Weakly revving the engine, Ash and Daredevil faced down the Berserker. Its piercing eyes gazed back at Ash's empty pumpkin eyes.
Ash and Daredevil charged straight at the Berserker using what was left of their speed to circle it, landing swift slashes to its legs. The Berserker tried to fight back, swinging its arms in a frenzy to hit Ash and Daredevil.
Both tried their best to keep the momentum going, but the damage they had sustained earlier was still holding them back. Daredevil's frame was heavily damaged, and every vibration in his body hurt him more and more. Just turning with the rear tire was like moving a leg with an ACL injury; every time he made his rear tire spin, it felt like the frame holding it was going to crack from pressure.
Ash was no better; every cell in his body was screaming in pain, and the vibrations from riding the bike made his bones ache. Both of them had to come up with a plan to finish this quickly; they could feel they were going to pass out any second. Their stubbornness was keeping them going.
Ash ripped a strip of cloth from his shirt to tie the sword to his hand to secure it so he wouldn't drop it. He was lucky that the sword had been transported with him earlier; he had forgotten about it when he asked the system for help.
"I gotta do something; I can already feel like I'm about to pass out any moment."
Ash told himself. The Berserker was still standing, chuckling at Ash for how weak he was compared to it. Ash didn't care about his pride being hurt; he just wanted to kill the Berserker and get out of the zone.
The Berserker charged again, grabbing a corpse along its path to use as a flail against Ash. Ash and Daredevil tried to dodge, but their movements were sluggish, and the limbs of the corpse would scratch or tap them both before it could really do them any damage.
The Berserker grabbed another corpse and began swinging it in unison. Ash could not dodge properly or tank the hit without his points back; it was a death sentence waiting to happen.
"Oh, so you wanna play rough. Alright, bring it on, asshole!" Ash grabbed his pumpkin head and threw it at the Berserker. The pumpkin used the pumpkin bomb skill, knocking the Berserker back. Its eyes were damaged, leaving it temporarily blind and disoriented. Ash saw a timer appear in his vision; it was counting down to the pumpkin regrowing during the skill cooldown. The black smoke formed his temporary head again, as before; at least he could still see properly.
"Haha, Got em', now get 'em, boy." The bike now howled like a horse; Daredevil was synchronizing better with Ash.
{Notice! Death Rider Slayer Arts activated}
"Oh, hell yeah!" Ash gloated with sinister excitement. "Now, I'm gonna chop off your damn head!"
Daredevil blasted at the Berserker with a short reinvigoration. He jumped high, the tires set ablaze, and they slammed into the neck and stomach, while Ash struck the sword into the Berserker's thick neck. With the combo, the Berserker roared in agony; now it was angered at being attacked by a smaller creature than itself.
Ash used his strength to dig deep into its muscles; he wasn't going to let go till the neck was completely severed.
"I won't stop! I won't stop till your headless body is on the ground, gushing. Just die, you fucking freak—die!"
The sword slowly pushed further and further, getting three inches buried. The Berserker knew that once it lost its head, nothing would stop Ash from destroying its collar next. As long as the collar was intact, it could still reattach its head.
In a valiant effort, it fixed itself to do an improvised body slam to the ground, crushing Ash and Daredevil in the process. Both of them started twitching from the attack; they felt like they had a sudden burst of energy they had died there. The Berserker grabbed the sword, trying to pull it out. It was burned into its neck permanently; the best it could do was break it in half so that Ash couldn't use it again. Ash saw the Berserker ready to slam its fist at him and Daredevil. In his desperate attempt, he shoved Daredevil out of the way to save him from getting damaged any further. The large, meaty fists of the Berserker beat the ever-living will out of Ash's body, because he couldn't cough blood; it was pooling inside his lungs, choking him out. The Berserker laughed in sheer joy at Ash's pain. It grabbed both his arms, lifting him, ready to snap him like a toothpick, when Daredevil used his last bit of strength to attack the Berserker from behind. The Berserker had had enough, and it let Ash go to grab Daredevil, giving him a death-gripping bear hug. Ash, seeing Daredevil helpless, wanted to save him. He fought with his tenacity to get himself up, grabbed the broken sword, and did a crazy stunt to stop himself from falling again. He stabbed the flat surface of his neck, pulling out the broken sword. A stream of blood came out; it was the blood that had built up in his lungs, escaping his body. His body, be it his new anatomy or help from the Darkmold, helped eject the built-up blood.
His neck healed the spot within seconds before he lost too much blood needed to function; the timer was down as well, and the pumpkin reformed back on his neck. He grabbed it by the teeth; both the pumpkins and glowing eyes in the smoke brightened with intense fury.
"Lay….off….my….HORSE!!!"
Ash threw the pumpkin again; the blast damaged the Berserker's collar. It started to panic, trying to hold it in desperation. Daredevil did a 360 spin to build momentum before flinging himself using his rear tire at the collar to damage it further. Ash leaped to grab the broken blade in the neck, both of them attacking at the same time.
"Die,die,die, die, you monster, JUST DIE!!!!" In the bleak of the moment, it was heard. The collar broke, and the head was lopped off. Ash fell from exhaustion, with Daredevil right behind him. The body of the Berserker stood for a minute before it fell for good. Ash held the severed head in his hands. He did it; he killed a Berserker, a powerful Kraegan that was thought to be impossible to kill.
