The first time Nero saw a berserker, it was a huge shock. The first time he fought a berserker, he couldn't hurt it at all. If it weren't for a few tricks he'd prepared for with Jackal, even killing one would have been a hassle.
Of course, since then, he'd been briefed by the army and knew their strengths and weaknesses. A couple of Thunderous Claps is all it would take to bring this bulky monstrosity down. But Nero had a sneaking suspicion that he no longer even needed to do that.
Since his flame had been upgraded, fighting against the cursed energy coursing through this monster's body was easier than ever. Of course, Nero did not intend on wasting time trying to discover the limits of his ability.
He wanted to kill the berserker as quickly as possible and use Radix Augmentation on it.
As soon as the silver monster saw Nero it dashed forward, its body deceptively fast, yet it was not fast enough. Nero had already moved out of the way, and with a single flaming slash, cut the berserker's knee.
The monster fell down, its leg suddenly unable to support its weight, yet even before it could hit the ground Nero slammed its neck with a Thunderous slam. Even before the cool down for the Thunderous slam card was over, Nero extended his other hand and released another Thunderous slam!
Now familiar with the use of the card, Nero had swapped out Double Skin with another Thunderous slam. Since the three unranked cards had been removed, excluding the second Thunderous slam, Nero brought back Aether pulse and Flare.
With two attacks on its neck back to back, the berserker succumbed, falling flat on the ground completely. It was dead, yet Nero had no time to enjoy his victory.
He quickly used Radix Augmentation on the corpse as he flung flaming snowflakes at the other nearing shadows. They weren't berserkers, they were cursed corpses belonging to other soldiers.
Their faces had shrivelled up and turned grey, while their bodies deformed under the influence of cursed energy. Some hands morphed into claws, while others turned to whips or just longer hands with extra joints.
Energy flowed into Nero's body from the berserker, but he paid it no mind. He was already attacking his next targets.
One of the cursed corpses spat green sludge towards Nero which he quickly dodged, and used Flare to shoot a cluster of flames at its face. At the same time, he used his dagger to cut through the neck of one of the cursed corpses.
It died instantly, and became fuel for Radix Augmentation, but not all the corpses were so easy to take down.
One of them had a dark, baleful aura around it like some kind of gaseous armour, and it was able to perfectly resist the effects of Flare, so Nero just stayed away from it for now. His plan was to first generate enough heat in the room before letting his own flames lose to kill the tougher cursed corpses.
Nero was like the wind, flowing between the corpses without being caught or slowed down. If he could kill a cursed corpse in one hit he'd do it, otherwise he'd settle for cutting through their bodies with his dagger, slowing them down.
Each time a corpse, well, turned into a corpse, the flash of Radix Augmentation was not far behind. Nero's body was coursing with energy, though he was already beginning to notice that it was not nearly as effective as it used to be.
The flames from the Flare card were not too hot, and weren't enough to kill any cursed corpses, but the flames spread very easily, so soon the fire spread from one corpse to the others.
Just before the flames could get big enough to attract attention from the building, Nero unleashed his own cryoflames. They did not rapidly spread, as they used to, but the flames suddenly turned an incredibly deep shade of blue, immediately freezing the corpses solid.
The rapid temperature change caused chaotic wind patterns within the room, causing the fog to swirl around all the frozen corpses there were, just moments ago, burning hot!
Yet Nero never slowed down. In fact, he was speeding up. As his blue flames travelled through the room, slowly, the terrain changed from dangerous to home ground for him. In a matter of minutes, all the corrupted corpses were dead, and Nero absorbed the energy from them all.
Instead of exhaustion after the fight, he felt filled with energy and power. Compared to when he was with others, and had to avoid using Radix Augmentation in fear of getting noticed, he was much more comfortable now.
Except, there was one abnormality he noticed in his own performance. Once he was sure that no more enemies were coming, he withdrew the Snowflake card from within his armour and gave it a thorough examination, and frowned.
This card, which had been an integral part of his offence for a long time, was beginning to fade.
Nero sighed. It was inevitable. He used Snowflake more than any other card he had, so it was about time for its durability to diminish. The very fact that it had even lasted this long was a testament to how well made the card was, and how high quality the ingredients had been.
The reason he noticed the change was because the Snowflakes he made were much smaller than usual. The card was on the verge of having its spell model broken. It could last anywhere from one more use to a dozen more uses. It was best to use it sparsely from now on, and only in integral moments.
He put the card back, then focused on his body. Even after killing a berserker and so many corrupted corpses, there was hardly any change in his body. He was energetic, sure, but he hadn't gotten much stronger than before. It seemed like there was a limit on the card.
To improve further, Nero assumed that either he needed to kill curses of a higher level, or he himself needed to become an Initiate. It was too bad that Lumina was filled with curses and no ordinary living enemies.
If that were the case, Nero could have used them to speed up his progress to the Initiate realm.
Nero continued exploring the floor, finding countless book shelves, some lined with books and others empty, but no sign of Bael and his team. He ran into a few more curses, but fortunately they only tried to kill him, not smother or molest him!
Eventually, he found a staircase leading up, and with no other leads he followed them up until the fog was almost entirely gone, but not quite.
This level was a little more ostentatious than any he had previously seen, with massive wooden shelves nearly twice Nero's height, each filled with thick tomes. Nero picked one up and noticed that it was written in unfamiliar characters - probably the language used by the Eldrim.
He put the book back and began exploring the floor, and quickly found a large, dried bloodstain that covered a massive part of the library floor. If Nero had to guess, he'd say the stain was the size of all the blood inside a corpse.
The blood stain was also giving off very strong cursed energy, so much so that Nero could feel it from afar. He thought about getting rid of it with his flames, but something about how ominous the bloodstain felt made Nero hesitate.
He kept his distance from the bloodstain and went around it, hoping that he wasn't avoiding Silas' blood. After all, none of the previous corrupted corpses bore even the slightest resemblance to him, so there was still hope that he was alive.
Beyond the bloodstain, Nero spotted bloody footprints looking like they belonged to a berserker so he followed him. A few minutes after he left, the bloodstain in the ground began to bubble, as if it were a boiling pool of blood rather than a stain.
Nero, unaware of the aberration, followed the bloodstains till he walked into what looked like a battlezone. The wooden shelves were fine, but the books themselves had suffered tremendously, having been shredded to pieces.
Nero's attention, however, was attracted to a narrow open corridor in the wall, looking quite out of place.
It seemed like he had found the tunnel Bael used, and it hadn't taken too long. Lighting up his flames, Nero entered the dark and ominous tunnel. If he encountered something in there, he would have no room to fight, which is what made him so cautious.
Once more, he used all his detection cards such as Aether Pulse, Mind's Eye and Echo Location, confirming there was nothing odd or suspicious, before entering.
He could not see the end of the tunnel, but at the same time he dared not walk too fast. He needed to be alive to rescue Bael, and rushing would greatly decrease his chances of staying that way.
A few minutes after Nero left, a stream of deep red blood followed.