Chapter 150: Berserker
The explosion took time to fade.
For several seconds, the entire forest remained consumed by white light and black cracks that cut through the air like living scars. The sound came in delayed waves, one after another, reverberating through the ruins, the shattered trees, and the destroyed ground. Stones rolled down distant slopes. Monsters fled in every direction. Even the ritual dimension itself seemed to tremble, as if questioning whether something like that should still be allowed inside a trial for young vampires.
Victor kept his arm raised for a few more moments.
The Black Ice reinforcing his bones was cracked beneath his skin. Small dark fissures crossed his fingers and slowly disappeared as his regeneration worked together with his blood energy. The attack had been far too powerful to use casually. Not impossible. Not dangerous enough to make him retreat. Just... expensive.
He flexed his right hand.
The nerves responded with a minimal delay.
"Good to know," he murmured.
Grace stood several meters behind him, protected by a wall of ice that had been almost completely destroyed. The final layer had held just enough to keep her from being launched away along with the remains of the clearing, but even so, her hair was disheveled, part of her clothing was torn, and her face carried an expression that mixed disbelief and irritation.
"Are you mentally incapable of measuring consequences?" she asked, stepping out from behind the broken ice.
Victor did not take his eyes off the devastated forest.
"I measured."
"You erased an entire line of the forest."
"Exactly. I measured well."
Grace opened her mouth to answer, but stopped.
The dust ahead began to move.
Not because of the breeze.
Not because of the remaining weight of the explosion dispersing.
Something was walking inside it.
Victor smiled.
"Ah. He survived."
Grace looked toward the cloud of smoke and ash.
"You sound satisfied."
"I would have been disappointed if he died from the first attack."
"You just said you were going to kill him."
"I said I was going to kill him. I did not say it needed to be quick."
The cloud parted.
Jake Valentine walked out of it.
His body was wounded.
Not severely, at least not for someone of his level, but wounded enough to make it clear the attack had worked. Part of his clothing was burned. The skin of his arms bore black and white marks where Black Lightning and White Fire had mixed. One side of his face was covered in blood, and a deep cut ran across his cheek almost to his jaw.
But the worst part was not the damage.
It was the expression.
Jake looked at Victor with such concentrated hatred that it seemed physical.
Each of his steps sank into the ground.
The blood energy around his body thickened, pulsing in violent waves, completely different from the cold control he had shown before. The muscles in his arms contracted with force. The veins in his neck darkened. His red eyes shone in an unstable, almost animalistic way.
Victor tilted his head.
"Are you nervous?"
Jake disappeared.
Grace could barely follow the movement.
Victor could.
Jake’s fist appeared before his face with enough force to distort the air. Victor raised his left arm and blocked. The impact exploded against the Black Ice reinforcing his skin, but this time the force was greater. His feet slid several meters backward, carving trenches in the ground.
Victor stopped.
Jake was already on him.
Another punch.
Then another.
Then another.
The blows came in sequence, each heavier than the last, striking arms, shoulders, ribs, and face. Victor blocked some. Dodged others. Some he simply accepted to measure the force.
The sound was brutal.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
Every impact broke nearby stones.
Every step destroyed more of the ground.
Jake did not speak.
He only attacked.
Victor, on the other hand, began to laugh.
"This is better," he said, blocking a kick with his forearm. "Still not scary, but better."
Jake growled.
It was not a word.
It was a low, deep sound, loaded with rage.
He grabbed Victor by the collar and threw him into the ruins. Victor smashed through a column, struck a broken wall, and disappeared beneath an avalanche of stone. In the next instant, Jake charged after him without waiting for the dust to settle.
Victor emerged from the rubble with a smile.
His right fist was already charged with Black Lightning.
"My turn."
He punched.
Jake crossed his arms.
The impact threw them both in opposite directions, but Jake absorbed it better than before. His feet tore through the earth, but he remained standing. The energy around him swelled, and his body seemed larger for a fraction of a second, not physically, but because of the absurd pressure he released.
Victor noticed.
"Ah. So that is your ability?"
Jake slowly raised his face.
