Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

The timer hit zero, and the players started feeling the ground shake. In the distance, they could see shadows under the tree, charging their way. The shadows began multiplying, and suddenly one of them left the forest, followed by another, and another…

All the shadows quickly left the forest, entering the plain between the forest and the village. As the monsters started appearing all the players received a message.

[Village Battle has begun!]

[500 Players, 51 Level 5 NPC, 2000 Level 3-5 Monsters, 10 Level 5 Elites.]

As they read the message, every player's face became ashen. Despair flashed on many people's face. Adam clenched his teeth and closed the message. 1000 monsters, 2000 monsters, he didn't care, he would not lose.

As he prepared himself for a bloody battle though he received a private message from King Slayer 'Use the scroll.'

Adam hesitated, the first attack was very important. If the scroll ended up being useless, then the morals would hit an all time low, and the battle would be lost.

Still, Adam decided to trust King Slayer for this one.

More than a thousand monsters had already left the forest and were coming for the players, and yet there was still an endless swarm coming out of the forest.

As the monsters entered within a hundred meters range of them, he felt the fear of the players, some were about to either flee or leave the formation.

So he yelled "KEEP YOUR FORMATION! YOU ARE ONLY TO ATTACK AFTER I ATTACK!"

Then, he took out the scroll, and unfurled it toward the monsters. Adam felt a shift in the surrounding mana despite being a berserker, and the magical classes behind began feeling a terribly suffocating felling.

The scroll within Adam's hands combusted, but he didn't worry as he knew this meant the scroll was used. At the scroll's destruction, Adam felt the force of the wind gather in front of him, similar to when he used Wind Blade, except the intensity was much bigger this time.

The monsters didn't fear though, they kept charging and entered within a 50 meters distance from them. When they entered within twenty meters, the skill finally finished charging.

In the middle of the clearing, where Adam had aimed the scroll, a little tornado appeared. This tornado quickly grew in size as it began sucking everything around. Even the monsters who were nearing the players and were within 50 meters slowed down considerably.

As for the monsters closer to the tornado, they were absorbed by the tornado directly. But the spell was far from over. The tornado quickly grew in size, until it reached a diameter of 25 meters.

When it did, not even the monsters who were nearing Adam could escape from the pull and were sent flying toward the tornado, which had turned red from the blood of the monsters it killed. Despite the incredible pull though, none of the players were affected.

The tornado continued on for five seconds before losing its intensity as quick as it gained it. When the tornado totally disappeared, the plain was finally shown to the players. It was painted red with the blood of the monsters, but no piece of monster could be seen. More than a thousand monsters had been killed, just like that.

Everyone was silent, looking at the battlefield in silence. But then, a laughter started somewhere in the crowd. Then another, and all the players began cheering.

The monsters weren't scared though. Although half of their army just got oneshoted, they continued charging from the forest. This time though, two Elites monsters were leading the charge. This group of monsters was way faster than the last, and it took them almost no time to reach the players. It looked like they had gotten rid of the weaker monsters.

Adam unsheathed his sword, and raised it high in the sky. He then said "ATTACK!"

He began rushing toward the army of monsters, with only King Slayer on his side, and the Monks about ten meters behind. As they ran, King Slayer said "One Elite each?"

Adam grinned and said "Let's do that."

Adam activated Mighty Strike, and as he did so he suddenly received a notification about the skill leveling up. His [Steel Greatsword] began glowing with a white light, and they finally reached the monsters.

Although the players were in a state of euphoria earlier, seeing another similar army which was even stronger made them go back to silence, and they all watched the two figures about to clash with the Elite Monsters.

Most expected the two players to get killed by the monsters, after all Elites were really powerful. However, those who had faith were sure the two would stop the monsters in their tracks.

What happened next astonished everyone though. King Slayer flashed past the Elite Tiger, and then back to the front of the Elite Tiger. Four deep red lines appeared on the tiger's fur as it dropped to the ground, dead.

Critical Hit! -920 HP!

Critical Hit! -450 HP!

