Battle Above Part 01: Berserker and Glass Cannon!

"No! NoNonono!! That can't be it! I mean how does it make any sense?" Connor shacked his head.

"{Notice: I don't know about you being or becoming a god, but it's a fact that your soul can convert regular mana into holy mana.}

I wonder if it's a side effect of the Divine Slayer class? Connor thought to himself. He wasn't comfortable telling others about the existence of this class.

{Notice: I believe it has no relation, your soul was able to do this from the moment you got into this world, I say it might be the hero class!}

Vanessa sat on the ground holding her head.

"Are alright?" Connor asked her.

Looking at him with a tired face she replied.

"I wanted the hero support, but honestly I didn't expect this!"

Alema adds up.

"She is right, this is huge, so much that it might cause us trouble!"

Connor was surprised, Isn't having access to restoration magic a good thing?

"How could it cause trouble?" He asked.

Vanessa walked to her desk and brought some papers and handed them to Connor.

"It is weird that we are the only organization here that has access to Restoration Magic, this will definitely attract unwanted attention! Also, the cost of medical treatment and potions is about 50% of our income as you can see in those papers!"

Vanessa took a deep breath before continuing.

"This means our profit will double, other organizations will want that and they will do anything for it!"

"Just you being with us has doubled our profit but caused us inevitable conflict, I don't know if I want to be happy or scared!!" Alema adds up on what Vanessa said.

"Alema you focus on studying restoration magic, especially healing and detoxification magic, lastly divination magic!"

"Of course boss!" Alema replied.

"Just call me Vanessa, I'm not the boss anymore, he is" pointing with her thumb at Connor.

"{Notice: This might be a problem, Connor can't take the role of a leader, also Vanessa has to follow him as per the contract. This just leaves Alema as the leader of Shadow's hand!!}"

"Hold up! Why me? I don't want to deal with the problems that come with us having access to Restoration magic!" Alema panicked.

"{Notice: I just told you the reason, you're the only one who can do it! Also for the Restoration Magic, just say that the shadow hand guild was blessed by an evil God of Chaos. This should keep them in check!}" Ariel gave a suggestion based on what she analyzed.

Vanessa was amazed.

"This might actually work! They can't make a carless move since it is a God they are facing! It's not a secret technique that they can steal, nor a person they can kidnap or force to work for them. The only way for them to gain benefit is to join the shadow hand and work for that god!"

"Do you really no one will guess it's a troll?" Connor said.

"We can just call the Evil god messenger and have you rampage a bit for a power show! I and you are always on deadly missions assigned by the evil god, Alema was left to take care of the guild and gain new followers of the evil god!" Vanessa explained what she thought.

"Wouldn't they notice from the chanting or the magic circles?" Alema asked.

"{Notice: That won't be a problem. As long we know the source of magic, I can modify the chanting and inscription required to link it up to Connor!}"

Is it like changing a password for Wi-Fi, with me being the wifi router? Connor thought.

{Notice: True, that would be close.}

Vanessa stood up and turned toward Connor.

"It's almost time, lets hurry toward Xaviin fortress to deliver your corpse so switch back into your dark elf look!" Vanessa said to Connor.

"Your right, lets get this over with!" [Shapeshift] Connor transformed back into a dark elf.

"{Notice: Wait a minute! Vanessa can we trust Alema to keep the secret?}"

"What are you saying? Of course, I will keep it!" Alema said with confidence.

Vanessa thought for a moment.

"I trust she wouldn't tell anyone normally...Normally that is! If she got tortured for a bit she would definitely speak, on top of that if she drowned in pleasure too much she might just start talking like an actual drunk person! With that in mind putting her under a Contract is more of a guaranteed way to keep her silent."

"Agh~" It looks as if Vanessa hit the nail on the head, Alema looked like a kid who has just been caught.

"She had a pain weakness after all, and she is a succubus. It can't be helped!" Connor said.

