I have a question for you: if it came down to a straight-up 1v1, Stress vs False, who do you think would win?

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"So, do we have a goal in mind? We should start doing a bit of offense," Wels said. He, False, and Xisuma were in the clearing. False was polishing her sword, Wels was smelting food, and Xisuma was busy farming wheat across the clearing, out of earshot.

"We need to eliminate threats. I think we could go hunting today," False took some food out of a chest and turned to Wels.

"Alright. We're pretty well stocked up, so we should be good," Wels headed off into the forest.

"Xisuma, come on, now! We're going hunting!" called False before following Wels, quickly outpacing him and taking the lead.

Xisuma forlornly stopped farming and followed the two out of the camp. He was basically their servant now. He'd tried to leave, but False had threatened to kill him if he tried to 'run away and warn Grian' or 'take revenge without' her. Xisuma had no choice but to go along with them.

The trio headed into the forest for a while, walking quietly so no one would hear them coming. Suddenly, False stopped. Wels and Xisuma froze behind her. 

False pointed up, to where Stress was sitting in a tree, looking at them.

"Hello, Stressy," False called.

Stress surveyed the group. False was in the lead, her stance confident as ever. She had a bow, arrows, and a diamond sword. Stress only had an iron one. Wels, just slightly behind her, was equipped with another diamond sword, as well as a shield, but no bow or arrows. Both False and Wels had mixed pieces of diamond and iron armor. Xisuma was behind them, head bowed slightly. He had no weapons or armor and looked tired.

"Xisuma, how have you been doing, luv?" Stress asked

False didn't let Xisuma talk. "As you can see, we've been mining and we have good too-"

"I didn't ask you, False," Stress said, venom in her voice. Quite an unusual sight to see, as Stress was usually kind and patient. "I asked Xisuma."

"W-e've been good," Xisuma said quickly. The slight tremble in his voice told Stress everything she needed to know.

"Bit icy today," Stress said to False and Wels' confusion. It was warm and sunny. 

"What are you talking about? Why are you being so weird today?" asked False.

Stress didn't answer. She had seen Xisuma's head lift a bit after she'd said the word "icy." Every hermit had a code word with Xisuma in case they needed help or were in danger but could't say it aloud. This word was different for every hermit, for Stress it was "ice." Xisuma had clearly realized that Stress was trying to communicate the opposite meaning; instead of her needing help, she was trying to help him. 

"You've come ta' kill me?" Stress asked.

False nodded. "Sorry, but I'm not letting you have the chance to harm me." Lightning-fast, she fired an arrow at Stress. It would have hit, had it not been for Xisuma.

Noticing False tensing up, he'd snuck up behind her. When she shot her arrow, he bumped her arm, causing the shot to go wide.

False whirled on him. "Traitor!" she snarled. "What are you doing?" 

Stress used this opportunity to hop down from the tree and stab False in the back.

False gasped as the sword hit her armor. It didn't pierce the tough material, but it dented it enough to hurt False. In False's moment of hesitation, Stress grabbed Xisuma's wrist and led him off into the forest. Wels, concerned about False, didn't follow.

"Th-thank you Stress," Xisuma gasped when they finally stopped running. They had jogged for several hours to make sure False and Wels wouldn't follow. 

"No problem, luv. I know Grian already used ya', didn't want False to as well," Stress told him. "Now, are ya' hurt at all?"

"No." Xisuma sat down on the ground and let himself finally feel safe. Stress had just rescued him, she wasn't about to backstab him. "False just made me do a bunch of boring tasks and threatened to kill me if I left her. You know, typical False stuff."

"Alrigh' then. Let's just climb up into a tree and hide for the night," Stress suggested.

"Sounds great. And thank you again," Xisuma grabbed a vine and began pulling himself up it. Stress came behind him. Together, the two hid among the leaves and waited the night.

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"Da- Sorry, darn them," False raged as Wels helped her pull off her chestplate. "Darn her."

"Well, you were making Xisuma-" Wels tried to reson with her. It unsurprisingly didn't work.

"Don't give me that. He was the one who allied with me. And that was a low tactic. Ugh, now I'm gonna have a bruise on my back. And I have to fix this chestplate. And it's just a whole lot of work," She rubbed her back, but quickly winced in pain and stopped.

"I'm gonna go collect some... berries. I will be back in an hour or so. D-do what you want," Wels left False to her rage and headed off.

Alone and annoyed, False quickly assesed her situation and found she had no other injuries. Wels came back in an hour, as promised, bringing her berries. She checked to make sure they weren't poisoned, then ate some. 

"You planning to betray me?" False asked.

"No, and even if I was, I wouldn't go so low as to poison your food or stab you in your sleep. That's low," Wels said.

False smiled. At least she knew one person she could trust. And even if she couldn't, here was a honorable fighter. Someone she could agree with.

False laid down and drifted off to sleep.

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Scar was happily laying in the grass with Jellie by his side, stroking the purring cat, when he recieved Cub's message.

Cubfan135: Hey, announcement time!

GoodTimeWithScar: k, omw!

Reluctant to disturb Jellie, Scar laid in the sunlight with her for another few minutes before telling her, "I should really go now. But I don't want to, I wanna lay here with you forever."

Jellie mrrowed, then stood up and did a circle.

"Oh, Jellie, you smart cat! Come here," Scar sat up and beckoned Jellie into his lap. Jellie instead hopped onto his head. Scar laughed and picked her up. 

"Hold on, Jellie!" he said. He stood up, still holding the cat, spread his elytra, and flew up into the air. Jellie didn't squirm, but stayed still the whole time. She was used to flying, and while she didn't love it, she wasn't afraid of it. She knew Scar would hold her tight and never let her fall.

The duo landed on the walkway outside the broadcasting tower in the arena. Scar set Jellie down and she followed him inside. 

"Hey Scar! Hey Jellie!" Cub greeted them. Jellie rubbed up agaist Cub and purred. Cub reached down and petted her, which she loved.

"Hey Cub," Scar said happily. "So, what's going on today?"

"Quite a bit. Alliances changing, Boomers booming, people dying," Cub summarized.

"Doesn't that just about sum up Hermitcraft as a whole though?" Scar quipped.

Cub chuckled. "Pretty much."

Cub caught Scat up as the three headed into the recording room. Once they were inside, Jellie hopped up onto a perch Scar had made for her.

"Alright Jellie, make sure we do this right," Scar told her as he began.

"Starting from last night, here's what's going on. Cleo and Joe perished after Stress pushed them off a cliff. Then, Ren attempted to lure Stress into a trap, but it backfired and she shot him in instead! The Boomers blew up the Architechs' camp, destroying their supplies, then proceeded to blow up Zedaph. The Architechs spent the day gathering new resources. False, Wels, and Xisuma found Stress in the forest, but Xisuma turned on False and Wels and ran away with Stress' help."

"Quite a day!" Cub added. "We now have four groups in the forest! As for fallen tributes," Cub walked over to the cannon. 

"Cleo."

BOOM.

"Joe."

BOOM.

"Ren."

BOOM.

"And Zedaph."

BOOM.

"We'll be back tommorrow with more updates on the Hermitcraft Hunger Games!" finished Cub.

Scar walked over to the camera and hit stop, then turned to Jellie. "What do you think?"

Jellie purred. Scar nodded. "Alright, we're good to go," he said.

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What arena event would you like to see? I'm open to suggestions.