Berserk

From The Great Outdoor Fight

A fighter who goes berserk is a fighter who, through a combination of rage and adrenalin, becomes single minded in his destructive path. Often capable of nearly supernatural feats of violence and courage, a berserker can often account for a large scale winnowing of the field in the Fight.

Berserking is often compared to the Dutch fugue. However, a Dutch fugue is a disassociative state, where the fighter in question becomes almost an automaton, maiming and killing on all sides with little or no connection to what he is doing. A berserker, by contrast, becomes monofocused on his tasks -- if anything, even more engaged than normal in his task.

Berserkers usually calm down after a few hours, though some have been known to maintain their rage for as many as thirteen. Typically, a berserker will need some time to recover afterward. Fortunately for most berserkers, they are generally given a wide berth following their rage -- weaker fighters fear to provoke a new assault, and stronger fighters want to save the berserker for late in the fight, out of concerns of style.

(Berserk is derived from the Old Norse bera sarkr, or "bear shirt," commemorating those ancient warriors of Northern Europe who wore bear pelts into battle to intimidate their enemies.)