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Translator: penny
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Red Vision (1)
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I wanted to charge into that forest right now and tear their throats out.
The 'beast's instinct' to rip open their guts and stack their bones into a tower dominated my entire body.
'Kill them. Kill them all.'
My heart began pumping like it was about to burst.
Veins bulged in the hand gripping the axe.
But.
"Barg... run...!"
The fallen Gorgon grabbed at my clothes and whispered hoarsely.
His eyes.
The eyes of a father determined to save me even if it cost him his life.
In that instant, a crack formed in my reddening vision.
Reason seized instinct by the throat.
'No. If I fight here, I can win... but Father dies.'
I gritted my teeth and clamped shut the mouth that had been about to roar.
And instead of swinging the axe, I reached out toward the fallen Gorgon.
Flash!
"...What the hell?"
Gorgon didn't even have time to panic.
I scooped up his 230cm massive frame in a princess carry, just like I'd held Kara the night before.
"Hold on tight. Don't bite your tongue."
"H-Hey! This is embarrassing, what are you—?!"
"Here we go!"
Instead of charging the bastards, I spun around and bolted across the snowy plain.
Boom!
A blizzard erupted from a single stomp of my foot.
The Blood Fang Tribe bastards finally caught on and bellowed.
"Shoot! Don't let him get away!"
Swoosh-!
A rain of arrows poured down on my back.
Stinging pains embroidered my back.
One arrow.
"Urk!"
Two arrows.
"Barg!"
Ten arrows.
Flesh tore away with every arrow that pierced my back.
But I didn't stop.
I sped up even more.
⚡ SKILL ACTIVATED ⚡Berserker's Blood
Pain becomes sword and shield. Blood becomes lubricant. Speed and strength surge with wounds.
The power that had existed since my first memory—the force that let a three-year-old body snap a wolf's neck.
Pain was my sword.
My shield.
The flowing blood became lubricant.
The more arrows that sank in, the harder my leg muscles tensed like steel, my speed outpacing the wind.
'Shoot more, you bastards!'
I gritted my teeth and ran.
Arrows lodged in my back?
'It just makes my blood boil hotter!'
Carrying Gorgon, my body a porcupine of arrows, I tore across the snowfield toward the tribe like a madman.
That day, the Winter Claw Tribe flipped upside down.
Barg, drenched in blood, returned with dozens of arrows in his back... carrying the chieftain.
But the man himself set the chieftain down with a perfectly fine face, then growled as he yanked out the arrows one by one.
"Out of the way! The chieftain's in critical condition!"
The moment I roared at the tribe entrance, the Winter Claw Tribe erupted in chaos.
"Ch-Chief?!"
"Those are Blood Fang Tribe arrows!"
The tribesmen couldn't hide their shock at the sight of me charging in, blood-soaked and cradling the chieftain.
But I didn't stop.
Plowing through the murmurs, I headed straight for Baba the Elder's tent.
"Elder! Baba the Elder!"
I kicked open the tent flap like I was ripping it apart. Baba the Elder, grinding herbs, went wide-eyed.
"What the hell happened to you! And why's your father in that state?!"
"Ambush. Frost Viper venom! Hurry!"
I laid Gorgon down on the beast pelt.
His face had already turned dark purple, black foam bubbling at his mouth with every ragged breath.
"Tch, foolish man. You finally stirred up real trouble."
Baba the Elder clicked her tongue but moved swiftly.
She poured an antidote from her belt pouch into Gorgon's mouth and smeared crushed herbs on the wound.
Only then did the tension drain from me, my legs trembling.
Thud.
As I started to collapse right there.
"Dad...!"
The tent flap flew open, silver hair fluttering.
It was Kara.
Her face pale as death, she rushed in and knelt by Gorgon.
"Dad! Come on, wake up! Dad!"
"Step back, Kara. He needs rest now."
Baba the Elder held her off.
"The poison's under control. With his tough hide, he won't die."
