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“Enough riches to last you a lifetime. If you succeed.”
The sound of an invis potion breaking at his feet was the only noise that indicated Mane’s presence as he moved through the forest, sights set on a certain location he’d been given.
He hadn’t planned on taking the offer, in fact, he’d almost laughed in the Law officer’s face when he was approached. But he didn’t. In a rare moment of foresight, or maybe weakness actually, Mane saw an opportunity.
The offer was simple. Should Mane succeed in killing one of the Law’s biggest targets, he’d receive enough wealth to allow him to never have to raise his sword ever again.
Which was kinda dumb. Mane didn’t primarily fight for money, the enjoyment from a good fight played a part too. But the Law seemed to be a bit slow in the head, so they didn’t understand that part.
It was a good thing though, that they were all bricks, because Mane could use that to his advantage.
He had no intentions of killing Wemmbu. Not because of their past or because Mane was sentimental or some dumb shit like that, but simply because Mane couldn’t be bothered. He also didn’t work for people like the Law, so the other three times they’d made him an offer to kill Wemmbu or Flame, he’d declined.
This time was different though. The Law person who’d approached him this time, some Ace guy or whatever, had coordinates. The Law itself knew they weren’t strong enough to kill Wemmbu alone, apparently some sort of incident had happened before that Mane didn’t get a full explanation of, so they wanted Wemmbu dead cleanly and quickly, with as little casualties as possible. They’d gotten access to his general location somehow, and just needed Mane to complete the job.
Now, Mane would have declined, was planning on it actually, but something about the fact that they had Wemmbu’s location stood out to him. He hadn’t known of Wemmbu’s whereabouts since they’d been allies, and the most Mane had heard of Wemmbu since then was that he’d ‘died’ at some point, but was now alive and a primary target of the Law.
Which presented Mane with an interesting opportunity. An opportunity that would only be able to make it to the front of his mind after missing way too much sleep and still being a bit off after training Flame.
What if… he used the Law’s offer as a means to see. See how far Wemmbu had come since Mane had last trained him.
And it was a terrible idea. It set off practically every alarm bell in Mane’s head. It crossed every line Mane had set for himself when he’d decided to leave Wemmbu that day. Decided to write that sign.
But he’d been doing that lately. Allowing his mind to wander to the past before snapping himself back and clearing his thoughts. He had a feeling he knew the cause for it too. He’d only trained one other person before Flame, after all.
That wasn’t the best excuse though, and Mane had never even considered ever seeing Wemmbu again after everything. That kind of thing was just not possible with how the two of them left off.
Yet somehow Mane found himself with a set of coordinates in his hand, eyes set on a build coming up in the distance.
On his way to the coords Ace gave him Mane kept deliberating with himself whether or not he was making a good decision. Like, as long as he was invis he should be fine. And he technically wasn’t crossing his pre-set lines because Wemmbu wouldn’t be seeing Manepear, he would be seeing just another Law member.
So he was fine. It would just be a quick thing. Mane would go in, see how well Wemmbu fares against him, and then leave. He could tell the Law people that Wemmbu got away or something after he got back. Or honestly he could just ghost them, he didn’t really care.
Coming up on the coordinates that he’d been given, Mane checked to make sure his invis wasn’t running out before slowing his pace and assessing the area. There was… a small house on the side of a mountain that honestly looked like shit. It was the kind of thing that Mane would expect from someone who built with their eyes closed.
It was bad enough that it was almost suspicious. And most certainly something Wemmbu would make. Or at least, what Mane would assume Wemmbu would’ve made a year ago. Things could be different now, he didn’t know.
But the house was likely a coverup for something beneath it or located in the mountain that it was attached to. Maybe a secret base or a vault or something of the sort.
So, Mane quieted his already near-silent steps and approached the house, holding a totem and preparing for any possible traps or people. And he wasn’t planning on taking his armor off and going completely invis, but upon finding the very-obvious entrance to the secret area and seeing who was inside, Mane decided that he should.
