Chapter Text
Snow crunching beneath his feet, Lomedy sprints as fast as he can through the bitter snow, the freezing wind biting at his face. He dashes through the foremost gates past diamond guards, but the maze of the mist civilization was complicated and he had barely spent time here. Everything was almost the same color except for beige lines on the ground and the thick mist slimming down his line of sight didn't help at all. All he knew was a long staircase and a very specific path towards the trial chambers which would not help him find anything he needed at the moment.
He finds panic spreading through his body faster than blood, and he staggers towards the nearest guard. Their eyes turn toward Lomedy, cloudy and unfocused. 'churnedturnover' is their name- why is he even focusing on that? Fatigue must be getting to him.
He knows he didn't look the most presentable after swimming up ice cold streams and running through the vast snow for so long, but hopefully that wouldn't change the outcome of this interaction.
"EXCUSE ME! There are ghasts somewhere... do you know where they are..?" Lomedy manages to choke out, still taking in the air he exhausted getting here.
"Ghasts? Like, the nether?"
"I mean happy ghasts." Just from the reply, Lomedy did not expect anything out of this guy.
The guard with seemingly a character cosplay as their avatar stares at the clouded sky in thought, for a moment. The silence was distracting. This wasn't a time for blanking out...!! Lomedy glances at all the other people roaming around the streets. Surely one of them would be more useful then this person, right?? He takes a step in a new direction but a hand lands on his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. A completely different player, this time with a completely green avatar was before him. He also had diamond armor.
"I overheard your talk. Happy ghasts are for guards..." They start, scanning Lomedy's armor. Netherite with gold trims. "I'm 99% sure they're over there, then a left at the first turn." They point towards the path Lomedy was about to go to. Lomedy mutters a 'thank you' before rushing on the path he was directed to.
Sure enough, after turning left, a wooden gate was left wide open. He enters without another second to waste, knowing Flame could be dying right now. Warmth wraps around him, making his body relax a little bit but it only barely helped. The front desk was right in front of him, and for once, Lomedy find something convenient. The panic he was feeling must be evident as when the receptionist turns his head toward him, the man eyes widen for a moment before regaining composure.
"Anything wro-"
"HAPPY GHASTS!"
One pointed finger towards the right and he's down corridor after corridor. A few guards yell at Lomedy to not run, but the sound of footsteps and wind whistling in his ears were louder. And distracting. Distracting enough for him to almost pass a wall made of only glass, revealing a spacious room filled with happy ghasts roaming around.
He celebrates in his head but that's short-lived because his mission hasn't been accomplished yet. Bursting into the room, he goes towards the happy ghast closest to the hole in the ceiling. He receives strange glances from other guards in the room and it didn't matter the slightest to him. He breaks the lead and some random player punches him, probably the one he's stealing this ghast from, but he didn't care and hopped on the ghast, flying through the hollow in the roof.
Cold air hits his skin again and he could see the heat of his breath. It was slow, far too slow for Lomedy's liking. He continues to push, heading in a straight line towards the cave Flame was dueling in. He passes the front gate, and estimates the time it will take for him to get there. Fuck, he should've warned Flame that he shouldn't be picking fights with people. It's stupid. Just, why?
Then, after what felt like too long floating in the air, the opening of the cave entered Lomedy's render distance. Hope trails back into his body- no, too early. He makes his way through the opening and when he's looking down, he sees only bodies of water. Had he arrived at the wrong cave...? Hopefully it's just a different entrance, right?
But eventually, another opening was found, smaller than the initial one. Lomedy stops at the edge of ice at the entrance. He squints as hard as he can into the darkness of the cave and stopped breathing to hear if anything was still happening inside. Wind charges. Swords clashing. He takes a breath in and he calls out towards the warrior he knew was still hanging on:
"FLAME!" He saw the back of Flames armor slowly emerge from the darkness. The infamous red and orange trims on his armour confirmed it was him. Flame whips his head around to the edge, Mistrul still swinging their blade. He runs from the battle entirely, going straight towards where Lomedy is. Then, one more wind charge sends him off the frozen waterfall and he lands on the back of the happy ghast behind Lomedy, the leather saddle rattling with the impact.
"Oh my god," and "okay," is all he could say, mostly out of relief, and his friend seemed to do the same. His gaze followed Flame the entire time, worrying that Flame would miss the jump or if Mistrul lands the final blow as he's taking off, but neither happens. Mistrul stops at the edge of the frozen waterfall, watching the happy ghast drift from side to side.
"Look, you were never close." they begin, axe still in hand. The atrocious voice changer doesn't make it feel ominous at all, but Lomedy was still as focused as he could be. "4 pops to 2 pops?"
"Oh, so NOW this is a real duel? What do you mean 4 pops to 2? You don't get to count the 2 cheap shots at the start of the match!" Flame retorts, grip hardening on his blade. Lomedy idly listens, knowing it probably isn't an argument for him.
"I already did," Mistrul says as Flame sneers. He spits out another insult, and that's when Lomedy taps out.
As the two bickered for another minute or so, he let his thought settle in while squeezing out the despair he felt only minutes ago. Honestly, he was just glad he saved Flame out of the obviously outmatched battle. Would've been better to prevent it altogether though.... as if words could stop Flame from doing whatever he wanted. He retaliated as much as he could, and still got dragged into the mist anyways! Stubborn, this guy.
But I guess it means he still has a shoulder to lean on, even if Lomedy knew he isn't as skilled or as knowlegable as him. Seeing Flame go against the whole server was difficult to watch, even more so when LettuceK ruled the server. But now, it would all be okay...
