Harvey (Team Crafted)

Counterpart Encounter

Harvey yelped as he just barely managed to duck under Sky's sword, and at that moment, he lost his balance and fell backwards. Sky lifted his sword, getting read to attack again, and Harvey scrambled back as his sword buried in the sand of the training area instead of in his shield.
   The human clambered to his feet and held his own sword high, helmet askew on his head, ready to defend. Or so he thought.
   But, to his surprise, instead of attacking again, Sky sighed loudly and let his arms drop to his sides. "Harvey, pay attention! How many times have I told you the proper defensive stance!"
   Harvey sighed, looking down. "Seven..."
   "Well it's about to be eight." Sky growled and walked over. None too gently, he kicked Harvey's foot so he moved it further away from the other. "Feet far apart and straight forward. "Shield up, sword low. Bend forward - no, not that much! And keep your head up! You won't be doing much defending if you're looking at the ground."
   Harvey made a frustrated sound and dropped the stance yet again and turned to Sky. "Maybe I'm just not meant to fight in this style. Or I'm not meant to fight at all..." The latter seemed more likely, and Sky rolled his eyes.
   "If you believe that you can't fight, then you won't. And there's no amount of training that can make you think otherwise." With that, he sheathed his sword with a hiss of leather on steel. "C'mon, let's just get going."
    He turned and headed out of the training area. Harvey set his practice sword and shield by the railing of the place and jogged after him the catch up. "You're coming with us?"
   Sky nodded, not looking at him. "Sundee asked True and I to come with you."
   Harvey nodded back slowly. "Okay..." They left the guild through the north exit and started heading up the hill outside of it - beyond that were the mountains, tall and menacing, but good for protection. Harvey thought he heard one of the others mention that they had no idea what was on the other side of the mountains. "If the portal up here?"
   "Obviously." Sky said. "Otherwise we wouldn't be heading in this direction, would we?"
   Harvey huffed and looked ahead. Sky had a knack for making others seem dumb if he wanted to, a trait that was definitely not carried out by Adam, his friend on Earth. Well, friend... Harvey flinched. It shouldn't still hurt, what happened years ago - but it did. Nothing more was said until they reached the top of the hill.
   "No, you see, you only really need ten obsidian blocks." True was telling Sundee. "The corners, you can use any old crap or nothing at all."
   Sundee nodded. "Awesome, well, now we have four spare obsidian. I mean, I don't know what the hell we'll do with it, but it's cool." He glanced over as he heard others approaching and smiled a little at Harvey and Sky. "Ready?"
   Sky nodded. "I didn't bother giving Harvey a sword. He can't use one properly anyway."
   Sundee blinked. "That's not true." He said. "He totally destroyed a skeleton in the mines yesterday, it was awesome!" Sky grunted in answer and Sundee rolled his eyes. He searched through his inventory before handing a stone sword to Harvey. "Here. Don't listen to Sky, he can be a real prick."
   "Watch it." Sky snapped lowly. He looked at True. "Are you gonna light the damn thing or what?"
   "Alright, alright, chill the fuck out." True pulled a flint and steel out of his inventory and struck it on the portal till it caught fire on it; a half second later, it went up in a rectangular, purple, shimmering portal that made eerie sounds. Harvey shivered at the sight. Everything about the Nether always creeped him out when he played the game.
   "No time to waste." Sky put a hand on the hilt of his sword. "Let's get going." Then, without even a second of hesitation, he leaped through the portal and disappeared inside.
   "See you on the other side." Sundee saluted playfully and followed after Sky.
   True just smiled encouragingly at Harvey. "Don't worry, human. Perfectly safe." And he stepped casually through.
   Harvey stayed where he was, nerves getting the better of him not for the first time since he had gotten stuck in Minecraftia. The last time he willingly smelled through a portal, he ended up in this stupid mess, so what was going to happen when he did it again? Well... At least, if things did go south, he would have friends with him this time. Harvey took a deep breath, shut his eyes, and jumped timidly through the portal.
   The first thing he felt as soon as the strange purple veil touched his skin was a sudden and overwhelming dizziness. Unprepared, he fell over, and he felt himself hit the ground before his senses started to fade back to him. "That was the most graceful thing I have ever seen." True's voice spoke as hands pulled him up.
   Harvey shook his head in an attempt to clear it. "I-I didn't know..."
   "Hey, don't worry about it kid." True let him stand on his own. "Least you got here okay."
   Harvey looked around nervously. "Where is here...?"