Meanwhile, on the other side Adam's [Steel Greatsword], which was glowing in a light white light, suddenly gained a bluish color to it. Adam had activated [Lunar Smite] for the first time!

As Adam's sword crashed into the Elite Bear, it stopped dead in its tracks and got sent flying backwards to crash into the monsters.

However, the bear wasn't only hit once. When Adam's sword slashed out, three bluish afterimages followed behind it, all of them hitting the bear before it flew away.

Critical Hit! -750 HP! (Author's Note: So, again, how exactly did he reach such an absurd amount of damage? First, his Strength is at 100, and his sword is at 25, so that means he does 125 of basic damage. Then, there is the level 5 Mighty Strike which deals 200% damage, so the damage with Might Strike becomes 250. It got Critical Hit so it jumps to 500. Then, he activated Lunar Strike, which makes his attack turn to the frost attribute, meaning another 50%. 500+500*0.5=750. Here is how he did so much damage. As for the bear's defense, it has become negligible in front of such an absurd amount of damage.)

-150 HP! (Author's Note: For this strike, his base damage is 125, but Mighty Strike's effect isn't on anymore as it is the second strike. The frost effect though adds 50% more. 125+125*0.5=187.5 Because the damage is slightly below 200 the bear's defense does affect the dmg here.)

-155 HP!

Critical Hit! -375 HP! (Author's Note: Here he starts at 125, the critical strike takes him to 250, and the frost effect brings this to 375. This overwhelms the bear's defense.)

The players couldn't believe their eyes, what were those damages. Were they really players like them?

Adam and King Slayer both rushed into the tide of monsters, hitting as many monsters as they could. King Slayer was capable of dodging almost every attack from the monsters despite how packed they were thanks to his incredible agility and techniques.

As for Adam, he knew his movement technique wasn't good enough to do that, even if he had the same Agility stat as King Slayer. So even though he still dodged some attacks, he would just tank most of them and focus on hitting as hard as he could. Everyone of his swings would hit multiple monsters, shaving off a large part of their health. The only ones he was wary of were the boars or all those monsters who could send him in a stunned state.

When he entered the crowd of monsters, he was quickly surrounded by five wolves, who all lunged at him. Adam didn't care though and made a 360 slash, hitting all the wolves at once. The wolves were able to hit him too.

-11 HP! (*5)

-125 HP! (*5)

The wolves, who took off 85 HP with one attack when he was level 2, now were only able to deal 11 damage to him. Meanwhile, one of his attacks took off more than a quarter of their health.

Adam quickly finished them off and continued fighting in the crowd of monsters, his health lowering very slowly.

Actually, every players had a regeneration for both health and mana, even while in combat, but when one doesn't have a lot of health the regeneration didn't really matter because of the small number of HP. The higher the HP, the more HP would be regenerated every second. One would regenerate 1% of both their MP and HP every ten seconds, so someone with 100 HP would only get 1 HP every 10 seconds.

However, for Adam his regeneration was really interesting because he would get 10 HP every ten seconds. It wasn't enough to negate the damage from the monsters, but it still helped him lower considerably the speed at which his health points lowered.

Meanwhile, when he started his charge, the other players weren't just doing nothing. The Monks all activated their 'Provoke' skills, drawing the aggro of every nearby monster. They followed the orders and did not attack. They activated their skills to defend, and every time their provoke was available they would use it.

They allowed Unit KS and BP to attack the monsters almost without getting attacked back. They would still get hit and some died, but even the more fragile Swordsmen amongst the four units didn't die in big groups because they were with Knights, the ones with the best defense after the monks, so they were taking the hits for the Swordsmen. When they were on low health, all they had to do was to get near Unit Monk, and they would be able to get healed.

Cleric used AOE heals, so if one approached the edges of the monks they would be able to get healed.

King Slayer would often get within the Monk formation, like many Assassins, to both get healed and kill the monsters attacked the Monks. For Adam, he would get to Unit BP when his health was low, and ask a Paladin to heal him. Still, as the battle raged more and more players died, and since the reanimation had been deactivated for the raid, each player that died was an irreparable loss.