11.

><>2nd person POV<><

::: Previously: You followed Andrew and his other followers to the mountains where the young king of the dark empire was kept. Without anyone expecting it, you killed the young king, ending the line of evil reign, and raced off. You were nearing the town, hoping you weren't too late to save everyone from certain doom, when Carter raced up behind you, pointing up at the dark clouds in the sky. Quickly, you raced into the center of town only to find exactly who you had expected. Herobrine. :::

You glare up at the immortal who hovers before you; he not even noticing your mere existence. Up in the sky, he watches over the town as his armies burn it down, helping here and there casually with a few fireballs. He is your next target. Even though you are far from prepared to face him, you can at least try. The worst that could happen would be if he kills you, which in your case isn't that big of a deal -- minus the months of painful conditioning out in the wilderness as soon as you reawaken.

Dead-set on distracting the immortal, you load your crossbow and aim it at his chest, taking cover behind some rubble. You fire the projectile. It whizzes through the air, catching a hold of Herobrine's skin; but only his shoulder. It doesn't go deep -- as to be expected -- but it does do at least some damage. Most of all, it distracts the being from his moment of glory. You quickly duck behind the rubble as Herobrine's eyes shoot in your direction. You hold your breath, hoping he didn't see you. You hear as the same sounds as before continue and you poke your head out again. Herobrine has turned his back to you, and you take aim once again; this time for his spine, where it doesn't have to go deep to do some serious damage. You fire once again, the arrow speeding fast. This time, however, Herobrine turns around instantly and catches the arrow in his hand, right before it has a chance to penetrate his chest. He smiles down at you. A vile smile.

"Ah, so there was someone down there." He begins hovering down to you. Since your cover has been blown, you don't try to hide again. Instead, you step out from behind the rocks a little more, a determined look on your face. "Strange how I didn't detect you," he mumbles to himself, "but that is beside the point! I can finally fight someone brave enough to try to kill me, again." Herobrine smirks, drawing a plain golden sword. Oh, now you KNOW he's being cocky! You internally smile. Oh, it will be fun calling his bluff!

You don't speak; instead, you reload your crossbow in an instant and jump to the side, just barely dodging the gold sword the immortal threw at you. As you jump out of the way you fire the weapon, the arrow flying at Herobrine's head. It hits his brow, just barely missing his left eye, and the immortal grunts in pain. He did not expect you to be so quick. He takes action quickly and yanks the arrow out of his skin, allowing a little trail of blood to drip down onto his cheek. He glares hatefully at you, annoyed.

"Why you little-" Herobrine doesn't finish, preferring to take action right away by moving a big portion of the ground toward you with one swift movement of his arm. You catch sight of the large object quickly and jump onto it. Right before the big piece of stone rams into a building, you jump off of it, showing off with a little flip. When you are safely on the ground, you hear Herobrine growl in anger -- probably wondering how a human could move so quickly. You smile only a little bit while catching your breath. Finally, you are fighting the one and only lord of destruction. However, you know you won't be any help at this rate. All you are doing is stalling. You need to leave and save people. Grr! You should have thought through this! Carter is taking forever! If only you hadn't been so driven for a fight! Then you could be actually saving people! You can't worry about that now. You need to find a way to escape. Maybe... Yes. You decide to fake your death so you can get away without Herobrine following or looking for you. "Die!" You hear Herobrine shout. Looking up, you practically see him on top of you, about to plunge his sword into your face. In the nick of time you roll out of the way; not having any time to swap weapons, you slap the back of his head with your crossbow in that same movement. Herobrine is quick too, and he spins around, golden blade aiming for your unguarded chest. You jump back, again just in time. Herobrine begins to look angry. You should be dead by now! But, you just won't let that happen. You pull out your iron sword while dodging and use it to block Herobrine's latest swing. The gold nearly cracks your iron, but you are safe behind the weapon. Herobrine smirks, spotting your weekness, and kicks your knee. You know not to fall forward where he will surely turn you into a human kabob. To counter that, you force your weight in the opposite direction and fall onto your back. Herobrine is on top of you, one hand holding your shoulder while the other grasps his golden sword tightly, ready to slit your throat. This is not how you had planned this to go. You had hoped he would keep up the far range attacks. Looks like he decided to not be so childish. "You will regret ever having the courage to kill me!" Herobrine shouts in your ear, pushing the sword closer to your neck.

