Warnings: More gore, yay.

~Lachlan's P.O.V.~

     As soon as we're back at the portal I've dropped back onto my knees. Even though my hearts are fully restored the mental scarring is what's doing the damage. Half a heart. I survived.... With half a heart. A gentle hand is placed on my shoulder and Vikk kneels down beside me holding out a baked potato.

"Here Lachlan, eat this." Vikk soothes, placing the item into my blocky hands.

Slowly I munch down on the potato, taking in long deep breaths as I do. After a few minutes I push myself up, staying absolutely silent. I glance over at the buttons, the fourth light now shining. My eyes flicker to the fifth button before returning to the ground.

"I don't think I can go on yet Vikk..." I murmur, catching his eye briefly.
      "It's okay, I'm not gonna force ya. Look, the sun is going down how about we set up a shelter for the night and continue in the morning yeah?" Vikk states, nodding his head towards the surrounding forest.

     I nod slightly, following Vikk as he turns on his heels and makes his way into the darkening forest.  About fifty blocks in we stop and Vikk begins to punch the nearest tree. I watch him for a moment as small blocks of wood drops the group. Feeling like I should do something I punch a few blocks of wood from a tree and put them together to form a crafting table. Plopping it down I toss pieces of left over wood together to craft a couple of sticks which I use to make a wooden pickaxe and sword, just in case. I then burrow down a couple of layers and grab a bit of stone which I use to make two stone swords and a stone pickaxe. Turning around I'm surprised to see Vikk's already got a basic wooden hut standing complete with a door. Vikk places one last plank of wood down to complete the roof before launching off the top and landing in front of me.

"Who's the try-hard now eh?" I joke, trying to lighten up the mood.
"Nahhhh.... Your still the try-hard King. Look at you! With stone tools already." Vikk retorts smugly.
"Oi I guess you don't want your sword then?" I counter, dangling the sword in front of his face.

Vikk chuckles, rolling his eyes and snatching the sword. But then his eyes dart to behind me and he jolts, tackling me to the side... Just as a creeper blows up right where I was standing. We tumble to the ground and I jump off of Vikk, looking into the sky which is now pitch black. I didn't think we took that long!

"GO! Get to the shelter!" Vikk yells grabbing me by the wrist and pulling me ahead as an arrow flys over our heads.

Vikk practically throws me in the hut, slashing through a spider blocking his way before darting in himself. We back up against the far wall, panting heavily. Although the creeper didn't kill us, the force of the explosion still damaged us quite a bit. I look up and check my hearts... 7 and a half left. Vikk on the other hand got hit more, having to slash through monsters to get us to safety. I look over at him and he doesn't seem hurt but I know he's not doing good.

"How many hearts do you have Vikk?"
"I'm fine don't worry."
"Vikk you're avoiding my question." I huff, standing up to face him.
"Fine, I have 8 hearts left." Vikk replies, looking to the side.
"You're lying. I've know you long enough to see that."

Vikk looks me straight in the eyes, debating wether or not to tell me. Finally he sighs burying his face in his hands.

"Two and a hal-"
"WHAT?!" I shriek, stepping back.

I know very well that we didn't bring any food with us so there's no way we can heal. I knew he got hit way to many times to be at 8 hearts! Argh Vikk why must you do these things?! Well I guess he did save me. And of course this is the time a zombie decides to come along and start smashing its fists against the wooden door, the only thing keeping the monsters at bay. I turn around silently, glancing through the door at the hideous face. Rotting flesh peeling back from its face, hollow sunken eyes, and yellow and black teeth gnashing as it tries to punch through. I make a split second decision in my head and put my hand on the handle of the door.

     "What are you doing? The zombie will get in!" Vikk exclaims, preparing to jump to his feet.

     Without glancing back at him I draw my sword, sighing. The door is just a few hits away from shattering and I know what I have to do.

     "You're going to die if I don't go right now and get some food from the chest. So I'm going to go out there, brawl my way through this madness, and get you and I some food."

     Before Vikk has a chance to respond I kick down the door, knocking the zombie back and charging into the night.

~Time skip to the food chest~

Finally, after an eternity of battling mobs I stumble out of the tree line bloody and tired. My sword is about to shatter and it's the best I can do to sneak along the edge of the portal to try and avoid the mobs surrounding the area.

"Alright you can do this Lachlan, just... Get the food and get back, no big deal right?" I try to reassure myself, nearing the chest. But coming around the corner I see at least four spiders scuttling about. My health sits at four hearts now.
"Big deal." I groan, sneaking my way up in front of the chest.

