Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 20

Chapter 20:

The Black Sword Versus the Holy Sword 

I WALKED OUTSIDE THE SALOON to find Lady Roxy standing a short distance away, in the center of a growing crowd of onlookers. Her soldiers directed people down the street so that they wouldn’t get in the way, moving like men with a plan. It was clear to me now that Lady Roxy had intended to spar with me from the start. 

She really wanted to fight me that badly? I thought with surprise. I hadn’t encountered this side of her before. 

The crowd grew. This whole experience was new to me. Until now, I’d always avoided fighting in front of people. Even during street fights, I tried to leave before there were many bystanders. On top of that, my opponent was Lady Roxy. She was a far cry from the mediocre adventurers I usually faced. 

In this battle, I had absolutely no room for error. 

Worse, I had nowhere to run. No matter where I went in Babylon, Lady Roxy would find me. I took a deep breath and prepared myself to endure what lay ahead. Then I tightened my skull mask to make sure it wouldn’t fall off during battle and leapt into the air, flipping over the crowd and landing neatly in the open space where Lady Roxy waited. 

“This is quite the scene,” I said, straightening to face her. 

“Really?” Lady Roxy asked, unmoved by my entrance. “I simply thought there would be no other way to convince you to spar.” 

“I see…” 

You were right, too. I had to wonder whether she was overstepping her role as the governor of Babylon just a little, all to satisfy her own curiosity. 

“So,” I said, “what do you intend to do if you lose in front of this crowd?” 

“There’s no need to worry about me,” Lady Roxy replied. “I’m not concerned about losing face. That said, I don’t intend to lose, either.” 

Her gaze was serious, and it stayed on me as she unsheathed her blade. Her eyes only made my guilt heavier. To brush that feeling away, I unclipped Greed from my belt and held the black sword at the ready, still sheathed. 

Lady Roxy’s brow furrowed as she watched me take my stance. “You intend to fight me with a sheathed blade? Is this your idea of a joke?” 

“It isn’t. I’m entirely serious. The cutting edge of my blade is a little too sharp, so I’ll fight you like this.” 

I settled into a battle-ready stance. The sheath was the one that none other than Jade Stratos had specially crafted with duskstone I brought back from the great canyon. 

I loved this scabbard. It was a sharply designed black sheath with appealing gold highlights. I’d only wanted a sheath with the barest amount of gold, but Jade was smart, and he had a playful spirit. He’d added a particular capability to the scabbard, and he told me about it with great excitement. Greed and I couldn’t help but admire his genius. 

Lady Roxy looked at me with resigned confusion as she settled into a battle stance of her own. “Don’t blame me if your sheath breaks.” 

That was a natural concern for someone with the strength of a holy knight, but this scabbard was forged with this particular tactic in mind, although not for use specifically against Lady Roxy. This scabbard was strong enough to resist even the strike of a holy sword. 

“Well,” I said, “shall we get started, then?” 

“Very well. Don’t expect me to go easy on you.” 

We dashed in, closing the distance between us. Now it was time to see how strong Lady Roxy had grown. With a quick flash of Identify, I could have seen all her stats and skills with ease, yet…using that skill here felt somehow underhanded. I didn’t want to resort to such tactics against her. She came into this battle honestly and seriously. I would respond to her feelings, strike to strike, blade to blade. 

Greed chuckled. “A ruffian like you, playing the role of honorable knight? Laughable at best.” 

“Oh, shut up.” 

I ignored his stinging commentary as Lady Roxy and I engaged. Our blades clashed. The high-pitched shriek of metal echoed into the air. As I resisted, my boots dug grooves into the street. 

Lady Roxy’s blow was much heavier than I expected, and she wasn’t finished. She launched another heavy strike. I blocked it, but its sheer force opened a crater in the cobblestones at my feet. 

“A bit much, don’t you think?” I muttered. 

“I wasn’t joking when I said I wouldn’t go easy on you.” 

I shoved Lady Roxy up and away with the black sword, and she flipped gracefully through the air, landing out of lunging distance. The power of that first attack had truly been something to behold. It wasn’t the kind of strength that came from any skill. It was pure technique, practiced and honed to deadly perfection, the kind of ability you only got through constantly pushing your performance to the very limit of your stats. With those two attacks alone, Lady Roxy proved how strong she had become. 

I was confident that my stats surpassed Lady Roxy’s, but when it came to controlling those stats, well, that was a different story. Usually, adventurers polished their skills by fighting monsters and strengthened their stats by collecting Spheres to level up. Normally, with that consistent progression, they never found themselves in a situation where they couldn’t control their own powers. 

But in my case, the more monsters I devoured, the more stats I gained, and my only limitation was the size of the stats of the monsters I ate. I had no natural growth curve. My stats grew exponentially, and occasionally plummeted just as quickly when I released them to Greed. That meant that my ability to use and control my own stats was severely lacking. 

