Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 6 - Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

Roxy’s Limit

ROXY LEAPED IN CLOSE from the darkness’s blind spot. The smallest of mistakes meant that it would notice her. I watched her actions, wishing I could join the fray beside her, but I understood that I could only observe. Roxy showed no hesitation as she brought her sword down on the monster.

“Ah, her attack only grazed it,” said Eris, stating aloud what we both noticed.

Assuming the darkness was like an ordinary sandman, its weak point was a core hidden within its sandy body. The core gathered sand to create the monster’s body, meaning that it was the only point where it could be killed. Roxy’s opening attack had cut through only sand, and now she’d lost the element of surprise.

“She’s running out of time,” said Eris.

“Come on, Roxy…” 

My worry proved misplaced. Roxy had accounted for the fact that her first strike might miss. The darkness tried to burrow into the sand, perhaps in an attempt to create enough distance to use Gale Blade. Roxy wouldn’t let it. She used the momentum from her sword attack to spin into a kick. Watching her seamlessly mix armed and unarmed techniques reminded me of something Aaron had told me in the past: “She’s got some fancy footwork.”

When Aaron sparred with Roxy, he’d had more trouble dealing with her kicks than with her sword. Now Roxy’s foot drove into the sand, reaching the core of the darkness. A metallic clang rang out as the blue core of the monster shot into the sky. Because the core of the dark sandman was much tougher than that of an ordinary one, that kick wasn’t enough to kill it, but as long as the core was airborne, it was helpless. Roxy leaped up and delivered a horizontal slash to cleave the core neatly into two halves that rolled across the dunes.

The whole battle had taken just under ten seconds. With that, Roxy passed Eris’s test. We walked toward Roxy, but Eris’s face said everything: she wasn’t yet willing to praise Roxy for her success.

“Fay, Your Majesty,” said Roxy. “I believe that was under ten seconds.”

Roxy’s shoulders tensed when she saw that the usual carefree expression on Eris’s face was nowhere to be found. Eris let the silence linger for a moment before opening her mouth to speak.

“Firstly, congratulations,” she said.

“Thank you.”

“So much wasted movement. So much wasted energy. When I said ten seconds, I didn’t mean scrape through by the skin of your teeth.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

Eris had expected Roxy to kill the darkness with her first strike. Roxy had passed, but Eris still harbored doubts.

“This is how I had hoped you would pass my test.”

Eris readied her gunblade, then aimed it at a darkness in the east. When she fired, the bullet flew smoothly through the air, passed straight through the darkness’s core, and shattered it into fragments.

“No wasted movement. Clean, precise. This is what I expect of you.”

“I’ll do my best…”

“What did you think, Fate? Why don’t you show Roxy how it’s done?”

“I think I’ll pass,” I said.

Eris had already shown Roxy the difference in our ability, but now she expected me to rub it in? I wasn’t for it. Eris wasn’t playing around, though; she really was as strict as she said. 

I placed my hand on Roxy’s shoulder. “Eris is on another level, so don’t try to compare yourself to her. Instead…”

“I know. I get it. I’ll do the best I can. That’s all I can do for now.”

“We’re counting on you to take the darkness. But if you need us, just say the word.”

Roxy nodded and sheathed her holy sword. Then the three of us headed farther and farther east, to the place where the holy beast had first been sighted, according to LeChoix. The cool desert wind was bracing, and the full moon above starkly illuminated the sandy expanse. It was perfect weather for a night hunt.

Usually, conditions like these would draw adventurers to the desert like moths to a flame, but no ordinary adventurer could survive what now made the sands its home, and it was all too easy to see why. 

The huge scorpion appeared before us, cresting a dune and sending sand billowing through the air. The monster’s carapace was like hardened ruby, exuding an overwhelming aura that screamed, “stay away.” Its two pincers looked like near-unbreakable bludgeons, and behind them, a massive tail swayed from side to side as if hunting for a target to pierce with the sharp stinger at its tip.

“Roxy! Eris!” I shouted. “Get ready!”

“Ready!” Roxy replied.

“Here we go…”

For some reason, Eris’s reply was enervating, but I had to focus all my attention on the monster looming before us. 

I gripped the black sword. “Finally throwing down with a holy beast. You ready, Greed?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be. But there’s something off about that monster.”

“Hm?”

However, I noticed what he meant. Even though we drew our weapons, the monster paid us no heed and wandered off in an entirely arbitrary direction. A horde of darkness followed after it as though it was leading them somewhere. 

“It’s like it doesn’t even know we’re here…” I said.

“Right. But holy beasts are as smart as humans, if not smarter. They can think. But this thing is acting dumber than an ordinary monster.”

“There’s no rhyme or reason to its movements.”

“I can only speculate, but it’s possible that when the Door to Distant Lands opened, it brought this holy beast back to life, but the resurrection is somehow imperfect.”

An imperfect resurrection…

Considering this, I had to wonder: If the monster had lost the ability of rational thought, could I use Identify without it trying to defend itself? I decided it was worth a shot, so I used my Identify skill to check out the giant scorpion’s stats.

The Shield of God

Zodiac Scorpion, lv ???

