[Redeyes]

I wouldn't say there is no risk beforehand when your pretender ends up dead...

You knew (or should have known) that your pretender was a berserker.
Berserkers die when the time-limit goes out, like Golems (iirc), someone paralyzed, or others who don't rout.

Perhaps not as apparent as what happens when you rout and have no territory to retreat to, yet a risk all the same.