Infrasound Berserker - Chapter 77 Night Hunt
Chapter 77 Night Hunt
Kate chuckled. “How does my armor look by the way? Damage?” She still felt the adrenaline, though it was fading. Her attitude felt a little embarrassing to her but she just tried to notice and accept it. She was out here to fight and cull the undead, so what if she felt good about killing them. She slowed her breathing.
“It looks a little scraped, but I don’t see anything major. The enchantments are crazy. I took several direct hits and brushed it off far more easily than before,” Logan said.
“Yeah, same for me. After I hit the Wyvern in the air, we fell, no clue how far but the impact was bad, nearly passed out,” Kate said. “Glad the potions didn’t break.” She thought back and sighed. The risks they were taking were insane.
“Jon enchanted the vials for us too,” Logan said with a tired smile. “I think he knew something like this could happen.”
Kate hugged her knees and nodded.
“How are you holding up?” Logan said after a moment had passed. He smiled. “Sorry for holding you back. I know you want to go out there again immediately.”
Kate looked at him. “It’s all good. I get health and stamina back but it’s not the same as rest. I should pace myself as well, otherwise I’ll be exhausted for a day or two afterwards. Or dead.” She paused.
“That would be problematic,” Logan said. “Because we’ll want to do this again tomorrow night.”
Kate breathed in deep and leaned her head back, looking at the dimly lit ceiling. She took off her helmet and turned it around, seeing the dark blood now on it, the scrapes where she had likely broken part of her fall, or maybe from something else. It had been an intense fight. And still, her armor held up, as did her weapons. She stared at the dark eyes of her helmet. “We do.”
They rested for a good half hour, Logan meditating to get back some of his mana. They drank water and a tincture of life from the shelter to make sure they were mostly fresh again. Then it was back out into the streets.
This time, it took longer to find undead, Kate finding that the lacking night-vision goggles didn’t impair her a lot, seeing how most of the creatures just charged forward blindly, using their power and ferocity to overwhelm anything in their way. All she had to do was swing her axe when she heard them close in. She missed sometimes but with her own high stats, she just powered through, using her knifes or even fists to kill or push them away. The goblins were the worst because they were the smallest targets to hit.
They wiped out seven more groups, and had an extended fight on a market square, another ogre taken out before they took a break in a nearby safe house. All the new stats she was getting went into more Vitality and Strength.
Half an hour later, they were back out, fighting. More efficient now with the noise that they made. They were confident, taking out smaller groups with quick coordinated moves, Kate getting more and more used to fighting with only her sound and tremor based perception.
They had to hide after another few battles when one of the massive giants got close and walked through a nearby city street. They didn’t know how to tackle fighting something so massive, let alone in the dark. Kate considered going after it when she heard another roar in the distance.
Logan had heard it too and tapped his armor twice.
She did the same with her axe and started in the direction. The sound had been closer than the first time they had heard one of the creatures tonight.
Her blood pulsed in her veins. She had killed so many of the undead tonight, what was one more monster?
They found the Undead Overakar trashing through a ground floor apartment, the walls broken in. There were a few other undead nearby, so Kate and Logan moved to take them out first, the large creature making enough noise to mask their fighting all on its own.
Kate and Logan stood on the street outside of the apartment a few minutes later, only the large monster remaining. Kate took a step towards the building but her ally stopped her.
“Not enough space in there. Get it out here,” he said.
She heard it. And it made sense. The creature was massive. In an enclosed space, it could just squash them against the walls. They had to get its attention and attack from two sides. She pointed to another part of the street and started walking, indicating that her ally should go there and wait while she lured the creature to face her. Maybe she just wanted to face it head on. She smiled.
The last one had gotten her leg, she remembered. No jumping. She nodded to herself. She could throw her axe or something but then she decided to just charge it with sound, then breathed in, feeling the vibrations in her blade, the resonance going through her armor.
“Monster,” she spoke, when the creature wasn’t trashing something.
It growled, the primal sound rolling through the street, the massive being turning around in the dark and stepping towards her.
She heard it, didn’t see it, but her echo awareness let her get glimpses. And she felt the weight of its steps, the tremors each of its movements produced.
Kate stood with her axe in both hands, hearing the impacts of the monster’s clawed feet walking on the ground. She heard its tail sliding over the apartment floor and then out onto the street, heard its snarl.
Then it charged.
And she charged too, this time not jumping but sliding down onto the ground. She passed its jaws but one of its legs clipped her side. She turned and rolled, then swung upwards, her axe catching flesh, digging in deep before it started dragging her across the floor. Kate let go and stood up when the monster was past, calling her axe back to her and feeling its weight slam into her hand. She heard the creature turn with a growl before it charged again. And Kate charged too.
Halfway towards her, a glowing light appeared next to the monster, her ally’s blade slicing past the hind leg of the Overakar, leaving it stumbling slightly.
