Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter for Hourglass! Slightly early, too!

YOU GUYS ARE RIDICULOUS! XD Since the last time I posted my chapter, I got, like, five more subscribers. FIVE. To anyone who already has less than a hundred subscribers, that's a CRAZY amount! Thanks for all the love you've been showing my new channel, really! You're all the greatest! ;D

Replies to Reviews...

Marshman101: Actually, he healed himself with cobwebs one other time! If you were here during the run of The Glitch, you might remember that he did it in the Spider Clan's cave when he was trying to escape a couple hundred spiders at once!

Airas Slayer: DBZ was my everything throughout my childhood. XD Don't worry about the useless characters, dude! It's getting taken care of...huehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehuehue–

Now, let the story commence!

Chapter 37: Tough Odds Softened

Atop the ruins of her tower, Maria stroked one of her monster's many heads in a loving fashion. It rubbed itself against her aggressively, huffing and hissing and gurgling with all the mob sounds in a great big mess of vocals. She smiled wickedly, glancing across the sea of trees ahead of her to watch the rising sun.

"Well, I do think enough time has passed." she murmured, returning her gaze to her pet. "Your body is finally ready to accept the demon spirit!"

She stood up from the edge of the cobblestone building and brought herself up on her tiptoes, whispering a short message inside of the ear of the donkey head. When she was finished, it snorted in her face with a contorted snout.

"You know where to find them…"

The Amalgamob reared on its makeshift legs and let out a chorus of animal cries. Then, from its back sprouted a pair of giant-sized bat wings, which immediately got to flapping. Seconds later, the beast was up in the air and moving forward, gathering speed. In a matter of minutes, it was a mere blot on the horizon. Maria couldn't help but broaden her grin when she heard the distant roar of an Enderdragon. She straightened up and crossed her scrawny arms, saying,

"I'm sure those heroes will make a tasty snack."

Norman ran forward with the Wither sword and sliced off the head of the first unsuspecting cave spider. The other two tried to gang up on him the instant they saw their comrade get taken, but he jumped back quickly and avoided both their bites. As they scuttled forward in their cute little suits, Norman felt a clammy hand grip his right arm from behind. He whirled around and stabbed the zombie that had just appeared, throwing it around him just in time to whack away one of the two cave spiders. The other leapt forward as he was recovering from recoil, knocking him onto the ground.

Just as it was about to chomp him around the neck, a snowball from the snow golem by the bar accidentally bonked the arachnid on the side of its head, distracting it for a moment. Norman took the opportunity and pushed off the small spider, penetrating its abdomen with his borrowed blade and then wrenching it back around to smash the zombie villager behind him in its blown-up nose. It stumbled backwards in surprise, tripping over the last living cave spider and burying it into the stone floor with its weight.

Just then, two arrows hit him in the arm simultaneously, making him cry out in extreme pain. As two more whizzed past either ear, Norman ignored his pain and got to his feet, leaping out of the way of a lunging spider. Unfortunately, his actions landed him in from of one Blaze and its snappily-dressed snowy friend.

He managed to dodge a fiery projectile from the Blaze, but a frigid snowball smacked him directly in the face, blinding him for a moment. Two more zombies came in close and got ready to grab him by both his arms, one of the other skeletons shooting the fifth arrow and hitting Norman just below his stomach. He gasped for air and toppled backward into the two walkers, who curled their arms snugly underneath his, locking him in place.

Norman shook his head and finally cleared away the white substance stuck to his eyelashes, staring in a sudden fear at all of the jeering, hissing monsters that were now watching him hungrily.

"Oh boy, we got a real fighter!"

"Ya think he got past Edgar already?"

"The dope thinks he can take us all at once, eh? He's thick in the head!"

