Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 2 - Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

Crimson Thunder 

LIKE ITS SMALLER BRETHREN, the sandmen, the sand golem suffered from low Agility, which meant that the sheer power of its attacks wouldn’t matter if they never hit me. Therefore, my plan of attack was to keep the golem disoriented while I chipped away at its stone body. 

As a first attack, I sliced deep into the sand golem’s body. Next, I spun behind it and plunged the black sword into its back. As my parting gift, I wrenched the blade free and slashed sideways across the beast’s ribs. 

Something was off. The sand golem barely seemed to notice my blows. I leapt out of range to get a better understanding of the situation. Any ordinary monster would have been slowed by my flurry of attacks, but the sand golem showed zero signs of damage. 

“Don’t tell me,” I said, “the sand golem is like the sandmen, and the only part you can damage is the core…” 

“Ah, you finally realized! And it only took you three strikes. Which, I have to say, is kind of third-rate, hm?” 

“Well, if you ask me, I worked it out pretty quick.” 

Now, I understood that the sand golem was nothing more than its core, around which it turned sand into stone to create its huge humanoid form. I had to find a way to get to the core within. But where was it? The sand and rock weren’t exactly transparent, so I had no way to see it. 

“I guess I’ll cut the golem down to a more manageable size.” 

“A bit boring,” said Greed, “but sure.” 

“Shut up.” 

I had another reason for my chip-away strategy; it was a good chance to get live, one-on-one battle experience. The last time I’d fought a crowned beast—the huge kobold warrior known as “The One Called Howl”—I’d felt the difference in our experience levels immediately and avoided direct combat. Essentially, I’d hidden behind Greed’s First Level secret technique and the power of the black bow. 

The Hart family estate had been on the line, so it was a battle I couldn’t have lost. But the ordeal had left me worried and uncertain. How far could I get, fighting that way? 

“Well, I suppose a lumbering oaf like this makes a fine training dummy,” said Greed. “But don’t get too cozy. This is still a crowned beast.” 

“Got it.” 

It seemed Greed understood my goals after all. He wasn’t always some sarcastic bastard-sword; to some extent, he really did care about the person wielding him. He just had a foulmouthed way of showing it. 

“I’m going to get in there and sharpen my close-quarters fighting skills.” 

“Show me what you’ve got, boy.” 

I gripped the hilt of the black sword tight and dove into striking range. The sand golem reacted immediately, swinging both arms up to attack. It was too slow. I evaded the blow with ease and lopped off the monster’s right arm. I followed up with another slice, severing its left. 

But as the sand golem’s arms danced in the sky, I was struck with an ominous sensation. This was too easy. Was this golem really a crowned beast? The One Called Howl had hungered for battle. It had been all too happy to throw away its life, and the lives of the other kobolds, in an effort to extinguish my own. 

This sand golem had clearly experienced battle to become what it was. So, why didn’t it fight back? 

It’s as if it wants to lull me into a false sense of security , I thought. 

Just then, Greed shouted at me through Telepathy. “Fate, get distance! Now!” 

Instantly, the sand golem transformed. Its body exploded into countless rocks that flew in every direction. 

I grit my teeth as a huge rock flew straight at me. I was stuck in midair, unable to evade. The boulder collided into me, and the shock was like nothing I’d ever felt. It sent me flying over the dunes. When I finally landed, I skipped across the ground like a ragdoll, showered in sand. 

“So,” I said, dragging myself to my feet, “its whole body is a weapon, huh?” 

“I told you not to get cozy, didn’t I?” 

I spat blood into the sand and strained my eyes to see the golem, which was so far away that it looked about the size of a bean. It had sent me farther than I thought possible. If the black sword hadn’t absorbed the brunt of the attack, I wouldn’t be standing. That had been far too close for comfort. 

However, it was also good practice. Now I knew the golem’s ace in the hole. 

“All right. So, we dodge the incoming rain of huge flying boulders and aim for the golem’s core,” I said. 

“Make sure to put me to good use while you’re at it, Fate.” 

The sand golem’s core floated in the air, calling back the rocks its body had fired. It was trying to pull itself back together before I struck again. I transformed the black sword into the black bow to prepare for my next close-range strike. 

I launched a volley of fire arrows at the monster, careful not to get caught in the sand the shots kicked up as I ran after them. The fire arrows soared toward the sand golem’s core, but were knocked aside by giant stones the golem quickly threw up as barriers. It was a good defense, but it didn’t matter. My strategy wasn’t to have these arrows pierce the golem’s heart, but to use the flying sand and flame to hide me from view. Concealing myself in the cover I’d just created, I lunged toward the sand golem’s core. 

I transformed Greed back into the black sword. The sand golem still hadn’t fully re-formed. This was my chance to slash it in half. Just as I reached cutting range, though, the sand golem once again burst into pieces. Sharp rocks and sand exploded everywhere. 

“Not this time,” I muttered. 

I knew what was coming, and I knew what to look for. These rocks weren’t so fast that I couldn’t avoid them with my Agility stat. 

“Don’t back down now, Fate. Keep moving forward!” 