"I wasn't trying to kill you.." You breath what you fear may be your last breath. Herobrine's right brow lifts a little, a tiny bit curious. By the looks of it, his left eyebrow is all torn up and refusing to move. That is something you have found out after all these years: all immortals can bleed. You just need to be persistent if you actually want to take one down. "..I was just stalling you." You say quietly. Suddenly, as if on queue, a horn blows in the distance. You can't believe it worked.

---

Right before running into battle like a stupid person, you added that Carter should find a horn and call for the Raiders, knowing they would answer any call. Even though their usual job was to raid villages and kill villagers, they had centuries ago made an agreement with The Protector, to answer any call for help.

---

Herobrine looks up at the risen hills with widening eyes as he sees an army of pillagers, vendicators, ravengers, and vexes, rising above the hills to help. The usually enemy armies look over the burning village, taking in a scope of the situation. After a moment, they all charge after Carter, who leads them, every one of them shouting.

"In aid of The Protector!!!" They all shout their battle cries of gruffily grunts as it rises into a cheer. Once the aiding armies reach the bottom of the hill, their axes and arrows clash with Herobrine's Nether armies, quickly tiring out the enemy forces.

"N- no! How!?" Herobrine jumps up, leaving you to pick yourself up, and flies up to help out his armies. You take that moment to rush off. It hadn't been a solid plan, but it had worked.

You run near the main fighting for any citizens to rescue. It looks like a majority of them have made it out safely, however you still see a few running around. Ghasts make themselves heard by screeching in pain when arrows deflect their balls of fire and poke through their thick blubbery skin. It doesn't take even a whole stack of arrows to rid the army of all it's ghasts. The only mobs remaining are the zombie pigmen and the wither skeletons, which are being handled by the pillager army and their ravengers.

"Cody!!" Carter shouts to you. He is helping guide a couple wounded to safety with a few coughing behind him. "It worked!" His face gleams, glad he was able to help in some way. You smile back and run into the burning house next to you.

As exciting as avoiding death and saving lives may be, it quickly becomes repetitive and you hope to be done with it soon. Those you and Carter saved, who are not injured or too young, run back into the collapsing town to help the two of you. The ammount of people at your safe point -- a large cave just outside town -- builds up quickly until people have to start being pushed further into the cave to make room for the new survivors. On the bad side, you do see a lot of bodies, once hosts to innocent souls, lying about the streets. So far, things seem to be going pretty well however. You just keep looking ahead, life by life, looking for the next person to save.

"Carter!! Carter!!!" An older man shouts. You look right and see a mildly aged man with dark brown, greying hair limping down the street, shouting Carter's name. The man is wearing full iron armor and holds an iron sword in his shaking hand. You rush over to see if you can help.

"Sir, do you need any help?" You ask in a concerned tone.

"No! I don't need any help you fool! It's my youngest son! I can't find him! His name is-"

"Carter? Yes, I believe I know him. He is helping people escape town. If you want to see him then you better hurry." You coax, pulling on the older man's arm quickly to guide him to the cave.

"Get your hands off me young man! I don't plan on leaving my own home defenseless! The Misses is still at home! I need to get Carter to convince her to get outta there!" The older man tugs his arm back, snapping at you. You look around for the teen, eyeing for any blond haired individuals. Finally, you see him running your way from the cave, not looking up to see you yet.

"Carter!!" You shout through the smoke. He looks up at you quickly and spots his dad right away. "I believe your parents want your help!" You yell. Carter rolls his eyes as he comes closer.

"Ma' not leaving the house? Hhh, we better hurry!" Carter runs where his dad had come from. The older man and you follow closely behind, Carter's dad limping quickly -- you unable to help. The three of you make it to the center of town when you hear a booming voice race after you.

