Six Stone Souls (The Pack)

Chapter 11

Warnings: mentions of blood

~Jerome's P.O.V.~

     Ignoring Lachlan's and Vikk's yelps of surprise and questioning looks, I fire another shadow ball at the figure darting between trees.

     "Jerome, what's in there?!" Vikk demands, dropping into an attack stance.

     As if to answer him, like nine people all dressed in black stained leather armour are shooting out of the trees, either from above or behind, and equipped with daggers and bows. Assassins. No doubt from Herobrine. I figure, ducking as a dagger flies at my head.

     "Does that answer your question?!" I reply, managing to sidestep an arrow as it whizzes past my face.
     "But why would assassins be here in the middle of a forest?!" Vikk exclaims, locking one in combat with his diamond sword.
     "Oh I don't know, maybe to kill us?!" Lachlan responds, hitting one directly in the chest with a burst of scalding hot water, sending him flying back into a tree.

     Vikk and I pause for a moment as we see a ring of items burst around the assassin, who is clearly dead. We direct our gaze to Lachlan, jaws hanging open. Lachlan catches our gaze and rolls his eyes, turning invisible.

     "There are like five people trying to kill us right now, what was I supposed to do?!" His voice rings out from the air.
     "Actually it's more like eight." I correct, snapping back to reality and punching one square in the face.
     "Oh, sorry I wasn't specific enough!" Lachlan exclaims sarcastically, an assassin crying out in surprise as a geyser shoots up underneath him.

     Growling and unsheathing my claws, I launch a shadowball at a a few assassins. But instead of hitting them, the ball strikes the ground in front of them, sending up a cloud of dust. Using this to my advantage, I dive into the mist of it all and by the time the dust settles, three bodies lie around me with items surrounding them. I wipe the excess blood of my claws, rushing forward to help Vikk and Lachlan beat off the remaining three assassins, who seem more skilled than the rest.

     First I go to help Vikk, running in his direction and preparing to help as he tries to strike the assassin with earth spikes, but the assassin dodging each time. Lachlan seems to be faring a bit better, having picked up a sword from one of the slain assassins and dual wielding it with his own, constantly pelting the two assailants with geysers and fading in and out of visibility. In a panic, my heart pounding, I quickly try to shoot a shadowball at the assassin who had climbed on top of an earth spike and is launching himself towards Vikk. In the blink of an eye Vikk is gone, and only a second later the assassin. I do a double take as the shadowball flies off into a tree, and Vikk as well as the assassin are nowhere even close to where I last saw them. Vikk catches my confused glance and whilst fighting the assassin, explains.

     "I slowed down time but he had a swiftness potion." Vikk explains briskly, ducking under an arrow. "Now could I get a little bit of help?"
     "Oh- right!"

     Working together Vikk and I easily defeat the assassin. At the same time I notice Lachlan single handedly finished off the last two himself.

     "Phew." Lachlan breathes, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "That was unexpected."
     I nod. "Yeah, but if Herobrine wants to kill us he's gonna have to do a lot better than that."

     Lachlan and I share a chuckle, which is ironic considering we're standing in the middle of multiple dead bodies and scattered items. But Vikk doesn't say a word. He seems troubled.

    "What's up Vikk?" Lachlan asks, seemingly noticing his silence as well.
     "What you guys said... That's just the thing. We had a fair amount of difficulty beating only a handful of assassins. If we want to have any chance against Herobrine, we need to learn how to use our powers a bit better." He concurs.
     My smile drops. "Good point... But I mean hey, you guys have only been revived for a little while, and only woke up three days ago! It's no wonder we haven't remastered our powers yet."
     "Yeah I guess that's true." Vikk admits. "But we should still be careful."
     "Hey guys look, one of those guys had a map." Lachlan calls, wandering over to the limp corpse of one of the assassins and scooping up a rolled up map.

    Vikk and I come on either side of him, peeking over his shoulder to see what's etched onto the crinkly paper.

     "It looks like this forest ends soon - which is good - and just past it there's a village called 'hillford' in an extreme hills biome" Lachlan states, jabbing a finger into the spot marked on the map.
"Hillford... Isn't that the number one ore producer? If I remember correctly then after we reach Hillford we should be right near the capital." I point out.
"Yeah I think you're right Jerome. But I don't know if going into the capital is a great idea since Herobrine is loose and all. Until we find Mitch, Rob, and Preston we should probably stay away." Lachlan points out.
"Agreed."
"Maybe they'll have a nether portal there." Vikk tries as Lachlan rolls up the map and it disappears into his inventory.
"Only one way to find out." I continue, "And you guys wouldn't happen to have a spare axe would you?"
"Here you can have this one," Vikk offers, pulling out a stone axe and placing it in my hands. "It's a bit worn out but it ought to do."
"Thanks."

I'm okay with a sword, but for some reason I've always preferred axes. I had a diamond axe I nicknamed Betty but I lost it during our fight with Herobrine. Well this will have to do for now. I think, stuffing the axe into my inventory.

"Follow me!" Lachlan declares, pointing a finger forwards and marching on.

Vikk and I share a small laugh at Lachlan's childish demeanour before following him through the now silent forest.

~~~

Question of the chapter:

What is your favourite month, and why?

My answer: I love April because it's the most rainy month of the year. And of course, I love the rain ^_^ it makes me feel happy and motivated for some reason...