The creature roared, and stomped towards them.
"Why are you just standing there? We have to go!" Charlie tried to leave, but once again the chains inhibited him, and he fell off the mushroom.
"Watch it!" Max snatched him from the air and pulled him back up. "It's too late, if we try to run that thing will catch us. We have to fight." She began to look around for a weapon.
Klump!
She looked up from the packs to see something shiny laying on the red fungus. Kreaya had appeared just above the cap. "You never seem to be able to make that landing" She grinned and grabbed her precious sword.
"W-what just..." Charlie was gaping at the enchanted weapon.
"Charlie, meet Kreaya." She chuckled at his expression. She turned when she heard the crashing become louder.
"Max, we have a problem!" One of the Withers shouted from the other side of the mushroom, the rest of Him were building a small tower of bags.
"What?" She yelled back, her eyes on the approaching monster. It was fifty blocks away, but it was moving fast, smashing through the trees with its hammer swinging back and forth.
"I don't know how to fight!" He said, panicked.
"Nether stone of bats." She swore. "Just stay behind me."
All the Withers pushed the stack of bags behind Max, then grabbed Charlie and climbed. They sat on the top and yelled encouragements down to Max. "Yeah, you go girl!" "You can do it!" "Hit 'em where it hurts!" "Ohh, nice one!"
"It hasn't even reached us!" She yelled back at them. "So shut up so I can make sure we're not all killed!"
"I can't die!" "We don't know that, have you ever been killed?" "No, have you?" "No." "We should go and help!" "You go ahead. I'm staying here." "You coward!" "Have you ever encountered something like this? For all we know, it's another God that will kill us all!" "Good point."
As Wither argued with Himself, the monster had continued approaching so that it was now ten blocks away.
Max readied her sword, waiting patiently for the monster to come in range of the sharp blade. It had been a while since she last wielded Kreaya, or any weapon. Staying up high in her tree far from the dangers of the ground had made it so she never had to fight for her life. Though she practiced once a month to make sure she wouldn't become too rusty. 'But,' She mused to herself, 'I didn't know how to fight at all in the village attack, and I'm still alive.' She tightened her grip. 'I hope this thing isn't tougher than a horde of Mobs.'
The green creature had reached the mushroom. It swung its hammer upwards, which made the blocks go flying. She felt Kreaya tug at her, she followed the movements it seemed to want her to make.
She jumped aside to dodge a block that had been on a crash course with her head. She ran towards the beast, moving away every so often to avoid the square projectiles. When she reached the edge of the mushroom -which didn't take very long, the mushroom was only so big- she hopped off with her sword pointed downwards, it making small adjustments here and there. She landed on the creature's head, Kreaya implanted firmly into its shoulder. She would have hit its shoulder, and Kreaya its head, if it didn't move to the side at the last second.
It screeched in pain and reached up to remove the blade. Max yanked the weapon out of its skin, and quickly stabbed its hand, pinning it in place. Another scream almost pierced her eardrums. She raised her stump to cover her ears the best she could. It turned out that even though she could not grab anything with her a stump, she still needed it for balance. With the green monster trying to buck her off, and her hand on Kreaya, she easily fell so that she was only hanging on by the hilt of her sword. She flopped around on its back with its movements, desperately trying to get a foothold so she could pull herself back up. If she fell, the creature would smash her with its hammer until all that was left was a pile of goo.
It kept reaching behind itself, grabbing at her flailing arm and feet; thankfully, it couldn't reach that far, so she was safe, at least until her hand grew tired, which it was rapidly becoming. Her hair flew about, and she cursed herself for not tying it up while Wither built His tower of safety. She felt slightly irked that she, the mortal, was the one fighting while He was lounging up high with Charlie. But she couldn't get too mad; He was helpless and would most likely make the situation worse by doubling the monster in size with His powers. Her fingers began to slip. She scrambled at the hilt with her stump, fruitlessly attempting to find purchase without fingers.
Finally, she fell, landing hard on the grass. She felt the wind get knocked out of her. She tried to pull air back into her lungs and she crawled backwards, retreating in the hope that she could take a moment to recover. That hope was dashed to pieces when her back hit a rough surface. She glanced upwards to see a green leafy canopy; she had cornered herself into two trees, one on either side. She could squeeze between them if she stood, but she still hadn't recovered her breath enough to even get to her knees. She pondered how she had allowed herself to get this helpless. She could see the earth pulling at the creatures feet, slowing it down. She heard All cursing, and a glance to the side revealed It was sitting against a tree, in a position much like her own.