Kate still ran towards it, seeing it slow and turn towards her ally. She raised her axe and slammed it down into the head of the monster that reflected the sound of her running steps. Her sound and blood magic enhanced and enchanted blade dug deep with the heavy strike. Kate let go immediately after, using her Vengeful Charge to rush past the monster’s right side before it could catch her with a bite or one of its front legs.
Its leg grazed her side and she whirled to the left but caught herself, calling for her axe again as the monster turned. She heard the blade tear on the undead creature’s massive head, wedged between the scales. It didn’t come, so she took out her hammer and ran forward, charging it with sound. She heard the whooshing sound of the monster’s tail coming towards her and swung, her hammer and strength slamming into the massive appendage, blood and sound rupturing through scales, flesh, and muscle as the momentum was stopped, the rest of the tail whipping around her. This time, she jumped, nowhere near close to its jaws. She landed on the other side of the beast in a crouch and turned, seeing her ally’s blade flashing up again as he struck the front leg of the Overakar.
She aimed at the already injured hind leg instead, breaking bone and sending blood magic into it. She found the large monster reacting slowly and struck again, twice. Its leg looked limp now, its tail broken behind. She called for her axe again from this angle, hoping to pull it deeper into the monster’s head where it was stuck. The axe at least didn’t land in her hand again, so she assumed it worked.
She could hear the creature try to move, barely able to lift its own weight, now that two of its legs were injured. She saw light flashing from her ally and jumped, using the light of his blade strike to aim for the monster’s back. She landed, just barely catching herself, her hammer falling away with the impact as she herself held on. She crawled forward on the massive scaled creature’s back until she heard it snarl, its head closer now. Charging one of her enchanted combat knives with sound, she slammed it down into the scales, trying to hit the spine. Not sure if she got it, she left the knife in there and grabbed another, trying the same. Frustrated, she moved forward more and called for her axe again, the creature reeling up and roaring as the blade pulled on the side of its head.
It flung free and slammed into Kate’s hand. She steadied herself, charged her axe once more, and brought it down, cutting through the scales and deep into the monster’s flesh and spine. Another strike, and then another, before the monster’s head crashed down onto the concrete road, no longer moving.
She heard more notifications in her mind and ripped out her weapons, then slid down the side of the creature. Clicking her tongue, she found her hammer on the street and collected it, deactivating her magic once she’d made sure there were no more creatures nearby, and that the Overakar was dead.
“Good job,” Logan said. “This way, before any Wyverns show up due to the light.”
Kate sheathed her hammer and tapped her axe, then followed, listening for more creatures. “Break?” she asked.
“Negative,” Logan replied.
She smiled to herself and took the lead.
Kate and Logan fought through the streets of Falstadt, hiding whenever a group of undead looked too large or too dangerous. They took breaks to eat magic enhanced food and to rest up whenever needed.
Kate stopped using most of her mana based skills soon after their fight against the Overakar. Logan could still use most of his abilities whenever he took time to meditate but he had to be more conservative as well. Both of them made sure to keep an emergency reserve but they still avoided Wyverns, Ogres, and Overakar now that they couldn’t go all out anymore, instead pacing themselves to wipe out smaller groups of monsters to thin the number of undead in the city.
Kate realized at some point that she could see her surroundings again, even without night-vision goggles, faint light pushing through the constant gray film of clouds and light snow. They were resting in an alley, a dozen or so undead covering the ground where they’d fought them.
“We should check their movements, now that the sun’s coming up,” Logan said.
“Square down the road?” Kate asked.
“Sounds good,” Logan said.
Kate took the lead, checking both sides of the adjacent road before she walked in the direction of the large square they had fought in near the beginning of the night. “No undead in sight,” she said, checking the air as well to make sure she didn’t miss any Wyverns.
They soon reached the square and entered an apartment building before ascending to the roof.
Logan checked the various nearby streets and the sky with his binoculars. “There are a few smaller groups. Looks like they’re joining together again.”
“I wonder why they form hordes in the daylight, it’s not like they see very well in the dark,” Kate said. Not even the goblins had reacted to them much better than the others.
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“Maybe the approach worked really well so far?” Logan suggested.
“How long until they’re moving in hordes at night then? If that’s true,” Kate said.
“We’ll find out,” Logan said. “We’ll meet up with the Union at seven, get checked by a healer, then catch some sleep.”
“Any plans for the afternoon?” Kate asked.
“Back to Keilberg castle for repairs and refills for our tinctures. Probably good to join the Union again afterwards but depends on what they have planned,” he said.
“Maybe we can take Allison to the city, she wanted to get some stuff. And now that we’ve killed another Overakar and a Wyvern, she’ll want to check them for materials,” Kate said.
