Sometimes, you just had to accept your life had gone totally fucking insane. As I rode upon the back of a giant snake, as Titanic women battled a monstrously sized panther, into a horde of soulless monsters, as one of my… friends? Friends, recovered from assisted mutilation, I reflected on this.

My life has been insane since the day I woke up as a different species. Even on the day of, minute of even, that had been a secondary concern at best. Barely made the top five.

But a different feeling welled up within me. An oh so easy emotion. A beautiful one. As the silver haired leader battled a panther, as Saisaie fended off a tornado, as two others fought a living chasm and two more fought a Tsunami, we rushed ahead beneath their Titanic blows. We were ants in a battle of giants.

That feeling inside me grew.

But our own battles awaited. Even as they were crushed and stepped on, scattered to the winds and drowned by a lake’s worth of water, the soulless living rushed at us. Monsters, one and all. Ranging from just meaner, bigger animals; such as Gorillas, smaller panthers, giant snakes of their own, oddly massive frogs, and more. To true monsters, things I didn’t even have names for. What seemed like living, floating, dryads or treants, insect like creatures with too many limbs even for insects and only a single eye, things seemingly made of mud with a massive head that was only a mouth and circular jaw of teeth, straight up movie like raptors, and the one leading the pack.

How I had missed a God Damn T-Fucking-Rex was beyond me.

My life had truly gone insane.

But the feeling inside me grew.

We were moments away from clashing, Giant snake to T-rex. Hiyark had her spear ready, seemingly aiming straight for the main opposition. Happy started to play a song on a massive drum between his legs, hitting it on the side with some kind of sticks. Things seemed to ramp up in intensity. Boom, Boom, Boom came from his war beat as he laughed giddily. I could feel the snake shifting behind me, warriors getting ready. Even Konohora groaning as she prepared to fight. My own claws and tail flicked themselves, ready.

But that feeling inside me grew. It grew and grew and grew. One that I hadn’t felt in a while.

Divine Wrath.

How dare… this fucking inanimate object cause all of this? Ruin a civilization, birth all these soulless creatures, super size such terribly deadly forces of nature but most of all… how dare it try to drown Konohora’s soul out. Force her to be ripped apart to stave it off. Force her to be mutilated not minutes ago.

Fuck safekeeping it. Fuck this battle. Fuck it all. I’m going to break it.

Hiyark may have been ready… but I had Anaylze. This trip, if nothing else, had made feel every single inch of power as it flowed back into me over time. Forced me to examine and learn new things over and over again, to question it all. From Happy’s charisma and luck, to the Gaieldr themselves, to the elementals invisible forms, to even my own power.

I didn’t just know how strong the enemy was.

I knew how strong I was.

I put theory to practice, as I launched myself off the speeding snake, directly for the T-Rex. It silently, unnervingly, reared its head up to try and bite me.

Weak.

I clawed its massive head, practically throwing it towards the ground, hearing the snake and Hiyark crash into it. I flew over their heads, into the midst of the monsters and beasts, diving forward.

My tail flicked out, decapitating a gorilla. My feet descended on a floating tree creature, punting it away. My claw dived forward only to tear apart an oddly colored bird that tried to shoot out flames at me.

Weak.

A feeling of manic glee from the massacre tried to bubble up in me, only to die on the altar of my rage. Even now Konohora was dying because of too much life. The irony only angered me more, made my steps quicker, my attacks swifter.

I felt an insect creature barrel towards me along the pressure waves of power. Analyze was a chaotic mess, reading everything, like an explosion within an explosion. But it all seemed so easy, so obvious to me. I grimaced.

Strong.

I turned towards it… only to smile. It was moments away from me, a praying mantis like cyclops with eight bladed arms and four legs. It came closer and closer, as I stood still, the other creatures giving space. It was less than a foot away, blades inch away from my skin… when its head exploded. I side stepped past as momentum kept it moving forward into the crowd of monsters and idly cut another fire breathing bird apart with my tail.

Konohora stood not too far away, covered in more than just her own blood now. Her strength felt indescribable but seeing was even more than feeling for once. She wielded her quarterstaff soaked in red, blue, and strangely green blood. She swung it, and the air whistled as she did. It struck like a cannonball when it smacked the side of a ten foot tall gorilla, shattering it like an explosion had hit it.

If my rage was Wrath at the unfairness to others, hers was much more… personal.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Gone was the calm Konohora I had always known, even in the worst moments. Now, she swung and roared out her displeasure at feeling her soul nearly drowning under the Gem’s ceaseless energy. Her muscles bulged, her face like that of an Asura, her swings either pulverizing or going through enemies, launching them in pieces far away.

I followed after her, feeling a new emotion begin to arise. Well, more a mental state. Too many things were happening, I was too unstable, my mind desperately wanted to seek inwards, to block out the world, to not feel it as I slaughtered like crazy.

My mind had always been weak, damaged. Too introspective. But I could do that for once. I let go, let myself fall deeper into my own mind, as I began to think about other things. A crazy baboon flew at me, at speeds even I found amazing. I closed my eyes.

