Ara: congratulations on your graduation! And thanks for your review!
BlackDragon41: thank you for your review as always, friend. I'm glad that you are still enjoying this story. This is just a short chapter, but moving along! So many good and bad distractions. XD
The elder of the adventurers finally tore his eyes away from the magical projection and glared at the idly sneering being.
"You're lying!" He snarled through gritted teeth, anger and suspicion broiling in place of his former bored look. "Don't listen to him. It's a trick!" He threw back over his shoulder at the younger player, who was staring at rope-bound Steve with a stunned look, his dark brown eyes opened wide. Lost, the younger player looked up at his partner with a silent question.
"What if h-he i-is… a Player? I don't want to go to jail, Adler." The stammer in the younger man's voice made him seem human once more and Steve nearly felt sorry for him, though he didn't understand their extreme reaction to what Herobrine showed. It was probably just an illusion. Didn't they know that Herobrine could do that? Steve couldn't count how many times he startled at some terrifying image only to hear his twin's amused laugh and learn that it wasn't true. It happened so often that it lost its initial effect. Why did they react in such a way to Herobrine showing to them this illusion that Steve was a Player like them? The thought came and left, as Steve's mind reeled in daze. Everything happening was too much to process.
"He is not!" The older man growled, his dark eyes flicking from the younger man back to Steve. Denial visibly fought with uncertainty. "He is making this up. This is not real!"
The amused being slightly tilted his head to the side and chuckled.
"Then go ahead... Kill him." Herobrine said with chilling indifference, not even looking at Steve, whose heart unwillingly sunk at these words. Even if Herobrine was only pretending... He did it too well. Steve couldn't help the doubt from flickering in his heart. What if he was wrong all along and this had been Herobrine's true face? This being cared nothing for what happened to him. He could hear it in his voice. It didn't seem pretend.
"Did I mention that I set his Mode to Hardcore? I also wish to see what will happen. Last time I killed him, he forgot who he was, and that was at fifty percent perception. This time? I would dearly like to see what happens to one of you at a hundred. And it won't be me doing it, so I cannot be held at fault as this video will show. So... go on. Kill him."
A nasty sneer revealed the being's white teeth, sharper than a normal human's. Steve shivered, recalling the same smile on the being's face when he first encountered him that day when he returned to the mansion. Herobrine enjoyed watching him suffer. Steve still didn't know what exactly happened for the being to change his mind. But even afterward, his powerful twin would often get anger flashes, when Steve feared that he would forget his decision to spare him and finish what he started. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a light in his vision. When he turned his head, though, it retreated from him, remaining in the corner of his vision. Something blinked red.
Steve forced himself to turn his head, once again looking at the screen where both adventurers were staring also, disbelief filling their faces. There, Steve saw that his image changed. Now, above his name, another line had appeared. It held eight blinking red hearts with two turned black. Directly above it held a blinking red line with the number 100 on it. Just at that moment, one of the little red hearts turned half dark, leaving the other half dark like the two hearts next to it. A wave of strange weariness pressing over Steve's entire form suddenly grew heavier. His eyes began to close against his volition.
The younger man's eyes widened, his mouth falling open. The elder frowned deeper, visibly fighting the uncertainty sweeping through him.
"That's… i-impossible… He cannot do that… Right, Adler?" The younger player muttered a bit shakily. Neither of them appeared eager to respond to Herobrine's goading and do what he said. Relieved by that, shaken Steve closed his eyes as a sort of daze began to set in. "He cannot mess with a Player's blipped settings..."
Herobrine's eyes flicked to dazed Steve briefly, noting the fainted heart, before returning to the players, without any change in his arrogant expression.
"I think that you already know what I can do. I see you found the presents I left you." The being smirked. The younger adventurer threw up his head, instantly angry once more.
"That wasn't fair! I lost half my levels!"
The being shrugged with idle satisfaction. "You cheated first."
"Cheated? Its you who cheats! You shouldn't even exist, you blipped bot! Hacker!"
"Tsk tsk tsk. Watch that dirty language. There is a minor here." The being wagged his finger in mock reproach. The eyes of the Players automatically fell to weary Steve, whose no longer listened to any of them, too dazed to make sense of things.
