Meager Power

Devastated.

That was really the only good way to describe the chamber beyond. It was familiar to me in structure, but in form, it was simply a decrepit shadow of what had been a grand entrance chamber. The many columns that adorned the place had been, at best, struck and cracked through, and at worst reduced to small stumps of stone. Only two were intact enough to reach the high ceiling, and the walls were in poor shape as well. I could see the places where the Berserker had barreled through things, leaving gaping holes in the architecture that invited worried thoughts that made me wonder just how strong the fucker was. They weren't modern american walls, either, no, they were sturdy stone things that were built for the ages. My glance over to the right made me wince, thinking about the dining room and kitchen beyond.

Was there a puddle of dried blood there, where I'd been squished into a pulp? For a moment, rather than throbbing with the echoes of exertion, my arm felt a pang of phantom pain, a reminder of my partially successful parry. But, honestly, that was good. Good to be reminded of what we were doing here. I was so much stronger now, more experienced, ready for such a foe.

"This place is a mess," Rachel said, looking around. She was still on guard. We'd discussed the Berserker on the way up, so she knew to be prepared.

"It's a lot more broken-down than it was when I was here." I pointed up at the stairway, broken and pathetic-looking. "That used to lead up to a third floor, but it's half rubble now." The right portion of the ascending stairs had fallen down at some point, crushed either under the weight of the Berserker or some other structural devastation that had occurred during my absence. Maybe, with the right amount of jumping ability, one might be able to make their way to the top, but I doubted that either Rachel or I had said ability. I had good lateral movement, but not vertical.

Honestly, though, despite everything, it seemed a little less intimidating than it had in my mind. Perhaps it was just my newer confidence, but I realized that maybe, just maybe, I was overhyping this fight, fueled by the fear from my previous experience. I had to be careful not to get overconfident, though. I'd been here before, but I don't think I could really count it as a proper fight. There was a lot to keep track of; positioning, resource usage, controlling my strikes, outsmarting an intelligent opponent, but honestly, it all just came down to one big thing: don't get hit.

Of course, said fight would really only matter once the beast showed itself. Where was it? Still over in the kitchen, where it'd killed me? The second floor? I didn't hear the thundering sound of its movements through the place, so perhaps it was sleeping.

Or, perhaps, it wasn't even here, and some other enemy had made this place its home.

"If this creature is as big and strong as you say," Rachel started, "I believe our best choice is to use the second floor. It will be easier for us than it to move between floors." She pointed up at one of the doors on the side.

"Fair idea. Stay frosty."

She gave me a bemused look at that, but chose not to vocally question it. Her boots tapped on the floor as she moved forward, unable to completely keep it from making sounds. I stayed right behind her, my left hand on her back to make sure she knew exactly where I was. Our first few steps up the stairs proved risky when they immediately started to make noise. I'd thought they were made of stone due to the fact that the rubble on the right was mostly rock, but there must have been wood atop it. The creak from the old material didn't seem to bring trouble down on our heads, so we successfully made it to the second floor. Two doors were available to us, and the first opened up with a squeak into some sort of sitting room.

A pleasant hearth was built into the far wall, filled with detritus that was probably once thick, fire-ready logs. A soft carpet, mostly torn up and rotted, adorned the floor. It might have been a bright, vibrant red at one point, but now it was a mix between the gray dust of rot and a pathetic imitation of its original color. We weren't here for the furnishings, though. Well, sort of. The nice coffee table in the middle of the room next to the remains of chairs or sofas was of interest. Anything that could be used to get between us and death was of tactical value. We moved on, though, with that minimal bit of information worth keeping in our heads.

The next second floor room was a bit more involved, lots of bookshelves and a half-destroyed desk made it seem like a proper study. The books were long-since destroyed, a mess of dust and whatever books broke down into lining the shelves, but the shelves themselves were actually intact enough that they could be worthwhile, for the most part. There were two large exceptions, broken down messes, but the rest looked usable.

We returned, wordlessly, to the stairs, trying to keep quiet while we gained more information, as much as we could, but our reconnaissance was doomed the moment we set foot back downward. Though we'd avoided bad noises the first time, when Rachel set foot on what must have been a particularly bad part of the stairs, the wood covering the stone simply gave way with a loud, echoing crack. We both tensed up and waited, her letting out a small curse under her breath.

