Word Count: 2600

Recommended Song: Battle Cry by Imagine Dragons; Protectors of Truth by Immediate; Sun and Steel by AudioMachine; Hunted by Steve Jablonsky

Iskall had glided down from the great height using his elytra. From the great depths, he heard sounds of a battle. Iskall ignited a torch and pushed his way through cobwebs, hand on the hilt of his steel sword. Noises sounded from beyond the walls of a cave he had walked into.

"Visitors, huh?" Iskall tried to shake the tension out of his muscles. The fate of the entire galaxy rested in his hands. Pressing his fingers on his temples, Iskall tried to remember what Xisuma had taught him. Something about crossing three trials. The memory floated in his mind like a ghost.

"The trials are different every time, so no one knows exactly what they will be." The memory Xisuma told Iskall. "Just remember that nothing is real and you will have to think outside of the box."

"Okay." Iskall told the darkness. "What do you have for me?"

"Spoke too soon didn't you?" Breaker approached from behind.

"How did you get here?" Iskall drew his blade, steel scrapping against steel.

"How naive can you get?" The Breaker raised his own sword, devoid of any lightning. "I killed your friends. They were so weak they couldn't even put up a fight." He laughed evilly.

"What about Doc?" Iskall pressed.

"He was the easiest of all of them. I let you get down this far. I let you have hope. Because the best thing is seeing people have hope, believe they can win. Then you crush their dreams, and it becomes a whole lot better."

All the while, Iskall was slowly backing away. He needed to get to the cube. Breaker narrowed his eyes at him.

"You seem like a smart guy, so I'll give you an offer. You can join me willingly, and I won't kill you. We can take over the galaxy!"

Something was wrong. Iskall was told that if everyone died on this world, it would create a wormhole. Why would Breaker compromise that? Nothing is real. Of course. Breaker was just an illusion, the first of three tests.

"I would never join you," Iskall glared at Breaker. "Even if you were real."

Breakers eyes burned with hatred. He stabbed the blade towards Iskall's stomach, Iskall not flinching one bit. It was all an illusion. 

The moment the blade made contact, Breaker evaporated into mist. Iskall spun around and ran further down the tunnel. Two more to go.

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Clash. Clang. Doc reacted to each strike triply as fast as a human. Breaker replied with an equal force, the sparks off the sword occasionally colliding with Doc's robotic arms.

"Your foolish move will cause the downfall of the entire world!" Breaker pressed his attacks, moving faster than humanly possible. "And your meager skills will cause you to fall quicker than any human."

"Good thing I'm not human then!" Doc retorted paring each strike with equal speed and strength. He gritted his teeth as another arrow shot from Cub landed in his thigh.

"You will die no matter what you are." Breaker hissed shooting him with a bolt of red energy. Doc crumpled a little bit from that blast and barely raised his swords in time to deflect the next attack. As he let rage consume him, Doc heard Xisuma's cry of sadness. 

"You monster! How could you kill him?"

"That is my name!"

Oh no. Not Scar. How could they even think they could win? It was now the three of them against six. As Doc whirled around blades against blades, he saw a weakness. That weakness would require a sacrifice. He shouted to Xisuma, hoping the admin was in hearing range.

"Take care of everyone!"

 Breaker narrowed his eyes, full of suspicion. Xisuma caught onto what Breaker didn't.

"WHAT?!? NO!!!!!" It was too late however. Doc had lifted his guard, letting Breaker slice his sword into the midsection of Doc's body. Red hot pain filled his body and vision. Breaker gloated, not foreseeing what was coming next.

"Foolish mistake." Breaker raised his sword preparing to kill Doc.

"Not so." Doc gave the last of his energy and stabbed his swords into Breaker. Instead of blood, Breaker started glitching in and out of existence.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!?!" Breaker howled into the sky. One final glitch and Breaker vanished from sight. Doc crumpled onto the ground, bleeding from a fatal wound. Breaker might be dead, but the undead were still around and so was the virus. It was up to Iskall to break them free of this curse.

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Xisuma had just turned to watch the final battle when Doc called out to him. He was going to sacrifice himself.

"WHAT?!? NO!!!" Xisuma cried. He was immediately held back by False.

"Trust him." She whispered into his ear. Xisuma feebly tried to get away then slumped in her grip.

"He can't." Xisuma turned to look at False and saw nothing but sympathy. "The respawn for us is gone. If we die, we die forever. Like Scar."

False turned to look at the limp body with tears in her eyes. "If you go then you will die as well. He wouldn't want you to do that."