"No no! You're right about the pain weakness but her being a succubus has no relation with her second problem. She is a pervert and let me stress it out, she is a BIG pervert!

In the past, she has failed so many missions because she enjoyed them too much. One time she was sent to poison a town lord, the town was small and an easy target. so instead of poisoning him while they did so, he die a few weeks later, she spent the night sucking him dry until he kicked the bucket! I had to save her from the raging town folks!"

"Vane-san, we agreed not to talk about that!" Alema panicked.

"{Notice: Was that what I showed you before? I didn't dig deep into it!}"

Alema looked at Ariel's ball of light.

"Yeah! that nightmare you showed me was indeed that accident, I really didn't want to remember it!" Alema said with a bitter smile.

"Ok let's talk about Alema's contract! we don't have time!" Connor interrupted them.

"He is right!" Vanessa Added up.

"My end of the contract is that you never speak or leak anything about what happened, said, seen inside this room. Everything that you consider leaking information for even a fraction of a second is forbidden, no matter the situation!" Connor started his condition.

"For me...Hmmm!" Alema thought for a second.

"Yes! Accompany me at least one night a week, with your dark elf version!" Alema stated her condition with a straight face.

"Nop! No way in hell! I respectfully decline!" Connor refused her instantly.

"Come on!!! Once a month! isn't that a good deal?" Alema rushed at him.

"No way! you just said that you killed a man in one night! I don't want to risk my life! Also, I have three wives so no! ask them first!" Connor tried to push it into his wives to reject her. Alise has told him before that he is expected to protect his wives and they are expected to protect him.

"{Notice: go stand at the wall!}" As Ariel spoke, Alema walked and stood at the wall. Everyone was surprised, even Alema herself didn't know why did she move.

"Why did I move?" Alema questioned her actions.

"Ariel, did you do something?" Connor asked.

"{Notice: The contract skill was active so I used it on her, she now would say anything nor approach you without any notification also she can't disobey you or me. You're not obligated to do anything for her!}"

"What about her side of the contract? we didn't agree yet!" Connor yelled at Ariel.

"{Notice: I did enter her mind before when she tried to charm you. I left a control spell inside and I used that to make her subconsciously accept the contract!}"

"I want my side of the deal!!" Alema said to Ariel.

"{Notice: The holy maiden will definitely have you dead if she heard that you tried to charm and seduce the hero, You accepting this contract is a payment for me to make sure The holy maiden doesn't kill you!}"

"No way!!! It doesn't matter do what you want!" Alema accepted.

"Aren't you being a bit harsh? Vanessa says something!" Connor said.

"Well considering Alema's personality, normally tonight she will sneak into your bed so this contract can save you from that!! Succubas are dangerous to be left unchecked around men, as Incubus are also dangerous to leave around women. Especially when we are talking about the extremely active Alema!" Vanessa strangely agreed with Ariel.

After a few moments, they left toward Xaviin's fortress to deliver Connor's corpse.

…

Upon the surface, the holy war against the undead has started.

A lightly armored soldier approached the holy maiden and her father on the city walls.

"Report!" he said.

"How is the situation?" The holy maiden asked.

"Yes! The undead army started to move into the mountain, it will take them about an hour to reach the burning range. The army consists of mainly skeletons and zombies, their weaponry is in bad condition mostly rusted swords and other melee weapons, no ranged weapons detected. a small number of wights and Mummys were also detected, we expect them to be spellcasters…" The man hesitated in the middle of his report.

Alice felt that he has something else to say.

"What is it? say no matter how small it is!" Alice gave him permission to speak his mind.

"As you will! Between the skeletons, five of them were unique, heavily armored, and mounting skeletal horses. Their necrotic aura was no greater than a regular skeleton so the scout add them to the skeleton count but I had a bad feeling about them! it was like I wanted to flee the moment my eyes landed on them!"

Alice's father burst into laughter, patting the soldier on the back.

"This is what I like about the soldiers I raised! Alice, you're the city lord now, can you give this man a rise?"

