Berserk : The Deviant

"Come forward ! Tonight, this fortress is ours just like the tender flesh of the soldiers inside. The west of these lands is ours…" A man with a bestial face and reptile eyes said on his large horse as the cursed soldiers charged towards the fortress, it was Korsa.

With his frightening eyes devoid of eyelids, he looked forward with greed and ambition when he smelled something, a scent, a scent new but also familiar to him. 

He wondered where this scent was coming from when his gaze locked on a thing, a shadow approaching, it was someone, someone who was fearlessly walking towards him killing his cursed soldiers without the slightest difficulty with a swift and deadly blade in his hands. 

"You…who are you…? What are you…? Your smell is similar to ours but human at the same time… " he asked Barkha who continued to cut his path while the low amount of astral energy was absorbed by the sword which vibrated more and more strongly as he approached Korsa whose identity he guessed.

The presence of the monster in human form in front of him, he had never felt that before. He knew deep down that it was a monster of great power that had no equal to the harmful energy he felt emitted by Korsa but on the other hand, this presence did not frighten Barkha who felt familiar with it for a reason unknown to him.

As if Barkha's body obeyed his most instinctive impulses, he suddenly accelerated towards Korsa to strike him with his sword but he was overtaken by Korsa, much faster, who at an astonishing speed took out his trident to strike Barkha who managed to block the blow which made him retreat several meters and the force of the blow was such that Barkha's bones trembled. 

"SAHAHAHAHAH ! A human managed to stop my blow at full power in this form !! Human, who are you ? I can very well guess that you are human but your astral smell is strange..." He said to Barkha who managed to get out of the uncontrollable frenzy that made him attack without warning, the force of Korsa's blow shook him as it should have. 

"I don't know what you're talking about but damn, you hit hard. This is the first time I've met someone who surpasses me so brutally in terms of physical strength, it's... it's really exciting... fun." Barkha said with a smile before running back towards Korsa to face him again while the latter also smiled as he hit Barkha with heavy attacks that he blocked with this claymore that would have already been broken if it was a normal weapon.

For the first time in his entire life since he fought on the battlefields, he had met an opponent strong enough that Barkha could finally fight seriously and give his all while until now, everything had been too smooth and easy for him whose talents were inhuman.

They crossed swords and Korsa quickly noticed something, Barkha's speed and strength quickly increased to match him to the point where from atop his horse he was now being pushed back, he who boasted of being one of the fastest apostles, he who with one hand could crush the skull of one of his transformed pseudo-apostles with great ease was losing in a duel of strength and pure speed against a human . 

*CLONGHK* 

A violent blow was given by Barkha and the strength was such that Korsa's horse lost its balance. Barkha wasted no time, it was with a smile that he rushed towards Korsa on the ground before driving his claymore into his neck.

Korsa caught the blade in his neck as he choked on his blood as his body began to transform into his apostle form as Barkha took a big leap back. The enemy too was finally going to give it his all too. 

"You made my blood flow...! You'll make a formidable chosen one when I lay one of my eggs in you but for now, you will suffer..." Korsa said in a monstrous voice as he revealed his apostle form.

He had two snake heads but with human faces with long hooks in their mouths, his bust was that of a man with dark scales and long arms each holding a trident.

As for his abdomen, it was connected to the body of a large lizard at the bottom with a large face instead of a belly with a closed mouth that only let out an appendage which was none other than his penis by which he incubated his eggs in the bodies of his chosen ones or cursed soldiers.

By its size, it easily reached 4m high with a smell that seriously almost made Barkha vomit. 

"Is that supposed to scare me ?" Barkha asked even if deep down, he found it quite scary, he saw things but that was another story.

Korsa attacked with one of his tridents and Barkha blocked the attack with his claymore but was sent flying by the superior strength of the transformed apostle.