Now this wasn’t meant to be a stealth mission or anything. He was just supposed to go in (invisible, obviously) ‘kill’ Wemmbu, and leave. He wasn’t supposed to stalk his prey.
But the thing was, Mane was doing this to test(?) Wemmbu, nobody else. And as it turned out, Wemmbu was not alone.
Egg was there.
And like obviously he wouldn’t be any sort of threat to Mane, but he probably would be a threat to himself if he got involved in the fight, and Mane didn’t… He didn’t care if Egg died, obviously. But him dying would be a problem. It would turn things into a whole mess and the Law would probably get even more annoying about recruiting Mane if he actually killed one of their targets.
So, the next best course of action was for Mane to remove his armor and go completely invis before going into the hidden area. If he was closer to both Wemmbu and Egg, then he might be able to figure out when they might separate, even for just a second.
Or worst case scenario he could trap Egg in obsidian and call it a day.
The hidden area inside the mountain that Wemmbu and Egg were in was kinda interesting though. There was some huge contraption that the two of them were working on in the middle, and the whole place smelled like redstone and gunpowder. Mane wasn’t too well versed in anything regarding redstone, so he couldn’t tell what it was, but based on size alone it had to be something powerful. Maybe even dangerous.
Mane didn’t care enough to actually look into it though, nor was he here to do that, so he made his way across the floor, stepping over various random shulkers and items lying around, before getting as close as he could to Wemmbu and Egg.
“... at all. Like, we need to get this done today bro. We’re running out of time,” Wemmbu’s stressed-out voice made its way to Mane’s ears, and he ignored how weird it felt to hear him again.
“Well like, what do you wanna do bro?” Egg asked, voice still the same as it was a year ago. “We’re kinda cooked right now honestly.”
Wemmbu walked over to a chest and Mane took a step back to keep some distance. “We just need to get more stuff bro, if I can get everything, and you can work fast, then we got this bro.” He began digging around in the chest he was in front of as he continued, “Just stay locked in bro, we don’t have any other choice. It’s kinda life or death right now.
“It’s so over bro,” Egg sighed as he got back to work anyway.
The two of them continued to work on… something for the next ten minutes, and Mane was starting to wonder if he should start his plans to trap Egg before Wemmbu spoke up again. “We’re out of gunpowder bro.”
Egg looked up from where he was elbows deep in a redstone contraption. “Bro I’m in the middle of something, go get more yourself.”
Wemmbu sighed overly dramatically before hopping down from the area he was working on and nearly landing directly on Mane. Thankfully Mane was the speed demon so he dodged in time. “Ugh, fine bro whatever.” He muttered something about having to do all the work before starting towards the exit.
Mane followed closely, making sure to keep a decent distance between himself and Wemmbu just in case. He wanted to wait until they were out of range so Egg didn’t involve himself, but the minute they were, he didn’t plan on wasting any time.
So, once they were far enough away that Mane could no longer see the stupid house in the mountain, he put his armor back on and pearled in front of Wemmbu, stopping him from going any further.
Wemmbu didn’t seem too surprised to see that he had company though. “Bro are you actually kidding me right now? How did you guys even find us all the way out here?” he whined, throwing a strength pot way-too aggressively at his feet. “Let me guess, you have a whole army of like six hundred people that you’re gonna call the minute you start losing?”
Mane didn’t reply, obviously, and instead just began fixing up his inventory and potting up. He didn’t really know if Wemmbu’s accusation had any merit as Mane hadn’t been involved in any of that stuff, but judging by the pure loathing in his voice, it probably did.
“Great bro, whatever, that’s so awesome,” Wemmbu laughed at Mane’s silence as he finished potting up and pulled out his mace. “I dunno why you guys keep trying when I win every time. But if you wanna keep getting people killed for no reason then go ahead I guess,” he shrugged as he threw a wind charge at his feet. “Just makes things easier for me if you keep losing numbers.”
Throwing a pearl in the air and catching it with a wind charge, Mane dodged Wemmbu’s attempt at macing and started an attack of his own with his spear. Wemmbu blocked with his shield, but he seemed intrigued by the display.