"Of course father do whatever you want! I'm still inexperienced to argue with your decisions!" Alice replied.

"Then this is an experience you need, those skeletons are most likely death knights, you can distinguish them by a large necrotic aura and a natural rejection to life. that means living beings have innate fear from them! even if they hid their aura they can't hide how they scare the living!" Alice's father said.

"So you're saying that if an experienced soldier who has the blessing of avander felt fear and an urge to run from them, they must be death knights?" Alice asked.

"That's right! eight chances out of ten they are death knights! I will be going to check personally! Make sure to listen to all the soldiers and their concerns that might save you later!"

Alice's father jumped from the city wall that was about 15 meters tall and landed standing beside his horse.

Alice flinched as she saw him jump, I can never get used to him doing this, use the damn stairs!

"Father! As the city lord, I give you an order, never jump like this again use the stairs since you're not young anymore! otherwise, I will send you to house arrest!" Alice is smiling but her anger is showing.

"No way, my bones aren't fragile yet I can keep going!" He replied with a sad face.

"Don't care! Also, don't engage the death knights in a fight! you can't win a 5 VS 1 fight!" two veins are clearly showing on Alice's forehead.

"Of I get it! I will not do anything dangerous! I will just confirm the skeleton's identity, give the scout make a scolding and lastly guide every one decrease the casualty. Is this okay?" He replied almost curling into a ball.

Lord Alen then mounted his trusted horse.

"It's been years since we got into battle to gather, I'm heavy on you with all my armor?" Lord Alen patted his horse on the neck.

The horse neighed with great strength and jumped in place.

"Ho-ho! Are you saying that you can still go?"

Alen raced into the mountains on his horse.

The soldier hurried to the camp after he gave his report.

Alice started heading toward the front gate since in just a few hours the battle will start.

Beside the front gate lies the blacksmith, a setup prepared for fast weapon repair and delivery.

Beside the blacksmith door, multiple people are lying on the ground, exhausted.

As Alice approached she could notice multiple barrels filled with arrows and maces, carriages upon carriages filled with armors. she was astounded at the amount.

The sound of steel is echoing from the inside.

Alice opened the door and the foul smell of charcoal, steel, and sweat recked from the inside.

Closing her nose she proceeded inside and found Dolrig hammering steel, drenched in sweat.

"This place reeks to high hell, how can you work in here?" she asked.

"It reminds me of home, in the dwarves mountains we don't have ventilation so it always likes this in our smithery!" He answered without looking at her, completely focusing on his work.

"And the workers lying outside?" She asked about what she saw.

"Little babies still sucking on their mother's ti*s, they couldn't endure the work conditions and collapse!"

Alice looked outside and thought, experienced blacksmiths are still babies to him, dwarfs are actually built different! hold up, who is heating steel for him?

"Dolrig about heating metal, how are you doing?"

"Neighbor lady, I give her me mug! she deserves a beard more than the men outside!" Dolrig said with a proud voice.

"Is that a dwarf saying? women don't have beards" Alice replied.

"Dwarven women also don't have beards, normally! In some cases they do!" Dolrig laughed.

As they were having this conversation a woman came out of the next room, holding a red-hot steel chunk.

"Who has a beard you smelly bastard, want me to stick this up your arse!" she yelled at him without noticing Alice.

"See m'lady, she has a dwarf temper despite being a human!" Dolrig said with a grin.

The woman approached Alice to look closely at her face.

"Who is this bit*h… you're...talking..." she stopped for a moment before panicking.

"Alice-sama??!!" The woman almost fell to the ground as she backed off.

"Yes!" Alice replied with a smile.

"Sorry I didn't know it you, I had spoken out of the line. I apologize!" The woman tried to apologize but Alice stopped her.

"I don't really care as long as you're helping Dolrig, by the way, how did it come that you're helping him? Talk as you feel comfortable, My father's advice was to let people express themselves!" Alice asked.

