Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

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The fight continued raging as the two sides struggled. Adam was holding off the Troll on his own by making sure not to lower its HP by too much, while not taking too much himself. The Troll was annoyed by him, it couldn't understand how a Berserker was so nimble.

On the other side of the room, the High Shaman was trying to fend off the four attackers, especially the three that were injuring it so much, but no matter what all its attacks were tanked by Baugh.

Adam was relieved to see that it didn't enter into a Berserker's State when its HP went past 15%, but he still didn't dare to do the same with the Troll. A Berserker like boss such as the Troll was way more susceptible of having a Berserk State than a mage after all.

The adventurers were getting excited as the High Shaman's HP was lowering dangerously, but the Troll was getting more and more frantic. It wasn't just panicking, it was getting angrier and angrier, but it changed nothing.

Adam just wouldn't let it go, it had tried ignoring him to rush to help its brother, but that proved to be useless too. It still continued trying, and Adam was happy the Troll was doing so as his HP stopped dropping and the Troll's HP was lowering quickly too.

Quickly, the High Shaman's HP reached below 5%, below 1000 HP in other words. Adam grinned and stopped blocking the Troll and yelled "Jude, Breyn and Eddy, move back! Baugh, push the Shaman toward the Troll!"

They immediately obeyed and the two bosses almost collided with each other. The Troll was relieved as it finally reunited with its brother, together they were invincible, they would kill those puny human…

However it was stopped in the middle of its thoughts when its brother, the High Shaman, pushed the Troll behind him. Then, the Troll felt a cold stinging pain in its back. It immediately recognized this as that Berserker's most powerful attack, and was pushed forward because of the strength behind the stab. It then turned in rage but froze upon seeing what was in front of it.

In front of its eyes was a nightmarish scene. Its beloved brother, with whom he had spent the last decades, was impaled by a large sword. Holding the sword was the berserker, who clicked his tongue and said "Damn, I missed."

Adam was truly pissed, his tactic had been to put the two bosses together and use his combination of skills on the two of them, by dealing the first blow to the Troll so that it would be the one to take the additional damage from [Mighty Strike].

However, at the last moment the High Shaman had burst with a previously unseen vigor and jumped in the way of the sword. The sword had impaled the Shaman and still hit the Troll, but the additional damage was wasted on the High Shaman who would have died either way.

Adam swiped his sword to the side, throwing the corpse off his sword, and looked at the Troll. It HP was at 16%, but there seemed to be something wrong with it.

The Troll followed its brother's corpse with its eyes, being disposed of as if it was nothing but trash. The world slowed down to a stop as the Troll felt despair and immense grief overtake its mind.

However, in the next moment it all disappeared. Every emotion was pushed aside, destroyed, along with its mind, only to let place to one thing, rage.

The Troll's eyes focused on Adam, completely red.

Adam frowned as he made eye contact with the Troll. There was something wrong going on. The next instant, he felt something hit him in the face and he crashed into the ground.

He blinked in confusion before hurriedly moving his head to the left, dodging a fist that completely destroyed the ground.

He jumped backwards and looked at what had attacked him. It was still the Troll, but it had changed, its skin had turned red, and vapor was coming off its body. Those were the signs of a Berserk State.

What surprised Adam though was the nature of this skill. Instead of being activated when the monster's HP passed a certain level, it would be activated when one of the two brothers died. This meant the correct strategy with them was to kill them at the same time.

Adam massaged his jaw which had just been punched as he grumbled. Looks like he had been fooled. But it wouldn't change anything, the Troll may have become stronger, it had lost its mind, it was closer to a beast than a Troll now.

Adam sidestepped and used [Parry] by placing his sword behind his head. As if he had read in the future, the Troll appeared where he had been in the next moment, but missed its first attack as he had moved away.

It then attacked once again, and hit Adam's sword, the damage getting negated by Adam's use of [Parry]. The Troll didn't care though, or rather it couldn't, and it continued attacking, but every time it attacked Adam seemed to be one step ahead and was able to fight it off.

As he played with the Troll Adam couldn't help but shake his head. The Troll had become stronger, way stronger. The buff to its stats was higher than what a Berserk skill should give.

It was so fast he couldn't even see it move, and parrying its attack had made his entire arm painful. But despite that, the fight had become even easier than before, and the reason was simple: It had been numbed by a great deal.

When they fought earlier, Adam was able to dominate it with Martial Arts, it was only at the level of Eddy and company when they first met, as expected of a Chieftain humanoid monster. But even though the gap in Martial Arts was big, the boss was still able to fight with Adam as it managed to not be too predictable.

But now, even though its attributes were much higher, its fighting skills had become null, and so Adam was able to predict its every move.

Of course this was limited to dodging, Adam hadn't been able to lower its HP even once in the last 15 seconds. Still, now that his skills had finished their cooldown, he was ready for action.

He stopped moving and used [Parry] once again, nullifying another strike, and used [Charge] at point blank. The Boss wasn't stunned, but it was still unable to move for an instant.

An instant was enough for the others to attack though. All of them used their skills on the boss, dropping its HP slowly. Entering Berserk State had strengthened its defense by a lot, and even when they all used their most powerful skills they hadn't yet killed it.

The Troll was about to attack Adam once again when it was finally his time to attack once again. He ignored the fist coming from the Troll, and used [Mighty Strike] to stab the Troll in the heart.

Critical Hit! -1500 HP!

-1400 HP!

Both Adam and the Troll suffered a big amount of damage, with the Troll taking the Critical Hit. Adam's sword was piercing through the Troll's heart, while his nose had been destroyed by the Troll's punch, lowering his HP to less than 200.

[Congratulation for killing the lords of the Goblin Fortress and completing your Quest!]

Rewards: 100000 XP, head to the Adventurer's Guild for the rest of the rewards.

[Your skill Parry has leveled up!]

[You have leveled up to Level 16! AP+5]