"I….I did it. I killed it. Hahahahaha, I killed a Berserker, hahahaha, I slaughtered it good!" His laugh could be mistaken for a villain's, given how much joy in its satisfying, killer intent it contained. The pumpkin grew back quicker this time. Small droplets of flame, resembling drool, fell from its maw as it looked at the head.
"Now, it's lunchtime!" Ash burned the flesh on it as he did to Casper. Then he ate the skull gluttonously. Another skull tattoo seared onto Ash's body, this one a large black skull on his left pectoral, unlike the one on his side.
{Congratulations, you have killed a Berserker and obtained its head—reward 1000 Vitality points, 400 Strength points, and 50 HP. Secret Mission completed; defeated a higher-level Kraegan with a zero stat. A new ability has been granted. New ability, Black Blood Chassis, unlocked. The user can create armor around the body with absolute defense. Only Ascended Kraegans and S-Grade abilities can penetrate armor. Vitality now restored, beginning the healing process of the user and steed.}
Ash felt his body break and reconfigure in an instant. His body felt amazing, as if it had never been injured at all. Daredevil was repaired as well, looking brand-new, as if his body were fresh off the factory floor. Ash ran to hug him; his joy that his bike was back together again was overflowing. He caressed the gas tank in admiration of what Daredevil did for him.
"Thank you, boy. I don't know if this means anything to you, but you saved me. I'm proud of you. Thank you. I mean it. Thank you."
Daredevil felt it as a vision: the image of the little girl who died sat next to him, hugging him when he was still a horse. She started waving her little hand like she was saying bye-bye, horsey, to him, smiling. Daredevil felt pride, but more so a sense of closure—the image of him as a horse started to cry, as if a weight had been lifted from him. The headlight leaked fluid, symbolic like it was a tear.
The bike began to glow, then was engulfed in fire, like a baptism. The frame began to change: the front fork and rear suspension morphed into a bone horse-leg design; the handlebars twisted and ended in a bone structure. The gas tank changed to a pale horse's head, and the front headlight to a broken half-skull design, its open mouth emanating fire.
{Congratulations, Destined Steed, as evolved. Destined Steed has become the Steed of Death.}
Ash marveled at Daredevil's change. The wicked joy emanating from his glow gave its approval.
"Oh ho, looks like I'm not the only one who's changed. So let's get the rest of the Kraegans' heads. I wanna see what I can buy with this bounty."
Ash used the broken sword to chop off the heads of the Kraegans, and the Berserker left, thriving in despair. Chopping and eating, he consumed ten heads in total. Additional black skull tattoos appeared beside the small one on his side, near Casper's skull mark. One Kraegan was left, pleading for Ash to stop.
Ash slammed his broken shoe into its chest. He looked at it without remorse.
"Mercy? You want me to spare you? Hell no, and miss out on a snack for the road. Nope, I'm gonna eat your skull, you freak."
Ash bent down to hack its neck. He stopped once he heard the sound. The sound of a gun firing at him. On reflex, the new ability to make the Black Blood Chassis activated, making his armor protect his spine from being hit. Ash turned to see a lone HVA soldier aiming at him. The soldier fired again, and Ash remained unfazed by the hit. He wasn't going to kill another human. He refused to be a real murderer; only the Kraegan deserved to die like trash.
Ash whistled for Daredevil. Daredevil rode to him to escape. The soldier wouldn't give up. They grabbed a wooden sword from their back, a bokken from the looks of it. The soldier charged it with concentrated plasma energy, swinging at Ash, launching a flying energy blade at him. Ash dodged more quickly now that Daredevil was repaired and stronger than before.
"Not here, boy. We need to leave before this gets out of hand. Home now!" Daredevil complied. He rode them both rapidly away from the soldier. The soldier wouldn't let off; they chased after Ash, firing a bullet now infused with the same plasma-type energy. Ash was faster than the bullets and escaped before he was hit. The soldier stopped the chase; they failed to catch Ash. The main concern now was reporting the death of their squadmates and what they had just seen. The soldier tapped their communication device on their arm; it was connected to the commanding officer on the other end.
"Report, what happened with the scout team?"
"They're dead, sir. A Berserker killed them all. But there's something else. Something I can't explain. I'll send you a video of what I captured upon arrival," the soldier responded, the helmet using a translator to speak English for them.
The soldier tapped the device three times again. The video footage was of when Ash killed the Berserker, cutting off the Kraegan's heads and eating them, and even showing him taunting the near-death Kraegan. Silence was heard for a few seconds after the footage ended.
"Do not repeat the event you just witnessed to anyone without my permission. Whatever that thing was, it was weird and pissed off. Something that dangerous, we cannot let the Revhound Corps get their hands on it. Find out what it is and what can hurt it."
"Understood, sir."
"One more thing. You're entering the academy soon. Excellent, we'll finally have an agent inside the corps. You're my secret weapon, our only ability user capable of getting inside the Revhounds. A small price to pay, but the sacrifice of your human purity is needed. Carry on, soldier. End of transmission."
The soldier ended the call. They turned their attention to the Kraegan that Ash left behind. Looking at it curiously, they wondered why Ash only ate their kind's heads and not the HVA soldiers'. The soldier stomped on the gasping head, crushing it entirely. Soon followed by the removal of their helmet, revealing an attractive Japanese woman behind it.
"Nuroi no Kaibutsu!" The soldier proclaimed in disgust as she looked at the dead Kraegan with cold, blank eyes.