Berserker Mode

"Phew that was close, now then let's see what happens next."

A few meters away, a figure emerged from the shadows with an obvious aim to watched the scene unfold, the clothing he was wearing was billowing in the wind like it was made of smoke, on his back was a rusted sword that was too large for his body.

When Wade and the Tiger collided, Stigma had disappeared from the scene moments later, using his familiar Dusk's ability to turn invisible, he was able to get away from the Tiger's detection.

When Stigma was experimenting with Dusk's ability, he tried using his invisibility on him, he found out that he can be invisible too.

But the issue at the time was that there not enough of his body be used to completely cover him.

He confirmed that the invisibility was successful by looking at his reflection on the water and on Gus, believing that his arm disappeared during the test.

But the ability had limitations, so he didn't want to risk provoking any beast as of yet.

*whimper, whimper*

Under his clothes the baby wolf had stuck it's head out with concern.

The puppy was injured from the shoulder tackle made by Wade so it couldn't move, to heal it, he used about ten percent of his Pure energy so it would run away, but he didn't expect it to attack Wade and stun him.

So why stay with him, was his confusion instead of running.

His mind was wondering until he felt something lick his chin, he then smiled and patted it's head.

"I'm alright little one, thank you for what you did, but you have to be big and strong if you want to help me again okay."

When the wolf came out and attacked Wade, his heart stopped, he had not expect the wolf to actually defend him, so he had found some form of attachment to it, fearing that if he had died, he would use everything in his power to kill Wade.

Which reminded him of something.

"By the way Hilda, why didn't you speak during the fight?"

During his confrontation with Wade, there was no response from Hilda from start or beginning, which worried him.

"...I'm sorry master, but there are some issues with pertains to my current state."

"A weapon with intelligence is considered to be some form of treasure to powerful cultivators, so please take no insult on my action, if I ever spoke it would attract unwanted attention to you."

Unable to understand from her reasoning, he can only think about it the possibilities, although his ideas were close to trying to make more of her, or trying to take her as a unique trophy.

"I understand, you didn't want to cause me trouble, so its fine."

...

The conversation became awkward, it was if someone had added a topic that ended with a quick response when others had yet to understand or hear the whole story.

Before he can say anything a roar of anger reverted right behind him and a tree had fallen down five meter away from where he was, the Tiger from before was fiercely attacking Wade who was swinging his ax around to keep it away.

"Looks like that guy was more powerful that I thought."

His curiosity had piqued over how an actual cultivator would fight, so he took a gamble and went in closer by the trees.

***

"You overgrown fur ball!"

*ROAR!*

The battle started with Wade doing a full side swing, he wanted to kill Stigma grab his remains and get away.

But he had not expected that he was using an evolved beast during his arson, the Great Predator Tiger was his familiar so if would explain what beast he used.

Many would assume it was a Predator Tiger by mistake due to its similar feature, but there was a difference between them other than their size.

The difference can be seen by looking at how large their cheek fur, the normal one have a shorter mane, while the evolved ones have the opposite.

Nobody would notice such a difference or would care, as it would only imply their age.

Because of that common mistake, most people get killed by facing such beast with similarities.

But he had experience in killing beast like this, so he was not in a state of panic, all he had to do was aim at the same weakness, the neck.

All he had to do was aim then strike when an opportunity arises, then harvest the remains and sell them to gain some profit.

But defeating it will take some time, since he will have to watch out for Stigma who had disappeared in thin air when he was not looking.

Because of the momentary distraction, the beast was charging at him and forcing him to jump back on uneven ground, with its weight the momentum he had no choice but to retreat.

"You think humans are easy! You worthless fleabag, once I'm done with you, your master is next!"

Roaring at the beast, his speed up on his charge with the ax over his head, he cleaved over the beast's head, only to be replied with a side step and a strong swipe to his right.

He jumped back and gave continuous overhead swing on the Tiger's unguarded neck, the strikes had hit its target repeatedly that the Tiger's feet were caving in the ground.

The strikes looked like he was using a hammer to beat an anvil, than an ax chopping of the head of an animal.

His every attack had the intentions of never allowing it to retaliate, with the thought of Stigma nearby watching him, he had to finish the tiger soon.

Taking a deep breath, he let out a large swing and put his whole weight in the chop.

*CRASH!*

With the last strike, he stopped after hearing the ground broke, the beast didn't made any sound so he stepped closer nearing its face and waited to see if the beast was still moving and sighed with a smile.

Clearly he was nervous of fighting a strong beast out of the blue, so he was glad the challenge was over.

But his happiness was short lived, one strike from him was strong enough to split a helmet in half, but the beast wasn't effected much so it was playing possum, and did a point blank roar.

The Predator Tiger's are a species that had the ability to weaken its prey from its roars, clearly it was a cunning enough to bait him into getting closer, now that he was facing it head on, his abilities will weaken him greatly.

Out of a desperate attempt, he slammed his foot at the beast jaws multiple time and use his foot to choke the Tiger, and used his ax to pin it's free hand.

While the beast was struggling to free itself, Wade summoned another weapon that was also oversized, a war hammer made of iron.

He had to finish the fight so he can focus on Stigma, he was ready to completely destroy the skull so he readied an overhead stance.

"You little! Hold still!"

