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There’s a specific kind of silence that comes after a massacre, and Wemmbu hates having to experience it firsthand. Maybe it was just a little better this time around, since he doesn’t have to experience it alone. Staring out at the sunset, the contrast between the beauty of the sky and the horrendous look of the scenery is great. The destruction to the area is heavy and ugly. No one would come back to this area for a while, at least not to look at the architecture. Pillars of wood and cobblestone litter the area, telling a war story without any help. But, the most devastating part to the area are the bombs that Wemmbu himself had triggered.
The yellow and red sky reminds him that FlameFrags is still behind him, taking oddly long at the Ender Chest that had been placed earlier.
“Dude, this place is cooked forever,” Wemmbu says through a breathy laugh, taking one last look at the scenery before turning around to face his ally.
He isn’t met with a lighthearted response. The sounds of potions splashing on the ground are enough to trigger a fight-or-flight response within Wemmbu, but he doesn’t start moving until a sword slashes across his chestplate. Falling off the ravaged building, Wemmbu wasn’t quick enough to equip his elytra and his wings instead kick into action. Cramping and rusty from inaction, he flies down at an awkward angle to a cobblestone staircase, on which he organizes his inventory.
“Now that this is over,” Flame says, pearling close to him before knocking him off the stairs. “Let's finish our fight, bro.”
Wemmbu wishes he took the warning signs of betrayal more seriously. But unfortunately, he seems to be cursed with the idea of trust. Finally equipping his elytra, he flies up before falling and macing Flame in a swift move. He smirks when he instantly pops the other man's totem.
‘Lost Cause’ his ass.
“I didn’t think you were actually gonna, y’know, fight,” Flame states, somewhat surprised, as he puts himself into a bubble of spiderwebs.
“I really wasn’t going to,” Wemmbu says, rocketing himself up only to crash down into the bubble himself. “But I know you won’t give up, and you’ve forced my hand.”
As he throws an Ender Pearl, Wemmbu tries hard not to react to the sword swings that connect with his legs. Toppling over as the pearl connects to the ground, he forces himself upright to throw some of his last potions at his feet. Forcing golden apples down his throat, he doesn’t have time to gag at the overly-sweet taste they have.
As Flame’s pearl also lands in front of him, the metallic clang of metal on metal seems to set something in stone within Wemmbu’s mind. There was no escape from this situation. As he tries to parry the blows, a swift slash comes down that he didn’t have the time to register, and breaks his netherite helmet.
“Oh come on, bro,” Flame says, exasperated. Like his goal wasn’t to break his armor and kill him. “You can’t die this quick, bro.”
Pearl spamming is something that Wemmbu isn’t fond of. The teleportation makes him queasy, and the motion sickness layering the sweet taste of golden apples was enough to make him puke on command. But it’s something he’s excelled at. Pearl after pearl is thrown, making his arm sorer than it’s ever felt. Distance is something he needs now, and when he finally achieves it, he pulls out random half-broken pieces of armor from a shulker box, hurriedly putting it on. He doesn’t get that moment of peace for long, as Flame pearls over to him and starts attacking him once again. In the many instances of fighting the Immortal Demon, Wemmbu has never found a counter to all of his attacks. And even though he thinks he has an edge, popping the man's totem once again, he knows he won’t for long. He never does.
Almost out of explosions, he throws a fishing rod at Flame, hoping to deal at least some semblance of damage.
“You really tried it, huh,” Flame doesn’t ask, but more or less states it as if he was expecting it. Wemmbu can’t help but scowl as he manages to escape the explosion by a matter of inches. The blast pushes Wemmbu backward, knocking him off his rhythm and causing him to miss his hit.
The sound of barking floods Wemmbu’s ears, dampening the sound of everything else. He can barely hear Flame’s words anymore as he flies away from the animal army, landing to bite into yet another golden apple.
“You’re gonna summon a bunch of dogs on the aerial opponent?” he questions. “Seems like a good idea.”
“Try to land on me,” Flame taunts, not hearing the sound of a fishing rod breaking over the barking from his army. “I bet you won’t.”
As TNT lands on the area in a blast that Wemmbu was too confident in, there are barely any dogs that seem to die from the explosion.
“You thought that would actually do something!” Flame exclaims through laughs, his confidence only growing as Wemmbu’s weakens.
He flies away, using his one advantage to avoid the pack of wolves and its leader.
“Bro, what happened to the ‘Strongest Player’, Wemmbu?” FlameFrags taunts as he catches up, popping Wemmbu’s totem. “Will you fight me if the dogs are gone?”
And as Wemmbu watches Flame blow up his dogs, souls who have done nothing wrong, he can’t help but feel like one of them at this moment. Nothing but loyal. To a fault.
