Chapter 238 — The Curse of Berserk.

The valley of caves had become a graveyard, with blood staining the rocky ground and shattered bones scattered among the remains of Terra Bears and Skeleton Warriors. The thunderous clashes gradually faded into scattered struggles as the battle neared its end.

Evan's undead army had overwhelmed the Terra Bears through sheer numbers and the advantages of [Death March] and [Corrupting Touch].

One by one, the bears fell beneath bone blades and earth-coated claws until only a handful of battered survivors remained cornered against the mountain wall, surrounded by hundreds of undead.

Yet Evan paid little attention to the final stage of that battle.

His focus remained on a different section of the valley, where the outcome of the entire conflict rested on three figures.

Two enormous beasts stood facing each other.

The Ironhide Bear towered over the One-Eyed Undead Bear, its monstrous body covered in dense Earth Elemental armour. Nearly one and a half times its opponent's size, it possessed stone-pillar-like forelimbs and claws capable of tearing through rock.

Even the powerful One-Eyed Bear looked small beside the ruler of the Southern Region.

Evan watched from a short distance behind his summon, his attention moving between their bodies and the crimson light pulsing beneath the Ironhide Bear's chest armour.

He already knew which of them possessed the greater physical advantage.

The only question was how much of that advantage the One-Eyed Bear could overcome.

The answer came almost immediately.

Both beasts charged.

BOOOOOOOOM!

Their collision shook the ground, driving the One-Eyed Bear backwards while the Ironhide Bear barely moved. Only a few cracks appeared across the ruler's armour, already beginning to close as Earth Elemental energy repaired the damage.

'At least the Bone Armour did its job. Without it, that first collision might have crippled him.'

The One-Eyed Bear charged again, twisting aside before striking the Ironhide Bear's face with its earth-coated claws.

CRACK!

The blow shattered part of the ruler's facial armour, but cracks also spread across the One-Eyed Bear's claws from the impact.

'A few more direct hits like that, and I'll have to repair them again.'

He kept that in mind as the two beasts separated and immediately clashed once more.

Evan held back, conserving his mana while his other summons finished off the remaining Terra Bears. The One-Eyed Bear was still holding its own, and he wanted to see how the Ironhide Bear would respond when brute strength alone wasn't enough to overwhelm its opponent.

The Ironhide Bear suddenly surged forward, unleashing a relentless series of attacks.

The first strike cracked the One-Eyed Bear's Bone Armour, the second shattered it, and the third tore through the exposed flesh beneath. The undead bear retaliated, but the ruler slammed its skull into its opponent's face.

BOOM!

The One-Eyed Bear stumbled backwards before another blow struck its chest, sending it crashing toward Evan.

Evan immediately caught up to his summon and activated [Necro Heal]. Necrotic energy spread through the damaged body, closing its wounds while he reinforced the shattered Bone Armour.

Its claws were in even worse condition. Several sections of their Earth Elemental coating had broken away, leaving them weakened and uneven.

Evan drew the scattered earth fragments back together, reshaping them around the damaged claws before covering them with ice to bind and reinforce the structure.

He had barely finished repairing them when he noticed the Ironhide Bear approaching.

The Ironhide Bear smashed its forelimbs into the ground, growling with an aggression Evan hadn't noticed earlier.

He glanced at the crimson light beneath its chest armour.

'I thought he could contend with the boss for a while, but I underestimated those strange markings again.'

The Ironhide Bear had broken through his carefully reinforced armour with only a handful of attacks, and its violence seemed to be increasing with every exchange.

It approached, lowered its enormous head, and released a deafening roar.

ROOOOOOOOOAAAAARRR!

Its bloodshot eyes glowed crimson, the light beneath its chest armour pulsing like veins through the cracks.

Evan's instincts warned him to retreat. He immediately put several meters between himself and the two beasts before the next clash began.

The Ironhide Bear lunged, and the One-Eyed Bear met it head-on.

Their claws collided, scattering bone and earth fragments. The heavier beast forced its opponent backwards, but the undead bear twisted around its next strike and raked its claws across the ruler's damaged face.

The Ironhide Bear retaliated with a sweeping blow that shattered more Bone Armour. The One-Eyed Bear staggered before striking back, refusing to surrender despite the growing damage.

Earth fragments broke from the ruler's armour, while pieces of bone fell from the undead bear's battered body.

Evan watched for an opening that would let him intervene without wasting mana or exposing himself to a counterattack.

The One-Eyed Bear was clearly struggling, yet every time it fell, it forced itself back up. Its green-flamed eye remained fixed on its opponent as its claws continued searching for weaknesses.

