Herobrine landed behind a towering, netherrack spire, crouching down immediately as the group of piglins came into view. There were nine of them in all, not counting their prisoner, and they were making their way in his direction oblivious to the coming ambush.
Their captive was a woman, elderly with long, grey hair woven into a tattered braid down her back. As Evangeline had noted, she was dressed in simple clothes, not unlike those of the residents of the hunting camp that they had spent the night in several days prior. Herobrine wasn't sure what she was doing out here- at her age, being a hunter seemed unlikely, and were there really any settlements this far from the capitol? Perhaps the population of the Nether had increased by a larger amount than he thought. Either way, she seemed to be completely unaffiliated with her captors.
Herobrine lifted his gaze to the sky, tense as he sought out Evangeline. He did not like this situation in the least. He was unarmed, and responsible for keeping Evangeline safe from nine heavily armed piglins. If he'd had the opportunity he would have refused to let them approach at all, but it didn't seem like Evangeline was going to take 'no' for an answer. Furthermore, her logic was sound- any information that they could get about their foe would be worth the risk. At any rate, it would be no more dangerous than trying to hunt down Null blind.
He caught a glimpse of white, the barest flash of a valkyrie's wing in the nebulous haze above the lake of lava. Evangeline had told him before they separated that she would attack first, sending the piglins into disarray and giving him an opening to approach. Not only was she already armed and thus the more suitable between them to initiate a fight, but this would allow Herobrine to focus more on protecting her, as the piglins would consider her to be the greater threat. Herobrine may be unarmed, but he knew from his foray into Sirben's lair that these brutes would fall just as easily as any other foe.
From the darkness opposite the lava, Evangeline fell into a dive, and Herobrine watched as she wheeled around at blinding speeds and slammed heel-first into the leading piglin's head.
There was an audible crack as the piglin fell, and Herobrine teleported forward to snatch up his fallen axe amid shrieks of alarm from the remaining men. Evangeline's blade was already flashing in the lava-light, taking down a second one of the piglins before they even had a chance to draw their weapons. Herobrine gripped the battle axe in both hands, focused down the warrior closest to Evangeline, and charged into the fray.
The elderly woman was all but ignored as her captors defended themselves. As Herobrine had suspected, Evangeline was the piglins' primary target, allowing Herobrine to attack without much concern for his own safety. Evangeline held her own easily in the fight, using her wings as well as her sword to protect herself, and Herobrine was reminded that she did, in fact, have several centuries worth of experience in battle.
Movement on his right forced him to split his attention, and he spun to block a descending blow, but the axe slid off his own with a shriek and scored a gash in his upper arm.
"Herobrine!" Evangeline exclaimed as he let out a shout of pain. He could feel the strength in his right arm ebbing away, and he growled, rearing back and hurling his axe into the piglin's head. Abandoning the weapon, he spun around and his hands burst into flame.
"Get back," he snapped, and Evangeline obeyed, ducking under the swing of an axe before skipping backwards and beating her wings heavily to get off the ground. Herobrine clenched his hands into fists, then teleported to the opposite side of the group and released a burst of flame through their remaining foes.
Evangeline dropped back into the midst of them as they burned, too busy trying to extinguish the flames to defend themselves, as Herobrine snatched a knife from a corpse's belt and used it to finish off the one closest to him. By the time he had finished, Evangeline was making short work of the remaining two, yanking her silver sword free from the last one's chest and leaving him to crumple at her feet.
"Are you alright?" Were the first words out of her mouth. Herobrine looked down at his bicep, where his sleeve was already soaked with blood.
"I'll be fine," he said, and he wished that his hands wouldn't shake so hard in implication of the opposite.
"Well," came a voice from their left, and he and Evangeline turned to see the piglin woman looking over the bodies of her captors. "This was certainly not the rescue that I expected."
"Are you hurt?" Evangeline asked, crossing the battlefield towards her, and the woman grunted noncommittally as Evangeline set her blade to the ropes on her wrists. As she cut her free, Herobrine fumbled his way out of his vest and shirt, tearing off his clean sleeve and using it to tightly bind his wound.