On the ground, Barkha put his shoulder back in place, dislocated by the force of the attack he had blocked, realizing that Korsa's strength and speed had nothing to do with those of his human form, a single blow even blocked by him was enough to send him into the air. 

"No, you can't stay on the ground, I'm just starting to have fun..." Korsa said as he charged towards him and attacked with two tridents but Barkha avoided them by rolling on the ground then got up quickly to go around Korsa who used his tail to hit Barkha but with an acrobatic jump, he dodged the attack to attack Korsa's back but one of his two snake heads turned around to spit a green liquid that fortunately, Barkha avoided with a back-flip.

*thsssssss* 

The liquid that was actually corrosive melted the part of the ground where there had been contact and Barkha watched in horror while swallowing his saliva.

How to beat this guy? He can spit acid as a long range attack and short range attack, trident attacks are of phenomenal speed and strength.

He watched Korsa spin his tridents at such a speed that it raised a great wind and he decided to put his thoughts aside to resume the fight. 

A little further from there on top of a hill, the Skull knight watched this clash with the moon behind him. Korsa was not just any apostle and was undoubtedly in the top 20 of the strongest and capable of creating pseudo-apostles and the acid he spat could melt some of the hardest materials.

He watched Barkha resume the fight and would only intervene in critical situations. For the boy, he was just facing a very strong and fast monster without knowing that he was one of the strongest apostles. 

(…) 

In the fortress, Duro who had several wounds and damage on him was facing the great pseudo-apostle who now had a long gash on his chest and a severed arm that was starting to regenerate, it seemed that they had had an extremely fierce fight and that Duro had fought well since in addition to the pseudo-apostle, there were also corpses of cursed soldiers around him.

With heavy breathing and a body as tired as it was injured, Duro bravely resumed his fighting stance with his determined gaze, the pseudo-apostle attacked first and Duro dodged his attacks but unfortunately, he tripped over one of the corpses. Seeing this, the monster took the opportunity to bite him on the ground when a huge arrow sank into his head, killing him immediately. 

 "Well done Lieutenant, you bought us the time we needed and got that creature where it needed to be…" A voice spoke up above and Duro looked up to see three of his men standing near a ballista.

That was the plan Barkha had given them after thinking of the pseudo-apostles, to direct them to specific locations where the troop's snipers would kill or critically weaken them with ballista shots.

The goal was to destroy the head or decapitate it to kill the opponent so they either aimed for the head with precision or aimed for the chest and the others would finish them off when they were injured.

However, not all of them needed this tactic, out of the seven pseudo-apostles who appeared, three of them were killed without the help of the ballistae by the nine captains who went to face them in 3v1 each and they won even if the fights were difficult. 

"It's not normal that this kind of thing exists, we are supposed to face men and not these creatures of hell. Boss, if his lieutenants are so terrifying then how monstrous can their leader be that you are facing ?" Duro wondered exhaustedly while thinking of his commander before sighing, getting up and resuming the fight because there were still cursed soldiers. 

Back to Barkha, the latter was on one knee with his sword planted in the ground and several wounds on him while looking in front of him at Korsa whose multiple wounds on his body were beginning to close quickly before his eyes.

"It's a waste of time, my sword doesn't have enough range, I managed to do some injuries to him but that's it. His scales are hard and I can barely dodge his horribly fast attacks in time to not get cut in two even if in the end I still get injured, light injuries but injuries nonetheless... think Barkha, think." He thought before getting up and catching his sword and his breath.

He charged at Korsa using a Bakiraka footwork technique and dodged his attacks while getting closer to the monster.

"That's it, not thinking at all, letting my body and instincts take over..." He said to himself then that this time, Korsa aimed at his head and Barkha moved to the side but it was a feint from Korsa who attacked with the other hand with a horizontal trident blow that Barkha tried to dodge, he avoided the spikes with sharp blades but the handle still hit him in the ribs.

The blow was so strong that Barkha's body was turned in the air and Korsa took advantage of it for a quick blow with the other trident to impale Barkha. 

