It had only been a few days since earth had seen its last sentient race, but things in general were still functioning normally. Eventually electricity and other such amenities would fail, but for now were someone to be left on earth they could get by quite comfortably on cup noodles and binge watching shows on their computer. But no one was there, and so no one would witness the eventual destruction of all that Humanity had built. Buildings would fall, roads would be overgrown, and the law of the jungle would rule once more as nature reclaimed her bounty.

No one was there. Or they shouldn’t have been. Humanity had all been transported far, far away. But it was not a member of Humanity that stepped out of a swirling dimensional portal on the previously unoccupied world.

The creature was humanoid in appearance. Mostly. It had a head, two arms, two legs, and no other appendages in places they shouldn’t be. But mistaking it for a human was not a mistake you could accuse someone of making. The first clue was its attire, or the lack thereof. Instead of wearing any sort of clothing, it was wearing water. A greenish colored coating of water encased its entire body, obviously held in place by some supernatural force.

Its body in general was smooth and rubbery, more reminiscent of some amphibian than any proper mammal, perhaps signifying the presence of the water surrounding it. Its lower half as well seemed more suited to underwater movement, with large webbed feet and legs similar to a frog. The torso and arms were more human, again in line with water dwelling ancestors there were clear gills on its neck. Its head was lacking any sort of hair, as was the rest of its body, and could be mistaken for an aliens in some sci-fi thriller.

The creature, who was part of the Poaoloaoia race, took a good look around after it stepped out of the glowing purple dimensional portal. It had appeared in what used to be flourishing city, but which city was meaningless to the creature. It looked around, and after reaching the conclusion that there were no sentient lifeforms in its immediate vicinity, it quickly set off to search the rest of the world. It did so by flying at supersonic speeds that, strangely enough, barely disturbed the air with its passing and didn’t cause sonic booms.

It only took a few hours for the creature to circle the earth a few times and be certain of its findings. It had found out two things, one being that this was certainly the planet it was looking for that had Gaia’s children on it, and two being “had” Gaia’s children, as they were clearly not there anymore.

“Something must have alerted Gaia to our movements,” The creature croaked to itself in a watery voice. “Based on the mana residue this planet was occupied until a few days ago. Truly a shame, we were so close too.”

In a fit of pique the creature stomped its foot on the ground, which made a rather large hole in the road it had been standing on. It paused, and suddenly smiled in a way to most often ascribed to movie villains. The creature’s first step was moving its portal. It dragged the portal high into the sky before once more anchoring it in place. Now it could begin.

It raised its arms and let the mana flow. At first nothing happened. All was calm. Then came the storm.

The seas below the creature heaved. If you have ever tried to make waves in a bathtub you would understand. First they start out small, then grow, and grow, until finally they crash in on themselves, spilling over the sides of the tub. Earth was nothing more than a tub to the Poaoloaoia floating high in the sky.

First went the beaches. Rising sea level had already made many beaches untenable except for human intervention. Then went the small islands. They were swamped by waves, once, twice, and eventually were eroded into oblivion. It didn’t stop there. The seas buckled and swayed, heaving themselves onto the land that no longer was safe from their watery grasp.

Hours later when the worst was over earth was unrecognizable. All but the highest elevation landmasses had been at least swept over and sown with salt water. Coast lines were demolished, and islands like England and Japan were no more.

The sky was now empty once again, and the dimensional interloper had long vanished, satisfied with leaving Humanity’s home in shambles. It had been too slow to catch Gaia sleeping, but Gaia had made its move, and now it was time for the counterattack. Humanity couldn’t hide forever, and when they were found, the Poaoloaia would be far from alone in making sure they faced the same fate as their home planet.

Sarah lay on the floor. She had been there for the past hour. It was long since time to get up, but getting up was hard. Sarah felt like it was the hardest thing she had to do in her entire life. But she did have to do it. Li and Walt had spent the last hour trying to convince her to get up and press onward. Li made a very persuasive argument. She said that if Kyle needed help, the quickest way to find him would be to go to the city Gaia mentioned and find someone who could track him with a skill somehow.

It made sense. She needed to find Kyle. To find Kyle she had to reach the city. To reach the city she had to get up off of the floor. She had to.

You can do it. You have to find Kyle. He’s probably fine. Definitely fine. Just need to get up and find him. Easy. It’s easy. Just get up. Easy.

It wasn’t easy. It took another hour of Sarah lying on the floor before Li finally was able to get her up.