   "Bad news. We spawned right in the castle." Sky said, looking around at the scary red halls. It was hot here and the very ground, Harvey could feel heat radiating from it through his shoes. He shivered, shifting his weight quickly. Sky continued, "They'll have guards on us in minutes. Ever since the Aether-God's Realm War, Herobrine has been going crazy with the security."
   "Well, you can't blame him." Sundee said. "War or no war, I wouldn't want some random dudes from another dimension breaking into my house uninvited."
   True looked at him. "Isn't the 'uninvited' in your sentence kind of redundant?"
   He was ignored.
   "Alright, let's split up." Sky said. "Harvey, you stay with me, True, you go with Sundee. If you get lost or killed, we leave you behind." True and Sundee exchanged glances, but didn't reply. "So don't die."
   "I'll try." Sundee held a hand up in goodbye and turned down the hallway to the side, True following close behind. Sky just started walking down the hallway straight ahead from the portal, pulling out his sword and gripping it tightly. Harvey held his own sword so tight his knuckled were white. As he followed Sky, he couldn't focus on anything because his mind was rushing with thought. Aether-God's Realm War? The Aether was actually a thing? What the hell was God's Realm? And Herobrine was here?! As if things couldn't get more confusing, Harvey felt completely lost, so he just stayed silent and crept along close behind Sky.
   "What are we here for?" The Commander hissed to him.
   Harvey gulped. "A-A blaze rod or t-two..." He said, his voice a little higher than usual.
   Sky looked at him in confusion. "What's with you?" And as he was turned away from the way ahead, a couple of people in red armor walked around the corner. As they saw Sky, they lifted their swords quickly to attack. Harvey's eyes widened in horror over Sky's shoulder. "S-Sky!" Before he had even spoken, Sky had spun around, swinging his sword like a baseball bat so that the flat of his blade hit one of the guards in the side of the head. He fell against the wall with a shout and Sky kicked him roughly in the chest so he fell, sword clattering away.
   Harvey could only watch, frozen stiff with fear, as the second guard roared at Sky loudly, like a lion. Sky reeled back in surprise at the sound before his eyes narrowed. He swung an attack but the guard parried and stabbed. Sky had to jump to the side quickly to avoid it. Harvey expected Sky to snap at him for being lazy and to help him, but he did no such thing. He still looked determined - and Harvey got it. He was too stubborn to ask for help. Harvey stepped forward to try and help, but reeled back to avoid getting sliced in half. There was no way for him to tell what a good place for him to intervene would be. He made a whimper of worry for Sky, not noticing the figure sneaking up behind him.
   Sky finally kicked the guard hard enough against the wall so he dropped he sword, and he kicked him in the chest so he hit the wall again. His head struck the brick wall and he fell to the ground, finally unconscious. Sky sighed in relief, but the feeling didn't last long. "Put your weapon down!"
   Sky looked towards the new voice, tensing, before he just groaned. Harvey stared at him with wide, fearful eyes as the guard behind him held a sharp black sword up to his neck. Sky glared at Harvey bitterly. "I guess Sundee was wrong. You can't use a sword at all, can you."
    Harvey just shut his eyes tightly. He was disappointed in himself and he knew Sky was disappointed in him too. Sky was doing all this cool stuff, beating two guards in a few seconds, and the human couldn't even take one. Not to mention, his heart was racing with fear. He knew the rules - he and Sky were to be left behind, because they got caught. He would never get to make it home now. He was literally trapped in hell. Why did he ever think this would be a good idea?
   "I said put down your sword!" The guard snapped, harsher than before. Harvey watched Sky toss his sword to the ground agitatedly and hold up his hands. Then his eyes widened as he realized something. He looked down. He still had his own shabby, borrowed stone sword in his hand. He hadn't dropped it.
   He looked at Sky, who looked back angrily. Harvey realized he had a chance of freeing himself - but his throat could be slit in the process. But he didn't have time to question it. He had a chance. Sky would tell him to take it. He shut his eyes tightly, tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, and sliced it backwards, as hard as he could (which wasn't hard) under the guard's leg.
   The guard shouted in pain and fell - Harvey's throat wasn't cut open, but instead, the sword opened a gash on his jaw that made him cry out in pain. Sky looked up in surprise, hands lowering in confusion. There, Harvey stood with one hand covering the fresh cut on his face. The guard was on the floor, trying to get up but failing because of his wound, and the human stood there, holding his sword that had some black blood staining it. Sky was speechless, but it didn't matter because he didn't get a chance to speak anyway.
   "Sky?!"
   Sky froze. Harvey looked towards the voice, which had come from behind him. Sky stood slowly, his eyes huge. There, walking towards them with a very familiar legend behind him, was a man who looked exactly like Harvey.