“Would you quit telling me what I already know?!” 

I weaved between the huge flying stones, dodging some and cutting down others before they could crush me. As I reached the core, the sand golem readied itself to stop me again. 

Sand whipped around my feet. It was the beginning of the sand golem’s Sandstorm spell, which would trap me in place while the monster crushed me to death with its boulders. 

Greed reacted immediately. “Fate! The black scythe!” 

“On it.” 

The black sword warped into the black scythe, and with it, I sliced the whirling sandstorm in half with a single swing. The storm dissipated instantly, undone by the cursed blade’s power. 

A few moments later, and I’d cut down the stones protecting the core. All that remained now was the core itself, laid bare. It didn’t matter if it tried to cast another sandstorm. My scythe would render the spell useless. The sand golem had nothing left but to accept its doom on the ebon blade of my scythe. 

I swung the finishing blow at the sand golem’s red core… 

“Huh?!” 

Knowing it had nothing left, the golem burrowed deep into the sand, throwing itself into a mad retreat. In less than a second, its core was out of sight. I couldn’t believe it. I stood watching the sand fly, dumbfounded. 

“Fate!” Greed shouted. “Stop it, before it gets away!” 

“But…” 

No—Greed was right. I had come too far to let this monster flee. I was not leaving the table without feasting on tonight’s main dish! Also, practically speaking, the amount of hate built up during this battle wouldn’t just quietly go away. There was a good chance that if I let the sand golem escape now, it would take its bloody revenge on whatever adventurers happened by next. 

I had a responsibility to finish things here and now, even if it meant going a little too far. 

I changed Greed into the black bow. “I’m going to use the Bloody Ptarmigan technique. Take ten percent of my stats.” 

“Only ten percent? Don’t be stingy, Fate. You know that’s not enough. You don’t even know where the sand golem went. It might already be deep underground by now. If you want me to catch it at those depths, I’ll need twenty percent.” 

The black sword was as Greedy as ever, but I had no time to haggle. Any longer, and the sand golem would flee out of range. “Fine. Do it.” 

“I see you’re no longer afraid to give up some stats for the taste of victory. That’s the spirit! Now, excuse me while I eat!” 

I felt the black bow slurp strength out through my arm. As it ate, it filled with enormous power, morphing into an overwhelming apocalyptic weapon. 

I aimed the bow toward the point where the sand golem’s core dove under the sand. I added a fireball for good measure, then released the large-scale Bloody Ptarmigan attack with a shout. “Run away from this!” 

The attack threw me backward with the sheer destructive force of its fiery lightning arrows. They bored into the dunes, straight down to the furthest depths of bedrock, gouging unsparingly through the land. 

When the blast died away, Bloody Ptarmigan had carved an enormous valley through the desert itself. At the deepest point of the valley smoldered rivers of fire. The blast had sent up waves of sand so thick that, until they settled, it was difficult to take a clean breath. 

Had I killed the crowned beast? I didn’t need to wonder long. A familiar metallic voice gave me the information I was waiting for. 

Gluttony skill activated. Stats increased: Vitality +538,000, Strength +474,500, Magic +311,500, Spirit +353,000, Agility +120,000. New skill added: Sandstorm (Spell). 

Judging by those boosted stats, my attack on the sand golem had also caught numerous unsuspecting sandmen. Bonus. 

But felling a crowned beast meant feeding on a high-quality soul, which brought with it a wave of maddening euphoria. Now, I’d see whether my training had paid off. I felt the soul feed into my heart, and as it spread, I endured the pleasure without staggering or falling to my knees. 

“How’s that, Greed? No rolling on the floor for me this time!” 

“You managed to hold it back. I’m impressed. But you are drooling.” 

“Oh.” I wiped the saliva from my mouth and checked my eyes in the reflection of the black sword’s blade. Two black irises stared back at me. 

This was a big step up for me. Not only had I satiated Gluttony’s half-starved state, I’d successfully controlled its hunger. The fact that the hunger was growing worse every day was concerning, and truthfully, sometimes I wasn’t sure whether I’d still be Fate when I made it to Galia. But if I could learn to control Gluttony little by little, perhaps there was hope for me yet. 

Suddenly, I became aware of voices calling to me. It was the hunting party from earlier. But it wasn’t all of them. It seemed the adventurers who could still fight had banded together and returned as support. 

The leader looked past me, out at the vast expanse of desert I had annihilated. He was shocked. “Did you… Did you do this? But…how? And where’s the sand golem…?” 

The question left his lips just as the core of the sand golem fell from the sky into the sand between us with a glassy crunch. The core was busted, almost fractured, and it had shifted in color from red to blue. 

“I guess it’s right here,” I said. 

I thought back to Greed’s words earlier. “We just blow this whole place sky-high, sandmen and desert alike. Boom!” 

In the end, that was exactly what we’d done. 

I tried to play it cool as I walked up to the giant core and tapped it lightly with my sword, just to be sure. Around me, the gathered adventurers stared, struck dumb, mouths agape in such disbelief that they forgot to breathe.