"We'll deal with him later." Adler growled. In a sudden lunge, his form streaked toward the being, a purple, gleaming sword flashing into his hand. Only the white-eyed figure vanished, making the player nearly lose his balance as his thrust pulled his arm through empty air with no expected resistance. An amused laugh echoed across the cave, before focusing to a corner. The players found the white-eyed figure standing there, looking at them with an amused grin.
"Surely, you don't think me foolish enough to appear here in person?"
"Come and fight us, you blipping coward!" The younger exclaimed and uselessly threw himself toward the figure, while the elder merely looked at it with frustrated look. The enormous, glowing, yellow-white hammer smashed against the cave wall. A large crack spread from the indented point of the impact and spread up to the ceiling, where menacing sounds came and dust started drifting down. Both adventurers threw up their heads in caution, freezing where they stood.
"My-my... You are careless. And dumb. Do you really think that I would fight cheaters fairly?" The being scoffed, this time reappearing on a ledge high up, where he sat, his lips twisted with disdain. The younger adventurer flew there next, sending a huge chunk falling to the ground, where it fell apart in pieces. Twisting their heads, the players searched for the elusive being.
"You really are fools. And this is getting boring..." A bored tone of voice sounded from no particular direction. "Well, see you later, cheaters. It probably won't be soon. Good luck! You'll need it to regain your levels."
The scornful voice echoed, falling silent. The players waited, their bodies tense, looking around in search of the menacing figure reappearing again. It did not.
"W-what?" Marko muttered in rising confusion.
Multiple blocks of TNT appeared, glowing red all around them.
Startling, the two Players unconsciously stepped back, only to find more blocks flashing behind them.
"Adler, he's been trolling us all along! Those gimmicks didn't work! That guy lied! He probably wasn't even an Admin!" The younger adventurer exclaimed and in hunted panic threw out his arm, where an object appeared – a circular, black pearl, with a thin golden slit within it, reminding very much of a cat's eye. It vanished from his hand. A second later, he also vanished.
Grinding his teeth, Adler glared at the empty spot left by his partner's cowardly retreat. A soft series of wheezing sounds came from his left. Snapping his head there, he glimpsed tall dark forms bending over forgotten Steve's battered form. Before he could make a move in that direction, the entire group vanished. Scowling, the older Player glared at the vanishing flurry of purple particles, before returning a wary glance to the pulsing blocks of TNT. A moment later, he whipped out his hand where another enchanted Ender pearl appeared.
A moment later, his form appeared on top of the hill above Herobrine's ruined mansion. His fled partner's face greeted him with a guilty look. Ignoring him, Adler silently turned and glared at the ground below them. There was no point in running away. The amount of TNT that the insidious monster teleported to their location from his hidden stores was going to blow this entire place sky high. And, if the monster added the same nasty virus to it as he did to the explosives that waited in those baited chests he left them to find, then their avatars were going to zero out to level one – months of work and hours of grinding wasted!
Adler nearly ground his teeth in helpless frustration.
A moment passed. Another.
Nothing happened.
"Adler? What's going on?" Marko asked, foolishly blinking at the older Player with lost look. Adler suddenly startled.
"I am an idiot!" He growled, pulling out his map and searching across it with grim look, his dark eyebrows furrowed together.
"There." He pointed, stabbing the image with his finger. The map obediently zoomed in, showing a faint, green dot with the name Steve hanging above it. Just as they watched, another dot approached it, getting brighter as it got into required proximity of the tracking device. It blinked red and "Herobrine 0076914.014" hung above it.
"Target located." An expected line appeared in the bottom screen of the map and satisfaction filled Adler's face, though he immediately grimaced. His hand jerked up his red scarf to cover his face, leaving only angrily burning eyes devouring the red dot.
"That's where he really is. This whole thing… was just a flipping distraction!"
"Then… he wasn't a Player?" Marko asked with hopeful relief. A snort sounded from the other Player's direction.
"I don't care if that's flipped Notch himself. I'm not losing that reward!"
A burst of speed sent Adler's form streaking toward the gaping entrance of the cave below them in the valley – the first place where they had begun their search with the Miner Steve. The younger Player blinked a moment longer, then sped after him. Both their forms flew along tunnel walls, passing by them blurry at their speed. The two dots blinked further ahead in the area of the map, which still showed dark and much lower. They did not move, appearing stationary and hopefully unaware that their presence was being tracked.