mention anything about seeing a red-skinned demon with bull’s horns.

But I wasn’t sure if I could win this now.

Both fields were in flames and a distant toll of a bell was ringing. The farmers would be responding shortly to save their crops. And I couldn’t risk being seen with another shift. Not that my body could stomach another transformation right now.

I choked up on my axe.

I was going to have to beat her with old-school savagery to win.

Releasing a yell, I sprinted down the trench to meet her in close combat.

I got about three quarters of the way when flames erupted from about her body. They swirled and took on form, becoming translucent like a suit of armor.

“[Fire of the Soul]!”

To my surprise she ran right at me and flung her flaming douli at me again. I deflected it with my axe, but the flames swirling atop it carried on straight through and hit me somewhere deep inside.

My Flame flickered and I suddenly lost all strength.

Falling to my knees a new pain entered me.

A pain deep within my soul.

It was familiar.

I’d felt it once before, when that octopus eye monster attacked me.

Did she have the same power?

The power to directly attack my soul?

As I looked up at Hin Wu, now casually strolling towards me, the flaming armor reminded me of what I had seen Threja transform into when she had taken on her spectral form. Did Hin Wu have the same? What Realm of cultivator was this woman?

I couldn’t sense her Qi so I had no idea, but clearly she was at least several ranks above me.

Hin Wu sent the douli flying at me again and again. My Body Hardening was at a stage to still resist the blows, with only small cuts forming on the battered skin. But the additional soul damage that threatened to extinguish my Flame made me cry out in agony.

Dammit what was this?

Hin Wu threw her head back with a laugh. “Just as I figured. All brawn and no soul. You should have cultivated your spiritual aspect more instead of focusing only on the body. You fight like a high-tier Core Realm cultivator, but internally have no spiritual defense at all.”

Damn, that was kind of a compliment. I think.

Too bad my Flame was now reduced to a flickering birthday candle now.

Even my axe felt heavy in my arms as I tried to will my Frenzy through my body, but it was sluggish just like my Flame. It was as if she had disrupted the central nervous system of my soul. She hit me a final time with her douli and I lost consciousness for a second as my Flame flickered out.

Shit…

Hin Wu stopped just a few feet from me, her fiery crimson eyes looking me up and down. “Such a waste. It’s a shame Master Lo Feng wants you dead.”

“Yeah, in your dreams, bitch.”

She let out a cackle. “I suppose it will have to be. Goodbye, Max Chun.”

Hin Wu threw the douli at me again and all time seemed to slow.

She aimed right for my neck.

I refused to accept it.

I wasn’t going out this way!

I reached for my Frenzy to protect my neck with [Iron Skin].

But nothing happened.

Ah shit... I was going to die agai—!

“[Fifth Heaven! Triple Point Guard]!”

A brilliant light flashed as three jian blades formed a triangle before me.

The douli bounced off the translucent shield that had formed between the blade and went flying off into the burning corn field. A second later the black robes and veil of Silver Light dressed in her Silver Shadow disguise hovered next to me.

“Step the hell away from him, you bitch. This man is mine…” Silver Light then paused to look down at me. “…to kill.”

Well shit…

I suppose it was every man’s dream to have two gorgeous women fighting over him. Too bad for me it wasn’t for something other than wanting to kill me.

“Who do you think you’re speaking to?” Hin Wu flared with anger and with a flick of her wrist her douli returned to her hand. “This One is an Elder of the Fire Bird Sect and this is sect business you are interrupting. You may count yourself lucky I do not kill you where you stand for your disrespect.”

“Lucky?” Silver Light said. “Or are you just weak?”

I sensed the stone-cold nerve in her voice and a bubble of fear emerged inside Hin Wu.

They could no doubt sense each other’s Qi and they had to be perhaps on equal standing.

But Hin Wu less so, considering how much she had just expended fighting me.

“The Silver Leaf Clan have a formal writ against this man. He is to face trial in one year’s time. If he survives, you’ll be free to kill him then.”

