Shroud had a long rest after he passed out, but still every part of him ached and groaned as he finally awoke to another start of a "day" of the forever unchanging realm of the Nether. It was challenge at first to get up and do anything simple like moving his legs. minutes ticked by but still he managed to get up and take in his familiar surroundings in the hideout.
Crafting table in the right corner near the exit and the cauldron in the opposite corner of the table. Everything else in the hideout was just nether rack; the floor, the ceiling, and the all four walls.
Shroud yawned at the boring safe house before wincing when he put weight on his bad leg as he moved to check up on Aodh who was still out cold. The makeshift bandages wrapping around both their wounds where all soaked thoroughly red and in desperate need of a change. Problem was that Shroud had nothing left to re-dress the injuries in and didn't know where to get more in the Nether.
He thought about it and only came to the conclusion to ask the other mobs, but hardly any of them would help and would probably make their situation worse if they acted like the one Pigman from eariler.
Sighing, Shroud decided to unwrap the bandages to at least see if the wounds had stopped bleeding.
As he was unwrapping them, Shroud had paused and realized he didn't need new cloth to wrap the wounds in. He stared at the cauldron filled with water and smirked since he remembered something from Aodh's endless rabble. It was that leather or other soft fabrics could be washed and cleaned in water.
And that's what Shroud did; he took all the bandages and scrubbed them clean with the water in the cauldron. The bandages came out as clean as he could get them, which wasn't very much since the blood stained deeply, and placed them down on the nether rack which dryed the cloth instantly.
After that he took one piece of cloth and made it wet and begun cleaning all the wounds to get a better look at them. For the most part, all of the wounds on both of them had stopped bleeding or were just trickling a bit.
He re-wrapped all the wounds Shroud deemed worthy of some treatment. For Aodh this was the wound near his neck and for Shroud it was his sprained wrist, the cut on the same arm as the injured wrist, and his thigh that still had him walking slowly and carefully.
Shroud picked up the Ghast tear he had retrieved yesterday and placed it in one of Aodh's pockets not wanting it to become lost when he finally goes to fight one of the Blazes in the fortress later on.
He takes the stone pickaxe which is half-way done and breaks down the cobblestone blocking the exit. Shroud places down the cobblestone blocks again in the exit to prevent any other mob from getting in and possible killing off Aodh for sure this time.
Sighing in anxiousness, Shroud walks to the right of the hideout towards the area where he first saw the fortress a while ago. He gets to the entrance and readies his exhausted body to start fighting an army of Blazes.
He jumps in front of the entrance and stares in utter bufflement at what he sees...
Nothing, not one living soul roaming around the deserted looking fortress. It was eerie to see it look so empty, but Shroud shook it off finding this the perfect moment to get the Netherwart and not have to deal with the usual abundent amounts of guards.
Shroud takes the pickaxe and starts making a staircase down towards the massive fortress. He had only once before step on the nether brick of a fortress and that had ended with him getting a fire ball to the face. So he took each painful step warily, expecting a Blaze scout to come out of any corner.
It took some time and loads of backtracking to find the room where the Blazes grew the netherwart. Shroud sighed in relief at not having to fight on legions of Blazes while in his current state. He grab a few and pretty much flew out of the room in a rush to get back to Aodh.
A rough gasp was heard and Shroud immediatly took cover behind one of the nether brick walls. It sounded distant and so Shroud peeked his head around the corner to see if there was any sign of the Blaze in the direction he heard the sound came from.
Nothing... and yet he continued to hear it close by, not coming closer, but not moving away either.
Shroud hestianted before going to explore the area for the lone Blaze. It wasn't long before he saw the Blaze and all the rest of the guards in the distant, far enough away so he couldn't hear them. Shroud cronched and edged closer to see what was happening.
It look like it was a meeting of some sorts and the Blaze he had heard seemed to be the leader of the meeting from what Shroud could tell. But Shroud felt an air of excitement amongst the Blazes as if they where waiting for something to happen.
And indeed something happened as from one of the corners came a figure cloaked head-to-toe in black with an army of... something following closely behind him.
Interested, Shroud remained where he was wondering who this strange person was with an army marching into a fortress. The cloaked figure soon spoke in a loud and booming voice so that all the Blaze could hear.
