(T/W for blood)

POV: Stress

Location: Hermitville

I looked up as Doc dashed out of the room, my eyes wide. I turned back to Joe and picked up his hands to examine his wrists. I looked up at his tired face and to my surprise, met his gaze.

"Stress," he said weakly.

I placed my hand on his cheek, a slight smile on my face. "Sleep," I told him gently. He nodded faintly and laid down, his eyelids falling closed.

I let out a relieved sigh and stood up. I turned to see the other hermits- Taurtis included- dashing downstairs. I let out another sigh and ran after them.

When I exited the house, I froze as I saw how many Listener Shadows there were in front of us.

"That's not..." Grian said aloud, his eyes wide.

I looked over at him. "Well, I guess all Listeners have Shadows," I said with a small shrug.

He glanced over at me and replied, "Well, there's probably a lot of exiled Listeners that we just don't know about." After that, he looked back at the horde. (Agh I just watched Avengers: Age of Ultron and now I'm imagining Stress as Wanda and Grian as Captain America -_-)

One of the Shadows stepped forward, looking a bit more human than the rest of the horde. However, when it spoke, it was nowhere near sounding human. "You captured one of our kin, where is it?" It hissed. Its gaze was set on Doc and Scar.

"It's gone," Doc responded.

The Shadow tilted its head.

"It left. We don't know where it is," he finished.

The Shadow growled. "You're lying," it hissed.

"Wish I could say I was," Doc responded.

The Shadow gritted its teeth and let out a roar. Suddenly, the horde jumped to life and sprung toward the cornered hermits.

Doc responded by pulling out his trident and defending himself. The trident flew through two Shadows and swiftly returned to his hand.

Glancing at Taurtis and meeting his gaze, I pulled out my mask and put it on before making it invisible. I turned back to the horde and pushed off of the ground with my pale purple wings. While the hermits got their bearings, I provided fire from overhead. Just because I was a nurse didn't mean I hadn't trained in combat.

Scar and Cub let out yells and allowed their Vex attributes to show before jumping into combat. Scar sent a blast at one Shadow while Cub slashed at another.

As I circled overhead, I realized just how many Listener Shadows there were. There's going to be damage to the village, I realized. Out loud, I shouted, "Lead them away from the village!"

The hermits heard and began to run and fly toward the forest. I spotted Grian and Taurtis helping Mumbo to his feet and flying toward the trees.

I let out a yell of pain as something struck my arm. I looked down to see a Listener Shadow pointing with his palm up at me. My arm had a fresh magic burn on it. I gritted my teeth against the pain and shot back purple magic at the Shadow. It pushed off the ground and flew toward me. I sent another blast of magic that sent it falling out of the sky.

Midair, I turned and flew toward the forest. Once I was sure I was far enough away from the village, I turned back and began to fight.

I blasted through one Shadow before hitting another. It struck back with a dark emerald blade, hitting me on my injured arm and drawing blood. I ignored the pain and swung my sword at it. It blocked and sent a blast of dark green magic at my chest that pushed me backward. I gritted my teeth in frustration and sent a blast of purple magic at it. The magic grazed its body, the wound glitching rather than blood coming out. It sent a blast of magic at me. I barely managed to fly fast enough to jab my sword into its chest. It stopped flying and dropped toward the ground, glitching into nonexistence.

While none of the Shadows were attacking me, I spotted Xisuma lifting Doc into the air with Admin energy and allowing him to fire his trident at the airborne Shadows. It was pretty effective.

I swept my gaze over the forest in search of the other hermits. Taurtis was protecting Mumbo from three Shadows and Scar and Cub were fighting off two Shadows each but Grian was nowhere in sight.

I paused as I spotted a familiar pair of white wings in a clearing not too far away. In front of Grian stood a Listener Shadow that was all too familiar. I realized in fear that Grian's expression was one of shock as it stared at the Shadow.

I flew closer to get a better view of what was going on.

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~POV CHANGE~

My chest heaved as I stared at the Shadow with round eyes. "How...?" I stammered. There was no way the Shadow could still be there. Iskall was dead and if it had become my Shadow when he died, then I would've already become it.

I froze. "Unless..." I said aloud in disbelief.

I turned and launched myself into the sky, not noticing Stress hovering nearby. The Listener Shadow followed but kept its distance.

I flew back to Hermitville faster than I ever thought possible. I flew into the Nether portal and kept flying until I reached my destination.

