Under The Helmet || Hermitcraft AU

Chapter 13

POV: Xisuma
Word Count: 716
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Meanwhile

Xisuma opened a yellow shulker box and fished out some honey to restock his shop. Thunder boomed overhead and lightning flashed in the distance, momentarily lighting up the entirety of the small building. The lightning made his channelling trident in his Hotbar quiver with energy. X sighed, not wanting to fly back to his towers in a thunderstorm. He heard footsteps behind him, but before he could react;

He stood, shaking with shock and disbelief as he felt his helmet lift off his head. His grip slackened and his honey bottles slipped out of his hands, shattering at his feet, his boots drenched with the sweet, sticky liquid. He slowly turned around and laid his eyes upon Grian, X's helmet clenched in his arms. He couldn't believe it. He saw Grian gasp as his face moved out of the shadow. Fear and anger coursed through his body as Grian dropped his helmet with a loud, resounding thud, and the beautifully forged visor shattering upon impact with the floor. 

With no rationale, aside from his anger, he attacked. 

"YOU!" Xisuma screamed, his trident flying from his Hotbar into his hand.

Blinded by rage, he hurled his trident at the small man before him. He couldn't tell if he had hurt him, or if Grian had tried to retaliate, but before he knew it, he began to give chase. Obsidian bordered the exit of the building, preventing either of them from escaping. How did he not notice it being placed?

Grian pounded on the hard material with his sneakers and screamed, presumably to someone outside,

"ISKALL! HELP ME OUT!"

Ok, definitely to someone outside.

After a few moments of standing, face exposed in the shopping district, the realisation hit him. Grian had taken off his helmet, heck saw his face. Everyone will know.

Xisuma, the reasonable, empathetic and understanding admin of the server, collapsed into the mycelium and started to break down. His long hair, swept messily to the side, brushed against the mycelium, dusting itself with disgusting mushroom slime, but he didn't care.

After a while, he sat up, wiping tears from his face, before remembering that he was completely exposed for anyone to see. Covering his face with a conveniently carried shield, he sprinted to the base of the hill that his honey shop was positioned upon. 

X sniffed as he leaned down and picked up his helmet, which he presumed had rolled down the hill. He hastened to place the headpiece back upon his head. 

As he pulled it over his messy hair, his horn collided with a large dent in the yellow metal*.

"Goddamnit," he muttered, massaging his skull.

As he flew back to his base, he tried everything to reshape the depression in his helmet. He tried pushing it out from the inside, he tried banging it in with his pickaxe, he tried heating it with a flint-and-steel and shoving it into shape, but that just burnt the antennae and the metal was too strong. He was so focused that he forgot, again about the fact he was exposed. 

His dark hair whipped his pale, scarred face as he touched down onto his iron farm landing pad. He almost was thrown off-balance by the combination of the wind and not being used to not having a dead weight on his head.

He resigned to the fact that he may just need to create a new one. Anyways, 1.16 is just around the corner, so he might as well start redesigning his armour. What mob should I mimic? He thought, fidgeting with the fastening clip. The shock had not yet sunken in.

Xisuma thought he'd better start working on his Strider "outfit" as soon as possible because he couldn't be seen without his helmet on. Thinking about this made him remember that everyone would probably know by the next morning anyway, so there was no point. He sighed heavily, fighting the urge to shout out. After a few moments of calming, he started just thinking, 

I still loved rocking that helmet though!

He pulled some iron blocks out from his iron storage system, and stained glass and red dye from his cluttered inventory, and got to work on his new get-up.

It was time for the rise of Stridesuma.