Its determination was useful.

The damage was not.

Evan's eyes narrowed as the Ironhide Bear struck the One-Eyed Bear across the chest, knocking it onto its side. The ruler immediately advanced, raising a massive forelimb to pin its opponent down.

That was the opening Evan had been waiting for.

Dark mana flooded into Evan's hands.

[Dark Art Mastery]

More than twenty shadowy hands erupted from beneath the Ironhide Bear, seizing its limbs and torso. The beast's raised paw halted in midair as the restraints briefly restricted its movement.

"Now! Attack!"

The One-Eyed Bear surged forward, slamming its claws into the Ironhide Bear's damaged face. The remaining stone plating shattered, exposing the weakened armour beneath.

It immediately drove its other claws into the cracks across the ruler's chest, catching between the fractured sections.

'Good. Tear through its chest before it breaks free!'

"Keep attacking! Don't give it time to recover!"

The undead bear obeyed, wrenching its claws against the damaged armour to widen the cracks.

The Ironhide Bear's body shuddered violently.

The shadow restraints tightened around its limbs as its muscles swelled beneath its armour. The ground fractured under its paws, and the crimson light beneath its chest surged until the surrounding rocks glowed faintly red.

For an instant, Evan felt an unnatural chill.

'What was that?'

Before he could investigate, the Ironhide Bear burst free, shattering the shadowy hands into wisps of darkness. Its torso twisted violently, forcing the One-Eyed Bear's claws out of its chest.

The undead bear attempted another strike toward its opponent's neck, but the ruler's forelimb swept upward and caught its jaw.

CRACK!

Its jaw broke instantly. Before it could recover, the Ironhide Bear seized it and hurled it away.

The One-Eyed Bear crashed into a heap of stones, pulverising the smaller rocks as its body dragged through the rubble.

For a moment, it lay motionless.

Then it rose.

The One-Eyed Bear staggered to its feet, its armour shattered and its broken jaw hanging at an unnatural angle. Yet the green flame in its eye still burned.

Evan rushed over and activated [Necro Heal], repairing its torn flesh and restoring its damaged jaw while keeping his attention on the Ironhide Bear.

The ruler remained motionless in the centre of the clearing, crimson light pulsing beneath its armour as Earth Elemental energy spread from its paws into the ground.

Evan's expression grew serious. The beast's durability, mana reserves, and physical strength were already exceptional, but it had just broken through more than twenty shadow restraints and shattered the One-Eyed Bear's jaw with a single blow.

His summon was no weakling. Even before its resurrection, it had been one of the strongest Terra Bears he'd encountered. As an undead creature, it retained much of that strength while gaining the advantage of its Earth Elemental claws.

Yet the Ironhide Bear had overwhelmed it as though their difference in strength had suddenly become insurmountable.

Evan glanced at the crimson markings beneath the Ironhide Bear's chest armour. They were brighter than before.

'The curse is doing something to its physical attributes. But what exactly is changing?'

His attention shifted to the Earth Elemental energy gathering around the beast's head.

Small fragments of rock rose from the ground, circling above the Ironhide Bear before merging into an increasingly large mass. Evan recognised the beginning of an earth-based ability and prepared to evade a barrage of boulders.

But the fragments continued gathering.

The mass expanded from a boulder into something several times larger, drawing in more earth as the Ironhide Bear compressed the material with its elemental energy.

'A larger projectile? Fine. I've dealt with those before.'

Then the boulder grew again.

Its surface hardened as countless fragments fused together, until the mass resembled a huge section of the surrounding terrain. It continued expanding until it was comparable to a small hill.

Evan's expression changed.

The Ironhide Bear was still feeding it energy.

The enormous mass swelled further, its lower edge stretching across the sky above the clearing. It had grown so large that its shadow swallowed the battlefield, transforming the Ironhide Bear's attack into something Evan could no longer treat as an ordinary projectile.

It was a mountain.

A small mountain suspended above the Ironhide Bear's head.

Evan had seen the Ironhide Bear launch boulders, raise earth spikes, and reinforce its body with armour rivalling solid metal. Those abilities were powerful, but this was something else entirely.

'How the hell can a beast in a Tier 0 trial do something like that?'

Before he could think further, the enormous mass tilted and came crashing toward him.

There was no time to analyse the attack, and an ordinary Earth Wall wouldn't stop something of that scale.

"Return!"

Evan recalled the One-Eyed Bear just as the mountain began descending, its shadow swallowing the clearing.

