Apocalypse Reset: My Crab Can Heal the World!

Godrick cracks his knuckles. "Alright, kid. You ready for your first real fight?"

Roscoe nods, gripping his sword tight. His hands tremble slightly, but his eyes burn with determination.

"Just stick close, eh?" Godrick grins. "And when in doubt - hit ’em harder."

Their team holds the higher ground, a natural incline giving them a perfect vantage point.

Roscoe raises a foam bomb in his hand, looking toward the incoming horde. "On your mark, Godrick."

But just before they can start throwing the bombs down the hill, a sudden burst comes from the woods behind them.

The two whip their heads around, unsure of what they are seeing. Whatever it is - it’s grotesque.

A writhing mass of decayed flesh and limbs appears to have fallen from the sky, or manifested with magic. An abomination forged from no fewer than twenty humans, and it lumbers toward their group. It’s encased in bony armor, a mix of sharp bones and rib cages forming a protective shell around the meatball.

The Adventurers with them scatter out in a defensive formation. Their group isn’t supposed to be in direct combat - now, it’s inevitable.

"Damn things, I remember seeing one before I was killed the first time," Godrick grits his teeth. "Think they were calling them Boneballs, or something."

The ’Boneball’ retches, oozing something like poisonous vomit. Nearby, Skado emits a soft and excited ’Ooh!’ as he sees something remotely venomous.

"Come on, kid! Can’t let this nasty mate go on now - we got our own balls to drop!"

Godrick speeds forward, blades in hand. He weaves them effortlessly through the gaps in the Boneball’s armor, pivoting with each thrust and striking over and over again.

The Boneball screams in pain, shaking and writhing. But it’s far from defeated. Lanky, mutant arms begin smashing on the ground as it tries to squish Godrick like a bug. Thankfully, the Blade Dancer is far too quick for such lumbering, clumsy attacks.

Roscoe clutches his sword, Crashing Wave, and swings - activating the weapon’s latent ability. Blades of water fly through the air, peppering the soft inner flesh of the Boneball, tearing it up. The mass shrieks and flails, destroying the carts they arrived with, smashing all of their supplies to bits.

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And then it changes - adapting to the attacks. It grows and elongates, becoming more of a worm than a ball - still shielded by a carapace of bone to protect its rotting inner flesh.

The writhing limbs stretch unnaturally, its form shifting from a rolling mass into something more... deliberate. The spine of the creature seems to crack and extend, until it slithers, dragging its broken limbs behind it.

"Well, ain’t much of a Boneball now, is it?" Godrick huffs. "More like a Bonecrawler!"

The newly minted ’Bonecrawler’ is fast - much faster than before. It takes Godrick off guard and rams into him, though he uses his swords to block the attack. He strains every muscle in his body against the mutant as bony arms start to erupt from its flesh, eager to cage Godrick in and consume him.

"Little help here, mates!" Godrick cries out, his arms shaking.

"Roscoe, throw a foam bomb, stat!" Skado shouts over the battlefield, rushing to Godrick’s side. He reaches into his own bag and throws a tuft of red mist in the air just as he reaches Godrick’s side.

"Hold your breath!" Skado commands as a bright red haze spreads in the air over the Bonecrawler’s ’face’ - or at least, what appears to be a face.

Nothing happens for a brief moment, but then suddenly the Bonecrawler recoils, shrieking even louder than before. The whole creature howls with ungodly pain as it shudders and shakes. Not that the undead are capable of much thought, but the Bonecrawler is suddenly without the capacity for anything as the red mist is sucked up by it’s pussy, decaying flesh.

’Ghost pepper powder, mixed with salinated holy water,’ Skado smirks. ’The perfect tool to incapacitate the undead.’

As the Bonecrawler is stunned senseless, Roscoe lifts one of the heavy foam bombs and chucks it with all his might. It flies through the air and lands with a THUD right on the Bonecrawler’s head.

It’s already dying from Skado’s well-timed and carefully curated poison, but the foam bomb finishes the job. As the cleansing power of Clancy’s foam seeps through the open wounds left by Skado and Godrick, the Bonecrawler dissolves, leaving only a heap of limbs.

"That…doesn’t look resurrectable," Godrick comments. The crisis subsided, they all look to the battlefield. As they do, they see the same horror that Barns and the others witnessed before - the floating, menacing ’Zombie Lord’ that has just manifested over the remaining horde.

"Time to step to it, mates. Let’s get these foam bombs rolling!"

They get into position alongside the other Adventurers. They picked this spot on purpose - it’s the perfect angle to rain death upon the horde, should their first round of defense - the trenches - get overwhelmed.

Godrick grins. "Three. Two. One. Roll ’em out!"

A dozen foam bombs tumble down the hill.

As soon as they burst open, a tsunami of white foam engulfs the undead.

The results are instantaneous. The creatures caught in the blast shriek and sizzle, their monstrous forms melting away.

Roscoe can’t believe his eyes.

Godrick lets out a roaring laugh. "Ain’t that a sight!? Keep ’em coming, kid!"

Roscoe reloads another bomb, his confidence growing with every second.

For the first time… he feels like he belongs.

…

Maria’s left flank holds strong. Osmond’s magic is tearing through zombies to devastating effect, and he looks like a demon possessed - all the while, Underhill moves like a shadow, striking with effortless precision.

They see the Zombie Lord manifest as well - large, winged, and deadly. Maria and Osmond look immediately to each other. As far as they knew, they were the only two in Dimartino that could fly - but Maria’s wings and her Ave Maria Royal Art were not yet ready.

"Looks like you’re up, Ozzie," she says with a wicked smile. She’s eager to see her man prove himself against such a formidable opponent. She knows Osmond is capable of far more than he’s shown anyone yet.

"Of course, my dove," he says quickly, floating up into the air. "I shall defeat this abomination in your honor!"

He zips off toward the Zombie Lord with a pulse of chaotic violet energy. As he flies away, Maria is knocked unsteady from his wind.

Underhill sneaks up behind Maria, watching as well.

"Oh, you’d better do something extra nice for him tonight, making him fight a big old freaky thing like that," Underhill quips.

"Please. If it’s to reward Osmond, then I’ll be the one having something extra nice done to them tonight."

She can’t help but smirk.