NOVEL NEXT Chapter 227: Berserker.
Supposedly, all of us were fighting… But between me, my brother, and my sister… I was the only one with bruises. I had a feeling that was about to change though…
Lu charged forward, trying to hit her while she was down. ‘Ruthless…’ Of course, it didn’t play out. Grama caught her heel and sprang her feet up around Lu’s neck, pulling her over herself and throwing her several feet, getting up in the same breath.
I just let out a sigh. ‘Great… She didn’t buy any time at all…’ I patted Airsidh on the back. “You don’t have to hit her… Just… don’t go down as easy as Lu…”
He sighed, rolling his neck. “If I don’t do my best I’m assuming I’ll be hearing about it the rest of our trip…” He groaned, stepping forward and raising his hands.
‘You just need to last a few seconds.’
“Are you running away!” Grama yelled, gunning for me again, but thankfully my brother was just as fast, taking a few blows and drawing her attention while I moved to the side.
‘I just need to stay in her peripheral to split her focus to take pressure off, if I circle like this then it won’t be long before…’
Right on queue my sister was flying through the air and wrapping her leg around gramas kneck in what must have been the most awkward improvised choke hold I had ever seen… She secured the hold by hooking her ankle behind her other knee, and hooking that leg's ankle under her ribs, twisting her upper body even more, hunching over, and completely immobilizing her right arm.
‘Mom definitely didn’t teach that move…’
It worked though. With only one arm she didn’t have the strength to rip her off and after a few seconds started slowing down. ‘Wait, no way… Did we win?’ She grabbed Airsidh’s arm, changing her focus and pulling him into a headbutt that nearly took him off his feet.
‘How is she still conscious?’ She continued spinning, starting to panic until she managed to grab hold of the laces on the back of Lu’s dress, yanking on them as she growled, tightening it and nearly pulling it over her head at the same time. Considering its design… I didn’t envy her.
To try and take some pressure off I go in close again, hitting her several times, but her abs felt like a brick wall, starting to hurt my hands. They both groaned in pain until the laces tore and snapped, freeing her hand to suddenly chop my neck, hitting a nerve that made my whole right side go numb as she started to stagger, finally losing her balance.
‘Just go down already!’
I moved back to a safe distance but she somehow still had fight left in her. The fight had taken us all the way to the edge of the courtyard where she stepped up onto the small stone wall lining the garden, jumping into the air and landing right on top of Lu… I heard a strange noise. I could only hope it was the stone cracking from the impact as she rolled off, standing like a rabid beast with her back turned to us.
My eyes changed focus and even before she turned around I could tell something had changed. “L-Lu?” She didn’t respond, having been knocked out. My eyes began to go wild as my body trembled. She was alive at least, but definitely not feeling good.
‘I can’t freeze time… I’m too panicked…’
Grama turned around, her eyes so bloodshot they practically glowed pure red.
“I told you didn’t I?” Airsidh muttered. “Meet the Demon She Wolf… The berserker from the mountains…”
I slowly backed up. “You mean she like literally loses all control and flies into a blind rage?”
He sighed. “Yeah… Berserker.”
‘Well, I didn’t know you meant like an actual fantasy berserker!’ “If we just stay calm and back away… Do you think we can?”
“Make her think you’re weak and target you first? Yeah, that will work…”
‘Fairy dust…’
As if on cue she suddenly charged and it was back on, me against her… Each blow felt like it would take my head off if it hit directly and when she struck with an open hand her nails cut my skin. On the plus side, she had become predictable. As I started to feel a flow to the battle again I calmed down enough that I could slow time. After a few more attacks I started being able to doge instead of block, and before long she wasn’t landing a single hit. My body was starting to break down from the intense strain of so much magic coursing through me and my muscles began to ache in order to keep up with her speed, carefully weaving my footwork until suddenly vanishing behind my brother like a magic trick.
He took a deep breath just before we traded places, preparing for what he would have to do. He wasn’t able to keep up with speed anymore, so he had to take a direct hit every few punches.
With the pressure taken off, I was able to slow down and focus enough to stop time again. ‘Ok… I’ve got a bunch of broken stone tiles, an unconscious girl, and a guy that’s barely holding on…’ I sighed internally as I took a moment to just rest my mind, letting it go blank and turning off all my senses to approach it with a fresh outlook.
‘Ok… first let’s take a look at everything I actually have available to me..’ I took a complete scan of my surroundings as if sending out a sonar wave. ‘Well… That’s new…’
‘So a complete list then… The laces from Lu’s dress? I’ve got nothing to use… Actually, now that she’s gone feral it should be easier to trick her off balance right?’
I let my mind go blank again… ‘I can win… It would be so easy if I could use magic… But how do I do without my ice? It just doesn’t have to be obvious right… Ok then… So maybe not ice, can I manipulate the terrain? No, wait… I just keep doing the same thing I have been but with a different angle.’
I started time again sprinting over to Lu and grabbing the thick leather laces that were torn out of her dress. ‘I don’t have a lot of time, Airsidh’s getting destroyed…’ I closed my eyes and took a deep breath pushing my manna into the laces to strengthen them. It was more similar than I thought to using dark magic in my sword and thanks to that I got it on my first try. ‘Now for the hard part…