Path of the Berserker

“Two minutes!”

The shout of warning came from Jakra who was standing in the center aisleway of the jostling prison skiff as if descended rapidly from orbit. I was seated alongside my fellow Prisoner Tributes in chairs equipped with shackles for the ankles and arms.

If this thing decided to crash, we’d all be royally screwed.

Unlike the fancy skiff I had taken from the surface of the Earth, the prisoner skiff was a tin can with no windows. Only the creak of metal and the hurricane-like gusts of wind banging against the hull gave any sense that we were descending at all.

Kou Ren and his family were seated in the row next to me, their heads down between their knees. In the last few days, I had gotten to know the man and his family a bit better, but for all that was good in the universe, I now wished that I hadn’t.

It only made what was likely to come that much worse to bear.

Kou Ren seemed oblivious to it all though, turning his head to give me a smile.

“Never done anything like this before,” he said. “Who’d have thought me, a poor farmer would be in a skiff falling from the stars, eh?”

He laughed full of nerves, and I smiled good naturedly in response.

“What do you think should be our strategy, Iron Bull? Should we try to befriend tributes from the other colony worlds and form alliances?”

“I got no idea,” I said honestly. “But if this academy is run anything like a sect, I wouldn’t expect teamwork to be a cherished principle.”

The skiff suddenly lurched, sensing my stomach flying into my throat with negative G’s.

A few of the tributes screamed, including Kou Ren and his family.

We were then slammed down into our seats again in a wild rollercoaster-like fashion.

Kou Ken recovered from his fright with another smile.

“Ah, yes, you would know,” he said. “I never would have thought I’d be part of a martial sect, either. Yet here I am, I suppose.”

I looked about. The fear inside the craft was palpable. We were headed into the unknown and these people were all beyond ill equipped. I glanced down the row to his wife and children. Su Ren looked like she was praying while his sons were wearing grimaces of stress and worry.

“Make sure you keep your family together,” I said. “Think of them as your team and no one else.” I then glanced about at the other two dozen or so occupants of the skiff, Kou Ren’s neighbors and former friends. “I wouldn’t expect them to react any better than your countrymen here.”

It was true. They hated his guts and still blamed from for everything.

“Get ready!” Jakra shouted. “On your feet!”

The shackles and manacles released and in a flurry of activity the entire occupancy of the skiff tried to stand amidst the jostling and careening vessel. It then seemed to settle down as the craft decelerated hard and it felt like my weight was nearly tripled. I resisted the force with a flexing of my legs, but a few of the tributes fell right back into their chairs again including Su Ren.

The doors to the craft opened and a hot wind blew inside, accompanied by the dull orange glow of fading sunlight. Jakra then stood to the front of the craft and began pushing tributes outside.

“Go! Go! Go!”

A prison guard who was seated to our rear began pushing us from behind as we filed into the aisleway. The fear inside Kou Ren and his family suddenly spiked as they approached the exit way and glancing over their heads I saw why.

Standing before them was a twenty or thirty foot drop to a rocky surface below.

Su Ren hesitated, gasping as she tried to turn back, but Jakra shoved her and the entire family out the opening with a single push. They flew outside with a cacophony of screams that ended with sharp cries and grunts from below. Before I could even look to see what had become of them Jakra thrusted my sword and axe into my arms.

“Good luck, Iron Bull,” he said and then hefted me out the hatch as well.

Son of a…!

The short fall to the ground came much quicker than I expected and when my feet hit the ground it felt like I had a ten-ton weight on my back. I spilled into a roll, breaking my fall and then popped back to my feet again, just as the prison skiff pulled away overhead, filling the air with hot dust and backwash.

As it cleared a mind-numbing sight came into view.

We weren’t the only ones being pushed out of a skiff. No less than a dozen orbital crafts were spilling tributes onto the rocky ground from thirty feet in the air. Some were clearly true martial cultivators who absorbed the fall no problem like I had, more though seemed to be mortals who wailed and cried as they hit the ground. There had to be close to a thousand people altogether, but the one thing we all had in common were our gray uniforms and the word tribute written in red characters on the back.

I looked for Kou Ren and his family and found them gathered around Su Ren who was mewling on the ground in pain. As I walked to them, a heaviness hit me, like my entire body was made of lead.

What the hell…?

It was then that I noticed the distress on Kou Ren’s face along with his sons’.

“I can barely stand,” the eldest son, Chu Ren said. “This world must be cursed!”

“Help me with your mother,” Kou Ren said. “She’s broken her ankles.”

