Berserker: A LitRPG Urban Fantasy Adventure (Apocosmos Book 1)

by Dimitrios Gkirgkiris

  “It’s not your time yet, mongrel,” Alex spat between his teeth and continued his charge toward the spellcaster, allowing the fighter a few more moments in this life.

  The human archer was still standing behind the healer, while a half-imp rogue was rapidly approaching from the other side. A column of white light enveloped the tank, closing the deep gashes Alpha and Omega had left on him, while the dual-wielding elf was spinning toward Alex, a dervish of destruction. The best strategy against a group of foes aided by a sword dancer would be to stun him so that his teammates would eventually lose their buffs. However, wrath knew nothing of strategy. Only directives. The number one directive was to kill the healer. There was no specific number two directive for Alex, so he’d have to fall back to the default one: death to everything.

  Moments before the two fighters crossed blades, an aura enveloped Alex and settled on him, creating a thin red outline around him. He had activated his Primal Flame Charge skill, coalescing his rage into concentrated energy around him. The elf brought down his swords, but Alex did not move to evade. Both of the blades lodged into his shoulders, but this didn’t slow him down. He pushed forward, his red stare meeting the unmoving eyes of his enemy. Alex was injured but it did not matter.

  He triggered his Break the Body skill as he slashed with his swords, creating a cross of blood on the elf’s chest. The damage from this attack was enough to make the elf pull his swords back, causing the bleeding debuff to appear in the berserker’s view. Pieces of Alex’s flesh were launched into the air as the whole stadium shouted in awe. Most importantly, however, the stunning effect of Alex’s attack landed, pinning his enemy for three seconds. More than enough to carry on with his task.

  Alex sprinted forward again and only steps before reaching the dwarf healer, he let out a throat scream that sounded more like a demon having its entrails pulled out than a human charging.

  Name: Primal Battle Cry

  Type: Buff

  Level: 2

  Effect: Boosts Physical Attack by 25%

  Time Left: 19 minutes 59 seconds

  Description : The recipient’s dominating presence and hunger for battle react with a large mana injection to their musculoskeletal system, providing an extraordinary boost to their strength.

  The dwarf barely managed to finish casting his healing spell on the sword dancer before Alex was just inches away from him. Triggering his Primal Flame Charge skill again, another, thicker, darker red layer of energy coated his body.

  “Time to die, priest,” Alex spat and toggled his final offensive buff on.

  Name: Vandalier

  Type: Aura

  Level: 7

  Effect: Boosts Physical Critical Damage by 166%. MP is continuously consumed while this skill is on.

  Time Left: Toggle

  Description : This offensive stance continuously funnels mana, making the user vicious in their attacks, especially those on the vital organs of their enemies.

  The dwarf tried casting a spell on him, but without wasting a single second, Alex triggered his Rapid Slash skill and stabbed the priest thrice with each blade. Every piercing hit of the berserker was hailed with a wave of excitement from the audience, while another gasp led him to believe that the sword dancer was approaching him. Glancing behind him, he saw that the dual-wielding warrior was only now beginning to regain his movement, but the rogue was almost upon him and was coming at him dagger first.

  It mattered not. Alex plunged Omega into the dwarf’s abdomen, stopping his self-healing spell from having any effect. At the same time, a barrage of stab wounds was delivered to Alex’s back by the rogue who, had he not been a mindless puppet, would have fled in terror before now. Alex did not pay him any heed but instead half-turned, Alpha outstretched toward the elf warrior who was now running to the healer’s aid.

  Both layers of wrath around his body were pulled onto his sword and catapulted in a flurry of red light toward the elf. His Condensed Hatred Blast attack wasn’t as strong as the rest of his skills, but its danger lay in the high stun probability. In the sword dancer’s weakened mental state, he had no chance of resisting the 5-second stun. He stopped in his tracks, hands limp, staring at the tank and archer who were now closing in on Alex. Along with the rogue, the three of them attacked him all at once, but it made no difference.

  “Is that all you’ve got, you weaklings?” Alex shouted and slashed at the healer again and again.

  The dwarf, now barely alive, tried to move back, but Alex wouldn’t let him go. With a spin that looked like the beginning of a tornado, he pulled Omega out of his enemy’s body and brought Alpha in from the other side to decapitate him.

  The dwarf’s head hit the sand and the crowd went crazy. That was when Alex fell into the deepest pit of boiling wrath within him.

  He had killed the healer, as he had set out to do. He’d been told to drag the fight out. To provide a spectacle for the crowds. But it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered to him anymore. Only the sound of his swords cutting through flesh and bone. He turned his red eyes toward the four fighters who were still attacking him from behind and bared his teeth. He felt the red froth forming at the sides of his mouth as he let out a burst of maniacal laughter.

  “Do you think you’re making me feel pain?” he growled. “I’ll show you fucking pain.”

  With the swipe of one sword, he deflected an arrow and blocked a dagger that was coming his way. He stopped the third fighter’s shield bash with just the tip. The door-sized shield was made of a material strong enough to withstand piercing damage, but as soon as a small dent had been created on its surface, the sword locked into place and directed all of Alex’s force back toward the shield-bearing goliath.

