The clangor of steel and chorus of shouts comforted Horus.
There was something about the deadly battle soothed his mind that was still reeling from getting that Common class.
As he sword sheared off a man's hand, he shouted commands to the Penitents around him.
Most followed orders without thinking, they were a very docile group that would have been dominated by the heretics if not for their equipment and the Commander's [Tactics] skill.
The wedge formation split on his command, they had just reached the berserker, but Horus was out of luck.
The Weeping Berserker's attacks created a large radius around it and even heretics didn't want to get caught by its thorned whip. But a single man remained within the circle, dashing past attacks with some kind of movement skill.
The man wielded duel blades, body flickering as he closed the distance between him and Berserker. Once he was five metres away, his body disappeared and silver streaks slashed the heretic's throat.
That wouldn't kill the berserker though. The injuries were already closing and Horus could guess its [Berserk] skill would strengthen it further.
Who is this idiot?
The Adept Penitent landed behind the berserker and flicked the blood off his blade. He wore clean silver armor and an open face helmet. Recognition flickered through Horus' eyes as the man's face came into view.
It's the guy that slapped me.
The Narrative dungeon had opened with Horus in a sleeping Penitent. The Adept man had slapped him awake. Horus wasn't one to hold grudges, but that didn't mean he had to like people that annoyed him. Especially when they were messing with his kill.
"You're only making things harder!" Horus yelled to the Adept, stepping into the circle.
The Adept's lip curled up. His voice was condescending. "Rattle off, kid. The adults are busy." But he grimaced as the choking berserker's injuries closed.
"And it'll keep healing till it's stronger than you," Horus commented, reading the man's petty mind. "Then we'll see whether you heal too."
"You will speak to me with respect," the Adept sneered, eyes still fixed on the Berserker, raising his swords. "I am your Captain."
Oh, I didn't know that.
"Yes sir," Horus said slowly. "I have a way to kill it, all I need—"
"Any way you have of killing this thing will be surrendered to me immediately," The captain ordered. "What is it—"
Their conversation was interrupted by the Berserker's shrill cry and its swinging whip. Horus barely dodged, leaning back as the thorns passed just over his eyes. It was much faster than the one he fought.
There were small injuries healing around its body that told Horus his brilliant captain had been leaving injuries over its body.
The captain dodged the attacks without much problems, he likely had an Adept-tier [Physique] skill, along with the movement skill he used sparingly. So the only one in danger right now was Horus.
Wonderful.
"What is the trick!" The captain roared mid-air.
They both dodged the coiling whips with careful moves. Horus' blue and purple eyes flickered, wildly taking in information, barely keeping up. At the same time he made sure to keep away from the violent battle behind him.
The battlefield shifted to accommodate them; Heretics and Penitents jumped out of the way to dodge the flashing whip. Once in a while some people foolishly intrude on the Adept-tier battle in front of them.
A Penitent kicked a heretic to the ground and was too hasty to finish his enemy off, not watching the battlefield around him. Everyone ran as the berserker grew close, but the man didn't know till the whip ripped him in half.
The heretic that was just about to die was baptised in blood. After a moment of shock, he tried crawling away, but Horus was passing by.
After dodging the whip with a sharp roll, Horus stretched his arm and hooked the blunt edge of his curved sword around the heretic's throat. He dragged the man up and used him as a human shield.
"Help me out," Horus whispered.
The Heretic tried resisting, screaming madly, throat raking against the blunt edge of his sword. But Horus pricked the back of Brute's neck with his short sword, which was still coated in Gloomwillow sap.
The skin, right on the nerve cluster at the top of the spine, blackened almost immediately and a shudder passed over the man's body.
Horus held the now paralysed man up, peeking from behind him at the raging Berserker.
The paralysis was permanent, and the man would lose control of his lungs soon and die, but in the meantime he was Horus' shield.
The berserker glanced over its wide circle, its weakened mind only registered the slippery captain and the slumped body of one of its fellow heretics.
It ignored Horus and focused on the captain, allowing Horus to follow them nearby, but not be under the threat of the whip.
Continuously dodging the whip was a bad idea. It was only a matter of time till he made a mistake or was too slow and just died. No way. He would let the brilliant captain deal with his mistakes.
And the mistakes were coming to town. The berserker's hands suddenly glowed with red energy.
The charged attack.
But that wasn't all, red energy flowed to its mouth and the air literally boiled around the creature as the light grew stronger. Horus felt like he was standing in front of a bonfire.
It's going to use a shout skill to buff its attacks?
He couldn't be sure, but he knew a shout skill was about to be used, and his brilliant captain wouldn't survive it. So he stole a dagger from his meat shield and took out his pouch of Gloomwillow along with the intricately designed silver dagger he was afraid to pull out.
He had no time so he dipped the heretic's dagger in the sap and threw it at the Berserker. The dagger nailed the ankle of the monster in the middle of casting.
Then he held his silver dagger close to his chest just as the berserker's thunderous shout rattled the air.
A sphere of air and red energy exploded outward, picking up dust and throwing men off their feet.
Horus was protected by magical attacks by his dagger so the red energy parted in front of him, but the sound and force still almost threw him off his feet with a shield and made his ear burn like he was being stabbed.