Infrasound Berserker - Chapter 59 Hallway (Patreon)

Chapter 59 Hallway

Kate felt the pain from her wounds lessen as she brought her weapon down again into the undead orc. Her axe bit deep, near all the way through. She set her boot down onto the monster and ripped her weapon out, glancing over to see her ally walk over, his sword and armor bloodied.

She looked around and found no moving monsters left. There were noises coming from the hillside, a five story apartment building atop but she knew that wasn’t their target. Their target lay below.

“You’re still injured,” her ally said.

Kate looked down at her hands, seeing some of her jacket torn, bloodied cuts below. She could feel pain from her legs as well.

Healing first.

The thought made sense to her, and so she went to cut out hearts, taking what little these monsters had left to give.

It took a moment but she had gotten better at cutting and she no longer broke her knives either. She needed them to fight, so she was careful. Kate whipped her head around when she saw something move in the gray sky. One of the wyverns. It was so far away. Tiny to her eyes. Could she reach it? Could she kill it? She wanted to find out. Where was her rifle? She could shoot it, to get its attention.

Her ally touched her arm and pointed in the direction of the hillside. “This way.”

She understood. The flying thing was up there. The undead they hunted, they were closer.

She walked to the hill and looked down, finding steps of white stone that led into the earth. Her weapons ready and her wounds mostly healed, Kate walked down, looking into the dark corridor, dim red light illuminating the empty hallway of white stone. It felt dangerous, as if these creatures were daring her to come and face them. As if they were saying that this place would hold only blood, and death.

And she welcomed it, stepping into the trail of blood that led deeper inside. She turned on her headlamp and heard her ally following behind, his steps measured but she found he did not hesitate, his headlamp flashing on as well.

The trail of blood continued down the hallway and Kate smiled when she saw the first monster step out from the dark, screeching at the light invading its home. An undead, like many she had faced before.

She gripped her axe and checked the space to her left and right, waiting as the monster charged.

She closed the distance in the last stretch, swinging wide and upwards to cleave into the creature’s abdomen, her axe cutting through ribs, lodged in the undead’s chest as the momentum of the strike first stopped then raised the former orc upwards. She balanced herself and let the creature fall, her axe ripped out with the motion. Kate grunted and brought down her weapon to finish the job, cutting through flesh and bone before her blade clanged against the stone below.

She grit her teeth, hearing more of the dead coming her way, now that they had heard the noise. Screeches and moans, creatures made aware of the intruders.

Kate heard the thunderous sounds behind her and she saw the specks of golden light flash down into the distance, ripping through the horde of flesh, every bullet fired by her ally punching through several undead. She saw behind the group of running undead, a larger creature, thin, red, and bloodied, long arms ending in clawed hands large enough to crush her skull.

Its head resembled that of a stag, antlers of white bone reaching upwards, dark pupils staring back at her, lifeless. She felt something then, as if she stared at the void itself, as if death was upon her.

But she had faced death before, had fought, had killed, had lost. She screamed, her blood and magic flowing through her as sound charged her weapon. She felt a pressure in her head, as if an unseen grip stopped her from moving forward but Kate grit her teeth and forced herself to take a step, her leg pushing against the abyss, the terror that screamed, and she screamed back.

Something snapped and she heard the screeching undead, closer now, with the bleeding stag like creature just behind. Many of the monsters were stumbling in the face of her shout. Her ally wasn’t shooting anymore. She felt the vibrations in her axe, and those from the dead stumbling and running to get to her. Raising her weapon, she struck down onto the ground right before the first of them reached her.

A thunderous wave of sound shook through the blood covered stone, the wave of magic ripping into the undead, stopping them in their stumbling tracks before Kate rushed forward and into the fray, her axe raised before her as she activated her charge, slamming into the closest undead, the collision downing the creature, its head splitting open on the hard stone floor. Kate heard the monsters all around her, injured and disoriented by her magics. She saw through her echo-location and stomped her boot down, summoning a wave of blood that crashed into the screeching monsters around her. She swung her axe and split a head, taking three steps back before she swung again, cutting deep into the side of an undead.