"I'm alright," the woman told them as her bonds were cut. "A little bit bruised, but I think they planned to leave most of the fun to their master." She grinned, revealing yellowed teeth. "He doesn't take all that kindly to deserters."
Evangeline cast a glance at Herobrine, who returned it with a frown. "You worked with these men?" Evangeline asked.
"I did," the woman confirmed. "Once."
"Then you may be able to help us," Evangeline pressed on. "As we have been hunting their master for some time. My name is Evangeline, and this is-"
"I know who he is," the woman cut in. "Herobrine." She barely spared him a glance before turning back to Evangeline. "You're a long way from home, aren't you, valkyrie?"
"I am," Evangeline said. "I go where I am needed." The woman just grunted.
"You can call me Hama," she said. "And I'd be happy to help you along in your quest- provided, that is, that you can help an old lady home." Herobrine looked at Evangeline, then to his right, picking out Alex amongst the rocks as she made her way along the shore towards them.
"Very well," he said. "Once our companion reaches us, you may lead the way."
Meryl glanced up at the sound of footsteps, and she turned to look over her shoulder as Tekno emerged from the tunnel. "Anything?" she asked.
"Not really." Tekno shook his head. "Other than a few more trampled corpses. None of our friends, at least."
"Hmm." Meryl turned to scan the area once more, searching for any sign of where the inhabitants of the camp could have gone.
The two of them had found this camp by following many sets of tracks, hoglin in origin, that seemed to have come from a large pen built from blackstone and crimson fungi. The gate was open, and it wasn't clear if the beasts had escaped on their own or been freed by an outside force. Unfortunately, the same tracks that led them here had effectively stomped out anything else they might have used as a clue, leaving them uncertain if Evangeline and her companions had ever been here in the first place.
"Well, where to now?" Meryl finally asked. "We seem to have lost their trail."
"Spread out and start looking, I guess. We don't have much else of a choice." Tekno stretched as he stepped out into the open, resting his clasped hands behind his head. "I'll search around the camp if you wanna scan from the air?"
"Sure." Meryl stepped away from the rocks in order to spread her wings. "Be on your guard, alright?"
"Please, Meryl, I can take down hoglins in my sleep," Tekno assured her. Meryl rolled her eyes, then crouched down and took off.
Hama sighed as they stepped into the ruins, unfastening her tattered cloak and drawing it from her shoulders. "Home sweet home," she remarked. She turned to the others, standing behind her in the entryway, and said, "I'd advise you all to find a place to settle down and rest. Aether knows these old bones need it." Evangeline frowned, lifting her gaze to the aged and cracked stone that made up the ceiling above them.
"Is this a safe place to be?" she asked. Hama followed her gaze, then grunted in confirmation.
"I've lived here near twenty years now, and everything that's going to fall has done so already," she told them. "Just don't wander too far. Oh-" She cast a glance at Herobrine. "There may be something that'll fit you around here, if you'd like to cover up." With that, she ambled away, disappearing around the corner and leaving her guests to fend for themselves.
The ruins that Hama called home appeared to be the remains of an ancient fortress, made up of a black rock that occasionally contained streaks of raw gold. Herobrine had called it a bastion- one of many such strongholds used by the various factions of piglins during their decades of war many centuries ago. It seemed that Hama had appropriated this one for her protection, though perhaps it was not as effective as she had hoped.
Their host had told them very little about herself on their walk here. When spoken to, she had answered in short, curt sentences, more often than not refusing to acknowledge any question asked. This made Evangeline wary, but she acknowledged that Hama was clearly exhausted, and hoped that she would be more forthcoming once she had rested. Evangeline was glad to have been able to help, but they desperately needed any information that Hama could give them on Null.
"Should we sleep?" Alex asked, breaking the silence as she took a step further into the entry room. The room was very homey for the setting it was in, furnished with simple stools and chairs and decorated with pressed Netherian flora. It was lit by lanterns that burned blue, which Evangeline knew to be the result of mixing soulsand into the fuel.