The wounds on his body began closing faster. His breathing became heavy, uneven. His blood aura lost refinement, but gained raw density. It was as if every drop of rage was being transformed into immediate physical strength.
Grace narrowed her eyes from a distance.
"Berserker."
Victor heard her.
"Berserker?" he pretended. "That suits you too well." He knew exactly what that ability was, after all. He had come from the future.
Jake smiled, but there was no humor at all.
The skin around his eyes darkened slightly, and small red cracks appeared over his arms, as though his blood were trying to escape through his flesh. The ground beneath his feet began to crack from pressure alone.
"You talk too much," Jake said.
Victor rolled his shoulder, feeling the bones settle back into place.
"And you hit too little for someone so irritated."
Jake attacked.
This time, his speed increased.
Not in the same explosive acceleration as Victor’s Black Lightning. It was different. Cruder. More direct. Jake’s body simply forced reality to accept more strength, more movement, more impact. Every step was a charge. Every punch was a siege weapon.
Victor dodged the first blow.
Jake’s fist struck the ground.
The earth exploded.
Victor leapt over the shockwave, created a Black Ice sword in the air, and tried to cut Jake’s shoulder. The blade struck the skin, opened a shallow cut, and was almost immediately stopped by pure muscular contraction.
Victor raised an eyebrow.
"That is new."
Jake grabbed the blade with his bare hand.
Black Ice began freezing his fingers, but he simply squeezed harder.
CRACK.
The sword cracked.
Victor released the weapon before it shattered completely and created black stakes around Jake. They emerged from the ground, aiming for legs, torso, neck, and head.
Jake did not dodge.
He went through them.
The stakes pierced his skin, but they did not stop him. Some broke against his bones. Others penetrated only a few centimeters before being crushed by the violent expansion of blood energy.
Victor stepped back.
Jake arrived.
The punch struck his abdomen.
BOOM!
Victor was launched upward, passing through the nonexistent ceiling of the ruins and rising above the treetops. The air left his lungs, and for an instant his organs seemed to shift inside his body. The internal Black Ice reduced part of the damage, but not all of it.
"Okay," Victor murmured in the air, coughing a little blood. "That was decent."
Jake appeared above him.
The speed was absurd.
He had jumped using only brute force.
Victor looked up.
"You really are a rabid dog."
Jake joined both hands together and struck downward.
Victor crossed his arms, reinforced his skin with Black Ice, and spread Black Lightning through the entire structure to accelerate the defense.
The impact launched him back to the ground.
BOOOOOOM!
Victor crashed into the center of the clearing, opening an enormous crater.
The earth rose in waves.
Grace had to jump back to avoid being swallowed by the destruction.
Jake fell right after, landing on the edge of the crater with his eyes fixed on Victor. His breathing grew heavier and heavier, and the smile that appeared on his face seemed less human with every second.
Victor remained lying down for an instant.
Then he started laughing.
Low.
Hoarse.
Bloody.
Jake stopped.
Victor slowly sat up inside the crater.
Blood was running from his mouth, but his eyes shone with genuine amusement.
"Now we are talking."
Jake frowned.
Victor stood, wiping the blood away with his thumb.
"But I still do not feel danger coming from you."
Jake’s aura exploded.
Grace felt the pressure from afar and took another step back. Not out of fear, but calculation. The Berserker ability clearly fed on his rage. The more Victor mocked him, the stronger Jake became. It was a dangerous strategy.
Maybe idiotic.
Probably both.
"Victor," she called, serious. "Stop provoking him."
Victor looked at Jake.
Then at Grace.
"No."
Grace closed her eyes for a second.
"Of course."
Jake advanced again.
Victor did too.
This time, the two collided in the center of the crater.
Fist against fist.
The collision created a sphere of pressure that expanded in every direction, tearing stones from the ground and throwing old blood from the puddles into the air. Victor used Black Lightning to accelerate his second strike, aiming for Jake’s ribs. Jake twisted his body and answered with a knee to Victor’s side.
Both attacks landed.
Jake spat blood.
Victor felt two ribs crack.
