The Immortal Berserker Chapter 36

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When Barrett woke up, everything hurt. Well, that wasn’t quite true. He had experienced everything hurting. However, he was still in the… Barrett did some thinking in his head… ninth worst pain of his life. Then he frowned, remembering one time he’d made twig girl legitimately angry, and revised his number to tenth while unconsciously clenching his legs together.

Around him, Barrett saw a number of injured people. They were lying on the floor next to him on mats… presumably like the one he himself was on. No wonder he was so uncomfortable. As he went over all the injuries he sustained, both using his memory and some internal searching, he decided he had probably almost died. He probably should have, too, with the backstabbing…

That made Barrett angry. August had legitimately tried to have him killed. Barrett didn’t doubt that he was the one responsible. If he could get his hands around his neck right now, he would strangle him. If he could even stand. Could he stand?

Barrett thought about whether he could stand. How long had it been since the battle? It seemed to be bright out, which indicated it was morning… Was it overnight? Based on the state of his injuries, it had been more than a day. That meant… he could stand. Probably. It didn’t make it a good idea though. His stomach grumbled. How hungry was he? Not quite hungry enough for more than a day. Maybe someone had fed him, but it couldn’t have been that much either.

Barrett considered whether he should try to get up. Maybe he could call someone and they’d bring him food, or maybe he could go get it. Then again, he really needed the rest and being seen outside might be an issue. Especially if August was there. He considered whether he had the strength to strangle him… yes. He could definitely do that.

Barrett heard voices outside of the tent. Were those the doctors… or nurses… or really anyone who could bring him food? He hoped so. He couldn’t really hear what was being said, just a word here and there. Then he frowned. One voice sounded slightly familiar. He sat up. He almost ended up falling back down. Using his stomach and back muscles was intensely painful, and the dizziness didn’t help. The voice retained its same famliarity, but was no clearer. He decided to continue. Slowly, he worked himself into a kneeling position. He considered crawling, but his legs weren’t actually bad off. Crawling was hard on his back.

He managed to shakily stand, and as long as he walked perfectly straight, he could avoid sharp jolts of pain. Taking a step was a bit difficult because of his overall exhaustion, but there were no injuries. A few more steps brought him closer to the mouth of the tent, where he confirmed the voice.

“Come on, I’m the head councilor’s son. You won’t often get a chance like this.”

A woman’s voice replied, “I’m not interested, August, and you’re not as important as you think. Now leave before I have to get my master involved.”

“Your master isn’t here, Shanta.” There was the sound of several people’s footsteps.

“If you so much as touch me I’ll-”

Barrett didn’t get to hear the rest of what she was saying. He wasn’t incapable of moving- just doing so without hurting himself. At this point, he didn’t really care. He had already been moving the last few steps to the entrance of the tent.

He strode out of the tent quickly, He was too unstable to run, but with a few quick steps he found himself next to August. During the battle he had used up most of his berserk energy. Converting anger into berserk energy was an exhausting process… but the exhaustion could be delayed temporarily. It would be worse, but Barrett really wanted to strangle August.

Unfortunately, circumstances prevented that… so he settled for punching him in the ribcage. He even took a proper stance and everything, which meant as August turned to see who had approached him, his ribcage met with a fist and generous quantities of berserk energy. Ribs snapped with a satisfying sound, and Barrett saw his fist collapse a good portion of August’s chest. With the additional berserk energy flowing inside, he was going to be quite dead- even with the training he had. Whatever it was, it definitely didn’t focus on bodily toughness.

Barrett sighed. That felt great. He could almost die content. Almost. He didn’t want to die, but unfortunately it might happen anyway. For example, the two guards he was right next to now. They hadn’t been able to react as he immediately attacked August- after coming out of the infirmary no less- but they would have certainly stopped him from strangling him to death.

They still looked surprised when Barrett grabbed them both by the head. They both grabbed whichever arm they could reach, but Barrett didn’t care. A tight grip on an arrow wound didn’t mean much when his movements had already reopened some spear wounds. He could deal with pain… and he was strong. These particular guards hadn’t done anything except guard August… which was still enough to deserve death. Barrett was angry… and probably going to die, so he wasn’t going down alone.

As guards, they had gone through training… but none of it could compare to what Barrett had gone through. Normal training methods like they had meant they didn’t even compare to some of the young fellows at the Southern Tiger School. Though Barrett was a bit biased, the thought the Immortal Berserker training methods were quite a bit better than that… at least as far as results went.

The two guards suddenly found themselves off of their feet and moving closer to each other… then meeting in the middle with another crunching sound. It was a dumb technique- so much that it wasn’t taught to Barrett. It left him wide open, but the guards hadn’t expected him to be so decisive in his attacks, or so strong. As their bodies crumpled to the floor, Barrett supported himself with his hands on his knees.

From behind him, he heard the young woman’s voice, “Are you an idiot?”

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