"We should," Herobrine responded, his arms folded over his chest. "Our host is likely to be resting for several hours." Evangeline was doing her best not to stare at him, as he had sacrificed his shirt in order to wrap his wounded arm, but even without looking she could tell that his makeshift bandages had soaked through with blood.
"Those should be replaced," she pointed out. Herobrine glanced down.
"The wound has closed already, there's no need," He brushed her off. "I'm going to take a look around." With that, he stepped away, down a hallway opposite to where Hama had gone.
Evangeline exchanged a glance with Alex before turning back to the hall. Between his injury and their encounter with the black-robed brutes, Evangeline wasn't keen on leaving him alone.
"I'm going to go check on him," she murmured, then slipped away down the hall in pursuit.
"Herobrine." A quiet voice caught his attention, and Herobrine looked up to find Evangeline standing in the doorway. "Are you sure you're alright?"
"I am." He returned his gaze to his arm, where the gash had scabbed over during their walk to Hama's shelter. "It only aches now."
"Let me see." Evangeline crossed the room and sank down to her knees beside the chunk of stone he sat upon. Herobrine relented, lowering his arm, and he watched her silently as she took his arm and inspected the wound in the dim light.
Herobrine had taken a lap around the first floor of the bastion, going no further on account of Hama's warning. He was not concerned about his ability to survive in the event of a collapse, being able to teleport easily to safety, but Alex, Hama, and Evangeline may not be so lucky. Eventually, he had settled down in an empty room on the opposite side from where they had entered the bastion to check on his arm, which was throbbing painfully beneath the makeshift bandages. He supposed that he should have expected Eva to follow.
"I know you cannot be grievously wounded," Evangeline said at last, "But this will most likely scar."
"What's one more?" Herobrine muttered. Evangeline hummed quietly. His body was littered with scars, most of which were visible at the moment as he wasn't wearing a shirt.
He gazed down at Evangeline's hands as they traced down to his forearm, her fingertips grazing over the fainter scars that she found there. Her touch was gentle, almost reverent, and he couldn't help but be reminded of when she had helped him treat his wounds following his altercation with David Tekno in the mineshaft. Her hands were warm, a very different warmth to the heat of the Nether.
"Are you otherwise alright?" she murmured. "I know you were not keen on facing them." Herobrine frowned, wondering if she had noticed his shaking hands.
"I'm fine," he told her. Evangeline gave him a doubtful look, but she nodded.
"Good." Finally, she released his arm, getting to her feet and dusting off her hands on her shirt. "We should rejoin Alex."
"Go ahead." Herobrine stood as she started to turn. "I'm going to look around a bit more."
"I'll go with you," she offered.
"There's no need for that."
"Regardless, I want to." Evangeline turned back towards him, setting her hands on her hips. "If you intend to leave me again as you claim, then I want to be able to spend as much time with you as possible."
Herobrine blinked at her, stunned. "I told you, that will only make it more difficult for us to say goodbye."
"I will be doomed to an eternity of remembering you either way, will I not?" Evangeline arched one perfect brow. "I don't intend on having any regrets." She lifted a hand towards his face, but Herobrine caught her by the wrist.
"You just want to make me lose my resolve," he said lowly. Evangeline's face flushed, and he pressed, "Don't you?"
Evangeline averted her gaze. "Is it working?"
"No." Herobrine released her, taking a half step back. That was a lie, and he was fairly certain that she knew it, but he refused to admit to her what an effect she had on him. "I will be back soon," he told her, "I promise. I just want to have some time alone." Evangeline pursed her lips, lowering her hand slowly back to her side.
"Very well," she said. Herobrine watched as she turned on her heel and headed for the hallway.
"I do want you to change your mind," she added, pausing in the doorway to look over her shoulder. "But I meant what I said." With that, she disappeared around the corner, and Herobrine listened to her retreating footsteps until they faded away.