"Not so quickly you little band of creeps!" Herobrine shouts down at you. Before you can cross the center, he lands with a shockwave knocking all of you off your feet. Your eyes can't open for a moment when you are on the floor. They seem glued shut by the pain in the back of your head. You don't know from where, but you feel blood oozing from your body. You were the one closest to Herobrine when he landed, so you took the worst hit. Slowly, you roll yourself back onto your stomach and hold yourself up with your elbows. Very carefully you place a painful knee under you, then another one. You are finally up on your hands and knees, coughing up a little blood from when you bit your tongue, when you hear someone scream bloody-murder.

"NOOOoOO!!!" It's Carter's voice. What is happening!? You quickly rush to your wobbily feet and look up just in time to see Herobrine yank his blade from the older man's chest. You see Herobrine had swapped his previous gold sword with his much more recognizeable enchanted obsidian one. Carter falls to his knees not far in front of you, trying not to burst into a fit of tears. You see where this is headed when Herobrine turns to Carter, a face that just said he was done with fooling around. You grit your teeth; knowing what has to be done.

"What? Small child? Did that man mean something to you?" Herobrine smirks as he looks down upon the teen, who doesn't even care to move. Herobrine pulls back his sword, about to take the young man's life, when you get in the way, literally. The moment you take the blow your mind flashes again with memories you had forgotten and failed to keep up. Your figure weakens, but you aren't dead. In fact, you are winning. You see, in Herobrine's chest, is your own iron sword. You know it won't actually kill him, even with it so deep, but you do know how to make it a nuisance to him. You had never forgotten how Herobrine's golden sword had cracked your iron one previously, and you use that to your advantage. While you still have strength, you jerk the handle to the side, snapping the metal blade. The piece of metal still inside your enemy retreats behind blood and Herobrine steps back in pain. The Lord of destruction gags on blood for a moment as he watches you with a face of absolute disbelief. You, fall to the side, banging your head so your ear begins to bleed. You won't last long enough to enjoy the moment. Herobrine can see that too in your eyes as the determination in them fades. "Hhh!" Herobrine grunts before having to stop when blood reminds him of his own pain, and he vanishes in an instant to leave you to your own death.

"Cody!!" Carter rushes to your side and lifts your head and upper torso off the floor. He knows you are dieing too, but in his head he rejects the idea, more tears sogging up his eyes. "Cody, stay here. Come on, do something, anything that will let me know you are okay!" Carter pleads. It has been a long time since you met someone who truly cares. You place your weak hand on the one of his which is keeping your shoulder up and pat it softly. You look into his eyes, yours having a couple tears in them. You don't want the poor Carter to be left all alone, but there is nothing you can do to save yourself.

"Don't be sad for me, Carter." You speak softly. "I.. I am going to be okay.. Go help all the people in that cave. Guide them to an even better place to stay.." You instruct the teen. He shakes his head subtly as a couple tears drop from his cheeks.

"No. You saved me.." He whimpers. You just sigh and cough up some blood, preferring to spit it out to the side rather than let it drip out the sides of your mough.

"I just like saving people." You finally shrug.

"..But why?.. Why did you kill that king then?" Carter asks. To be honest, you expected the question. Not exactly the best time to ask, but you guess he never really got the chance before and now, well.

"Do some research, Cart- You will find out I was only saving more lives that way.. It is often that goals will be twisted to look the opposite of what they are." You answer. The teen only looks sadder.

"What should I do now?.. My home, my family, my friends.. they are all gone.." Carter asks you. You squeeze his hand firmly, grabbing his attention and making the teen look back down at you. You deflect his worry filled face with a peaceful smile.

"..That is the easy part. Just do whatever you are best at, and build up from there.. Everyone has a destiny, both a good and a bad one. Choose to do what you love and that will help others; not just yourself, and live in true happiness.." You coach. You aren't sure if your words aren't very helpful or even if they were spoken correctly; hopefully he understands. Carter nods and another tear drips from his eyes.

"...But what about you?." He asks, mostly whispering. Your vision dulls.

"Heh, that is easy too. I am dieing if you can't tell.." You say casually, your breath slowly being sucked out of your lungs "Trust me.. I'll be fine... Friend..." You finally sigh. Saying the word 'friend,' in general is a big struggle for you with so many losses in your past, but, you finally find it worth saying; making the moment even more meaningful. Slowly, as if slipping into a deep sleep, you pass...