Apocalypse Reset: My Crab Can Heal the World!

Eldrie taps the microphone, looking out over the crowd of people. Somehow, he’s the one who got stuck with the task of speaking to the gathered townsfolk of Ordella.

"Welcome to the Crab Kingdom," he says nonchalantly. "Er…please, from now on, you must perform this salute when greeting each other, to show solidarity…" Eldrie performs the claw salute with absolute stoicism.

Haima, watching from the crowd, claps her hand to her forehead. "For goodness sake," she says, listening to Eldrie. "I could have done a better job."

"That crab salute sure is catchin’ on, hun," Godrick chuckles before facing the small woman. "Oy, Haima, I gotta say, there’s been something on my mind I just gotta let go. See, I think you’re a right looker, love, and I’d love to spend an evening just chattin’, and gettin’ to know each other a little better. How’s that sound?"

Her nostrils flare. "Like a date?" she asks quickly, blushing and embarrassed. She and Godrick spent a lot of time together in the first days of the Kingdom. As equally skilled warriors, they were a pivotal team for the Adventurer Guild. These last few days, however, they’d hardly seen each other.

"Like a date. Oh, but don’t worry, I won’t be puttin’ me hands on ya. I’m a right gentleman, no sex until marriage type of mate, oh - I hope that’s all right with you?"

Haima’s heart flutters. He’s her type of man, inside and out. His towering, strong stature, his ’young dad’ energy…

"Ooh," Haima exhales, accidentally sounding a little sensual.

An image of Barns flashes into Haima’s mind. She has been on two dates with the hero already.

’It’d be wrong to go on another date without at least talking to Barns,’ she realizes.

"Listen, Godrick, I’d love to, b-"

Before she can get her ’but’ out, there’s an explosion on the north side of town that shakes the ground. The sound alone sends a shockwave through Ordella, and Haima shrieks, covering her head and stumbling. Gasps from nearby, as the crowd around them begins to panic. Smoke billows from nearby to the north.

Godrick puts his hand around Haima’s wrist, holding her steady. She whimpers, staring directly into his bright and shining eyes, as she soaks up his manliness.

Her pulse quickens - the look they exchange feels like an eternity, yet still too short for Haima’s taste. She’d nearly forgotten about the explosion.

"Keep it together, love! Let’s go check it out!"

They rush to the site of the commotion. By the sandstone gate that stood at the edge of town, Ordella’s historic district, a woman appears. She emerges from a smoking crater, the source of the earlier explosion. As she steps from the ash and brimstone, the onlookers expect her to look alien, or at least disheveled.

She’s none of those things. She is the visage of a powerful woman - strong shoulders, and toned arms visible under a dirtless white battle dress. Her legs are covered by long boots with a wedged heel, and though she bears no weapons she looks ready for a fight.

"Hello, fellow humans. I bear a message from the Emperor."

The many humans around seem confused.

"Emperor?" one whispers.

"Are there other towns out there?"

The woman adjusts her hair - it is long and green, feylike. She wears it in a long ponytail, wrapped in a clip with a pink flower adornment.

"The Emperor has decreed that all humans in Ordella and Dimartino may live in uninterrupted peace, so long as the human named Clancy and the crab named Barnacles are brought to me and summarily executed. These are our terms."

Just then, Haima and Godrick run up, arriving at the gate.

"That will never happen!" Haima shouts, stretching out her fingers and focusing on the feel of her rushing blood. She was ready to attack the woman at any moment if she had to.

The intruder tilts her head toward Haima, sensing her power. "You, black-haired woman. Are you in charge here? Bring me Barnacles and Clancy. I shall not ask again."

"And what if I don’t?" Haima asks, her boots the only other sound in the area as she boldly approaches the intruder.

The intruder widens her stance. Both women exude absolute confidence - the smaller and more reserved Haima eyes the intruder like a cat, while the much bigger woman exerts her strength by demonstrating her unyielding presence.

"Then by decree of Emperor Yharan, and my authority as a Sentinel, I shall subjugate any who stand in my way until I find them."