Norman gave a sort of growl and opened both palms, creating two pillars of cobwebs that rose up behind him, pushing the zombies up into the air and then crushing them up against the ceiling. After dodging a spurt of blood from the green fountain he'd just created, Norman turned quickly to dodge a couple arrows and a fireball. The three regular spiders in the room came at him from each direction, coincidentally enough, so instead he jumped up in the air and threw down his hands, raising a third pillar of cobwebs to stand on above the rest, causing each of them to head-butt it on accident.

"It's a good thing my webs are different from normal ones…otherwise that attack would have been the most useless thing ever." thought Norman.

Norman dodged another arrow and then looked in its direction at the two skeletons he found at its source. He pointed at them briefly, first ensnaring them in transparent webs before making a fist and turning them solid again. As he was suffocating these two, one of the other three skeletons shot him in the back of the leg, forcing him into a pained kneeling position. Without a second thought, he twisted around in place and dropped his sword next to him, visually locating the bony fiend and suffocating him as well.

Considering the great amount of damage he'd just sustained in such a short period of time, plus the fact that he was using his Block powers left and right, Norman could feel his energy level dropping like a stone. He grimaced and tried to the ignore the feeling, but it was evermore present. Using cobweb blocks was like a two-way street, both causing harm and healing him at the same time. He could always heal his physical wounds, but his stamina would decrease that much faster as a result.

Amidst his thoughts on how to handle the remaining nine mobs, he was knocked roughly off of his pillar by one of the spiders who hadn't despawned from the impact on the webs—an unexpected tenth! His body hit the ground seven blocks later, knocking the wind out of him completely. Moments later, that same spider jumped down from the tower and pinned him to the ground, suddenly shouting,

"I got 'im, boyssssss! He'sssssss dead meat!"

He was about to knock it off of him with more cobwebs, but both Blaze in the room hovered towards him and pressed one of their gold-hued rods into his palms, cementing them in place with the worst burning sensation he'd ever experienced. He screamed, his head craning back at the agony he was feeling. The spider on top of him got even more jittery and hissed,

"Yeah, let'ssssss make the jerk sssssssssqueal!"

The iron golem walked up behind Norman, its stone-plated feet set not too far from his head.

"C'mon, Steven. How 'bout we save this kid for da boss?" it boomed, its deep, rocky voice virtually shaking the whole bar.

The spider on top of him hissed angrily at the iron golem and spat,

"Why?! We've got 'im right here, don't we? Let'sssss kill him now so everyone can get a ssssssslice!"

It opened its drippy, saliva-filled mouth and bared its fangs at Norman, leaning in to make him its next meal. Tears were streaming down his face from his hands practically being nailed into the floor by the Blaze and he shied away, thinking about how bad it would really be to just be taken now and maybe see Mark one more time before he was permanently deleted. Or Liz! Or any number of his friends! Or—

"BADDA BING, BADDA BOOM! WHAT'S SHAKING, EVERYONE?!"

Every living creature in the bar went completely silent, including Norman, who lifted his head slowly underneath the weight of the giant arachnid on his torso. He couldn't believe it, but standing behind the polished wooden counter was Astrid, her diamond sword raised sky high in the air. She jumped up onto the raised surface and kicked one zombie's bottle to the floor, proceeding to kick him down as well before it got a chance to grab her.

"Norman, holy heck!" she shouted, staring at him from those twenty blocks away. "I know you were a huge hero back in the day, but MAN can you fight! I can't believe it missed it!"

She laughed and took a huge leap off the countertop, using the zombie as a springboard and swinging her sword in midair as she careened forward, slicing half a head off a second zombie before landing triumphantly.

"Ta-dah!" she cried, waving her hands.

It was at this moment that the mobs in the room were able to snap out of their confusion and started to rush Astrid. Steven the Spider stayed where he was, suddenly scuttling over Norman and picking him up off the ground, wrapping him in a cocoon of sticky webbing; Norman had forgotten that they could do that now…it even put a wrap over his mouth, stifling his groans and shouts of protest. As he was being carried away from the fight, he struggled to watch from a distance as Astrid beat back the many well-dressed monsters pursuing her.