"Call me Afton. To put it simply, I work at a nearby bakery. yesterday when we were evacuating I saw this sorry a*s man struggling to put a piece of steel in the forge. So I started helping him since I'm used to heat and strong yeast's smell!" Afton said.

"And the smith workers?" Alice asked.

"Times of peace, those babies are used to only making kitchen knives and sharpening farming tools, just making a single sword was a day work for them! The best of them had a level 8 smithing skill!" Dolrig seemed annoyed at the workers.

"That's pretty high, isn't it?" Alice said.

"For daily stuff, yes, but for war, it's not enough! I would really love to have them be at least level 10 level 15 if possible!"

"Twenty years ago Alen-sama brought peace to this town, so I guess all the talented blacksmiths have migrated to other areas with better business! For people, peace is just better!" Afton told dolrig.

"I guess you're right, Where ever there is smoke there is fire and wherever there are weapons there is death!" Dolrig agreed with her.

Alice was already feeling a bit uncomfortable with the smell so she excused herself ou with 'The battle is about to start I better go!' leaving the two of them to work.

…

An hour has passed and the undead had reached the designed area.

Leon and Lisa are both hiding in a hole covered with bushes.

"Time to act dear, can you distract them for half a minute?!" Lisa asked Leon.

Leon nodded.

"Just send the signal to the scouts, I will jump with it!"

[I am the crimson witch of the red valley, I call forth a red rose of flames, burning everything to a cinder. Fire Magic: FireBall]

With a bright flash, a shining ball of fire raised to the sky and exploded in an overly flashy show of light.

This was the signal to the scouts, and they started firing their arrows, burning arrows! Quickly sitting the edge of the mountain on fire to trap the undead army.

The undead army was distracted to notice being trapped since the fire hadn't reached them yet, but with what they were distracted you say?

Just as the flash of fire rose to the sky the skeletons tried to check the source to be surprised by a raging monster! No, it was a human! Wearing skimpy fur clothes and carrying a mighty double-edged giant Battle-axe!

Leon charged from the hole roaring as soon as List sot the signal surprising the undead. They were quite dumb since they are controlled puppets by the necromancer.

[Vanguard: Taunting Cry], [Berserker: Barbaric rage], [Battleaxe Arts: Wide Swing and Go]

With another mighty Battle cry, Leon's muscle tensed up as he leaned backward in preparation to swing his battleax, the ground cracked underneath his feet as swung horizontally.

There was a tree beside him and its trunk got blasted as the Battleaxe tore right through it. Mid swing Leon released his grip and yeeting that Battleaxe into the ranks of skeletons. The old dusty bones weren't durable enough to even slow it down.

The skeletons and zombies started rushing toward him, their plan is to simply take him down with sheer numbers. Hideous, unpleasant chanting can be heard from the backline, the wights are preparing their magic.

10 seconds have passed.

The tree he cut earlier is falling, not missing this chance Leon gave it a bear hug, redirecting it to fall where are most of the monster. The skeletons dodged but the tree rolled over then since this is a mountain before getting stopped with another tree.

15 seconds have passed.

The first wave of magic cast by weight has reached, multiple spells, Leon noticed Acid magic, fire magic, lightning magic, necrotic magic, poison magic, and others… Leon instinct told him to dodge but he didn't! His partner and wife, Lisa is behind him preparing her magic if he dodged she will die, his duty as a vanguard is to protect her at all costs.

Covering his face and standing his ground, he became a literal meat shield to protect her.

The wave stopped, Leon who had great physical resistance was weak against magic and too quite a bit of damage, the skin started to peel off his arms and torso due to fire and acid magic.

As a berserker barbarian, this only fueled his rage further increasing his raw power.

20 seconds have passed

The undead army has surrounded him and Lisa, so he punched a tree that looked a bit thin and started swinging it around at the undead, with his great reflexes and power they weren't able to get close to Lisa.