Neither retreated.
Victor grabbed Jake’s arm and tried to freeze the joint. Jake slammed his forehead into Victor’s face, breaking the superficial layer of Black Ice. Victor answered with a headbutt of his own, reinforced internally, and the impact made both of them stagger half a step.
Jake roared and unleashed a sequence of punches.
Victor let the first two hit his shoulders.
Blocked the third.
Dodged the fourth.
On the fifth, he saw the pattern.
Rage made Jake stronger.
But also more predictable.
Each blow came with more force than the previous one, but the intention was far too clear. There was no refinement. No deception. Only the desire to crush. For someone with Victor’s perception, it was like watching a wildfire try to solve a math problem.
Victor smiled.
"Your uncle must be disappointed."
Jake froze for a fraction of a second.
Victor used it and punched him in the liver.
BOOM!
Jake was pushed back.
Victor did not stop.
"He sent high-ranking assassins to kill me, did he not?"
Jake’s face changed.
The rage gained a different tone.
More personal.
Victor saw it and continued.
"And look at that. Here I am."
He opened his arms slightly.
"Doing just fine."
Jake gritted his teeth.
Victor tilted his head, his smile growing crueler.
"You know what that means, right?"
Jake advanced.
Victor dodged to the side with a short explosion of Black Lightning.
Jake’s fist passed beside his face and destroyed the air behind him.
Victor appeared near his ear.
"If you do not make the top three, you are going to die."
Jake swung his elbow.
Victor lowered himself.
The blow passed overhead.
"Maybe not by my hands," Victor continued. "But by your uncle. By your family. By the idiotic bet you made. By shame. By Rakshasa."
Jake lost control.
The Berserker aura exploded even further.
The ground beneath him split into red cracks.
His body charged with such force that Victor had to use Mist Steps and Black Lightning together to escape. Even so, the wind from the blow tore across his shoulder and opened a cut in the skin.
Victor reappeared several meters behind him.
"Ah. I touched a sensitive spot."
Jake slowly turned.
The red cracks in his arms climbed to his neck. The blood energy around him seemed to boil. His regeneration accelerated, but his mental control plummeted along with it. His eyes were brighter, wilder, closer to a beast than a Valentine noble.
"Do not talk about her," Jake said.
Victor smiled.
"My Rakshasa?"
Jake disappeared.
Victor almost failed to follow him.
The punch struck his face before he finished reinforcing his skin.
BOOM!
This time, Victor was launched backward, crossing the crater and rolling across the ground until he crashed into an enormous stone. His jaw truly hurt. Blood filled his mouth. Black Ice had appeared too late.
Victor spat blood.
Then laughed.
"Much better."
Jake appeared before him, grabbed his head, and tried to crush it against the stone.
Victor reinforced his skull from within.
The stone broke first.
Jake roared and lifted him by the face.
Victor grabbed his wrist with both hands.
Black Ice climbed Jake’s arm.
Jake did not let go.
On the contrary, he squeezed harder.
Victor felt the bones of his own face creak under the pressure.
"You are getting strong," he said with difficulty, still smiling. "But you are also getting stupid."
Black Lightning ran through Victor’s arm.
He did not try to free himself.
He only accelerated his own knee.
The blow struck Jake’s abdomen.
BOOM!
The pressure forced Jake to release his head.
Victor spun in the air and kicked him in the face, using Black Lightning at the final instant.
Jake was launched sideways, but dug his fingers into the ground and stopped by force. His nails carved deep grooves in the earth. He raised his head, and his smile was now completely wild.
"I am going to tear out your tongue."
Victor landed on the ground and cracked his neck.
"You can try. But I warn you that Carmilla would probably be annoyed."
"I am going to kill you."
"Everyone says that."
Jake advanced again.
Victor finally stopped retreating.
He let the Black Ice sword form in his right hand, but did not use it to cut immediately. When Jake attacked, Victor set the blade against his arm and redirected the force to the side, using the impact of Berserker against the enemy’s own trajectory.
Jake passed by him.
Victor cut his back.
