Hermits: Apocalypse

Apocalypse Part 16

Mumbo POV

I sat outside the house watching Ren and Doc sparring. Grian sat beside he, his head resting on my shoulder. Ren glanced at us briefly and smirked, and I felt my face redden a bit.

Wither stood a little ways off, trying out some shapeshifting thing. I watched as a small patch of red scales spread a rock the back of his hand. He remained human. After a minute, the scales retreated.

If we were going to kill Meaty and get home, we'd have to do it soon. According to Wither, he'd been collecting more and more Halfhel soldiers by the day. Meaty could conquer Minecraft.

A yelp drew me back to the fight. Doc had hit Ren in the side with the blunt edge of his sword. The hybrid clutched his ribs and struck again. Doc sidestepped and Ren fell face first into the dirt.

We all laughed. Ren sat up, face full of sand. He spat it out as he went red.

"I think that's enough practicing for now." Wither stepped towards us.

I glanced at the castle in the sky. "We'll need to fight him soon." I added.

Grian nodded. "We should get ready." He said. "Let's leave at sunset."

"And we don't come back until Meaty's dead."

No matter what happened, this was the final fight. We had to get rid of him once and for all.

We all nodded. Ren went inside to get something for his ribs, Doc following behind. Wither went with him.

I got up but Grian stayed back for a minute.

"You coming?" I asked. He shook his head.

"I'm going to stay out for a bit." He replied. I sat beside him. Grian snuggled closer to me and I held him.

After a few moments he looked up at me with big eyes.

"What if we lose? What if we can't see our friends again? What if we..." What if we die? The unspoken words hung in the air.

I pulled him closer. "We won't lose. And we will get back to Hermitcraft." I promised.

And I don't know what encouraged me to do this...

But I gently placed my lips on Grian's forehead.

He tensed up. I drew back immediately. 

"Sorry." I stuttered. I could feel the blood rising into my cheeks. Grian was blushing as well.

I was saved from embarrassment as Wither called from inside.

"Hey Grian! Can you help me with something?"

Grian stood up. "Sure." He answered. He walked into the house, leaving me alone with my humiliation.

I just hoped Ren hadn't seen this.

Ren POV

We walked out onto the battlefield. One thought kept ringing in my head.

I hope the staff works.

The conversation with Thanatos had gone well enough. Now the death god was on standbye, ready to do his part in the plan.

If it didn't...

My sword hung at my side, along with a knife. I doubted that they would be any help against Meaty or a Halfhel.

Doc walked beside me. He moved confidently enough, but I knew my friend to well for him to fool me. He was terrified.

I wasn't any better off. The thought of seeing Meaty's scarred face again made me feel sick.

Grian and Mumbo walked beside each other, but things were a bit tense between them. I wondered if anything had happened.

Wither was in the lead. His knives lay on his belt, but his main weapon wasn't there. I knew the staff of Hades was tied safely around his neck.

The plains of this server were devoid of any signs of life.

Wither stopped. I felt my ears perk up. I could hear something...

"Somebody's coming." I said out loud. The others drew their weapons.

A cloud of red grew on the horizon. It slowly started growing, until it was distinguishable as an army.

My ears flattened against my head. We all froze.

Meaty was at the head of the army, a red cape flowing off his shoulders. There must have been a hundred Halfhels. 

He stopped his army. Our enemy walked up until he was a few meters away from us. I growled under my breath.

"Well?" Meaty asked, turning around to show off his new cloak. "What do you think of this?"

Doc snorted. "Did you get it from the Halloween store?" He asked wryly.

"No Doc." Grian cut off Meaty. "Your thinking of the mask- oh wait."

We all laughed, and I even heard a few snickers from the Halfhel army.

Meaty's smile faltered. "Look, no need to be rude. But I want to get this over with. I'm opening a portal to the Hermitcraft server tonight, and we don't want to be delayed."

"The only delay will be us going home." Wither growled. "You're not going to invade any servers today."

Wither laughed. "Who'll stop me? You, and what army?"

Wither smirked. He grabbed the pendant off  his neck, and it grew into the full sized version.

"I'm so glad you asked." He said. Wither tapped the ground three times with the staff.

A long crack opened up in the ground. Meaty stepped back and narrowly avoided falling in. Dammit.

Ghostly figures started crawling out of the canyon. Hundreds of skeletons, dressed in various pieces of armour, started forming ranks behind us. I saw one with army fatigues, and a belt of grenades slung over its chest. One had a musket, a metal chest plate, and aviators covering it's nonexistent eyes from the sun. We can all dream.

One was wearing nothing but a speedo and it had a machine gun slung over its shoulder.

Five more creatures climbed out of the gorge. Skeletal horses ran up to us, and we all climbed on to one each.

I grinned as I saw the expressions on our enemies faces. They actually looked nervous. Although a skeleton in a speedo is enough to do that.

Meaty shifted from foot to foot nervously. "You don't know what you're doing." He hissed. "No mortal can control the power of death itself!"

"Maybe." Wither shrugged. "But I'm not a mortal. Unlike you."

Meaty narrowed his eyes. "Halfhels, ATTACK!" He yelled. A hundred warriors cheered and charged.

"Legion of Hades!" Wither reared on his horse. "To war!" 

We yelled like maniacs and charged.