His sons helped their mother to stand while I looked for my weapons that had fallen out of my grasp. When I collected my Phalanx Glaive from the ground it felt like it weighed twice that of normal and the same went for my axe. I then went to help Kou Ren and his family who were hissing in pain with each step.

I looked about and saw many of the other people struggling just to stand and walk.

The gravity on this planet had to be jacked right up.

We made our way toward where the other tributes seemed to be gathered as more and more orbital skiffs pulled away. I then noticed there was one skiff that did not. It was a normal skiff with no canopy and was hovering above the epicenter of the crowd. On it were four figures each dressed in different colored robes.

Two were wearing black, with one of them, a woman, having the addition of jade trim. The last two men were wearing brown and white respectively. As the other orbital shuttles left and cleared the area, the woman wearing black and jade took a step forward on the skiff and rested her hands on her hips as she surveyed the crowd.

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She looked in her forties and reminded me a lot the Warden back home. Not in appearance mind you. Where the Lady Silver Tear had the refinement and beauty of a royal, this woman had a battle-hardened look to her and she wasn’t Yee either. She was brown-skinned like Jian Yi and had her head shaved bald and while her face wasn’t unattractive it did have a few scars. But what resembled the Warden was her stare. It was cold and calculating, almost predatory.

“Listen the lot of you!” she shouted, and her voice boomed over the crowd with the unnatural power of Qi. “This One is known as Yora, chief instructor responsible for tribute training for the upcoming commencement year. From this point on, you will address me only as Chief Instructor, if you are ever so fortunate as to do so.”

She then paused to look out over the crowd again as if to let her words sink in.

“Many of you are weak,” she continued. “And before the sun of this world sets, you will know if you are too weak to continue past the close of this day. Some of you may have noticed that the planet Lung Zept is a heavy world. Your weight here and that of everything around you may be several times what you may be accustomed to on your home world. That alone may kill some of you before the day is out. Some indeed may have even died from it already being dropped from your skiffs.”

As she said it, I immediately looked to Su Ren who was still wincing in pain between her two sons who were holding her aloft. It made my blood boil to realize they’d perhaps done it all on purpose, dropped us from thirty feet up just to thin out the herd.

“If you are still fit enough to run, then you may have the strength to complete your first assignment as a tribute.” She then pointed behind her. “In that direction, some twenty miles away is the Legionnaires’ Academy of Du Gok Bhong. If you manage to reach there alive, then your will have eared your colors to become a first year tribute.”

Chief Instructor Yora then pointed to the man in brown robes. “You will shed your gray robes as prisoner tributes and wear brown, the color of misfortune and shit. If you manage to survive further through your first year and pass the requirements to reach the second year, then you will be elevated to a white robe tribute and wear the colors of death and mourning. Should you then survive and meet the requirements of a third year, you will wear black, the colors of darkness and glory, a true tribute. Only then will you choose a path, either follow that of a Phalanx for those of you who are of low cultivation realm, or that of legionnaire if you have true strength and talent. Should you succeed in your legionnaire assessment, then your black robes will be adorned with a white stripe, signifying you as a Graduate Legionnaire. From that point you will be sent on a tour of duty to suppress the Hell Worlds of the Cursed Stars. If you survive and return successful, you will then be dubbed a true Legionnaire and wear the jade trim of vitality and dependability as I do now.”

That got a murmur from the crowd as we all realized the power of the woman who now spoke to us. She’d done exactly what I needed to do. She’d seen and survived what I still had to reach much less experience. But something she said caused a pit to form in my stomach.

Had I been black-robed already just by being a volunteer?

The thought made me sick.

Killing that bastard Shen Liu had cost be far more than I thought.

“Shit…” I muttered.

“What is it?” Kou Ren asked.

“Nothing,” I said, but my mind was already whirling as to what I needed to do to make up for lost time. I had only nine months to achieve everything she’d said, but clearly the color progression was meant for near mortals whose final end might be a phalanx and not the stars.

I needed to get to back to being a black robe fast just so I could begin my training to be a legionnaire. The thought caused a burning of my Flame, but the Struggler came to dampen it as he drew my eyes to Kou Ren and his family.

Dammit, I’d made a promise to them as well.

But how the hell was I going to advance quickly while trying to keep them all alive?

“Remember these colors and what they signify,” Jora said. “If you are strong and fortunate enough to make it to the Academy, then you will see them all. Be certain to show respect to those who are your upperclassmen and superiors. There is only one ranked higher than the colors you see me wearing now. That will be of the Academy President, Master Tzu Li Zen. He wears not only the gold trim of an Imperial Marshal, one having served three successful tours as a legionnaire, but the additional purple trim of nobility for one having served an additional two tours, earning the rank of High Marshal. Should you survive this first tribulation as a prisoner tribute, you will have the honor of being addressed by the High Marshal himself at the first assembly. The path ahead of you will not be easy, but with ha—”

Her words cut short as a sudden cry filled the air.

