RE:BORN Zombie

“Let’s go.” Victor said as he stared at the minotaur, not putting out any particular emotion.

The minotaur lifted its axe from the ground slowly and turned to face Victor. Again, with a burst of energy, it charged at him with explosive speed while swinging down its axe on him.

Boom

Again, the axe misses, or more accurately Victor dodges as he side steps the attack. The attacks were fast, but they weren’t difficult to avoid as Victor could still follow the attacks if he just focused a little. With every attack, Victor could see multiple openings to land his own strike. The minotaur’s attacks were strong but also wide.

“So power in the attack is there but it’s wide.” Victor noted.

Instead of attacking, he had only been dodging the minotaur’s attacks while studying its movements and attack patterns. There wasn’t much to analyse even, as the attack pattern was pretty simple, just wide powerful strikes nothing complex. It also didn’t use its other fist to maybe punch or hold him down, it just swung its big axe one handed.

After avoiding a couple attacks, Victor decided it was time. As the minotaur swung its huge axe again, and like other times Victor side steps and avoids the axe, then with a strong fist, Victor threw a powerful punch right into the minotaur’s mid section as he leaped into the air.

Victor’s punch sent the minotaur skating a few metres back, but for the first time in a long while, the minotaur was fine. Now, up until now all the monsters or beasts Victor had faced either died after one punch from him, or were unable to get to their feet. This minotaur however was fine, even standing after it took a direct punch..

“It’s defense is quite something now, ain’t it?” Victor said, still with a plain expression.

Victor was a little intrigued after this, so instead of waiting for the minotaur to attack, he made the first move. Victor, with a burst of speed shot towards the monster, and using the momentum plus his strength, he landed another punch on the minotaur that was slightly obstructed by its axe.

Seeing Victor coming, the minotaur instinctively raised its weapon to defend itself, but it wasn’t able to react fast enough and most of Victor’s punch reached it regardless.

This second punch sent the minotaur a couple metres back once again, but it was still able to remain on its feet, without falling. Victor not letting it catch its breath charged in immediately. He could see the monster gritting its teeth hard in pain, as it bragged its large battle axe with both hands. It was finally getting serious, Victor thought.

Moving the long handle of the axe before it, the minotaur blocked Victor’s fist. Seeing this, Victor twisted his body mid-air, and as his leg collided with the axe, he knocked the axe to the side together with the minotaur as it gripped hard unto it. The speed was fast, but as the minotaur was dragged to the side by its axe, it still managed to turn its body enough to land a good kick on Victor.

Because of the size of the minotaur, one of its hoof was enough to cover Victor’s whole mid section including his chest. The kick came from point blank range so Victor couldn’t do anything about it, plus it was strong. It sent him flying backwards until he met with the dungeon’s ceiling, then fell back down.

“Not bad, this guy’s strong.” Victor said as he jumped back up unharmed. Seeing that nothing had happened to him, Victor only further confirmed his body’s durability and toughness.

Both of them charged at each other after a little stare down, and the fight continued.

For a while, it seemed like both of them were going toe to toe, but it didn’t take long to see that the minotaur was starting to tire, and could no longer keep up with Victor. Using its axe, the minotaur blasted a ton of rock and dust into the air obstructing their fight, then both sides jumped back.

As the dust cleared, Victor looked at the monster as its muscles bulged up.

‘What’s happening.’ Victor thought to himself.

He stopped halfway as he watched the bizarre scene before him. The minotaur’s whole body began wobbling all over in little ways. In two seconds or less, a dark red energy burst out of the minotaur, and its eyes changed completely and became bloodshot.

It grabbed its great axe and let out an ear tearing roar as it took two steps forward, leaving clear footprints on the hard ground.

‘Such heavy steps.’ Victor thought.

With a burst of energy, the minotaur shot towards Victor with terrible speed, and for the first time, Victor had to use everything within him to avoid the attack, and only did by inches. ‘What is this?’ Victor thought.

“System.”

Beep 𝐟𝗿𝚎𝐞𝓌e𝒃𝑛𝒐ѵ𝒆𝑙.c𝚘𝓶

[The monster has entered a frenzied state. The skill Berserker is most likely active]

“No wonder. That might be the only way to explain this sudden burst of speed and strength.” Victor said. He already suspected this, but just wanted to make sure. Just to be sure.

If Victor was to go by the knowledge he already possesses concerning this skill, it is able to increase overall attack by more than a 100%, and with so much increase, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to keep up.

After dodging the minotaur, it had passed him by a lot due to its speed and the gap between both of them was more than a couple metres at this point. Victor, using this opportunity quickly pulled up his status window. This was the perfect time to use his extra stat points.

..

Agility: 105 > 125

Sense: 95 > 100

_ _

Remaining stat point: 25 > 0

..

“Hah.”

The minotaur once again let out a loud roar then charged towards Victor swinging its great axe that weighed a couple hundred kg around like a little branch. Victor did his best to avoid each attack, and even when he saw an opening, he didn’t fall for the temptation to hit. Victor’s plan was to hold out till the time was right.

Sure enough, Victor’s knowledge didn’t fail him. From what he knew, the berserker skill granted massive boost in strength, but came with the downside of reduced mentality and intelligence, so the minotaur’s attack was a little random, but there was no plan behind it. It was fighting with pure instincts.

Apart from this, there was another negative side to this skill. After the skill ran its course, the user would be left drained and in a weakened state. That is, if this world followed this rule of cause and effect. Of course, Victor had seen some games where the skill didn’t have this penalty, just a long cool down time.

After a couple minutes of fierce fighting, the situation seemed to be playing towards Victor’s favour. A bit more and the minotaur had exhausted the time it had in the berserker state and had returned to its normal state.

Victor stopped as he saw the red energy disappear followed by the minotaur collapsing to one knee. Even with this, the minotaur forced itself to stand as it supported itself using its axe, then the red energy surfaced again, albeit not as much as it was.

The minotaur gritted its big teeth and ran forward. In less than a second, it was just before Victor, but then its skill failed it, or it had simply overexerted itself. The red energy disappeared once more, and as its axe swung towards Victor from the side threatening to cut him in half, Victor skillfully moved forward and disarmed the minotaur.

Using the same motion, Victor took advantage of the momentum and carried the axe through the motion. As the minotaur’s body passed by, its head was set at the perfect position, and Victor swung down on it still with the same motion, adding all his strength in the swing, and cleanly chopped off the minotaur’s head.

As Victor handed on his feet, the minotaur’s body crashed onto the ground, while its head rolled forward a couple more feet. The swing from Victor had caused a loud sound as the axe smashed into the hard ground and dust raised with some rock chunks flying everywhere. He left it there and walked towards the minotaur’s body.

“Well, that took a while. What’s best?”