[Requirements to activate Special Skill: Berserk fulfilled]

[Special Skill: Berserk (Active) Activated]

[Your sensory receptors have been dulled. Body will now move accordingly to obliterate as many enemies as possible.]

A red haze covers my vision, and I fade out.

The world shifts into shades of red so that I no longer perceive the colors of each rat, the grey skies, the brown mud on the ground.

My personality recedes. That was the only way I could put it. I didn't feel like me anymore. My memories and experiences dissipate to the corners of my conscious. The only thing I focused on was the rats squirming over a taller mass before me.

Something else was rising to take its place in my mind, something I didn't even know I had because of how deeply it was hidden before.

I was still conscious, but my body no longer responded to my commands anymore.

『Flight』activates itself, not trying to fly up into the sky by zooming forward close to the ground, using my feet to adjust the trajectory of my body. The berserk mode was effective, I'll give it that. This was fast and more efficient than flying. The cost of flying while it rained now was too high to be useful in the fight.

Meanwhile, as I think this, I was unable to react at all with the speed at which my body was moving.

The smaller rats are pierced clean through with a series of concentrated pecks in the exact same spot, entering through their skull. It was done at a speed and accuracy impossible for me to carry out, to hit the same spot multiple times and boring straight through the skull, throat, and insides of the rats to come out the other side.

One large grey Subterranean Rat bounds towards me, whipping out it's long tail.

My break opens wide and catches the tip of it in my mouth, making a satisfying crunching sound as half the tail gets severed off.

Still, the momentum of the tail meeting my face was enough to send me flying towards the squirming mound that covered Greenie.

Most of the rats that covered him were the smaller ones, the bigger size of the rats making it harder for them to climb over his body.

Even with my hearing dulled, the sound of angry squeaking noises was audible. Their bodies moved in constant motion as they gnawed at Greenie's green skin, a dark red blood staining their fur.

They jump off Greenie when I get closer to them, swirling like a furry storm to face me. My body keeps plowing forward either way, biting off snouts, claws, fur, anything that gets too close to me.

Eyes focused on dealing with the masses of rats throwing themselves at me, I'm unable to focus my gaze on the bloody mass that was Greenie. I could only see him from the corner of my eye, but things didn't look so good.

I needed to help him somehow.

But the rats were still there. The last of them finally come out of our cave, spilling forth like chunky vomit into the clearing to surround me.

But my body doesn't seem to care. It continues to bite and kick, digging claws into eyes and slapping small rats away with spread wings.

[Skill: Razor Bite Acquired]

I can see some black feathers torn off as a few lucky rats catch onto my torso, though they're quickly obliterated with a flurry of pecks.

[Skill: Peck upgraded from LV1 to LV2!]

Chomp! A rat bites into my chest, leaving a gaping wet hole in my flesh. If I hadn't pecked it off, it would have kept its teeth buried in me. Blood drips off my body and wings with the rain. I didn't know if it was mine or the rats.

[Your Peck can now strike in a slashing motion.]

Lightning rumbles in the air as I, one lone bird faces off against the horde of rats teeming around it. With the injuries I was beginning to sustain, even with Berserk active, I was having trouble keeping up.

[Warning: Title ??? has prevented Status: Perpetual Insanity from being re-applied. Further extreme blood loss will override this effect, causing side-effects of Perpetual Insanity to reappear.]

That wasn't good. I needed to end this soon. Any more of this and Greenie and I would be dead.

Was there any way to deactivate Berserk? I would die if I kept fighting them like this. I wanted them away from the area, away from Greenie. If this skill was more passive in letting me have control over my body…

As if reading my thoughts, the system lady speaks up, right as I heave a medium-sized rat over my body and rip off it's ear in the process.

[Would you like to change Special Skill: Berserk (Active) to Special Skill: Berserk (Passive)?]

Before the lady even finished the whole sentence my mind was screaming at her.

Yes! Yes!

If the (Passive) was what I thought it was, then we would still have a chance!!

[Skill: Berserk (Passive) Selected]

I wouldn't be able to kill the rest of these rats by myself. I could lead them around the forest for another monster to do the job for me. No.

That wouldn't work. I would die of blood loss or the monster might try to kill me too. Using the torn off feathers, I press them into the hole in my chest. This should staunch the blood flow for now. So much of my movements relied on my chest muscles. It was tormenting to fight them like this.

Maybe I could lead them to the lake and use 『Taunt』to have them follow me in and drown themselves.

I didn't have any other option.

[Sensory dulling will still be applied. You will now regain control over your body.]

I don't try to feel if my body was moving to the commands. The senses were dulled now. I couldn't fly if I wanted to now. Grooves ran along the main bones that attached my sharp wings to my body, from where the rats had tried to chew and tear them off.

