The first time Nero saw a berserker, it was a huge shock. The first time he fought a berserker, he couldn't hurt it at all. If it weren't for a few tricks he'd prepared for with Jackal, even killing one would have been a hassle.
Of course, since then, he'd been briefed by the army and knew their strengths and weaknesses. A couple of Thunderous Claps is all it would take to bring this bulky monstrosity down. But Nero had a sneaking suspicion that he no longer even needed to do that.
Since his flame had been upgraded, fighting against the cursed energy coursing through this monster's body was easier than ever. Of course, Nero did not intend on wasting time trying to discover the limits of his ability.
He wanted to kill the berserker as quickly as possible and use Radix Augmentation on it.
As soon as the silver monster saw Nero it dashed forward, its body deceptively fast, yet it was not fast enough. Nero had already moved out of the way, and with a single flaming slash, cut the berserker's knee.
The monster fell down, its leg suddenly unable to support its weight, yet even before it could hit the ground Nero slammed its neck with a Thunderous slam. Even before the cool down for the Thunderous slam card was over, Nero extended his other hand and released another Thunderous slam!
Now familiar with the use of the card, Nero had swapped out Double Skin with another Thunderous slam. Since the three unranked cards had been removed, excluding the second Thunderous slam, Nero brought back Aether pulse and Flare.
With two attacks on its neck back to back, the berserker succumbed, falling flat on the ground completely. It was dead, yet Nero had no time to enjoy his victory.
He quickly used Radix Augmentation on the corpse as he flung flaming snowflakes at the other nearing shadows. They weren't berserkers, they were cursed corpses belonging to other soldiers.
Their faces had shrivelled up and turned grey, while their bodies deformed under the influence of cursed energy. Some hands morphed into claws, while others turned to whips or just longer hands with extra joints.
Energy flowed into Nero's body from the berserker, but he paid it no mind. He was already attacking his next targets.
One of the cursed corpses spat green sludge towards Nero which he quickly dodged, and used Flare to shoot a cluster of flames at its face. At the same time, he used his dagger to cut through the neck of one of the cursed corpses.
It died instantly, and became fuel for Radix Augmentation, but not all the corpses were so easy to take down.
If that were the case, Nero could have used them to speed up his progress to the Initiate realm.
Nero continued exploring the floor, finding countless book shelves, some lined with books and others empty, but no sign of Bael and his team. He ran into a few more curses, but fortunately they only tried to kill him, not smother or molest him!
Eventually, he found a staircase leading up, and with no other leads he followed them up until the fog was almost entirely gone, but not quite.
This level was a little more ostentatious than any he had previously seen, with massive wooden shelves nearly twice Nero's height, each filled with thick tomes. Nero picked one up and noticed that it was written in unfamiliar characters - probably the language used by the Eldrim.
He put the book back and began exploring the floor, and quickly found a large, dried bloodstain that covered a massive part of the library floor. If Nero had to guess, he'd say the stain was the size of all the blood inside a corpse.
The blood stain was also giving off very strong cursed energy, so much so that Nero could feel it from afar. He thought about getting rid of it with his flames, but something about how ominous the bloodstain felt made Nero hesitate.
He kept his distance from the bloodstain and went around it, hoping that he wasn't avoiding Silas' blood. After all, none of the previous corrupted corpses bore even the slightest resemblance to him, so there was still hope that he was alive.
Beyond the bloodstain, Nero spotted bloody footprints looking like they belonged to a berserker so he followed him. A few minutes after he left, the bloodstain in the ground began to bubble, as if it were a boiling pool of blood rather than a stain.
Nero, unaware of the aberration, followed the bloodstains till he walked into what looked like a battlezone. The wooden shelves were fine, but the books themselves had suffered tremendously, having been shredded to pieces.
Nero's attention, however, was attracted to a narrow open corridor in the wall, looking quite out of place.
It seemed like he had found the tunnel Bael used, and it hadn't taken too long. Lighting up his flames, Nero entered the dark and ominous tunnel. If he encountered something in there, he would have no room to fight, which is what made him so cautious.
Once more, he used all his detection cards such as Aether Pulse, Mind's Eye and Echo Location, confirming there was nothing odd or suspicious, before entering.
He could not see the end of the tunnel, but at the same time he dared not walk too fast. He needed to be alive to rescue Bael, and rushing would greatly decrease his chances of staying that way.
A few minutes after Nero left, a stream of deep red blood followed.