"I'm screwed... a shield, if only I had a shield..." Barkha said trying to protect himself with his hands when suddenly.

*KBOOOONGHH* 

Something blocked the blow as Barkha rolled on the ground and immediately got up on his knees to wonder what had happened when he saw a silver shield instead of his claymore sword. 

"What the..." He said to himself as he saw the shield become liquid metal again that changed shape to become his sword again.

Barkha looked at that and laughed to himself, he had an asset like that since the beginning of the fight and yet had forgotten having seen the thing change shape several times in his room.

He swore he would slap himself later for forgetting this detail that had made him spend a sleepless night. Apparently, the elemental changed shape according to its need like earlier with the shield so he decided to test the thing.

He calmly walked towards Korsa ignoring the pain in his ribs and with a quick movement of his right hand, Barkha's claymore became a long curved blade over 2m long and horribly sharp, not only was he holding it but it was also attached to his arm by a gauntlet to strengthen his grip (It was the exact same saber as Malenia's in Elden Ring but longer).

"Okay, I love my new toy. Now, let's finish this matter as soon as possible..." Barkha said before taking a deep breath to slowly express and empty his head of all thoughts to concentrate solely and absolutely on this fight by letting his body, his techniques and his fighting instinct do the rest.

This technique was obviously an old meditation technique of the clan to improve the concentration of tapasas, it was normally a process that very rare individuals could completely succeed but not only had Barkha mastered it at only 6 years old but in addition, he had the genius to be able to apply it in the middle of a fight. 

In this state, Barkha exploited his current abilities to the maximum with absolute concentration while ignoring even a certain level of pain like his broken ribs now.

He ran towards the apostle who attacked again but with a completely impassive face, he gracefully avoided the monster's horribly fast attacks while closing in once more when Korsa turned to strike him with his tail but Barkha with an acrobatic jump avoided the blow but in mid-air and with a quick and powerful blow, he cut Korsa's tail off. 

"GRUAAAAAAAH" Both heads of the monster screamed at the same time And Barkha wasted no time as Korsa turned to face him and attacked him with rage but he dodged the attack before grabbing the trident and being carried away by it.

The action happened quickly as Barkha stood up on Korsa's weapon to run along the handle of the trident and jumped just as Korsa attacked him with the other trident. 

 Barkha had, thanks to this jump, reached one of the apostle's heads and while this head was preparing to spit acid on him, with a quick blow Barkha cut it in two by a horizontal cut to the jaw of the head which separated the upper part of the head from the rest of the body.

In the volley, he grabbed the neck of the severed head and directed what remained of the mouth of this head towards the second head of the apostle while the jet of acid which was prepared came out to head towards the second head which was dissolved little by little.

"This is my chance..." Barkha said to himself before jumping and clinging once more to the handle of one of the tridents during when his pain, Korsa tried to attack him and when the apostle's arm reached a certain height above his body, Barkha jumped while holding the sword firmly above his head while the blade transformed again to become a large silver axe and Barkha contracted his muscles to the maximum. 

"RAAAAAAAAAAAARGH" He screamed, striking with all his strength while falling back on the apostle whose body was split in two by the full-power axe blow of Barkha who gave his all in this blow before rolling on the ground completely exhausted by the efforts to which he had forced his body.

Korsa had been defeated, Barkha had just beaten one of the 20 strongest apostles in his first fight against an apostle and it was a monstrous feat without knowing that he had apostle's blood in his veins giving him physical abilities without which he could never have killed Barkha like that.

With his closed eyes, he felt the weapon in his hand vibrate as it greedily absorbed all the astral energy that escaped from the apostle's corpse and the vibrations were so strong that the weapon began to heat up slightly.

When in his fatigue Barkha opened his eyes, he saw a strange thing happening with the body, he saw something like a funnel of energy opening in the ground while a cluster of Specters who wanted to search for Korsa's soul completely destroyed which was absorbed by Barkha's weapon before the astral funnel closed with the specters leaving empty-handed. 