My tail sliced it in half, as its sides flew over me.

I continued on, my body cutting, dicing, slashing, punching, dodging, moving, fighting. All with my eyes closed. I didn’t need to see with my eyes. I saw the world in a different way. The flows of power, the waves of pressure as they intermingled. It was almost as good as proprioception.

It was like math. I knew my own level of power, something I really hadn’t before coming here. I knew what a step would cause, knew what the end result would be based on their power, knew when a blade was coming for my head, and the rare times I was wrong, I was fast enough to correct. I was learning, faster and faster and faster, focusing. I could feel the flows of the battle, the powers all around me.

So it came as a shock when I suddenly felt a massive surge that told me in no uncertain terms that I was going to die unless I moved right now.

I dashed forward quickly, only to barely miss being crushed beneath the silver haired giantess.

My eyes opened in shock, staring at her head not two feet from me, as a giant Panther leapt atop her and tried to bite her head off. She held off its body with her spear, monsters beginning to converge on her. She saw me out the corner of her eye, standing there in shock. She roared with a new level of power, throwing the giant panther to the left… away from crushing me.

I grimaced and took the small moment to look around. Hiyark was fighting around her warriors, ruthlessly crushing anything far too strong for them. The warriors were holding their own, desperately fighting a horde that outmatched them ten to one. The silver haired giantess leader fought the panther, steamrolling over more than a little of the horde. The water and air elemental had somehow fused together, into a massive water tornado, but it now fought four Gaieldr at once. Saisaie had somehow switched to fighting the earth one, which had gotten serious and now risen massive amounts of earth and dirt straight through the floor, looking like it had become a living mountain that she was recklessly trying to stab through to find its weak point. And Konohora…

“Derek!” Konohora called out nearby. I looked to her quickly, seeming to nearly fade on her feet, her eyes almost losing focus entirely. “The Gem!”

I turned… and gasped. In all the fighting, I hadn’t noticed…

The music had stopped.

Happy, the sociopathic bard, was making his way up the temple steps. Right towards the Gem.

He seemed as if he was going for a leisurely stroll but what would happen if he managed to get it first? My heart hammered in my chest, as I tried to think of some way to stop him.

Only one presented itself to me.

I ran. I ran as fast as I possibly fucking could. I dodged and weaved, ducking under monsters, going over mantis blades, over breaths of fire, over beasts with their own bladed tails, I ran past them all. My heart hammered in my chest as I slid underneath a massive gorilla and nearly exploded as I twisted past a dive of a Giant snake and the tongue of a massive frog.

I ran with every ounce of energy, every piece of power, my body could produce.

I wouldn’t be fast enough. I could feel it. My own Power, my own Ability told me, whispered into my ears. It knew, I couldn’t make it.

I ran anyway. I’d prove it wrong. I’d prove myself wrong. My feet on the wood, my heart beating in my chest, my legs burning like lead, wind whipping past me, water and dirt soaring through the air, I ran.

Not fast enough. Happy continued to leisurely walk up the stairs. My eyes shook.

Faster.

Faster.

FASTER.

FASTER!

A howl ripped itself out of me as I felt my heart rate skyrocket, oxygen and numerous others shoving its way through my body, my speed nearly doubling but still not fast enough.

Suddenly, there was a massive explosion from the green Gem, the Life Gem, strong enough to even knock Happy back. But a similar roar behind me made me turn around, even at my furious speed.

I turned around… and couldn’t believe my eyes. Literally. My mind couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing. I stared in that frozen moment, watching even as my body flew across the ground.

The panther was dead, the silver haired Gaieldr bleeding heavily. Her spear lay next to her…

But it was not on the ground.

Konohora… muscles bulging, covered in blood, green insidious life force literally swirling around her… was lifting the giant spear above her head. The spear the size of a skyscraper. Her clothes literally exploded off her, from the pure tenseness of her muscles.

As reality seem to continue to shatter before me, another impossibly manifested.

Konohora roared, roared so loud I’d have believed a volcano exploded, and then threw the spear.

“AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!”

It sailed directly towards Happy whose eyes seem to bulge as he leaped out of the way. With a mighty crack, the spear lodged itself into the steps, narrowly missing him. He turned to head back towards the Gem but…

I was fast enough now.

I barreled up the spear, Gem in my eyes. Happy suddenly began to run as well. I could feel it. Could feel his luck power. Feel muscles trying to twitch out, feel the shaft of the spear try to become more slippery, feel the elementals turn to notice me, feel my heart try to give out, feel my fatigue triple in a moment, even feel my thoughts try and slow down.

Happy’s hand reached for the Gem… only to stop at the last moment.

He looked up, shock on his face for the first time.

Because… my hand was on it.

I had gotten here first, despite his luck.

The world seemed to crack, as suddenly, the Gem’s energy exploded into me.

I had a single moment of panic…

Before I felt myself becoming Lost.