Apocalypse Reset: My Crab Can Heal the World!

Barns stares at his reflection. It's him, but it's wrong. The fact that it just walked out of a mirror seconds ago all but proves that.

Compared to the real Barns, its shoulders are broader, its arms thicker with segmented chitin, and its fingers are tipped with jagged pincers. Speckled flecks glint across its skin, scattered like barnacles on a shipwreck. A fitting detail.

What interests Barns most about the figure is its pendant. Hanging from its thick neck is the object of his trial - a glowing, cursed gold medallion.

"Hello, BARNACLES."

Its voice is his, but not quite. There's a deeper, gravelly resonance, an echo of something both familiar and alien. And crabby.

"Is this one of those 'defeat yourself to grow stronger' moments?" Barns smirks. "Can't we talk it out? You're me, right? So you should appreciate a good pow-wow."

The clone doesn't reply immediately. He circles slightly, toying with his footing on the rippling seabed. The pressure in the chamber is thick, almost overbearing. Every movement Barns makes in here feels sluggish. This fight won't be like any other he's had.

"Alright," Barns exhales. "I've fought a lot of weird stuff, but this?" He cracks his knuckles, then flexes his claw. "This is a first."

His Crabbified Clone mirrors the movement perfectly.

Barns' stomach tightens. It's watching. Learning.

And then, without warning, without a word -

It moves.

The clone is fast.

Barns barely has time to react. A blur of chitin and gold crashes toward him. He pivots just in time, throwing up his arm to block—but the impact sends a shockwave through the chamber, rattling the coral-lined walls.

"BARNACLES," the clone says with a hideous smile. "If I can kill you, then we will become crab together. Just like we were always meant to."

Barns pushes back, but the clone is relentless. It presses the attack, throwing out a flurry of brutal, snapping strikes with its razor-edged pincers.

Barns ducks, swerves, and throws up a Harden Body just in time to absorb a devastating blow aimed for his ribs. The force sends him skidding backward, his heels digging furrows into the sand.

"Okay. You hit hard," Barns grits out, shaking off the impact. His arms tingle from the force. "But bad news, Barn-clone. I'm not becoming a crab!"

The clone cocks its head. A fraction of a second later, its own body hardens in response.

Barns' breath catches.

'It just copied me.'

This thing isn't just a reflection. It's reacting. Evolving. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Barns has fought fast opponents before. But he's never fought himself.

His clone continues the attack, this time, with perfectly synchronized footwork, mirroring Barns' stance exactly.

Barns slips sideways, dodging the incoming strike by a hair's breadth. His instincts scream at him to counter, so he does - spinning, twisting his weight, and launching a crushing Claw of Death toward its exposed side.

For a moment, he thinks he has it. But his clone's hardened shell takes the hit with barely a flinch.

Barns' eyes widen. His claw does nothing.

Before he can even process it, the clone retaliates with a vicious backhand.

Barns barely registers the movement before he's flung like a ragdoll across the chamber. He slams into the far wall, shattering the delicate coral on impact .

Barns groans - that one hurt.

He jumps back to his feet, shaking the stars from his vision. His clone looms on the other side of the room, motionless. Watching and waiting, with cold, calculating eyes.

Barns takes a deep breath. No way his inner crab is taking the W here.

"Alright, crab boy," he mutters, rolling his shoulders. "You wanna play copycat? Let's see how well you keep up."

He moves.

This time, he doesn't hold back.

Barns surges forward, kicking up a cloud of sand as he closes the gap. His claw swings in a feint, but at the last second - He cancels.

The clone flinches, reacting to an attack that never comes. But Barns isn't finished yet.

He twists low, driving a knee into its side, then follows up with an upward strike before it can recover.

It reels back - but barely. Not enough, and Barns still has some fight left.

Barns channels all his energy and focus into his left arm, creating another crab claw. But this time, he's doing something that surprises even himself - and his clone.

"Claw of Death: Crescent Cleave!"

A shockwave of energy bursts from his attack, carving a deep trench into the ocean floor. The clone reacts too slowly this time - the impact connects directly with its torso, sending it skidding backward.

Barns doesn't wait to see the result.

He dives forward, grabbing for the cursed medallion.

The second he touches it, an unholy energy erupts from the medallion.

Barns chokes as his limbs go rigid.

A force unlike anything he's ever felt grips him from the inside, clawing at his bones, dragging him toward the mirror.

The reflection ripples.

His clone smirks.

A voice - his voice - whispers from the void.

"Trade places with me."

Barns' mind explodes with visions—of chitin-covered arms, of endless hunger, of losing himself entirely to the abyss of crabdom.

His body lurches toward the mirror.

"No!"

At the last second, Barns digs his heels into the seabed.

He roars through clenched teeth, forcing his will against the medallion's pull.

"Like hell I'm letting some crab-freak take my place!"

His aura ignites. The energy of his Crab Affinity flares like burning tides. The medallion trembles in his grip, cracking along its cursed surface.

His clone's eyes widen.

Barns grits his teeth, and lets his crab claw wrap around the medallion with all his might. He squeezes and squeezes until finally, the medallion is crushed in his grip.

The world shatters.

A flash of golden light engulfs the chamber. He closes his eyes, unable to handle the intensity of the light. All the while, a deafening sound like roaring wind overwhelms him.

Slowly, the glow fades. Barns stumbles forward, gasping from the intensity of the battle.

As he looks around, he doesn't see his clone. The mirror before him is empty, devoid of reflection.

And at his feet, the shattered remains of the cursed medallion.

He leans down to pick up the pieces. The sage crab never specified the medallion had to be in one piece.

"Yeah," he mutters. "That was definitely something."

The stone wall behind him shifts.

The passage opens once more, revealing the Sage Crab beyond.

Barns steps forward, exhausted but victorious.

Whatever happens next, he's passed the trial, of that he's sure.