Path of the Berserker

First rule of engagement? I thought. Assert dominance.

That was the plan.

I casually unbuttoned my overcoat and let it fly open as I approached, showing off my still-bloodied bandages for all of them to see. Using [Your Rage is my Strength] I channeled into the hatred pouring off of Hein and began turning it into my own. It was nasty-tasting stuff and it felt like I could almost vomit from it, but once refined, Frenzy was Frenzy.

I used it as I changed my step to take on the passive form of [Fear the Flame]. I wasn’t too sure how well it was working at first, but the closer I got, the more I could sense tiny pockets of fear start to exude from the other men in the group.

Unfortunately there seemed to be a limitation on just how much I could target with [Your Fear is my Strength], but I focused on the closest two men to me that I could, and used my [Frenzied Flame] technique to convert their fear into even more Frenzy to keep both techniques going while still swaggering with [Fear the Flame].

I was grateful now for how much I had practiced these techniques over the last four days. At the moment, I was juggling what I would have considered a mid-level workout. Whether I could keep my focus and fight while doing all this though…

…well, I guess we’ll see, my inner Berserker spoke to me with a leer.

It was either time to fly or time to die.

They all wore similar garb, simple pants and overcoats the same gray and black of Hein’s clan colors of whatever lower branch of the Silver Leaf Clan that he was. But they looked unkempt and undisciplined, all of them holding what looked like thick broomsticks in their hands.

They were likely low-level outer disciple members or initiates from their sect. Little more than glorified thugs like those Fire Bird Sect members turned out to be, albeit many tiers lower than them in terms of strength. They were more like sect member wannabes right off the streets. And I supposed they would have to be to be falling directly under the authority of a youngster like Hein.

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Still there were still a dozen of them and they had sticks and there was just one of me.

I smiled inwardly as I tried to recollect the complex activation of the [Odds Against Me] technique. This would be a great time to test it out.

“Chun, Chun, Chun,” Hein chided me theatrically in front of his crew. “So this is where you’ve been hiding? I paid your square a visit earlier and you were nowhere to be seen. Luckily one of my men spotted you running into that rat hole back there. I hope you’re not trying to avoid me.”

“Avoid you? Never. I just didn’t think you’d come back around for another punch to the face so soon.”

“Silence!” one of the men shouted and swung his stick at me.

I forced myself not to react to it, taking the full swing of the hit right to my side with [Indifference]. I managed not to wince from the pain but instead increased my smile as I channeled the flux of Frenzy right into further healing my wound. This must have pissed them off because six of them jumped in and started beating me with their staffs. I grimaced and grunted, taking the hits, shielding my head with my forearms. One of them hit me in the back of my legs and I buckled, falling to one knee.

It hurt like hell as they continued to wail on me, but I was used to beatings and gauging from the force of their hits, these guys weren’t Foundation-realm cultivators…most of them probably weren’t even true cultivators yet at all. But I gladly sucked up all the Frenzy they gave me, cultivating it into my aching muscles and skin. When they finally backed off Hein came to stand over me, hands behind his back.

“You do take very long to learn, don’t you, Chun?”

I used [Indifference] to keep my face neutral as I looked up at him. “So are we done here? Or did you come looking for me for a reason?”

He seemed put off by my direct questioning, and I could sense his anger as he paused, trying to formulate some kind of witty comeback perhaps. He eventually seemed to give up though and just said plainly, “I came to give you an opportunity to apologize to me.”

I chuckled. “Don’t expect that anytime s—”

“It won’t be now,” he cut me off. “And it won’t be here. As I told you before, This One’s station is above beating a wounded dog, like you.”

“So I guess theirs isn’t?” I said with a grin as I gestured to his now out of breath men with a jut of my chin. The comment went over the head of half of them, but a few I could see paused in thought, grimacing as they realized Hein had just insulted them as well.

“I will give you a month to fully heal before you face me,” Hein said, quick to move on. “In that time, I’d encourage you to reflect on your future and how you’d wish for it to unfold. If you are uncertain as to how it will unfold, then let me educate you now, Chun, in the future I see for you.”

“I’m all ears,” I said with a grin.

