Hero's Bane

Chapter 8: You Must Fight

The footsteps grew louder and louder with each passing second and Steve could not steady his heart from trying to beat it's way out of his chest, he couldn't even focus straight with the mental image of the monster approaching him. He coiled his arms tighter over his head and prepared for the worst with gritted teeth, there was no telling of what would come next except a death blow or slow torture.

Herobrine leisurely walked over to the fear-induced miner and just stared down at the unarmed man, Steve just sat there and waited and this cowardly act made the ex-hero so furious. From brave to coward in a spilt second, absolutely pathetic. He reached down and plucked the man's iron sword off of the ground, he then reared a leg back and then slammed it against the side of Steve's quaking form and sent the human flying.

Steve's eyes shot open wide with shock when a powerful force rammed against his ribcage and sent him careening off of the floor and into a wall, so it begins. He yelped aloud, he then gaped wordlessly from the pain of the impact. It was as though time had slowed down, the collision badly wracked his chest and it felt as though every joint in his body had exploded all at once. Steve even thought he felt a few ribs crack from the strike. His entire body had strongly clashed with the wall and he fell limp to the ground. He slowly rolled on to his side and coughed violently to get air to rush back into his lungs, he wasn't even focused on the living nightmare now approaching him for a second time.

A powerful grip hauled him off of the ground by his neck and it squeezed tightly before forcing him up to a wall, the miner felt his back smack into the rough and sharp deepslate. Steve was afraid but decided to pry an eye open to see the infamous tormentor for himself, eyes of white seared into his. There he was- the legendary Herobrine, the monster of monsters and the root of all fear. No doubt his vile double that was now beaming at him with those intimidating eyes and with a nasty grin to match. In the blink of an eye his own sword was hovering inches from his neck, the blade's tip lightly rested on his skin ready to pierce through flesh.

"You're real?" Steve choked, noticing that his question made the immortal frown. The look-alike was no ghost that was for sure, he could feel Herobrine's fingers coiling even tighter on his throat. "You're-"

Herobrine only responded by slamming him against the wall a few times and bringing the sword's edge right beneath Steve's jaw line, gently tapping it against his esophagus as a reminder of his position.

Steve's body was in a full blown panic mode now and he found himself reaching his hands up to the constricting force, grasping on and attempting to remove the mighty grip only to fail miserably. He also noticed how foolishly daring he had become once he started trashing about in the Herobrine's hold, kicking away at the monster's chest and digging blunt nails into his arm. His will to survive had returned like the flip of a switch. No matter how much he screamed in his mind to stop before the Hero could retaliate with a blade crossing his neck he just couldn't stop this natural impulse that made his body act on it's own, his fight or flight instincts prompted him to move.

The clawing and kicking did little to remove Herobrine's attention from the man's horrified face, the struggle actually made it more entertaining. The human was driven to survive on instincts alone, something the hero hadn't seen up close in a very long time.

Steve felt something dangling at his side with each kick and he finally tore his gaze from those mesmerizing blocks of white to see his old lucky charm that had been passed down to him, it was his stone sword and it was a sheathed weapon that he could use to defend himself with. He didn't plan out how to go about on attacking the demon, nothing but the idea of swinging it at his captor in hopes of causing damage. He quickly reached a hand down then brought the blade up and outwards, slashing it right across Herobrine's torso. Steve fell to the ground but was just as quickly brought right back up in the same rough position except with a more strangulating force. Herobrine had dropped the miner to escape the blade, which meant that Steve had missed the demon completely and had just gotten himself into a world of hurt double-time.