“That’s it Sarah,” Li said with a sigh of relief. “Kyle wouldn’t want you to die before we find him. We have to keep going. Take this skill crystal. Walt can’t use it so you should.”

Sarah wordlessly took the crystal. It contained some sort of natural armor skill, which Walt most likely couldn’t learn because he had one already. Sarah had seen Li and Walt absorb the other two skill crystals, but all the excitement she had over them previously was gone. The only thing that had caught her attention from their conversation was about the combination crystal that was in the treasure chest. She remembered that Kyle had asked about them.

Kyle…

The next few days passed in a blur for Sarah. Li seemed to take charge, and they slowly made their way down the passage with her guidance. It was slow going. They advanced at a snail’s pace to check for traps and it took Li over twenty minutes to kill a slime by herself. But they progressed, and after four rest periods to sleep, so what should have been at least the fifth day, the group of three finally made it out of the tunnel they had been in.

They knew they had entered another area by the smell. It even roused Sarah’s consciousness from her haze for a brief moment. Fire and brimstone can do that to you. Ahead of the group was what could have very easily been a generic video game jumping level, complete with lava and all. It wasn’t a video game though, and the lava seemed confined to certain areas and the path across the large room could easily be traversed without any jumping necessary. Easily traversed if you didn’t take into account the lava golems strewn across the cavern.

“Do you think you can tank those lava golems Walt?” Li asked, expecting the obvious answer. She got it.

“Not happening,” Walt replied with a shake of his head. “I could maybe block one briefly, but there are way too many for us to fight. We would have to somehow section one off from the rest.”

The tunnel the party came from ended on a small cliff about fifteen feet up from the floor below that was filled with lava golems and pools of bubbling lava. The only exit from the cavern below them appeared to be another tunnel about the same height directly across from them. After counting them, there were over fifty golems between them and the path forward.

Li and Walt teamed up for a strategy meeting. Sarah sat against the wall, staring blankly ahead and generally tuning out the world. She was going forward, right? She would find Kyle eventually. Li and Walt would help her.

Kyle… I’m coming.

Of course she wasn’t really coming. If she was, she would have been right there with Li and Walt, planning a way through their most recent obstacle. Instead she was taking the position of deadweight, not even being able to fight any of the monsters they came across. Although to be fair they had only encountered slimes so far which she was useless against.

The party also needed to advance because their food stores were running low. Without Kyle it would last a bit longer, but they only had food for a week more max if they really stretched it out. Their water would be gone in less than four days. Slimes did not have edible body parts and neither did the golems in front of them, so finding edible monsters was a priority. Monster meat could even substitute for water, as the mana in the meat compensated and nourished the body.

Li and Walt finally came up with a plan they thought might work. There were three golems in a bunch close to the ledge they were on. Li would lock up two of them with a double dose of CC while Walt would then block the other one and Li would attempt to burst it down. They were both stronger than in the past from the few skill crystals and enhancement crystals they had picked up, so while the plan was no surefire success, they were confident they could escape if something went wrong.

Sarah watched as they implemented their plan. Walt seemed to be able to block the golem attacking him better than expected and remained at relatively high health without the need for massive heals from his skill. Li’s damage output was not huge, but was high enough that it seemed to be damaging the golem at a reasonable rate. They could not actually see its health bar or anything and didn’t have specific information to work with so when the two CC’ed golems were about to be freed the plan called for Walt to back off.

Li’s Shadow Suppression should have lasted well over a minute. Sarah watched from atop the ledge next to Li as the two golems stirred, the skill lasting not nearly as long as it should have. Walt and Li were shouting at each other, but it sounded very far away to Sarah as she watched Walt get swatted back by multiple tons of force from the ten foot tall lava golems. She couldn’t see his health, but his condition clearly wasn’t good.

Sarah watched in horror as the golems closed in on Walt. They had corralled him in and were preventing him from climbing back up to the ledge above. Li was shouting, but Sarah heard only silence. It all wasn’t real. First Kyle, now Walt. Her life had been shitty enough before all this happened. Sarah wondered where it all went wrong.

What did I do wrong? I only wanted to surprise Kyle. And then they were dead. Now he’s gone. He promised, but he’s gone. Why? Kyle… I need you. Please come back. Walt he, he needs you too. Please, Kyle.

No one was there to answer her prayers. Tears streamed down Sarah’s cheeks as she watched Walt be battered aside like a ragdoll, coming to rest a scant few feet from a pool of lava. Another golem had come over at this point, and now instead of a cave wall behind him, Walt was stuck between a lava pool, and lava golems.

