Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from Hourglass! I'M FINALLY HERE! It's almost been a month, but I finally got around to writing this chap! Don't know why, but I had a sudden surge of inspiration two days ago, so I just kept things moving along.
And then, just as quickly as it had come, it faded. I've been away WAY too long and this chapter's WAY too short, but...I just wanted to get it out there that I'm not dead yet.
Here's some replies to your reviews!
Replies To Reviews
Marshman101: Yeah, I have a YouTube account, but there's really nothing much on it. It's very bleh. If you actually care to know, my name's Pasty J on there.
Volcanic the hedgehog: Puns. Are. Evil. To. Their. Core.
Nwinds: No. No YOLO.
1. On my computer, Minecraft is sometimes a hassle to play. It's not used to playing such, er, complicated programs, I guess.
2. Hey, it helps me when I write, too!
3. I don't remember changing any old chapters, no.
4. Gee, THANKS! XD
Guest: Dude, I'm not accepting OC's right now. I learned my lesson with having them so often earlier. I had too many characters to deal with. Maybe later, though!
Guest: Uh huh.
Guest: Yerp.
Badgerman: I do see what you mean. That's why I'm trying to speed things up. See, this story has become a bit of a ball and chain around my ankle. With all the people who used to read it back in the good ol' days gone, it's kind of depressing to write sometimes... :(
FableFan123: Yes, I have one. I'd have to quick check what my friend code is, however. *walks off to figure out what the heck a friend code is*
Marshman101: Shwill do!
Shazam: Uh, where were you during VOiD? XD
FableFan123: Hey, I'm here now! :D
Nwinds: Heck, what I would give for my own laptop! I'd give my right arm for one! Or my left!
FableFan123: Ah, I gotcha! ;)
FableFan123: Why, thank you! Also, a 112 block-tall Enderman? 0_0 Probably not happening unless it has something to do with the Glitch's...glitches.
FableFan123: I KNOW, RIGHT?! Have you read all of them?
Tony22445: You know, you don't have to keep making new accounts. You'll just confuse me. XD
Shazam: Bunnies are quite lovely, aren't they? o.o
Shazam110066.11: I have! It's the best fanfic I've ever read! :D Oh, and I'M BACK! I've just been very...lazy.
Sebastian: Thanks, man! It means a lot to know that people still care. It used to be a whole lot different back in 2013. And are you SURE they're cooler than all the others? The Miner's Destiny is pretty frickin awesome. Oh yeah, and I was really struggling with my changing writing style, so that's the ugly result. Too much fourth wall is hazardous to a story's health.
Okay, so I LOVE getting reviews from you guys, but some of the repeats could just be put into one big review, am I right? Huh? Huh? Yeah? ...alright!
Now, let the story commence!
Chapter 23: Horse, Lion, Snake
This Unforgiven Spawn stood at a staggering 50 blocks tall, its lion-like head reaching the ceiling. The skin of its face appeared like it was melted together, showcasing its grotesque expression as it growled. A long, golden neck connected it to its horse body, which was also misshapen and dripping with a gold-red substance. With the legs oozing into the floors, seeping more of the liquid, the beast sloshed around in place, violently angry as it thrashed, splattering the underground Stonehenge. It had a tail like a snake, which was short in comparison to its size but no less deadly as it smashed the ground repeatedly.
Suddenly, the monster lowered its deformed head and stared directly at Norman, its bright golden eyes glaring murderously. Norman felt his legs freeze up as its gaze intensified, sending a strange ripple through his whole body. Moments later, it opened its gigantic maw to reveal the Spherical Specter, who had become sealed to the tongue by his robes. His eyes had turned the same bright gold and a wide, luminous grin spread across his face.
"Have you kiddies heard of the 200 Million Horsemen? No? WELL THEN! THIS little beauty here is their deadliest steed! And I get the privilege to ride it on this day! YOU SHALL ALL BE CONSUMED BY FIRE AND BRIMSTONE! YOU SHALL JOIN US IN THE DEPTHS OF HELL BY THE END OF THE NIGHT!"
The Spherical Specter curled his clammy fingers, bringing the gargantuan horse/lion/snake's mouth to a close. It reared on its hind legs suddenly, removing its melty hooves from the ground with a loud splurch. When they came back down, liquid sulfur was splashed everywhere; Norman quickly raised Shatter and formed a negative magnetic field in front of him and repelled the tidal wave around him. Sulfur might not be magnetic on Earth, but it was all code now thanks to Farixz, so the Magnomatic embedded in Shatter's front still worked.