Hin Wu scoffed with a laugh. “You dare dictate terms to me? Show your face. Who do you think you ar—”

“I need not prove my identity to you, Fire Bird. I represent the ruling clan. A clan the Fire Birds are already at odds with on a number of matters. If you wish to provoke me further and add this as another transgression, you do so at your own peril and the peril of your entire sect.”

Hin Wu didn’t speak for a moment, her crimson eyes shifting back and forth, perhaps sizing Silver Light up. Eventually she came to some decision and with her spectral form dissolving, placed her douli gingerly upon her mane of flowing red hair.

She slipped her fist into her palm and performed a short bow. “This One shows respect to the ruling clan.” She then darted her eyes to me. “For now.”

Silver Light acknowledged her bow with only a head nod. “You have chosen wisely.”

Hin Wu smirked. “As have you.”

“What?”

Hin Wu gestured to me with a wicked smile on her lips. “I wondered what would cause a noble of the Royal ruling family to cavort with one of our own. The answer is obvious now. As I said. Fine choice. I hope he was worth it.”

Fear spiked inside Silver Light like a tidal wave. “W-what! I… I know not what you speak of! H-how dare you!”

But the woman Hin Wu merely cackled a laugh at her. “Till we meet again, sister.”

And with that she departed, flying on a pillar of flame, leaving Silver Light and I alone.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thanks for the save, Fia.”

“Don’t get the wrong idea,” she said without even looking at me. “I meant what I said. I only did this so that I will be the one to kill you later.”

I squinted at her, trying to decipher if she was trying to be serious or not.

But her actions had already spoken for her.

I huffed out a laugh, too exhausted to fight.

“Sound good to me then,” I said, calling her bluff. “See you in a year, Silver Light.”

She swiveled her head towards me as if shocked, removing her veil. Perhaps she expected for me to beg her to reconsider or something. But I wasn’t going to entertain her bullshit right now. If she wanted to keep being angry, she could do so all by herself.

Her silver eyes watched me as I slowly rose to my feet, my body aching from the core of my soul. Inside my Flame was still sputtering.

Dammit, that woman had exposed a weakness I didn’t even know I had.

I had yet another reason to get to cultivating and increase my Tier ranking ASAP now.

As I began to limp away, the fear rose up inside Silver Light once more.

“A-are you alright?”

I didn’t stop to answer. “Why should you care?”

There was no response, only the steady growing of fear in her heart.

I realized then that I was the one being the asshole now.

I paused.

What if I just did it?Just told her everything and let the dice roll?

Part of me wanted to do that something fierce. To just put it all on the line and see what she would say. My plans to defy the Empire. To destroy her family. To free the Earth and raise up my people to take vengeance against the Warden and the princess for everything they’d done. Would she still accept me afterwards? Still want me knowing that I wanted to destroy not just her family but her entire way of life?

Fia did say she craved freedom.

But enough to turn her back on her own family and people?

It was a whimsical thought.

Hell, maybe she’d even want to join me? I thought inwardly with a smile.

Or maybe she’d respond like she had already––balking that her family was even at fault.

Perhaps her position within cultivator society was way too strong to ever give up.

And how could I even ask her to do such a thing anyway?

I knew firsthand what it like to lose your entire family.

No way could I ask her to do the same just for me.

My Flame flickered with uncertainty.

I realized I hadn’t said anything yet and suddenly her anger flared.

“I don’t care,” she said coldly. “Just make sure that woman doesn’t kill you before our date in court.”

“Fia, wait–!” I shouted.

But she’d already taken to the air, her three jian blades trailing behind her.

I watched her fly off in the distance, towards the golden pagoda in the sky.

Shit… just blew that one again.

I couldn’t help but tally the score so far. I had a population of Terrans I needed to save out in the wild, two beautiful women who both wanted to kill me and more writs than I could even count.

“Man,” I said, shaking my head. “What a jacked-up freakin’ day.”