“Oh so we’re the spear demon? I have one of those too, actually!” Wemmbu announced as he went back up in the air again, this time switching to his spear on the way down.
Mane lunged out of the way and attacked back. The two of them traded blows for a few minutes, Mane mostly outskilling Wemmbu when it came to the spear. Wemmbu had a slight advantage since he didn’t seem worried about using his elytra durability, but Mane knew more about general spear mechanics to get around that.
And just when Mane had begun to think he’d seen enough, concluding that Wemmbu hadn’t really changed all that much since they’d last met, Wemmbu spoke up again.
“Okay, I’m bored now bro, let’s just get this over with.”
Mane wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean until Wemmbu switched back to his mace and got into the air, this time using rockets instead of wind charges.
It was only when Wemmbu began to elytra mace him that Mane realized he might have fucked up. They were out in the open with barely anything Mane could use as cover and shields only worked so well. If his totem popped, he’d be revealed and everything he convinced himself before he came here would go down the drain. He could only hope Wemmbu wasn’t that good at using his mace.
“I guess you don’t have a mace too, huh?” Wemmbu asked with a wide grin as he dove down directly at mane, only barely being stopped by a shield. “That makes things easier then.”
Mane was starting to sweat a bit now as he watched Wemmbu’s movement in the sky. He’d been wrong, dead wrong. Wemmbu wasn’t the same as he’d been before, he’d gotten way better.
He also knew how to stun slam apparently, Mane realized way too late as he felt his shield get disabled and a mace land heavily on him. He could do nothing but watch, as if in slow motion, as his totem snapped in front of him and the effects washed over his body.
The effects, which included washing away his invis.
—
Wemmbu’s breath came out in ragged puffs as his eyes took in the sight in front of him, still coming down from the adrenaline of landing his attack. There was a tremble in the hand holding his mace, but he barely even noticed. When he popped the Law member’s totem, he hadn’t expected… he…
“...Mane?” a voice spoke below a whisper, as if saying anything too loud would make it true. It took a few seconds for Wemmbu to realize, but it was his own voice. He didn’t know why but he couldn’t think to say anything else. The only tangible thing running through his mind was that he wasn’t supposed to be seeing the person in front of him. They weren’t meant to run into each other again. Mane wasn’t… he didn’t…
Mane kept his mouth shut as he looked back at Wemmbu, just standing up with a blank face. The definition of unreadable.
And something about that made Wemmbu snap back into the moment, the fog that had formed from such a shock clearing his mind because Mane was in front of him. He was in front of him and had just tried to kill him. What the hell?
“Mane,” Wemmbu repeated, fire in his tone now that he realized the situation. “What the hell bro, are you serious? Were you just trying to kill me?” He stepped forward and raised his mace, but Mane didn’t flinch. He didn’t so much as blink.
What he did do, was turn around and try to pearl away, to which Wemmbu was definitely not going to allow. Not only was it insanely cowardly to do, it was basically a slap in the face to everything Wemmbu had worked so hard to achieve. After all that, Mane couldn’t even do much as reply to him? Give him any sort of answer?
So naturally, Wemmbu pearled after him and started critting him out.
It was a messy fight, to say the least. Mane splashed speed two and tried to run at first but Wemmbu had rockets and an elytra so that just wasn’t going to work. Wemmbu didn’t have too much of an advantage however, because he kept missing his mace hits.
Which was strange; Wemmbu hadn’t missed his hits that much since he’d first got Gambit like a year ago. And if he actually had the time to stop and think about it, he might have realized how much his hands were shaking during the fight. Might have realized how unfocused he actually was.
But he wasn’t going to think about that, and he wasn’t going to care about how many emotions were biting at the back of his mind, begging to be released. It was Mane’s fault, he knew that, but he refused to give that man credit for anything else, so he didn’t acknowledge it. To Wemmbu, he was just having an off day. Nothing more.
The fight didn’t last that much longer though. Despite Wemmbu’s skill issue with his mace, he still had a spear that barely required any aim. And while Mane may have been more skilled in spear, he didn’t have rockets, Wemmbu did. That fact alone pretty much cemented the outcome of the fight.
