The labyrinth of monsters (a Hermitcraft and third life AU fanfic)

Chapter 29 - Grian

I'm barely aware of anything as I run forwards. Sword at my side, eyes focused, everything else blocked out. I hear yells and swords clashing as I reach Mumbo, slicing at his neck. The moustached Brit squeals and backs away from me, sword swinging. It hits my arm and I hiss with the pain. I see an arrow flying towards me, and barely duck in time. Mumbo's still slashing wildly, and knocks me back with a cut through my forehead. I scramble back, blood covering my vision and trickling down my arm. I get back to my feet, wiping it away and dashing forward again. I get a nasty blow across Mumbo's front and he stumbles away, red slowly covering his front. 

I take my chance to rest while he tries to recover. It's risky, and I'm still panting for breath when he attacks again, staring at the ground. I hear Beef yell just before I'm beheaded, and look up to see Mumbo falling back again, clawing at the vines strangling him. Beef's deep in concentration, glaring at the moustached enemy, hand out, controlling the plants. I can barely watch.

'Beef, stop it! Please!' I beg desperately. He doesn't, and Mumbo collapses onto his knees, and soon dies. I'm left staring at his body. Another one dead, just like that. 5 against 8. 

Ren whines from somewhere to my left, and I look over to see him pinned by Doc, t-shirt gone by this point and his fur plastered in dry and wet blood. Trident wounds bleed sluggishly from his side. Doc stabs again, striking him in the neck. 

At least his death is quick. 

Beef takes over fighting him, and I look around at the others. Tango and Scott have united against Pearl furthest from me, with Stress whimpering against the wall right next to them, and xB shooting endless arrows towards Wels - now Hels - right by them. To my left, Jevin's fallen to the ground from an arrow to his neck. Hypno drops his bow and runs to his his assistance, even though the two had just been fighting each other. I join him, shoving Hypno away. 

'Get off! He's not on your side!'

'I didn't want to fight this! Jevin's my friend!'

'You were always fighting with each other. I guess you didn't think it would get this serious, huh?' Deep inside, I know it's not actually Hypno's fault. Doc's made them all do this. But my friend is dying, and Hypno kill him. 

'Hypno?' Jevin forces out. Both of us look at him. 'You smell.'

And with that, he dies. 

5 against 6. I figure out. We're still winning. 

Hypno glares at me one last time before running back, towards the exit. Iskall sees, creating a wall of slime behind. Hypno stops, turns, and begins shooting him. Back to my left, I hear the strangled cry of Scott getting gored by Pearl. 5 and 5. We're equal.

I cross the back of the room, running straight at Pearl. She slices back at me, and we fall into a fight. Tango's by my side, helping. 

'Hey, G. How you doing?'

'Fine... you?'

'I'm good.' 

'Shut up and let me kill you! Doc will think I'm betraying him if I don't!' 

'You could betray him...' I offer, missing a stab at her neck as she dodges out the way, lunging for a hit to my side. I step out the way, and Tango manages to get close enough to shove her against the wall. She trips over Scott's body, which yells back. 

'I'm not dead!' He tells us all, even though we'd just figured that out. He scrambles back to his feet. 'Please! Don't trample me! I was enjoying life!' 

'Get back and recover.' I snap back. 'You literally only have one arm.' 

Scott looks over at where his limb should be, promptly freaking out.

'OH MY GOODNESS I'VE LOST AN ARM.' 

Tango tears off his jacket at this, chucking it over to Scott.

'Use this to stop the bleeding!' 

Pearl's just watching us all from against the wall. She blows a lock of her brown hair off her face, getting back to her feet. 

'Ready to fight again?'

I slash back in response and she jumps away, blocking. We begin fighting again, with Tango offering occasional assistance to me and Scott. 

'I'll take over, you help Scott.' He tells me. I nod, getting out the way. My armless friend is sitting against the wall, breathing deep, stressed, breaths as he covers his stump arm with his other hand. I sit down next to him, taking another look around the rest of the fight. Hels is still dodging xB's fire, while Doc holds back Beef's assault on him. In the opposite corner to me, Hypno is battling several of Iskall's slimes. Stress has got back to her feet and is sorting through healing supplies, regularly chucking healing potions to the rest of her side. If only our side had someone like her... 

I look over my own injuries. My arm and lack-of wings are throbbing painfully, while I'm needing to blink regularly to stop blood getting in my eye from the cut on my head. I slowly tear a strip of material from my sweater and tie it tightly around the scar, creating a snazzy bandana while stopping hair and blood from blinding me. I know Scott's facing worse, so I glance back to him one more. 

'Are you ok... mentally?' I ask. He shakes his head, eyes tightly closed, trying not to puke. 

'If it helps at all, I've lost both my wings.'

'Great...' 

It seems that even with a missing arm, Scott hasn't lost his sarcasm. 

I look away. Pearl and Tango seem to have called a sort of peace between them, and are talking. Stress gives both potions and a enchanted golden apple that's quickly passed to me.

'Scott? Can you eat this?' I know it's meant for him. He looks up just enough to see it, taking the magic fruit and quickly consuming. Instantly, the blood stems from his arm and he lets go of the now-red jacket. Most other people are also resting, and I get back to my feet. Doc's glaring around everyone now, surrounded. 

'Pearl! xB! Help me!' He snarls. 'Why are you doing this?' 

'Because you deserve it.' 

I finally see what happening. Hypno's pointing an arrow straight at his neck. xB draws his bow to do the same. 

'This is mutiny! Betrayal! Stop this! Now!'

'Stop fighting and we will! We don't have to be enemies, do we?' 

Someone else has teleported into the room unnoticed. Their clothes are identical to Xisuma's, except their red and he's missing the helmet. A ponytail of ghost-white hair hangs behind, and his face is badly scarred with red eyes. He's looking around us, humoured. 

'There's someone else here!' I point him out. All eyes turn from Doc to him. 

'Glad you noticed me.' He grins back. 'I'm EX, and I'm one of the creators of this game.'