Norman lifted Shatter high above his head and smacked it back down on the ground, using the knockback to launch himself towards the mutant horse. At the peak of his arc, he caught the monster's giant head in a magnetic beam, pulling it as he soared overhead. Its neck was stretched a bit when he did so, but a set of huge, golden muscles flexed, and the beast tore itself away from the attraction. Norman bounced back up with some more knockback and got ready to intensify his wavelengths.
While Norman was preoccupied with the head, Bailey whistled and called for Butterball, ready to race into action. She waited, then quickly looked around. It took her a few seconds to realize that Butterball wasn't with her. Instantly, her adrenaline converted to grief, swallowing her for a second.
"No!" she muttered, shaking her head and staring up at the monster. "I have to fight this one without Butterball! It's the Glitch's fault anyway! This just means one step closer to getting revenge! Besides, Norman'll be eaten if I just stand here...oh, fine!"
With a groan, she rushed forward, Silence ready in her hands. She raced towards the creature, searching it for a weak spot. While she was doing so, she looked up to see that a long bar of purple was floating far above it; it must've been the spawn's health bar, and it read: Revelation's Horse.
Quickly, she set a diamond arrow in her bow and let it fly in a split second. It soared through the air and connected with one of its massive legs. When Bailey checked the bar again, she saw that only 1 point of the health out of 100 had been depleted. A few seconds later, the splash of melted body that had almost doused Norman rejoined with Revelation's Horse, the health bar restoring by that tiny fraction.
"That's not good..." she murmured.
Astrid suddenly rushed past her, raising her replacement sword in the air valiantly.
"To battle!" she cried, standing strong in the face of the Hellspawn.
On the other side of the cryptic cave, Kenneth zoomed towards the creature with incredible speed, particles of many colors swirling around him. There was an agility cape on his back as well as a set of glorious red phoenix armor covering his body, glinting in the golden light emanating from Revelation's Horse. In his left hand he held a circular blue shield with a yellow center—the Shield of Repulsion—and in his right was an intricate blade of gold, though it illuminated with a very faint aura of light—the Holy Sword. Despite being as dumpy as he was, Kenneth looked like a total boss.
He leapt twenty blocks into the air and stabbed into dripping skin of the mutant horse giant, sliding down and slicing open its side as he fell to the ground. Fire exploded from inside, spilling out of the wound onto the ground and curling over the stones around Kenneth, who appeared invulnerable to their intense heat. With this one slice from the Holy Sword, the beast's health had dropped by five.
Kenneth quickly noticed the sulfur splattered around the cave oozing past him to seal up the wound and took action. From inside the folds of his agility cloak, Kenneth pulled out the Cloud Staff and twirled it rapidly in the air; instead of zephyrs appearing before him, balls of ice flew from the tip in rapid succession, freezing the globs of sulfuric acid to the floor. He twitched the staff towards the frozen formations a second later, causing them to shatter on the spot.
He twirled it around again, freezing the flames that danced around him into sharp, twisted sculptures. He ran up to one and broke it, putting it as an item in his hand, then equipped his Notch Bow, shooting it in less than a second. The chunk of razor-sharp ice was soon lodged in the strong, golden neck of the beast. The ice melted into the brimstone of its skin, but puncture wounds remained in its place.
Kenneth picked up frozen fire block after frozen fire block, shooting them from his Notch Bow into its throat while it thrashed about, still trying to catch Norman in the air. He repeated this, making sure to destroy the sentient sulfur, until Revelation's Horse had 45 hp missing from its health bar.
"Got 'em!" he said gleefully, rushing forward with the Holy Sword to deliver the next blow.
Revelation's Horse had become extremely aggravated with all its attackers, having trouble keeping an eye on all of them at once. Confused, it threw its head around in the air at random, spitting fire and brimstone in dangerous amounts.
Norman just raised Shatter in time to have it absorb the blast coming directly from the thing's mouth, sending him flying up to the ceiling. Before he could reach the ceiling, he was caught in the soft embrace of cobwebs, which still caked the stone above him like one giant web. He made a little grin and balanced himself in air with Shatter; he knew what he was going to do.
At the moment, Kelsey was making her way towards the behemoth's snake tail, Darcy's spare diamond sword in her grip. Even when she was scared out of her wits by the monster's grotesque and massive appearance, all she needed to do was picture Mark running beside her, smiling like an idiot and ready for anything.
That was all she needed.
A newfound bravery coursing through her, Kelsey sprinted towards it as fast as she could move, following the movements of the tail with alertness. When she was close enough, she hopped up and grabbed on, hurriedly stabbing her sword into it to secure herself. Revelation's Horse spit smoke all around it in a fit of pain and rage, speeding up its tail to whip Kelsey back off. Her sword quickly gave way and she was sent sprawling to hard ground, knocking her head on a stray stone block. In a surprising instant, Kelsey was out cold before she could even scream.
