Finally... At long last...
*Inhales*
WWAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!!! >:D
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You woke up that morning to cool, crisp air. The outside of your sleeping bag was wet with dew as you sat up. Looking around, you were glad to see everything was as it had been when you went to sleep. You left the small tent of five or so people and stretched your back. Only a few others began to stir around the spaced out camp site. Every tent was hidden in layers of special mossy nets, every trace of fire snuffed out and hidden under a thick layer of leaves. Not a waking person spoke. Everyone had been ordered to talk only when necessary.
Seeing that the majority of soldiers were still asleep, you strolled over to another tent once done stretching. It was a decent size tent leaned against a rather large oak tree. Inside were the supplies for today's raid. One Iillager was asleep inside, so you remained absolutely silent as you entered.
It hurt to think about all the innocent human lives that could be lost in this fight; likely people you had once fought beside in the past even. So, before you went to sleep, you came up with a little plan to help as much as possible.
You crouched down and opened one of the chests very slowly.
Tck..
It was a trapped chest, alerting the sleeping Iillager by shining a bright light in his face. The gray faced monster grimaced, slowly waking.
Thinking quickly, you threw a dark cloth that was inside the chest over the light, blocking out the shine immediately. The pillager hummed in delight, and without even opening his eyes, decided to go back to sleep. You sighed in relief. That was...really close.
You looked down to see the continents inside the chest. All the dark woolen cloths acted as padding around the delicate glass potion bottles. Carefully again as to not make a sound, you unwrapped each one individually, read their labels, and wrapped them again as if never touched. Finally, you found the potion you were looking for.
Potion of weakness.
You grabbed a couple more before leaving the tent again, making sure that everything but the potions were back in their places as if noone had ever entered.
You snuck around...casually...before more could wake. The sun was just shining over the treetops, steadily extracting moisture from the dew tipped grass. You passed by three main barrels of water, in each dumping a potion of weakness. Yeah, it would be greatly diluted, but you liked to at least think the potion would work just well enough to give the humans just a bit more of an edge over their foes. Poisoning the water was a thought too, though a little too obvious and easier to catch. Before filling the last of the three barrels, you cleaned one of the empty potion bottles out and filled it with clean water. That, you strapped to your waist.
By the time you were done, the camp was stirring like a little ant colony.
Only an hour before battle.
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"(Y/n), you will be in charge of squad 87." Herobrine pointed out to you a dozen or so lightly armored wither skeletons. You nodded briefly and sheathed your new diamond sword.
"Got it. When shall I move them into position?" You looked up into his eyes out of military-grade respect. Herobrine had a little harder time holding in his feelings for you, which had oddly grown so strong in the past month alone. You could see the apprehension; having to hold himself back from kissing you on the cheek. He cleared his throat quickly and turned away. Your heart calmed down right away and you almost sighed even.
As Hero gave commands to other generals and commanders, you briefly acquainted yourself with your team and set to finish up preparing for this fight.
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Everyone was positioned and ready. As Herobrine, Sandrah, and his specialized crew broke into the castle with one big explosion, your squad, as well as the many others surrounding the castle, took your positions stood at the ready. Oddly enough, instead of a wall, the ground just dropped about ten blocks. Beyond the drop off was a perfectly stone brick paved court-looking area and garden, a dense maze of hedges to top it all off. You assumed that this was to make it easier for the archers inside to pick intruders off as they stormed in. However, it was they who would be fleeing from their own fortress, according to the plan.
As foretold, they came. Herobrine's armies immediately had the advantage. Half of your troops were trained archers, the other half waited eagerly for any of Notch's men to climb up. The mass of armored human soldiers hid among the foliage, since even more of Hero's men chased them out of the castle and into them. The archers picked off whoever they could, the humans' iron helmets sadly no match for the newly developed netherite tipped arrows.
You watched in horror as man after man were taken out. Hardly a soul even made it to the barrier keeping them in.
The leather-wrapped handle to your diamond blade hung loosely in your grip. Over time, your jaw lowered until your lips hadn't a choice but to part.
These were humans.
Though you had been so desensitized by war, you still recognized those faces... The expressions of old friends flashed before your eyes...right before their moment of doom.
