Cleo whirled around, the blade in her hands cutting through the illusions. She had no clue which of the figures was the actual Illusioner, but she had to try anyways.

Cleo got an idea, something she'd picked up from the Civil war a while ago. She quickly sprinted away from the battle, putting some space between herself and the enemy. She scanned the hallway, and spotted a floating flint and steel disappearing around a corner.

"Caught ya." Cleo gave chase, and in seconds, she had the illusioner cornered. Well, the invisible illusioner. Back in the Civil war, invisibility potions were valuable. She remembered how Team Star had attempted to invade the Gteam base, but since the Gteam knew ahead of time, they snatched some invisibility potions and ambushed the intruders.

The illusioner seemed to bail, dropping the lighter so they could completely vanish from sight. Cleo took the opportunity to grab the flint and steel, and run for it. She knew the illusioner could attack her at any moment, but she'd already wasted enough time. She needed to get back to Joe and Grian, but had a sinking feeling she was too late.

_________________________________________

Joe was standing in front of Grian, who was propped up against the nether portal. Joe winced as he took another arrow. All he had to defend himself and Grian was his enchanted shovel. His armour was taking the bulk of the damage, but Joe was still low on health.

"Stay with me Grian, tell me Sahara's motto." Joe had been asking Grian questions every few seconds to make sure he was still conscious.

He heard Grian shift a little bit. "We sell everything..... B-but we also have a lotta saaaand."

Grian was too weak to even do the funny fluctuations Iskall would do whenever mentioning sand.

What also concerned Joe was how the soil around Grian's feet was beginning to yield black, thorny roots.

________________________________________

"I'm going to give them two more minutes before we rebuild the portal over there and rescue them." Iskall said, again pacing.

Mumbo was fidgeting even nervously than before. "Come on...."

______________________________________

Cleo jumped down into the tunnel and ran straight for the nether portal. "I got it! Let's get out of here!"

Joe stumbled backwards and helped lift up Grian as Cleo lit the obsidian, before helping Joe carry Grian through.

Joe leaned Grian against the portal before running towards Iskall and Mumbo. "We need healing stuff, now!"

Iskall and Mumbo ran towards them, Mumbo pulling out the shulker box with all the food. "Here's some Golden carrots and a couple more healing potions." He handed over the items.

"Do you have any golden apples? Grian's got some wounds that can't be fixed with regen." Joe quickly brought his own health up to a better stat and began to administer the potions to Grian.

Mumbo dug through the box. "Yes, we have two." He handed them to Cleo.

"I'll fly ahead and get Scar and Doc on standby, they'll know what to do." Iskall took a stack of rockets out of his inventory.

Cleo nodded. "Stay safe, and hurry."

____________________________________________

Iskall stumbled out of the closest portal, which flying to had taken the entire stack of rockets and then some. He immediately stumbled into Scar, who was restocking ender pearls for the Golf game.

"Whoa- Iskall?" Scar immediately sounded alarmed.

Iskall took a moment to catch his breath and between pants managed to get out "Grian... Hurt... Magical... Bad..."

Scar frowned. "Did you try golden apples?"

Iskall nodded. 

"Okay, I have an enchanted one I got from a desert temple in my base, I'll be right back."

"Bring lots of rockets too!" Iskall called after him.

_____________________________________________

Everything was fuzzy, and it felt like someone had stuffed cotton balls in his ears. Grian heard shouting, but it sounded far away.

And he was hot. Really hot. His wounds burned and he wasn't sure where he was.

A calm, soothing voice managed to cut through the fog in his head.

"Grian, are you poultry man?"

"n..no." Grian mumbled. "it's not me..."

"It's who?"

"the man in the... chicken..."

"He's barely conscious." The voice said, addressing someone else. "We need to keep him awake."

The voice, which was getting fuzzier, addressed him again. "Grian, what's the name of your first skeleton horse?"

Grian knew the answer, it was Jack Skelebone. But his mouth wouldn't move. Everything was dark, and the sound started to fade away.

"Grian?"

"Stay with me Gria-"

And then silence.