Glancing back over my shoulder before diving in I eye the spiders warily and make sure they're a good distance away. Which they are. And so I swiftly grab as many potatoes as I can. Sliding backwards I turn around preparing to dash back to the hut. But it's never that easy is it? Oh course one of the spiders just happens to see me and of course it decides oh look I'm going to attack this hurt player for no good reason at all! Lah-dee-dah.

     "Stay away you filthy spider!" I hiss, trying to run backwards away from it.

      This only aggravates it more and it calls for its eight legged friends to come join its assault. Three spiders swarm towards me, their red eyes glinting eerily in the moonlight and legs going clickity clack on the grassy ground. The first one lunges at me and I whip out my sword, slicing right through its head and spider blood splattering onto my already blood stained clothing. It's comrades hiss in anger at their fallen friend and dash towards me. I go to slash as the one nearing me but the second one shoots out string and it connects to my sword. The sneaky mob then pulls back tightly ripping the stone sword from my hands.

     "You little fudger..." I hiss under my breath, drawing out the wooden sword stashed away in my inventory. "Rule number one, always bring ANOTHER SWORD!" I bellow, smashing the spider over the head with the flat edge and completely decapitating it immediately after.

       But by using my focus to take down the first spider I failed to notice the second one banking around behind me and when I'm about to turn around to sprint back I'm only met with the huge hairy body of the spider. It clings onto me, knocking me onto the ground and without hesitation sinks its fangs into my left shoulder. I yell out in pain, adrenaline kicking in as my hearts drop to two and a half. With a surge of power I knock the spider off of me, clutching my shoulder as blood spills out of the punctures. Not bothering trying to fight it I retreat into the forest trusting my instincts to lead me back to Vikk.

     Maneuvering around the trees and avoiding mobs at all costs I dash towards the wooden structure in the distance, chomping down a potato and regaining a bit of my health brining me back up to six hearts before my hunger wears down again. I'm just about to reach the wood when suddenly there's a puff of purple particles and I'm ramming into the body of something. Something tall, black, and menacing. Enderman.

     Falling back onto my butt I scramble backwards until my back hits a tree. The Enderman shrieks and whips around towards me, shaking and mouth agape. I hold the flimsy wooden sword out in front of me, my last line of defence. But in a flash the Endermans ripped it out of my hands, snapping it in half and throwing the remains away. With superhuman strength it lifts me off the ground by my collar, slamming me back onto the ground and dropping my hearts back down to four.

     "I was so close..." I sigh, looking up at the mob in terror as it pins me down with its foot, preparing to deliver a fatal blow.

     And that's when a stone sword is protruding from its stomach, purple blood splattering onto my face. The sword is driven upwards, cutting the Enderman in half until it's torn from its stomach up, organs and blood seeping out onto the ground before it disintegrates into a pile of ashes. And none other than Vikk is standing there, purple ooze dripping from his stone sword which is now hanging loosely at his side.

     Now let's just take a minute to get something straight. When you've come close to death twice in the same day you're covered in blood and scratched up and tired just escaping a terrifying experience... There's no way, at all, that you can't just break down on the spot. Which is exactly what I do.

     Tears quickly build up into my eyes, spilling down my cheeks at a rapid pace. I'm not even concerned about the skeleton drawing near from my loud sobbing, because I simply can't take it anymore. It comes to the point where Vikk literally has to drag me into the shelter, just barley dodging incoming projectiles from nearby skeletons the whole way.

     I'm not sure how long I cried. All I know is that there was no way anybody would get me to do that, EVER again.

     ~Time skip to the morning~

     After my little incident last night, I'm left feeling quite embarrassed. I mean I'm a full grown man and I probably spent the rest of the night sobbing and cowering in a corner. Needless to say Vikk did whatever he could to help me during the time, offering encouraging words and comfort.

     "Hey at least you did what you set out to do." Vikk had said, eating his potato.

      And now we're here, back at the portal and facing the fifth button. Although I must mention my clothes are still stained and my shoulder is still stinging from the spiders bite. (I found the culprit on the way to the portal with Vikk and I didn't hesitate to beat it to death with my pickaxe.) I made Vikk promise not to speak of last night ever again, which he gladly agreed to do.

      "Well it's now or never I guess..." Vikk says, pushing in the button.
     "Halfway mark. Let's do this."

~~~

Fun fact: This chapter wasn't even supposed to exist when I was first planning out the story. They were just going to go into the fifth level and none of that was supposed to happen... But it just kinda did. I randomly thought about it after I wrote about Lachlan not being sure if he could go on... So I went with it and I hope you liked it!

-DarkDisco7