"Try it." Haima goads.

The two women burst into action, Haima attacking first. She throws a block out of her pocket - a pressurized mass of vampire gator blood - and transfixes it in midair, morphing it into a magicked sickle of blood in the span of a second. She launches her weapon at the Sentinel in an attempt to slash her through.

The Sentinel doesn’t move a muscle before the sickle comes barreling into her. Just as it’s about to strike, the air around her distorts - a laser-like shockwave ripples outward, knocking the sickle off course. Haima barely registers the distortion before her weapon smashes into a rooftop.

’How’d she do that?’ Haima questions. ’Does she have some sort of psychic power?’

The Sentinel turns her head slowly back toward Haima, unbothered by the attack. Her eyes are full of arrogance, as if daring Haima to show her something better.

’I have just the thing,’ Haima says cockily. It’s not the move she likes to rely on the most, but it is her most powerful - her blood, meat, and bone manipulation.

Haima activates her Secret Art, taking hold of the Sentinel’s flesh with her mind - but as she squeezes, something pushes against her. The Sentinel’s body resists Haima’s Secret Art and she’s unable to take hold.

"Woman, are you trying to control me?" the Sentinel’s eyes light up with arrogance and mockery. "What is this? Do you think I am a child?"

The woman swings her arm, and though she’s several meters away, it’s like she punches Haima squarely in the face. The small woman tumbles to the ground, stunned.

’Impossible,’ Haima thinks to herself as she lays on the stone ground, gasping for air. ’Nobody can resist my Secret Art…’

"Haima!" Godrick yells, rushing up to join the battle. In seconds he’s at the Sentinel’s side, two blades in hand. He swings them high while drawing his other two swords and slashing low. The Sentinel darts backward so quickly that Godrick is sure she teleported.

"Now here is an actual challenge," the Sentinel giggles. "Is that the Bravuran ’Asura Dance’ I see? I’ve only ever heard about it - to think the art lives on."

The Sentinel brushes away her sentimentality. "If you continue standing in my way, your beautiful skill will be wasted. You cannot win against me. Bring me your crab."

Godrick doesn’t answer, he just starts swinging again. She dodges his first attack and before he can catch the two blades in midair, she warps them away into a void.

’Fine. Two blades down. Still got two, that’s all I need!’

Godrick is a professional improviser, and he switches to another dance effortlessly - the Mantis Dance. His remaining two blades become like extensions of his arms as he burrows down onto his opponent. She has a brief moment of panic in her eyes before getting low and thrusting her arms forward.

Godrick is repelled away at Mach speed and plummets through someone’s front door. He’s out cold.

Haima shouts after him, holding her hand out toward Godrick. She infuses her Secret Art into him from afar, attempting to mend his damage immediately - before his injuries become fatal.

"I suppose you’re done as well?" the Sentinel says, looking at Haima who’s struggling to stand. The Sentinel flicks her wrist and Haima goes flying, tumbling over the ground. She hopes she managed to heal Godrick enough.

"Now, I will ask you all again. Where is Barnacles the crab and where is Clancy the human?"

One person standing nearby that hasn’t run off yet coughs. "Strictly speaking, Barnacles is the human, and Clancy is the crab…at least that’s what I was told…"

The Sentinel tilts her head inquisitively. "No, that’s…impossible," the Sentinel replies. "Barnacles is the crab. My intel is never wrong."

The man who corrected her stands in silence as he and the woman exchange a stoic stare. He scratches his head. All he cares about is not dying.

The Sentinel’s eye twitches as she hears light, rhythmic tapping coming from not far away. Like all Sentinels, she has excellent control over the five senses, and her hearing is quite good.

With the fury of a thousand tides, Clancy scuttles on the scene, his mouth already foaming and his claws raised powerfully above his head.

"EVIL WOMAN! FACE VENGEANCE!"

"You’re a bit bigger than I thought," the Sentinel scowls. "Now come," she says. "Accept your death!"

The two rush toward each other, and the true battle begins!