Xisuma crumpled to the ground. This was all his fault. If he had know what was going on sooner, no one would have died. Now Doc was forced to give his life up so that the others could continue on. 

Warm arms picked him up and wrapped around him. Xisuma couldn't watch as Doc was stabbed in the middle by Breakers sword. Seconds passed. Then a cry of rage.

"Xisuma!" False shook him. "Breaker is gone! Get up! We are under attack!"

Xisuma whipped around to see the remaining undead circling them. Tango hissed at False and Xisuma. They were severely outnumbered. False and X went back to back, swords raised.

"You still sharp on those fighting skills?" Xisuma called back, nervously.

"You better hope so!" False replied back tension in her voice. With a whistle from Tango the undead attacked.

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Voices echoed around the empty chamber. Iskall glanced around wondering where they came from. It was almost as if there was in invisible wall separating him from the noise. He reached up to put a dirty hand on the dusty wall when something hissed. Iskall jumped, probably ten feet, pulling out his sword for the seventh time.

"Who is that?" Iskall's voice rose an octave at the last word. Something moved in the shadows, beyond his eyesight. "Show yourself!" The hands that gripped the sword were shaking. A creature came into his vision. A wolf with a scar that crossed from one side of the forehead to the bottom of its chin, glared at Iskall. One blue eye, one brown, the wolf spoke to Iskall.

"You wish to continue." A statement not a question.

"Yes, I-" Iskall cut himself off. Why was he talking to a wolf? And why did the wolf have the same color eyes as he did?

"I am bigger than this." The wolf answered Iskall's thoughts, padding up to a higher ledge. "I take shape of your biggest fear, or your greatest weakness."

Iskall rubbed his eyes. He had to be delusional. A sharp nip broke his thoughts. "Ow!" He yelped.

"Do not think this isn't real!" The wolf commanded. Iskall glared back, wiping the tiny trail of blood from the bite marks. Wolf jumped down and sat in front of Iskall. "Sit."

Iskall obeyed, despite his gut feeling. 

"In order to pass you must answer three questions. If you fail, you die." The wolf's stare was unyielding. "What is the name of the first ever admin?"

Iskall laughed only to be bit again. Sobering he answered the easy question. "Scine Administrator."

"Good." The wolf gave a tiny nod. "Next question. What are you made up of?"

Iskall studied the wolf. These questions were too easy. "Code."

"Final question. Why do you want to destroy the command cube?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"Answer the question, Iskall." The wolf's razor sharp claws glinted in the torchlight. Iskall took a deep breath.

"Because if I don't destroy the cube the galaxy will be destroyed." 

The wolf studied him. "That is not your true answer. Why are you really here?"

Iskall felt tears coming to his eyes. He rose his voice slightly. "Because my friends are up there, dying because of this thing! I could fight with them! But I was sent down here so that they could live!" He panted from the slight effort. "It's all because of that stupid hacker!"

The wolf narrowed his eyes. Iskall had just turned to look at the wall when he felt a whoosh of air. The wolf was gone, and the entrance to the next cave was open. Iskall got up and prepared for the final challenge.

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"Hurry up mates!" Grian urged his friends, firing a ton of rockets to keep momentum. Mumbo and Bubbles trailed slightly behind him, faithfully following their friend. Grian slowed up making Mumbo fly upwards to avoid hitting him.

"What are you doing!" Mumbo yelled at his friend.

"Look!" Grian pointed at False and Xisuma surrounded by the undead. Mumbo and BDubs had to keep firing their rockets to keep their height. Grian hovered where he was, wings pumping. Wait wings pumping? Grian twisted his head over his shoulder to see two angular wings thumping in rhythm. He had wings!

"You have wings!" BDubs cried out in suprise. 

Grian watched as the others struggled to keep their height. "They're a bit small.... But I guess they are like hawk wings."

"Makes sense." BDubs fell a few meters before catching himself. A clang of swords brought their attention to the ground. 

"Everyone have their swords?" Grian asked the other two. "Yes? Okay good. Lets go!"

Mumbo and BDubs tilted themselves downwards gaining momentum and pulling out at the last second. They engaged the enemy from the outside. Grian waited a second before he plumeted down. He instinctively knew the right way to spread his wings to get optimum velocity. He was aiming for Cub who was currently flying around.

"HHHHHYYYYYYAAHHHH!" Grian yelled as he grabbed Cub mid-dive.

"WHAT THE!" Cub yelped as Grian latched on and pulled out of his dive.

"Sorry old friend." Grian punched Cub in the face, knocking the scientist out cold. He dropped him once he was close to the ground, to find Xisuma locked in battle with Tango.