It saw her watching and stopped cursing long enough to say I won't let another Akroatis die, then went back to speaking foul words.
Wither was still arguing with Himself. "We should kill it!" "Why? Give me one good reason." A smaller part of Him spoke up. "Max is in trouble." All of His heads quickly turned towards the Minecrafter. He was alarmed by the sight of her without her weapon, but was sure she had it under control.
Charlie had been watching the fight, and was also alarmed. A plan on how to save her quickly formed in his mind. He turned to the God, "can you get me out of these things? They're kinda itchy." Okay, so maybe claiming that chains were itchy wasn't the best idea, but it worked anyway. Wither absently nodded, and flicked His hand, focused on Max. The chains disappeared and he quickly jumped down. He started towards the monster, but was stopped when a block landed on him, pinning him to the ground. "Oh, come on!" He shouted in frustration
The creature raised its hammer, and crashed it downwards towards Max's head. She dodged, but just barely. That was when Wither realized that no, she didn't have it all under control. He sat there for a moment, stunned. The thought that she didn't know how to get out of her situation had never crossed His mind. He watched as the creature raised its weapon again, and it slammed down. But this time Max couldn't dodge, the hammer landed directly on her left hand. She screamed, and something seemed wrong, but Wither brushed that feeling aside. Without thinking, He morphed into a monster as large as the green creature. He had morphed so fast, that all His heads didn't have time to rejoin, so He had three. He floated above the creature that dared hurt Max, His bony dark grey tail swishing in anger.
He attacked, and was slightly surprised to see a skull fire at the beast. He hadn't been thinking clearly when He morphed, so He supposed it made sense in a twisted way; He wanted to crush the creature's skull in His hands, and listen to it scream.
The skull hit the creature, making it jump back and yell. It seemed to turn slightly black, and kept taking damage. He kept attacking, skulls flying at it like deathly rain. Eventually, it gave one last scream, and turned into a puff of smoke. He quickly headed for the ground, morphing back into Himself. Max grinned up at Him. "That was impressive. I thought you said you couldn't fight?"
"Are you okay?" He asked, frantically trying to pull the hammer off her hand, but failing. "Your hand-"
"Is fine" She held up both arms to show Him, still smiling.
"What? How?" Relief swelled in Him at the fact that she was okay.
"It tried to squish my already missing hand. I played along to see if it would relax so I could hit it." She stood up, and brushed off her pants.
"Where could you hit it? That thing was pretty tough."
"That loincloth didn't look like very good armour." She laughed at His expression of horror.
A scream sounded over by the destroyed fungus, they both rushed over to see Charlie pinned by a block of dirt, and a creeper approaching. "The Nether is that thing!" He yelled.
Max quickly dispatched it. 'He must have been living under a rock for a while. After the war, everyone can see them.' "That's a creeper." She spoke aloud. "What are you doing down here?"
"I tried to help, then this piece of dirt fell on me."
"Why would you help? You don't even know me." As the two conversed, Wither watched a form slink in the grass. It was long, and had no legs, just a head. It came upon Charlie's leg, which seemed to startle it, it lunged forward, its jaw unhinged. It bit down and Charlie screamed again, this time in pain. Max yanked the thing off of him, ripping the teeth from his flesh. She threw it to the ground and stabbed it in the head. It disappeared much like the two green monsters, the only thing left of it was a tooth laying in the grass. Wither snatched the tooth up, figuring that it could be useful later, as Max tended to the injured man.
"This is bad." She muttered to herself, surveying the wound "This is really bad." The bite was turning purple, pus and blood leaking from the punctures in his skin. He was quickly losing consciousness. The thing that bit him must have been poisonous.
Wither observed as Charlie motioned Max to lean down so he could so he could speak to her. His energy draining as fast as his consciousness. Wither watched as disbelief filled her face, then shock.
Muhahahaha! I hate cliffhangers, except when I'm making them. As you might be able to tell, this chapter is a bit longer than usual, that's because I'm lifting my 'Must be at least 1000 words!' to 'Must be at least 1500 words!' ...It's an improvement.
Guest:
Yay! Glad you like it :D