Hunter crouched behind a tree; the flashes of fire and explosions being the only form of light. Trees were popping up left and right and grass was thickening in and outside of the near war zone. Grassbrin and Treebrin had appeared somewhere in the midst of battle and were doing their best to keep the wither within attacking range. Unfortunately, they were loosing ground.

Hunter twirled around the leaves she was currently hiding in, fire in an arrow at the beast not ten blocks away. The flaming arrow struck the wither boss, causing it to flash red with damage. The vile creature spun around and launched a volley of explosive skulls at Hunter, but she had already moved to another tree to repeat the process. Piles of items littered the forest floor, but Hunter didn't have time to grieve. Gameknight had disappeared a while ago, but her searches from the tree tops didn't do much to ease her fears. The wither launched another string of explosives toward her, but she simply slipped delicately from one tree to the next. Letting another arrow fly, it struck the beast, but instead of it taking damage, the monster began to glow blue, its skin now surrounded in a strange, blue aura. Hunter aimed another arrow at the wither, only to narrowly miss getting impaled when it bounced back at her. This was a problem.

I really need to find Gameknight, Hunter thought as she slipped to the ground. She heard a scream behind her and spun, bow at hand, ready to fire, only to find the exact person she was looking for.

"Gameknight?" She questioned, lowering her bow, creeping forward. The wither groaned in sudden pain a few trees away, but Hunter decided to ignore whatever problem there may be for the moment. Gameknight spun around and Hunter could tell immediately something was wrong. A sheet of sweat covered his face, causing his hair to stick to the side of his head. His eyes were full of fear and confusion, and up on seeing her, he sputtered out a response.

"I can't- I'm not- Hunter you have to go!" Gameknight whisper shouted. Hunter slipped her bow into her inventory and put her hands up, taking careful steps toward him.

"Gameknigt, it's okay, I'm just going to-" Hunter began, only to be interrupted when   Gameknight yelled "Look out!" and sloppily drawing his sword and trying to stab her. The attempt was weak and pitiful, allowing Hunter to easily sidestep. Without a word she grabbed Gameknight's wrist and flipped him onto his back, putting pressure on his wrists to keep him down and kicking away the sword. She only had a millisecond to remember the wither and pulled the whole scene behind another tree, but the sound of the explosions seemed farther away than before. Strange. Beneath her, Gameknight's eyes were squeezed shut and his limbs were flailing, but something about it seemed wrong. Something was off about the movements.

"Gameknight," Hunter said, trying to get his attention, "what's going on? You need to tell me so we can fix it."

Gameknight opened his eyes, only to close them in concentration again. "It's Herobrine- he's, he's in my head he did something- I don't, I can't, he's trying to control me but it's so hard to fight him... Hunter I'm so tired." Gameknight finally managed. In the light provided from a distant explosion, Hunter could see the bags under his eyes. He looked incredibly weak, but there was a determined look in his eyes that didn't match what everything else about him seemed to be saying- that may have very well been on his death bed. But the steel in those eyes held a resolve that overcame all that other stuff.

"Hunter." Gameknight said, this time drawing her attention. Hunter blinked, the moment gone.

"What?"

"I need to finish this. We've gotta kill that wither before Null comes back so we can get the potion made. Okay?"

Hunter was silent of a moment, thinking. "What's the potion even going to do? Herobrine's obviously way to powerful even for you right now," she said, nodding to his arms and legs, which were glowing a soft white as they flickered from skin to numbers. "Besides, I don't even know how to defeat the wither at this point- my arrows are bouncing right off of it, and everyone- well, I don't know where they are," Hunter admitted, not wanting to propose a darker, more likely option.

Gameknight thought about his conversation with Shawn earlier...

A/n: yeah I know everyone forgot about that. I think it's in chapter like Little Challenge or something. Or something. Anyway...

... but before he could give it too much thought, a dark figure emerged from above, shooting toward the two. Hunter couldn't see it, and knowing that it was about to attack her, Gameknight panicked. Without really thinking, Gameknight moved, and suddenly he was swinging his pickaxe at a creature he'd had never seen up close. Bright, angry green eyes gave its location away immediately. Up close,large wings stretched out from its body, the only thing  that kept it together was a seemingly frail bone structure, similar to that of a skeleton, but icky purple skin streaked with green similar to that of its eyes gave it a look unlike anything else Gameknight had ever seen. The pickaxe struck the creature in the wing, causing it to cry out and swerve, disappearing into the dark.

An arrow whistled by his ear, soaring to the right and striking the creature again. It slipped into the trees, only to reappear on Gameknight's left, the arrow gone. His arms tried to swing to the right, opening his up to attack and toward Hunter, but Gameknight let his legs go slack and dropped to the floor, twisting onto his right side, the pickaxe flying up and smashing into the creatures face. It gave one last cry before disappearing with a pop! and dropping three balls of XP and something that looked disgusting and mushy. Gameknight started to stand, only to to be knocked off his feet when another soared by, its wing slicing into his shoulder. He flashed red and grunted in pain, another two arrows joining the additional one, causing it too to die. This time, Gameknight listened for the rustle of leaves and searched for the glowing green eyes. There were none. He turned to look at Hunter, her bow in one hand, arrow in the other. She looked at him.

"How did you do that?" She asked after a moment. Gameknight blinked.

"Do what?" He asked, confused.

Hunter looked at his hands, which clutches the pickaxe tightly. "You, like, phased through my hands holding you down. How did you do that?" She pointed the arrow at him.

"I..." Gameknight thought back to the moment. "I panicked. It was going to attack yo- us," he corrected, glad for the dark to hide his aflame face.

Hunter was silent for a moment. "Well. Maybe you should panic more often," she teased. "What were those things? They were kind of... terrifying."

Gameknight frowned and the previous moment disappeared, replaced by the gravity of the situation.

"Something new I think. I read about them online in the most recent update release. They... I don't remember how they spawn," he admitted, stifling a yawn. "But they're definitely bad news."

Hunter nodded, though mostly to herself. "So... is Herobrine still in there, is he taking a nap, or...?"

"He tried to control me during the fight," Gameknight said slowly, "but he's only limited to what he can physically make me do, which is why the attack earlier was so weak." He wrinkled his nose. "I don't know what he's doing right now; probably nothing good, but he's more of an annoyance."

Though I don't know for how much longer I can fight him. He thought nervously.

Hunter's head suddenly snapped upright. "What happened to the explosions?"

In all the excitement of the last few minutes, the duo hadn't realized the sudden silence of the forest. No explosions could be heard- what had happened?

Dread filled Gameknight. He doubt whatever was waiting for them was good, since that was the way his luck was treating him lately.

"Let's go." Hunter said, suddenly whispering, and they took off in the direction of soft, glowing flames.