Epoch: A Berserker's Rise

Chapter 164: Fighting Subordinates

The eight instantly went on guard as Adam started releasing a powerful aura. Meanwhile, they also made the recruits behind them move back as they understood they weren't strong enough to fight their enemy.

Well, that and the fact Adam ordered them to. Only Eddy didn't now his true identity. Once the weaker members had retreated far enough, Adam suddenly jumped toward the eight, and brought down his hammer with all his strength.

He had told them to fight with all their strength as this would also be a test toward them, and now he wanted to know how they would fare.

As his hammer was going down, none of them tried to block it and they all dodged, starting to get in their position. When Adam's hammer hit the ground, mud splashed in the sky all around as the earth trembled, making them lose balance for a second too.

Adam could have used this second to attack and take out a couple of them, or Louisa who was standing behind, but he did not, he didn't want to take away their chance to perform.

When they got into balance once again, they finished their formation. Louisa was standing in the back, buffing her allies, with Vodmir and Vastrik standing in front of her, protecting her from any attacks.

Eddy, Baugh and Johan were surrounding him in a triangle, and finally the last two assassins, Breyn and Judith, were hiding, waiting for their opportunity to strike.

This was a good formation that would allow them to fight against enemies stronger than themselves. Their weak point was the time it took them to enter in the formation, but once they were positioned then they could even threaten Adam in his current state.

To make sure his identity remained hidden, he would use a hammer instead of a sword, and not use any elemental skills. Also, he was using a modified footwork and had to conceal a part of his Aura. In this state, he was only as strong as a very strong Silver Rank, but far below a Gold Rank. There was a big gulf between the two ranks after all.

Unfortunately, that would only be the case if there was no weak link in their formation. The problem did not lie with the formation itself, but the ones forming it. In those circumstances, it really wasn't hard for Adam to break it.

A warrior's first instinct would probably be to defend against such a formation, because there didn't seem to be any long range fighters, but Adam knew better than this.

First, there were still the guild members left behind who could act. But more importantly, he knew Louisa was gathering her mana to attack him.

So he decided to attack. Of the three surrounding him, one was a Knight, one was a Swordsman and the other was a Berserker. The obvious weak link in this formation for a Berserker like Adam was the Swordsman, in other words Eddy, because of his inferior strength.

And this was even more the case since he was much weaker than the others right now. Although Adam didn't want to take advantage of that, if he realized it after seeing the formation once, they should know it too, and if he didn't attack Eddy he would look suspicious.

Activating [Wind Blade], his hammer became a little lighter as he jumped toward Eddy and struck him with his hammer. Normally, Eddy should be faster than a same leveled Berserker, but since he didn't open the Third Gate, Adam was much faster.

Eddy barely had the time to protect his chest with his sword when the hammer hit. He got sent flying backwards coughing blood, and as he rolled backwards, he only stopped twenty meters away. And even then, he could barely move, he had been gravely injured.

Louisa stopped gathering mana for her attack, which was almost ready, and started to heal Eddy. This made Adam sigh. If she had been gathering mana for this long then it meant she was preparing herself to fire a very powerful spell that was beyond her mana capacity.

That, in itself, wasn't a problem as a powerful magic attack was a good way to deal with a warrior. But stopping the process meant starting all over from the beginning, and no opponent would let her.

Eddy also seemed to see the problem and cried out "Ignore me!" But while he shouted, Adam was already rushing toward Louisa, his hammer glowing with a threatening blue light.

Adam was able to run past both Johan and Baugh easily since they were too far away from him and Louisa, and the only ones standing in his path were the two dwarven brothers.

Adam arrived in front of the two, and prepared himself to strike with his hammer. Seeing this, the two crossed their arms, ready to defend against the strike with their special gauntlets that served as weapons and shields for monks.

But to everyone's shock, Adam didn't hit either of the dwarves, and instead swung his hammer above the two's heads. Because they were short dwarves, it wasn't hard to do so.

As his hammer went past the two, it continued on it's trajectory and the immense force behind it allowed Adam to turn around. Then, his hammer first hit what seemed to be thin hair.

But as his hammer slowed down a little, a black figure was revealed, and crashed to the side, into another hidden figure. Those two were Breyn and Judith, the two assassins.

They had formed a good tactic, when Adam hit the dwarven brothers, although the two would have suffered damage from the impact, Adam would have been stopped, and most probably stunned by one of the basic skills of monks.

Then, being stunned he would have been unable to defend against the two assassins, who would have been able to kill him in a moment since they both possessed high burst damage.

Unfortunately for them, it didn't work on Adam. It wasn't that he had sensed the two assassins, on that they had done a marvelous job, but it wasn't hard to see through the tactic for someone like Adam.

While assassins were good at stealth and high burst damage, they also had a low health and defense, so a single strike from Adam was enough to incapacitate them both.

In a moment, Adam had been able to deal with three of them, and it was far from over. While Adam had struck the two assassins, the two dwarves were now ready to attack or contain him, while Baugh and Johan were already standing on the other side, ready to attack.

Adam was now surrounded in a squarish formation, but there weren't enough of them now. Adam simply hammered down on Vastrik, and let the three others attack him. Although he took damage, he only lost a quarter of his health, and was slowed down by the spear that pierced through his side.

But those weren't serious injuries, and Vastrik was now out of the fight. Louisa tried to heal her comrades, but now Adam was able to attack her, and that's exactly what he did. He once again ignored their attacks, losing half of his health, so he only had a fourth of it left.

However, even a fourth of it was still more than 20 000 HP. Moreover, Louisa was now unconscious, so she couldn't heal her allies, and all those who were incapacitated wouldn't be able to get back up.

Adam finally turned toward the last three remaining, and circulated his Aura at max speed through his body, recovering 5% of his HP every second. Not only this allowed Adam to heal quickly, but it also started forming a pressure on everyone present.

When Adam had been hit his Shadow Cloak had disappeared, but it was still impossible to recognize him because he had a different armor than usual, with a helmet covering his face. Also, he had bought a potion that would turn his status into a blur, which was why Eddy had no way to know who he was.

Now, Johan, Vodmir and Baugh were feeling stifled in Adam's presence, and even though they knew his real identity, after having seen him take care of them all so easily, and with his aura flaring at them, they couldn't help but be a little scared.

Recently, they had all started feeling good about themselves, no one at the same level could match them and they had even been able to kill a Level 80 with their formation when they were only Level 30. They felt like they had really become strong ones in this world.

But Adam's thrashing brought them back to Earth. There was always someone better, and it was why they had all submitted to him.

For a couple of seconds, no one moved, and this allowed Adam to recover 10% of his health. He could wait and recover more, but he didn't need it. He suddenly rushed in the center of the three and swung his hammer toward Baugh, but with little strength, and he oriented it a little toward Johan.

A normal person wouldn't have seen anything and just thought Adam was going to attack Baugh. But the three still had some experience and were good at fighting, so they understood from the way he attacked Adam was going to attack Johan in reality.

So Baugh stepped toward Johan and put his shield to protect both of them. Unfortunately, Adam was at a level beyond them, and his hammer made a strange curve in the air as it swept past the two, and headed toward Vodmir's legs.