The beast's struggling was causing him to lose his patients and chance to finish it, wasting no time he gathered his energy to his war hammer and swung.

Unknowingly, something struck his hand and almost made him miss the head, when he looked it at his hand there was a bruise and he found a rock by his foot.

His last attack had caused a small dust storm, so it was difficult to tell if the beast took any damage,

but he at least felt the impact had similar to hitting a shield, so he must had hit the tiger's head.

Not letting his guard for a moment he didn't release the hold on its head.

He suddenly felt like his foot rise, and a ferocious growl was causing him to lose his resolve, using its claws the ground was breaking from the pressure.

"Shit! Defense is higher than expected."

He had to find someway to end the fight or else he will die.

Using his trump card he jumped back and took a green vile.

***

The scene before him had developed not what he was expecting.

He initially thought that the beast is being supported with defense skill so that most attacks would not faze it.

But Wade was moving faster than he had expected.

"Shit! Those strikes are fast."

"Indeed, he must have experienced in encountering these beast."

He initially thought that using large weapons would slow him down, but showed it was no handicap, his swing were faster than before, which meant he was holding back with Stigma.

The attacks were so strong that he had caused a slight tremor that it reached to his location.

The tiger suddenly used it's skill to weaken Wade, but it appears as though he fought back by pinning it using his heavy ax.

It was obvious that the reason the tiger was losing was due to speed, although the size difference would make up for the fight.

But if the attacks are faster than it, hesitation would be inevitable, then it won't be long until the fight will be over.

"Damn it, although the fight was giving me pointers, the tiger will die and the prize would belong to him."

"Hmm, master you should focus on his new weapon, he is using a standard skill in focusing his energy on his weapon, powerful cultivators have use such skills during their regular attacks so watch carefully."

When Hilda told him about it he used 'Essence Reader' and saw it, when he was looking at Wade his Zen energy was larger than his by a wide margin.

Then his energy was forming into his weapon, the energy from his body was lessening and was transferring to his body.

Then a thought came to him, he was told that the body can contain a limited amount of energy and they had to accumulate to have a breakthrough, so using the energy all the time was not a good idea.

So the predecessors have developed a method to use it effectively, forming their energy into weapons or armor.

*Awooh!*

He looked back to see what the puppy was looking at.

"Oh, the fight was coming to a close!"

Not good.

To be sure the fight continued, he threw a stone that Dusk had grabbed on the ground.

His aim was Wade's hand to change his attack a little, he succeeded on his first attempt without using Dusk this time

"Strike!"

The overhead swing failed, and suddenly he jumped back and took out a vile.

"Master! That is a berserk potion, a poison that boost the user's strength for a short time without losing his rationality."

The moment he drank the vile, blood vessels started showing on his skin.

After a few seconds, his attack pattern changed, instead a strong and slow attack, his movement became more ferocious like a beast, leaving the tiger no room to fight back.

'Hmmm, this looks bad.'

If the fight were to continue, he would be next.

"...Now that I think about it, is it only for solid object or can it be effected as long it has a form."

"Huh? Ah, yes as long as there is material you can store energy."

He smiled after hearing it.

"Dusk, where is the jug of blood."

Beside him Dusk had materialized a jug of blood from his chest, offering it to his master.

"Oh, you had such a skill, convenient, got to experiment on later."

"Master, what are you doing?"

"Just a little insurance."

***

Wade was unaware that he was being targeted with a devilish plan, as he continued to his struggle.

"Hah!"

After drinking the Berserker potion, his strength and speed had soared.

But the problem was, he will suffer some muscle pain afterward

"Got to end this quickly and find that brat!"

His attacks were the same but the speed was completely different, each swing was like a whip that whistled in the air, but unlike a whip where the injuries were like cuts, but with using a hammer used at a whipping motion, the victim will receive a severed arm and feel nothing from the attack.

The beast was originally confident in taking hits, but after the sudden boost, followed with the previous strikes, it was getting weaker while suffering continuously.

"Your dead!"

The tiger was finally on its knees so he took his chance, but before he can end the fight, a projectile was thrown at him.

He jumped back to dodge and found what the projectile was, a rock, the impact caused a small explosion of sand and blocked his vision.

Moments later, behind the smoke a familiar figure appeared.

"You brat! Come to save your pet!"

"Not exactly."

The figure, identified as Stigma, had turned his back and showed a jug.

'What's that?'

He was about to ask about it until Stigma did the unthinkable, he swung the jug over the wounded tiger and it was covered in red liquid.

"...You pissed that it was useless!"

Without replying, Stigma turned his head, smiled and once again disappeared.

He was dumbfounded to the action, he even considered that he would protect it, not injure it that it would bleed on the head.

Looking closely he found out the red liquid was not its blood, confusing him even more.

'Why hurt it?'

Moments later the growling of the tiger was heard again, clearly it was agitated by the sudden hit in the head.

He readied himself again, only this time he felt something in the air.

This time it was different, it's once orange fur turned red, it's stripes were starting to look like wounds, and its eyes were turning from clear blue to complete red with it's aura changing completely.

"What the hell!"

He had felt this aura before, it was when the beast were used as test subject on the prototype version of the berserk potion.

Like him, the tiger had entered into Berserker Mode.