Unmistakable footsteps rang out from the room off to the side - the kitchen. Our foe had indeed been waiting there, whether asleep or not, and even that fact made me shudder. We didn't have to wait long as the hulking form of the Berserker pushed through the doorway. That made me pause, though. Was it... smaller? My mind raced. Could it have changed? It rose to its full height, bloodred armor glinting in the false light that pervaded the area. I truly took it in, nervous with anticipation, but rather than the terror I'd originally felt, it was only half fear, the other half of me looking forward to beginning the fight. Before I could parse that sensation, I needed to take stock.

It had to be around 9 feet tall, though those arms were disproportionately huge. I don't think my original thought that it looked like a huge gorilla was wrong, with them dragging along the ground, each of the arms was longer than I was tall. The helmeted head turned towards the two of us, frozen on the stairs, and I heard a guttural sigh escape the armor.

"More prey. Excellent."

Its voice was still that low, predatory growl, but it didn't bother me as much. Was it different? Or maybe, with less fear, it was less larger-than-life. Honestly, looking at it now, I realized that though this was going to be crazy and dangerous, I had fought bigger. The mimic had been a much more intense size difference, and this was honestly more like a bigass dude rather than a huge inhuman beast. The thought filled me with confidence, dangerous as that might be. But I'd rather be confident than terrified.

"You'll find yourself the prey this time, beast."

The words escaped my mouth before I really thought about what I was saying. But I absolutely wanted to taunt this thing. It had spooked me, it had killed me, and now I was back to prove that I had overcome its petty victory.

"Prey with teeth." It raised a fist into the air. "This will be fun. Try not to die too fast, prey."

I lowered myself into my combat stance in response. "You'll never see the day I die, prick. I'll be 90 and decrepit in my bed surrounded by loved ones, and you'll be bones rotting in the ground."

The Berserker let out an inarticulate cry of rage and began a full-speed approach. Rachel took the opportunity to push forward, unwilling to lose the height advantage of the stairs. They met a mere moment later, fist against shield, pushing her back a step up the stairs lest she lose her footing. I snarled myself and Dashed to get behind it. We would be taking advantage of the two-versus-one situation, and I needed information. I was delighted to spy that its armor was much less comprehensive on its back. Though the metal still covered much of its body, the things I was looking for were quite visibly present.

Straps.

I knew I had little hope of my spear penetrating the thing's armor. Rachel's sword even less so. Our goal had to be to get the armor out of the way completely, which meant our priority was to simply break it down. I struck forward with my weapon, but it was too fast, knocking the blade aside with an arm backwards. It wasn't stupid, I'll give it that, but that wasn't my only play. Rachel activated her Clingshield and grunted when it tried to pull away, but that gave me the time I needed to duck under the swing of its meaty arm and slap my own on a bit of leg armor. A savage grin found me when I poured a Spark through the bit of armor. A roar of surprise and pain hit our ears when it went to one knee, and I choked up on my spear to quickly swipe through a couple of straps on its legging. I didn't get everything, unfortunately, and it recovered quickly enough to bat me to the side.

Stars rung in my vision, and I realized that I'd briefly blacked out. My head ached painfully, but I was alive. The pain from travel was gone, fully banished by the shock of adrenaline burning through my nerves, but this was definitely a wound that wasn't going to go away. My cheek felt wet, which probably meant I was bleeding. I couldn't spare the moment to wipe it away, because I didn't want my grip on my weapon to become any lesser. The brief time I had lost caught up to me, seeing Rachel hack away at the Berserker's armor and almost drive it back. It seemed that while I couldn't divest it of the leg armor completely, it was actually hampering its movement. I got back up, blown a couple meters away, and reset my stance.

The first time we'd fought, the damn thing had debilitated me with one strike. Now, I had taken one and I was still standing. Despite the pain from the blow and the blood I could feel trickling down, my grin returned. This was dangerous, this was difficult, this was absolutely crazy.

This was fun.

I left behind any concept of propriety and stopped paying attention to what my mouth did when I Dashed forward again, reaching out to finish off the piece of leg armor. If we could remove that, we could hamper its movement and move elsewhere. Rachel's eyes narrowed when she spied my movement and grabbed the Berserker's attention once more, and we were rewarded with a loud 'clunk' after the piece of metal hit the floor, me having relieved it of the last of its binds. "Haha!" I cried out, bringing my spear down to draw blood from the creature. We were absolutely dominating this fight.