"Hic... sob..."
Kara finally relaxed, clutching her father and sobbing.
Then her gaze flicked to me.
"...Barg?"
Her sky-blue eyes widened.
My state was wretched.
Broken arrowheads stuck out of my back like a porcupine, my whole body soaked red in a mix of my blood and Gorgon's.
"You... your body..."
Kara's eyes scanned me head to toe.
Definitely fatal wounds.
A normal person would've collapsed from shock already.
Even Dad Gorgon was reeling from a single poisoned arrow.
Yet a bizarre vitality poured from my body.
Kara's eyes shook.
I remembered.
Back then, when the two of us went hunting alone and got cornered by a Frost Bear.
He'd butchered it single-handedly.
The more blood he shed, the fiercer he grew; the closer to death, the more wildly he burned with feral power.
This Barg was exactly the same.
A life that should be teetering on the brink, yet blazing fiercer instead.
'Just like back then.'
But there was one difference...
Whoosh.
Kara hugged me tight instead of speaking.
It stung where my wounds pressed against her, but no scream escaped.
The vibrations raging inside me transmitted through our touching bodies.
The uncontrollable fury aching to whirl around, charge the Blood Fang Tribe, and rip them apart.
But the moment Kara embraced me...
The red haze lifted like a lie.
Instinct ebbed, reason returned.
"You idiot... why go this far..."
"I promised... didn't I?"
I spat blood-mixed saliva and grinned.
"I'd protect family."
"...You're family too..."
Only then did tears flood from Kara's eyes.
"Thank you... really, thank you, Barg. For saving Dad... for not coming back alone..."
Kara's hot tears soaked my shoulder.
I patted her trembling back and sighed in relief.
I'd protected it.
My future.
And my bride.
But there was no time to indulge in sentiment.
"Rip the Winter Claw scum apart!"
Roars from the Blood Fang Tribe echoed beyond the tribe's barricade.
They'd built momentum and stormed our main camp.
"Those bastards... dare come here?!"
Kara wiped her tears and stood.
Her sky-blue eyes had shifted from grief to icy killing intent.
"Barg. Can you fight?"
"Of course."
I yanked out an arrow from my back with a grind of my teeth.
"I nearly burst holding back."
We nodded to each other.
With Gorgon down, only we two could defend the tribe.
"All hands, battle stations!"
At Kara's shout, the Winter Claw warriors grabbed their weapons.
The snowfield turned to pandemonium in seconds.
"In Sandra's name! Slay the traitors!"
The Blood Fang Tribe was mad with zeal.
They branded us 'corrupt betrayers' for mingling with the Empire and charged.
Clang!
Kaang!
Axes clashed, fresh blood splattering the snow.
I swept the battlefield, swinging my axe.
My body wasn't normal, but rage drowned the pain.
Splat!
"Gaaak!"
Heads burst like watermelons under my axe.
But a nagging sense of déjà vu haunted me throughout the fight.
'This isn't just fanatic lunatics running wild.'
That ambush in the forest earlier.
And the poisoned arrow aimed precisely at Gorgon.
This wasn't a plan their kind could devise.
Suddenly, the red vision that had flashed when Gorgon fell struck my mind again.
A glimpse of the future stolen, or reliving some past event.
In that vision's future... I wasn't there.
A world flowing as it originally should, without me as a variable.
In the first red vision I'd seen, Gorgon had gone hunting alone and been miserably assassinated.
And now the red vision flickering before my eyes... wasn't blizzard-swept Norheim.
A strange city of cold gray bricks stacked high.
There, an adult Kara muttered to someone with hollow eyes.
''The mastermind who killed my father and led our tribe to ruin...''
''The Northguard Grand Duke, ruler of the North.''
Kara's bloodied lips moved, spilling the truth in a voice laced with resentment.
''The one who granted us the 'Wintersword' barony to use us as his slaves...''