  The rogue was the first to be hit by Alex’s Lethal Strike attack. It wasn’t as strong as some of his other skills, but was a solid alternative while his heavy hitters were on cooldown. The half-imp buckled under the force of the hit and this only made the frenzied fighter grin more widely. Alex pressed on the rogue’s knee, keeping him pinned on the ground as he plunged both swords through his clavicles and dragged them all the way down to his guts.

  The sword dancer threw himself on Alex with both swords. Both of the elf’s blades cut deeply, but it wasn’t Alex’s flesh that was torn apart. He had used the rogue’s body like some kind of flesh shield, his swords still stuck through it now serving as handles. Then he proceeded to throw the body up in the air, releasing it by spinning his blades and pulling them down to strike the elf. Blood rained down on the berserker as his blades struck true on his dancing opponent.

  Logic suggested that the dancer should be taken out first, but logic was something Alex had no respect for at his state. The archer had landed several hits on him and even though the damage was minimal, the attacks from a distance were annoying and a sign of weakness. Alex rushed toward the archer, disregarding the dual-wielding warrior and the goliath tank. The archer tried kiting Alex, but the speed boost the berserker had gained made it impossible for the archer to stay far enough away.

  “Stop running, you piece of shit!” Alex shouted.

  Halfway through the six strikes of his Rapid Slash attack, the archer fell to the ground unconscious. That didn’t mean Alex would waste the rest of his attack by canceling it though. He hacked and slashed at the lifeless body until it was in pieces and his own face was dripping with blood and gore. So thick was the blood dripping from his forehead and eyebrows that when he turned around he could barely see the sword dancer’s incoming attack. He moved to the side and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

  Before he had the chance to react any further, the goliath hit him with his shield and he was thrown back a couple of feet. But he wasn’t knocked to the ground. He slid to a stop and gave his swords a twirl to remove the chunks of flesh from them. The swirl of blood gained Alex some cheers from the thousands of onlookers. None of this was entertaining to him though. It was a need. A thirst that was being quenched.

&nbs
p; The goliath brought his large sword down on Alex, but the movement was far too slow for the heightened senses of the berserker. He ducked, as much to avoid a slash from the nearby elf’s swords as to strike the back of the goliath’s knees.

  The hit made the tall humanoid tremble with the difficulty of holding his large body upright. However, pain was not an obstacle once he had hit level 0. The sword dancer had halted his attacks to mutter an incantation. His Leech Life Force skill tugged at Alex’s open wounds, sucking his power along with his blood, which coalesced on a single point in the air in front of him before traveling back to the caster. The elf managed to heal a couple of his wounds with the spell but ultimately, it made no difference. Alex had already driven both Alpha and Omega through the eyeholes of the goliath’s helmet, riding on his chest as the tall humanoid fell onto the bloody sand of the pit.

  A cloud of dust rose as the titanic body hit the ground and Alex stepped off of it, twirling his blades menacingly. Nobody in their right mind would charge at him after seeing that. But the elf wasn’t in his right mind. He didn’t have a mind of his own at all.

  Alex deflected, spun around and parried. The sword dancer might have been a wonderful fighter, but he was no match for his opponent. Not in this state. The next stun proved to be lethal for him. Alex stepped behind him and drove his sword from the lower back up to his heart, before kicking the body forward to slide it off the end of his sword.

  The crowds seemed to be split between those who were ecstatic with the show they’d just watched and those who felt cheated out of their money. This was supposed to be the main event of the fighting day but there was too little blood for them, too fast a fight. That was the error of people watching fights for sport without actually ever having been in one. They couldn’t comprehend how quickly people got killed.

  “You want more, you motherfuckers?” Alex shouted, sweat, blood, and red froth flying from his mouth. “Bring me something to kill.”

  This looked like it swayed a few of the displeased onlookers. But this wasn’t Alex’s intention. He hadn’t had his fill yet. He focused his eyes on an orc in the audience seats closest to the arena floor. The man was shouting foul words at him, spitting pieces of roasted meat out as he did so.

  Alex focused on him and grinned a sick smile. He put one leg in front of the other and charged toward the high wall of the pit. Aiming his hands and feet for small recesses that were almost invisible to the naked eye, he launched himself up and grabbed the edge of the balcony that separated the spectators from the sport. The people in that part of the stadium started to move back up on the seats behind them as Alex picked himself up. A few spellcasters in the audience tried to throw sleep and confusion spells at him but of course none of them had any effect. How could a spell meant to manipulate the mind have any effect on a spirit as perverted and ravenous as his? But as he sprung up to attack the orc, a semi-translucent wall appeared and blocked his advance, pushing him back.

  He did not like it one bit. Like a feral animal with its leg caught in a trap, he reacted violently. He rushed forward with even more force. This time, however, the wall almost exploded when he touched it, throwing him back down into the pit.

  “You want more death?” Alex said as he lay on the sand, ready to collapse. “I will be your death…”

  Alex opened his eyes, feeling the all familiar after-pain of his rage. The dark sky was full of red clouds above him. He was still at the ludus outside the nine hells. He tried hoisting himself up and felt the pain of the hundreds of wounds he had suffered. His HP bar was more than halfway full, meaning he was out of danger, but not recovered enough to spare him from pain.

