Apocalypse Reset: My Crab Can Heal the World! - Chapter 68

Chapter 68: Not Barnacles!
The Sentinel glowers over the crab, fully confident in her abilities – there’s not a shred of fear in her heart.

“Barnacles. I sentence you to death by order of Empernon Yharnam- er, I mean Emperor Yharan” she spits, getting tongue tied. It’s her fatal flaw – speaking without getting things mixed up.

Clancy pivots around. “NO BARNACLES.”

“So you would fight?” she chides callously. Clancy raises his claws in agreement. He likes fighting.

They exchange blows, one after the other, as Clancy jabs and stabs like a maniac in her general direction. She’s not able to dodge all his attacks quickly enough, so she activates her power.

The Sentinel can ‘grab’ any object with her mind, and move it at the speed of sound wherever she pleases. It’s only one of her fearsome powers, but she’s confident just that is enough to take out the crab.

But as she begins to focus her power on Clancy, his sheer force pushes against it. He’s repelled, but only a few feet.

The Sentinel looks at her hand in wonder. No creature has ever been able to withstand her power – except the other Sentinels. That the crab can manage such a feat is extraordinary.

“And here I thought you were wholly outmatched, Barnacles.”

NO BARNACLES!” Clancy repeats, dashing into her again.

She uses her power to push him back again, but this time he’s ready from it. Right as she pushes against him, Clancy summons up a second burst of speed and breaks through her push. She’s standing there unarmed as he flies through her invisible barrier and swings his claw.

He knocks her in the face, but as he does she releases another wave of power that forces him back some.

She reaches for her forehead and then looks at her hand. It’s covered in blood. She stumbles around, woozy from the blow to her head.

“You stupid crab,” she sneers as the blood runs down her nose and into her mouth. She looks up wildly, her green hair becoming untangled from the ponytail. Her outfit, once perfectly white, is now specked with dirt from the battle so far.

“How dare you lay a hand on me, Donatella of the Sentinels! You fucking crab! It’s not even a hand, it’s a claw…pincer, whatever!”

She throws her hand defiantly as she screams. “You think you can just do that!? Nobody lays a hand on me! Ever! Augh! I mean a claw!”

Donatella attempts to steel herself, but her emotions are in a wild rut. Her blood is running HOT – this isn’t what she’s used to, not at all. She hasn’t been directly challenged in combat since her duel with a certain someone, long ago…

‘Now’s not the time,’ Donatella thinks. She cements herself, standing firm. ‘It was just one lucky hit,’ Donatella assures herself. ‘This crab is nothing. His name is Barnacles – like a filthy parasite. No way could such an audacious creature defeat her. She is a Sentinel!

Donatella cracks her neck. ‘That’s right, I am a Sentinel,’ she remembers. ‘We don’t give in to our emotions. We are the hand of fate – of justice!’

The few gathered at the commotion look around nervously. Donatella hadn’t noticed, but she had started speaking her inner thoughts out loud like a crazy person.

She reels herself back in, clearing her throat as if nothing happened. “Now then, Barnacles. Where were we?”

The crab launches himself through the air at her, using his power and momentum to crash down and resist her ‘push’. Though she doesn’t try to launch him away – she knows better. She directs him to the side, knocking him off-course, while attempting another attack.

‘He’s too big to warp,’ Donatella strategizes, ‘And too strong for me to fully manipulate…but he won’t be able to stop this.’

Donatella reaches her hand to the left, clenching invisible energy around a nearby house. She uproots it from the ground, as pieces of the foundation come crumbling down. Her arm shakes from the exertion – manipulating an object this large requires immense power.

Someone jumps out of the house as it starts to raise into the air, screaming. “This is worse than the vampires!” they wail.

She levitates the building above her head, all while narrowly dodging a pincer jab. She focuses all her power and attention on a single moment as the house begins to throttle above. She dramatically pumps her arms, causing the suspended house to plummet directly onto both of them. A split second before impact, she teleports herself away to safety.

The house crashes into Clancy, covering him in rock and debris. Donatella exhales sharply – that maneuver drained much of her power. She’d have to retreat soon – come back for ‘Clancy the human’ some other time – but she has enough power to finish off the crab for now, if he wasn’t already dead.

Clancy rises from the house, shooting up through the wreckage on a jet of foam and landing atop the rubble valiantly.

“Undefeated!” Clancy roars. “LONG LIFE KING CRAB! CHANT, SUBJECTS!”

“Long live the King Crab!” some of the crowd howls. It’s enough to distract Donatella for just a moment.

An arrow whizzes through the air, silent and deadly. Donatella doesn’t notice it until it’s too late. She freezes the arrow’s momentum, but only after the arrowhead buries itself into her shoulder.

She clutches the wound, stumbling away, still feeling a little dizzy from the hit she took on the head.

“This is bad,” she says to herself. She looks up and spies the archer, standing atop a nearby building. It’s Eldrie, and he’s already preparing another. She assumes the archer is Clancy. She is very wrong.

‘Seems like this won’t be such an easy job after all. No matter. We’ll just go with our Plan B.’

She looks from the archer to the crab, both ready to attack. She’d retreat – for now – but not without a proper farewell.

“This has become an annoyance to me. Barnacles – your days are numbered. I will return soon and finish this decidedly…er…decisively.” As she speaks she rips the arrow from her shoulder.

“NOT BARNACLES!” Clancy shouts, foaming as he articulates.

“I look forward to seeing you again, Barnacles.”

On those words, she pushes all her might against them, creating a torrent of wind that blasts through the town. It ravages the north side of town, blowing people and buildings away, and destroying a large swath of the newly freed town. As the wind wreaks havoc, she uses it as a propulsion to fly away in the opposite direction.

As she soars through the sky, she looks upon her destruction. Nearly ten percent of the town is leveled as a result of her attack. She turns in mid-flight, looking toward her destination.

‘That should be enough for the Emperor,’ she scoffs. ‘If he wanted total annihilation, he should have sent him.’