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Dumb practically slammed against the armour stand, forcing it to collapse in on itself under both his mace's weight and the impact of them landing on the leaf-covered branch.
Having removed their elytra in a swift motion almost immediately after landing, they simply jumped down from the tree with no need to worry about whether the artificial wings got tangled and ripped in the branches of the oak tree or not.
They dusted off their clothes, getting rid of the leaves that had stubbornly lodged themselves in whatever spots they could latch onto.
"You're doing pretty good," a voice piped up from a small distance away; it belonged to Dol9hin, or otherwise known as Dolphin, the mace master who had agreed to train Dumb.
Her braided hair hung over her shoulder; the brilliant blue colour looked nice alongside her darker blue trims.
She didn't usually wear her hair in the french braid that it was currently in, as she preferred having it down—she had braided it so it wouldn't get in her way as she taught Dumb. It'd truly be unfortunate if she accidentally ripped out some hair while teaching the other how to actually hit effective stun slams.
"Mhm," Dumb acknowledged their compliment with a brief nod. " Actually, I think… I think I'm ready."
Dumb wasn't sure what she had expected from vocalizing those thoughts—they weren't really her honest thoughts, but she chose to believe they were; she figured that maybe Dolphin would laugh, or tell her that yeah, she's ready if she doesn't care about exiting fights with her life.
Dumb was correct; Dolphin burst out in laughter, as if she had just been told the funniest joke of all time. (Actually, for all Dumb knew, maybe him saying that he was ready was the world's funniest joke in the world to Dolphin.) She folded over herself, hands pressed against her stomach.
"You? Ready? No, bro, you're nowhere near a master," she sighed upon recovering from her fit of laughter. She straightened her back, turning her gaze towards Dumb. She didn't seem to be judging him, not in a traditional sense atleast, but she had a familiar look on her face. It was akin to the one she had glared at her newfound apprentice when they first met—she was definitely judging him back then though.
"Okay, three reps and then we'll see where you are," she instructed—normally, Dumb would've complied, albeit with a complaint or two, but she couldn't now; not when the 24-hour timer she had set for herself was rapidly approaching its end.
"No, Dolphin, I'm… I'm ready," the dark-haired boy insisted, although he didn't seem like he truly believed in the words he was using to convince the blue-haired girl.
In an attempt to ease his nerves, he clenched and unclenched his fists repeatedly; to his misfortune, hs didn't have a bundle to shuffle his belongings in; it was his usual go-to fidgeting method.
She stepped back and forth in small steps in sync with the fidgeting she was already doing with her hands—she really wasn't great at hiding her emotions, huh...
Dolphin stood up straight, seemingly tensing up as she observed Dumb's behavior further.
"You don't understand who I have to fight," Dumb implored, nervousness seeping into her already uncertain voice. Her steps came to a halt as she turned to face Dolphin. She raised her hands to her chest, continuing to fidget.
"Who the hell are you fighting?" The mace-goddess asked in a half-laugh. Her stance could almost be described as arrogant—as per usual, though this time around, it seemed to be questioning rather than arrogant; she was leaning forward subtly, her left hand on her hip, other hand resting limply at her side.
Her tone of voice was skeptical, she didn't seem convinced that Dumb was being completely truthful with her.
"Its this an old enemy of mine, you wouldn't know him," he hesitated, averting his gaze from the girl standing before him. "I promise I'm ready; I'm on a time crunch-"
"Dumb, who are you fighting?" She prodded, cutting off his vague explanation. She took a quick step forward, stomping her foot against the ground to force Dumb's attention back onto herself. He flinched at the sudden change in her tone, forcing his fidgeting to come to a halt; the stomp-strategy worked just as Dolphin had imagined, as Dumb raised their gaze almost immediately.
The dark-haired boy averted their gaze, unable to face her any longer; their hands fell to their sides as they visibly tensed up.
The sounds from the ocean that surrounded the glass dome suddenly seemed louder than before, practically drowning Dumb. They couldn't bring themselves to look back up at the blue-haired girl again; all their willpower and bravery had been stripped away.
"His name is Sorhin," he mumbled quietly—it was like he was speaking to himself with how low the volume of his voice was.
Dolphin could just barely make out what Dumb had said, but she understood enough to cause a reaction; she practically dashed forward, grabbing onto the startled boy's shoulders.
"You're fighting Sorhin?! And you expect to win?!" She demanded a confirmation, seemingly not wanting to accept what she had heard. Her grip tightened, though it wasn't painful to Dumb because she was still wearing her redstone-trimmed chestplate.
"Look at me. You're fighting Sorhin?" Dolphin tried again, although her voice wasn't as stern this time around. She tilted her head as Dumb turned to face her, locking her gaze onto the other's dual-coloured eyes.
They hesitated for a moment, as if unable to speak. "You know Sorhin?" They croaked out in an awkward manner, letting her gaze meet the pink and brown eyes staring right back at her.
The blue-haired girl stepped back, although she didn't let her eyes slip away from the other's eyes. Her face was engulfed by what seemed like shock—maybe bewilderment?—as well as disbelief.
"Do I know Sorhin?" She retorted, a thick layer of sarcasm coating her words.
She shook her head, raising her hands to her face; she buried her head in her hand momentarily, sighing deeply. Once she let her hands fall back to her sides, her expression had shifted into an almost blank one; Dumb could swear that her expression carried a hint of pity.