As soon as I can see my wings moving in response to the commands from my brain, I slash my way out of the rats with my beak. Skipping over the ground, flapping my wings to catch air like a rock skipping over a body of water.

It was the new move I'd learned from the berserk mode. It still gave me a fast mobility when I couldn't soar into the sky.

The pouring rain and mud made it hard to hear the little feet moving as one to chase after me, but their agitated squeaks were enough.

I needed them all to follow me to get them away from Greenie.

『Taunt』!!

The moment it's activated, the squeaks morph into a dull roar of angry chattering. I don't bother to look back, only focusing on pushing myself forward in the direction of the lake.

As we went further into the forest, we passed by the outskirts of the strange swirling white mist. Spread out as they chased after me, some running alongside me as they tried to stop me, a few rats accidentally wandered into the white mist.

『Taunt』!

From the corner of my eye, I can see them run straight into the white mist, but they don't come out.

I keep spamming 『Taunt』to keep the rats chasing after me.

Leaping over rocks and branches, I push my wings to move harder, faster.

Just a little more. A little bit more. Till that tree. Till I get to that rock. Till I get to that bush. I keep myself going using little milestones, an old habit I'd picked up during my high school days and had used in my career. Don't focus on the main goal. Just get yourself closer to the small ones first.

I almost want to die. Even with the pain tolerance, every single part of my body was on fire in agony.

[Effect of Title: Perseverant applied]

[With death drawing closer than ever before, you have received 5 minutes worth of vitality.]

My eyes strain to recognize the correct path to the lake, with the occasional sparks of lightning my only guide.

『Taunt』and run.

『Taunt』and jump.

I repeat the motions over and over as I keep going.

The dark branches whip over my head and trees loom ominously over me as the rat horde chases me.

After what feels like an eternity, I can see it!

A large black lake reflecting the storm clouds swirling above it. I could see the lake as I was a few inches off the ground, each large hop off the ground giving me a higher vantage point, as I use my wings for extra buoyancy.The rats wouldn't be able to see or sense it. Since they were blind, I didn't know how they saw, most likely either scent or hearing.

They wouldn't be able to scent or hear anything with the heavy rain that continued to fall.

Somehow, I'd made it to a short rock ledge I'd seen, on the opposite side of the lake from where the humans had been.

This was the ledge I'd had in mind for my emergency plan. It jutted out of the forest right over the water. The rats' bodies, so used to being underground, were built to press close and only sense what was right in front of them.

It should be the perfect formula for-

『Taunt』『Taunt』『Taunt』『Taunt』『Taunt』『Taunt』『Taunt』『Taunt』『Taunt』『Taunt』『Taunt』『Taunt』

I focus on activating taunt as many times as I can. This next step was vital.

KRWAAAAAAAK!!!!

Pushing my shaking lungs to the limit, I roar out into the dark skies. FOLLOW ME YOU STUPID RATS!!!

The rustling noises get louder as the rats get closer and closer to me, close enough that I can see their whiskers as they stretch their necks to snap their teeth closer to me-

jump!!

I leap off the ledge and snap out my wings, catching the bellowing storm air to glide towards the grass on the other side of the lake. My beak clamps together hard as I grit them together, head pulsing with the fiery shots of pain running up and down each wing.

SNAP!

Something snaps in my wings, making them fold inward.

They were bent in a weird direction before, but after this stunt, they would be out of commission for a while.

It was a good thing I was already over land at that point, plummeting straight down to the earth. I relax my body as best I can in preparation for impact.

BAM!

My body slams into the ground. Rolling like a ball until the momentum disappears, I push myself back up to see what the rats had done.

Both wings hung limp at my sides, useless.

A river of rats continue to fall over the ledge and into the water, the squirming mass disappearing into the dark waters. They all struggled to get out at first, climbing on top of each other, but the area of the lake they'd fallen into was too deep.

I watch until every last one is in the water. As they thrash about. And when they finally disappear, bubbles roil on the surface of the water.

After confirming that they were all dead, my body collapses into the soft grass by the lakeside.

Hrk! Hrk! Hrk!

Each breath gushing out of my lungs were shuddering, light breaths, my heart still beating frantically in my chest.

It hurt to breathe.

It hurts to move.

Everything was painful.

RR-UMBLE!

The thunder roaring in the sky was the last thing I hear, before I-

All the strength leaves my body.

A black raven, blood smeared body tattered with multiple bite wounds and wings missing feathers, lies as if dead in the grass.

Ding~!

[Ildrig chooses to reveal his name to you.]

[Ildrig, God of Mischief, is pleased by your actions.]

[Ildrig offers you a gift.]

[You may choose one skill from the Subterranean Rat's skill set.]

[Scent Detection,Thought Transmission, Bone Crushing Teeth, Tunneling, Poison Saliva]