Again, she stepped back, then swung to the right, clipping and downing a former human as she watched the stag headed being now closer, few undead left uninjured between her and the beast. It moved with a hunched back, its skin all over red and bleeding.

She looked into the black eyes of the monster and fueled her axe with sound, rushing forward with her charge, downing an undead with her left shoulder on the way. She hardly felt the impact. Kate reached the large monster and stopped with a heavy step, swinging up from her right side with all her strength, fueling her sound charged battle axe with blood magic alike.

She saw the creature raise its arm to block, her weapon biting deep into the thin and bloodied flesh, the power of her strike felt as the handle shook. Kate screamed and pushed on, barely noticing the other arm of the monster striking back at her. She let go of her weapon with her left hand, stepping back and away when the arm came down. Not enough, she found, the long red claws cutting her face and scraping past the wyvern scales, searing hot pain erupting from the wounds, strange magic burning away into her face and parts of her chest where the claws had punctured through the scales.

Kate grit her teeth and gulped, the left part of her vision gone as she felt the monster try and rip out the claws partially wedged inside her armor. The monster made a strange groaning sound when it pulled away but it wasn’t the only thing that Kate heard. She reached up her hand and grabbed on to the clawed arm, fighting the enormous strength of the creature as she watched it try and get away, its other hand now hanging from a mere thread of bleeding flesh, the small part her axe had not been able to cut through.

She grinned, looking into the dark red eyes so close to her when she heard the thunderous sound of a rifle a few meters to her left. A golden flash struck the monster’s head, stripping away flesh and blood, two more bullets tearing through its head before it ripped away its working hand and raised it up to protect its missing face.

Kate felt her blood pulsing, the pain distracting when she saw one of the few remaining undead rush her. She held up her axe to block the creature, her back hitting a wall a moment later. She let go with her right hand and fumbled for one of her knives. She found one and slammed it into the human’s head, ripping it upwards to cut through the rotten flesh and bone. Kate stumbled past the falling corpse, seeing her ally firing at the undead, keeping them at bay with the injured and skinned being using them to try and block the sacred magic.

She crouched low and charged her axe with sound, the thrumming noise drowned out by the gunshots echoing through the tunnels. More of the dead would be coming, and soon. She took three quick steps over the floor wet with blood, then dodged left when the large monster slashed its claws at her. A bullet struck its head in the same moment, her ally having cleared the lesser foes.

Kate was past its hand and slashed with a horizontal strike, into the stomach of the creature. She cut deep, her sound and blood magic ripping through the tough flesh before the creature kicked back at her, the strike hitting her chest and flinging her back through the corridor. Kate hit a wall and came to a hard stop on the ground right after. Her chest and right arm felt wrong, the searing pain in her chest and face worse now. She forced herself to scramble up, blacking out for a short moment before she stumbled to catch herself on her feet.

She saw the monster hit the wall a few meters before her, its one hand grabbing at the axe lodged halfway through its stomach, blood and guts spilling out as more golden flashing bullets ripped away at its chest and large head. Kate grabbed at the holster on her belt, fumbling with the strap when she saw the creature stumble to the side, turning towards her before it rushed forward and brought down its clawed hand.

She just barely managed to raised her arm, the claws scraping past the scales then cutting through her jacket and skin. Kate pushed against the strength of the creature, gritting her teeth against the pain and hearing the groaning sound of her bones slowly getting cut through. She breathed hard, the two of them stumbling a step as she unsheathed one of her knives. She charged it with thrumming sound right before the monster ripped out its claws and reached up to strike again, bullets whipping away at its head.

Kate felt power flow through her legs before she jumped, the blade angled upwards, slamming into the stag like head, sound and blood magic exploding through the remainder of its skull, bits of blood and bone exploding outwards as Kate’s arm came to an abrupt stop. Her hold on the blade was ripped free and she was sent spinning once before she fell with her back hitting the ground.