When no soldier was found budging from the maze, creepers were lowered in. All was silent as the four legged monsters roamed right into the maze...
You held your breath.
...BOOM!
boom!
BOOM!
Boom!
Craters were made in the mazes, splattering red blood over everything in range. The sword clanged at your feet. Your knees weakened... You weren't doing anything and yet you felt more than responsible for this. The unnerving, unexplainable sensation of guilt crawled up your spine, then curled up soundly into your ears in the form of a ceaseless ring... A hand clutched over your heart as the thumping overwhelmed your mind.
... This was how your father died. ...
><> 16-17 Years Ago <><
They wouldn't let you see what was inside the big box. Only that it was important for the ceremony. Apparently, there wasn't enough of him left remaining to be a pretty sight... Only your mother had been allowed to see after demanding it so strongly.
Many sat in the church pews, silently staring ahead with their hats off, only black clothes on out of respect. Your daddy had made a lot of friends around town. Those who weren't friends simply came because they had heard so much about him. He was no one special to the rest of the world. But, to this place, he was the hero.
One of many.
"John (L/n) was never the kind to give up..." One of the many who had stood to talk wore a uniform just like your daddy had. You didn't really want to see that uniform today, for whatever reason. Made you worry if all of them would someday vanish too.
Your mother cried beside you. She had been doing so nonstop all day. Your brother cried too. But you...
You didn't understand what was going on.
Your six year old self stared down at your lap and zoned out of what was going on entirely.
What did they mean by "he's not coming back?" What were they really saying when they announced his death? Was it like when a flower wilts...and it never blooms again? Was it like a chicken after being taken by a fox...that you just never see it again?
Tears brimmed your eyes.
You didn't want to never see your daddy again... Why YOUR daddy? Why did he have to die of all people?? It would have been better for a mean man who killed people to die instead. Not someone like your dad, who did nothing but be nice.
It just wasn't fair.
><> The Present <><
It wasn't fair. It never was. Any world where it was possible for someone like yourself to be forced into helplessly watching your own comrades die a horribly gruesome death was BEYOND fair!
It didn't matter that you couldn't recognize any of them. Every other man could just as likely be a loving father like yours... And before your eyes were those very fathers leaving their loved ones forever.
You couldn't just stand here like this. No, even if it meant ruining your reputation and everything, something had to be done!!
You inhaled.
You exhaled.
You picked up your sword.
Spinning on your heals, you ran to the forest and started hacking at it with your sword. After a few good swings, you tore out a chunk of it. The massive tree creaked and squealed. Already leaning towards the fortress, the massive structure of branch and leaf hurdled towards the ground. One of your own skeletons were crushed by the falling lump. The rest jumped away and shouted in dismay. You ran in the darkness through the foliage and emerged from the forest only to do the same to a few more trees. Hopefully, the human soldiers would be given half a chance even with their terrible odds.
Afterwards, you ran back to your post hoping to at the very least hold your reputation for the final fleeting minutes.
To your delight, the now hopeful humans climbed up the trees' branches in order to flee. However they were still being targeted at by your own men. You made quick work of one of them from behind, then ducked under a sword bearer's blade and kicked the legs out from under him. As he fell, you pounced and drove your superior blade through his withering skull. In only a second he was limp.
The image of Bart falling similarly flashed into your head briefly. If this skeleton was anything like him, then...
You yanked your sword from its head. This truly was a messy war.
But you personally preferred the side that would keep your family alive.
You struck down enough of your men behind the coverage of the fallen tree that backups were sent your way. Two skeletons and one zombie pigman. Misjudging you for one of the escaping soldiers, one of the wither skeletons drew his bow at you. You heard the twine stretched back and stood still.
Twat.
You rolled out of the way at the exact moment to dodge the arrow perfectly. And once you turned around, the sender of the arrow bowed on his knees. "General, (Y/n)! I-I-I'm so sorry! I believed you to be the enemy at first." You strode up to him and glared down. Once close enough, you drove your sword through his neck, declaring to the others that you indeed were the enemy.
"You are forgiven."