  The fire was crackling loudly and whispers of “he’s up” and “the berserker has awakened” could be heard among the silent shuffle of people moving. It didn’t take too long before a set of heavy footsteps approached his low straw bed.

  “You did it, you crazy bastard,” Yalfrigg said, smiling widely. “You killed them all and you gave them a show they’ll be talking about for many tendays to come.”

  “The swords,” Alex muttered, not caring one bit about how he had performed in the eyes of the dominus and his bloodthirsty tourists.

  “They’re yours to keep,” the dwarf replied. “They’re being repaired. Can’t have you go out and break them next time, can we?”

  “Next time…” Alex said between his teeth, preferring not to think about the next time. Not at that moment. He was just content to have guaranteed himself strong weapons for his future fights.

  “Thank you, lad,” the doctore whispered in Alex’s ear. “At last, he can find peace.”

  Before the dwarf was able to backtrack, Alex caught him by the vest of his jacket and pulled him closer.

  “Before the end,” Alex whispered ever so quietly, “he spoke to me.”

  The dwarf now was hanging on his word, eyes wide open.

  “He wanted you to know that he forgave you,” Alex said.

  Yalfrigg pressed his lips together tightly, clearly trying to hold back his tears for the brother who’d been set free at last.

  It was a lie of course, but it was one that would never see the light of day. One that the dwarf needed to hear. A sweet lie that Alex wished someone had told him before he had become miserable and toxic.

  Once the doctore had left his bedside, a host of slaves gathered around Alex’s makeshift recovery bed. They looked at him in awe, some with a hint of respect, and a select few with a glimmer of hope in their eyes.

  “Your fight was amazing,” said a man Alex didn’t recognize.

  “The bards will sing of it for a long time!” another woman exclaimed.

  “You did good,” said one of the vampire twins, but quickly added, “for a human.”

  “Why don’t you let the man rest?” another voice echoed from behind him but was followed by boos and sounds of disapproval.

  “You probably won’t fight again for the next few days,” the other vampire said. “Our master will probably want to let the rumor of you spread down the nine hells.”

  Alex didn’t care if there was another fight coming up or not, but he nodded at the fact. The vampire, seeing that he was going to get no reaction from him this way, decided to continue talking.

  “The healing spells helped you rest for hours straight,” she said. “You might still need some healing and have trouble moving about, but you won’t be able to sleep much more.”

  “Yes,” her brother hissed, and asked a question that everyone there seemed very pleased to hear: “So why don’t you go on with your story?”

  Neverending

  Epilogue

  A couple of months passed after the day that we cleared the Chroma Warehouse Dungeon. Things had changed so much that it felt like a lifetime ago. For starters, business was booming. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen less than a thirty percent increase in week over week revenue.

  Rory and I had become the absolute kings of arrow trading in the state of New York. What’s more, we were already the number one arrow provider in the states of Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey. The other states weren’t as profitable as New York, but I wanted to have a strong foothold on anything east of New York before expanding to the west.

  We had already put a couple of mana rechargers on retainer just for Rory and had employed two additional crafters. Both of them were human and much lower level than Rory, but still good enough to be able to craft the level 3 recipes we needed. At first, I thought we’d need a center of operations for all this, but pretty soon realized the dangers this might pose.

  Putting multiple crafters under one roof and warehousing arrows by the thousands would make us an easy target for anyone who might have a problem with us running the market. And I wasn’t going to be caught by surprise again. That meant we would need to ward the place and either purchase insurance against attacks, which was ridiculously priced in the Apocosmos, or hire muscle to help protect u
s.

  In the interests of keeping our whole network decentralized, we decided that our crafters would work from their own workshops, and would send their produce to DEM fulfillment centers under my name so that I could put out the listing. This system had so many advantages that I wondered why we hadn’t thought of it earlier.

  The crafters never met me and for all they knew, Rory was just another crafter. This both played into the mystery of it all, but also served us greatly in terms of safety.

  In addition, the produce was never kept in one place and we always tried to hire or relocate our crafters closer to the fulfillment centers for which they’d be crafting, so we found a crafter from Maine to do the orders there. The materials were bought and sent to his place and the shipping costs for the finished products were much lower. We had to purchase extra-dimensional bags for each crafter upon hiring, but this was a small cost to pay considering how much we saved.

  Finally, we paid the crafters according to how many of the arrows they produced got sold in the market. The pricing was of course controlled by me in order to maximize profit, but the crafters had to regulate their output so they could ensure their earnings as well. That took another problem away from us since they needed to make the choice about when and how many mana rechargers they should hire. We paid their costs, of course, but the time we gained by doing this was a blessing.

  It was a blessing I used as efficiently as I could to repay my debt to Leo. I’d promised him that we’d take the class upgrade quest together so my daily training at the gym was replaced by daily XP grinding with Louie. Leo had provided us with access to low-level training portals where the Dark Energy spawned monsters for us to hunt. Nothing too fancy—a few feral beasts, a couple of oversized animals, and the occasional magical construct. Just what we needed for quick leveling.