Logically speaking, bringing in the unknown soldier who was clearly not in his best state was not the best idea. It was a bit of a gamble, and one that was more likely than not going to end up in the soldier's demise. Nero had no delusions about that.
Unless he composed himself, or displayed capabilities beyond the norm, then facing the berserkers his demise was all but written.
But at the same time, this was his own decision. In the face of death, he wanted to resist. If Nero denied him this opportunity, he might continue to live, but the shadow of this memory would haunt him forever. Perhaps, then, that would have been a death of another kind.
But there was no point in speculating. What could have happened if they made different decisions was a pointless thing to contemplate, unless one was trying to learn from their mistakes. What mattered right now was that, regardless of the outcome, the soldier had a resolve that Nero chose to acknowledge.
"What's your name?" Nero asked, looking at the tall soldier who quickly picked up his sword and followed them.
"My name is Filip, but everyone calls me Pipo," he answered honestly.
Nero resisted the urge to smile. That was… an interesting nickname.
"Pipo what are you good at?" Nero asked, diplomatically.
Instead of answering, Pipo directly showed Nero his ability. He touched the fingers of his two hands, and when he pulled them apart, a green string appeared, connecting the two fingers.
"It's called Fibris string. Basically, I can create strings, or ropes depending on how much aether I use."
"How strong are your strings?" Nero asked with interest. This was both a very practical and very useful ability, depending on how strong the strings were.
Once again, instead of answering, Pipo showed him. He jumped up, and due to his height, easily touched the ceiling with his finger. A string, starting from the ceiling, followed him down, but before he touched the ground once more, Pipo wrapped his hand around the string, and hung from it.
That thin little string that emerged from his finger was easily carrying his weight without straining.
"Will the string disappear if you stop using aether?" Nero asked, suddenly even more interested. If Pipo could make that thicker, then the possibility of trapping the berserkers might become feasible.
"No, but it does become a lot weaker."
Nero nodded.
"In that case, you're a lot more suited to supporting Verdant-2 in their task. Follow them, help how you can, without getting in their way. Of course, Leonard will have the final say in the matter since it's his team."
Considering the already gargantuan task on their hands, Leonard did not turn away the help.
With everything decided, Nero went through the crack first, proceeding slowly so as to not make any noise.
He did not expect to see any berserkers waiting near the opening - or at least he hoped there wouldn't be any. If that was the case then they would be officially trapped, unable to even exit without getting attacked.
Even before he reached the exit, though, he saw a looming figure, huddled over the entrance. For a moment he assumed the worst, and began to think of contingencies, but then he realised something.
Even after a few seconds, the figure remained perfectly still, as if it was frozen. A hopeful suspicion sprouted in Nero's mind, and he used Radix Augmentation on himself, then reached forward with his hand.
His fingers touched something hard and cold, almost as if he was touching a rock. Then Radix Augmentation worked, and the dark figure shattered!
Nero resisted the urge to groan as a flaring heat entered his body through his fingers. If it weren't for the comforting, almost pleasurable sensation that filled his muscles almost immediately after, Nero would have thought that the heat was burning him from the inside out.
But the warmth did not last long. It disappeared after spreading across his body, though he was left with an almost imperceptible itchy feeling in his lungs.
"Stay here, don't come out until I tell you," whispered Nero as he looked back, and stepped out of the crack.
Beside the berserker he had already shattered, there were four more frozen figures, though each of them were progressively farther from the cracks. If Nero had to guess, he would say that once the berserkers guessed that they might die from being within his flames they retreated, but these few were not fast enough.
Nero did not let greed entice him into rushing towards the frozen corpses. First he used Aether Pulse to ensure that there were no berserkers hidden just out of sight in the corridor. Only once he confirmed that there were none here did he go and touch the other corpses.
The burning sensation did not reduce even when he touched the second frozen corpse, and Nero grew no resistance towards it. If it weren't for his iron will, he would not have gone and touched the other corpses, for the feedback from the berserkers had long entered the territory of torture.
But the benefits Nero felt were real. Not only did Nero feel his physical fatigue disappearing, he could feel himself getting stronger, even if it was by a small margin each time. Although, that slightly itchy feeling in his lungs was also increasing.
The sensation reached a crescendo when he touched the final frozen corpse, and Nero could not help begin coughing despite his attempts to stay silent. The noise immediately attracted his team, but since they could not see him from the cracks they had no way of knowing what was happening.
"Nero what's happening?" Gabriel hurriedly asked. "If you don't answer we're going to come out."
But Nero could not respond, for his coughing fit grew even stronger. Trying to resolve the itch, Nero slapped his chest, hoping that would help whatever was bothering him. It did.
Nero immediately coughed out a large, black ball of sludge that looked suspiciously like it was a part of his lungs.
But instead of feeling weak, or injured, Nero immediately felt much better. He could not help but take in a large, deep breath, filling his lungs to capacity, and realised that the sensation felt amazing!
"Nero what the hell?" yelled Gabriel, who stepped out of the crack just in time to see Nero spit out black sludge. "Are you poisoned? Are you okay?"
"Yes, yes, I'm fine," he quickly assured Gabriel. "Just an Apparition curse of some kind. I dealt with it. I have good news. Five of the berserkers were frozen from my flames. If we're lucky, the others are in a weakened state.
Our chances might be better than we imagined."
Nero looked towards the black sludge, and lit it on fire. He had no idea what it was, but it was best to remove any evidence of what had happened.
Gabriel was not suspicious of Nero's intentions in destroying the sludge. If anything, that was the normal reaction he expected for anything curse related.
The rest of the team exited the cracks, and as soon as Nero shared the good news, they began to proceed down the corridor, hoping to find weakened berserkers.
Instead, they heard the sounds of fighting. It was distant enough that they hadn't picked up on it before.
They picked up their pace, though they still remained silent, hoping to retain the element of surprise. Yet only a moment later, they saw two slightly older soldiers towards them, followed by a number of berserkers.
But the soldiers were retreating steadily, as if their aim was not escape, but instead to keep their enemies occupied.
"Go!" Nero said, and launched himself towards the enemies. The element of surprise was gone, and a narrow corridor was not exactly the best place to enact their plans, but they would make do.
The two soldiers noticed their arrival, and tacitly moved aside so as to not block them. But no one, not even Nero himself, anticipated how quickly he reached the berserker. Nero was intimately familiar with exactly what his body was capable of doing, so he knew that he had become stronger, and not by a small margin.
He manipulated his internal aether to boost his strength further, and with inexplicable ease manoeuvred the berserker as he wished, causing it to trip.
Leonard, who had sprint at full speed, reached just in time, and crossed Nero, ready to block the other berserkers. Even if he had to put his life on the line, he would buy Nero the time he needed.
His spear, clad in raging azure flames, stabbed the berserker's eyes, cutting through its eyelids and crushing the organ hidden behind. The cursed abomination screamed with each of its mouths in agony, and tried to stand up.
But Nero kept it pinned down, and Papi showed up just in time, tying dozens of strings around the berserker's body, attaching their ends to the floor so that it would not be able to get up without first breaking his strings.
Red sand appeared beside it, and began to flow into the open, screaming mouths of the monster, while Wendy appeared, shooting dozens of spears in the stab wounds Nero was leaving behind.
Harold began to smack the creature's head, the pulses from his hand travelling directly to its brain.
Remi, who was the slowest of them all, stood at the back and used her cards to augment her team. Barely ten seconds passed before they pummelled the first berserker to death.