Brand’s rage flared once again, fiercer than ever before. He let the rage in and let it engulfed him. His rage needed no further invitation. It entered every part of his body and Brand felt it empowering him. He had never felt this way before but Brand didn’t fight it. Instead, he ran with it.

He took a step and was immediately behind two of the giant wolves. Brand did not understand it. He was always fast and had a skill that allow him to go faster, but nothing like this. Brand found that he didn’t care. He realized he did not need to understand it; he just needed to kill!

Brand swung his sword. Brand put his weight behind the strike and the sword slice through the first wolf like it wasn’t even there. The swing continued and kill the second wolf before it could realize the danger. For a moment, everyone stopped. The other monsters stared at him in fear and Brand was pleased. He was less pleased with the horrified looks of the other humans. Why were they staring at him like that? The question was answered when Brand felt a sharp pain. He look down and saw something protruding from his body. It was the sharp end of a spear.

***

“Okay, we are impressed!” One of the spirits within the Hive said.

“Very impressed!” Another of the spirits said. “Is it just us or is the Boss even better now? I/we don’t remember him being so good the last time he was here.”

“He’s not called the Boss.” The first spirit corrected. “He has a name; Brand.”

“He will always be Boss to us.” Some the spirits laugh at the not funny joke.

“Good or not, he’s about to be dead.”

“Yeah. A spear going through you would usually do that. It was a good throw by that Monkey-man though.”

“It was a great throw! He threw it while he was standing high up on a tree branch, and it was a direct hit! Those monkeys must have been practicing.”

“Maybe we should create more Monkey-Men? With all the deaths, we are filled with energy.”

“Something to be considered but back to the first question; why is Brand so good? You guys don’t think it is because of us is it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, he survived a trip in the tunnels. All that fighting and killing should have make him stronger right?”

“You mean like us? Do humans get stronger just by killing?”

“We do so it make sense that human do as well. If that’s the case, we should think of not killing every human that comes in.”

“Why?”

“To fatten them up!” The spirit smugly said. “If we let some humans ‘escape’ after killing the rest of his friends, they would come back in the future stronger than before.”

“Thus feeding us even more energy! Hey, that’s a great idea!”

“Thanks. We need to find some ways of making the humans come back of course. Brand came back and it seems two of…what is he doing?”

The spirits within the Hive turned their focus back to Brand. They had expected the warrior to die from his wound but he had surprised them again. Brand was still standing. The spirits watch with some amazement as the warrior put a hand on the spear and began slowly pulling it out. Some of the spirits notice that they weren’t the only ones who were amazed. Their creatures and the other humans were all stepping away from Brand.

As the warrior was pulling the spear out, one of the spirits within the Hive began to wonder how Brand was able to do this. To their knowledge, human shouldn’t be able to remind standing after being speared in the body, much less being able to pull the spear themselves. As a Hive, the other spirits notice the question that was posed and got curious. Faced with a question, the Hive quite naturally decided to waste a little energy to find the reason.

They cast an Appraisal spell on the human. The Hive threw a tiny strand of energy towards Brand and then focus on the energy. To their surprise, the energy they threw out never enter Brand. The energy bounced off the human as if there was a barrier around him.

The spirits look on in wonder. They never had the Appraisal spell failed before and several of the spirits wondered if the humans had found a way to block the spell. The rest of the Hive quickly rejected that idea. The humans don’t even know about the spell, much less how to counter it. The rejection of the spell was most likely just a byproduct of whatever Brand was doing.

The Hive concentrated on the human warrior once again and notice that the barrier wasn’t perfect. The barrier was a result of energy coming out of the warrior and although the energy was thick, it seems to fluctuate. At this point, Brand had successfully pulled the spear out of him. Amazingly, he had remind standing the whole time. He then pointed his sword at the Monkey-man who threw the spear and the Hive noticed that Brand’s energy rushing down to his legs. Brand took a step and the next moment, he was at the tree the monkey was standing on. He swung his sword and the Hive noticed once again that the energy around him shifting. The energy was now around his arms and the sword cut through the tree in a single strike. The tree fell and Brand’s energy shifted again. It was now all around him. Brand began attacking their creatures.

It was suicide. Brand was hopelessly outnumbered but the warrior trough on without care. The Hive watch as he cut through their creatures spurting blood all over the place. The energy around Brand seems to make him stronger, tougher and faster. As good as he was, their creatures gave as good as they got. Claws scratched, jaws bite, and the body of the warrior was soon filled with injuries. The Hive watched on as Brand ignored the attacks of his enemies and concentrated only on killing. The Hive also noticed that the energy around him lessen with each attack he suffered and realized that this energy coming from Brand was finite. The spirits within the Hive had a quick discussion and decided to recall their creatures. The creatures heard the call and immediately withdrew.

The withdrawal was unexpected and it seems to confuse Brand. The human stood in his spot as the creatures withdrew back into the forest. The Hive watched as the energy around the warrior slowly disappear. The other humans were watching him in awe but no one approached him. It wouldn’t had help anyway. Everyone knew what was going to happen.

Once the energy around Brand was completely gone, it was as if the string holding up the man had been cut. He fell face first on the ground. He was dead. The Hive quickly absorbed him and were rewarded.

Species: Human

Class: Warrior/Berserker

Sex: Male

Attack: B/A

Defense: D/D

Health: C/B

Strength: B/A

Agility: C/B

“Interesting,” one of the spirits said. “What’s a berserker? Is it some new class the humans trained in?”

“No,” another spirit said. “It wasn’t trained. It was caused by his energy. The energy changed him.”

“Yes,” a third spirit cut in. “It seems similar to what we do when we create a new creature. The human...evolved!”