So in no time at all, Wemmbu found himself landing a particularly evil spear combo, popping Mane’s totem and pinning him to the ground.
It was silent for a moment as the two of them looked back at each other, the only noise being their heavy breathing from the fight. It was only after a few seconds of this silence that Wemmbu got annoyed and tightened his grip, pulling out his sword and holding it against Mane’s neck. “You gonna finally say anything bro?” he asked, keeping his voice even despite how much he was holding back.
Mane, like the genuine asshole that he was, just looked back at Wemmbu silently, adjusting himself beneath the sword. But Wemmbu wasn’t planning on giving up, he was nothing if not persistent, and he would stay there for as long as possible if it got Mane to finally give him anything.
And it actually didn’t take that much longer before Mane seemed to get bored with the situation and let out an annoyed sigh. “I’m not gonna say anything to you bro. This is a waste of your time.”
Wemmbu ignored the jump in his chest upon hearing Mane’s voice again after so long and pressed his lips together. “I don’t know if you’re in the position to be making that kind of choice right now buddy,” He pressed the blade of his sword harder against Mane’s neck. “I could kill you right now.”
Mane just rolled his eyes. “Okay, then do it bro. I was trying to kill you, you have no reason to leave me alive.”
He tried his hardest, but Wemmbu couldn’t stop the pit that formed in his stomach upon hearing that. He didn’t know what he’d been expecting—obviously he knew that Mane had been attacking him—but hearing him verbally confirm that he’d been trying to kill Wemmbu just…
Well in any case, it also solidified that Wemmbu needed to kill him. Mane had been nothing but terrible to him and he really had no reason to keep him alive. He was working for the Law, he tried to kill Wemmbu.
So Wemmbu just needed to flick his wrist once and it would all be over. Then he could get his gunpowder, go back to Egg, finish the pearl canon, and be safe for a bit in the farlands. After he got the orbital canons, the Law wouldn’t be an issue anymore and Wemmbu could finally breathe. He just needed to do this.
…
…So why was he hesitating then? Wemmbu had every reason to want to kill Mane right now! There was nothing this guy had done that was worth saving him for, yet for some reason, looking at his face, Wemmbu felt like there was a barrier between them. One that was preventing Wemmbu from getting close enough. Close enough to land the finishing blow.
He tried to ignore it, tried to push past and finish the job, but the minute he put even the slightest bit more pressure on his sword, memories of late night training sessions filled with laughter and stupid mafia raids filled his head and he couldn’t bring himself to press any farther.
And after another minute of grueling deliberation, Wemmbu loosened his grip on his sword. He didn’t know what was wrong with him, but his chest hurt and he couldn’t look at Mane’s face for much longer without making it worse. He couldn’t deal with this on top of dealing with the Law, and he had a feeling, despite how much it annoyed him, that killing Mane would distract him in the future. Bother him, even. So would it really be worth it?
Maybe one day he could come back and actually kill Mane, though that might be unlikely. Wemmbu had a feeling this was the last time he’d ever see that stupid, horrible face of Mane’s.
But that was… that was okay. It was for the better actually. Wemmbu had fared fine the past year without Mane, he would continue to be fine in the future.
So, standing up and releasing Mane from his grip, Wemmbu dug into his inventory and pulled out an invis potion. He’d learned to carry some on him in case of emergencies. Mane eyed him curiously before Wemmbu splashed it on him. “Just leave bro,” Wemmbu spoke, keeping his voice low and even.
Mane didn’t move at first, seeming to process what was going on, but after a few seconds he seemed to get the memo and splashed speed at his feet before disappearing into the trees.
Wemmbu watched his outline for as long as he could before Mane was fully out of sight and Wemmbu had to get back to reality. He’d been wasting too much time here, he needed to get back to work.
He had a feeling though, that Mane wouldn’t send any people after him. Wemmbu didn’t have any basis for it, just the sense that he was safe for a little bit. Long enough to leave.