"Just take your ghast and leave," He overhears in their conversation, having a wind charge thrown at their ghast. Lomedy was about to start leading the ghast elsewhere but Flame continues to talk.
"Are you gonna tell the mist I was here?"
"No, you're beneath my concern." Mistrul replies, stern.
"Heh, alright then." He hears Flame whisper a 'liar' under his breath. "Alright good, next time there will be no confusion then." Then Lomedy turns the ghast around and floats away from the edge, for real this time. He hears an arrow get shot and then yet another wind charge hits the ghast, pushing them away further.
When they knew they were out of Mistruls earshot, Lomedy sighs. "That was a close one, bruh... Thanks for the totem, by the way." Referring to when Mistrul targeted him for a moment.
"Yea... it's unfortunate I thought that was close." Flame admits with a hint of sorrow, getting a light but stressed chuckle from Lomedy.
When they exit the cave, snow hits them immediately. Flame and Lomedy switch spots, letting Flame drive the ghast instead of him. It was with some retaliation though, as he knew that Flame had just fought a long battle. A 'you should relax for just a second, dude' didn't stop him from getting to the front seat. And so, worry consumed Lomedy again. Can you just, sit still for once..??
As they ascended past the clouds and well beyond anyone's sight, Flame begins to speak again.
"Well that didn't go as planned. I didn't know he had the mace, but still though- his skills line up to what people were saying. He is strong, even if he fights without honor." The snow falling down become thicker and harder to withstand.
Lomedy listens intently to his words. He doesn't have a reply for the comment, but he did have something else to say that's been on his mind.
"Mmm... I get that you're this whole training arc to reach grandmaster but... don't you think you're taking it a little too far?" Flame didn't move an inch as he spoke. "You only have one life. One mistake and you die."
"By now, the mist definitely know that we're gone. We should leave right now while we still can. If you go back in, there's no guarantee you get a second time." He says bluntly, hoping that Flame would just agree and leave, especially after getting beaten really bad by Mistrul. Hell, he even said it himself! It wasn't even close. But to Lomedy's demise, that wasn't the case.
"Well, I prefer growth over stability." Fuck. "If he can stop me, then he's an obstacle between me and combat grandmaster. I must beat him in order to progress." A smooth answer, but not quite what he was looking for. Irritation itches at him, and he stands up from his spot. Flame stops the ghast instantly, waiting for Lomedy to sit back down. He wants Lomedy to follow safety precautions when riding a ghast, but not when Flame himself would be close to getting death banned?
"...Do you really don't think that one of these fights are gonna-" An arrow cuts through the air and cuts him off, hitting him square in the shoulder. It barely does damage, but he's knocked off balance and he plummets downward from the ghast. Lomedy tried to grab onto one of the ghasts tentacle, but he reacts too late and misses by what felt like a millisecond.
The wind he's falling through blows so loudly, but the last thing Lomedy hears is Flame calling out his name. He does the same, but it's futile and he knows. He screams but he can barely hear it himself and he begins to fall faster and faster. In his hotbar, he quickly swaps out his offhand shield for his last totem. Tall, tall spikes render in too quick to comprehend and his back touched the sharp edge of one. Everything blackens for a moment then his vision is brought back with green EXP particles all around him. God bless this totem.
On the spike he had landed on, there was a ever so slight edge that Lomedy could stand on. He stared down at the ground that his eyes couldn't reach and he hugged the ice pillar, only to draw back and find his gloves smudged with blood. His blood. He shivered, knowing that he's now clinging onto the thing that impaled him.
There was nearly no room to move or even look around. Lomedy takes out his axe the slowly started to work down the pillar he was on so the surface he could have more space to sit on. It was hard and only the tip of the blade was chipping into the ice, but something is better than nothing. Sawing through the dense ice the best he could, he looks at the sky, trying to find the happy ghast he was on just moments ago, just to see nothing. Were they really that high up? I mean, his head right now is just in the clouds. Maybe the ghast got killed by whoever shot the arrow.
In the distance, he hears a goat horn be called. He gets slight flashbacks to the LAW previously, but it's obviously not them. Well, who then? Should he go down?
No, too dangerous, Lomedy is probably a target considering he was the one that got hit by an arrow. Even with a mace, he can barely use it and sucks at PvP. When he goes down, what is he gonna do? Farm them to death? He sighs just thinking that, making jokes that he himself dislike.
Then, the axe goes through and Lomedy leans forward way too much to be comfortable. Holding a giant ice spike, he very slowly turns around and sits on the ragged surface he made for himself. Then, he chucks the ice spike away from him and almost slips off again. He doesn't even hear it land, and that makes him more worried about just how high up he is. Hugging himself to contain as much of his warmth as he could, he stared off into the distance.
The silence is horrible. Lomedy looks into his inventory and takes out about half a stack of golden carrots. Even the sound of him eating made him feel a bit better. With his hunger bar completely filled, he now had even more nothing to do. This is just too unfortunate, having to deal with all of this. Flame's probably dealing with more but Lomedy knew there isn't much he could do to help. A solo player fights better by himself, I think. I dunno, I've never been solo until now I guess.
He decided to chop off more and more ice from the spike he was on. It was risky, but kind of worth it. Barely. He didn't know how much time was passing and counting seconds made it felt like everything was in slow motion. I should ender pearl down now, he thought to himself frequently but the worst scenario was more prominent in his head than the best case scenario. Maybe if he went down, he would stop being so lonely but... better lonely than possibly dead.
Better weak than dead. Maybe he should've told Flame that, even if it hurt his feelings.