Hero's Bane

Chapter 81: To Keep Fighting

Herobrine immediately opened his eyes when the white faded, he blinked from the strange vision he had and took notice that he was now on his knees with a strong headache in the fortress temple. He shook his pounding head with a sneer in trying to alleviate the pain, but it didn't help. With a snort; the White-Eyed man removed his hands from the sides of his head and grabbed for his sword a few inches away from him. Once he raised it up he took notice of the crimson that coated the tip, a single drop slid down the blade length as he held it up. There were also small drops of red on the floor before him, they were very fresh considering the smell was heavy.

The sounds of shifting feet and light-pained huffs had him shooting a glance out of the corner of his eye to see the miner holding his side with one hand and his iron sword in the other while slowly hobbling towards the well.

"No!" Herobrine shouted and quickly caught the miner's attention.

Steve took a quick look back but kept moving towards the water; he grimaced when he accidentally touched the new wound in his side, Herobrine had jabbed him with his diamond in their fight before freezing up and then falling to his knees strangely. Thankfully the wound wasn't deep, it still bled a little and stung though; especially when he touched it. Regardless of his new troubling injury; he still needed to make it to the well and stop the old hero soon.

"Oh no you don't." Herobrine moved back onto his feet and charged at the miner with his sword out at his side ready to strike the mortal.

Steve spun around and brought up the iron blade to deflect the diamond that nearly reached the spot between his shoulder and neck, a loud clank filled their ears. "Why can't... you just give ... m-me the chance?" He asked with his teeth gnashing from the heavy pressure he was holding back once again, it was now even harder with the fresh injury in his side.

"I will risk nothing. That god was here only a little while ago, he could just as easily return to answer you and put me down. I cannot stress enough that your speaking to him will be my downfall. I will not allow you to gamble my freedom for a wasteful plea that may not even be answered. Why can't you just see that he has abandoned all of you? I know no reason for his return but I doubt he's back to check up on his pathetic people that he left so long ago." Herobrine countered through clenched teeth.

"Errrrr... Neither of us knows. But still, neither of us can reach Ender either; that beast is the enemy here and I must do whatever I can to stop it! We have to stop it!" Steve pushed back and forced the powerful man back a step but kept holding the sword that was relentlessly pushing against him. "But if I have to fight through you to reach Notch, I will because that beast must be stopped before many more suffer a devastating fate. I will stop at nothing until I reach him; even if I must die to get Notch's attention, he just has to come back and do something. I refuse to believe that he has abandoned us, maybe letting fate fall where it may without interference is how he wanted everything to go. Maybe he still cares for us, for this world."

"You are a fool!" Herobrine moved forward with his sword to push the human back but Steve quickly retreated and allowed him to stumble forward falling for the trap that he first made to the miner. Sharp iron ran across his wielding arm and left a trail of blood across his bicep. He growled aloud and backed away a few steps to see the stinging cut that was made on him, bright light soon filled the gash and skin started to slowly form.

The miner quickly lost his angry expression and showed a look of pity. "I'm sorry Herobrine."

"Don't apologize!" The hero snapped back and repositioned his sword in a fighting stance once again. "Your cuts with that blade are nothing to me, you cannot best me again mortal."