Freeze or Fall

Chapter 34: Bait

A rustle in the trees caught Zed's attention.

He was perched atop the contraption Doc and Scar had built, offering himself up as bait. Recognizing the figure that was hiding, Zed stood up and put on his best smile. He waved his arm and in a cheerful, innocent voice, called Renbob over.

It was instant, Renbob appearing behind him in an instant, tackling him to the ground and covering his mouth. In a sudden fit of panic, Zed bit Renbob's hand who resolved to just shoving his forearm in Zed's mouth.

This was... less than ideal.

Realizing he couldn't do much, Zed relaxed in Renbob's grip. The alter seemed a bit surprised at this, relaxing his own grip for a few seconds.

Zed wasn't good at PvP, but he did know how to wrestle his way out of a sticky situation. Zed swiftly brought his elbow up, connecting it in the area of Renbob's stomach that he knew housed the liver. This sent Renbob reeling, allowing Zed to flip over and kick him off. He scrambled to his feet and climbed back onto the machine, the gears turning in his head.

As expected, Renbob climbed up after him, and grabbed Zed's arm.

Zed a made a split-second decision. He let his weight fall, dragging Renbob into the containment cell with him. He quickly fished the remote out of his pocket, locking them both in and alerting Doc.

Was locking himself in an inescapable cell with an evil version of his friend dumb? Maybe. But it was better than failing to catch Renbob at all, or even getting kidnapped.

Speaking of, Zed glanced over at his inmate.

Renbob was crouched in a corner, glaring at him. The behavior was so unnatural to both Renbob or his host, that it caught Zed off guard. 

Oh.

This wasn't Renbob anymore, was it?

Zed cautiously took a step towards him, and Renbob let out a snarl.

Nope. Definitely not him.

Zed noted this behavior, and sat down in the corner opposite Renbob, settling down as he waited for Doc.

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Joe glanced up at the statue, the power radiating off of it unmistakable.

The memorial was a place of power, magic from all sorts of sources mingling together. He knew his severmates couldn't feel it, but he definitely could.

Taking out his journal, he scribbled down all the different sources and the magic attached.

Then he snuck over to Larry.

Quietly rifling through Scar's chest monster, Joe found the shulker of magic crystals Scar had abandoned.

As he suspected, each crystal captured a different type of magic. How Scar of all hermits managed this was  beyond Joe, but he suspected it had to do with Scar's connection to the vex, a species that broke off from the Fae centuries ago.

Comparing the crystals to his notes, he selected a few and placed them in his ender chest.

Under the cover of darkness, he snuck back to the cave of contraptions.

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The portal swirled a vivid blue color, a direct link to Hermitcraft.

Grian glanced over at Npg and Taurtis.

Npg didn't seem fazed, but Taurtis looked nervous. In the past day or so, his wings had fully grown in, as well as his pointed ears. Grian had given him a crash course on the basic spells he knew, such as creating a small sphere of light and of course, glamour.

Still, Taurtis seemed anxious. Grian couldn't blame him.

"You ready?"

"Never will be." Taurtis answered.

And they leapt through the portal.

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Docm77 went to sleep. Sweet Dreams!

Tango Tek went to sleep. Sweet Dreams!

Zedaph went to sleep. Sweet Dreams!

Tango high-fived Doc. "That was genius!"

When hearing about Grian's return, Doc had brought up the really annoying sleeping notifications that happened whenever a player fell asleep.

Since Tango, Doc, and Zed had to stay up anyways becuase of the while baitificating thing, Doc suggested to switch the login notifs to their sleep notifs.

It had worked.

Tango quickly walked over to Grumbot. The robot didn't really need sleep, but he did slightly power off at night, kinda like a screensaver. He gently tapped on the robot's screen, getting his attention.

As to not wake the other with his loud voice, Grumbot gave Tango a thumbs up before quickly doing his part.

An easy message broadcast later, Grumbot had worked out where Npg had logged in. Npg, Grian, and Taurtis were safe for the time being, so Grumbot gave Tango another thumbs up.

Tango hurried back to Doc to relay the message.

"I've got more good news." Doc had whispered after Tango finished. "The trap worked, Renbob's been contained."

"Let's go check it out then!"

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Here is some important information regarding the future of FoF, my upload schedule, and any side projects I have.

https://www.wattpad.com/1022501075-the-blood-god%27s-disciple-story-proposal

Feel free to give feedback on the idea, I read all the comments.