The Berserker Born

Genma stood there while rubbing his chin. He had transmitted a message to Feng during this bout, telling him what to say thanks to the prompting of the woman who sat with him. "How did you know that using her would be the trigger?" Camille hesitated before she explained what she had seen, as well as the storm that took place because of the two interacting, while Genma took the new information in stride. "Ah, that explains a lot. This boy must be a favorite."

Camille looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean by favorite?" Genma folded his legs on the couch and pulled out and ate what looked like a pink potato chip. "You see, the system is certainly not impartial. It never has been, but it acts very differently for some of us. A favorite is a person that the system sees the potential in and will do everything within its power to give them the most optimal settings for their growth, no matter what world they are in. You have probably realized it already, but you have probably had more than one quest pop up that has rewarded you for helping the young man?"

Em and Camille looked at each other and nodded their heads in unison. Genma nodded his head, "Yea for sure, the people around a favorite get the fringe benefit of the system rewarding them, but at the same time, that sword is certainly double sided. A favorite is bound to attract large amounts of danger and enemies while the surrounding person may have what could have been their personal growth sacrificed to aid the favorite. Needless to say, some people see them as opportunities, while others view them as a curse. It is why I pointed out that he is lucky to have the two of you. One of you naturally followed the path of a healer and the other a craftsman. The system rewards the people around a favorite when they are already aligned with their cultivation path and can only be seen as a boon almost equal to the favorite. Take, for example, the soul upgrade you've gone through. That is exceptionally rare."

Em seemed to nod at his words. "I had a quest that wanted me to collect a bunch of stuff, most of it I found right here. The stuff that Rowan had collected all had mana properties we just weren't able to notice before. Once I had them all, the system revealed that the pieces of stone falling from the enemies were not just mana stones but fragments of Astra. The moment I had enough, the system rewarded me, but the rewards were truly geared towards making me able to forge a special type of Astra. As a creation user I can modify an Astra without bonding it, so it was easier from there, while it said that the higher tier of items that I made for Rowan the more it would reward me, in rare materials along with other things."

Genma froze at that. Wasn't that just a tad too much favoritism? There was something else going on in the background here, something that he could not exactly put his finger on. He turned to Em, who had been speaking all the while, and was still surprised that the person was a little girl. He could only shake his head. "It's true that they say an apocalypse really gives rise to amazing talents. More importantly, though then little girl, what rank of weapon did you create then?" Em had to go into her system and look at the log section so that she would be certain to answer correctly. "Forbidden Rank Astra series!"

Genma spit chips all over Rowan's end table while the pieces that flew towards the mirror were rebuffed by a force field and hit him in the face. "HOW the hell did you manage that in the middle of nowhere?" Em shrugged her shoulders and kept eye contact, trying to convey that she was truly telling the truth. "No, really, the system gave very little. Most of it was already in the throngs of things that Rowan has collected here. Let me show you."

She hopped off the couch and walked away and when she came back; she was carrying an all black stone that now flashed with royal blue runes.

Genma's eyes went wide as saucers as he saw that. "Holy fuck that's LOWEITE." Em tossed the piece to Genma, "You can keep it, I doubt Rowan will care, and he's got a whole desk made of the stuff in one of these rooms, I just took some pieces from it. Genma looked down at the stone and then up at the girl. "Do you know the price of this in the outer world, little one? A whole desk is worth enough to buy an entire planet. WHO in the hell would make a desk out of the most versatile mineral known to man. It is the most mana conducive metal period. How much did you mix in to make his weapon? Ya know what? nevermind I don't even want to risk a heart attack, that the answer will give me. I will return the favor of this piece to Rowan and if you don't mind I will also look around this place, if I find anything I will leave something of equivalent value in its place, me and my apprentice have been looking for a proper craftsman to get things made as well so if you could help us with that young one it would be greatly appreciated.

Em nodded her head. The system already requested it, actually. I guess that favorite thing truly does have a crazy effect." Genma nodded his head and fell into deep thought. "Okay, I think it's time we return our attention to the fight. I believe they are restarting."

…

Rowan and Feng had been circling each other while Feng could feel the building momentum that was behind Rowan. The killing intent skill was in full bloom and a shadow behind him formed and began to morph until a solid blood red falcon image seemed to loom over the entire battlefield. Feng had to hold back the innate fear that was coming from the depths of his soul when suddenly the Falcon screeched. Rowan had mobilized all of his mana at the same time and, at the same time, weaponized the killing intent. Feng was 30 levels higher than Rowan though and it would only bring him precious seconds. It was seconds that he planned to take full advantage of storm steps and the fairy wings worked in perfect unison as he left a series of phantom images as he vanished from his position and appeared in front of Feng.