Little did he know, Astrid was just as good of a fighter as he was, plus with the bonus of using a weapon in her comfort zone. Both the Blaze that were burning Norman into the floor hovered a few blocks above her and blasted her simultaneously. She stabbed the last oncoming zombie through the stomach and grunted, lifting it into the air to absorb the fiery pulses before it could strike back.

"This suit was over six-hundred emeraaaaalds…" it gurgled, then went limp over her blade.

A snowball hit Astrid in the ear, making her wince slightly before turning in the direction of the shot and sprinting straight for the snow golem in her path. With the zombie still aflame from the Blaze attacks, she shoved the green creature off of her sword and threw it onto the golem, which was reduced to a shrieking puddle. She ran toward the remaining pumpkin head, ducking to avoid a swipe from the Ivan the Iron Golem, and jumping off of it into the fish tank holding the Guardian.

It extended its spikes, almost impaling Astrid in several places, but she was able to keep it at a distance with her sword; three good hacks later, it was as good as dead. The two Blaze shot another volley of fireballs, one of them lighting the pedestal underneath her on fire and the other making a dent in her iron helmet. She grinned and turned around, surveying the remaining mobs that were all speeding in her direction.

"One iron golem, two Blaze, two skeletons…easy!"

Just then, all four projectiles came at her at the same time, meeting in the middle to form a pair of flaming arrows. She ran off the cracked fish tank and back to the floor, where she deflected one of the flaming arrows into Ivan. He let out a dull metallic sound, barely flinching as he continued forward. The bar couldn't have been any bigger than 40x40, so Astrid knew it wouldn't take long for her to reach the mobs at the other end of the room—without getting hit, of course!

"What is taking the others so long, dang it?" she wondered aloud, reflecting another two flaming-hot arrows off the flat of her blade. "I sure hope that thing didn't eat them!"

She checked the door behind the liquor counter. No sign of activity there! Just then, the third set of fiery arrows came at her quick, one of them hitting her boot and almost tripping her up in her march forward.

Up in the corner of the room, Norman watched from his new position. With his mouth covered, he felt extremely useless in his attempts to warn Astrid that she'd miscounted; Steven was creeping up behind her, preparing to pounce and give her a lethal little nibble on the back of the head. Just ten blocks from striking the two skeletons down with her sword, Astrid sped up the pace suddenly and declared,

"Looks like you guys are the dead meat, now! That is, if you weren't literally made. Of." she took a great leap to achieve the desired critical hit, "BONES!"

She sliced through the unprotected neck of the first one, but the second skeleton dodged the other swipe from her blade, leaning forward and jabbing her in the stomach. Thankfully, her armor absorbed most of the blow, but she was still startled by this particular monster's agility.

"Yea, keep her on her toes, Serge!" shouted Steven, stopping in its tracks to watch his fellow SOSKC member brawl. "No wonder you were ranked second!"

The skeleton smacked the sword right out of Astrid's hands and used its other bone stub to bruise her arm. She stumbled backwards into the Blaze, who grouped their rods around Astrid like chains to hold her in place. Serge walked forward casually, rolling up the sleeves on its suitcoat and dropping the bow in its grip.

"Whoa, whoa!" Astrid cried, struggling to escape as the Blaze melted away the edges of her chestplate and threw it to the floor. "What the hell?! This isn't f-OOF!"

Serge whacked her in straight in the gut with solid bone. Astrid's head drooped as she gasped for breath, her eyes wide and watering. But the skeleton didn't stop there! He lifted her head up with one bony hand and beat her armorless stomach with the other, several times over. All of Norman, including his hands, was completely immobile and he could do nothing but watch as she was smacked to the ground.

"I…swear to Notch…GNK!" croaked Astrid, her middle receiving another brutal punch. "I'm gonna…I'm…I'm…ugh…"

Astrid's leg turned to jelly a second later, her entire figure going limp. The Blaze holding her from behind let go of her, though she just fell flat on the stone ground. Both her body and her will had finally been broken. At this moment, Steven crawled forward and loomed over her, hissing lightly and drooling into her mop of dirty-blonde hair.

