Hunter woke up, it was hard to tell time in the nether but he knew it was late. He had heard something, someone was there. He carefully got up and took an iron knife and cleared out the room .
"Could be a piglin though." he thought but he had made peace with them after saving them from some withers.
He went down the stairs of his base in a forgotten nether fortress, the stairs were old but he didn't weigh much and he was just 5'8. He was in tattered clothing mostly because there was no cloths in the nether and he didn't bother to care. Hunter slowly went down his stairs as he hears the movements again, his messy black hair is waved to the side with his weary free hand. He got to the foot of the base, it was dark like always then he saw a swoosh. He carefully laid out the groundwork in his mind and put his back on the wall, he heard a creak but didn't see anything but he knew.
" something moved." He thought. "Hey anyone there?" He asked. Then he saw it, shining gold, it was a piglin.
"You know it's not good to scare people like that huh pig." He said walking towards the piglin creature .
But it jumped him, gold teeth spitting out saliva like a hungry bear, he didn't understand but he tried to fend it off, it was with a gold axe and kept swinging it. Hunter managed to make out his knife on the dark and struck it's head, it didn't flinch and kept coming back at him, he struck the knife into its leg and got hold of the axe, he gave a big right hook and the piglin got knocked down then he got an iron shovel and ramed it on its head about 7 times till it finally dropped dead.
"I've got to get some light in here." He said. He looked at the dead piglin. "A brute hun, well just another day in the nether." He said rather sarcastically.
He decided against sleeping and waited for some time, then he took his hunting iron knife in a knapsack, he got ready to go.
"I've got to get some food for today." He said "I'll be right back Hatcher." He looks on to a broken sword under a picture of a middle aged man. "One day I'm gonna get out of here and I promise that I'll deliver your message even if it kills me." He says while saluting the picture. He then leaves the base in search of food.
Hunter stalks a piglin group, he wouldn't have used them for food but after today's attack he was gonna have to pay them back by feasting on them. He got close to some and cornered them, he struck one with his knife on its head and knocked one out with the back of his knife, two were left, they were away of what was happening but if they got away it was all over, he threw his knife on the one running and the last one was about to scream or squeal but he silenced it and killed it. Job done, he thought but he had made a mistake there was a onlooker who recognized him and reported to their king, Hunter tried to chase it before he did so but was stopped by the guards, when the king heard, he told his guards to beat up Hunter and that they were going to kill him.
The king, known as Cretin came down from his throne with a golden sword which was there most priced possession passed down from every piglin king since the first. He was going to use it to execute a tied up Hunter. Hunter at a loss of what to do looks on from the podium awaiting his death in the nether.
"No I'm not dieing here, I'm not breaking my promise." He states outloud and tries to struggle pit of the chains, a guard sees this and punches Hunter in the face. Cretin steps on the podium and lays his sword level to behead Hunter.
"Any last words, human." The piglin king asks. Hunter with nowhere to go, remembers how it got to this point, how it all happened, seven years ago in a small Village called Hangleton.
It was a normal day out in Hangleton village on the outskirts of Techno City. It was a little, big village with a population of atleast 300 villagers, the second highest in the whole of Java. Hunter a young boy of 10 years had been raised and brought up since he was 5 by a villager known as Claude Torgas and his son Johnny Torgas. Johnny was two years older than Hunter, and he had a complex personality of him never willing to open up to anybody but still treated Hunter fairly and loved him like a brother. Claude was a kind man in his late 50s, he was a villagerian, a different race to the humans but was always willing to help anyone in need and taught his two sons how to do the right thing.
"We'll always face challenges but remember winning isn't everything, even if you lose take pride in your efforts." Claude had always said.
The two boys were coming back from fishing for fish which they planned on eating and it was all well until the pillagers came. It was a brutal sight, villagers were getting killed, houses were burned down by the pillagers. The Golem officer tried to stop them but was killed instantly. Hunter was worried about claude but Johnny wanted them to get to get to safety.
When Claude found them, he was bleeding and kept ushering them to an obsidian gate which was a big doorlike hole to the nether, when they got there, pillagers were on there tail, Claude pulling out a sword wished them goodbye in tears.
"You'll always be my sons." Claude says as he pushes them through the gate, he fights off the pillagers but is out matched and shot in the leg with an arrow, he uses his remaining strength to destroy the portal as the pillager stabs him in the back with his last words.