“One month from now I will visit your hovel of a square. There you and Yu Li, before the full assembly of your people, will prostate yourselves before me and apologize for your insolence and disrespect. Then your entire square will apologize to me and thank me for my patience and mercy for sparing your lives.”

Fresh ire built within my soul, quickly flashing into Frenzy as it touched my inner Flame. I didn’t mind him messing with me like this, but pulling Yu Li and the rest of the neighborhood into it really got my blood boiling. The only thing that showed on my face however was a leering smile of [Indifference]. “Sounds like you’re setting yourself up for a big disappointment.”

“I warn you, Chun, that should you refuse to apologize, I would be within my right to beat you to death for disrespecting the authority of the Silver Leaf Clan. Do you understand me?”

I shrugged. “Sounds fair.”

He grimaced as I gave him another smile.

“Gui Zu!” he shouted and a thick, muscular-looking guy with a goatee stepped forward. “Give Chun here a reminder of the date so he won’t forget. Something that should take a good month to heal.”

I chuckled as I slowly stood to my feet. “I’m glad you brought someone who looks like they can finally do some damage. Take your best shot, big man.”

I grinned at him with a jut of my chin and the man, Gui Zu, became enraged. He rushed at me with a yell, using some kind of martial technique.

“[Wheeling Spin!]” he cried, twirling the staff behind his back for extra force and speed.

I didn’t try to duck as I saw the hit coming.

I turned my head towards it instead, as if bored, stiffening my body with [Indifference]. Pain exploded through my jaw as I took the hit, the staff snapping in two with the force of the technique. My lip burst and blood flew. But I kept focus on my own technique, maintaining my form, not a reaction on my face. I spat out a piece of my tooth on the ground, using [Fear the Flame].

Gui Zu’s eyes went wide as fear exuded off of him. He looked at the broken stick and then back at my face, no doubt trying to figure out how I was still standing.

“Oh, you’re done?” I said as I casually took a step towards him. “Guess it’s [My Turn] then…”

As I said the words, I released the technique and all pain in my jaw subsided as an immense burst of Frenzy exploded inside me. I sent it with an uppercut straight to his chin, so fast that he didn’t even have a chance to raise the other half of his staff to block. My knuckles cracked under the force of the hit, but I lifted him right off the ground and sent him flying back behind the rest of his comrades ten feet or more. He hit the ground in a heap out cold or maybe even dead for all I knew… or even cared.

Huge amounts of fear began dripping off of Hein and the rest of his men as whispers of shock and disbelief rippled through their ranks.

“What was that?”

“Is he a cultivator?”

“I think he killed Gui Zu with a single strike!”

“How? He’s just a mortal, isn’t he?”

I tasted both lemons and lemonade, some of them actually impressed and in awe of what I’d done. I sucked it all up regardless, replenishing all the Frenzy I had just released in that massive one-tap hit. I then stepped towards Hein and the bunch of them backed away from their master, moving in unison like a school of fish.

“Let me tell you now, Master Hein, what’s actually going to happen in a month’s time.” I channeled my Frenzy into [Fear the Flame]. “When you show up for your apology as planned, and you will show up, you’re not going to get one. You’re going to get a punch to the face instead and end up like your man Gui Zu back there. Maybe you’ll even be dead, who knows? That’ll be up to how well your body is attached to your head. But this will be your future, no doubt. You can count on it.”

I could sense his insides quivering, reacting to my technique, producing even more fear.

“Now if you’re too chicken shit to face this destiny, I understand,” I continued. “So I’m going to give you one last opportunity to change it—by killing me right here and now, while you still can. In a month’s time you won’t be able to. So the choice is yours.”

I didn’t even need to sense the sudden anger rushing through him, the piercing glare in his eyes said it all. I stood unmoving as his hand flexed, wishing for his blade. But I had him in a checkmate and he knew it.

He’d already proclaimed in front of his men that he had given me a month to heal and to apologize to him. To go back on his word now and kill me defenselessly in cold blood would be a loss of face that would not only undermine his own word, but highlight his own cowardice, acknowledging that he was indeed afraid that what I said might come true.

I waited a good half a minute and when he didn’t say or do anything, I nodded.

“Good…” I gave him a bloodied grin. “Glad to see you’re not as big a pussy as I thought you were, Hein. See you in a month.”

As I turned my back and walked away, his rage went off the charts.