"I need a vacation... a very long vacation." Barkha said laughing to himself when he felt something or someone approaching and straightened up slightly to see the Skull knight. 

Barkha: Is that you...? After all these years... 

"I see you have a good memory, boy. You've grown up a lot..." The Skull knight said as he approached the place where Korsa's human corpse was, completely split in two . 

Barkha: Oh, it depends on the day but I would never have forgotten the person who allowed me to sleep peacefully thanks to a jewel. Why are you here? 

"I was chasing that apostle but you got rid of him with an excellent fight, I'm pleasantly surprised by your abilities." S.K. said as he dismounted to pick up the beherit near the corpse. 

"Don't be shy, help yourself. What's this apostle thing and how can creatures like that exist in flesh and blood in this world ? Aren't they supposed to be monstrous and invisible spirits ? " Barkha asked. 

S. K : It's a complex thing to explain, I'll tell you what you need to know later. As for this item, it's a beherit. This is an extremely powerful magical item that can manipulate fate and open doors to things beyond your current understanding. 

"The only thing I understand is that you've just taken from me an apparently powerful and certainly very valuable item. How much is this kind of thing worth on the marketing ?" 

S. K : It is indeed very valuable to those who know, but there's no way I'm letting you give it away for a little gold. 

"Then pay me back, I fought that monster alone and almost died. This behe-thing is my due and you're just taking it from me like that ? Where's the justice ?" Barkha complained and the S. K told him that he had no gold on him because he had no use for it but that he had wandered the earth long enough to know where treasures were that had never been discovered before. 

Listening to this, Barkha, as if all his energy had returned to him, stood up and shook the hand of his interlocutor, telling him that he had always known that he was an honest person, that he was somewhat of good faith and that he had always cherished precisely the ring that he had given him years ago. 

S. K : For this apostle, I am willing to give you one of the many locations that I know. Gold, precious stones, you will have what your greed seeks. However, I would like to make a deal with you. 

"I am at your service, my good lord..." Barkha said, rubbing his hands.

S. K : As I told you, I hunt the apostles and there are many of them, if some disappear then others will appear and I can't hunt them all at once as they bring misfortune and destruction to their paths . Help me hunt them, bring me beherits similar to this one and to each of them, I will give you the location of treasures or riches. 

"I accept..." Barkha answered quickly without thinking too much about it, this guy had given him this incredible ring so he had no reason to doubt him despite his gloomy armor.

He made an appointment with Barkha at a certain place on the full moon of the month following the next and congratulated Barkha for obtaining an elemental. 

 Barkha asked him about the thing that was now his weapon and S. K. told him that it was an extremely rare and powerful creature equal to the primordial elemental spirits if it reached a certain level of power and permanently took the physical structure of the first object with which it came into contact upon birth to absorb things of the same structure or that were close to it and for this one, it was the silver bowl in which Barkha had placed the egg.

He reminded Barkha that he was really very lucky, that these spiritual creatures were horribly rare and that he would discover for himself all the facets of the elemental that had made him his master.

Barkha watched S. K. leave, seriously wondering who Corell was and how she had found such a rare thing while knowing how to tame it by consuming the shell of its egg. 

"From today on, i will call you Durga. You and I are going to have fun I can feel it… " He said and the great axe became the claymore again which he put away on his back, he was really tired and made his way back to the fortress where his men had finished the job.

They had lost 41 men and of Baran's army, there were only 1162 men left. They burned the bodies after in three days to honor the dead and ravens were sent to the capital to announce their victory and that they could now send troops to pacify the west and occupy this fortress. 

The black wolves left the fortress to join the capital after having treated their wounded and as for Durga , it had absorbed the metals of a certain number of weapons abandoned after the battle. This mass of absorbed metal would have its use according to the needs of its master.