"Greetings to all you proud Blazes of the Nether! I have come here to request... or rather give you something to better arm your forces!" All the Blazes gathered around turn to one and another and appeared to be whispering, but Shroud couldn't tell and focused back on the strange figure in the center.
" -I give you an ARMY! May the pests known as the Minceraftians never step foot in your fortress again!" A raspy cheer rose from the Blazes, so loud that Shroud could actually hear them now.
"These new recruits to your fortress are called the Wither Skeletons and with Herobrine's gifted power, made them stronger and better swordsmen than the pigmen will ever be!" Now an even louder roar from the Blazes could be heard and Shroud swore the blocks all around him shook as he crouched a bit lower.
"Now will you accept these newly created mobs or will you have them sent away and have your fortress less armed than it would be with them?" Silence and expectance fell like gravel amongst the Blazes as they turned to the leader in the center. The Blaze made a rasp and a group of six Blazes came down. It seemed that despite the crowd's ethusiam to have the Wither Skeletons join, the leader was not sure and had called up his council of sorts.
Everyone waited quietly as the council of Blazes whispered and voted for or against the offer. Shroud was shaking slighty from anxiety to get out now and staying to see the end of the meeting. The Blazes in the center nodded their heads and turned back to the stranger.
"We'll acrraascept Follower, but ifff these new mobss shall not lissraasspen then theeey will feel ourraa wraith." The leader replied and in all honesty Shroud had never heard a Blaze speak in another language so was slightly shocked before continueing to listen in on the converastion. Unbeknownst to Shroud a late Blaze was just rounding the corner on his side.
"Then by all means you may have the your new allies now and if they rebel they'll have to deal with you and me both." It was then that the late Blaze saw the eavesdropping Shroud and made a rasp of surprise. Shroud heard the rasp and wiped around before drawing his blade and glared menacingly right at the newcomer.
The late Blaze made a warning rasp to alert the whole fortress, but Shroud stopped him before he could finish with a swipe of Old Faithful which clanked loudly against one of the Blaze's many floating rods.
After Shroud's attack the Blaze started to prepared to attack with the fire surrounding it. Shroud knew better than to wait and quickly despatched the Blaze before he could even use its attack. When Shroud had finished killing off the rather disapointingly easy oppopent, he picked up one of the blaze rods and stuffed it his pockets.
But Shroud was not out of danger yet for his battle had not gone unseen by the rest of the Blazes on the other side or the ones below. All at once they screeched 'TRESPASSER!' in their tongue and made a mad dash towards 's eyes widen at how many there truely where and saw the ones below start to float towards him too.
What's worse was that the Wither Skeletons were making their way to him as well and if they were really as good as the stranger said, Shroud stood no chance against them.
Wisely yet angerily Shroud ran away to the exit, bitterly reflecting that he was running away yet again in a short amount of time. As he was sprinting away, Shroud turned his head to see how far away the two armies of mobs were. They were still a ways away, but confusion spread across Shroud's face at something odd.
Two figures; the stranger and the leader Blaze were motionless in the center where they were before. They were talking about something and the leader Blaze surprisely pounced at the stranger who side-stepped out of the way and simply made the Blaze vanished to who-knows-where.
Shroud decided to muse over what he saw later as he remembered he was still running away, But not before the stranger looked right at Shroud and his eyes chilled him to the very core of his being.
Cruel and soulless under the blackness of his hooded cloak...
This made Shroud dash all the more faster as he recongnized that face at last, but he had to get out as fast as he could first.
He had gotten to the stairs he had made when the first Blazes caught up to him with the rest following closely behind. Pulling out Old Faithful to block their fire was his plan but was difficult when fifthy balls of fire were headed right for him at the same time.
He made it to the top and pulled out all the nether rack from his pockets he had gotten from making the staircase down to the fortress and rapidly started to cover up the gap to prevent the whole army from getting out to him.
This time he covered it up in time just as one Blaze had gotten two blocks away from the entrence. He backed off from the filled gap and stopped to catch his breath as he placed a hand over his racing heart.
It was a close call and Shroud wanted to really leave the area now after what had happened.
Which would soon be possible now that Shroud had all the items he needed to cure Aodh from his afflictions. And inspite of him disliking Aodh at first, he was now glad he had meet him for if it weren't for Aodh, Shroud would have never have known about the mysterious man with the lacking soul in his white gleaming eyes...