Chrysalis

Sarah watched as the others threw themselves into battle with wild abandon. Anthony and his pets showed no hesitation in attacking the oncoming wave of termites any way they could. It was a dizzying scene. Explosions rocked the tunnel, tentacles lashed left and right, Tiny's fists flashed so quickly she couldn't see his hands, and Anthony stood in front absorbing all the pressure he could.

The defensive mastery on display from her fellow Earth-born was incredible. Whenever a termite moved to attack, he was simply no longer there, or his body shifted just a few degrees and the enemy's jaws would slide off him.

She didn't know how he did it. How did he fight without fear? She'd made great strides in learning to control herself in battle, but even now she felt hesitant to engage in combat. The rage that lived inside her lurked beneath the surface at all times, waiting for her to slip.

She'd fought against that realisation for a long time. For too long, she'd believed that the violence was the problem, that as long as she didn't have to fight, she would be free.

But that wasn't the case.

She'd buried herself amongst the shapers; layered behind their protection, she'd thought herself completely safe. She'd run from the Dungeon, run from the fighting, but in reality, she'd run from herself, and failed.

Because even there, with nothing to fight, the rage had boiled inside her, deep down where she refused to look.

Sarah rolled her powerful shoulders before she rumbled forward. The hovering form of Invidia made way for her and she continued, gathering momentum as she bowled past Tiny. The giant ape leaned to the side, the tunnel was barely wide enough for the two of them to fit side by side as she accelerated further, her lips pulling back from her dagger-like teeth.

Her paws pounded the dirt as she launched her weight forward, her mouth open now as the fear built inside her heart. She ignored it as she tunnelled her vision on the termite in front of her.

Sensing her coming, Anthony stepped to the side and back, smartly avoiding a termite lunge as if he'd known it was coming.

Then, Sarah was there.

She barrelled straight into the massed ranks of the termites, her jaws snapping and claws reaching out to rend everything in front of her. The insects arrayed against her were scattered by the sheer force of her charge. Her mass and strength were enough to overwhelm a hundred termites, forcing them to fall back before her.

But she didn't stop. She couldn't.

Committed to the fight now, she was a roiling mass of emotion. She was afraid – afraid of being hurt, of hurting others, of losing herself to the rage, of what she might find she'd done when she came back to herself. Underneath it all, the rage bubbled with fierce intent.

She lunged forward again, her jaws latching onto an unfortunate termite and closing with a crunch. With a toss of her head, she threw the Biomass away as a dozen enemies began to close in around her.

The greater the danger, the greater the fear.

The greater the rage.

Her fur began to stand up as the first hints of malicious red light began to burn in her eyes. The slash skill was her bread and butter, and she'd recently raised it to rank six, fighting alongside the Colony.

Jagged rents of pulsing red light carved through the air with every swipe of her claws. Every termite unfortunate enough to receive these blows suffered egregious wounds as its carapace crumpled and the claws bit into the tender flesh beneath.

It took longer than she expected for the first wound to come. She'd gone too deep, carried forward by the rising tide of her rage, and had quickly become surrounded. She'd expected to be buried under the weight of a hundred bites immediately, but between the barrage Anthony put out and the shields that sprang into being around her, she'd gone unharmed for a long time.

When the jaws of a termite finally punched through her tough hide it almost came as a relief. In an instant, her fear rocketed higher, but alongside it, her anger exploded and she bellowed with rage.

The Asura bear. She was a monster fuelled by her emotion, and that engine began to turn over now.

Her eyes ignited with red light, her vision swimming with the colour of blood as her lips pulled back to reveal a ghastly grin.

ROOOOOAAAAAR!

She bellowed with uncontrolled fury as her control began to slip. Desperately, Sarah clung to the rising tide of rage as the fight devolved further around her. Wild slashes of her claws filled the tunnel as Anthony and Tiny stepped forward to drive the termites from her flanks.

Already, it was becoming hard to tell friend from foe. Her body hummed with energy, her eyes grew darker and darker as the hunger, the need to find some outlet for the emotion that boiled within continued to grow.

[Cool down, Sarah! You gotta leave something for Tiny to punch, otherwise he's going to sulk.]

The touch of Anthony's mind on hers was like a dash of cold water to the face. She froze for a moment, bewildered by the sudden loss of momentum, and copped a nasty bite to the shoulder.

[Don't cool down that much!] her friend yelped in her mind. [Keep fighting! Just remember, we're in this for the long haul, alright? This isn't going to be done in an hour.]

Sarah forced her body to move and began laying about herself with her claws once more.

[I don't think I can remain lucid for an hour, Anthony,] she confessed. [I was almost gone already.]

[Hey, no stress,] he told her, completely unfazed. [If you fly off the rails, we'll take care of you. There's plenty of termites to kill, have no fear!]

[Is that really alright?] she asked.

[Of course! What do you think, Tiny? Think we can handle it?]

The ape pulled back one hand after a particularly devastating uppercut to flash her a quick thumbs up.

[See? It's fine. Just take it slow. If you feel like you might be losing it, pull back and let Crinis cover you. We've got this.]

After one more devastating swipe, Sarah hesitated for a moment before she began to withdraw. Shields sprung up around her and healing magic flowed into her body, closing over her wounds as Anthony stepped in front to hold off the surging termite wave.

She rested for a minute, her great bear body panting heavily as she fought to calm her emotions. When she felt in control of herself again, she stood and began to wade forward once more.

She realised that this could be a great chance for her. By pushing herself to the limit and then pulling back over and over again, she might find the key to finally controlling her emotions! If she could learn to ride the wave, she might be able to enter her berserk state without losing consciousness completely. If she could do that…

… she would at least have one less thing to fear.