The Earth Online

14 The Blood-Fighting Potion

“No, I’m good.” Haya responded as he clutched the emerald hiding in his pocket. The elf mage stared at him for half a second in deep regret and said,

“Such a pity! I’ve been looking for a Spriggan’s Emerald Soul Gem for almost half a century now.” She pouted at him and quickly stared at his pocket with longing in her eyes.

“Well, no point in dwelling on it, I’m sure someone will find another one again.” In a split second, she was back to her bright and peppy self. Aela looked absolutely adorable as she was basically drowning in her large dark cloak.

Haya was almost tempted to give in because he had a soft spot for cute-looking people, animals, or things. But he steeled his heart and knew that he would need this soul gem at some point.

He was still getting his grips on being a berserker. As much as possible, he always resorted to diplomatic means whenever resolving conflicts, but, deep inside, he knew that he would black out at certain moments — especially when he was feeling intense feelings of hatred and anger.

Haya was startled from his thoughts as he felt a hand on his shoulder, he was happy to find out that both Kedrick and Thaleos were offering him comforting smiles. Whenever he had those blackouts, he would always wake up and see the two other men taking care of him.

Thaleos knew that whenever Haya had that look in his eyes, he was battling with his demons. Haya took a deep breath and proceeded to ask,

“Alright, going back. Let’s get more of those valuable items.” He looked at Aela with a certain motivation in his eyes, and the spirit mage rewarded him with a large smile.

~ ~ ~

“What does that little potion do, anyway?” Kedrick asked as he was kicking one the practice dummies with all his might. After getting all the things they needed from the Lagash Interpoint, they went back to the Melam Military Base.

Kedrick wiped the sweat off of his face and proceeded to punch the practice dummy with great strength.

They were currently training, so they could sharpen up their swordsmanship and archery. Haya was doing a few martial arts to amp his flexibility, while Thaleos was drawing his bow in deep concentration.

“Well, Ganuru mentioned something about a Blood-Fighting Potion. I think it just helps us in the fighting. For its other effects, I’m not really that sure.” He slowly said, as he finally released the steel arrow. It swiftly glided through the air and pierced through the practice dummy—which was at the top of one of the military towers.

“Great shot, Thaleos. Damn, bro is out here training his eagle eye.” Kedrick cheered, simultaneously, Haya did a triple flip.

“Wait, what? Bro, you were up there looking like the perfect monkey.” The umber man hollered. Kedrick has always been the hype man of the team, always making sure that the team morale was high.

“I think it’s because of the mana we’ve absorbed from the beasts and also the potions, I’m not sure. I have to note this all down and observe it some more.” Thaleos smiled at the response of the youngest member of the group.

Kedrick just jokingly rolled his eyes as a response and proceeded to kick the practice dummy.

“I’ve been going through James’ notes, and I think that the Blood-Fighting Potion momentarily increases your blood lust and attack points.” The bearded man said as he drew another arrow.

“Yeah, that makes sense. Might be worth a shot if we try it out.” Kedrick said, as his final kick forcibly decapitated the practice dummy.

“Kedrick, we literally just got that.” Haya said as he was also handling some of the management tasks in the Melam Military Base.

“It’s alright! Don’t worry about it, I can just us new supplies or we can just sew its head in.” The dark-skinned man calmly proffered. Haya just indifferently shrugged, as long as the giant of a man could provide supplies, then has no problems about it whatsoever.

Thaleos sat against one of the trees and looked up the peak of Mount Uruk. He knew that it was filled with beasts and unique creatures, they could all hear them growl and hiss at night. He was determining whether or not they were ready to face off new beasts.

“I think we should try a bit of the potion, first, just to check how effective it can be.” Thaleos absentmindedly expressed,

“Yeah, sounds fair. I think that we can test it out on weaker beasts, first?” Haya suggested, and Kedrick just raised his eyebrows in agreement.

“I think you’re on to something, but we’re not sure where to find lower-ranked beasts. If we go back to Mount Nergal, we’ll just be facing more advanced low-tier creatures, and it costs as too many supplies and energy to fight them.” The fawn-skinned man reasoned out, as he fixed his steel arrows.

The trio spent a couple of minutes just cooking up a strategy.

“I got it, let’s first try it out with one of the farm animals.” Although it broke Thaleos’ heart to harm one of the animals, he knew he had to do it. Just to lessen his guilt, he was just considering sacrificing one of the disruptive bulls.

Haya and Kedrick helped him bring out two of the most troublesome livestock animals they had on the farm and tied them to one of the nearby trees in the base.

Thaleos took out the dull-looking potion and swiftly drank a tenth of its contents.

“How does it feel?”

“Is it working?”

The other two men questioned simultaneously. Thaleos nodded his head as he felt his body slowly burning up in the heat. He suddenly felt this uncontrollable urge to spill blood as he felt the adrenaline in his body surging in.

He took out black katana and quickly approached one of the large cows. The giant-sized cattle immediately started kicking one of its legs and pushing its horns towards Thaleos’ direction

Within a split second, the bearded man immediately cut off the bull’s head and watched it slowly fall towards the ground. He continued stabbing it some more, and when the other bull thrashed in panic, he immediately decapitated it, as well.

Haya and Kedrick just stared at him in stunned silence.

“Ugh, it’s like I have this itch where I want to kill something like I just want to scratch it with nails.” Thaleos babbled out in confusion, as he usually never felt such an intense sense of bloodlust.

“Is this what it feels like to be berserker?” Thaleos asked the islandic man. Haya pinched his lips and nodded in confirmation. He knew how tiring and addictive the feeling was—making him empathize with what Thaleos was currently feeling.

“Almost, the feeling is just a little bit more intense, since I don’t even have the energy to talk. I just want to reserve it all for killing. Also, I think being berserker means I could control it better.” Haya reflectively explained. After he uttered the last few words, Thaleos abruptly shot up and ran towards the hiking trail.

“Sorry, I just really need to get this out of my system. Just follow me, and we’ll kill the first set of beasts we see.” Thaleos impatiently shouted as he was already a couple of meters away from them.

The pair followed after him as quickly as they could. The steep mountain proved it to be a challenge, but they caught up with Thaleos as he was battling with three other wolf-eagles.

“This dude about to kill himself and dragging us along with him.”

The bearded man hated this feeling of not being able to control his urges. He always took his time in planning out things compared to just spontaneously launching attacks.

He felt like his body went on autopilot as he was doing his best in hacking and slashing those wolf-eagles. He kept thinking about why he felt iffy when it comes to trusting his fate to luck and destiny. He believed in chances, but only if you were prepared enough to get the best out of those opportunities.

He woke up from his musings when he felt one of the wolf-eagle’s large talons digging in his shoulder. He grunted in pain and he responded by abruptly using his left hand to s***h off the beast’s arm. The wolf-eagle howled in pain and flew a few meters away from the fight.

Seeing that its back was vulnerable, Haya took out his sword and immediately lodged it on the wolf-eagle’s mana center. It flapped its wings one final time before it started losing the life in its eyes.

Thaleos did his best to battle off the other two remaining wolf-eagles, as he held unto his right arm. The beasts were relentless in their attacks, as they flapped around Thaleos’ injured body.

“Thaleos!” Kedrick shouted as they saw Thaleos falling to the ground.