"Mind if I give you a hand?" Grian swung his sword at Tango. The sword swung true, and soon another undead was out of the fight.

"Yeah- Grian!?!" Xisuma was shocked to see Grian the way he was. "When did you get Admin powers?"

Grian opened his mouth to reply when Xisuma shook his head. "Never mind. Curse my silly brain. We'll talk later, we have a battle to fight!"

The undead soon realized that they were the ones now outnumbered and they quickly fled. Mumbo watched them go, and then spotted the fallen body of Doc.

"Noo!" He cried. Doc was still breathing, despite the fact that he had lost almost all of his blood. "Doc!" 

Doc turned his head and gave a very weak smile. "Ta- Take care..... Take care of my family." 

The others had gathered around Doc and Mumbo. Xisuma rested his hand on Doc's chest.

"You had a noble death, Doc." Xisuma choked back tears. False rested her hand on his shoulder, everyone watching, waiting. Doc's eyes focused on the sky one last time. A tiny sigh escaped his lips as his heart stopped beating, giving its last just like the man it had beaten for gave his last.

"Oh no...." Grian mummered, tucking his wings around his body. Xisuma took two fingers and gently closed the eyes of the valiant fighter. 

They took Doc's body and rested it next to Scar's. Now they just had to wait for Iskall to destroy the cube. What would happen then?

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A huge underground canyon loomed menacingly in front of Iskall's tired body. It looked like he would need to fly through it to reach the cube. He squinted his eyes. Wait! There was a glow slightly off to his right. The command cube.

"I'm almost there!" Iskall breathed a sigh of relief. He checked his elytra durability. It was low, but it had enough that he could make it to the cube and back.

He checked his trajectory. There was no room for error in the maze of stone spires. I must do it. Iskall narrowed his eyes. If Doc had perished, then Iskall would be the last one. A rocket and he was off! Wall! Spire! Ground! Celing! Dodge, dodge, dodge! 

Iskall weaved in and out of the spires with surprising skill. The glow in front of him grew brighter and brighter with each turn he took. Finaly, the cube loomed in Iskall's vision. His robotic eye focused on the tiny ledge. 

Rearing upwards and twisting, Iskall missed the ledge. One hand shot up and gripped it, the stone crumbling. Iskall glanced beneath him, ground a good ways away.

"Come on!" Iskall heaved himself upwards and managed to get onto the ledge. He stared at the virus implanted in their world. It hummed, as if knowing what would happen to it.

Iskall looked at his sword and shrugged. Xisuma told him a simple sword strike would destroy it.

"Good bye!" Iskall heaved the sword down, splitting the cube in half. Electrical sparks emitted from the halved sections. Crunch. Iskall looked up to see the top of the ravine caving in.

"I don't suppose that that was supposed to happen?" Iskall jumped off the ledge, barely missing a huge chunk of diorite crashing down. Imagine that, Iskall thought, activating his wings and a rocket. Killed by a piece of the hated stone.

Pockets of sunlight revealed themselves as the roof continued to crumble to pieces. Iskall picked one and shot through. He came out high in the sky to see a bunch of people gathered in a circle. One of them turned and pointed, shouting illegible words.

Iskall turned towards them, planing to glide, when he heard a terrible snap. He had forgotten his elyta's durability. All momentum stopped as Iskall tumbled from the sky, headed straight for the ground. 

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Grian turned at Mumbo's shout of, "Iskall's made it!"

Indeed the Swede had, as he was currently gliding towards them. He must have destroyed the command cube. Everyone had turned, when Iskall's elytra broke. Gravity took over and pulled him rapidly towards the ground.

Without a thought, Grian spread his angular wings and darted towards the falling figure with lightening speed. Iskall came closer and closer to the ground while Grian flew as fast as he could. Was he going to make it?

"Umph!" Iskall let out a whoosh of air as Grian yanked him out of the sky. Grian quickly gained momentum upwards and flew back towards the group.

"Your wings." Iskall gaped at the flapping wonders that Grian now owned.

"Yup," Grian replied grinning. "Your welcome by the way."

"For what?"

"Saving your life, you dummy!" Grian teased Iskall. Both of them laughed, tension releasing from their shoulders.

"You did it Iskall!" Xisuma patted Iskall on the back. "Now we need to figure out how in the world you have admin powers."

Grian tucked his wings behind his back. "How about we clean up this mess. And how about you fix that respawn function?"

Xisuma nodded. "Alright lets get some code rearranged huh?"

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End of story tomorrow.