Li was crying and screaming at Sarah to do something. She herself was almost helpless. She had used her CC on the two golems that she could, but there were still two that could not be immediately suppressed again, and trying to CC them all like that was a losing battle, even if Li could use mana crystals to compensate for the mana cost involved.

Finally having enough, Li let out a high pitched scream of frustration and smacked Sarah across the face. It dealt no damage given Sarah’s defensive skills and the massive difference in physical power, but it succeeded where everything else had failed.

It kindled a small spark of anger deep within Sarah.

That small spark would have been quickly overwhelmed by her helplessness and fear, but it was just enough to jump start a skill that Li and Walt had made Sarah absorb earlier to try and get her to fight.

The skill was called Perilous Rage. It made the user fly into a rage driven frenzy to do all they could to escape whatever perilous situation they found themselves in. The skill also increased in potency the higher perceived danger the user was in. The key being here “perceived danger”. The skill didn’t work off of actual danger, whatever that would mean, but how much fear the user felt for their life. Sarah currently felt a lot of fear.

The skill took that little spark of anger and slowly transformed it into a boiling hot rage. That rage then fed off of the all-encompassing fear that Sarah felt. Without Kyle, Sarah’s life was practically over. The skill took those feeling and channeled them, until only fury and rage remained. Rage at the world for making her feel this way, rage at those who caused her to feel helpless and afraid, rage at the enemies who threatened her life and those of her allies. The only valid target for that rage was the lava golems before her.

Li watched in shock as Sarah’s face changed from one tear streaked and ridden with fear and anxiety to one clearly showing barely suppressed anger. Sarah rocketed her way off of the ledge and attacked the golems in a frenzy. The golems, now under attack by another source, switched their focus from Walt to Sarah as she danced between them, her blades slicing into their lava exterior.

Li collapsed, her legs finally gave out as she sunk to the floor in relief. Sarah was back. Hopefully for good. They needed her if they were going to make it through the dungeon to the city where Humanity dwelled. The change in Sarah’s expression of fear to anger was rather dramatic though, and Li laughed to herself as she hoped the progression would not continue. They needed Sarah to help them get to the city, but not to have her get them there and then slaughter all the children.

Walt eventually made his way back up to the ledge with Li. Sarah was on a rampage, and he would only get in her way.

Sarah practically flew between the golems, shaving them down with each pass. While big and strong, they didn’t seem to have the reaction time to keep up with her speed. Her two short swords whipped around her in a frenzy, drawing lava with each swipe. Sarah was not paying any attention to her wellbeing so it was imperative that she didn’t get hit. But she seemed unlikely to at this point, and only continued with her whirlwind frenzy of devastation.

She was lucky her hair was short, as if it hadn’t been before it would have been now. Sarah’s blades swept within inches of her head and her rapid movements would have knocked out all but the tightest of hairstyles. Her rapid frenzy of rage induced killing continued unabated for several minutes until the last golem had been killed. Li and Walt watched in mute awe as Sarah stood there, before her swords disappeared and she seemed to fall in slow motion until she lay on the ground, passed out from her exertion.

When Sarah came to she was lying in on the floor in a small nook in a corridor. Walt had carried her unconscious body to a safer location as resting in a lava filled room was deemed less than smart by Walt and Li.

The other two quickly noticed her stirring and looked over at Sarah expectantly. Sarah slowly recalled the events since Kyle disappeared and her reaction to them. She had been… useless. A deadweight, and a clear drain on their resources and no use in finding Kyle, which should have been their eventual goal after rescuing themselves first.

I… What happened to me? Kyle could be in trouble and I was moping around, trying to get us all killed. When his dad died I swore that I would be there for Kyle. I can’t fall apart like this. I have to be strong. Kyle IS alive, and I have to find him. No excuses. It’s time to forge ahead and fight. Mom wouldn’t have backed down if Dad was trapped in a dungeon somewhere. She would have fought until she had saved him. Now he and Kyle could both be trapped somewhere. Dad didn’t have that many combat skills. He might need my help. Kyle will know what to do. First I’ll save Kyle, then with his help save my dad.

Sarah slowly got up and joined the other two at the fire they had made. She had to be strong. It wasn’t just her now. She had other people depending on her. She couldn’t rely on Kyle forever. It was time for the princess to kick some ass and save the day.