“Sounds good,” Logan said. “Back to the villa in fifteen minutes.”
Kate nodded and sat down on the roof, legs dangling over the edge. She’d never been particularly afraid of heights but now she could probably jump down from the four story building without much trouble. Or well, she would at least survive.
She checked through her notifications to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. All the upgrades and stat points had smoothed things out and helped to keep them going through the night, though Kate hadn’t risked trying out anything new in the hostile environment.
Nearly a hundred and fifty undead wiped out.
She felt tired and satisfied, like she always did after a productive day. At least when things worked out.
‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Undead Human]’
‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Undead Orc]’
…
‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Undead Goblin]’
‘ding’ ‘Omen of Vengeance reaches lvl 32’
Stat points +2
Vigor +1
…
‘ding’ ‘Omen of Vengeance reaches lvl 35’
Stat points +2
Vigor +1
Four levels for one night of fighting.
‘ding’ ‘Vengeful Charge reaches 2nd lvl 13’
…
‘ding’ ‘Vengeful Charge reaches 2nd lvl 16’
‘ding’ ‘Reaper Jump reaches lvl 17’
…
‘ding’ ‘Reaper Jump reaches lvl 20’
‘ding’ ‘Reaper Jump reaches 2nd lvl 1’
Active: Reaper Jump – 2nd lvl 1
Power surges through your legs and body, propelling you upwards. Charge your muscles for 12.5% of your total stamina and jump up to 6m high. Blood magic surges, granting you a medium resistance to physical damage for the duration of the spell. Not cliffs nor walls shall stand between you and your prey.
2nd stage: You impact the ground and create a wave of blood equal to your current Blood Rupture if you will it so. No additional resources are used for this cast.
Kate raised her brows at the addition. It sounded both effective and fun but also incredibly dangerous. Probably not something she wanted to use in a fight where she couldn’t see anything but then again, with her Mindless Ferocity and Blood Frenzy skills active, she may very well try it. It was easier to trust her various sound based perception skills more when her berserking abilities were active. More risk taking, she thought. And the rewards were obvious enough.
‘ding’ ‘Blood Rupture reaches 2nd lvl 6’
…
‘ding’ ‘Blood Rupture reaches 2nd lvl 8’
‘ding’ ‘Fury of the Unarmored reaches 2nd lvl 18’
…
‘ding’ ‘Fury of the Unarmored reaches 2nd lvl 20’
‘ding’ ‘Two Handed Weapon Fighting reaches 2nd lvl 20’
‘ding’ ‘Unrelenting Carnage reaches 2nd lvl 10’
…
‘ding’ ‘Unrelenting Carnage reaches 2nd lvl 14’
More skills capping out at the end of the second tier. Plenty to progress still. Every level up mattered, she knew as much. And while she thought about a future where all of her skills were maxed out, she was far enough away not to worry much about it. She had survived the night, had killed more of their enemies, and she had progressed. That was all that mattered.
‘ding’ ‘Roaring Pursuer reaches lvl 29’
Brutality +1
…
‘ding’ ‘Roaring Pursuer reaches lvl 32’
Brutality +1
‘ding’ ‘Reverberating Charge reaches 2nd lvl 4’
…
‘ding’ ‘Reverberating Charge reaches 2nd lvl 7’
‘ding’ ‘Sound Perception reaches 2nd lvl 11’
…
‘ding’ ‘Sound Perception reaches 2nd lvl 14’
‘ding’ ‘Echo Awareness reaches lvl 17’
…
‘ding’ ‘Echo Awareness reaches lvl 20’
‘ding’ ‘Echo Awareness reaches 2nd lvl 1’
Passive: Echo Awareness – 2nd lvl 1
Your may use the echo of sound to orient yourself and to perceive your surroundings. You learn to adjust the frequency of sound produced to more easily penetrate through walls and trees, through stone and metal. Little you may see but you will find your prey, hiding in the dark. You may deactivate this effect if needed.
2nd stage: You learn to manipulate your echo, producing a short sound that appears up to 10.5 meters away from you.
Could’ve probably tried to use that one already, Kate thought and focused on the new ability. She wasn’t sure how to make the sound, so just clicked her tongue as she usually did. Using a bit of mana, the sound instead emerged a few meters away from her. Freaky.
‘ding’ ‘Tremor Sense reaches lvl 18’
…
‘ding’ ‘Tremor Sense reaches 2nd lvl 1’
Passive: Tremor Sense – 2nd lvl 1
You learn to perceive even the tiniest vibrations in any surface that you touch. Hunt that which you cannot see.
2nd stage: You learn to pick up on finer details in the tremors you feel. The information you gain through this skill is processed at a faster pace.
No wonder it felt like I got so much better. Wasn’t just me and the skill, it was the second tier as well.