On the other hand, Auconi finally opened his eyes from his spot in the center of the room to find himself slumped up against one of the Stonehenge formations. He was greatly confused by all the sounds that were entering his ears: shouting, the roar of a lion, splashes of what sounded like lava, and the ripping of monster flesh.
He blinked several times before his vision cleared up, and when it did, he found himself staring. One of the hooves of Revelation's Horse was coming down upon him from above, just seconds away from turning him into a stain on the stone floor. He grunted and leapt to his shaky feet, launching himself out of the way as it came crashing down just two blocks behind him.
Auconi did a little somersault and then got to his feet again, leaning up against a stone block protruding from the ground and staring at the massive creature, trying to process. Then he noticed that it had a health bar and a name and everything; all confusion and exhaustion was wiped from him in an instant, leading him to see all his fellow Minecraftians battling it at once.
"So THIS is the first Unforgiven Spawn!" he muttered, a wicked grin spreading across his face. "Looks like a helluva time..."
Auconi picked up his diamond sword, which was lying on the ground next to him, and tossed it to his other hand, gripping it tightly. Soon, there was a familiar adrenaline flowing in his veins.
"It's slayin' time!"
He bolted in the direction of Revelation's Horse's tail, leaping up onto it in an instant. Unlike Kelsey, Auconi had the athleticism to keep running up the length of the giant yellow whip. In a matter of seconds, he hopped up onto the creature's back, racing towards the very center.
"—aaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" he cried, jumping high into the air with his sword above his head, dropping down to stab it all the way down to its hilt.
He ran back from the flames that flew up from out of the wound and made his way back down its spine, slicing every space of skin with a swipe of his sword, laughing wildly as he went.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! TAKE THIS! AND THAT! DIEDIEDIEDIE!"
With Auconi going absolutely nuts atop the horse monster's back, Revelation's Horse had its health being sapped faster than it could heal, losing two points for every one recovered. Auconi was able to dodge both the swipes from its tail as well as the raging flames that now covered its backside, making it awfully difficult to catch him.
Finally, once Auconi had slashed up most of the Hellspawn's back, he performed his grand finale, dodging one final swipe from the tail and bring its sword clean through the thrashing appendage with all the strength in his arms.
The moment Auconi landed in a confident pose on the ground, its tail fell from the rest of the body and landed on the floor with a booming shake, splattering all over as it turned back into liquid sulfur, even more of the substance gushing from the large open wound left in Auconi's wake.
Just this action had chopped 10 more points from its health, leaving Revelation's Horse at 17 hp. It had finally given up trying to focus one bit, so it fell over on its side and began rolling around the entire cave, crushing everything in its wake and smashing into the walls with violent force. All the while, its fearsome lion roar deafened the lot of them.
Kenneth had to leap over it multiple times as he ran for cover while it rolled around in a dangerous and unpredictable pattern.
"Good thing I took that Potion of Leaping XII!" he cried, just barely dodging its swinging head when the monster passed him.
Thankfully, the others were able to get out of the way of Revelation's Horse and its deadly tantrum, standing pressed up against the walls to watch it cautiously. It must not have realized that it was damaging itself as it did this, because its health dropped every time it smashed into a wall.
Norman was about to let his guard down when the beast suddenly changed directions and threw itself right towards him, roaring ferociously with its mouth outstretched to swallow him; he saw the Spherical Specter still standing there, embedded in its searing tongue and staring right at him as they sped forward to kill.
Quickly, Norman looked up at the ceiling and lifted his hands, wrenching them back down to rip the hundreds of cobwebs from the surface. They soared down in front of him, forming a new web and just barely catching Revelation's Horse. In a matter of seconds, the thing was struggling within a sticky net of spider string, its roars slowly dying away as it was losing more and more health. Norman's hands drifted gradually towards it, his fingers curling. He checked the health bar: 1 hp.
Without hesitation, Norman dug his fingers into his palm, and the cobwebs around the beast constricted so tight that it exploded in a torrential rain of steaming sulfur. It drenched all of them, burning at their clothes and their faces. The sulfuric smell stung their nostrils and made them all want to cry with its sheer intensity. When the last drops of gold-red had fallen, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
They had done it. Revelation's Horse was dead.
AAAAAAAND...DONE. Finally! I've been taking forever, I know. It's just really difficult to write for this story anymore. It's like a ball and chain around my ankle. :/
At this point, I've decided to just go back to my roots and focus on the story. I'm going to put a stopper on QAA, but I will still reply to regular reviews. Really sorry to those that I'm disappointing, but I really need to get this all done. It sounds horrible, but it's the truth...
On that depressing note, that's all for now! I hope you enjoyed chapter numbah twenty-three, and I'll see you all LATER!
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 [~]