"Look, do you— Do you have like a death wish or something? You aren't ready for any kind of fight, let alone one against Sorhin of all people," she scoffed, shaking her head.
Leaving her question unanswered, Dumb fired a question right back at her; "No, wait, how do you know who Sorhin is? Not everyone- Not everyone knows who he is," she questioned—what kind of connection could the mace goddess possibly have to the superweapon-wielding Sorhin?
For what was almost the the first time, Dumb stood her ground in the conversation instead of backing down immediately when Dolphin proposed another question.
"It doesn't matter, okay? What matters is that you're nowhere near ready to fight someone like him," Dolphin deflected the question, continuing to avoid the topic for a reason that remained unknown to Dumb.
"I don't need to be a mace master, I don't even need to be ready, I just… I just need to win," Dumb argued, hoping to convince both Dolphin and themselves. They took a step backwards, nearly stumbling over a collapsed armour stand that rested on the ground behind him.
"And that kind of mindset is exactly what's gonna make you lose," Dolphin shot back, also refusing to back down.
"Okay, well, whatever, I'm fighting him whether you give me your blessing or not," the dark-haired boy began fidgeting with his hands again, this time by rubbing his fingers against one another.
"Alright, then you're making a mistake," Dolphin shrugged, unwilling to keep arguing when she had already realized that Dumb wouldn't back down. Why wouldn't he back down? That Dolphin didn't know, but maybe she didn't need to. It didn't actually even concern her, did it?
"I could make you a mace master with consistency, I could teach you everything, but if you think you're ready to go fight someone like Sorhin, be my guest. It's a stupid decision, but it's yours."
"Fine by me."
With that, Dumb threw her elytra over her shoulders and turned to leave. Dolphin could only watch as she other disappeared into the depths of her underwater base, presumably soaring up in the skies by the time that Dolphin decided to move from her spot in the center of the glass dome she preferred to call the training grounds.
The green grass was tainted by the markings left behind by Dumb's countless attempts at elytra-macing the armour stands, all of which laid on the ground, collapsed in on themselves.
She had a strange feeling building up in the back of her mind, although she wanted to push it aside and forget about everything that had to do with Dumb.
── .✦
The now bloodied dark-haired boy found herself stuck in a cobweb, unable to escape—she could only watch as the person she had come to fight stood before her, netherite sword glimmering in the sunlight with the crimson liquid left behind by none other than Dumb herself.
Her breathing was heavy, vision blurry, body practically screaming from pain, yet she remained standing. She vaguely registered that her enemy was talking to her, probably taunting her in her final moments.
Her mind was hazy, unable to piece anything together; anything besides the interaction she had with Dolphin prior to this fight, atleast.
Maybe she should've listened to the Dolphin, huh? Maybe she'd be in a better state right now.
Having accepted that they'd die here, Dumb didn't resist. She had no more cards in her hands, no more tricks up her sleeve, no leftover will for a final attempt to go out in a blaze of glory.
In all honesty, they had given up hope of surviving this before the first blow was landed, before Sorhin drove his sword into their side for the first time.
Suddenly, Dumb was pulled out of her thoughts—the sound of a mace smashing against the ground served as the reason.
He quickly realized that the blurry figure had disappeared from her vision. Where was Sorhin? Who was interfering with the fight? There were no other mace wielders on the server, were there?
Raising his head and looking in both directions granted him with the answers to his questions; to his right stood Dolphin, blue hair dancing to the silent melody played by the wind.
She held a mace in her hand—huh, that's odd. Where'd it come from?
To his left stood Sorhin, who was fixing his helmet's position on his head.
Ah, so that's what happened. What was Dolphin doing here?
Dumb watched their exchange through the haze that still clouded their mind, barely realizing when the interaction escalated into a full blown fight.
They barely understood what was going on until a potion of health was splashed at their feet; the sickeningly sweet aroma lingered in the air as the mixture started to take effect, blocking off the gaping wounds that would've caused Dumb's demise.
The haze that clouded their perception of reality began to fade, allowing him to claw his way out of the cobweb he had been standing in for whatever amount of time.
"Why did you show up?" Dumb asked, staring at Dolphin, who was instead staring up at the sky, presumably the path that Sorhin had fled on.
She turned her head to Dumb, sighing quietly to herself before speaking up. "Because you were going to die," she said—her voice was nearly monotone, though it held a hint of what Dumb wanted to call concern.
"No, I had a plan, I was just… pretending," he defended himself, as if he had any honor to defend from Dolphins not-so baseless accusation; he placed down an ender chest, turning his attention to finding his healing supplies.
"Dude, you're like barely standing up right now. Stop lying," she sighed—she didn't seem amused. She stood with her hands crossed, watching as Dumb struggled to locate his healing shulker. "What do you need? Gaps? Healing potions?"
"Uh, a healing pot or two would be nice," Dumb hesitated to drop her act for a second, although she did cave in. The ache that plagued her entire body wasn't pleasant by any means, and healing potions could fix it with little to no effort. "I thought that you didn't fare since this was my decision. What's with the sudden change of heart?"
"Things change," Dolphin reasoned, although it didn't provide any of the context Dumb wished for; she instead splashed another healing potion at Dumb's feet, the chemicals floating up from the glass shards doing their job once more.
Ah, well. Maybe the reasoning wasn't important. Dolphin was here and she was helping them, and that's all that mattered.