Lightning exploded around his legs.

He vanished.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The mountain struck the battlefield, shaking the entire valley. The ground buckled beneath its weight as dust and debris surged outward.

Evan reappeared well beyond the impact zone, but the shockwave still passed through his body.

Evan steadied himself and looked back. The area where he had stood was buried beneath an enormous mound of rock, the surrounding terrain crushed by the impact.

His expression turned cold.

If he had hesitated for even a moment, his Bone Armour wouldn't have saved him.

The Ironhide Bear stood motionless amid the devastation, showing no obvious sign of exhaustion after producing such a devastating attack. That silence unsettled Evan more than its earlier aggression.

He held back from releasing his summon immediately, trying to determine whether the attack had drained the beast's mana or left it vulnerable.

After a brief assessment, Evan released the One-Eyed Bear again. Keeping his summon nearby, he moved toward the Ironhide Bear.

Lightning flickered around his legs, carrying him behind the Ironhide Bear before it could turn.

Evan formed a massive gauntlet around his fist, gathering earth fragments and reinforcing them with ice. The crude weapon had already proven capable of cracking the ruler's armour.

He couldn't afford to waste this opening.

Evan drove his fist into the back of the beast's head.

BOOM!

The blow shattered its armour around the point of impact, sending rock fragments scattering across the ground.

Yet the Ironhide Bear didn't stagger. Despite the shattered armour, the blow barely disturbed its stance, as though Evan's attack had been nothing more than an inconvenience.

The Ironhide Bear slowly turned its head.

Evan instinctively stepped back. Its eyes had become almost entirely crimson, matching the light pulsing beneath its damaged chest armour.

For a moment, he felt as though he were staring at a creature that had lost every trace of reason.

He retreated another step.

In the next instant, the Ironhide Bear vanished.

'What?'

Its movement was so sudden that Evan barely registered it crossing the distance. But the beast wasn't coming for him.

The Ironhide Bear appeared directly before the One-Eyed Bear, which had just reappeared beside Evan.

Its claws descended.

CRACK!

The ruler drove its claws into the undead bear's chest, slamming it into the ground and shattering its Bone Armour. Before it could recover, the Ironhide Bear struck repeatedly, crushing the remaining plating and tearing through its defences.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

"Get away from him!"

Evan surged forward with lightning gathering around his legs, but the Ironhide Bear continued its assault. The One-Eyed Bear's body convulsed beneath the blows, its remaining armour crumbling as it approached complete collapse.

Evan didn't hesitate.

He recalled his summon just before the next strike landed, causing the Ironhide Bear's forelimb to smash into empty ground.

The Ironhide Bear roared furiously, smashing the ground and sending rocks flying as its crimson aura surged.

Evan stopped at a safe distance, his mind racing.

The beast's armour repeatedly repaired itself; its strength had increased dramatically, and its speed now made it difficult to track even with lightning-enhanced reactions. It had also produced a mountain-sized projectile without showing any obvious signs of exhaustion.

But the most disturbing change was its behaviour.

The crimson light intensified with each increase in strength, while its aggression grew and its ability to reason seemed to deteriorate. Rather than conserve mana or choose its attacks carefully, it responded with overwhelming violence.

Even when Evan struck it from behind, the Ironhide Bear had merely turned before attacking the nearest target.

His gaze settled on the glowing markings beneath its chest armour.

'So that's what the curse is doing.'

Evan still couldn't be certain of every detail, but the pattern was clear.

The curse wasn't merely strengthening the Ironhide Bear. It was pushing the beast into a state where its physical power continued to rise while its rationality deteriorated.

The more violent it became, the stronger it grew.

And the stronger it grew, the harder it became to control.

Evan's eyes narrowed.

'The ability the curse is forcing upon it is...'

His expression turned grim.

'Berserk.'

Berserk was a dangerous state that dramatically increased a creature's strength and speed at the expense of its rationality. In most creatures, such recklessness would waste their power. But the Ironhide Bear was different. It already possessed overwhelming physical attributes, exceptional Earth Elemental control, and armour capable of repairing itself.

If Berserk continued enhancing those traits, its power could rise far beyond its original limits.

The crimson light pulsed again.

The Ironhide Bear lowered its head and roared, its claws digging into the ground as it prepared to charge.

Evan watched without moving.

He had finally understood the nature of the change.

Unfortunately, understanding an ability didn't mean he had found a way to stop it.

And if the curse continued driving the beast deeper into Berserk, the Ironhide Bear might soon become too powerful for even his entire undead army to contain.