As more and more animal corpses litter the ground, blood seeping into the grass and stone, Wemmbu has to push himself back into action. Despite his strength potion still being active, his arms are no longer able to carry the weight of his mace. And as Flame eats more and more of his hits, Wemmbu comes to the realization that he won’t be able to win.
Flame gives chase as Wemmbu runs, half his armor broken, eyes frantic.
“We can be done as soon as you admit I’m stronger than you,” Flame calls ahead. Wemmbu can’t tell if he’s saying that because he’s tired of fighting, or just feels bad for him. Probably the former. “I mean, I don’t really need to kill you. I can if I want to, but I’d rather you live with you knowing that I’m stronger than you.”
Maybe ‘Lost Cause’ is right.
Falling into one of his craters, Wemmbu manages to catch himself on a ledge, not completely falling to the bedrock floor beneath him.
As FlameFrags lands above him on the other side of the crater, he watches as Wemmbu chugs down another golden apple. “Hello, bro.”
“Yo.”
“Can you just admit that I’m stronger than you?” Flame asks, sheathing his sword in the scabbard on his side. “I’m like—”
“Yeah, you can have it,” Wemmbu responds. He doesn’t even know what he’s saying for a moment, talking on autopilot, trying his best to just survive. But when his brain finally catches up to his mouth, he’s not mad at himself. Instead, he’s relieved. “You can be the strongest.”
“That’s it?” Flame asks, as if expecting more of a fight. “Do you not care anymore? Or do you finally realize that it’s not close, and that you don’t stand a chance?”
“I guess not,” Wemmbu shrugs, trying to keep his composure calm and his voice steady. “I guess you’re the strongest.”
“I mean,” Flame hesitates, as if he wants to say something else. “Yeah, just remember that skill always beats power.”
“I’ll remember,” at this point, Wemmbu is saying anything to wrap up the conversation.
As Flame pillars up, he doesn’t seem to stop talking and instead continues to belittle Wemmbu, voice echoing down the crater as he waits for him to finish.
Stuck at the bottom of a crater that he had created, he now feels the weight of his actions. Wemmbu can no longer hear Flame’s footsteps after he had stabbed him in the back, and there’s no excuse that Wemmbu could use to say that he didn’t see it coming. There’s no more color in the night sky, and as he throws the extra mace he was using down to the bottom of the hole, Wemmbu doesn’t wait for the metallic clang to reverberate against the walls before flying out of the area.
With only a couple rockets and even less motivation left, Wemmbu lands atop a grass hill. He doesn’t bother trying to regear as his legs give out, falling to his knees. Blood seeping from multiple wounds seems to catch up to him as the red liquid drips down in front of his eye and soaks into his clothing. He doesn’t have many medical supplies, usually opting to go to Eggchan for things as trivial as bandages, but he had a couple lying around his Ender Chest. It’s just a matter if he could hold his head up long enough to rummage through it. The task of placing one down is trivial enough, and before his hands can fully manage to hold onto a roll of bandages, his head can’t seem to hold itself up anymore, and neither can the rest of his body.
Falling onto his back, the only thing keeping him company are the stars. Things around him blur as his hands try to keep active, pulling gauze out of its packaging and weakly putting it on the open lesions. But even his arms give out soon enough.
His friends The Stars are there to witness him passing out. They tell no one.
Death didn't come for him that night, even though Wemmbu was sure it would. Blood coats his face, and stray leaves and blades of grass glued onto the liquid, making his visage their new home. The only thing that he can think about is the pain that covers every inch of his body. Bones crunch as he moves, and he knows he’s got a broken limb. But his pain receptors are on the fritz, trying to receive every signal at once, and won’t tell him where the broken appendage is. At least he’ll get another cool scar out of this.
Sitting up is a struggle, and he finally finds what’s broken as he stands up, left leg sticking in an awkward position.
He doesn’t have the strength to break his Ender Chest as he eats one of his few remaining golden apples. Some of his smaller wounds start to close, but he knows it’ll take more than a quarter stack of gapples to change a practically mutilated limb.
As he looks down at the bottom of the hill, Wemmbu debates the idea of something drastic. The only thing saving him was himself, weaker beyond belief and without any kind of supplies. Finishing his remaining supply of golden apples, Wemmbu decides the best thing to do is to fix his leg so it doesn’t look as ugly as it currently does. The Ender Chest is used as a temporary seat as he reaches down for his leg, and he doesn’t hold back a guttural yell as he twists his leg back to a semblance of a normal position.
He abandons his Ender Chest as he flies away from the area, leaving his mark on the area. He failed to check the durability on his elytra, and as he uses his last rocket, his elytra breaks.
Plummeting to his death without enough will to pull out a waterbucket to break his fall, Wemmbu can’t help but hope Death will save him this time.