"Hold onto your values kids and let my love guide you." Claude says smiling as he dies, the portal gates close with Hunter and Johnny crying in the nether. He sacrificed himself for them but it was ultimately in vain as when they looked at their situation, they were stuck in the nether in the presence of a man with a mask. Hunter remembered the stories Claude used tell of the nether and the vast beasts that live there and recognized the man from the picture, he was a wither but more powerful and felt it was their king. Hunter stood up all weary eyed and tried to talk to explain their situation but the masked man sped up and was about to shove his sword into Hunter when Johnny pushed him and took the hit. Johnny tells Hunter with his last bit of strength to run and he does with tears in his eyes, he doesn't go far when he trips on a stone and with the witherking coming, he wonders what happened to Johnny and why they had to go through so much, he was about to die by the hands of the Witherking but then he was saved by a man, a human this time who fights the witherking with blue flames.
"Eric, my how you've changed." He says while shooting a puff of blue fire at the Witherking.
The fight wages on with Eric having the upper hand, The human makes a wall of blue fire as he grabs Hunter and escapes, he couldn't beat Eric but he gives them a chance to run and escape into the man's base hidden in a forgotten nether fortress.
After, the man tells Hunter his name is Hatcher Jake. Hatcher explains to Hunter that the Witherking was actually his friend Eric who came here when they fled from some pillagers, but Eric got corrupted and became a witherkin eventually their king, he sits down and tells Hunter about his son Ian Jake who probably thinks his dad had abandoned him. Hunter tried to console him but in the end they both cried because of what they lost. Hatcher taught Hunter how to survive in the nether, like what was edible and what wasn't, what to go after and what to not cross paths with. Hunter wanted to learn soul fire -A netherian technique to control an unquenchable fire- so he can kill off any netherian in his way for revenge against Eric but Hatcher tells him that soul fire comes from the soul so it needs to be pure and not just based on meaningless intent and that while he is sorry for his brothers death, Hunter shouldn't pour out his anger on them.
"They may have hurt us but in the end, their just like us." But Hunter doesn't still get it and moves on. Hatcher becomes like a father to Hunter and He was happy to be his acting son. Then one day, Hunter goes out to find food by killing some zombies but unknowingly let's Eric find their base and as Hatcher faces against Eric whilst protecting Hunter from Eric after he raided their base, Eric gains the upper hand with Hatcher having to protect Hunter and is eventually withered by Eric.
"Keep moving forward, son." Hatcher says as he withers away.Hunter runs away with tears in his eyes as he sobs at Hatchers death.
"Why.... why does it all happen to me, why does everyone around me die."
Hunter uses the skills Hatcher taught him to survive and try and find a way back home as a promise to deliver Hatcher Jake's message to his son.
Back in the present, Hunter still tied up looks around as King Cretin raises the golden sword to strike him down. A blast is heard and the wails of piglins, Cretin shocked, demands what's going on when a wounded guard comes in.
"H... He's ba... He's back, the Witherking is back." The guard says before collapsing.
Hunter uses the commotion to break free from the chains and punches his guards in the face, he runs out, with Cretin flabbergasted at all of it. Hunter following the screams and wails in the piglin city, looks for Eric.
"Time to settle the score." He takes up a sword on the ground. "This is your endgame Eric."
He finds Eric, in the center of the piglin gathering, He his left gasping. "An obsidian gate, impossible." Hunter hides at the back of a cart.
It was basically impossible to make an obsidian gate inside the nether as obsidian can't be found. But somehow Eric had done it, a way, a way back home. Hunter immediately realizes what Eric was planning to do, he was going to wither the Over, He couldn't let that happen. He rushes forward with the sword but Eric catches him, drilling him into the ground, he carries him with one hand and throws him away. Hunter gets back on his feet as he throws his sword at Eric, he dodges, but Hunter shows up in front of him to land a punch. Eric catches him mid air, he slams his head on a wall repeatedly as blood oozes from Hunters face. Eric smirks, but Hunter grabs hold of a dagger but Eric catches it, breaking Hunter's hand.
"Your not even worth the kill." Eric says as he throws him on the ground. "Weak human, you can't protect anyone."
Hunter looks on as the obsidian gate opens and Eric walking towards it, he gets up and looks around at the piglins being slaughtered.
"I...I didn't come to protect anyone, I came to finish what you started, your right, I can't protect anyone but... but I'm not gonna stand here and watch you go wither everyone in the Over, cause I'm Hunter and I'm hunting you." He rushes forward with rejuvenated speed but Eric punches him in the chest, Hunter falls onto his knees panting, he gets drowsy but sees some fireworks behind Eric, he throws the dagger as Eric dodges, it hits the cart of fireworks and it goes off, distracting Eric, Hunter pounces and punches Eric in the face and jumps through the obsidian gate.
"That was for Johnny" Hunter says gasping while Eric rushes towards the gate
"And this is for Hatcher" Hunter says as he closes the obsidian gate. He looks up exhausted and bleeding at the blue sky. "I'm back, I'm finally back, after seven long years, I'm back" He says while he breaks down.