25 Seconds have passed.

Lisa who was standing motionless wither eyes closed finally opened them.

A bright crimson is illuminating her eyes in the dark.

"[I am The crimson witch of oblivion, from my slumber I have awakened, and I request a rain to sate my thirst for ash!]"

The skeletons have noticed her, she is dangerous so they started ignoring Leon and aiming for her.

Doing his best to protect her, Leon's injuries just increased as he protected her taking magic damage left and right, the skeleton's dull blades weren't able to penetrate his skin but they serenely cut where the acid or fire have burned him.

With his size, it was quite baffling how he was moving around Lisa protecting her, a slight mistake and he will tear her head himself.

Even though the mess that was around her Lisa stayed calm and chanted the last part of her magic.

"[Bring forth the dreams of terror and suffering, A blazing hot rain, Fire Magic: Fire Storm]"

30 seconds have passed.

The was decorated with red clouds, a rain of fire droplets fell from the sky instantly setting the entire mountain on fire.

The fire rain was oily sticking to any surface it touched, Lisa exempt herself and Leon from this but the fire ignited still burns them.

After casting this wide-scale magic, Lisa depleted her entire mana poll and fell unconscious.

There isn't any major source of water nearby, and even if the wights can cast water magic they can't possibly put out the entire army.

With magic like this Lisa has dealt a fatal blow to the undead army, but she is now a dead weight, Leon has to carry her all the way out through this hell.

Using the confusion he carried the unconscious Lisa in one arm and using the other arm to shield her.

The air around Leon changed, even the undead felt a bit of fear looking at him.

A berserker barbarian! The more damage a berserker takes the stronger he becomes. And The more primal the reason a barbarian is fighting for the stronger he gets.

That's right, The job of destroying the army has finished, the complex task has ended, and now Leon is just a man protecting his wife's life.

Losing all sense of reason and logic, he abandoned his humanity. and turned into a raging beast.

Leon who was running on two legs eventually started running on three, carrying Lisa with his left arm and charing through the undead army. Not caring if he got stabbed, zapped with magic, or burnt with the fire surrounding them, he kept charging.

He even head-butted some trees on his way.

…

From the camp outside, the entire mountain is set ablaze, glowing deep red.

The soldiers could hear a monster roaring and they readied their weapons just to be surprised with adventurers bringing medkit and healers, alongside some brawny people.

A giant ball of fire jumped from the mountain, it flew several meters into the sky before crashing in the front of the camp like a meteor.

The soldier was taken aback by it, some even tried to flee.

The wizard that was with adventure hurried to put out the flame revealing what looked like a giant humanoid body, holding a woman in its arms.

"Hurry up, move the guild master to the side, and start healing him! don't forget to check on the vice master too!" One of the adventures screamed.

Hold up! One of the soldiers thought, this thing is the guild master? I knew he was abnormally big but not like this? he did survive that?

A Sister that has inspected both of them approached the adventurer that was giving orders.

"The vice master had fewer injuries compared to the guild master, she had a broken arm and leg, probably from the rough ride, a bit of her hair and left arm is burnt but that all! the guild master managed to get her out before she suffocate from the smoke!"

He nodded and she started talking about the guild master situation.

"His entire body is burnt to a crisp, multiple stab wounds were found, and even traces of magic, luckily no internal damage or broken bones! but we noticed that his size has increased significantly!" She seemed troubled.

"Don't worry, he will eventually shrink to his normal size. It's one of his skills,[Gigantification]. Basically, it increases his size and gives him extra strength, weight, and health for a short period of time!"

"I never heard of it!" She was didn't how to take it.

"Of course you won't, since to get this skill you need to be a barbarian and fight armorless, most people die or fill their skill slots before they get it!"

"I hope this is the end of the fight!" The sister said.

"Don't be naive, look they also survived!" An old man said from behind her.

he was Alen The former lord.

Pointing toward the base of the mountain he showed them.

Three knights emerging on skeletal horses.