Chapter 73: All Hail Chief…

Chapter 73: Chapter 73: All Hail Chief...

... Exploit later.

This was not a romantic relationship. Even in the game, a romantic relationship between the player and Kiki did not start forming until much later.

Taking revenge for the tribe was most important to her.

But that experience taught Victor something very important.

And so he settled for the next best thing. A student and Master relationship.

It was not a romantic bond, but at the end of the day, a bond was still a bond.

No matter how stoic a person was, they would still feel hurt knowing that their student was losing.

All Victor needed to do was attack Popo’s pride. That way, this brother of his would be more interested in beating the shit out if him, than ending the fight.

Every hit on him increased the emotional resonance percentage.

Until finally, it arrived at 20%. Just enough for Victor to temporarily steal all the combat skills that Kiki had.

The memories from Kiki came to Victor all at once.

This was the Unique skill Heartbound Mimicry at work.

Kiki’s fighting stance, the exact angle of her wrist on a swing, the way she shifted her weight a split second before committing to a strike, all of it flooding into him like it had always been there, like he’d spent years drilling it instead of twelve messily days.

Victor understood it now. How to swing properly. How to read an opponent’s weight before they moved. How to bend around a stronger strike instead of meeting it head-on. How to turn a bigger man’s own strength into the thing that beat him.

Popo, stood up. His pride had been wounded by that single hit from Victor.

How could a weak Milkshake22 hurt him?

Preposterous.

Popo came at him again, axe swinging hard.

Victor sidestepped clean, letting the blow pass by inches from his shoulder, and drove an elbow straight into Popo’s face.

Popo staggered back, fury flashing across his expression, and he swung again.

Victor turned again, avoiding it entirely, and this time he caught the shift in Popo’s eyes. Red, bleeding into the whites, the same look Victor’s own eyes carried when Berserker instinct took hold.

He’s entering it too.

Then again, this was not without expectation. Berserker instinct was not a unique skill, any other barbarian could have it.

But it didn’t matter. Victor had more ace he hadn’t shown yet.

As the next swing came, Victor didn’t dodge. He raised his forearm instead.

The crowd gasped collectively, bracing for what seemed like a fatal mistake.

Once Popo’s axe came down, Victor’s arm would be diced and worse, so would his skull.

However...

CLANG.

The axe struck solid rock. Victor’s entire forearm had hardened into dark, volcanic-gray stone, the blade skidding harmlessly off it.

STONESKIN Blessing had been activated.

Shock rippled through the watching barbarians.

Victor smirked through the blood on his lips. "Careful, brother. Underestimating me is about to cost you everything."

His axe moved horizontally, slicing a long arc across Popo’s belly.

But this was not deep enough.

[BERSERKER INSTINCT— ACTIVE]

Victor surged forward before Popo could recover, driving a headbutt covered by Stoneskin, straight into his nose.

Attacks on the nose always created confusion. And it made breathing difficult. Which affected every other battle prowess an opponent had.

As Popo reeled back, Victor was already closing the gap again, slamming an uppercut into his jaw.

Blood splashed out.

Victor knew there was no room to stop now. If he let Popo recover for even a second, the advantage would flip back instantly.

So he didn’t stop.

He kept moving, Kiki’s techniques bleeding through every motion, dodging low, sweeping Popo’s legs, dropping him and following with punch after punch.

Stoneskin flared gray across his knuckles with every hit. Popo tried to defend, he tried to counter, but Victor read every movement a half-second before it happened, bending around every attempt to strike back.

The final blow landed square on Popo’s shoulder blade.

BOOM.

The impact rocked through Popo’s entire frame. His legs buckled, eyes glazing, and he dropped to his knees before collapsing fully onto the dirt.

Victor let Berserker fade, chest heaving, exhaustion crashing down instantly. Only a handful of seconds active, but against an opponent like this, it had cost him everything he had left.

Silence blanketed the place. Every single barbarian stood frozen, staring. Jaja, Kiki, Coco, all looked stunned.

Victor walked over slowly, retrieving Popo’s fallen axe, and stood over his brother.

Popo lay bleeding, belly, mouth, nose, both eyes swelling shut, ribs visibly broken beneath his skin. He struggled to breathe, let alone speak, one hand twitching weakly toward his weapon.

Victor kicked it out of reach.

He pointed his own axe down at his brother’s throat. "Do you yield?"

Popo’s jaw clenched, silent, stubborn even now.

Victor raised the axe.

This was a duel to the death. Everyone here understood that. Popo closed his eyes, bracing for it.

The blade came down.

It struck the ground beside his head instead, slicing clean through his left ear and burying deep into the dirt.

Popo flinched hard at the pain, blood welling instantly, but he was alive. He cracked one eye open, confusion was plain across his ruined face.

"I won," Victor said evenly. "Do you acknowledge it?"

A pause, staring into the eyes of this younger brother that had grown so fast.

Then Popo gave a slow, reluctant nod.

Murmurs broke out through the crowd instantly.

They had their answer.

They had... a new Chief.

But Victor wasn’t finished.

He turned to face the gathered barbarians. "This fight was meant to end in death. One of us walking away, one of us not." He let that settle a moment. "But I don’t believe that’s what the ancestors want from us anymore."

He raised a hand, and a small vial materialized in his palm, pulled straight from his inventory.

"A gift," he said, "from the ancestors."

He knelt and poured the glowing liquid over Popo’s ruined body. Before everyone’s eyes, the swelling receded, the blood stopped, the torn flesh of his ear knitting back together seamlessly.

Whispers spread through the crowd like wildfire.

"The ancestors’ blessing..."

"He truly is blessed by them..."

Victor watched the reaction settle over the tribe exactly the way he’d hoped it would.

A grin appeared.