I did have something of a shortcut, but unfortunately, it was equally hard to handle. Controlling my skills completely meant engaging the half-starved state of Gluttony. That drastically increased my physical capability, but I also ran the risk of falling into a starved frenzy such as the one in the cavern. I could only rely on Gluttony when I had no other purpose but to obliterate my enemy, body and soul. 

Here, now, facing off with a strong opponent in a battle that was not to the death… This wasn’t a situation I’d prepared for, and even after training with Aaron, I wasn’t very good at this sort of thing. 

Not to mention the minor fact that my opponent was Lady Roxy. 

As I stood there, black sword raised, trying to sort out my approach, Lady Roxy got tired of waiting and moved in for another attack. She dashed toward me. 

“Do you always stand around zoning out in the middle of battle?” 

“I’ve just… I’ve got some things on my mind…” I said. 

“Unbelievable. Perhaps this will give you reason to take this fight more seriously.” With that, she unleashed a flurry of strikes. 

“Wha—?!” I barely had time to backpedal. 

Surely this is against the rules! But, well, it wasn’t. I just didn’t want Lady Roxy to do exactly what she was doing: launch her attacks directly at my skull mask. 

“Let’s see who’s hiding under that mask!” 

“Wai—!” 

Lady Roxy moved even faster than she had at the beginning of the match. In the next instant, she spun behind me. I turned to counter, but her sword lashed out before I had the chance to react, and my skull mask was almost sliced in half. I jerked back, falling into a roll, then used that momentum to flip away to safety. 

I breathed a sigh of relief, but it only lasted a moment. The sound of armor cracking filled my ears. There was a fracture in my skull mask, and it was widening. I hurriedly used Identify to assess the damage. 

Skull Mask 

Durability: 10/20 

Hides the wearer’s identity from others by making them appear as a stranger. 

Internally, I screamed. Agh! The durability is down by a whole half! But her sword barely grazed it! 

I wanted to think it was because this skull mask was practically an antique, something I’d just picked up at a flea market, but I knew the truth—it was the unerring accuracy of Lady Roxy’s blade. One more graze, and Lady Roxy would render my skull mask useless. My stomach churned at the thought of losing it, and to Lady Roxy’s blade, no less. 

“What’s wrong?” Lady Roxy prodded mercilessly. “You slowed down for a moment there. Is that how worried you are about revealing your true face?” 

“No…n-no… It…it’s not that at…all!” 

“You’re actually shaken. I wonder why…? Strange, isn’t it? I’ve become so very curious about what’s hiding under that mask of yours, Mr. Corpse.” 

Lady Roxy smiled, playful and teasing. But I knew what that face meant. She was serious. 

I panicked as I fought to protect my mask. “Hey, hey, wait a second. Didn’t you say this was a sparring match?” 

“I did,” she agreed. “And it’s about time you started fighting me for real. Because if you don’t, you’re going to lose that mask you hold so dear.” 

She was right. A part of me even enjoyed this. Here with her again, now, I just couldn’t seem to rid myself of my fond memories of the past. But another part of me… I was being sentimental, and that made me slow. My own carelessness had broken my mask. 

In the end, was it possible to throw away that softer part of myself in battle, the way Myne and Aaron did? 

No. No matter what happened, I was who I was. I had to face Lady Roxy with that same honesty. 

“If that’s what you want,” I said, “then that’s what you’ll get.” 

I poured magical energy into the sheathed black sword, and it glowed with a holy light. 

Lady Roxy’s eyes widened in shock. “You—but—isn’t that…?!” 

“It’s exactly what you think,” I said. “The holy skill!” 

It was the holy knight tech-art Grand Cross. I activated it, and before it burst, I channeled the energy into the sword, just as Aaron had taught me. The new scabbard Jade Stratos had forged was an enhanced extension of my weapon, allowing me to use the Holy Sword Technique that, until now, I hadn’t been able to channel through Greed. All the same, I hadn’t expected to reveal this particular ability in front of so many people. 

Granted, it really was the perfect opportunity. If Lady Roxy saw that I could use this skill that only holy swords could channel, then no matter what happened, she wouldn’t possibly think I was Fate Graphite. To her, Fate was one of the forsaken. He was a common person born with a garbage skill. Someone only in need of protection. 

“If you’re capable of using the Holy Sword Technique, then you must be a holy knight of some renown… Or perhaps you were of some renown…?” 

“No, I’m no holy knight,” I said. “Since the start, I’ve only been an adventurer.” 

I charged the black sword with the rest of the spells I knew, and it glowed with power in my hands. Now it was my turn to attack. I didn’t need any schemes, plans, tricks, or tactics. I would show Lady Roxy clearly, and simply, the full power in which I placed my trust and my life.