Corrupted - A Hermitcraft (and Empires) Fanfiction

2: Scar

I'm already aiming an arrow before I see Grian below. He's got away Hotguy-free for too long. Much longer and I'll fall out of practice and... 

There. I spot Grian outside his new storage system, pulling back my bow, diving and...

'HOTGUY!'

I miss.

'Oh COME ON!'

'What's wrong Hotguy?' Grian calls as I land, grinning. 'Lost your powers?'

'No!' I insist. 'I'm just... out of practice. Anyway, what's up Buttercup?'

'Hey Buttercup... I'm good. Working on a mini-game idea...' He signals to the boxes behind him. 'In an ancient city.'

'Ooh... dangerous! When will it be done?'

'Well... I just need to bring this stuff over to the city and then... I'll be ready. If you want to bring over a couple boxes yourself... oh, and I need to gather some more hermits. 6 at least... I'll just leave a message in chat.'

'Sure!' I grab a couple of the boxes. 'What's the co-ords?'

He tells me. I note them down before smiling.

'Grian?'

'Mmm?'

'Race you there!' I shoot off, laughing as Grian protests behind before following after towards his game.

Half an hour later, the 9 of us interested stand in the entrance room to Grian's mini game, split into groups, listening to the explanation.

'Right! Welcome to the most dangerous way to raid an ancient city! In each of your groups there are 3 different roles.' I glance over at Cub and Xisuma, my group members, before returning attention to Grian's explanation - 1 of us can break and place blocks, 1 can sabotage the other teams, and 1 can gather stuff from chests, but we can't crouch and only have 1 life each. Each of us picks roles, drop off and grab the stuff we're allowed, and prepare for the game to start.

'The winner is whoever has the most loot at the end. There's a whole score system back there we don't need to go through yet. Make sure you've set your spawns and... go!'

Xisuma leads our group out with a path of wool. Me and Cub follow, with me immediately breaking Grian's path, barely making the 4 block jumps to catch up. A few snowballs and it gets interesting as the first warden spawns. 

'WARDEN!' Cub yells slightly unnecessarily. I'm instantly hit, but recover, bounding forwards to keep up with Xisuma, who's still pathing towards our first chest. 

'X, surround it with wool.' Cub suggests as we arrive. He does and Cub grabs the contents easily.

'Where now?'

'There's more chests over there... come on. We're behind.'

A screech from the distance tells us about Tango's latest meeting with a warden, and then the message in chat shows the outcome.

'He's sabotage.' Cub recalls.

'He's out.' 

'He's an enemy of the skulk.' Jokes Xisuma. I notice Cub frown, but there isn't time to focus on it as Xisuma continues without placing wool.

'He's out already!? Seriously?!'

'It doesn't matter... We need to stick together.'

We sprint across the skulk, catching up with Xisuma again.

'Out of wool?'

'It's unnecessary.'

'Unnecessary?! But the- what are you talking about, man?!' Xisuma continues, oblivious. I put a hand on Cub's shoulder as he calms down. 'What's up with X today?' He mutters. 'Why's he...' a sigh. 'It's nothing. I'm sure it's nothing. I'm being paranoid.'

'Cub, it's ok. We need to continue or the wardens will find us.' I throw a few snowballs to send the nearest after Grian instead. 

'Skulk's not as bad as you think, Cub. Just... trust me on this.'

'I don't know if I'm happy with this, X...' Grian replies with his own snowballs from above and a shrieker activates. The world flashes dark. No warden.

'Come on.' X continues without wool.

'No. No way.' Fear fills Cub's voice. 'You're placing wool or we're swapping roles.'

'Fine. Sorry.' Xisuma calmly starts placing wool again, leading us into an unoccupied area of the city. Away from everyone else. 

'There are more chests this way.' I point out. Xisuma doesn't listen, starting his path. Me and Cub have to follow, even as he stops using wool again. We're going the wrong way.

'Xisuma, we should head another way.' I repeat. He doesn't listen. 'Xisuma!' Another shrieker. I fall silent.

'Trust me.'

'And can you try to use wool again?'

'We don't need wool!'

A third screech.

Darkness.

I scream as a warden spawns right behind us, breaking into a run. But I'm not fast enough. Cub's the only one who's hidden as the creature roars, hitting me and Xisuma with the sonic boom.

The world turns black.

I respawn, running over the edge of the start area. Next to me, Xisuma's just woken too. Cub's all alone. It's up to him to gather as much as he can... and then get out alive. But even if he dies, I realise we won't come last as all of Grian's team respawn, out the game and immediately arguing.

'I TOLD YOU to run!' Grian snaps. 'Why weren't you running, Mumbo?!'

'I panicked!'

'It doesn't matter. That stinking warden would've got us whatever.' Bdubs intervenes grumpily.

'Team troubles?' 

'Mumbo kept forgetting to place wool.'

'I was saving it, Grian! In case we needed to get away quickly! We only had a stack!'

'And forgot to run when I said run!' Grian continues. I shake my head, jokingly disapproving, hoping Xisuma was thinking the same... It isn't long after that Impulse and Zedaph return, safe.

It's just Cub left. 

'How much stuff did you get?'

'Not much after Tango died... But some.' They start sorting through. I return attention to the ancient city.

'It's all down to Cub,' Grian murmurs, just as I think it. 'How much had you got when you two died?'

'Not much,' I reply. 'But hopefully he'll be quicker now. And find better routes... Cub!' Everyone turns as the last player sprints back into safety, collapsing on the ground.

'How much?' Grian questions. 'How much loot did you get?'

'Not... not much.' He mumbles back, depositing far less that Team ZIT got on the ground. 'I was more focussed on... other stuff.'

'Other stuff?'

A glance at me, then a small signal to X. He'll tell me his suspicions later. I glance to where he's sitting on the edge of safety, just staring at the skulk.

He's thinking the same as me.

Something's up with Xisuma.

:)

This chapter was originally Cub having a panic attack in Decked Out but I decided to change it 600 words in.