''He set the board. If not for you, our tribe would be...''
Flash.
The vision-overlaid eyes overlapped with the sunset reality.
The puzzle pieces clicked.
The bastard had orchestrated this political assassination to shower 'benevolence' on a leaderless tribe, manipulating us as pawns amid the chaos.
But could I be sure?
Just a hallucination from boiling blood?
'No...'
No evidence.
No proof.
Just instinct affirming an unmanifested future.
'You dare... use us as mere tools?'
My teeth ground together.
The price for touching my family would be brutal.
"Barg! Watch out!"
Then Kara's scream pierced the air.
I snapped to attention.
In the melee, a stealthy killing intent crept up behind Kara.
Different from the Blood Fang Tribe rabble.
A shadow approaching without a sound.
An assassin.
'That fucker!'
No evidence here either.
No time to think.
I hurled the axe in my hand.
Swoooong-!
The axe sliced through the air toward Kara's back.
And.
Krunch!
"...!"
The dagger-wielding assassin's head split cleanly in two.
Blood and brains sprayed across Kara's back.
Kara whirled around in shock.
And saw me standing beyond.
I bellowed, panting.
"Eyes front, Kara! Wipe their seed from the earth!"
"...Got it!"
Kara regripped her sword.
"So they never eye our family again!"
With her cry, the Winter Claw warriors charged ferociously.
That day, the snowfield ran red.
The Blood Fang Tribe suffered near-annihilation and fled in defeat.
Our overwhelming victory.
In the snowfield's center knelt a bound man on his knees.
Blood Fang Chieftain, Derd.
Kara stood before him.
Suddenly, my vision rippled red again.
The tiresome vision.
In the vision, Kara was blood-drenched.
Gorgon's severed head in one hand, her sword aimed at Derd's heart in the other.
''Tell me. Why did you kill my father?''
Dead-eyed Kara demanded in a scream.
But.
"Tell me. Why try to assassinate my father?"
The real Kara asked coldly.
No severed head or bloodied sword in her hands.
And above all.
"..."
Behind Kara and me stood Gorgon, arms crossed, silently watching his daughter and adopted son mete out judgment.
The father who'd overcome the poison, standing firm on his own feet.
Existing as the sturdy backbone for the future chieftain's children.
The vision shattered; reality returned.
Kara grabbed Derd's collar and shook him.
"Talk! Who put you up to it?!"
"Kekeke... We just sought to punish Gorgon, the traitor groveling to the Empire and betraying Sandra!"
Derd cackled with bloodshot eyes.
"The great spirit of the snowfield wolves, Sandra, commanded it! Exterminate the corrupt Winter Claws!"
I watched him from the side, arms crossed.
I'd perked my ears hoping for the Northguard Grand Duke's name, but only fanatic nonsense spilled from his mouth.
'He doesn't know.'
Probably not a cover-up.
The idiot truly didn't know.
Didn't even realize they'd been used as pawns by the Empire.
"Lady Sandra... Lady Sandra...!"
Kara released his collar in disgust.
"Blind zealots like you aren't worth talking to."
She glared down coldly and spat.
"Where was your 'great' Sandra when the Gate opened and monsters poured out?"
"Wh-What...?"
"In the end, it was our ancestors—you and ours—who protected this land, our home. Humans spilling blood."
Derd's eyes rolled back at Kara's sharp thrust.
He foamed at the mouth and shrieked in seizure.
"Shut your mouth, you blasphemer whore! Empire slut! Sandra will bring divine punishment upon—!"
"No need to ask more."
Kara turned from him without regret.
And gave me a brief glance.
"Barg."
That was enough.
I silently raised my axe.
"Go join your great Sandra."
Slice-!
A dull sound, and Derd's head rolled across the snow.
Red blood streaked long across the snow-blanketed plain.
The signal flare for a long war's beginning.
The next two years.
The Winter Claw Tribe plunged into all-out war with the Blood Fang Tribe.