Kate groaned, unable to move now, pain the only thing she felt when she gasped, her bones cracking and blood pulsing with new life flowing through her. The pain lessened and she felt as if she could move. Turning sideways, she crawled towards the now dead monster and found the blade stuck in its head. She ripped it out and started cutting into its chest but found herself unable to pierce its skin.

“Let me try.” She heard her ally say, looking up to see him bring down his greatsword with both arms, the blade cutting through the skin and splitting open its chest. He wedged the blade sideways, allowing her to find the heart.

Kate sawed away the arteries before she raised the heart to her mouth and drank. This one did not taste wrong, like the blood of the undead. There was power left in the blood of this creature, and she took it for herself. The pain lessened with every gulp she drank, her half cut through arm healing and the left side of her vision returning. She already heard the steps and screeches of more undead coming their way but she focused fully on the task, hearing her ally reloading his guns.

“Check if you leveled up as well,” he said.

She knew what he meant and put the points she had gotten into her Vitality. She needed to be harder to kill if there were more of these monsters here. Squeezing the last bit of blood out of the heart, Kate felt better. Her left arm was sore and the cut was still deep but she could move it. Everything still hurt but she could fight. Standing up, she sheathed the knife she had used and grabbed on to the battle axe wedged deep in the stomach of the beast. It took her three hard pulls to get it free, the wound on her arm bleeding again but she was calm now. There were more undead coming and she could not hear the lighter steps of another stag creature among them.

“Show me that you can fight or I’ll drag you out,” her ally said.

She growled, the sound reverberating through the hall before her. She had lost her headlamp somewhere but her ally was shining the way. Kate raised her axe and crouched, the next wave of undead reaching them a moment later.

The first three were tough, her body straining and the pain searing with every strike but every kill brought her back. She screamed and halved another human, feeling more strength come back to her. Taking out her hammer, she let go of her axe now that there were several undead close to her. She struck two down when three more stabbed at her with small blades, scraping their nails against her skin and armor, trying to get to her throat or eyes. She unholstered her Glock and fired point black bullets into the heads of the undead, killing three of them to get some space before she continued with her hammer, hearing her ally fight off a few of the creatures with his sword.

She fought and killed what felt like dozens of the monsters until no more of them were coming through the hallway. Instead, she joined her ally, the armored knight holding off a group of undead, their weapons scraping his armor, unable to injure the man, his greatsword cleaving deep into their rotten forms.

Together, they slaughtered the remaining group of unliving, Kate breathing out when her hammer dented in the head of the last monster with a dull crunching sound.

She turned and listened. There was nothing close by but she knew there would be more waiting deeper in the tunnel.

“I can’t keep this up,” her ally said.

She turned to face him, confused. Was he not here to fight? Was he not here to kill?

She narrowed her eyes and saw him looking for something among the dead.

She could go on without him. He was useful, strong, but she could fight alone.

Kate staggered to the side, raising a hand to her head, straining against her instincts. She wanted to go on, wanted to kill more but she also wanted to stay here, to check on her ally. To check on Logan.

She breathed faster, her magic waning. Her entire chest and face felt sore, her arm as well. It didn’t itch like with Melusine’s healing magic but there was a strain that she felt, and she didn’t just feel it where she had gotten injured, she felt it throughout her whole body, as if everything was burning.

“I’m here,” she said and looked down the dim red hallway before she turned to Logan, his armor covered in blood, the floor covered in corpses, a strong smell of iron all present. The air was stuffy, the light of his headlamp illuminating a scene of carnage like Kate had never seen before. She nearly retched but managed to stop herself. Touching her armor, she could feel where the claws had left their marks. That first hit, she found the deep lines, the wyvern scales preventing anything worse. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” Logan said, his sword touching the ground. “Just spent. We should get our stuff and leave to recover.” He paused, breathing deep. “Just catching my breath.”

Kate nodded. “I’ll start,” she said and went to search for her knives and his pack. She glanced down the hallway, hearing faint and distant noises. Looking up, she now noticed the thin glowing red veins on the walls and ceiling, the source of the dim red lighting. “We don’t have much time, got more of them coming.”

