The Immortal Berserker Chapter 350

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At the end of every decade, Stredo’s fifth tier tournament came once a decade. It didn’t seem like that long before, but two decades prior Barrett had watched Master Hykel fight in the tournament. Master Hykel hadn’t participated in the previous one because he had already reached sixth tier- and they didn’t have a tournament for sixth tiers. Barrett could understand why… the arena’s restrictions could only do so much. Either people would have to hold back, or there would be too much risk of death for no benefit. 

Barrett was nearly fifth tier. If he really wanted to, he could push himself to break through before the tournament, but he didn’t see what the benefit would be for him. Experience fighting fifth tier masters? He had some of that- and a victory under his belt. He even had fought a sixth tier master at the same time and… well, he survived. Experiencing more variety could be useful, but Barrett would rather delay breaking through to fifth tier slightly and instead just observe some battles. 

The fifth tier tournament was three rounds shorter than the fourth- eight instead of eleven. Once again, that sounded like a small decrease… but the total number of matches dropped significantly. In fact, even with another half round to account for there being around three hundred participants instead of an exact two hundred and fifty six, it was a much shorter tournament than the others. Even so, it was the most attended, at least by those who could attend. 

Barrett learned something from every match he watched, but the one that most stood out to him was a particular match. One side was a druid, wrapped in bark and vines, and on the other side was a somewhat smaller man wielding two curved swords.

Once the battle began, the duelist sprang forward, slicing at the druid. His attack slid off of the magically reinforced bark armor, but his momentum carried him past without slowing down. As he attacked, he shifted his weight and trajectory with ease, making it difficult to counterattack. However, the druid wasn’t without recourse. 

Vines unfurled from around his body, menacing with spikes along their length. They spread out in front of the duelist as he dashed by, forcing him to chop at them- just to knock them out of the way- instead of attacking directly. Barrett admired the control of energy and magic from both sides, but he even more appreciated the mastery of momentum from the duelist and the attunement to the plants the druid controlled. They were still controlled with mana, but very much in tune with the user.

Vines twirled and grasped at the duelist, who twisted his body to avoid being impaled, and then sliced through one of the vines to free himself. However, his freedom came at a large expenditure of energy- the vines weren’t normal vines, after all. With one fewer vine to worry about, he managed several gashes in the druid’s bark armor, cutting through the magical defenses augmenting them. 

The duelist ran into trouble when the vine he had severed grabbed at him from the floor- it was still very much alive, but sensing the control the druid had over it was difficult. Perhaps the duelist, being closer, could have done so more easily… but he was rather occupied with actually dodging all of the attacks from the other vines instead of just observing the battle.

The duelist couldn’t avoid being impaled by a few of the spikes on the vines, but the fact that it happened meant he hadn’t lost yet. He broke away with some quick slashes of his swords and then built up his momentum again, chopping and slicing at the druid while expertly avoiding further injury. Both sides were clearly losing strength- the druid couldn’t control severed vines quite as easily, and though Barrett had no doubts he could reattach them he didn’t think that would be possible in battle. The blood loss started to get to the duelist, but before it became too much he won the match by extending the energy on his blades slightly further than Barrett- and the druid he was fighting- thought he could. While it was doubtless slightly weaker than along the rest of his blades, that energy would have been enough to slice through the druid’s neck, cutting halfway through his armor before the restrictions brought things to a halt.

Momentum and attunement to objects weren’t new concepts to Barrett, as he had used them quite effectively with his stone pits in the past. However, the battle had sparked some ideas in his head. It was always possible to be better at what he did, after all. Power certainly increased with tiers, but the efficiency of using the power and the techniques behind applying it were just as important. A grandmaster might not have more total energy than a few dozen second or third tier cultivators, but it wouldn’t be much effort for them to defeat that many at once with significant energy to spare. 

—–

Barrett settled down in the destruction chamber. While nobody would disturb him during the process, he knew people were eagerly awaiting his results. While there were over fifty fifth tier Immortal Berserkers, it was always better to have more… and Barrett still showed the potential to reach even higher, since he was still young- not even forty years old yet. 

He concentrated. He had to take destructions between tiers as seriously as a life or death fight… because they were basically that. While advancement in the Immortal Berserker Technique was ‘easy’ it carried with it risks of dying, even as tiers increased. If he wasn’t sufficiently prepared, he could die. In addition, he was pioneering the Pure Body Tempering version of the Immortal Berserker Technique, so he couldn’t rely on the experiences of others to guide him exactly where he needed to go. 

As Barrett readied himself for the pain and the struggle, he thought about why he cultivated. At first, it was just to survive, to get away from his old life and eventually seek revenge. He had done that long before, and if he wanted to he could have easily settled down anywhere, back in his hometown even. It was unlikely anyone would be concerned enough with the area to upset a master… but the idea was still there. Perhaps the Grasping Hand would leave him alone- perhaps not. Barrett had enemies, but even if he didn’t there was always the potential… and even if Barrett was able to choose his own destiny he couldn’t help but think about how many people couldn’t choose theirs. 

There was no way everyone could achieve everything they wanted, either because of conflicting desires or lack of aptitude or any number of other reasons… but Barrett wanted to support those who did things the right way. He believed there was one, even if he wasn’t going to declare he had the exact formula for perfect morality. However, those who hurt others and took what they wanted just because they could without even considering other options, those who killed purely for money and those whose greed drove families to destruction… their way wasn’t the right one. Others could argue all they wanted about what was right and wrong, and perhaps they might even convince Barrett on certain matters, but those who believed that there wasn’t a right and wrong… were merely deceiving themselves.

Most of all, Barrett wanted to move towards fairness and justice- not laws and punishment, but actual consideration of what should be done… and that included everything involved with the Silver Blades. Grandmaster Joston had pushed to remove them given the chance, but while Stredo should have acted unanimously to remove what everyone knew to be a thorn in the side of the city, many had worked with them… and just because there was no easy proof of their complicity they still remained.

In short, Barrett wanted to become stronger because he wanted to make the world better, and not just for himself… and not even just for people he knew. He knew he would never have the power to make everyone safe and happy… but he could at least reduce the amount of those feeding off the lives of others… literally or not.

Barrett settled his mind, focused on the path to what he needed, and underwent his ten thousandth destruction, nearly destroying his body to make it better. Perhaps… that was what the world needed as well.

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