Vitality: 9.3E (+9)

Strength: 9.3E (+9)

Magic: 5.5E (+9)

Spirit: 9.9E (+9)

Agility: 5.2E (+9)

Skills: ???

Identify unveiled the holy beast’s stats, but its level and skills remained obfuscated. Perhaps that was a quality unique to holy beasts, but whatever the case, the monster’s stats alone were incredible. Its Magic and Agility were a whole other level above anything I’d ever encountered in the Domain of E, and those were its lowest stats. The others were even higher.

Suffice to say, the holy beast had stats far beyond my own. However, stats became more difficult to control in the Domain of E. If you couldn’t control them, you couldn’t use them, and in worst-case scenarios, that power devoured your very heart and soul, transforming you into a monster. 

If it was incapable of thought, this Zodiac Scorpion probably couldn’t harness all the power of its stats. I’d witnessed this firsthand in my battle with the goblin shaman, who had turned unsuspecting humans into ogres. Ogres were made by forcing humans into the Domain of E, and Soul Decay robbed them of both their humanity and their sentience, which limited their effectiveness. Ibelieved that, in its current state, the Zodiac Scorpion would be hobbled in a similar fashion.

“Even if it can’t use all of its stats,” said Greed, anticipating my thoughts, “you still can’t take it lightly. That’s a holy beast you’re facing off against. Look at Eris. She’s trying to seem calm, but she’s terrified. She’s as scared of that monster as she is of Libra.”

“Eris…”

Greed had noticed the same hesitation that I had. 

“She seems fine now, but you better pray her past trauma doesn’t afflict her when you need her most.”

“Why would you say that now, of all times?”

Greed laughed. “Yeah, yeah. Sorry, whatever.”

But Greed had a habit of correctly predicting this kind of thing, and I had a bad feeling about the battle ahead. I tried to put my qualms out of my mind as I relayed the holy beast’s stats to Eris and Roxy. Then, to ease my nerves, I confirmed each of our roles.

“Roxy, you clear out any darkness that get too close to me and Eris,” I said.

“Understood.”

“Eris, you’ll keep the holy beast occupied at mid-range.”

“Roger! Close-up battles aren’t my thing, so I’ll keep you and Roxy buffed from a distance.”

“With you two playing support, I’ll take the holy beast head-on.”

This left tactical decisions in Eris’s hands, as she would be positioned between Roxy and I, and thus able to see the entire scope of battle. I would have my hands full with the holy beast, and Roxy would be just as busy dealing with the darkness. Then again, Eris had lived so long that she had more battle experience than the two of us combined, making her the most suited for the role.

As far as our weaknesses, there was only Eris’s trauma, which Greed had mentioned. Because I didn’t know what it was, I had no idea what might set it off. Worse, it wasn’t something we could easily ask Eris about either. She nursed a deep wound in her heart that hadn’t healed in many, many years. I couldn’t simply ask her to reopen that wound to satisfy my curiosity. After all, if she could’ve talked about it with ease, it wouldn’t have been traumatic in the first place.

“Let’s get started. If we don’t get after it now, it’s only going to get farther away.”

Eris aimed her gun and fired a shot, marking the start of battle. The bullet that blasted from her gunblade was imbued with enough magic to bore through and slay any lower-level monster in the Domain of E. Despite this, it bounced harmlessly off the carapace of the scorpion. The beast’s armor wasn’t merely hard; it was on another level.

The monster reacted instinctively to the attack, turning and charging directly at us, sand pluming into the air with every movement. I readied myself to face it.

“You’ve been relying on my help up until now, but this battle will be a true test for you. As my wielder, it’s up to you to bring the very best out of me!”

“I’ll do whatever it takes, Greed.”

“Oh? And what does that mean?”

“It means we’re going all out on this thing.”

With a burst of speed, I left Roxy and Eris behind to meet the Zodiac Scorpion at the front line. From behind, Eris fired a buff shot, which hit and cocooned me in light so silver it rivaled the moon. It was a Phalanx Bullet, a buff that boosted defense, severely lowering the damage of the next three enemy attacks. It required five levels of charge, however, which meant that Eris had spent some time before the battle preparing.

“Thanks!” I shouted back at Eris. Then I said to Greed, “Let’s go!”

I leaped away from the attacking pincers and dove toward the underside of the holy beast, using the momentum of my leap to launch a powerful first assault.

“This thing isn’t just tough!” I shouted. “It’s like there’s an invisible wall surrounding it. My blade can’t get through.”

“That would be its Divine Providence. Well, what now, Fate?”

Greed seemed to relish this moment as I stood before an enemy unlike any I had ever faced. The answer to his question was dead simple: I would fight. I unleashed my Gluttony to my half-starved state. A dull pain raced through my body along with a rising hunger. Even though I was used to it now, it was not unlike devouring my own soul. Laine told me that if I kept doing it, then in the not-so-distant future, I would become something inhuman.

Whatever the consequences, I couldn’t stop here. Not yet. I’d learned something from Aaron when we dueled to bid our farewells. The battles of the past had forged me into who I was. They had brought me closer to the adventurers I admired, all the way back to the time when my father was my hero.

“Like an adventurer, and like a Glutton,” I said, “we’ll eat this beast alive.”