"(Y/n)?!? Th-th-that can't be right! Why would you do that?! Aren't you a friend?!?" The pignam was taken aback most of all. The other skeleton charged you without hesitation, too receiving a quick death. You stood from the charred corpse, a little bit confused. Though each pigman was nearly the same, this one was never one of the ones on your former team. Yet, it spoke to you as if genuinely offended as if it had been one??
You rose your sword in his direction. "Who is this?" Sternly, on the verge of slaughter.
The pigman stumbled back defensively, dropping his/its/their weapon. "Wh-what do you mean?? I'm. The pigman! The triplets!"
One of your brows rose curiously. "How could you possibly be three or more in one?" The zombified pig glanced down at its hooves, readjusted the sword in its hand, and furrowed its brows.
"We-we're a HIVEMIND in case you never noticed!!" He shouted. It was your turn to step back a little. Your eyes widened a smidge, mouth open ing in amusement. "But-but I REALLY don't want to have to fight you!" The piglin's stance lowered, gold sword rising to stretch your way. With intensity, the monster glared at you ready for a fight.
This was the last remaining member of your team, one which you had strangely grown so accustomed to...
...Better to just break off all ties here and be done with it...
You bolted forward and ducked, swinging up to the predictably moved blade of your adversary. However his grip was strong. He held firm to the sword and kicked you on the forehead since that window had been mistakable left open. A hoof shaped bruise quickly formed around the broken skin.
"I really don't want to have to do this, (Y/n). But we must if it means STAYING ALIVE AS A SPECIES!!" He swung back at you this time with far more precision. A diagonal cut this time that meant having to lean dangerously in order to miss. The unexpected sage of fighting, expecting this, twirled similarly to you, sword out for you to fall onto. Your other foot caught itself from falling, pulling yourself in and away from the blade. That did not save you though from the small stream of blood leaking from your forearm. The stinging points on your body made you unexpectedly hiss. "Like the power up?" The piglin mused, again nearing, gold tip digging through the grass. "I like to call it community hosting. Leaves some of the other hosts weaker, but overall great for worthy opponents. He charges. You faked a basic swing, but then swapped to a low spinning kick. That knocked the piglin over, falling onto the grass.
"You should really learn from the mistakes of those who aren't yourself, because that's almost identical to the trick I pulled on the other guy." You smirked. You dropped down, one knee pinning down the piglin's chest. You jabbed through his stomach to hold him there even better. The piglin shrieked in pain.
"M-my...alternatives...are...alerting Herobrine...as we speak." He coughed up blood. That cooked your blood down to a chill freeze... Why was hearing that so terrifying still? Even after deciding you didn't care if he knew? "That is..." You hurriedly met eyes with the monster again. His mouth, oddly enough, formed a little smile. "Unless it really is you... The (Y/n) I remember from before..."
"...Huh..?"
The creature wheezed a smaller cough, having difficulty breathing.
"...I missed the old (Y/n)... She was a fighter...and not just the brawling type. She...always seemed to know what she was fighting for..." You blinked, confused. Even as human soldiers ran past into the forest, a war still going on around, his words had you confounded.
You grabbed the empty hand laying on his chest and held it. "...Yes. It's me..and I know why I'm fighting again.." This was a moment that took you back to the very beginning, when you first decided to become a soldier in the first place.
You wanted to protect your family...just like your daddy did. The Piglin's other hand let go of his sword and landed on yours. Oddly comforting despite the lukewarm temperature.
"Then be free..." He whispered. About five seconds later, the life drained completely from his eyes.
You stood up, heart thumping again. The scene left behind didn't look all too good in your favor. You grabbed your sword again at the very least and sheathed it at your side. No more fighting for today. Only escaping. Hopefully all of this would be blamed on the humans doing this on their own. As for you, it was time to find for the soldier that would "take you hostage." Before running off, you cupped your hands and screamed.
"HELP!!!" After repeating this simple call a couple more times, you ran off into the forest the remaining human soldiers had fled into.
After a bit of scurrying through the forest, your ears caught onto the desperate pants of a young man struggling to go any further. You ran faster to catch up. Hearing you, the guy turned a head over his shoulder and jumped. "Oh f###!!" Despite his obvious tire, his feet pelted even harder against the brush, propelling him further. You kept pace, certain he would give out in time. As of right now, things finally looked to be leaning in your favor.