The blow opened a deep line, but Jake turned before the damage could fully settle and struck Victor with his forearm.
The collision threw him sideways.
Victor fell, rolled, and rose in the same motion.
"That is the problem with rage," he said. "It makes you strong, but predictable."
Jake roared.
Victor pointed the sword at him.
"And you, Jake, were already predictable before."
The answer came as physical massacre.
Jake attacked with everything he had.
Berserker reached another stage.
His body gained monstrous pressure. Every blow produced shockwaves. Every step destroyed several meters of ground. His speed, previously merely absurd, became almost irrational. There were no more pauses. No defense. Only attack.
Victor was forced to take the fight seriously in technical terms.
Not out of fear.
But because it would be idiotic to waste such a useful opponent.
He used Black Lightning to escape direct attacks, Black Ice to reinforce the parts that would be struck, and the sword to redirect as much of Jake’s force as possible. When a punch came high, Victor slid under it. When it came low, he jumped with short acceleration. When Jake tried to grab him, Victor froze the contact point and discharged electricity at the same instant.
Even so, Jake hit him.
One punch opened his eyebrow.
A kick partially broke his left rib.
A knee sent him into a tree and almost stopped his breathing.
Victor took the beating.
Laughed.
Adjusted.
Retaliated.
A cut on Jake’s thigh.
A punch to the chest.
A discharge into the shoulder.
A Black Ice spike piercing the side of his abdomen.
Jake tore everything out and kept going.
The more wounded he became, the angrier.
The angrier, the stronger.
Victor clearly saw the cycle.
"I understand," he said, dodging a punch that destroyed a column behind him. "You turn rage into strength. Pain into rage. Injury into pain."
Jake tried to hit his throat.
Victor stepped back half a pace.
"It is a very efficient ability for someone emotionally unstable."
Jake shouted and struck him with a side kick.
Victor blocked with both arms, but was dragged several meters.
The Black Ice on his forearms cracked.
He looked at the cracks.
Then at Jake.
"But there is one problem."
Jake came again.
Victor waited.
At the final instant, he spread Black Ice across the ground beneath Jake’s feet. Not to trap him. Jake would break that easily. The goal was to alter the friction for a fraction of a second.
Jake’s foot slipped.
His trajectory changed.
Victor entered the opening and struck him directly in the center of the chest, using Black Lightning and a very thin layer of White Fire around his knuckles.
BOOOOOOM!
Jake was thrown backward, coughing blood.
Victor advanced with him.
"You need to stay angry to become stronger."
Another punch.
Jake blocked, but the impact broke his guard.
"And I am very good at irritating people."
Victor struck Jake’s chin with his knee.
His head snapped back.
"Especially possessive idiots who think they can wager women as prizes."
Jake went motionless for half a second.
Then his aura exploded to an even greater level.
Grace, watching from afar, felt the ice around her crack from the pressure.
"Victor..."
Victor smiled.
"The bet between you and Rakshasa," he said, his voice clear enough to cross the destroyed clearing, "will end in extermination."
Jake slowly raised his head.
His eyes no longer looked rational.
Victor continued:
"Not defeat. Not humiliation. Not negotiation."
He pointed the Black Ice sword at Jake.
"Extermination."
Jake’s body leaned forward.
The Berserker energy roared around him like a red beast.
Victor spun the sword, letting Black Lightning travel along the blade.
"You. Your uncle. Anyone who thinks they can use Rakshasa as a piece in a political game."
Jake opened his mouth.
The sound that came out was almost animalistic.
Victor smiled cruelly.
"Thank you for getting stronger. Now I can test more."
Jake disappeared.
Victor did too.
The two collided in the center of the destroyed forest.
This time, there was no beautiful technique.
No aristocratic elegance.
It was brutality against brutality.
Jake struck like a maddened beast, every attack empowered by Berserker, every impact strong enough to alter the terrain. Victor answered with black acceleration, internal ice, pressure cuts, and sharp provocations, always laughing, always adjusting, always learning.
Jake grew more insane with every blow.
Victor grew better with every second.
It was the beginning of a personal war.
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