The storm spear leveled itself as three storm points formed in front of it. Rowan thrust the spear through them with a flash of purple lighting. [Stoop Thrust] The blade vanished and became a purple falcon that sliced through Feng's armor like it was butter and blew him backwards into a building. The building crumbled on contact, as did several behind him, causing a line of destruction close to 100 yards long. Feng stabbed his sword into the ground and slapped the wound with a hand covered in light while a sizzling sound came from his flesh repairing itself under his healing light, while he fed the twilight armament more mana to repair it.

Rowan was now capable of breaching his defenses. He was slowly walking towards Feng with his spear at his side. "Thank you, for helping me realize what I am, but prepare yourselves because I don't ever want to lose not ever, I don't care about the difference of levels I will pull out every stop in order to not lose, I hope you do the same." Rowan smiled as he said that, and Feng looked at him and his harmony gene hummed in response. Rowan had reached harmony within himself, but now for their relationship to reach harmony and be its best version, he had to respond to Rowan's current feelings.

"Understood friend, let's do this dance until one of us drops. My master should be able to save us if it goes too far, fight like we are trying to claim each other's lives." Rowan nodded his head once and smiled. Feng stretched out the tower shield [Black Bastion: Combat Mode] The shield floated before sliding up his arm up the shoulder while more than half of it still extended past his hand as it then wrapped around the arm and melded into it turning his left arm into a massive tower shield that was an extension of his arm.

He looked at Rowan and smiled. You've seen dusk, but you've got stronger again, so allow me to actually use it. The sword slammed into the shield and the wave burst out once again. Rowan could feel himself growing noticeably heavier, but things were different now. Feng was right, his massive speed truly was just part of the gimmick. Strength was always supposed to be his strong point and while Rowan was not looking at his stat page, a lot of his skills had now mutated to show that. [Dusk] had settled around him like a blanket, but he kept the same pacing, much to Feng's surprise.

Feng casually swiped his shield arm across the air and to the left and Rowan felt the weight shift, almost throwing him off balance. [Dusk anchor] A chain formed from Rowan back to his shadow and limited his movement to within 100 feet of the chain. Rowan slammed his spear at the links of the chain, but while they showed cracks, it would take a second before he could get rid of this, seconds that Feng wasn't going to give him easily. Feng became a beam of white light and zoomed inwards, colliding with Rowan and throwing him into the distance.

Rowan felt like he had been hit by a train as before he could recover the dusk anchor that now had all the added weight of the rubble dragged him right back. Feng slammed down from above, forming a crater in the ground, but not before the spear elongated with a chain made of clouds between the two parts and smacked the same spot on the anchor, shattering it. Rowan took the full brunt of the blow while feeling himself lighten immediately. He was still being crushed under Feng, though.

The falcon head on his left shoulder rapidly pecked and at this close of a range there was no dodging it. Feng got a hole blasted into his shoulder from a vicious peck that also released a blast of lightning from its mouth. Rowan's wings flapped once, and he was out of the crater. Feng quickly followed him though, slashing with his sword and forcing Rowan onto the defensive. It was then that the sword began to glow, and he heard Feng's voice [Dawn].

The sword slashed upwards, shearing through the storm armament like it was paper and leaving an aching blade scar on Rowan's chest. At the same time, light began to gather in the sky before concentrated beams of light began to shoot down. One pierced his left arm and went right through. Rowan became a blur as he danced between the beams of light. He was losing even though he could tell that. He needed to change this into a melee fight and stop Feng from using any more spells. He dove back in with a storm stoop, but Feng was ready and caught it on his shield, but it was never more than a diversion.

Rowan exhaled and clouds poured from his mouth while a flap of his wings created purple storm points throughout. Feng never expected him to execute the move he had been trying to avoid with so little time. [Twilight Domain] All the color drained from the world and there were only the two of them in a world of monochrome. Rowan could feel the elements fleeing, but it was not fast enough. [Powder Keg] The black and white world detonated and shattered, lightning exploded and Feng dragged his domain inward to try to protect himself, but as he did the drain on his mana became so exponential that he hardly had enough mana to continue the fight.

He had enough to keep his armor and weapon active, but his spells weren't like Rowans, big effects came with a big toll. He was covered in blood and panting and Rowan was standing across from him panting but fine thanks to it being his own mana, there were bone deep cuts that were marred by black and white mana. Feng had used his own shattered domain to attack at the same time that he protected himself but he had still taken massive damage from the blow. They faced each other as Rowan gave Feng the time to right himself. "I've got this skill , it can only be used once in a while , requires that I absorb natural sources of light and darkness but it caused an explosive stat boost im limited to melee combat, unlike you I did not get so lucky that my bloodline works with my class."