Unfortunately, this wasn't a mindless enemy. A frustrated growl met our ears as it swung its arms widely and forced us backwards. The Berserker pulled up to its full height and launched its body up to the second floor, ignoring the stairs completely. Both of us moved to follow as quickly as possible, but we were unable to stop it from smashing completely through the door to the study. Rachel and I rushed the location, but Rachel pushed me back as we reached the door. A bookshelf smashed through the remains of the wall by the door, splintering wood all over us both. Thankfully, it was all too rotted and old to spear us, but that would have been trouble if it'd actually hit us.

Rachel then pushed me backwards and she back-stepped herself, and the reason why became clear a moment later. The Berserker burst through the doorway holding the half of the desk as a bludgeon, whirling it through and barely missing Rachel on the first swing. Over her shoulder, I brought my arm forward and let loose some of my magic. One Mana Bolt struck it in the helmet, causing a falter in its footsteps, and the second struck the desk, bursting the thing into pieces, making its new makeshift weapon useless.

Another roar hit us as it charged at full speed. It was too fast and too forceful for us to dodge completely. A sweeping arm smashed into Rachel, blowing us both through the fragile railling that separated the second floor walkway from air. We both spiraled through the air and landed heavily. I kept a hold of my spear, but her sword skittered across the room. The Berserker, instead of immediately jumping down after us, sauntered quickly into the sitting room. Rachel was taking a moment to rise, but my blood went cold as I realized that it was about to grab that table. Instead of protecting us, it was about to be a projectile that squished one of us. I rushed to get to my feet, being a little faster than Rachel. I could feel the aches and pains of the fall - that'd be a bitch later - but I stuffed it down with the rest of the agony that I was ignoring.

It was just on time. The roaring beast thundered back out and launched the thing at us, its wide base prepared to crush us both. I had my arm in position and loosed a silent Mana Bolt, not having the time to speak the incantation, and prepared my spear like I was about to face an oncoming boar. The spell slowed it slightly, which allowed me to use the braced weapon to Parry the damn table out of the air.

Well, it wasn't really parrying it out of the air, it was mostly sacrificing my weapon to prevent our deaths in that moment. The head of my spear punctured through the table itself a moment before the shaft broke into two pieces, and the table rocketed over our heads to end up jammed against one of the pillars, its legs straddling the broken structure. I would have marveled at the closeness of the brush of death, but there was no time as the Berserker followed its projectile a moment later. Rachel had finally managed to get to her feet and blocked the first attack that came her away.

We had gotten one little piece of armor off, and that was it. We were both hurting badly, and any plan we might have had to wear the thing down or kill it from a thousand cuts was going to utterly fail us. My brain slithered through all the information I had as I numbly Dashed over to Rachel's sword to gather it up in my hands. My spear was fucked. It had no leg armor. Rachel was getting beat upon, barely keeping the fists from breaking through her guard. Time almost seemed to slow as I chose my course of action. Its legs. Its anger. Its power. What do you do when you've got an enemy that can outdo your strength, is big and angry? Use that against it. My plan switched over from damage to irritation, and determined to get its damn helmet off. Once I had access to its head, I didn't need a thousand cuts, I just needed one stab. Rachel's sword felt odd to wield after having switched over to the spear, but it would have to do.

I Dashed forward again, ducking under the inevitable punch that shot in my direction. It had to have some sort of Situational Awareness skill for it to know what was going on like that, but that just meant we were evenly matched in that regard. I swung the sword, aiming for the Achilles heel but instead slicing across the hamstring. Still quite effective. A pain-filled roar left it and it swung towards me again, but I was already beyond its range. "Too slow, monkey!"

The taut worked. It abandoned trying to pound Rachel into the ground and dove at me. Having anticipated the movement, I Dashed again, ignoring the slight twinge from the too-fast usage, and got behind it. The dive went where I had just been, but I didn't go far. I brought the sword down on its neck, hoping beyond hope to end its life right there. It was not to be, however, as it was caught on the straps of its helmet. It didn't strike the Berserker down, but as it rose up, the movement freed the blade as well as its face from behind the dull red metal.

