The notorious warrior, the awe inspiring [_____], had found himself tied up with what he would call a little problem. In this case, that would prove to be being chased by pillagers - one of which who had stolen his sword, so he was kind of under-geared - and, oh yeah, he was wounded. Ergo, not exactly a small issue.
"Leave me alone!" He called out in no small amount of panic, remembering his last (and surprisingly only) respawn. It was painful, to say the least, and he didn't leave his bed for at least two days before it stopped hurting. He wasn't even sure why they were chasing him - probably just a case of wrong place wrong time syndrome. They didn't acknowledge his plea, and continued forward, laughing at his misfortune.
"But you would be so useful!" One of them called with a smirk, a cackle leaving them as they picked up the pace a little. Tears formed at [_____]'s eyes as the arrow they had shot into his leg made its way in even further.
"Useful how?" He called back, desperation in his voice. The pillagers' eyes gleamed.
"How d'you think the ravagers came to be?" The name of the massive monster struck fear into his heart, and he just then realised what they would do. Experiments. And he wasn't really planning on sticking around long enough to find out. Using as much energy as he could, whilst also ignoring the pain in his leg, he bolted into a nearby cave. Rushing in, he didn't notice that the pillagers had stopped following him, a neutral expression reappearing on their faces. Sure, they didn't get to catch him, but they all knew what was down in that specific cave.
The Warden.
Now, [_____] was used to dealing with mobs, but the pillagers caught him off guard. Another thing that caught him off guard was the rather excessive amount of mobs in this cave. Once he'd found a place to catch his breath with no mobs, he considered his options carefully. He could head back up to the surface, but that would consist of him going back past the mobs he'd just ran from, and then risking the chances of the pillagers still being there. So that was a hard pass. The next option would be to dig his way up, but that had both the cons of gravel falling on him and suffocating him, and the fact that his leg was still in agonising pain from being shot, so that was another pass. The third option would be to continue into the cave, perhaps there'd be another way out. He knew his way around a sword and could make a makeshift cobble one, which - admittedly, wasn't the best - would do it's job and protect him, and he'd just have to deal with another few mobs. The last option was the one he went with. What else could be down here? Probably nothing more dangerous than an enderman or a creeper.
[_____] quickly crafted a makeshift weapon and brandished it in front of himself, carefully kneading the wooden handle so that it was easier to grip. Once it was to his liking, he continued forwards, limping further into the cave as he tried to keep his weight off of his injured leg.
He had been walking for a while, quite often fighting off mobs and sneaking past them whilst they were distracted. However, the cave seemed to just keep going down, unfortunately showing no signs of another exit. Attempting to keep his hopes high, he continued down, trying to find something that wouldn't kill him and would let him out.
~
Eventually, [_____] had travelled for so long and so far down he had no idea where he was. He had no light (luckily his eyes had somewhat adjusted to the dark), a cracked sword, and seemingly no way out. So that was great. Reaching a hand out to touch the wall, he felt the smooth cobblestone and moss and something sticky and stone and- wait.
"Ew-! What the-" His voice came out as croaky as he looked down at his hand, which was now covered in an iridescent black substance. He tried flicking it off his hand but the pieces that flew off only grew on the floor. He frowned at it and wiped the majority of it against the wall, grimacing as some still stuck to his hand. He continued forwards, albeit more carefully, as he tried to estimate where he was.
An arrow whipped by his head from behind him and he turned around quickly, sword shooting up to deflect two more arrows that came flying at him. A groan was heard and at least five zombies came out from the intersection, followed by a couple of creepers and spiders.
"Why the fuck are there so many?!" [_____] cursed and began sprinting to the best of his abilities into the blackness. Luckily the mobs only ambled slowly, otherwise he'd be left with quite a problem. Unfortunately, they still came after him, with more adding on to the already large amount of mobs. The floor beneath him felt sticky almost, as if covered by the same stuff he had felt before.
Suddenly an earsplitting shriek filled the cave and- and... something shook the ground. An obnoxious roar was heard somewhere down the path [_____] was running, but he couldn't stop now with the mobs behind him.
Okay, there was no denying it - [_____] was well and truly scared. A big ass monster just crawled out from the depths of hell or wherever it came from and was just killing everything in its path. Sure, he was a little grateful, it's killing all the mobs that were going to hurt him, but now that thing was going to kill him instead. Fuck.
Cowering in the corner of the cave, he started muttering something illegible, before promptly passing out. Whether that be from pain or shock or fear, it wasn't certain.
~
The Warden was pissed. Not only had it finally cleared out the caves of humans who thought it would be a good idea to wander, but now there was more. The sense of an intense fear filled the air, and he was determined to find and eliminate the source of it. Crushing all the mobs in his way, he felt... appreciation? Was that gratitude? Sure, fear still clouded his senses, but he could feel the positive emotion seeping through the cracks, and that made him wish to preserve it. He hadn't felt anything like this in a while, and he wished to keep it for as long as he could.
Finding the source of this emotion, it appeared to be a fragile small human. Picking it up, he held it between his claws. He now had a new role - to protect his ward.