The entire assembly then turned in the direction of the scream to see a lone tribute a couple hundred feet away, running for his life from what looked like a praying mantis the size of a giraffe. The creature easily outpaced him on its long spindly legs, moving in unnervingly quick and jerky steps. It stabbed the man through his torso with one of them, pinning him to the ground.

His cries became ear-piercing screams of terror as the mantis lowered its huge insectoid head to the man’s face. Then with a loud crack, it snapped its jaws closed, popping the man’s skull like a ripe watermelon.

The screams ceased.

The giant mantis feasted for a moment on what was left of the man’s head, and then after piercing his body with both forelimbs, the mantis began digging into the earth with its hind quarters. It took less than a half a minute for the huge monster to burrow itself into the ground and drag the tribute’s body with it.

A cold silence filled the air as fear permeated everyone’s soul.

I had never seen a creature like that before and had no idea how strong it was, but judging by how quickly the man had died, I would put it as a C class at least. But then again this was a heavy world. Maybe it was stronger than even that to live under the intense gravity alone. Maybe it was the equivalent of a B class in my books.

Chief Instructor Yora let out a scoffing laugh that echoed over the crowd. “It seems one of your fellow tributes attempted to gain a head start. Both ambitious and cunning. Qualities to be admired for certain, but as he most graciously allowed to be demonstrated, the Academy of Du Gok Bhong is called so for a reason. You are here to learn as much as you are to advance and grow in strength. And your first lesson should always be this: ensure you understand fully the directions of your instructor.” She paused for a smile that more resembled a shit-eating grin. “Would that eager tribute have waited but a moment more, I would have explained that Lung Zept is a penal colony and was chosen to be so for three reasons. The first is it being a heavy world as I already explained. The second is that this world is filled with very powerful monsters and spirit beasts. The creature you saw, known as a Takrid, is the predominant species that live in large colonies below the ground. While nocturnal they are attracted by sound and vibration during the day and act as ambush predators. Like what happened with that tribute there, it is likely a large number of Takrids gather below you…even now.”

That caused the fear to spike to 12 as murmurs of despair and alarm wafted through the crowd.

“The only thing protecting you right now is the small barrier being produced by this.” Yora then raised a familiar looking crystal in her hand the size of softball. It was cut crudely and amber in color but there was no denying what it was. “This is known as aetherite. It is the material we harvest from Hell Worlds of the Cursed Stars. Its concentrated Qi harmonics repel spirit beasts and monsters. Even demons. Its value is worth a thousand times its weight in spirit stones. Once we leave, you will have to travel the twenty miles to Du Gok Bhong and defend yourself against the attacks at the monsters here.”

The murmurs broke into an outright din of panic and alarm.

“This is far worse than I thought!” Kou Ren said looking to me. “Master Iron Bull, please protect my family!”

And he wasn’t the only one. Kou Ren’s former friends and Sect mates all bum-rushed me, begging for me to protect them.

“Master Iron Bull, please escort us!”

“I can’t die like this!”

“Kou Ren! You’ve doomed us all!”

I was just about to tell them all back off, when Yora shouted again.

“SILENCE!”

Her words crushed the noise until you could hear a pin drop again.

“There is a final reason this planet was chosen as a penal colony,” she said. “It is also the reason why you must reach Du Gok Bhong before nightfall.” She then looked to the orange-hued sky. “The planet is cursed by a Bloodmoon. When it rises, its Dark Qi will influence the Takrids that will emerge from below, making them even stronger and more ferocious. Not only that, but the demons that slumber beneath this world’s crust will surface as well. Few cultivators save for Graduate Legionnaires can withstand the influence of a Bloodmoon and even then, not for very long. If you wish to survive, get to Du Gok Bhong before nightfall where there is the safety of an aetherite core.”

The uncertainty and panic resumed as the skiff powered up and began to redirect towards the direction of the Academy.

“You have roughly four hours,” Yora said. “This is your first assignment as tributes. I wish you luck.”

With that the skiff turned fully and began to pull away.

Desperate cries rang out as people tried to run after it.

But then there came another sound as the ground began to tremble beneath our feet.

Rocks and stone breaking.

The world then exploded into a shower of sand and debris as at least half a dozen Takrids burst free from the ground around us.