I'd definitely been on point with declaring this thing a gorilla. The face was basically a gorilla's, but with ugly looking fangs that couldn't possibly have been natural, at least for an earthborn creature. This thing was an obligate carnivore - not an omnivore like its cousins would be. Not a dull tooth in sight, all sharp things for tearing at meat and crunching through bones. Furious red eyes stared out from behind grayish fur, madness seething through its expression. The roar sounded again, and now with its helmet removed, it was so much louder and clearer. My ears rung from it, and I wondered if it might actually be an attack of some sort. I had to put space between us, so I backed up quickly before it managed to get back to its full height.

Rachel wasn't about to let it get to its full potential, though. She came from the side and slammed into its abdomen with her sturdy shield, forcing it back down onto the ground. I Dashed into it, putting my full force behind a stab aimed straight between its eyes. Intelligence gleamed from its expression, and despite the speed, the thing managed to deflect my strike and turned the killing blow into a glancing one. I still was rewarded with a flash of red from the side of its head. Middling success was still success, though I was running out of steam. Before I could get too far away, I slammed another Spark into its shoulder and managed to actually take a hardy slice into its right wrist, using the angle it had given me by blocking my first attack. It screamed in pain, but couldn't quite move. I pulled the sword free, but it burst into motion again and forced both Rachel and me away. It swing an arm at me, lunging, and forced me to Dash once again to get out of its immediate reach.

Rachel used her shield as a bludgeon on its exposed knee, but it wasn't enough. Though it did make an unpleasant sound, the Berserker brought its other fist around and a vicious backhand struck Rachel against the wall. She hit hard and crumpled to the ground, and the Berserker turned its attention on me once more. Its eyes had been furious before, but now madness gleamed behind those orbs of malice. I had no time to move before it lunged at me again, and this time, it managed to wrap its good fist around my left arm and dragged me forward. Pain flushed through me as I felt the bone break, but I had no time to doubt myself. I knew the angle I needed, and I shoved Rachel's sword into the gauntlet and absolutely ruined the flesh underneath. I was let free, but not before the other arm swung about and its forearm took me in the other side. The blow flung me across the big, open chamber, before I came up short against one of the pillars.

The Berserker stood fully and shook the sword out of its wound. I was now disarmed, low on all my resources, but it had no hands left to grab at me. It could bludgeon me with those arms. What could I do? I had enough for a Mana Bolt, maybe two. If I could get one point blank against its skull, would that kill it? Right in the mouth? Its maw was scary, teeth gnashing. Adrenaline was starting to lose to the pain, though, from the long trek up the stairs, to the injuries I'd sustained in this fight. How long had it been going on? A minute? Ten?

I desperately looked around as I got to my feet. The sword was too far, on the other side of the Berserker. Rachel was down, maybe out. But one gleaming thing caught my eye, within my Dash range. The beast was angry, and could be taunted. Those teeth were weapons. Could I act well enough? Maybe it wouldn't be acting. Even in agony, my blood sang through the fight, exultant in a way I'd never felt before. I let my smile go wild, showing my own teeth to the Berserker, feeling some of the blood that welled up on the side of my head entering my mouth.

"Looks like we're both disarmed, monkey, unless those chompers are more than just for show. You were hidin' them though, so they must be pretty pathetic." A smarter opponent absolutely would not fall for such a trick. Any idiot could tell I was baiting it, but I was counting on its anger outdoing its smarts. It was a Berserker, after all. And I was rewarded. The eyes seemed to lose their sheen completely and it charged at me, abandoning any pretense of control. It had its arms raised, but was clearly going for a bite against my soft, fleshy skin. At the last moment, I Dashed away towards another pillar and watched as its head strike stone. It barely slowed it down, though, and it only took a moment to reorient. That was all I needed.

"Looks like you're stupid, too." I had no idea how wide my grin was, but my breathing was coming hot and heavy. "How about a magic trick?"

It charged. I braced. It got closer, closer, closer.

I stepped one bit to the side and reached up with my good hand and Parried the damn thing's head forward, pushing even more momentum into its charge at the last moment.

But the movement was enough. The bite missed me, sailed past my body, and I watched with absolute glee as its skull met the spear head that was lodged into the table resting against the pillar.

There was no roar, there were no congratulations, no fanfare, as the metal penetrated its face in an instant and its momentum carried the head into the stone. Within moments, the Berserker flopped motionless on the ground with a clang of metal, and I was left there, bloody, tired, filled with elation.

"TADAA!It's gone."

I dropped to my ass, looked at Rachel to make sure she was breathing (I thought so?) and passed the fuck out.