‘ding’ ‘Heavy Charger reaches lvl 8’
Fortitude +1
…
‘ding’ ‘Heavy Charger reaches lvl 14’
Fortitude +1
‘ding’ ‘You have unlocked the active skill: Weapon Throw – lvl 1
Active: Weapon Throw – lvl 1
Use 10% of your stamina to enhance the throw of a heavy weapon. Accuracy of all weapon throws is increased by 5.5%.
‘ding’ ‘Weapon Throw reaches lvl 2’
‘ding’ ‘Weapon Throw reaches lvl 3’
Same with this one, she thought with a smile, wondering what the second tier of the skill would provide. For now it wasn’t all too interesting, essentially just enhancing something she was doing anyway.
‘ding’ ‘You have unlocked the active skill: Brutal Cleave – lvl 1
Active: Brutal Cleave – lvl 1
Use 15% of your stamina to cleave through enemies in front and around you. The arc is limited to 190 degrees.
Have I used this one already? she wondered, though the acquisition seemed to be rather recent. Fifteen percent is pretty hefty, will want to try that out. Seems like a big arc at least.
‘ding’ ‘You have unlocked the passive skill: Heavy Warrior – lvl 1
Passive: Heavy Warrior – lvl 1
While you have a heavy weapon bound to you, all passive skill based resistances are increased by one stage, to a maximum of [High grade]. Your body’s ability to absorb shock is increased by a static 35%.
‘ding’ ‘Heavy Warrior reaches lvl 2’
…
‘ding’ ‘Heavy Warrior reaches lvl 4’
She checked her various passive skills and found two upgrades. Fury of the Unarmored provided a low grade physical resistance, now at medium grade. And her Sound Perception skill used to provide a medium grade resistance against sound and sound magic, now at high grade. She wasn’t sure how much the upgrade meant but it felt good that the skill enhanced other skills.
‘ding’ ‘You have unlocked the passive skill: Heavy Weapons Resonance – lvl 1
Passive: Heavy Weapons Resonance – lvl 1
Spells and skills enhancing heavy weapons are infused 35.5% faster and last twice as long.
‘ding’ ‘Heavy Weapons Resonance reaches lvl 2’
…
‘ding’ ‘Heavy Weapons Resonance reaches lvl 5’
Pretty self explanatory this one. With how often she used her Reverberating Charge and with how powerful the ability made her strikes, she was glad to have this new addition as well.
‘ding’ ‘Bound Weapon Return reaches lvl 5’
…
‘ding’ ‘Bound Weapon Return reaches lvl 8’
‘ding’ ‘Heavy Weapons Expert reaches lvl 7’
…
‘ding’ ‘Heavy Weapons Expert reaches lvl 10’
Looking over her full status, Kate rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck. She was ready for a few hours of sleep.
Kate Lindgren
Unspent stat points: 0
Class: Omen of Vengeance – lvl 35
– Active: Mindless Ferocity – 2nd lvl 20
– Active: Blood Frenzy – 2nd lvl 20
– Active: Vengeful Charge – 2nd lvl 16
– Active: Reaper Jump – 2nd lvl 1
– Active: Blood Rupture – 2nd lvl 8
– Passive: Blood for the Living – 2nd lvl 20
– Passive: Fury of the Unarmored – 2nd lvl 20
– Passive: Two Handed Weapon Fighting – 2nd lvl 20
– Passive: Unrelenting Carnage – 2nd lvl 14
– Passive: Terrifying Presence – lvl 12
Support class: Roaring Pursuer – lvl 32
– Active: Thunderous Shout – 2nd lvl 3
– Active: Reverberating Charge – 2nd lvl 7
– Active: Aura of Silence – lvl 16
– Passive: Sound Perception – 2nd lvl 14
– Passive: Echo Awareness – 2nd lvl 1
– Passive: Tremor Sense – 2nd lvl 1
Support class: Heavy Charger – lvl 14
– Active: Bound Weapon Return – lvl 8
– Active: Weapon Throw – lvl 3
– Active: Brutal Cleave – lvl 1
– Passive: Heavy Weapons Expert – lvl 10
– Passive: Heavy Warrior – lvl 4
– Passive: Heavy Weapons Resonance – lvl 5
Status:
Vitality: 43
Vigor: 20
Fortitude: 14
Endurance: 24
Perseverance: 15
Strength: 32
Brutality: 17
Dexterity: 8
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 12
Serenity: 15
Equipment:
Torso: Berserker Scale Armor [Rare]
– Medium grade Acid Resistance
– Medium grade Fire Resistance
– Basic Enchantment
Legs: Berserker Scale Armor [Rare]
– Medium grade Acid Resistance
– Medium grade Fire Resistance
– Basic Enchantment
Trinket: –
Food: Radish Toast [Duration 1 hour]
– Stamina regeneration +10