“I’ll check for fliers, then we go back to the industrial site,” Logan said.

Kate nodded, collecting another one of her knives before she glanced at the dead stag monster. She realized now that they had barely gotten twenty meters deep into the hallway.

Checking her gear, she soon joined Logan near the exit. “Just about got twenty meters in,” she said.

He finished reloading his shotgun and put it into one of the straps Allison had added to his pack, then grabbed his rifle and checked the chamber. Satisfied, he looked up once more and then glanced at her. “Next time, we’ll go for thirty.”

‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Undead Human]’
‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Undead Orc]’
…
‘ding’ ‘You have defeated [Undead Human]’

‘ding’ ‘Omen of Vengeance reaches lvl 26’

Stat points +2
Vigor +1

‘ding’ ‘Mindless Ferocity reaches 2nd lvl 17’

‘ding’ ‘Blood Frenzy reaches 2nd lvl 14’

‘ding’ ‘Vengeful Charge reaches 2nd lvl 6’

‘ding’ ‘Reaper Jump reaches lvl 13’

‘ding’ ‘Blood Rupture reaches lvl 17’

‘ding’ ‘Blood for the Living reaches 2nd lvl 12’

‘ding’ ‘Fury of the Unarmored reaches 2nd lvl 7’

‘ding’ ‘Two Handed Weapon Fighting reaches 2nd lvl 13’

‘ding’ ‘Unrelenting Carnage reaches 2nd lvl 1’

Passive: Unrelenting Carnage – 2nd lvl 1
You have chosen the path of the Berserker. No battle will end before you will it so. Damage you deal and resilience against physical attacks is increased by 15.5% for every minute you remain in or seek battle. To a maximum of 25%.
2nd stage: Every strike against the same foe reduces the stamina needed for the next subsequent strike against the same foe by a static 2% to a maximum of 15%.

‘ding’ ‘Terrifying Presence reaches lvl 8’

‘ding’ ‘Roaring Pursuer reaches lvl 22’

Brutality +1

‘ding’ ‘Thunderous Shout reaches lvl 14’

‘ding’ ‘Reverberating Charge reaches lvl 17’

‘ding’ ‘Sound Perception reaches 2nd lvl 4’

‘ding’ ‘Echo Awareness reaches lvl 9’

‘ding’ ‘Tremor Sense reaches lvl 13’

Kate Lindgren

Unspent stat points: 0

Class: Omen of Vengeance – lvl 26

- Active: Mindless Ferocity – 2nd lvl 17
- Active: Blood Frenzy – 2nd lvl 14
- Active: Vengeful Charge – 2nd lvl 6
- Active: Reaper Jump – lvl 13
- Active: Blood Rupture – lvl 17
- Passive: Blood for the Living – 2nd lvl 12
- Passive: Fury of the Unarmored – 2nd lvl 7
- Passive: Two Handed Weapon Fighting – 2nd lvl 13
- Passive: Unrelenting Carnage – 2nd lvl 1
- Passive: Terrifying Presence – lvl 8

Support class: Roaring Pursuer – lvl 22

- Active: Thunderous Shout – lvl 14
- Active: Reverberating Charge – lvl 17
- Active: Aura of Silence – lvl 16
- Passive: Sound Perception – 2nd lvl 4
- Passive: Echo Awareness – lvl 9
- Passive:  Tremor Sense – lvl 13

Support class: Locked

Status:

Vitality: 32
Vigor: 12
Endurance: 24
Perseverance: 15
Strength: 25
Brutality: 7
Dexterity: 8
Intelligence: 7
Wisdom: 12
Serenity: 15

Equipment:

Torso: Direwolf Cloak [Common]
- Low grade Cold Resistance
Legs: Splintered Bone Armor [Common]
- Low grade Fire Resistance
Trinket: -
Food: Smooth Potato Soup [Duration 1 hour]
- Stamina regeneration +10