"Heehee…the girl's got a lot more beef on 'er than that other scrawny toothpick of a kid! Can I have this one?"

The iron golem in the room walked up slowly behind the spider. There was still a smoking arrow stuck in its right shoulder.

"Eh, I suppose yous can have just one. As long as we let the other one stay for da boss, we're solid."

The spider rubbed two of its legs together hastily, its hunger building as the brief seconds passed.

"Perfect!" it declared, its accent made extremely clear with just the one word.

The leg-ridden, suit-wearing, creepy little bundle of black fuzz glanced up at the two Blaze, staring at them with all eight of its eyes.

"Barry? Bryant? You gonna have a piece?"

The two Blaze shook their heads in sync with each other, the only sound coming out of their mouths being their trademark moan. Steven shrugged (can spiders do that?) and returned its attention to the Minecraftian spread out in front of him.

"More for me, then!"

Just as the abomination was ready to dig in to some delicious human flesh, a massive rumble shook the entire bar around them. It was a long rumble, too, and Norman fell from his cocoon in the corner and broke free on the ground next to the fish tank.

He wasted absolutely no time and rushed forward, raising both hands and ensnaring every single one of the mobs around Astrid and turning the blocks solid. He ignored the draining sensation that went on as the long-last attack remained in place and grabbed Astrid by her underarms, pulling her away from the monsters now suspended in slow-mo.

"Maybe I should've used my Block powers instead…" she chuckled weakly, then let out a sigh of fatigue and went silent again.

Norman set her up against the edge of the stage connected to the back wall, its velvety red curtains still shut.

"Astrid!" he said, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Mmph…I'm tired now." she grunted, tightening her eyelids.

"Astrid, where is everyone else? How did you even find me? …why in the Overworld were you so late to meeting back up again?!"

He quickly noticed that Astrid had ten baked potatoes in one of her hotbar slots, so he reached toward it with two fingers and plucked one out. He half forced it down her throat, only getting a small amount of help on her end to consume the foodstuff. As she ate more, however, she was able to sit up without slouching and opened her eyes.

"Okay, sorry about being a total weakling for a sec there." she apologized, stuffing another chunk of starchy deliciousness in her mouth.

Before any more was said, Norman heard a choir of despawning sounds come from the other side of the room; finally, all of their attackers were gone. As a result, he immediately loosened up and fell flat against the side of the stage with Astrid, his chest heaving.

He grabbed one of her potatoes and horked it right down, not bothering to actually get a taste of it. Almost instantly, he felt a bit of his energy return to him. Astrid leaned forward where she sat and shot a glance over at the door behind the counter, saying,

"Dude, we were all late for different reasons! It was totally coincidental that none of us showed up on time."

Norman raised a suspicious eyebrow at her and said,

"What do you mean by that? You mean to tell me that every single person on our ENTIRE team got sidetracked, distracted, whatever…and you all happened to be exactly ten minutes and fifteen seconds late? How does that even happen?"

Astrid just smiled and shrugged, starting,

"Welllllllll…"

If these author notes seem rushed, it's because my internet always shuts down after 11:30 for some unknown (and annoying) reason, so I'm trying to get that out before that happens! XD I'VE ONLY GOT FIVE MINUTES LEFT, I GOTTA HURRY!

Will Norman and Astrid be able to recover enough to take on whatever monsters lie ahead of them? Is the Unforgivable Spawn closer than they thought? Will Maria's plans come into action just as she wants them to? And HOW is Alexander still alive after being the least likable character in the history of this series? Discover answers to these questions and MORE in the next chapter of Hourglass!

OH MAN, TWO MINUTES!

This is Pastrinator64, your fellow writer and reader, signing out!

*throws sugar bomb and disappears behind its cloud of fine white sugar*

...Goodbye for now...

~Pastrinator64 [~]