However, after I exited the portal and began to run toward Iskall's base, a blast of magic struck me in the back. Now on my knees, I turned to see Iskall's Shadow facing me.

I gritted my teeth and sent a blast of magic at it. It blocked it and returned fire. Even though I was more powerful than it thanks to the mixture of three types of magic, I wasn't exactly in my best mental state.

It summoned a dark green blade and swung it at me. I barely managed to summon a white one and block the attack. It slashed at me repeatedly, each time getting closer and closer to me as I backed away.

I let out a gasp as pain sprouted in my foot. I fell to the ground after tripping on something. I raised my arm and created a shield just in time to block the creature's strike.

Ignoring the pain in my foot, I stumbled to my feet and began to fight back. My blade struck the Shadow's white body several times but I noticed that instead of blood coming out, odd glitches made up the wound.

It gritted its teeth and launched itself at me. Since it was bigger than me, I got thrown backward, straight into the wall of Iskall's base. The air got knocked out of me and I collapsed to the ground.

I looked up to see the Shadow advancing toward me. It raised its fist and sent it flying toward my face. It connected faster than I could react and my head flung sideways, blood coming from my lip.

It pulled its fist back to wind up for another strike. Just as it flew toward my face, I raised my hand and caught it. Gritting my teeth, I twisted the Shadow's arm and then kicked it away.

I got to my feet, swaying a bit but fine nonetheless. The Shadow rose to meet me, towering over me for more reasons than one. I stood my ground.

It raised its hand, its dark emerald blade coming to its grasp. It swung toward me and I swiftly met it with my white blade.

I gritted my teeth and pushed it away. I swung my sword low, aiming for its feet. It jumped over my blade and midair, swung down toward me. I rolled out of the way, swinging my sword as I got into a crouching position. I managed to strike its foot and the entire thing began to glitch. He fell toward me and I barely managed to roll out of the way.

I stood and looked down at it. It was growling and hissing at me but I didn't care. I swung toward its head but it blocked it before the strike landed.

Remembering a fighting tactic, I dropped my sword and jumped into the air before aiming a kick at the Shadow's chest. It went flying away and I twisted midair to push off the ground with my hands and jump to my feet. As I pushed off the ground, I picked up my sword and prepared for another attack.

It came sooner than I expected. Before I could react, it swung a sword at my chest. I jumped back but I was too late; it ripped through my red sweater and grazed my chest. I ignored the pain and jumped back into action.

I knew I needed to end the fight and get inside Iskall's base. Thinking quickly, I swung a sword at the Shadow's right arm while aiming a punch for its head. It blocked the sword but wasn't able to get away from the punch. The blow landed and it went reeling away.

As it was distracted, I ran toward it and thrust my sword into its back. It let out a furious hiss and punched me away before I could fetch my blade. It pulled the sword out and advanced toward me with two swords, one in each hand.

I needed to end the fight. I aimed my hands upward and shot powerful golden magic at it. It flew backward straight into a tree. It crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

I let a sigh and stood up, grabbing my blade and making it vanish. Remembering why I was there, I turned and ran inside Iskall's base.

After a bit of searching, I ran up to the door that led to his bedroom. When I opened it, I was surprised to see the other side shrouded in darkness. I went inside, eyes wide as I stared across the room.

A light green glow was illuminating the area around Iskall's bed but all I could see of my friend was that his body was floating. A figure stood between us, his hands up.

A frightening familiar but ethereal voice yelled, "Don't come any closer." I realized I could see something odd on top of the figure's head.

I watched as Iskall's body was slowly lowered onto the bed and as the light green glow faded. I was surprised to see that his chest was rising and falling, but I couldn't see if his eye was open.

The figure standing in between us turned toward me and smiled almost creepily as he saw me.

"Oh, hello there, Gree-on!"

(1764 or so words)

(I had issues filling up this chapter so I didn't surpass 2000 words this time XP)

(Yup, I have brought Iskall back from the dead. Also, I have brought Sam into this ridiculous and utterly confusing mess that is this book. This should go great c;)

(I've had the image of Grian standing by the doorway and Iskall on his bed while Sam resurrects him with THE POWER OF LISTENING (LOL) and I'm happy I made it here :3)

(My dad recently got Disney+ and I was watching the Avengers movies earlier and like I said, I imagined Stress as Wanda(or the Scarlet Witch) and Grian as Captain America XPPP)

(Hope you enjoyed, bye~!)

<3