Chapter 349 - Subjugating Barbarians - Part 4!

Norakh, the elder Barbarian who had not said a single word until now, came forward and asked with a great deal of suspicion, "How can we believe your words, Thor?"

Karakh would have already ordered an attack on Thor and asked questions afterward if not for Thor being a Barbarian himself and also because he felt great danger in Thor's body just by looking directly into his eyes.

Thor didn't answer immediately; instead, he looked to the side at the ever impatient-looking Barbrain eager to slash him down.

"What's your name, youngling? Do you want to fight me? Do you want to go for a round with me in the ring?" Thor asked the shortest Barbarian, wielding a scimitar twice the standard size that would fit in a human's hand.

Bergorakh flinched at suddenly getting the attention out of the blue. He might not have the brightest brains among his peers, but he wasn't stupid. He, too, could feel a threat radiating from Thor, greater than his leader Karakh and Norakh, but as they say, there's no other sentient creatures that crave fighting against stronger foes than Barbarians and the extinct Orc race. Bergorakh was also like that and had already made up his mind to accept the challenge.

But before he could do that, Thor spoke first, causing veins to pop out from his head.

"What? Are you scared? 'Garethdium' is all that I'm asking of you. It's not a fight to the death if that's what you are thinking." Thor said nonchalantly, showing a look of disappointment when his challenge wasn't excepted immediately.

Karakh's growing brows eased a little when he heard the word Garathdium. 

'Garathdium, if it's only that, then there's no need to worry about Bergorakh's wellbeing.' Norakh thought as he too felt at ease hearing the ancient word for a non-life-threatening duel among Barbarians. To date, rarely have there been accidents where someone had lost their life or had been severely injured in Garathdium. 

"Garathdium! I accept your challenge to a Garathdium!" Bergorakh shouted after feeling the look of disappointment and disgust from the lesser-ranking barbarians around him.

"Good! That's what I would expect from my race. Never back down from a challenge." Thor laughed as he said that.

Karakh raised his hands to signal everyone other than Thor and Bergorakh to step back and create a wide enough circle for the duel.

"Bergorakh" 

"What?" Thor asked.

"It's Bergorakh! My Name. You asked before." Bergorakh stated as he lowered his stance, ready to attack at the first chance he got.

Thor smiled and said, "Bergorakh, huh. A good name, but you appear smaller than average. Was one of your parents a human?" 

'Calm down, calm down; he's only taunting you. Don't fall for his words.'  Bergorakh might have thought of keeping calm and not falling for the challenger's words, but he couldn't help let another vein pop out of his head when he heard Thor continue with his taunting.

"What's up, Pipsqueak? Want me to teach you how to fight? When are you going to start?" 

'Pipsqueak? I will show who a pipsqueak, you bastard' A sneer appeared on Bergorakh's face as he jumped above Thor's head before unleashing a fierce stamp.

Thor frowned because he noticed some changes taking place in Bergorakh's body when he jumped into the air. Rather than blocking, Thor dodged to the side.

BOOM!

Fine Dust and rock chips flew out as cracks extended out from the spot Bergorakh had landed on in all directions!

But rather than seeing the familiar small build of Bergorakh, a massive figure appeared before Thor just like a small hill of muscles. Having just landed, Bergorakh still maintained a lowered stance.

Although Bergorakh was also brawny before as any ordinary top-class heavy human soldier out there, but now he became a ten feet tall monster; his muscles were incomparably sturdy, appearing to be literally carved out of stone!

A look of surprise appeared on Thor's face. He never expected such a change to take place in Bergorakh size.

'My Lord, this is a body transformation skill of the Barbarian race. Only a few lucky barbarians can do that.' Tagor voice sounded inside Alex's head.

'Body Transformation skill? Tell me about it in detail.' Alex asked. He had been Tagor's contact since the moment he ordered the puppet to find every information about Barbarians. In fact, Alex found about Garathdium, the ancient way of duel among Barabrains, which wasn't life-threatening from Tagor itself.

The puppet found about the contest in a storybook of a human warrior who seemed to have made friends with the Barbarians and had lived, ate, hunt with them a few decades ago.

But this storybook wasn't popular and was deemed as a thing of fiction by the Nobles and therefore had been neglected since its publication. Not to mention, it was written very poorly and had very few copies of it circulating around the Belmont Subcontinent. But Tagor, who found a tattered copy of the 'My Days living amongst the Warrior race' lying in a corner of the library in Baron Hasculf study room, read it and told Alex.

'Yes, My lord, your subordinates also found about the skill in other texts. It's a skill that raises the overall performance of the body for a period of time without the usual loss of sanity and build-up of uncontrollable rage that happens to Barbarians when they use a similar racial skill, Berserk. The average time of both the skill varies person to person, its...' Tagor kept on explaining as Alex faced the Barbarian who using the Body Transformation Skill.

Standing up slowly, Bergorakh raised the massive, slightly oversized Scimitar in his hand.

Despite looking extremely heavy and unwieldy, the Scimitar was hefted around by Bergorakh's as though it was as light as a toy.

The flame appeared to burn within his eyes as he sent an intense gaze towards Thor, so much so that it appeared to spew out from his eyes.

In the next instant, a ferocious wave of suffocating intent shot out, causing lesser ranking Barbarians to feel an intense feeling of threat!