Rowan browsed through his new skills and finally noticed one that was very similar and looked at his own remaining mana but chose not to mention that, he wanted this to be real, he would meet Feng in a brawl. "I'm not sure you want to brawl with me, but if you want to shoot that shot, then I'll accompany you." Feng smiled [Call of the twilight Griffon].

The twilight armament began to morph as wings grew from his back and a tail grew from his tailbone. The end of it was a medieval flail covered in white spikes. His armor gained the feathered texture just like Rowans, while his boots and gloves both gained massive lion claws. His helmet morphed into an eagle's head and his body bulked up by an entire size while a black and white mane sprouted around the collar of the armor. The sword had barbs of light grow out of the flat of the blade so every part of it would be lethal.

He slammed the sword to the shield to indicate he was ready and looked at Rowan. "Your turn then." Rowan nodded his head. [Berserkers Sin] The purple lines on Rowan's body began to glow so intensely that to look at it was blinding. Suddenly, a vermillion image of a falcon formed behind him. The falcon hovered in the air for a moment before it closed its wings around Rowan. Rowan smiled, and the falcon melded into him and became a vermillion cloak wrapped around his amethyst armor.

A thick cloak coated him, covering his arms and draping down to right above his ankles. The cloak began to thrum with power and Rowan could feel his stats rising once again. The cloak slowly started to drain of all color until it was a deep black and it was like he had wrapped himself in a shroud fashioned from death itself and all the Vermillion coalesced on the back and formed a massive falcon head that was mid raptor call.

The storm spear began to change as well as the blade became a falcon with its wings spread. Rowan seemed to glean some information as he held the weapon up and another falcon came out of the other end and he twisted and pulled but instead of pulling apart like it had before there was a hissing sound and a chain of cloud and amethyst lightning formed linking the two parts. Rowan looked at Feng, and amethyst lightning crackled across the cloak. He stepped off his back foot and left a trail of afterimages as he appeared in front of Feng and slammed down.

He caught both on his shield arm and sliced down with his sword. Rowan sidestepped the slash as his spear points carried a weapon light, just like his fight with Garda. The spear light this time was purple and sharp and wanted to pierce the world, but at the same time it gave the falcons the feeling of being alive. He thrust his left hand from his sidestepped position while a slash carried a massive force with it as it slammed down on the mace tail that was about to collide with his chest. Rowan somersaulted from his position and over Feng, who slashed forward in a simplistic manner, but the blade caused the surrounding space to tremble.

Rowan parried the slash and the collision destroyed everything around them and sent Rowan flying upwards. He was prepared for that and like he just remembered he had wings he flapped them once and flew upwards and out of range of a follow up.

Feng stomped on the ground and blasted upwards towards Rowan. Neither of them had practiced weapon techniques enough to just use pure weapon moves, so the fight that ensued in the sky was one of simple dodging, parrying and stabbing. It was an area that Feng could not hope to compete with Rowan in even with his boosted stats. The battle came to a head when Rowan used the chain to catch him around the throat, strangling him and dragging him back into the ground.

At the same time as he fell he slammed his tail in Rowan's shoulder and dislocated it. Rowan ignored the pain and caught Feng in the chest with a kick that shattered half of his ribs and he no longer had the mana to heal. He got to his feet and slashed with both sword and shield, and Rowan met him. They became a blur of blades as they both began to rapidly accumulate wounds. Rowan only grew more fierce, but eventually Feng fell to his knees and the action cost him an armored knee to the face that broke his nose.

Rowan followed up with an onslaught of attacks that left Feng barely holding onto his consciousness as Rowan let out a raptor call in his face that actually made him think Rowan was going to kill him before he stabbed his weapons into the ground on either side of his head and sat down in a huff.

He was breathing heavily as he sat next to the groaning Feng. Rowan steadied his breathing as the cloak vanished and he could feel the souls dissipating. He chose not to use the call of the fairy king. He would let the souls dissipate and build his skill anew in honor of his birth as the berserker. Rowan slapped a hand onto Fengs' chest and infused him with mana. "Victory… Mine'' Feng had sat up but feeling the amount of mana flowing into him, he realized that after his domain was thwarted and he was low on mana, the same was not the case for Rowan but he had bested him even in his final stand the difference between a support and an assault was crazy, but at the same time Feng found another path of development from this fight. They both laid back at almost the same time and stared at the sky.

"Yea, Rowan, you won this time, but I've improved, too. Our next fight won't be the same." Rowan was actually more tired after giving Feng his mana. "30 level difference… Bring it…. Anytime." Feng could only laugh at that as they both rested and tried to recover.